unfortunately, some iraqi extremists saw it fit to celebrate their country’s asian cup win by detonating a car bomb (or was it a suicide bomber who did it?) in the midst of celebrating fans. more than 60 people were killed and dozens more maimed. and that’s a mega-downer in my book.

at yan ang kinaiba nating mga pinoy… the worst that we do to spoil a crowd’s merry-making is to make utot on the sly! hehehe…

love your blog fullman!

Moreover, I bet those guys fought as if they are fighting their last fight last Saturday. I can bet that they come from the ranks of the poor and their fight last Saturday was the fight of the life time for each one of them – a fight that will give them world-wide recognition, a fight that will throw them and their families a lifeline that will haul them from the claws of poverty. They fought valiantly and they won. They got their time in the spotlight and they made their kababayans proud.

I’m sure they too, like most of us Filipinos, have many grievances to air. I will not wonder if they will seek representation in whatever form. The problem this our present political system and the system of representation barely represent the sentiments and interests of athletes and much less of the poor.

I think the issue is not their being boxers seeking for representation but the system that fails to represent them in the first place. It is also a system that gives premium to popularity rather than programs and substance in electoral exercises.

After reading a news article on Iraq winning the Asian Cup, I pondered that truly, sports events are moments in which religio-ethnic differences are conflated into one national pride, even for fleeting number of minutes. Biruin mo, the entire Iraq was at suspended animation, Sunnis, Shiites, and Kurds hugged each other! This led me to believe that what football is to Iraq is what boxing is to us (well sige basketball na rin). Kaso yun nga, ang pangit lang ng sa atin, after all the feeling of high, virtually everything tied to that triumph becomes sucked into the vortex of backward politics in our country – Pacquiao is cajoled to run for office, congressmen are even more tempted to misuse their pork barrel to be able to watch boxing matches, and more money are spent to support young boxers in the provinces instead of having them spent in the delivery of social services.

Potanginang buhay ito o.