He cannot be a boxer forever, yet he can be a lasting champion
Manny Pacquiao has made his country, and Filipinos around the world, proud yet again with his impressive November 13,2010 victory at Cowboy Stadium in Dallas. Some 41,000 boxing fans showed up in person on fight night. Over a million tv sets signed in to HBO and paid the premium for the privilege of viewing the spectacular display on tv around the US and throughout the world.
And the paying public got its money’s worth. Pacquiao put on a show, devastating the bigger, taller, heavier Antonio Margarito in the process and ended the evening with yet another title, his record eighth.
. I left the sports bar where I watched the fight and headed for home, eager to put my recollections of the fight into written form.
After firing up my laptop and composing my memories of the evening, I delved into my files and revisited a March 10 article on my blog wherein I advised Manny Pacquiao to desist from his plan to become a politician. He did not take my advice and I really doubt if what I wrote ever got to him. But what made me revisit the article was a comment sent by one of my readers, a friend whose opinion I always respected because of the candor with which he expressed them, very simply and to the point.
He said that I should not be too impressed with the reportage on Manny Pacquiao in the Philippines because his handlers and p.r. staff have adroitly succeeded in keeping all the “real news” out of the headlines.
Manny, he intimated, had reportedly succumbed to what he calls the “ABC”. This stood for, he explained, “alak, babae and casino”. He added that the rumor mill in Manila had it that the Filipino icon had amassed a large gambling debt and had accepted to fight Clottey mostly for the money so he could pay it off. This was disturbing news to me, yet I could not dismiss it completely because of the source. He did not want me to be sucked into the “Pacquiao is the greatest” p.r. machine.
And I, at the same time, started recalling how, in the early to mid ‘70’s in Hawaii, a string of very promising Filipino boxers had in no time succumbed to the lure of gaiety that characterized life on Waikiki beach. The pattern was that these boxers usually won their first few fights in spectacular fashion and became instant attractions. They became toasts of the Filipino community and spent their nights at fun clubs where “alak” was plentiful and the line of “babaes” seemed never ending.
One of these was a Cebuano boxer by the name of Rene Barrientos, a one time lightweight champion in the Philippines and who had a bright future in Hawaii and the USA. I have no direct knowledge of his night life activities as I left Hawaii not long after he arrived. But I kept in touch with activities in the islands where I had opened a Philippine News branch; one day I found out that Rene ended up joining a contingent of boxers whose dreams of championships, fame and riches had gone all up in smoke. Some went back home defeated and distraught, while others took jobs as bouncers in the night clubs that not too long ago treated them like celebrities.
I had not seen nor heard of any such debauchery associated with Manny in the US, but then again I have no access to him nor do I circulate anywhere near his sphere. I read once that his coach, Freddie Roach, had complained openly once about his boxer’s large entourage and how they negatively affected his conditioning. I’ve also heard that Manny was seen in several nightclubs both in Las Vegas and Los Angeles.
Then again he’s earned his money and his high standing the hard way. He literally fought for it and laid his life on the line in doing so. His opponents have either been champions or highly rated contenders in the various weight classes. Certainly no Palookas. So, why shouldn’t he indulge in the pleasures available to winners and power dudes like him and the many star athletes that we usually read about?
Well, perhaps it is because he stands out as a beacon of hope for the millions of young people in the Philippines who have been inspired by his story. The utter poverty of his youth did not deter him from aspiring to greatness. Blessed with unique physical attributes that he has used well, he worked very hard to attain his goals. He was not an overnight sensation. He achieved his standing literally absorbing one heavy and painful blow after another. And once he obtained enough wealth he went back to school and tackled the academics that were beyond his reach as a youngster because of his poverty. An excellent example worthy of emulation, indeed.
I hope he remembers, and keeps in mind, that with the accolades bestowed on him, and the high regard with which he is held, comes a responsibility. Whether he likes it or not he has to understand and realize that in a country plunged into the darkness of poverty, corruption, lawlessness and, for many, despair, he is one of the very few vanguards who can carry the torch that lights the way to a nation’s salvation. It is my sincere hope that as he moves forward to even more victories, that he brings with him the images, memories and interests of the impoverished people of his youth. And that he acts with a robust resolve to their upliftment, and not be the unwitting tool to be used and exploited by the current power elements with whom he hobnobs in the chambers of the Philippine congress and the halls and corridors of power where they constantly lurch, salivating at every opportunity for even more illicit riches.
He cannot be a boxer forever. Yet Manny Pacquiao has the rare opportunity to become his country’s most outstanding, and lasting, champion in ways far more important and significant than his accomplishments in the ring. Some people are bestowed with talent, opportunity and a vastly favorable moment in history. What they do with this rare confluence will determine whether they accomplish great things or, like many, simply rue and commiserate their lost and wasted opportunities. It is hoped that Manny Pacquiao sees, recognizes and embraces this moment, for we as a nation simply have no need, use nor tolerance for yet another waylaid and fallen hero.
ldq44@aol.com
Monday, November 15, 2010
Friday, November 12, 2010
Filipino OFWs : Outrageous Exploitation!!
Noted southern California based journalist Dionisio C. Agrava has recently brought to light the unfortunate and sometimes pitiful conditions that many Filipino overseas workers find themselves in. A recent concern highlighted by Mr. Agrava involves some 11 such workers who had fled oppressive and cruel conditions at an employer in Mississippi and had sought the help of officials at the Philippine consulate in Los Angeles. As I understand it only the fierce and ferocious advocacy and reporting done by Mr. Agrava is what prodded the consulate hierarchy into finally taking action to aid the Filipinos.
Mr. Agrava also succeeded in rallying the Filipino-American community into providing housing and food for the 11 workers. How their cases and status were finally resolved is not known. It seems that only one person in the L.A. consulate office really cared what happened to the stranded Filipinos, a certain Alberto Duero the labor attaché.
The problem, as reported by Mr. Agrava, is that Duero is not properly funded and seems unable to get much action from his bosses at the Department of Labor in Manila.
Typical Philippine bureaucracy.
Mr. Agrava also recounts the several incidents in various places where Filipino workers have either been short changed, underpaid or exploited and abused one way or another. He paints a grim picture for many of our countrymen lured to overseas “opportunities” in their search for a better life for themselves and their families.
In Reno I’ve heard of the story of one Filipina, (let’s call her Vicky – not her real name) who has been thru one sad tale of woe. Vicky is in her late thirties. She was a teacher in the Philippines. She had actively sought opportunities to work as an overseas worker and one day was overjoyed at finding a recruiter who promised her employmentin the USA. The job was for a “housekeeping aide” at one of the hotel-casinos in Reno.
She was promised a salary of a little over $10 per hour which is about 25% more than the nationally mandated minimum wage of $7.50 per hour. But it came with a catch. Vicky had to pay the recruiter, up front, $4,400.00. This represented the recruiter’s cut as well as air transportation to and from Reno, Nevada.
Vicky had to sell, borrow and beg to put this amount together. She figured that at $10.00 an hour, provided that she lived a frugal life, she could make up the $4,400.00 in about 12 weeks.
When Vicky finally got to Reno and reported to the casino-hotel, she learned that she was not guaranteed a 40 hour work week. There were weeks when she only worked 16 hours. A major recession gripped the USA and business was slow. And she was being paid only the hours that she worked. So, not only did she not earn enough to start paying back what she owed from friends and relatives, she could not even afford her own place to stay. Mercifully, a Filipino family took her in . Not much, since she had to sleep on the floor, or when available, the couch. He had to do housework to pay for her stay.
Being resourceful she hustled around for any extra employment finally finding another Filipino couple who had a “home care” business taking care of elderly patients who could not live on their own. This “part time” job at least earned her a few hundred dollars a week and gave her free meals. The couple also gave her warm clothing as the cold northern Nevada winter was creeping in. This employment did not last long because some of the elderly patients were pulled from the home, again the effect of the recession: relatives, many now unemployed themselves, decided to take over the care of their elderly parents in their own homes and pocket the fees themselves.
I lost touch with Vicky as she had moved on to seek other employers. Her story, sad to say, is not an unusual nor isolated one. I’ve heard of many equally unfortunate Filipinas, many mothers of small children, like Vicky. (Her contract at the casino-hotel was not renewed, so technically her visa had expired. She either had to go home or stay as an illegal alien.)
As I heard it many in her group, upon landing, did not report to the casino-hotel they were contracted to. They had friends and relatives in the US and decided to join the underground economy that is often the refuge of undocumented or out of visa aliens.This is turn, reportedly caused US Immigration officials to refuse issuance of any further “temporary work visas” for Filipinos. A bad situation all around.
What I find abhorrent is how these recruiters in the Philippines can continue to ply their trade. How they can blatantly hoodwink desperate Filipinos into onerous “deals” and continue to get away with it. Shall we conclude that the officials at our Department of Labor, the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration and the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration are sleeping on the job or just totally incompetent? Or should we conclude, as we often must when it comes to the Philippines, that they too are in on these scams and are profiting from them? Corruption again raises its ugly head. I share Mr. Agrava’s outrage, as every Filipino should.
ldq44@aol.com
Mr. Agrava also succeeded in rallying the Filipino-American community into providing housing and food for the 11 workers. How their cases and status were finally resolved is not known. It seems that only one person in the L.A. consulate office really cared what happened to the stranded Filipinos, a certain Alberto Duero the labor attaché.
The problem, as reported by Mr. Agrava, is that Duero is not properly funded and seems unable to get much action from his bosses at the Department of Labor in Manila.
Typical Philippine bureaucracy.
Mr. Agrava also recounts the several incidents in various places where Filipino workers have either been short changed, underpaid or exploited and abused one way or another. He paints a grim picture for many of our countrymen lured to overseas “opportunities” in their search for a better life for themselves and their families.
In Reno I’ve heard of the story of one Filipina, (let’s call her Vicky – not her real name) who has been thru one sad tale of woe. Vicky is in her late thirties. She was a teacher in the Philippines. She had actively sought opportunities to work as an overseas worker and one day was overjoyed at finding a recruiter who promised her employmentin the USA. The job was for a “housekeeping aide” at one of the hotel-casinos in Reno.
She was promised a salary of a little over $10 per hour which is about 25% more than the nationally mandated minimum wage of $7.50 per hour. But it came with a catch. Vicky had to pay the recruiter, up front, $4,400.00. This represented the recruiter’s cut as well as air transportation to and from Reno, Nevada.
Vicky had to sell, borrow and beg to put this amount together. She figured that at $10.00 an hour, provided that she lived a frugal life, she could make up the $4,400.00 in about 12 weeks.
When Vicky finally got to Reno and reported to the casino-hotel, she learned that she was not guaranteed a 40 hour work week. There were weeks when she only worked 16 hours. A major recession gripped the USA and business was slow. And she was being paid only the hours that she worked. So, not only did she not earn enough to start paying back what she owed from friends and relatives, she could not even afford her own place to stay. Mercifully, a Filipino family took her in . Not much, since she had to sleep on the floor, or when available, the couch. He had to do housework to pay for her stay.
Being resourceful she hustled around for any extra employment finally finding another Filipino couple who had a “home care” business taking care of elderly patients who could not live on their own. This “part time” job at least earned her a few hundred dollars a week and gave her free meals. The couple also gave her warm clothing as the cold northern Nevada winter was creeping in. This employment did not last long because some of the elderly patients were pulled from the home, again the effect of the recession: relatives, many now unemployed themselves, decided to take over the care of their elderly parents in their own homes and pocket the fees themselves.
I lost touch with Vicky as she had moved on to seek other employers. Her story, sad to say, is not an unusual nor isolated one. I’ve heard of many equally unfortunate Filipinas, many mothers of small children, like Vicky. (Her contract at the casino-hotel was not renewed, so technically her visa had expired. She either had to go home or stay as an illegal alien.)
As I heard it many in her group, upon landing, did not report to the casino-hotel they were contracted to. They had friends and relatives in the US and decided to join the underground economy that is often the refuge of undocumented or out of visa aliens.This is turn, reportedly caused US Immigration officials to refuse issuance of any further “temporary work visas” for Filipinos. A bad situation all around.
What I find abhorrent is how these recruiters in the Philippines can continue to ply their trade. How they can blatantly hoodwink desperate Filipinos into onerous “deals” and continue to get away with it. Shall we conclude that the officials at our Department of Labor, the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration and the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration are sleeping on the job or just totally incompetent? Or should we conclude, as we often must when it comes to the Philippines, that they too are in on these scams and are profiting from them? Corruption again raises its ugly head. I share Mr. Agrava’s outrage, as every Filipino should.
ldq44@aol.com
Memo to Pres. Aquino re Tourism:
Fight the Disease, Not the Symptoms!!
The Philippine Star in its November 13 issue headlined “Noy slams APEC allies over travel advisories” saying that President Aquino expressed anger and displeasure with the travel advisories posted by the governments of the APEC member nations warning their citizens to avoid travel to the Philippines.
Well, this is indeed the ultimate in inanity on President Aquino’s part. Why is he complaining about the negative travel advisories when what is needed is a robust and vigorous effort on his government’s part to address the very causes that trigger these advisories?
Are governments like New Zealand’s supposed to completely ignore the August 23rd tourist bus massacre right in the midst of the country’s prime tourism enclave? Certainly the wishy-washy, long drawn out “investigation” and the seemingly flaccid and impotent “findings” that he announced reassured no one that similar incidents would not take place in the future.
“…with the terror advisories recently we were singled out as a place to avoid”, Pnoy bewailed.
Listen, President Aquino, with all due respect I am a Filipino by birth and I would very much like to visit our country more often and even spend half a year there at a time, but man, not only am I afraid and terrified over the peace and order situation, I am also quite discouraged from spending time in Manila because most of that time will be spent in gridlocked traffic and amid a veritable fog of pollutants in the air!!
Not only am I afraid of being robbed, assaulted or killed by criminals in all forms and guises, I am also totally scared that not only are these criminals in cahoots with the police forces, the very perpetrators of the crimes could be the police themselves. Now tell me with a straight face that these fears are not well placed.
I am also afraid of our taxi drivers. I was in Manila not too long ago and tried to get a ride to my hotel in Ermita from the airport. The only transportation offered to me would have cost at least 500 pesos. I know a taxi ride from the airport to my hotel should no exceed 100 pesos. So I decided to walk a quarter of a mile to the police check point into NAIA and asked the police officers if they could hail me a regular taxi.
“Oh, no”, the head of the unit advised. “Do not go into any taxi on your own as you could be kidnapped or robbed” he added.
He kindly took me into his jeep to a busy intersection and there hailed a taxicab. He made it known to the driver that he had taken all the information needed and expected the driver to take me to my hotel with no problems. Great, the police helped me, but why does a traveler need that kind of security intercession for a simple taxi ride? Why does it become necessary for visitors to pay five times the regular rate just to get a reliable, safe ride from an international airport to a five star hotel?
Then there is this predicament that if a local entrepreneur, whether a store or even a transportation provider like a jeepney-for-charter , notices that a potential customer is a foreigner or a balikbayan visitor that the price of the goods or services could rise almost by some 100 percent. I was with a group of Filipino friends in Las Vegas recently and some were married to white Americans. In the course of the conversation the husbands joked that in the Philippines, when they are there, they are automatically charged the “white tax”, i.e. if they and not their wives are involved in whatever transaction, they have to pay extra.
Dear Mr. President, if you want to make the Philippines a heavily visited country by tourists who can aid the economy you must have the people working for you see to it that there is a sound and stable tourism infrastructure in place at all levels.
Take care of the fundamentals such as peace and order. Reform not only the institutions that are directly associated with tourism but everything else that affects the quality of life of our people. In other words, make the Philippines a country that we can all love, embrace and visit often without fear for our lives or safety, without concern that we will be gouged and with the reassurance that should something not go as planned that there is a reliable safety net to fall back on for effective remedies (e.g. medical services?).
And yes, many Filipino-Americans will be flying home soon, perhaps me included. I’ll probably skip Manila and go straight to Cebu and even in that beautiful “Queen City of the South” traffic and smog are becoming a problem. Ditto with Cagayan de Oro and Davao City. I hope that the leadership in these 3 cities in the south take a very close look at the problems that persist in Manila and take steps to avoid them.
Address and cure the illness, not the symptoms. Do not “rage against the dying of the light” as Dylan Thomas put it addressing his ailing mother, do as Peter Benenson of Amnesty International once simply suggested : Light a Candle.
ldq44@aol.com
The Philippine Star in its November 13 issue headlined “Noy slams APEC allies over travel advisories” saying that President Aquino expressed anger and displeasure with the travel advisories posted by the governments of the APEC member nations warning their citizens to avoid travel to the Philippines.
Well, this is indeed the ultimate in inanity on President Aquino’s part. Why is he complaining about the negative travel advisories when what is needed is a robust and vigorous effort on his government’s part to address the very causes that trigger these advisories?
Are governments like New Zealand’s supposed to completely ignore the August 23rd tourist bus massacre right in the midst of the country’s prime tourism enclave? Certainly the wishy-washy, long drawn out “investigation” and the seemingly flaccid and impotent “findings” that he announced reassured no one that similar incidents would not take place in the future.
“…with the terror advisories recently we were singled out as a place to avoid”, Pnoy bewailed.
Listen, President Aquino, with all due respect I am a Filipino by birth and I would very much like to visit our country more often and even spend half a year there at a time, but man, not only am I afraid and terrified over the peace and order situation, I am also quite discouraged from spending time in Manila because most of that time will be spent in gridlocked traffic and amid a veritable fog of pollutants in the air!!
Not only am I afraid of being robbed, assaulted or killed by criminals in all forms and guises, I am also totally scared that not only are these criminals in cahoots with the police forces, the very perpetrators of the crimes could be the police themselves. Now tell me with a straight face that these fears are not well placed.
I am also afraid of our taxi drivers. I was in Manila not too long ago and tried to get a ride to my hotel in Ermita from the airport. The only transportation offered to me would have cost at least 500 pesos. I know a taxi ride from the airport to my hotel should no exceed 100 pesos. So I decided to walk a quarter of a mile to the police check point into NAIA and asked the police officers if they could hail me a regular taxi.
“Oh, no”, the head of the unit advised. “Do not go into any taxi on your own as you could be kidnapped or robbed” he added.
He kindly took me into his jeep to a busy intersection and there hailed a taxicab. He made it known to the driver that he had taken all the information needed and expected the driver to take me to my hotel with no problems. Great, the police helped me, but why does a traveler need that kind of security intercession for a simple taxi ride? Why does it become necessary for visitors to pay five times the regular rate just to get a reliable, safe ride from an international airport to a five star hotel?
Then there is this predicament that if a local entrepreneur, whether a store or even a transportation provider like a jeepney-for-charter , notices that a potential customer is a foreigner or a balikbayan visitor that the price of the goods or services could rise almost by some 100 percent. I was with a group of Filipino friends in Las Vegas recently and some were married to white Americans. In the course of the conversation the husbands joked that in the Philippines, when they are there, they are automatically charged the “white tax”, i.e. if they and not their wives are involved in whatever transaction, they have to pay extra.
Dear Mr. President, if you want to make the Philippines a heavily visited country by tourists who can aid the economy you must have the people working for you see to it that there is a sound and stable tourism infrastructure in place at all levels.
Take care of the fundamentals such as peace and order. Reform not only the institutions that are directly associated with tourism but everything else that affects the quality of life of our people. In other words, make the Philippines a country that we can all love, embrace and visit often without fear for our lives or safety, without concern that we will be gouged and with the reassurance that should something not go as planned that there is a reliable safety net to fall back on for effective remedies (e.g. medical services?).
And yes, many Filipino-Americans will be flying home soon, perhaps me included. I’ll probably skip Manila and go straight to Cebu and even in that beautiful “Queen City of the South” traffic and smog are becoming a problem. Ditto with Cagayan de Oro and Davao City. I hope that the leadership in these 3 cities in the south take a very close look at the problems that persist in Manila and take steps to avoid them.
Address and cure the illness, not the symptoms. Do not “rage against the dying of the light” as Dylan Thomas put it addressing his ailing mother, do as Peter Benenson of Amnesty International once simply suggested : Light a Candle.
ldq44@aol.com
Thursday, November 11, 2010
Pacquiao on 60 Minutes; Filipinos in US Elections
Boxing icon Manny Pacquiao, recently elected to the Philippine congress, has been heavily reported on by US news media recently, most notable of these the prestigious and well viewed 60 Minutes program on CBS. The ever smiling champion clearly charmed interviewer Bob Simon particularly when Pacquiao responded to the question as to who he believed was the best boxer of all time. “Including me?” asked Pacquiao. His answer that he believed he was the “one”, seemed uncharacteristic for the once outwardly humble Filipino, yet he seems to have a new air of self confidence, perhaps the result of his newly acquired political standing.
His self evaluation as the greatest of all time is definitely not an idle boast. Bob Arum, who has promoted many of Muhammad Ali’s championship bouts, made the same statement. “ He is a unique fighter, “ Arum explained. “Most fighters are ‘one-armed’ punchers. Pacquiao is different, he has power from both his left and right fists.”
And both fists are definitely going to be needed when he faces Antonio Margarito for the world’s super welterweight title November 13th in front of an expected 70,000 patrons at Jerry Jones’ Cowboy Stadium in Dallas, Texas. A win will give Pacquiao his eighth title adding to his already unprecedented seven world championship belts. And in the Philippines crime will take a brief holiday, insurrections will wait for another day, millions of tv sets will be on; taxis, jeepneys and calesas will be idled as all will watch with anticipation and glee the expected triumph of the one Filipino who seems to always put his money where his mouth is. Since he is descended from Cebuano ancestors we certainly expect a KULAS moment, kulas being the acronym for Kuyaw Ug Labok Ang
Sugbuanon. Whether in victory or defeat Manny will be in the hearts of all Filipinos.
Manny was also big in the news both in Nevada and California for reasons other than his boxing career. He is now a congressman and seems to understand the value an endorsement has in winning voters over. So when ex-boxer Harry Reid, the beleaguered candidate for re-election in Nevada, called Manny for the help the latter graciously and happily did so. The Nevada race was a very close one and the Tea Party movement had made Reid a special target for defeat. Swinging a few thousand Filipino American voters to Reid’s column certainly helped the current majority leader win re-election. Reid is an important figure in Washington and having him on our side is truly beneficial for Philippine interests. Good work, Manny.
*********************
The recent US midterm elections saw the unseating of the Democrats and the stunning, though expected, triumph of the Tea Party-energized Republicans. It also saw the election or re-election of more than 2 dozen Filipino-Americans to various positions around the country, most notably the confirmation by voters of the appointment of Tani Santil Sakauye as chief justice of the California Supreme Court. She is a descendant of Filipino migrant workers and now occupies the highest ever position attained by a Filipino American in the US mainland.
Hawaii, the state that gave us Ben Cayetano, the first ever American of Filipino descent elected governor of a US state, again led the field in number of Fil-Am candidates elected. A post election controversy, however, seems to have surfaced. It seems that supporters of Lynn Berbano Finnegan, the candidate for lieutenant governor as the running mate for Duke Aiona, are upset that many Filipino Hawaiians voted for the other ticket headed by Neil Abercrombie, the eventual winner. The Aiona-Finnegan partisans seemed to have expected that voters of Filipino descent should support candidates based on their ethnicity and I have a problem with this attitude.
Politicians and candidates of Filipino descent ought to be evaluated and voted on based on their qualifications and programs of government. In a state like Hawaii, candidates need to pull together a broad coalition that has appeal to the general voting public regardless their ethnicity. I remember back in the 1970’s many Filipino-Americans were complaining that it was difficult to get a Filipino-American elected because the Japanese-Americans as well as the Chinese-American community were larger then and usually voted as a block for candidates of their ethnic group regardless the qualifications of other candidates. Now that the shoe is on the other foot, so to speak, the Finnegan supporters seem to want to do exactly what we opposed in the ‘70’s i.e. vote only based on one’s ethnic identity. There have been many successful Filipino-American candidates in Hawaii, most notably Ben Cayetano. And their road to success was made possible because they appealed to voters across ethnic groups. It is well and good to vote for a fellow Filipino American, yet the obligation to vote for the most qualified cannot be shelved aside for ethnicity’s sake.
ldq@aol.com
His self evaluation as the greatest of all time is definitely not an idle boast. Bob Arum, who has promoted many of Muhammad Ali’s championship bouts, made the same statement. “ He is a unique fighter, “ Arum explained. “Most fighters are ‘one-armed’ punchers. Pacquiao is different, he has power from both his left and right fists.”
And both fists are definitely going to be needed when he faces Antonio Margarito for the world’s super welterweight title November 13th in front of an expected 70,000 patrons at Jerry Jones’ Cowboy Stadium in Dallas, Texas. A win will give Pacquiao his eighth title adding to his already unprecedented seven world championship belts. And in the Philippines crime will take a brief holiday, insurrections will wait for another day, millions of tv sets will be on; taxis, jeepneys and calesas will be idled as all will watch with anticipation and glee the expected triumph of the one Filipino who seems to always put his money where his mouth is. Since he is descended from Cebuano ancestors we certainly expect a KULAS moment, kulas being the acronym for Kuyaw Ug Labok Ang
Sugbuanon. Whether in victory or defeat Manny will be in the hearts of all Filipinos.
Manny was also big in the news both in Nevada and California for reasons other than his boxing career. He is now a congressman and seems to understand the value an endorsement has in winning voters over. So when ex-boxer Harry Reid, the beleaguered candidate for re-election in Nevada, called Manny for the help the latter graciously and happily did so. The Nevada race was a very close one and the Tea Party movement had made Reid a special target for defeat. Swinging a few thousand Filipino American voters to Reid’s column certainly helped the current majority leader win re-election. Reid is an important figure in Washington and having him on our side is truly beneficial for Philippine interests. Good work, Manny.
*********************
The recent US midterm elections saw the unseating of the Democrats and the stunning, though expected, triumph of the Tea Party-energized Republicans. It also saw the election or re-election of more than 2 dozen Filipino-Americans to various positions around the country, most notably the confirmation by voters of the appointment of Tani Santil Sakauye as chief justice of the California Supreme Court. She is a descendant of Filipino migrant workers and now occupies the highest ever position attained by a Filipino American in the US mainland.
Hawaii, the state that gave us Ben Cayetano, the first ever American of Filipino descent elected governor of a US state, again led the field in number of Fil-Am candidates elected. A post election controversy, however, seems to have surfaced. It seems that supporters of Lynn Berbano Finnegan, the candidate for lieutenant governor as the running mate for Duke Aiona, are upset that many Filipino Hawaiians voted for the other ticket headed by Neil Abercrombie, the eventual winner. The Aiona-Finnegan partisans seemed to have expected that voters of Filipino descent should support candidates based on their ethnicity and I have a problem with this attitude.
Politicians and candidates of Filipino descent ought to be evaluated and voted on based on their qualifications and programs of government. In a state like Hawaii, candidates need to pull together a broad coalition that has appeal to the general voting public regardless their ethnicity. I remember back in the 1970’s many Filipino-Americans were complaining that it was difficult to get a Filipino-American elected because the Japanese-Americans as well as the Chinese-American community were larger then and usually voted as a block for candidates of their ethnic group regardless the qualifications of other candidates. Now that the shoe is on the other foot, so to speak, the Finnegan supporters seem to want to do exactly what we opposed in the ‘70’s i.e. vote only based on one’s ethnic identity. There have been many successful Filipino-American candidates in Hawaii, most notably Ben Cayetano. And their road to success was made possible because they appealed to voters across ethnic groups. It is well and good to vote for a fellow Filipino American, yet the obligation to vote for the most qualified cannot be shelved aside for ethnicity’s sake.
ldq@aol.com
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
Can Peace come to Jolo?
A Conversation with Father Joe
In school geography, from the earliest grades on, we generally referred to Jolo as belonging to an extremity, as in “from Aparri to Jolo”, to describe the length of the Philippines’ territorial reach. It’s coordinates per Google are as follows: 6°0′N 118°2′E.
Once upon a time the islands conjured, in our minds, images of swift, colorful vintas often, rightly or wrongly, feared for its reputation as the carrier of fierce warrior-pirates. At one time in fact, the smuggling of ‘blue seal’ cigarettes and other contraband was a primary source of income for the islanders.
There are many tribes that populate the islands. The most well known of these are the Tausugs and the Badjaos. The former are known for their fierceness and bravery (their tribal name is a combination of the words tau which means people, and ma-isug meaning brave) . The latter, the Badjaos, are known as adventurous seafarers and can reputedly ‘smell’ the weather and can sense an approaching storm at sea several hours before others can discern them. Since they spend most of their lives at sea and their ‘base homes’ are huts on stilts near the shore, it is said that when a new baby is born the badjao mother throws the little one into the sea. If the baby survives then he belongs in the tribe. If the baby drowns and dies then they conclude it would not have survived long anyway as falling into the water is a daily experience for badjao youngsters. ‘Sink or swim’ literally is a matter of life and death for them.
Jolo has been in the news over the past few years and very much less because of its colorful tribes but more because of the seemingly incessant violence visited upon the islands by groups of gunmen, some of whom are allegedly ‘Al Qaeda’ type ‘rebels’ also referred to as the ‘Abu Sayyaf’, while others are no more than gangs and thugs who kidnap, kill and rob natives and visitors alike.
What got me into writing about Jolo is that about a week ago, at a global family reunion in Houston, Texas I got reconnected with one of the eminent members of the generation in the family immediately preceding mine, the Rev. Joe Ante, OMI. During a brief lull in the reunion activities he and I got to talk a bit about Jolo. Father Joe, as we and his many parishioners call him, has been a parish priest in Jolo since 1964. And no, he was not exiled there by his superiors in the Oblate of Mary Immaculate order. In fact he was the top superior in that order at the time and at another time had also been the president of the Notre Dame University system in Mindanao.
“ I volunteered for the Jolo assignment because no one wanted to go there. As the superior I felt it incumbent upon me to take on this mission myself,” he explained.
“So how does a Catholic missionary function and survive in a seemingly hostile Muslim environment?” I asked as I had heard that Father Joe and others in the order have been targets of assassination attempts including three incidents of grenade attacks.
“I got lucky”, he said with a smile as he explained how one of the grenades missed him and rolled into the cathedral ( no one was hurt).
His mission, he explained, was one of education and the providing of skills to both the Christian and Muslim youth in the island.
“If our youth are educated,” he said, “then there is a better chance that we can find peace and togetherness in the future. It is a necessary, preliminary process”.
He explained that the natural hostility that Muslims might have for Christian missionaries is somewhat tamped down because he does not make any overt moves to try and ‘convert’ his Muslim students. In fact he demonstrates great respect for his students and Muslims in general and uses his extensive knowledge of their culture to ensure that nothing he does offends their religious sensitivities. He also maintains a very cordial and mutually informative relationship with Muslim religious leaders in the island and gets to interact with them on a regular basis.
He avers that educating the youth of the islands, including those from the Muslim population, gives him satisfaction that he is fulfilling his Christian mission. He does devote much of his time and effort attending to the religious needs of the 2,000 or so Catholics who are still in the islands.
Still he says, it is a hostile and violent place. It is reported that many officials who supposedly occupy local positions have relocated themselves and their families to places like Manila, Cebu and Zamboanga.
What about kidnappings, is that something that concerns him? What if he gets kidnapped by the Abu Sayyaf?
“I’ll cross that bridge when I get to it” he said with a smile, “yet I know I will always be an educator and if they care to listen to me we may even get somewhere,”.
Bravery and heroism take many forms. Even as I write this Fr. Joe is on his way back to Jolo and his mission. His family located around the world all pray that he makes it back for our next family reunion in the summer of 2012.
ldq44@aol.com
In school geography, from the earliest grades on, we generally referred to Jolo as belonging to an extremity, as in “from Aparri to Jolo”, to describe the length of the Philippines’ territorial reach. It’s coordinates per Google are as follows: 6°0′N 118°2′E.
Once upon a time the islands conjured, in our minds, images of swift, colorful vintas often, rightly or wrongly, feared for its reputation as the carrier of fierce warrior-pirates. At one time in fact, the smuggling of ‘blue seal’ cigarettes and other contraband was a primary source of income for the islanders.
There are many tribes that populate the islands. The most well known of these are the Tausugs and the Badjaos. The former are known for their fierceness and bravery (their tribal name is a combination of the words tau which means people, and ma-isug meaning brave) . The latter, the Badjaos, are known as adventurous seafarers and can reputedly ‘smell’ the weather and can sense an approaching storm at sea several hours before others can discern them. Since they spend most of their lives at sea and their ‘base homes’ are huts on stilts near the shore, it is said that when a new baby is born the badjao mother throws the little one into the sea. If the baby survives then he belongs in the tribe. If the baby drowns and dies then they conclude it would not have survived long anyway as falling into the water is a daily experience for badjao youngsters. ‘Sink or swim’ literally is a matter of life and death for them.
Jolo has been in the news over the past few years and very much less because of its colorful tribes but more because of the seemingly incessant violence visited upon the islands by groups of gunmen, some of whom are allegedly ‘Al Qaeda’ type ‘rebels’ also referred to as the ‘Abu Sayyaf’, while others are no more than gangs and thugs who kidnap, kill and rob natives and visitors alike.
What got me into writing about Jolo is that about a week ago, at a global family reunion in Houston, Texas I got reconnected with one of the eminent members of the generation in the family immediately preceding mine, the Rev. Joe Ante, OMI. During a brief lull in the reunion activities he and I got to talk a bit about Jolo. Father Joe, as we and his many parishioners call him, has been a parish priest in Jolo since 1964. And no, he was not exiled there by his superiors in the Oblate of Mary Immaculate order. In fact he was the top superior in that order at the time and at another time had also been the president of the Notre Dame University system in Mindanao.
“ I volunteered for the Jolo assignment because no one wanted to go there. As the superior I felt it incumbent upon me to take on this mission myself,” he explained.
“So how does a Catholic missionary function and survive in a seemingly hostile Muslim environment?” I asked as I had heard that Father Joe and others in the order have been targets of assassination attempts including three incidents of grenade attacks.
“I got lucky”, he said with a smile as he explained how one of the grenades missed him and rolled into the cathedral ( no one was hurt).
His mission, he explained, was one of education and the providing of skills to both the Christian and Muslim youth in the island.
“If our youth are educated,” he said, “then there is a better chance that we can find peace and togetherness in the future. It is a necessary, preliminary process”.
He explained that the natural hostility that Muslims might have for Christian missionaries is somewhat tamped down because he does not make any overt moves to try and ‘convert’ his Muslim students. In fact he demonstrates great respect for his students and Muslims in general and uses his extensive knowledge of their culture to ensure that nothing he does offends their religious sensitivities. He also maintains a very cordial and mutually informative relationship with Muslim religious leaders in the island and gets to interact with them on a regular basis.
He avers that educating the youth of the islands, including those from the Muslim population, gives him satisfaction that he is fulfilling his Christian mission. He does devote much of his time and effort attending to the religious needs of the 2,000 or so Catholics who are still in the islands.
Still he says, it is a hostile and violent place. It is reported that many officials who supposedly occupy local positions have relocated themselves and their families to places like Manila, Cebu and Zamboanga.
What about kidnappings, is that something that concerns him? What if he gets kidnapped by the Abu Sayyaf?
“I’ll cross that bridge when I get to it” he said with a smile, “yet I know I will always be an educator and if they care to listen to me we may even get somewhere,”.
Bravery and heroism take many forms. Even as I write this Fr. Joe is on his way back to Jolo and his mission. His family located around the world all pray that he makes it back for our next family reunion in the summer of 2012.
ldq44@aol.com
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
SF Giants are Champions; Pinoy Connection
SF Giants are Champions
Thanks to a ‘Freak’ who is part Pinoy
The wait for this championship moment was definitely an excruciating one, to be sure. The Giants moved to San Francisco from New York in 1958. Their counterparts of sorts, the Brooklyn Dodgers moved to Los Angeles the same year, and the intent of Major League bigwigs was to expand interest in baseball nationwide and what a better way than to introduce a west coast “rivalry”.
And natural rivals they were. There has long been a “one upmanship” contests of sorts between L.A. and San Fran ( “please don’t call us Frisco!!). In fact one could even say that residents of the two cities often deride each other publicly (e.g. “Beat L.A.”)
But insofar as major league baseball is concerned the L.A. Dodgers have had the upper hand. They began winning World Series championships since 1965 with a pitcher by the name of Sandy Koufax leading an outstanding staff. Later they also had Fernando Valenzuela, Kirk Gibson and other greats. The Giants on the other hand meandered along over the decades.
San Francisco is where I spent my first few years of life in the US and for this reason it is where I developed my “team loyalties”. I was a fan of the Giants in baseball, of the 49ers in football and the Golden State Warriors in basketball. And speaking of the Warriors, in the 1974-75 season, I managed to get me a couple of annual passes as one of the editors of Philippine News. This gave me free access to games at the Alameda Coliseum where they played. And that was the one year that they won the NBA championship thanks to Rick Barry and a few guys named Joe.
But back to baseball. The moment I think that I truly fell in love with the Giants was that one late afternoon in August of 1974 when, driving from L.A. to SFO in my old 1965 Ford Fairlane I was listening to a baseball game between the Giants and the Dodgers narrated by the venerable Vin Scully. It was the first game ever for a new rookie Giants pitcher by the name of John Montefusco. That game stuck in my mind because Montefusco ( he was nicknamed “The Count” in reference to the count of Montecristo) came to bat in the 9th inning I think and the bases were loaded. Few people gave him a chance to ever hit the ball and drive anyone in. The whole stadium erupted when not only did he hit the ball, he delivered a grand slam home run and won the game. From then on “The Count” became a Giants favorite and is regarded as one of the legends of the game in that city.
The Giants also had several big name players including Willie Mays, Willie McCovey and Bobby Bonds. Later Bobby’s son, and Willie Mays’ godson, Barry Bonds became the team’s stalwart thru the 1990’s.
Though I moved to the Los Angeles area in 1978 and lived there for 33 or so years, I kept my team loyalties anchored in my San Francisco roots. Needless to say I got ribbed by officemates during the bad years when the Giants did not fare well and the Dodgers won world championships. I thought the tide finally turned in 1989 when two Bay Area teams, the Giants and the Oakland A’s faced each other in the World Series. Well, would you believe it? Before they could hurl the first pitch the big San Francisco earthquake of 1989 happened. The stadium was vacated and the series postponed by a week or so and they had to play the game at the Oakland Coliseum. The Giants were swept 4-0. More humiliation.
Then again in 2002 the Giants were in the World Series versus the Anaheim Angels. I thought they would get the deal done by game 6 since they were leading 3 games to 2. But the resilient Angels managed to win the next two games. Bummer!
Over the past 2 years my interest in the Giants were revived with the arrival of Tim Lincecum. This very thin, long haired pitcher proved to be a phenom. He won two back-to-back Cy Young awards in 2008 and 2009, as the National League’s best pitcher. If I’m not mistaken this is the first time ever that a rookie accomplished this feat. He got the nickname “The Freak” because it is almost unbelievable that a guy so thin could hurl a baseball so fast and so wickedly that he has become the league’s strikeout leader.
And then I find out that his mother is Filipina, a 2nd generation Pinay, Rebecca de Asis, whose father was born in Hawaii and moved to Washington state. One of his ancestors, a grandmother, named Alberta Alcoy, came from Cebu City. So for the past year, like many Filipino Americans in the area I checked the schedule out to see when he’s pitching and make it a point to catch his game on TV. I saw both of the two World Series games he pitched, the 1st and the 5th games, the latter to clinch the title for the once hapless Giants.
After 52 years they finally won a championship as a west coast team to add to the 5 that they had won while still in New York.
And yes, I join all the Pinoys in the US who proudly claim Tim Lincecum as one of our own. By the way he does have a great sense of humor as well. Asked if he had met Manny Pacquiao and compares his accomplishments to that of the world boxing champion, he said, “ I can’t possibly beat Manny Pacquiao even with a bat in my hand.”
ldq44@aol.com
Thanks to a ‘Freak’ who is part Pinoy
The wait for this championship moment was definitely an excruciating one, to be sure. The Giants moved to San Francisco from New York in 1958. Their counterparts of sorts, the Brooklyn Dodgers moved to Los Angeles the same year, and the intent of Major League bigwigs was to expand interest in baseball nationwide and what a better way than to introduce a west coast “rivalry”.
And natural rivals they were. There has long been a “one upmanship” contests of sorts between L.A. and San Fran ( “please don’t call us Frisco!!). In fact one could even say that residents of the two cities often deride each other publicly (e.g. “Beat L.A.”)
But insofar as major league baseball is concerned the L.A. Dodgers have had the upper hand. They began winning World Series championships since 1965 with a pitcher by the name of Sandy Koufax leading an outstanding staff. Later they also had Fernando Valenzuela, Kirk Gibson and other greats. The Giants on the other hand meandered along over the decades.
San Francisco is where I spent my first few years of life in the US and for this reason it is where I developed my “team loyalties”. I was a fan of the Giants in baseball, of the 49ers in football and the Golden State Warriors in basketball. And speaking of the Warriors, in the 1974-75 season, I managed to get me a couple of annual passes as one of the editors of Philippine News. This gave me free access to games at the Alameda Coliseum where they played. And that was the one year that they won the NBA championship thanks to Rick Barry and a few guys named Joe.
But back to baseball. The moment I think that I truly fell in love with the Giants was that one late afternoon in August of 1974 when, driving from L.A. to SFO in my old 1965 Ford Fairlane I was listening to a baseball game between the Giants and the Dodgers narrated by the venerable Vin Scully. It was the first game ever for a new rookie Giants pitcher by the name of John Montefusco. That game stuck in my mind because Montefusco ( he was nicknamed “The Count” in reference to the count of Montecristo) came to bat in the 9th inning I think and the bases were loaded. Few people gave him a chance to ever hit the ball and drive anyone in. The whole stadium erupted when not only did he hit the ball, he delivered a grand slam home run and won the game. From then on “The Count” became a Giants favorite and is regarded as one of the legends of the game in that city.
The Giants also had several big name players including Willie Mays, Willie McCovey and Bobby Bonds. Later Bobby’s son, and Willie Mays’ godson, Barry Bonds became the team’s stalwart thru the 1990’s.
Though I moved to the Los Angeles area in 1978 and lived there for 33 or so years, I kept my team loyalties anchored in my San Francisco roots. Needless to say I got ribbed by officemates during the bad years when the Giants did not fare well and the Dodgers won world championships. I thought the tide finally turned in 1989 when two Bay Area teams, the Giants and the Oakland A’s faced each other in the World Series. Well, would you believe it? Before they could hurl the first pitch the big San Francisco earthquake of 1989 happened. The stadium was vacated and the series postponed by a week or so and they had to play the game at the Oakland Coliseum. The Giants were swept 4-0. More humiliation.
Then again in 2002 the Giants were in the World Series versus the Anaheim Angels. I thought they would get the deal done by game 6 since they were leading 3 games to 2. But the resilient Angels managed to win the next two games. Bummer!
Over the past 2 years my interest in the Giants were revived with the arrival of Tim Lincecum. This very thin, long haired pitcher proved to be a phenom. He won two back-to-back Cy Young awards in 2008 and 2009, as the National League’s best pitcher. If I’m not mistaken this is the first time ever that a rookie accomplished this feat. He got the nickname “The Freak” because it is almost unbelievable that a guy so thin could hurl a baseball so fast and so wickedly that he has become the league’s strikeout leader.
And then I find out that his mother is Filipina, a 2nd generation Pinay, Rebecca de Asis, whose father was born in Hawaii and moved to Washington state. One of his ancestors, a grandmother, named Alberta Alcoy, came from Cebu City. So for the past year, like many Filipino Americans in the area I checked the schedule out to see when he’s pitching and make it a point to catch his game on TV. I saw both of the two World Series games he pitched, the 1st and the 5th games, the latter to clinch the title for the once hapless Giants.
After 52 years they finally won a championship as a west coast team to add to the 5 that they had won while still in New York.
And yes, I join all the Pinoys in the US who proudly claim Tim Lincecum as one of our own. By the way he does have a great sense of humor as well. Asked if he had met Manny Pacquiao and compares his accomplishments to that of the world boxing champion, he said, “ I can’t possibly beat Manny Pacquiao even with a bat in my hand.”
ldq44@aol.com
Monday, November 1, 2010
I Hung Up on President Obama
Sure, it was only a “robocall” made to millions of voters this morning (just as I was having my first cup of coffee) but it was President Obama’s voice. No such call was made in 2008 and that it was deemed necessary this time around perhaps underscores the desperation that the Democratic Party has sunk to. A last ditch attempt to reach and hopefully convince the millions of us who crossed party lines in 2008 to vote for Obama to once again cast our lot with his party.
Sorry bud, you should have known that you had one chance to make it work and you blew it. And, oh, by the way, I also have received almost daily emails from you, Michelle, Joe Biden and various other sources in the party hierarchy. This morning I received one from you that included this line:
“Leandro, we've got to keep moving America forward -- but I need allies in the Senate and governing states to make it happen.”
Come now, Mr. President, you know that’s b.s. We gave you a 60 member majority in the senate in 2008 and what did you do with it? You ended up giving us a healthcare reform bill that will raise health insurance costs, not reduce it. If you believed in your heart of hearts that lowering of such costs can only come with a public option why did you so easily and casually abandon it? Now my neighbor, who did not vote for you and opposed your ideas from the very start, is laughing at me, for good cause, and on the health care issue I can no longer defend your program with much the same vigor as I did eighteen months ago.
Then of course you got the $700 billion stimulus bill passed and I told my neighbor then that we should start seeing unemployment numbers come down as the stimulus money begins to make its way into the economy. Boy was I wrong. Unemployment did not diminish, it increased. And all the gobbledygook you and your economists put out made no sense and had no impact. Sure it was Bush who got us to where we were but we elected you to reverse the Bush tide and fix the problem.
You said in 2008 that we need to stop Washington’s “business as usual” mode and that you would usher in “change”. Well, you didn’t. You entrusted the stimulus spending to the very entities that you said we needed to remake.It seems you were expecting a different result by doing exactly the same thing.
And of course there are many other things that puzzle ex-supporters like me.
You said that you would close Guantanamo, yet it is still open and functioning as it did when Bush was president. My question is did you really mean what you said or were you so naïve and so inexperienced that you really did not know what you were talking about in 2008?
Anyway, sorry for rudely hanging up on you this morning. I just had no stomach to hear your pleas to go to the election booth to vote for your friends. And I imagine, based on the polls, that much of the country feels as I do.
In fact we feel so helpless and so frustrated that it is possible that we might send a pro wrestling promoter in Connecticut to the senate and in Nevada we would probably elect a nut case who once advocated giving prisoners massages and who threatened to eliminate Social Security as well as Medicare. What harm could they do? We want to send a message. Any message. The message for you is: keep your word. You promised a new brand of leadership yet in the end you turned out to be no more than the politicians and lobbyist driven hordes you sought to demonize not less than two years ago.
And of course we know that the Republicans are no better and that they threw everything at you from the outset, and your own seeming ineptness made them the more effective. And all we are left with is this very bad taste in our mouths as we quietly utter, ah, “ a plague on both your houses”. Who can we turn to next? Exactly.
Sorry bud, you should have known that you had one chance to make it work and you blew it. And, oh, by the way, I also have received almost daily emails from you, Michelle, Joe Biden and various other sources in the party hierarchy. This morning I received one from you that included this line:
“Leandro, we've got to keep moving America forward -- but I need allies in the Senate and governing states to make it happen.”
Come now, Mr. President, you know that’s b.s. We gave you a 60 member majority in the senate in 2008 and what did you do with it? You ended up giving us a healthcare reform bill that will raise health insurance costs, not reduce it. If you believed in your heart of hearts that lowering of such costs can only come with a public option why did you so easily and casually abandon it? Now my neighbor, who did not vote for you and opposed your ideas from the very start, is laughing at me, for good cause, and on the health care issue I can no longer defend your program with much the same vigor as I did eighteen months ago.
Then of course you got the $700 billion stimulus bill passed and I told my neighbor then that we should start seeing unemployment numbers come down as the stimulus money begins to make its way into the economy. Boy was I wrong. Unemployment did not diminish, it increased. And all the gobbledygook you and your economists put out made no sense and had no impact. Sure it was Bush who got us to where we were but we elected you to reverse the Bush tide and fix the problem.
You said in 2008 that we need to stop Washington’s “business as usual” mode and that you would usher in “change”. Well, you didn’t. You entrusted the stimulus spending to the very entities that you said we needed to remake.It seems you were expecting a different result by doing exactly the same thing.
And of course there are many other things that puzzle ex-supporters like me.
You said that you would close Guantanamo, yet it is still open and functioning as it did when Bush was president. My question is did you really mean what you said or were you so naïve and so inexperienced that you really did not know what you were talking about in 2008?
Anyway, sorry for rudely hanging up on you this morning. I just had no stomach to hear your pleas to go to the election booth to vote for your friends. And I imagine, based on the polls, that much of the country feels as I do.
In fact we feel so helpless and so frustrated that it is possible that we might send a pro wrestling promoter in Connecticut to the senate and in Nevada we would probably elect a nut case who once advocated giving prisoners massages and who threatened to eliminate Social Security as well as Medicare. What harm could they do? We want to send a message. Any message. The message for you is: keep your word. You promised a new brand of leadership yet in the end you turned out to be no more than the politicians and lobbyist driven hordes you sought to demonize not less than two years ago.
And of course we know that the Republicans are no better and that they threw everything at you from the outset, and your own seeming ineptness made them the more effective. And all we are left with is this very bad taste in our mouths as we quietly utter, ah, “ a plague on both your houses”. Who can we turn to next? Exactly.
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