Part of the reluctance of Filipinos to try something different has often had to do with the primordial fear of the unknown. Once Filipinos are used to one way of doing things, shifting over to a better paradigm or system which presents the better way of doing things is seen negatively. This kind of mentality used to kick in among a huge number of Filipinos whenever the subject of shifting from the dominant sport of Basketball to the more Filipino height-friendly sport of Football would come about. Excuses about Filipinos already being used to it or excuses like the so-called “cost of shifting from Basketball to Football would greatly exceed the returns” would be mentioned. This too is exactly the same type of knee-jerk thinking (or lack thereof) that kicks in every time a discussion pops up regarding the need to shift away from the extremely flawed and problematic Philippine Presidential System to the much more efficient, cost-effective, accountable, and stable Parliamentary System.
Thanks to the Philippine Football Team (fondly called “The Azkals“ – a stylized slang term for “street dogs”) and their spectacular coming-from-behind performance from underdog to serious semi-finals contender, Filipinos are finally seeing the light! After years of seeing the Philippine Football Team continue to be the underdogs due to lack of support from the Filipino public and the dearth of financial sponsorship from companies, Filipinos now see hope in shining internationally with Football. This especially comes in the midst of many years of embarrassing international defeats in basketball despite “shooting hoops” being the Philippines’ national obsession. The “Azkals” have rightfully given Filipinos something to aspire to.
Thanks to the Philippine Football Team aka "The Azkals", shifting paradigms is now possible
Filipino Excellence in Football is not new
Paulino Alcántara - "The Netbreaker"
The truth is that excelling in Football isn’t really new to Filipinos to begin with. The “Azkals” are simply reclaiming the history of excellence in Football that Filipinos have actually enjoyed at one point in our history. Unknown to many Filipinos, the greatest football striker in the history of the famous Spanish team FC Barcelona, fondly called “Barça” was a Filipino: Paulino Alcántara.
Born in 1896 in Iloilo to a Spanish father and an Ilongga mother, Paulino Alcántara y Riestrá was raised in the Philippines until he was between the age of 13 and 14 and moved to Barcelona where he was discovered and given the chance to join the professional FC Barcelona team where he became known as “El Romperedes” – the “net breaker”, as he is known to have broken nets due to the sheer strength of his kicks.
To this day, Paulino Alcántara remains Barça’s record holder with a total of 357 goals having appeared with FC Barcelona 357 times, and no one has come close to beating his record as a phenomenal striker. He is most remembered for a game against France in 1922, here he scored a powerful goal from 30 yards away, with the French goalkeeper having been totally unable to prevent it from coming through.
Dr. Paulino Alcántara, MD
He had a little hiatus away from Barcelona when his family returned to the Philippines in 1916 where the young Paulino likewise played for the Philippine Football Team, bringing it to 2nd place against Japan in the Far East Championship Games in 1917. While in the Philippines, he also excelled in international table tennis!
In the meantime, with Paulino away from Barça, his old team wasn’t doing very well, since he was their star striker and there was no one else who could fill in his shoes. He later returned to Barcelona after his old team kept begging him to return and the team found itself winning once again. But lest we all think sports (football and table tennis) defined “El Romperedes”, it actually turns out that in the midst of his very successful professional football career, he was also studying to become a doctor. When in 1920, Paulino was scheduled to take academic examinations for his medical studies, he turned down the chance to play for the Spanish National Team as he needed to concentrate on studying for his exams.
The Legend of Paulino Alcántara, a Filipino – born and raised in the Philippines who also had the chance to represent the Philippines in both Football and Table Tennis – is solid proof that Filipinos have excelled in football and that the Beautiful Game is not some new undertaking in which we have no experience.
Filipino Excellence in the Parliamentary System is not new either
Azcárraga, in younger years
While it is clear thanks to the example of Paulino Alcántara that Filipinos have it in us to succeed in Football and that the Azkals’ recent performance is really just all about reclaiming our glory in a sport more suited to us, there actually also exists a solid example of the ability of Filipinos to perform well within the parliamentary system. While we’ve had a Filipino figure prominently in Football as FC Barcelona’s all time highest goal-scorer, we’ve also had a Filipino excel within Spain’s own Parliamentary System by becoming a three-time Prime Minister of Spain!
originally called "Azcárraga" after the family of Marcelo Azcárraga, small-minded Filipino politicians renamed it to C.M. Recto
Born in Manila in 1832 to a Basque Spanish father (a general, later turned bookseller) and a mestiza-Bicolana mother from Albay, Marcelo de Azcárraga y Palmero – just like Paulino Alcántara – was raised in the Philippines, and studied law at the Universidad de Santo Tomás in Manila (“UST”) before moving on to the Nautical School and then transferred to Spain to attend a military academy. Thanks to a distinguished military career where he rose to become a general in the Army, upon retirement from his military carreer, Azcárraga shifted to Spanish politics and became a leading member of the pro-Monarchy Conservative Party. From being a Senator, he later became the top-ranking Minister of War in the Conservative Party’s cabinet and succeeded on to become the interim Prime Minister of Spain after his party’s leader, Antonio Cánovas del Castillo, was assassinated in 1897. He again went on to become Prime Minister in two separate incidents.
Respected and remembered in Spain, where he was given the Golden Fleece award for defending the Spanish Monarchy and is the highest possible award that any person can be awarded in Spain, Azcárraga was originally honored in Manila with a long avenue that was named after his illustrious family. That avenue, originally called Calle Azcárraga, is now known simply as “Recto” after a series of name-changes were pushed in 1961. Nevertheless, numerous Tondo and Manila natives still refer to Recto as “Azcárraga” just as practically everyone in Metro Manila still calls “Sen. Gil Puyat Avenue” by its original name “Buendía.”
Born and raised in the Philippines, excelled in Spain
Would Juan Luna win 3 gold medals for the arts if Spain was racist?
The existence of both prime examples of Filipino excellence in both Spanish Football and the Spanish Parliamentary System not only prove that Filipinos have had past experience in both fields of endeavor, it also confirms that Spain has also never had any real issues with allowing Philippine-born Filipinos to meritocratically rise up to the top of the food chain in “la Madre Patria.” (Spain)
It will be recalled that during the 1884 Madrid Exposition of Fine Arts, the famous Filipino painter Juan Luna won three gold medals for his famous masterpiece “Spoliarium” and was accompanied by Félix Resurrección Hidalgo’s silver medal. Would these Philippine-born Filipinos who were not European creoles been awarded and showered with accolades had the Spaniards been the “racist chauvinists” certain historians with flawed pseudo-nationalist political agendas make them out to be?
Pilipina Kay Ganda: Isabel Preysler's exotic Pinay look is why Spain loves her
The 1884 awards for Fine Arts were not going to be the one and only time when Spanish egalitarian attitudes towards Filipinos would become evident, as this was followed up with half-Pinoy and Manila-born (and raised) Marcelo de Azcárraga’s ascent to Prime Minister in Spain’s Cortes in 1897, half-Pinoy and Iloilo-born (and raised) Paulino Alcántara’s cult-following as FC Barcelona’s (and the Spanish Football Team’s) star striker, and in more recent history with Manila-born (and raised) Isabel Preysler’s emergence as Spain’s most famous media celebrity to consistently grace the pages of Spain’s glossy magazines.
(Tip: Any showbiz, fashion, or glossy lifestyle magazine randomly taken off a stand in any major Spanish city is 100% sure to have at least one picture of Isabel Preysler found within its pages.)
Incidentally, Isabel Preysler – who in 1991, 2002, and 2006, was voted “most elegant and best-dressed woman in Spain” – is the ex-wife of ex-footballer and singing sensation Julio Iglesias and the mother of world famous half-Spanish, half-Filipino singing sensation Enrique Iglesias.
Rethinking our US-only focus & rediscovering our Spanish heritage
NBA'ers Le Bron James and Anthony Carmelo looking sad after losing to the Greek team which did not have any superstars
Basketball and the deeply-flawed Philippine Presidential System are two examples of colossal failures for Filipinos which were bequeathed to us by the United States of America. Far too many misguided Filipinos have continued to defend such an infatuation with everything American, using the tired old argument that since the USA is currently the world’s largest economy and world’s foremost superpower, whatever the USA does is “the best.”
This needs to be seriously re-evaluated as the performance of the USA itself in Basketball has proven to be an even greater colossal failure on the world stage as US Basketball Teams, in all categories – youth, adult, and even professional – continue to consistently get clobbered by so many other teams primarily from Europe and even Latin America. Ever since the year 2000, European-style basketball, whose general playing philosophy is heavily rooted in Football’s heritage of heavy ball-passing, strong-defense, and an almost extreme emphasis on cooperation and teamwork, has on the average reigned supreme over America’s Basketball players’ superstar attitudes and egotism.
Game after game, whenever the US faces a European basketball team, the “unthinkable” happens: The US Basketball Team loses most of the time. Whether the USA plays against the basketball powerhouses of the former Yugoslavia – Serbia or Croatia, or against Spain, Greece, or even Latin American teams like Argentina – usually known more for Football than Basketball, the results are usually the same: The USA consistently and pathetically loses.
(Luckily, many Americans do tend to be self-critical enough to admit when something needs to be changed, and thus articles do get written which focus on highlighting the problem in order to get everyone realizing the need to solve it.)
Team USA being beaten by Serbia in the Youth Olympics in Singapore --- Score on the board: Serbia 30; USA 27
This has extremely broad and intense implications for the future of Philippine Basketball as Pinoy players and fans continue to be uncritically infatuated with and transfixed on America’s NBA games, which have consistently promoted individualism and egotistic playing-styles where selfish monopoly of the ball is the norm and ball-passing assists are considered only as a “last resort.“ The end-result of this NBA-centric paradigm has resulted in the Philippines’ consistently mediocre results in international basketball meets against countries where basketball is not even one of the top 3 sports played or followed.
Be it a basketball game pitting the Philippines against Kazakhstan, Singapore, Malaysia, South Korea, Lebanon, or others, all of whom are primarily Football-centric countries, the result is the same: The Philippines consistently loses to them in Basketball!
Clearly, this consistent barrage of slaps-on-our-faces should serve as a wake-up call to our continued unthinking infatuation with the American way of doing things as our failure in Basketball is not only a result of our obvious lack of height in a game that mandates it as a minimum requirement, but it is also clearly the result of our collective refusal to look at and learn from other paradigms coming from other societies (such as European or other societies) which may actually be better-fits with our inherent cultural tendencies or inclinations.
Lebanon - 93 clobbers the Basketball-crazy Philippines - 75: That's because we copy the USA's Primadonna Paradigm
The American Primadonna Paradigm has always been one that exalts personal glory and individual achievement above all else. Not only does this extend to the American Political System and American Sports, this also extends to American Pop Music, where solo artists abound in America whereas the British are a lot more into bands.
By itself, an emphasis on Individualism is not bad. However, it tends to spell total disaster in team sports where cooperation is supposed to reign supreme over ego and personal glory. Furthermore, Filipinos are actually much more predisposed towards collective undertakings as evidenced by our tendency to do things as a group (something which we actually share with fellow Asians and even with Southern Europeans/Latins), as exemplified by the oft-touted Bayanihan spirit. The heavy emphasis on rugged American individualism is again, by itself, not bad, but it actually does come in direct conflict with our natural tendencies and therefore contributes to a certain level of confusion.
On the one hand, our models for sports – based on the individualistic nature of American Basketball as seen in the NBA – confuses us to go against our own inherent group-based tendencies, and this too is very much evident in our model for governance which is also based on the American Presidential System, itself a highly individualistic, primadonna-based, and personality-heavy system that exalts one individual (the Presidential Candidate) over and above the team (the Political Party).
Fareed Zakaria, PhD
On the political system front, the US Presidential System is itself under intense fire from among America’s very own intellectuals. Leading intellectuals from the USA such as Dr. Arend Lijphart, Dr. Juan Linz, and even CNN’s and Time’s Dr. Fareed Zakaria all point to the US Presidential System as being fundamentally-flawed and in fact serve to hobble the US from reaching its full potential.
In one of Dr. Zakaria’s recent articles on Time Magazine, entitled “How to Restore the American Dream”, he writes towards the end of his piece:
“People often note that America’s political system is broken. Perhaps the truth is more awkward: America needs radical change, and it has an 18th century system determined to check and balance the absolute power of a monarchy. It is designed for gridlock at a moment when quick and large-scale action is our only hope.”
Another political and policy commentator from the USA, Craig Ruff, has also criticized the US Presidential System and clearly points out the superiority of the Parliamentary System. In his article “Parliament Works Better”, Ruff states:
Craig Ruff
“America’s love affair with separate powers assumes strange things: a) a leader cannot be both a maker and implementer of policy; b) it is wicked to entrust the well-being of people to a coherent political party, as opposed to special interests piecemealing public policies; c) one party’s good showing at one election breeds irreversible despotism; d) cults of personality are healthier to democracy than intelligible reasoning and a coherent, guiding philosophy; and e) a bedsheet ballot of nondescript individuals defines the public will.
In stark contrast, consider a parliamentary system that produces: a) robust and seasoned thinkers who understand the making and execution of law; b) accountable leaders of parties, as opposed to unaccountable associations and lobbyists; c) elections whenever a leader loses the public’s and party’s faith and trust; d) ennobling philosophical disputes instead of du jour flaming; and e) unified but reversible law making.”
Another American PhD, Dr. Lee Drutman, a senior fellow at the Progressive Policy institute and managing editor of ProgressiveFix.org wrote an article entitled “Dismissing Gridlock: A Case for Parliamentary Systems” where he interviewed two political science PhD’s from Boston University, John Gerring and Strom Thacker and wrote:
Lee Drutman, PhD
“The United States is not about to up and rewrite its constitution to create a parliamentary system.
But if it were up to Gerring and Thacker, it certainly should. As Gerring put it, “There’s very little to defend the current system.” Thacker, meanwhile, noted that for a country with our level of economic development, the United States doesn’t do nearly as well as we might be expected to do across a broad range of human development outcomes. “For a rich country, we should be doing better,” he said.
Still, constitutional reform is a live issue in many countries around the world, as well as for those who think about nation-building. And the lessons from Gerring and Thacker do seem clear: Parliamentary systems that institutionalize coordination and compromise consistently produce better outcomes than presidential systems that institutionalize conflict and confrontation.”
Altea, Alicante, Valencia, España ------------- Vigan, Ilocos Sur, Filipinas The Commonalities are obvious!
Quite clearly, there is an ever-increasing number of US-based intellectuals who have decided to look squarely at reality and determine what exactly it is that has enabled the USA to succeed. As a result, more and more Americans are in fact realizing that America’s success happened despite (not because of) its use of the Presidential System. Truth be told, America’s success is directly a result of being the World’s Largest Immigrant Nation, where an overwhelming majority of today’s Americans are themselves first-generation immigrants, sons and daughters of immigrants, or people who can easily trace themselves as being 5th or 6th-generation immigrants, and thus are still quite conscious of the need to excel and live up to the hard-working immigrant ethos of their immigrant ancestors.
Evidently, two of America’s “gifts” to the Philippines – Basketball and the US Presidential System – have unfortunately bombed when transplanted to our shores and worse, are likewise areas where the USA is itself having major challenges as US Basketball Teams continue to keep losing against teams from countries steeped in more cooperative and team-based traditions of Football (Soccer) as their primary sport, and where the United States’ own Presidential System is now increasingly coming under fire from within the entire US Political Science Academia and Intelligentsia for its unwieldy and gridlock-prone structural set-up.
Instead of looking only to the US for inspiration, it may actually serve us well to derive inspiration from numerous other societies and more importantly re-embrace our Spanish heritage. After all, Spain is both a Football-centric country and uses a Parliamentary System and we share a much deeper set of commonalities with Spain than with the USA.
Spain is a better model for Filipinos to emulate than the USA
Filipinos have much to learn by simply looking further back to our history and looking past the over-hyped American influences in both Basketball and the Presidential System.
The Filipino Football Legend in action
First off, we need to remember that the Azkals are not the first group of Filipinos to do well in the sport of Football. We’ve had a Filipino – born and raised in the Philippines – who rose to become a football hero in Spain, and holds the distinction of being F.C. Barcelona’s all-time highest goal-scorer in all of the club’s history and a committed doctor of medicine: Dr. Paulino Alcántara y Riestrá.
Secondly, we’ve had a Filipino – born and raised in the Philippines – who excelled in Spain’s Parliamentary System. This Filipino started off in a military career, became a high-ranking general, rose to become a high-ranking Minister in Spain’s cabinet and even went on to become a three-time Prime Minister of Spain: Marcelo Azcárraga y Palmero.
Marcelo de Azcárraga, born & raised in the Philippines, became Spain's Prime Minister
Two questions need to be asked regarding our infatuation with all things American:
(1) Have we ever had a Filipino basketball player get into the NBA?
(2) Has a person of Filipino descent ever become President of the USA or at least become a high-ranking US cabinet secretary?
The answer is clearly a big NO on both counts.
(Having a Filipina Chef serve in the White House does not count for number 2!)
Between the two former colonizers, Spain has proven to be the country that has treated Filipinos – regardless of racial background – as true equals, granting all Filipinos with full Spanish citizenship and giving equal opportunities for Filipinos to excel and reach the top as exemplified by high honors presented to Juan Luna and Félix Resurrección Hidalgo in the arts and the rise of Philippine-born Filipinos (who at the time were full Spanish citizens) such as Azcárraga and Alcántara to the top of their fields. With these facts, it thus comes as no surprise that José Rizal and many of his friends and fellow Filipino expats in Spain and Europe such as Antonio Luna were said to have staunchly advocated integration into Spain rather than outright independence: It was clear to them that better political integration and assimilation with Peninsular Spain would have allowed competent Filipinos to easily rise to the top.
(In fact, Antonio Luna remained a pro-Spain loyalist - like Rizal – until after the Spaniards surrendered to the Americans in 1898 and it became clear that the Americans were planning to take over the Philippines. It was at that point when officers and soldiers of the Spanish Army, along with other Spanish loyalists joined forces with Aguinaldo’s Katipunan forces to repel the Anglo-Saxon invaders just as Filipinos and Spanish authorities had done much earlier when another Anglo-Saxon invader – the British – tried to take over the Philippines.)
It’s high time we Filipinos acknowledged that not only do we have much more in common with Spain – in terms of culture and heritage – than with the USA, but also that we Filipinos have had the opportunity to excel in two things that are more associated with Spain than the USA, and are more appropriate to our situation: Football and the Parliamentary System.
2 Filipinos: Paulino Alcántara, Football Hero ---- Marcelo de Azcárraga, Spanish Prime Minister
* * *
Here are some related articles:
1. Philippine Progress: Shift in Sports, Shift in System by yours truly
2. Sen. Pangilinan and the Parliamentary System by yours truly
3. Parliament Fits the Philippines by yours truly
4. F to A: What P-Noy Needs to do in order to Succeed by yours truly
5. The Parable of the Mountain Bike by yours truly
6. Should the Philippines Turn Parliamentary? by Florencio “Butch” Abad
About the Author
Orion has written 6 stories on this site.
Orion Pérez Dumdum comes from an IT background and analyzes systems the way they should be: logically and objectively.
Being Cebuano (half-Cebuano, half-Tagalog), and having lived in Cebu, he is a staunch supporter of Federalism.
Having lived in progressive countries which use parliamentary systems, Orion has seen first hand the difference in the quality of discussions and debates of both systems, finding that while discussions in the Philippines are mostly filled with polemical sophistry often focused on trivial and petty concerns, discussions and debates in the Parliamentary-based countries he's lived in have often focused on the most practical and most important points.
Having experienced OFW-life himself, he has seen firsthand how the dearth of investment - both local and foreign - is the cause of the high unemployment and underemployment that exists in the Philippines as well as the low salaries earned by people who do have jobs.
He is one of the founding members of Get Real Philippines and hosts the Sentro ng Katotohanan political commentary show which airs on Tuesdays and Thursday on DWBL 1242kHz from 8:30pm to 9:30pm.
If you think Orion looks familiar... He most probably is. ;)
31 Comments on “Two Filipinos: A Football Legend & A Prime Minister of Spain”
Hi! Nice post. By that, I become also a believer of the federal parliamentary system.
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NOW THIS is what ive been talking about for the past 15 years of my life since high school. The only way to progress culturally is to embrace our lineage. Our history books have been demonizing 300 years of Spanish rule. The spanish instigated a bonfire of vanities against our pre-colonial culture and robbed us of our souls. But 300 years of colonialism made possible the assimilation of spanish culture into ours. Spanish culture is in our very soul and theres nothing we can do about it.
And so we spend a great deal of time denying ourselves our real cultural identity.
Theres nothing wrong with embracing our spanish heritage. It is not unpatriotic. What is being a true filipino anyway? Jose Rizal and the rest of our ‘american-endorsed” heroes werent really anti-spain. But anti oppressive church.
They say Jeepneys are a filipino symbol, but theyre just salvaged american G.I. jeeps.
They say Mano po a truly filipino gesture, but it really came from the Malaysians.
They say Banaue Rice Terraces are proof filipino persistence and resiliency, but their are chinese agricultural technology.
Our dialects contain hispanic words. Our sophisticated cuisine are mostly hispanic in origins. And many filipinos do not look like malaysians, indonesians or vietnamese.
Our country is a big mass of son of a bitches, and one of those bitch is Spain. What can we do about it? Deny it?
Establishing our real identity will enable us to regain the soul of our nation. A unifying element which leads to cultural progress. San ba nanggaling ang Palabra De Onor at Delicadeza? These are much needed traits in our government. Instead of practicing these traits, we still continue to rebel against the friars(govt) by practicing Mañana and Pwede na yan habits.
I say we establish the real filipino identity NOW. In this lifetime. I swear if we do this, our descendants will be grateful for having a rich cultural heritage 300 years from now. Can you imagine an open season for cultural renaissance. The Romans merely copied the Greeks.
Cant we embrace our Spanish heritage? We already have Chinese and American in our culture. We have also inadvertently assimilated japanese culture during WW2 and continue to do so until now. Add to that the increasing numbers of Koreans living in our spaces, introducing their culture to us.
Anyway, judging from the quality articles ive read so far here in AntiPinoy. Someone or somebody is making sure status quo is maintained. I think that includes the yearly carnival of the glorifying of the Ateneo basketball team in mass media. And the amazing kopunans of the PBA league to keep the masses busy and distracted from the real issues of our society.
The only thing our NATIONAL BASKETBALL TEAM is good at is posing like black americans on EDSA billboards. Puro yabang wala namang naibubuga internationally. Ang ganda ng billboards at japorms, astig tingnan. Kumpara sa team pictures ng AZKALS, simple lang pero malupit humirit.
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The Lazzo Reply:
December 15th, 2010 at 5:50 am
As an American, I’ve come to believe that “true American spirit” lies in the diversity of the people, and apart from a few border-obsessed rednecks, that it’s all about immigration. Perhaps the Filipino people took the wrong cues from the United States rule, obsessed with Hollywood-like stardom and the infamously hypochondriac media.
Indeed, if Malaysia can promote itself as “Truly Asia” by showing it’s about more than just its native Muslim Malay population, maybe the Philippines could promote itself as something like that, or a “crossroads” country like Turkey. It’d make for a better campaign than those stupid smiley palm trees.
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Jay Reply:
December 16th, 2010 at 1:03 pm
Hey, I’m not the only one who embraces the concept of strength through embracing diversity! Besides, pinoys in general are like azkals anyway. But does the dilution make them any weaker? Science certainly won’t say so, as compared to continuous breeding with the same group of people.
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Greetings.
Your analysis on Azcarraga is outstanding, so much that I would even name my stand-in for Makati City in my Neo-Rizalverse story as “Nueva Azcarraga.”
But what would our lives become if we were still under Spain as of today?
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The Lazzo Reply:
December 15th, 2010 at 5:46 am
Fascist. Not quite Belkan fascist, if you get my reference.
But yeah. Franco and Marcos would be buttbuddies or something.
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I continue to believe that, like the Christian parable of the Talents, we do not deserve a parliamentary system until we show we deserve that responsibility. This means curing the party-list-infested charade within the current system. I don’t want to imagine the same oligarchy-led chaos reigning in an eternal deadlock like the sectarian split in Iraq, which uses a Parliament.Same ****, different system.
Speaking of colonies, Chile in Latin America uses a Presidential Bi-cameral System. Despite the chaos under Allende and Pinochet, the country has recovered quite well. They were able to survive an earthquake more powerful than the one that wracked Haiti because their government could implement and enforce the regulations that kept most of their buildings standing. They are also now members of the OECD, basically the “Developed Nations Club.”
It’s all about making the best of what we have first, really. But I’m still not holding my breath on football. At least back then our football stars were cultured and educated…but I figure our own football stars (“hybrid” or otherwise) will go full-glory-hog looking up to figures like Beckham and Wayne Rooney etc. and sacrifice teamwork in the process. Maybe that’s why our basketball team is failing, because they’ve forgotten the TEAM in DREAM TEAM. Michael Jordan didn’t bring the Bulls to six championships without Scottie Pippen, Dennis Rodman and others by his side.
And, in regards to Latin America altogether, I believe that we should bring back Spanish as a language taught in schools, primarily because it could re-establish ties between us and Latin America, once our brothers-in-empire.
[Reply]
Homer Reply:
December 15th, 2010 at 10:45 am
“Michael Jordan didn’t bring the Bulls to six championships without Scottie Pippen, Dennis Rodman and others by his side.”
That’s not necessarily true. The Bulls started their winning ways when Michael and Co. started adopting to the triangle offense of (then) coaching staff member Tex Winter. MJ still had the ball a lot, but found more options when the defenses got tough. Rodman only came into the Bulls starting with their 4th title. Just wanted to point that out without relating it to Pinoys lack of teamwork (on the patriotic side).
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The Lazzo Reply:
December 15th, 2010 at 12:26 pm
I stand corrected. They all had to listen to their coach, and then work as a team to execute these plays right.
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f!@#$#$ spain, embrace that m!!!!!@!@@!@!@ lineage when thats the reason why flip dont have confidence on themselves, teaching our ancestorsa that theyre bettter than the rest of us, raping our filipinas. wooo!!! you got to be kidding man!!!!!!!!! another colonial mentality influence. your so F!@#@$ patheticccccccccccccccccc
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ChinoF Reply:
December 15th, 2010 at 8:13 am
Can’t you come up with a more reasoned response without cuss words? Otherwise, you’re demonstrating that you have a level of opinion on par with the Neanderthals. The point after all of the author is that we have to believe in ourselves, since there are Filipinos who believed in themselves and became a football star and a prime minster. We can do the same today.
Colonial mentality is myth, a bogeyman, in my book. I’ll try to finish my article on that. The one really raping our country is not the foreigners, but our own oligarchs and so called elite using the colonial mentality decoy to throw us off our course.
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kickapoo Reply:
December 16th, 2010 at 8:26 am
Marshall,
Flips dont have confidence in themselves coz they dont have a real identity altogether. What happens is when people like you started living abroad and started earning alot of bread, you start acting like youre all that. Mataas ang tingin sa sarili, and when you come back home, you act like you didnt grow up in the philippines and start to make panggap na hindi ka marunong magtagalog.
Deny it or not, our nation was raped by Spain, US and Japan. Whether you like it or not, we exhibit the traits of a conquered society.
Our ancestors were colonialists. Meaning they reached a certain level of civilization that pre-hispanic filipinos have not reached yet. So yeah, they were better than us and STILL are.
Go out of your house and stand at the middle of the street. Look at your countrymen. Tell me, what is your definition of FILIPINO?
Filipinos throw garbage anywhere. Piss anywhere. Defecate anywhere, come typhoon season, they drown in a deluge of their own doing without even knowing it. Tell me ARE FLIPS BETTER?!?!?!?!
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you sure right marshall! he doesnt know what his talking about , !!>>>AS TRUE EQUALS !!! thats what he said> hahahah moron! who taught him that? shame on his school where he studied man coz as far as i can remember <>
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Velcrohair Reply:
December 15th, 2010 at 10:12 am
this jean **** is another one of those ZAIDE-freaks who never learned real Philippine history beyond the crappy propaganda peddled in school.
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Spain failed in building a proper colony in the Philippines while the US did very well (with their national interests in mind, of course). Arguably, Britain might have done well also. Just sayin’.
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man spain is spain. them people did the same to God forsaken latin countries. right now, theyre sufferin the same issues like plip. poor mexicans crossing borders to escapee thier drug mafia infested country! thier govt cant even stop them, its wwar there. he hailed thies country coz maybe he thought he got same blood, same name as u see.lol. dindt he know that spain named us like pets as those whites from brit did 2 blacks? maybe his real name if were not colonized would be , puti.lol! for sure thosemiztizas from plip God only knows were from raped victims pinays. hate 2say it but its true!
[Reply]
ChinoF Reply:
December 15th, 2010 at 8:04 am
It’s better to support your points with proof, such as references to other articles with a similar opinion as yours. Otherwise, you’re just talking out of your arse… and your opinion is as good as anyone else’s in the comments.
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Are the Spanish alright with them because they have Spanish fathers or is it really meritocracy at work? Anyway, nice to see why the Filipino intellectuals during the Spanish era didn’t want full independence.
Just a nitpick though. The British doesn’t have the intent on getting the whole island groups. Just Manila and Cavite as their “Hong Kongs”, probably the biggest gain that they want is that they’ll add Mindanao in the list.
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Spain starts to democraticised when Franco died. Plus, we don’t even know if Marcos would become president while we’re still under Spain and USA never invaded.
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Hyden Toro Reply:
December 15th, 2010 at 1:41 pm
Spain’s Franco was helped by Adolf Hitler of Germany, and the Fascist Mussolini of Italy, in winning the Spanish Civil War. Hitler tested his screaming Stuka bombers against the Spanish Republicans. Before, he unleashed these planes in Europe…
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migs42 Reply:
December 15th, 2010 at 9:57 pm
Yes. I have a good knowledge regarding world war 2. I knew that the Soviets also joined in with the Republican side. oh diba?
That comment was directed to The Lazzo regarding Fascism. A stupid error made my comment not linked up with this comment.
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I believe in looking to other countries, to model as our own. Spain has different history, but same culture and traits. The same as America. The United States was enriched by immigrants coming from every corner of the globe. In pursuit of the American Dream. The can-do attitude is in the American Psyche…we were colonized. Deluded by our colonizers. We became independent; Then, our self-serving politicians, took over and deluded us. They took the place of colonizers.
Football or Soccer is the game of most of the Latin American countries. Brazil excels in the game. Followed by Argentina. We can excel also, with proper coaches. We are low in heights, few of us are fat. So, we can run fast.
I have met a lot of highly educated Filipinos, all over the world. Some are holding responsible positions in companies. Some have PhDs in their chosen fields. The medical field is where our people excel. Excellent Filipino nurses, and doctors…although, I met also some excellent Filipino Technical people. I always ask them to take time to Blog; to help our people…
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Hyden Toro Reply:
December 15th, 2010 at 2:46 pm
It should have been: ” I don’t believe in looking to other countries as our model.” Correction needed…
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FlippInos are really goot in sport! We have Money Pakyaw, now pootboll. PILIPINAS KAY GANDA!
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HA!HA!HA!HA! America did not invade Flippinas. They came to rout the Spanish Galleon!!! ha!ha!ha! Go ask President McKinley !!!! He even had a headache what to do with Filipinos!!!!!
After America massacred the Spaniards, 3 days later Flippinos declared independence and misinformed the Flippinos that they fought and killeding the spaniards!!!!!
ZAIDA IS A CIA AGENT TO MISINFORM FILIPINOS SO FILIPINOS WILL HAVE SOMETHING TO BE PROUDER OFF INSTEAD OF MANNY PACQUIAO, CHARICE PEMPENCO AND ARNEL PINEDA!!!!!
HA!HA!HA!HA1HA! PILIPINAS KAY GANDA NG UTAK!
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Excellent article! Very positive. Aside from pointing out flaws, it also points to a good perhaps even best direction.
The Azkals has the same line-up. It was a good thing to bring in Coach Mcmenemy. He pointed out the team issues and was able to patch them up. He admits that the team lacks resources in many aspects particularly man power. I heard that he plans on helping the country develop younger talents so we’ll have a larger pool of football players in the future.
I agree on not following the US culture too much. We have followed the US enough and it is about time that we see the rest of the world. Spain is a great country and is a great example to follow. Aside from Spain, I also like Japan. If I were to choose my nationality, my third pick would be Japanese. I find their culture very rich. They have contributed a lot to almost every aspect of human life such as religion (Zen) martials arts (Aikido, Ninjitsu, Kendo) cooking, landscaping, electronics, and many more. In my opinion, the Japanese national football team is the toughest Asian team.
Whether it’s Spain or Japan, what’s important is for us Filipinos to realize that we’ve been following the US too much and it’s about time to re-evaluate and rebuild our culture.
By the way, email me if you’re interested in playing football. I’m just a beginner and my goal is to spread the love for football in our country.
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With regard to US basketball, I think they have regained supremacy already. They started correcting the problems when Coaches Greg Popovich and Larry Brown managed the team in 2004. They suffered losses against Puerto Rico, Italy, and Lithuania. The teams that made it into the Semis were Argentina, USA, Italy, and Lithuania. Everyone expected a US Lithuania final but the Us did poorly in free throws and Argentina pulled through. Lithuania, who’s known for their deadly outside shooting, did not find the range then so Italy emerged as the victor. The US still got the Bronze medal.
I cannot really say that US basketball is failing. They won the 2008 olympics and they recently won the FIBA world basketball championship. Coach Mike Krzyzewski did a great job in following up where Larry Brown and Greg Popovich left off, focusing on making their game more team oriented. They elimintaed too much post ups, and relid more on constant ball movement. It was a not a 100% turn around but it was well enough to break the old habits of relying on individual talent.
Their recent win in the FIBA wolrd championship is more impressive. They have a different line-up that used the same system.. To me, this line up is even better. The players may not have as much talent but they have a big edge in terms of attitude.
One of my favorite NBA stars is Steve Nash. A Canadian who also has a strong football background. To me, his speed, passing, ball handling, and peripheral vision are skills that he inherited much from football. In one of the slam dunk contests, he headed a pass to former team mate Amare Stoudamire.
Basketball is still good. However, it is not the only sport that the country has to focus on. Let’s make our contributions and expose our youth to various types of sports.
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Weizz Reply:
December 15th, 2010 at 11:45 pm
A lot of my friends are fixated on basketball this and basketball that. I played that sport every now and then. Yet, I think football is an enjoyable sport. With the field being larger in comparison to basketball, there are more ways to get the ball into the goal.
a lot of my cousins love football and are good players of the game.
When it comes to culture, I am fine with borrowing, but adding our tweaks to it. For a lack of better term “reverse-engineering” inventions to suit our own. But what my professor said “I will not get angry if you copy assignments, as long as you learn from it. Now, get one piece of newsprint and write numbers 1 to 10. Let’s have a quiz”
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Not many people know that Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie are cousins and are directly related to George Bush, so are they related to tom hanks, hugh hefner, to Obama to dick cheney and countless former presidents of America and celebrities upto Marilyn Monroe…all these are related to royal families of Europe. These are facts from genealogy which was complied by lynn cheney wife of Dick Cheney
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ldZS9PL9KE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ldZS9PL9KE
What we see in America is just a Drama of two party system…only one family has ruled America for 200 years…this two party system is just a show. The same is with europe…The current primeminster of UK David Cameroon is related to queen elizebeth.
The point is Ph needs to develop its own system which suits its people..borrowing other people ides does not work long term….the system created in the west serve few people as rightly pointed by the auther..i agree completely…
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I think it’s not the Colonial Mentality that’s the problem in the first place with us Filipinos but the Crab Mentality, I’m not sure where we got that trait from our foreign occupants but truth is, we always bring ourselves down rather than help each other up. And when someone do gets to the top, we praise them, which is a good thing, but not emulating how they got there is the problem. We never look at our strengths, only weaknesses…
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