I have nothing against Manny

During the weekend and on till Monday, the news was all about Manny
Pacquiao. (Well, there was this little piece about the First
Gentleman Mike Arroyo, but the only way he would have grabbed the
headline would have been if he had died. Which I don't believe would
happen anytime soon. Not in the next twenty or thirty years, in
fact.) But sorry to say, I have not watched any of his matches. I
have never wanted to watch any of his matches as a matter of fact.

Frankly, he may be good and worth his weight in gold, but the only
reason I am writing about him now is that he is falling into a
classical trap where people (specifically politicians) are fawning and
falling all around him and he is beginning to believe his own
propaganda. The worst that can happen to him and to his province is
if he wins the election as a congressman.

Imagine a guy with the potential to earn upwards of 100 million pesos
a year net, for the next six years, going into politics and be used by
countless politicians (including Pres. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, Chavit
Singson and Lito Atienza). He may be rich but the riches he has
earned and the "good" name (naive and innocent in politics) might not
be worth it. I think Gabriel "Flash" Elorde made the right decision,
he stayed away from politics and just lived quietly with his own
boxing gym.

Which reminds me of what Dolphy keeps saying whenever he is asked if
he will ever run for office. He always answers "eh kung manalo?" To
which a Marxist answer would be something of the sort: "but we've
already booked the Quirino Stadium for the victory celebration."
Paraphrasing Groucho Marx, that is.

Oh well. If we have senators like actors Ramon Revilla and his son
Ramon "Bong" Revilla, Joseph Estrada and his son Jinggoy Estrada, Lito
Lapid, and Tito Sotto as well as basketball players Freddie Webb and
Robert Jaworski, and now we have Cesar Montano and Richard Gomez
running for the post, maybe we do deserve Manny Pacquiao in Congress.
I have no idea what he'll do there, but I do know he's going to be in
a better position as a boxer rather than as a lawmaker.

--andoy
19 April 2007

New things; old things

There've been a lot of things happening. Some odd and unexpected. Others are just plain weird but should have been happening for a long, long time.

I was riding a jeep home one day, when I saw this guy, a vagrant, a "taong grasa", walking the empty street going to the Marikina Engineering offices. He was practically naked, except for his briefs. He may have been dirty all around, but his briefs was not as dirty. It was not brown or gray. It was pink.

As the jeep passed him (and he was going in the same direction as the jeep) I didn't have the sense to look back. I guess it was shock. More of a shock because of the pink briefs.

And during that same week, as I was walking around the mall, and into a Watson's store, there was this "matrona" who was walking around talking on the phone. It looked like a regular desktop phone. Except that she was walking around lugging around the phone. I didn't really pay much attention to it at the time. It could have been a Bayantel or Globe wireless phone. What grabbed me was that after the phone call, and not being able to stow the phone in her bag, her cell phone rang.

I just had to ask myself, up to what extent people want to be in touch with other people. I've seen a woman on the commute to work sending text messages, on two phones, at the same time. One cell phone in each hand. I didn't care if these were the same message or not.

And before the cell phone text explosion came along, I saw a guy on the corner of Ayala and Paseo de Roxas, talking over two phones. He had another cell phone on his belt as well as a pager. I did say it was way, way too long ago.

Again , I wonder up to what extent people would want to get in touch with other people. I have no idea about that answer.

--andoy
16 April 2007