Reflections on the Human Condition - Api-fellowships.org

174 SESSION III
number one criteria, next only come the face (27.7%),
and followed by body shape (23.8%). This is also true
for a handsome male, where behavior or character
(41.7%) is being perceived as the most important criteria,
followed by the body shape (30.7%) and facial look
(26.5%). This results show how important is the character
or behavior of a person in society, and it has a very
powerful influence in determining the acceptability by
the society at large. This may be unique to Southeast
Asia where a person’s worth is in his/or her behavior,
you are evaluated on how you conduct yourself within
a certain norms that is expected in your society.
Regarding body self-perception, 56% are not satisfied
with their current body shape, and out of this group
84.6% perceived themselves as obese or overweight.
This results is expected, because the respondents that
we selected were mostly overweight or obese (Mean
BMI=31.0).
More than half (52.7%) of the respondents said they
like fast food. In terms of whether they have eaten
in any of the fast food restaurant, the responses differed
from country to country. This will also depend
on whether there is abundance of fast food outlets in
that particular city or country. Overall, the frequented
fast food outlet is KFC (62.2%), the next favorite fast
food outlet is McDonald’s (43.7%), followed by Pizza
Hut (41.5%) and Wendy’s (20.5%). Why KFC is more
popular is because it is the largest and has the higher
number of outlets in countries under study (see Table
5). KFC is also one of the earliest fast food outlets that
were established in Southeast Asian countries.
Local fast food outlets are also competing fiercely with
the international franchises, particularly in the Philippines,
and they are winning. Jollibee a Filipino owned
fast food, recorded that all respondents that were interviewed
have eaten at Jollibee (100%), Greenwich an
outlet which offered similar menu to Pizza Hut have
been visited by 86.6% of the Filipino respondents. Another
Philippine owned fast food outler is Chow King,
where 96.2% of the Filipino respondents have eaten
there. Indonesia has local version of KFC under the
name of Texas Chicken, where 62.7% of the Indonesian
respondents have eaten at the outlet. The results here
strongly indicated that Filipino respondent frequented
fast food outlets more than other respondents. This can
be explained base on several facts and assumption; firstly
our respondents are from Metro Manila, a very large
urban center of about 15 million inhabitants. In Manila
there are more fast food outlets than any other cities
in Southeast Asia. Furthermore, fast foods in Manila
are cheaper and affordable as compared to prices of the
Ref lections on the Human Condition: Change, Conflict and Modernity
The Work of the 2004/2005 API Fellows
same menu in Bangkok or Jogjakarta.
Anthropometric results in general depicted a picture
that the respondents in general are either obese or
overweight. This is not by chance, but those who were
judged by the naked eye as overweight or obese were
purposely chosen to participate in the study. The mean
BMI of 31.0 indicated that they fall under the grade 1
obesity. Analysis of results between countries show that
the mean BMI of Filipinos is higher (BMI=32.6) than
its counterparts in Indonesia and Thailand. If we were
to link between the number of fast food outlets in Manila
and the reasonable price of fast foods to the higher
mean BMI of Filipino, it will not be a surprise to see the
positive correlation between the two variables.
CONCLUSION
The impact of globalization on trade and the economy
has been studied in detailed and many books have been
published on the topic that advances the advantages
and disadvantages of globalization. Secondary data have
shown that globalization is not only about movement
of goods and people, but also movement of lifestyles.
Thus the coming of fast food chains to Southeast Asia
can be considered as part of the wave of globalization
that is enveloping the world. Fast food is part of the
lifestyles and eating habits that have been borrowed
from the west to Southeast Asia, it is a new culture of
eating and consumption. The increase in number of
major fast food outlets such as KFC and McDonald’s
is a testimony that globalization of new dietary habits is
making an impact in the countries under study.
This study also surveyed the perception of Southeast
Asian population regarding health, obesity, fast food
and impact of weight on quality of life. The results
indicated that perception on obesity did not differed
very much between the countries under study, in fact
there existed a lot of similarities in their perception
about health, quality of life, personal health, fast food
and self-satisfaction with own body.
This study is a preliminary study, and the results of the
study is very encouraging, it challenged the researcher
to go into more in depth to untangle the link between
globalization and health consequences, particularly
obesity. It is hoped that further research can be carried
out to provide a more comprehensive findings regarding
the factors and variables that are at play in accelerating or
slowing down globalization food trade and consumption.