Difference of the Filipino family...then and now

Just two hours ago, Moe (Monica Guerra) came to me. She's a former student of mine, now studying in UP Los Baños. I think it's for an assignment. The question is about the comparison between the old family culture of Filipinos and the new culture. How are they different? My answer was so simple - because there was no time to think - owing to the crisis now, a lot of Filipino families have to put up with separation. Mommy or Daddy or both of them have to go to some place abroad because they believe that life in the Philippines seems not that good anymore. In effect, we become like American families who are easily torn because of distance. It's a pity but we are picking up the trash of the west. We used to be closely knitted - of course there are drawbacks also - but now, it's hard to see a family without a member somewhere else, away from the love, concern, care and security of the Filipino family. In a study by a Dr. Reyes (if my memory serves me right), it's one of the things he typifies a Filipino family with - of being closely knitted. We are an interpersonal race, he says, and it is part of our essence to connect with the significant "other". Hence, in going abroad, the Filipino is doing a great sacrifice - that of going away from his/her loved ones, of going away from the security of his/her home, a mild suicide in a sense. When a Filipino/a leaves his/her country and his/her family, s/he is going against her essence. And it's a great sacrifice. That's what ails our families now. That differs a lot from the years that passed.