November 13-bout of Pacquiao: Why Margarito?

Manny Pacquiao is larger than himself. He is the ambassador of the Philippines to the world. He is known beyond anyone could imagine.

When I went to Barcelona, I met a security guard from Dominican Republic.  When he learned that I am a Filipino, he immediately closed his two fists and said, "Manny Pacquiao."  In the Dutch university, I met a Thai exchange researcher. He told me that he and other Thais are proud of what Manny Pacquaio has achieved. As Asians, they too celebrate Pacquiao's exploits and victories inside and outside the ring.

Inside the ring, Pacquaio is the recognized pound-for-pound king in the boxing world today. He won an unprecedented seven titles in seven weight divisions. He is the current World Boxing Organization (WBO) welterweight champion  at 147 lbs. He is considered to be the greatest Asian boxer of all-time, and is lined up among the greats of all time in the sports.

Outside the ring, Pacquiao is a national hero in the Philippines. He is also a politician who was elected as a lawmaker in the Philippine Congress. According to him, his heart goes out to those in need. He wants to serve the poor. Coming from similar ranks a decade ago, Pacquiao knows and understands the plight of the poor. He is also a devout Catholic.

With all these accolades and achievements, what is out there to achieve with the Margarito fight? Is it the pursuit of the eight world titles in eight weight divisions? Probably. Is it worth it? Yes.

Then, why Margarito, a boxer that was stripped of his license because of illegal hand wraps?

Pacquaio is the gem of boxing right now. Why mingle him with a faux stone?

I would love Pacquaio to see fight inside the ring; but not this. There is nothing to be achieved here except an additional title. But there is no honor in fighting someone who was found guilty of cheating.

Nonetheless, I wish him well.

Mr. President: Agrarian Reform Now

 Our call to social justice is not afterall inutile. The Philippine Supreme Court ruled with finality that the vast sugar plantations are covered by the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law or R.A. No. 6657. Our sugar farmers will be able to till their own lands soon - a victory of concerted advocacy to distribute lands from the hacienderos to the landless farmers.

Landlessness is a major cause of worsening poverty in rural Philippines.  The poorest Filipinos are the landless farmers who earn their living from hired-labor or tenancy on farms owned by landlords. No matter how hard they work all day, they are not able to earn what their families need to live decently.

To reduce rural poverty in the country, agrarian reform promises to be a potent force. A piece of land to the farmers who toil all day is a dream fulfilled and deserved. They will finally be able to reap the fruit of their labor. Working hard will eventually pay off. Imagine the joy, empowerment and splendored dream that go with that piece of land to farmers, their children, and their communities.

Land distribution to actual farmers is a key to poverty alleviation in rural areas. Economic data may show otherwise, but here is my take on it. Without land, farmers urge their children to join them as hired-laborers in the fields for additional income of the family. With land, farmers send their children to schools and ask their help in the weekends. This scenario cannot be captured by economic data and yet a valuable data nonetheless.

Land ownership brings the farmers into the market system which drives our economy. Imagine hundreds of thousands additional players in the market system. Landlords will remain players in the market system due to their retained estate holdings and other mainstream economic activities.

Two decades of agrarian reform have partially demonstrated the promises of land reform. It was two decades of trying stages of learning and taking further the lessons in the implementation of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) by the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR).

The Senate approved the CARP extension for another five years with P 147 billion to cover 1.6 million hectares for distribution to landless farmer-beneficiaries. The House of Representatives also passed CARP extension. Extending a government program means that there is an unfinished and incomplete task.
What remains to be distributed are the contentious private large estates. This is where the compulsory land distribution and acquisition component of CARP will be tested again. The creative and controversial “corporative ownership” scheme is allowed in the extended CARP approved by the Senate.

Many argue that this “corporative ownership” scheme is a better set up to keep up the production of land. However, this does not effectively transfer land ownership to the farmer-beneficiaries. In the end, farmers are left wondering whether they truly own the land they till or not.

For the farmers, it is logical to pass and implement CARP right away. Land conversions of agricultural lands to industrial and other uses take away the golden opportunity from farmers of owning a land where they can start building their dreams of a good life.

Agrarian reform now is a call for social justice due to poor farmers in the rural areas. Mr. President, please.

“Live simply that others may simply live” (Remembering Ka Bel)

“Honorable Beltran, could you come down from there?”

He does come down willingly, joyfully.

And now he is with us forever.

Ka Bel wants to do it on his own. He wants to see it done. He wants it fixed. What is it, Ka Bel? A hole on the roof. A corruption scandal. An inhuman working condition. An insufficient wage. An arrogance and lavishness of the elite. A disempowered working class.

I heard him speak. We heard him speak. His words express what we dare not to speak about. His words reverberate in the grumblings of hunger, sleeplessness of tired bodies, restlessness of bonded souls, passing of hours, days, nights of gripping injustices experienced by working class.

I saw him walk in the protest lines. I saw him lead. I saw him wave from inside of the hospital.

“I am OK. I am with you.”

I felt his energy, his boiling determination that melts any stubborn hearts and minds. His passion for change, for love of his own class and country, dwarf the scale and magnitude of the forces of status quo. Are we going to let it be?

His life is simple, very simple. In the human standards, he is the poorest among the honorable men and women of congress. In the other Congress somewhere where men and women are truly honorable, his wealth is immeasurable, for there is nothing to measure except one’s faith and deeds.

Ka Bel has faith in the Filipino people. He believes in our capability to fight against injustices. And he believes that we will triumph. Our triumph is his triumph too.

Are we going to fail him?

Governing the government

My frustration on the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico makes me remember this article.

Everytime the oil prices hike due to deregulation, the government’s excuse is that the price is set by the market. With that, it can do nothing about it. So why then we have a government that does nothing on matters that directly affect us all? I am reminded by an old article of mine written seven years ago.
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“Whenever the powers of government are placed in anyhands other than those of the community – whether those of man, of a few, or of several – those principles of human nature which imply that government is at all necessary imply that those persons will make use of them to defeat the very end for which government exits.” (James Mill, An Essay on Government)

If a government says it can do nothing on matters of national effect and concern except invoking a law that is clearly anti-people, what can it do for itself to save from extinction?

Everytime Shell, Caltex and Petron otherwise collectively known as the Big 3 raise their prices of oil almost simultaneously, the straight-faced reason is that they are losing money separately yet similarly. And the government watches on the sideline with its eager helplessness and (mis)understood the incomprehensible price incrases in the midst of a crisis without a sly attempt to liosten to the cry of the people – where we are taught the sovereignty of the government resides.

Are the oil companies really losing money? According to Rep. Ernesto Herrera of Bohol, they are NOT. On the records filed by these oil firms with the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC), they by and large profited to a jolting Php 18.6 billion with Shell having P7.45 billion; Petron, P6.54 billion; and Caltex P4.64 billion. However, they claim that these profits actually reflected very modest returns compared to 1996 when the oil industry was not yet deregulated.

Oddly, the Deparment of Energy that is monitoring the oil industry has nothing interesting to say to the people except defending the activites of the Big 3. It is understandably welcome for the oil firms to have a spokesperson from the government itself, being a sentinel of the welfare of the people supposedly. It looks like the government is willing to pay for the sins of the Big 3 disposing  its truest nature and service to the “people” – the people it knows all along, former colleagues, friends, relatives, affluent, and the masses (in no particular order, I suppose).

As Rousseau in the Social Contract would state emphatically, “nothing is more dangerous than the influence of private interest in public affairs, and the abuse of the laws by the government is a less evil than the corruption of the legislation..” Save the Herrera’s expose on the “modest profits” of the Big 3, the Congress is in a way nurturing the stifling situation by sitting on a bill that will eventually amend the Oil Deregulation Law and foster competition which the law intends. In the bill, the creation of the National Oil Exchange which will bid the national oil needs from the lowest bidder among the international oil traders will tremble the oil cartel of the Big 3 on its bending knees, cutting its clout in the government. They will be forced to low down their prices to win the bidding and be able to continue supplying the oil needs of the country. On the recent oil price hike, the Speaker of the House nonetheless has threatened inexpediently the Big 3 of the repeal of the Oil Deregulation Law if they continue acting like a cartel. Where has the speaker been all this long as he is the only soul left unconvinced of the cartel? He needs a little dose of history of the oil price fluctuations of the Big 3 that require no further inquiry to resolve the existence of a cartel.

In the globalizing world, the national govenment is being run over by the mighty capital of the transnational companies such as the Big 3. It is left unconditionally powerless and insignificant in the moneyed world without borders. Couples with the government’s thrust toward industrialization and globalization, these transnational companies suggestively assume the token seat of power – the government. And they are gaining ground to hold on to the seat as long as the actual owner wills it.

Do we?

The great Rousseau reminds us that people that would always govern well need not be governed. Essentially, democracy promotes people’s active participation in the decisionmaking of the state. The government – let it rule for the end of common good.

In the first proposition of Kant in the Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysics of Morals, he writes “that an action, to have moral worth, must be done from duty.” Now the people ask, how about inaction?

Generation X, Y, Z: Finding generation identity in a diary

Generation X, Y, and Z, world wars, Great Depression, Elvis Presly, Beatles, Vietnam or (American) War, Punk, Michael Jackson, dotcoms, IPhone, 9/11, Anne Frank, these are examples of events, personalities and products that somehow are able to define a generation. How can one grasp the generation's identity?

Can identity of a generation be captured by a diary? Can it constitute as knowledge? Amar Singh's diary on India during the British colonization presents a subjective knowledge of a colonial on the political domination and racial superiority of Englishmen. Amar wrote regularly on his diary from 1898 to 1942, around 44 years of keeping notes of his experiences and observations. The rich articulation of the entries on the diary is argued to define the identity formation of the Indians at that time under the English empire.

The debate on social sciences about subjective and objective knowledge is situated in the "self-as-other" ethnography. There has been primacy of objective knowledge as scientific borne out of a rigorous method applied by the social scientists. However, the subjective knowledge that anthropologists gather from their key informants and their participant-observation is getting acceptance as another form of knowledge that is as valuable to social sciences as objective knowledge. The epistemological claim of the subjective knowledge is that some well-placed individuals are carriers of the truth and reality of a generation that is of interest to social sciences.

In social sciences, there is a continued blurring of self and other, participant and observer, subjective and objective. The reflexive self can be the other as the reflexive participant can be the observer. So the subjective knowledge is as valid as the objective knowledge in social sciences.

Thus, Amar Sing's diary counts as subjective knowledge that portrays the identity formation of colonial Indians. This portrayal is "liminal" which means that the identity formed is not a combination of English and Indian at one time. It is either Indian or English in one time, neither the two mixing together. The shift from one culture to the other is made possible by acceptance of this "liminality."

This subjective knowledge presented by Amar Singh's diary on identity formation of colonial Indians has contributed to the enrichment of understanding of what constitutes knowledge in the social sciences. A diary can capture the identity of a generation as Amar Singh did in his diary.

World Cup, Football: A unifying force

The world shares its passion for one sports, football. And Indonesia is one with the world, in football, the most popular sports in the world. Although without a national team competing in the World Cup 2010 in South Africa, Indonesians are closely following the updates and games with passion. It is the sports, not a team, that creates a certain sense of belongingness and ownership.

For example, during the 2008 Euro Cup finals between Spain and Germany, Indonesia was awake and glued to TV. The time was 12 midnight in Jakarta until the early morning of Monday last week. Men and women, boys and girls, young and old, football has captured the imagination of Indonesians.

Binaya (co-intern in Asean) and I favored Germany to win the prestigious Cup. I had my own reason; I don’t know about his. I simply liked Germany. I thought I had enough of Spain (well, it colonized the Philippines for four centuries).

Earlier that day, the Philippines watched the Las Vegas, USA show of Manny Pacquiao overwhelming David Diaz for the WBC lightweight title for his fourth titles in different weight divisions. It was late in the morning, approaching noontime in the Philippines. Manny Pacquaio has captured the fantasy of Filipinos.

Manny Pacquiao in the US for the Philippines; football in Europe for Indonesia. Two countries in one region, two sports, two colonial continents.

A person embodying national craze in the sports, or even bigger than any sports in the Philippines, for the Philippines; a sports embodying national passion for Indonesia.

In my Monday morning “ojek” (motorcycle) ride to busway, “Yakob” asked me, “Did you watch TV yesterday?”

I said, “tidak (no).”

“Oh, Spain won,” Yakob declared gleefully.

I thought he was referring to the Pacquiao – Diaz bout. I thought he was a die-hard fan of Pacquaio.

And so I thought. But he is an Indonesian, after all. Football reigns supreme in the country among all sports. That makes Indonesia one with Europe and the world.

Sons of the Motherland (In Memory of the Young Martyrs)

The following has been written 10 years ago. When I was skimming my old notes, I found this. I thought this would serve better if I shared it unadulterated with the readers. This was printed in a local newspaper in Bicol in 2000.

“Youth is to all the glad season of life; but often only by what it hopes, not by what it attains, or what it escapes.” – (Thomas Carlyle)

Two driving forces why things change are the curiosity and discontent of the young as opposed to the prevalent resistance to change of the aged.

Youth can be a state of the mind. People remain young if they hold on to their ideals, an ingredient that can make nations great; if the youth keeps their enthusiasm to power their nations forward; if they display vigor which springs hope for a better tomorrow.

Youth speaks.

Today I live in a society where oppressive systems are deeply rooted and wholly accepted. My forefathers who fought hard to regain freedom from foreign intrusion forgot to follow it up with its price – vigilance. Our society has somehow evolved to its present state, still I hardly can call my own. Most, if not all, features are borrowed, save the person, but the lifestyles, educational system, music, literature can be taced back to the colonizers of our land.

Our youth is blazing the trail of globalization losing his/her own identity, engulfing him/herself in a strange body and being, betraying his/her true roots, and selling his/her bare soul. None of a character of own. I dread to witness the day coming when no youth can identify with Bonifacio, Del Pilar, Silang, Sakay, the Katipuneros; I dread the day.

Faced with the impending fall of our own beloved nation in the hands of the glutton and inept system, I am up to the challenge of engaging myself to the struggle of the oppressed. I can always contribute to the revolutionary change our society needs. I am going to break the conventionals and formalities that have been impeding our creative and imaginative minds, pulling us down to the abyss of ignorance, conformity and poverty. I will crush the influence of imperialism, even the slightest shade of it to take the consciousness of our fellow youth to the new heights and level where it can lead to self-determination. I will go and grow with them liberated from the bondage of the past and present chains to see and reflect and examine our being. These I all do in the name of common good, justice and equality.

Though I know one little candle light in the land is nothing but a dim light, I will not stop burning up to my last wax because I am convinced that there are other lights out there that too are burning with flame. I will pierce the darkness with my straight light and let others see the goodness and brightness of the light. Someday I am going to meet them and we all will give light and warm to others and then, build a society founded in equality, justice and common good, based on a culture that is ours, understood by all in a language native to our tongue. Then it will be a society truly of our own.

This is the society I dream. Can’t we have the same dream?

King of tennis: Federer or Nadal?

Roger Federer's exit in the French Open does not diminish his tennis career achievements. However, French Open has solidified Rafael Nadal's exploits on the clay-court. Nadal won the French Open for the fifth time and regained the number one ranking in men's tennis from Federer.

This leads us to be excited about the Wimbledon Open. It is undoubtedly Frederer's playground because he has won there for six times. Thus, making him the top-seed in the coming tournament.

I would say that Federer is the king of tennis, for now. Why?

For winning his fourth Australian Open and 16th Grand Slam title, the Swiss tennis superstar, Roger Federer, established himself as peerless among tennis greats and players. The 28-year old Federer etched his place in tennis history as one of the greatest players, if not the greatest, to ever play the sports. He beat Andy Murray to secure the title in three straight sets of his 22nd career Grand Slam final appearance.

What is more amazing is that he has a lot of tennis years ahead of him. He can achieve more and totally separate himself from the mortals of the sports. And the year has just begun.

The previous record of 14 Grand Slam titles of the American Pete Sampras was seemed to be beyond the reach of any tennis players when he retired in 2003. Federer made the record humanly possible and breakable in one tennis career.

Just like in any sports, greatness does not come without fierce competition from a worthy rival who brings out the best in great players. Boxing legend Muhammad Ali would not be "the greatest" if not for his memorable fights with another boxing great Joe Frazier. In basketball, Magic Johnson had Larry Bird whereas in tennis, Pete Sampras had Andre Agassi.

In Federer's time, Spaniard Rafael Nadal has emerged as his toughest challenge in the run for Grand Slam titles. In fact, it was last year in the Australian Open that Federer was denied by Nadal to match the Sampras' record of 14 Grand Slam titles. In turn in the succeeding Grand Slam event, he denied Nadal of his 4th consecutive French Open title. That was fitting for Federer to match the Sampras' record and winning his first clay-court French Open, plus he won all the Grand Slam events in various surfaces. Then, he defended the Wimbledon crown in grass court to surpass the record at 15 titles.

What is there for Federer to achieve further in his tennis career? I think there is more for him to stay in competitive tennis to elevate the intensity and level of playing of the sports. He is now the role model for aspiring tennis players. He exudes composure under intense competition and challenge, humility amidst his achievements, and provides the sports an iconic face and name.

Federer is king of tennis. Doubtless, he will remain as such for a long time. Let us see more of him and enjoy his showcase of talents, skills and character in and off the court. That is truly very kingly. But like any other king, he has a rival. Rafa Nadal is a very worth competitor and rival for the crown. What an exciting era for tennis!

It's the economy, not you, is recovering

There are positive indications that economic recovery is well underway. The good signs have descended unto the housing market and unemployment data. But investors are still wary of the temporariness of the rebound. The
economy is not out of the woods yet.

The housing crisis that started the whole mess in the global economy has posted relieving figures after two years of dismal and disheartening data. Home sales are up and foreclosures are on the decline. Construction of new housing projects is starting ti prop up to show that confidence in the housing market is holding.

For the first time in 15 months, the unemployment rate dipped and fewer people lost their jobs than the previous month. It defied the prediction that unemployment rate will reach double digits this year. If the new trend continues to hold, then unemployment will hover around 9%. This will be a safe figure to start the year of 2010 when full recovery is said to happen.

The stock market has reacted positively in the new development. Some giant companies such as AIG posted profits in the quarter to boast the confidence of investors in the market. Although there is still an air of wariness and caution, the sense of doom and despair is out of the horizon. Optimism and bright prospects dominate the landscapes of economy.

Now, analysts and economists are looking at the consumers' behavior. They know that the consumers will have to do their part in helping the economy recover. Consumer spending is still conservative as more people opt to put their money on the banks for safekeeping in the future. The fear of sudden loss of jobs and insecurity is imminent in the faces of consumers. But there is a confidence that consumers will respond to the needs of the economy. They will ultimately spend their money because that's what they have gotten used with.

The cash for clunkers program help avert the collapse of car industries. now the car sales are on the rise. Plus, environmentally friendly cars will dot every road. It is a very good bargain, one gets cash by trading
his/her old car. In that wat, the market is stimulated because many poeple wanted to avail of the cash for replacing their old cars by hybrid cars. In this way, two heads are being hit - one is pump priming the economy and promoting environmentally friendly cars to the public.

We can look forward to a promising future because soon, the good times will be back. I am seeing it now as I buy things that I need and save more and more for a secured future.

Pacquiao-Mayweather fight still raging on

It is officially off and on, for now. Nobody knows. Notably, boxing has risen to new heights because of the fight.

The much-anticipated boxing match between Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr., two of the top pound-for-pound fighters, has been shelved because of disagreements in the scheduled blood testing. The fight is groomed to be the biggest in boxing with both fighters going to earn, at least, a guaranteed $25 million. The date had been set, the venue had been reserved, but the negotiation leading to the fight did not go as expected.

The camp of Mayweather strongly proposed the random and stringent blood tests for both fighters to scan a possible intake of performance-enhancing drugs or substance. It accused Pacquaio of not being "clean." It insinuated that the way Pacquaio climbed from flyweight to welterweight and won seven legitimate titles in different weight categories was a product of some external factor which was enhancing performance drug. But it never put forward any evidence to prove this.

The Pacquaio's camp agreed to have the blood testing, but not in random fashion. Pacquiao was amendable to three blood testing schedules; one would be months before the fight date, another one would be 14 days prior to the fight, and the last one would be right after the fight. According to experts and analysts on drug testing and performance-enhancing substances, there was no way to escape the findings of blood testing if it would be done right after the fight. But Mayweather insisted on the random and stringent blood tests which could be made even on the day of the fight.

For Pacquiao, blood letting on days close to the fight is a bad omen. Much worse is on the day of the fight. It was reported that Pacquiao would feel weak, just like when he fought Erik Morales the first time in the epic-trilogy in which Pacquaio lost by decision.

There will be March 13 boxing fight in Dallas, Texas. The exciting Manny Pacquaio will be top-billing the fight. But he will fight not Mayweather. He will face welterweight contender Clottey.

On the other hand, Mayweather is reportedly facing Sugar Shane Mosley in another date and venue.

Both fights are blockbusters to boxing fans. They are very promising to be a hell of a fight. But they are only a prelude to what millions of boxing fans really want to see, a Pacquaio versus Mayweather fight.

It may not happen in the near future, but I believe it has to happen in this era. It is unpardonable if boxing lets go of this great opportunity to have great fighters not testing each other's skills and chin to decide
who the pound-for-pound king truly is. The winner will definitely be on the list of the top three best boxers of all-time.