“Consider well,” the voice asked, “Wilt thou find passion, pain, or pride.”
? Alfred Lord Tennyson
THE poor boy phenomenon from GenSan has become an instant multi-millionaire (in dollars) despite his defeat at the hands of Erik “El Terrible” Morales of Mexico.
However, Manny Pacquiao will also become an instant “has been” as the Mafia of world boxing will see to it that this Filipino upstart and “boxing meteorite” will not get another crack at boxing?s top leaderboard in the foreseeable future.
That is, Manny Pacquiao, a victim of excessive pride, i.e. hubris, and media hype, will now be condemned to “do” and go through the journeyman boxing circuits until his face is turned into a mess and age catches up with him which means early exile into boxing oblivion with the likes of Navarrete, Espinosa, and Pe?alosa.
In short, “madali mabusog ang mga pinoy” champions.
Together with their latent vices that come with instant affluence, hubris and media glitz will take care of the demolition and their downfall.
Hence, goodbye and good luck Manny Pacquiao, Efren “Bata” Reyes, Espinosa, Pe?alosa, and Dorothy Delasin as they fade away while golfer Jennifer Rosales huffs and puffs her way in the LPGA.
In the meantime, the other media hype and negative publicity that is not doing this country any good is the undermining of the government?s tourism promotion campaigns, investment drives, and peace efforts by highlighting violence, the widespread display of firearms in hotels and public places, chronic police paranoia of terrorism threats, and proliferation of firearms in the streets. All these signify the gross mishandling of public policies vis-?-vis homeland security, tourist protection, corruption in the public service, absence of level playing field, and unequal application of justice.
In other words, there must be meticulous and careful calibration between the desire of the government to provide a salubrious business climate, a tourist destination, an attractive investment haven, an image of political stability, and tranquillity, on one hand, and preparedness and awareness of real and imminent threats from international terrorism, on the other hand, of which the Philippines is without doubt a prime target owing to its substantial Muslim ethnic minority population and militant Islamist-led insurgency.
What we are driving at is to minimize the open display of firearms which scares the wits out of the public and foreign visitors, while enhancing discreetly intelligence gathering capability, surveillance activities, electronics innovations, and sky spies whether at the airports, seaports, schools, hotels, or government establishments which should be the preferred methodology.
Thus, with the quantity of weapons in the armories of the military, licensed firearms in the hands of private security agencies, and unlicensed and loose firearms being kept and hidden by the public, this country appears ready to engage in revolutions or civil war at anytime which should not be tolerated or allowed to proliferate.
The arrogant display of firearms, the media hype of impending terrorist violence, and police general nervousness are all driving the public into paranoia and hysterical state of mind while driving away tourists and would-be investors which, incidentally, is being aggravated by the continuous negative advisories being put out by foreign embassies. Let us not match or ape the paranoia of America for the Americans have their own reasons since 9/11.
This Holy Week is a splendid opportunity and occasion to observe retreat, introspection, prayers, meditation, and planning towards a more peaceful year 2005; doing our own thing, better management, better calibration of anti-terrorism preparedness, and leadership by example.
ADVANCE HAPPY EASTER TO ALL OUR READERS!
