The Concept of "Urbanidad"

by mavic pineda

"Urbanidad" is a Filipino term for urban living. The concept is not well understood by a lot of people, even by my students. Urban living is an offshoot of city living. There are certain things you do in the city and yet it's not present in the province or in the rural or farm areas.

You should learn how to stand in line or queue. In the farm, there are no lines. Life is slow and population is dense. Everybody knows everyone. In the city, when you wait for the bus or the jeepney ride, there is a line. When you get to drink in the drinking fountain, there is a line. When you need to make a transaction in the ATM machine, especially during paydays, there's a line. Urban dwellers should know how to respect this practice of standing in line.

You don't throw your litter anywhere. In the farm or the mountains, when you throw a corn husk or banana peel, it can become a soil fertilizer. But not in the city. A piece of litter can cause flood or even accident to other people.

You dress properly for the occasion. A lot of city people lose sight of this. With the fad of flip-flops, young and old people alike forget that there's a place to where rubber, flip-flop slippers. You don't go to a funeral or a fine dining restaurant wearing slippers. From elementary to high school, you don't go to school wearing slippers. So why now go to the university wearing slippers, sharing the awful smell of your feet with other people. You go to the university to become prepared to becoming professionals. And wearing flip-flops or slippers is not part of the preparation.

Bayani Fernando, the current MMDA Chairman, likewise promotes the idea of urbanidad among our fellowmen. You don't pee anywhere. You don't get off the bus or the jeepney anywhere. You don't go out of your house to buy to the nearest sari-sari store not wearing a shirt or wearing your bedroom clothes. So students should not be scarce in what they wear when they go to the university. Some of the students nowadays seem to make the school an extension of their bedroom.

There are a lot of other things that we should learn about urbanidad--some for motorists, some for those using their cellphones or basically, it's how a city dweller should respect other people and its surroundings. After all, we all want to have a better place to live in..