“Iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.”
from Proverbs 27:17: as quoted by Tim Tebow pregame before a November 2011 win against the San Diego Chargers.
Once again the Philippines has been shut out of medals in the Olympics. Let me tell you, it is fair. We deserve that outcome. Every nation has it’s baggage. What Pinoys fail to realize that there is no magic spell that engulfs you when you leave this country to compete with the best of the best in the world. You take your baggage with you.
Four years ago some idiot came up with this factory analogy of how anything superior on Earth is made. Not just Olympic medal winners.
Let’s take your typical production facility of world class items. Top of the line products. It can be coffee, it can be shoes or it can be luxury cars. The end product has to surpass or be in the top 3 of anything else like it in the world.
Before anything happens there has to be a world class design (plan). In that plan you foresee the practical application of the following things.
1) Raw Materials – for a world class product not just anything has to do , you need quality material to start with. Sometimes quality can only be achieved by going through numbers. Like eliminating about 99.99 % of what you have access to. Whether it’s coffee beans or leather for the shoes, you just have to have good stuff to start with. Bringing in huge quantities gives you the luxury of being choosy.
2) You have to have an elite production/ refinement process- To be the best in the world , raw material is not enough, but what you do with it is part of the equation. Look at what goes into the production of a BMW or a Rolls Royce or a Bentley.
Olympic medalists are not that much different except when humans are involved, what gets them through the weeding out process is motivation and desire. You can’t make the same case for coffee beans.
Part of the motivation of being good at something is the prestige that comes with being the best . Like I have said many times before this society only values basketball in terms of a competitive event. Even with something we value we don’t do well internationally. What more with events we do not value??? And these are events that are only relevant once every few years. The Filipino sports psyche is fascinating if you examine the PBA. There are three chances a year to be “champions”. This lends itself to instant gratification. There is no big off season wait for the finality to sink in. It’s like missing a bus to Muntinlupa in rush hour. You miss that there is another one right behind it. When raised with that mentality, hard to imagine a lot of people training 4 plus years for one event that sometimes lasts 12 seconds.
You can not deny that this country as a culture only cares about basketball.We are the only country in the world where basketball is the predominant choice for our male athletes to dedicate themselves to. There is no significant number two sport nationally. We can’t even dominate our own region in a sport where we care more than they do what more other Olympic sports?
Even more than an Olympic Gold Medal in skeet shooting, nothing would thrill pinoys more than a Filipino or Filipinos in the NBA. The challenges are similar. It is the best basketball league in the world. When it was publicizedManny Pangalinan was going to buy the Sacramento Kings , what I found fascinating is college educated people projecting their own self entitlement on the most elite level of basketball. All it takes is a Filipino owner and the floodgates will open. It’s like saying “My daddy will buy that company and I can work there. ” That is the pinoy mentality. Let’s buy our way in. We don’t have to compete our way in. How many Olympic medals in our history do we have to show for this mentality???
Chemical skullduggery aside, the Olympics should be about a level playing field and pure competition. Competition is very different from the very Metro Manila attitude of “singit”. Taking shortcuts that are not legal. Just last week in the hotel right beside Asian Instituute of Management , a motorcyclist went against a one way street on the sidewalk. I gave him the #1 sign, but I might have used the wrong finger. Again just speaking for Metro Manila, this is a culture where jeepney drivers disregard the law unscathed but police stop private cars in hope of a bribe. Is that behavior contributing to the common good? Our society treats rules as a nuisance yet we cry like babies when we can’t compete internationally. When those very rules are what establishes the integrity of the competition. Pinoys are fond of short cuts and throwing their weight around if they have any.
The Olympic motto is “Faster, Higher, Stronger”. It is not singit, connections, nepotism, gaya, sympathy, epal , bakya and other things pinoys excel at. Pinoys would easily medal in a world wide competition that valued those things. We see it in our society everyday. Arnel Pineda mimics Steve Perry and for some reason we are proud of that?
The fact that this country elected someone who was under no obligation to be faster higher or stronger (better) than more qualified candidates tells you everything you need to know why when it comes to the world’s best we can’t compete. Our collective mindset is in no shape to go up against the best of the best. We don’t respect people who legitimately compete so we can’t do the same ourselves. Come election time we ignore all merit, track record and qualification an just “keep it in the family”. We just do not reward go-getters and doers with our vote. A familiar last name is enough. A link to the past is enough. The hell with the here and now. The Olympics reward the here and now.
The Olympics does not care who your father or mother was. The Olympics does not care what color you wear or what symbol you make with your hands. The Olympics does not care how much you bash the previous gold medal winner in your event. The Olympics does not care you can impose your own agenda to a judicial body. The Olympics does not care that you feel you have the right to tell the media what to say and when to say it. The Olympics does not care about your sense of entitlement or however you got it. All the Olympics cares about is are you faster, higher , stronger than the people in your event. That concept is so foreign to us and we wonder why we can’t medal. Based on their everyday behavior I believe that the pinoy is adverse to integrity and competition. Not exactly a formula that will generate world class results.
Bill LaForge who briefly coached the Vancouver Canucks had what he called the PHD formula. PHD stood for pride, hustle and desire. Please note that formula is the polar opposite to being self entitled. It means to scratch and claw for everything you can get while competing. Imposing your will on the man across from you. Like I said, our society seems to believe that self entitlement comes from family you are in. Noynoy did a good thing by removing the wang wangs. Too bad the other less obvious vehicles of self entitlement still remain, including him. Our culture of self entitlement just because we are Filipino (signified by the motto “Basta Pinoy Da Best“) does not count in countries far more advanced than we are that do not care about Willie Revillame. That is why a level field might as well be walking on the moon for pinoys. The world is a much bigger place and you will have to work hard to distinguish yourself among the best all things being equal.
We must continuously ask ourselves about our standards. I have to feel competitive when I write for GRP. It’s not like I want to beat the brains out of FallenAngel or anything. But this website is like a relay. First of all there is common goal. I was attracted to this website by it’s ideals and discourse. There is this unspoken understanding that I uphold the same ideals and discourse. Just like a relay team has an objective to combine their individual efforts into one finish line. Secondly because the others have set a standard before I got here, I feel obligated to blend in so to speak. The rest of the people on this site set the bar high. I have an internal drive to always prove myself to be worthy of writing here. Try not to be an “automatic out” as they say in baseball.
One thing you can not deny is to even qualify for the Olympics you have to go through grueling preparation . Bobby Knight who coached the 1984 US Men’s Basketball team famously said “Most people have the will to win , few have the will to prepare to win. “. The current occupant of Malacanang has neither. In three years not one person has convinced me that Noynoy expended a calorie towards striving to be President of the nation. In fact in his years in Congress and the Senate he did a good impression of the role Claude Rains made famous.
I have no idea why pinoys think they are the exception to a simple rule: garbage in , garbage out. If not much is demanded then not much should be expected. We are the victim of our own low standards. It’s quite evident what is important to us. When it comes to elections we do not value candidates who are “faster, higher, stronger” mentally and emotionally. We seem to value candidates who are only the first three letters of the last word of the previous sentence. Running a country is no joke. You vote in dumb or someone who has never proven himself or herself smart , you will get dumb results.
Philippines, let me ask you a question. Our internal gold medal in an Olympics that comes every six years is the seat we bestow to one individual for President of this country. The world sees our “Gold Medalist”, we put him/ her there. This is not American Idol with no real consequence and another one coming up next year. Every president has an impact that last decades. Philippines, in our own internal Olympics you hand out the medal. No one else. Just you. There is no silver medal when it comes to president. You decided Noynoy Aquino was our gold medalist. The best we have to offer. By having him as the gold standard, what message are we telling our children? Have the right mother who will die just before the campaign season and you too can be president?
I want to make it clear that I am not blaming Noynoy Aquino for the Philippines never seeing the medal podium in the Olympics. I am blaming the Filipino society’s lack of standards in general that allow an undistinguished individual like Noynoy Aquino to have six years as president to do as he pleases. Lack of standards and lack of results go hand in hand.
Tell me Philippines, are you really proud to show the world your own gold medal winner out of 90 million people??
We have one gold medal internally every six years and we can’t even get that right. May 10, 2012 was one moment in time that we will regret for decades. We can’t even pick a winner, how the heck are we expected to produce any?
Gogs,
here’re a couple of often-used filipion phrases that succinctly describe the situation:
“bahala na” or “puede na yan”
until we get rid of this mentality, we will always be stuck in mediocrity.
I suspect it also has to do with Peping Cojuangco being the head of the Philippine Olympic Committee. A relative of mine worked there for a number of years and even the individual sports associations are not spared from politics.
Yup Frank and RV. It’s the Pinoy way. Basta Pinoy Da Best!!!! Just don’t expect anything resembling victory.
the truth of the matter is you the farther away from the Philippines you get, the more you realize how much brainwashing is going on in the Philippines
which is a double-edged sword, yes.. mabuti na marinig ng marinig ng tao ang “the best ang filipino” or “sobrang talneted ng mnga Filipino”
….but at what cost? do you know how stupid that sounds or looks to those of us outside the Philippines who see the truth?
Just take basketball.. ni hindi man lng makapunta ng Olympic basketball team ang Pilipinas. Nigeria nga meron at kung ano pang mnga bansa meron panlaban … nasan ang Pilipinas?
Wala
World Cup.. halos lahat na ng mundo representado.. nasan ang Pilipinas? wala
Tutuhanan lng po, walang ibubuga ang mnga Pinoy.. it’s a land where the blind lead the blind and those who have power and money manipulate everything to keep their power and grow their wealth
a truer oligarch system if any in history..
Thank you ISTT for reading.
“mabuti na marinig ng marinig ng tao ang “the best ang filipino” or “sobrang talneted ng mnga Filipino”” -
The problem with that mentality is people believe success and accomplishment is something that they are born with and will come easy. So they don’t work. Since they believe being Filipino is like winning the genetic lottery. Like you said, the world does not agree with that sentiment. We all put on our pants the same way.
Shared.
That is a nice shot. Exactly pride is only thing that the Filipino mob has when it comes to that kind of competition. It is ridiculous that filipinos got attracted and addicted to a sport that may not even fits them, say for examplevin Basketball knowing that filipinos aren’t so much gifted with the required height for them to get insane with it and yet they say that nba player is my idol! Isn’t it too sarcastic? I believe that more than anything else, determination and perseverance mixed with proper training and self-discipline will lead us to whoever we wanted to be. Politically, the culture that we got used to reflects how we perform during election time. We asked for change, we asked for daang tuwid and now we live it, without even realizing that change and daang tuwid might be in different forms.
Thanks for reading. There is nothing wrong with enjoying basketball on it’s own regardless of one’s physical traits. But if that is what occupies your sporting universe then do not cry like a baby that you are not among the best in the world in things you don’t focus on. Others focus and pay the price and win.
I just cited that as an example, you know what I mean. I did not say, it is happening all the time. What I mean to say is that while you choose your sport, it’s better to go with something that is proportionate with our phisical characterictics so that we can easily form a good raport with the sport.
Nice one Ed.
Special mention pa talaga ako ha? Hahaha.
Indeed, a society that values complacency, mediocrity, and shortcuts to success and excellence can only dream of success on the global scale. If Filipinos want to prove that they deserve to hang among the best in the world then they have to work for it.
The path to success and excellence involves a strict and disciplined training regimen. Now those are words that the average Pinoy will cringe at.
Until the Pinoy finally admits, as a starting step, that he/she is not the best in the world and uses it to improve his conditions, then why bother whining about why the rest of the world sees us as a joke?
yes, yes and yes.
I did mention you again to prove a point that at some point we all have to prove something. Yes, victory is sweat. Yes, the Olympics are a wet towel every four years to the pinoy that they have no real reason to be full of themselves.
Parang sinabi lang ng article na to ang naiisip ko tungkol sa selection ng national team natin sa kahit anong sport. Ang problema sa atin is that we are not sending the best of the best. Wala akong nababalitaang somebody scouting the country side for talents in basketball, volleyball, tennis, baseball, soccer, etc. Majority of the line-ups that get selected are always from the prestigious schools. Are they always the best? No. Maybe it is with our limited resources or maybe it is with the sports programs but I do seriously believe we have many undiscovered talents in sports somewhere. We just need to reach out for them.
That applies to the Ruling Class as well.
If I read you correctly : politics gets in the way of results. That is so pinoy. Hence the point of what I wrote. We as a country rather be “pinoy” then effective. Because we fail at being effective we live vicariously through people like Jessica Sanchez who really has not accomplished much. Before anyone gets enraged at me, look at how many people have been Top 5 in American Idol in the last 6 years and how many have careers now?
This is actually noticeable every four years (besides the Olympics): while the world cheers for their teams (or even players) for the FIFA World Cup, Pinoys would rather go apeshit over the UAAP Finals.
What’s even sadder is the thought that, if Filipinos are so crazy over basketball, why does absolutely NO ONE (neither government nor private corporation) have the foresight to create a national basketball team for the Olympics, or at least even the World Championships? Are Pinoys just content to have a local team with very little international exposure?
The Philippines needs to first admit that we’re CHUMPS in sports, and yes that includes basketball–and that’s not even because we’re “poor.” Heck UGANDA won the gold for men’s marathon. And if THAILAND and INDONESIA can bag themselves Olympic medals, then it’s definitely not about the Philippines being a “poor nation.” It’s now a matter of culture.
What we need is:
FIRST – a comprehensive and consistent sports program that takes care of its athletes, generously funded by either the government or private corps (better if both).
SECOND – an athletics program that makes sports other than basketball palatable to potential athletes (my recommendations: boxing, football, track, sailing).
THIRD – review the funds for substandard “community basketball courts” and instead use them for city or regional stadiums and training centers.
FOURTH – send athletes to the Winter Games. Yes, we did it before; the last time we sent them was in Lillehammer. More importantly, we should also never overlook that the Paralympic Games are as important as the Olympics; we should focus on sending good athletes there as well.
Yes, our pepetual failure just shows us where tunnel vision and inability to see the picture will ultimately get us. Nowhere.
Hi Gogs,you know that all the things said here are,for the most, part true and if it weren’t all true it would be bashing the country.The examination of all things in Philippine society being so dismal that it could go on all day long,why stop at the Olympics?It is sad.A serious shift in the national conscience is called for.How to get it there and to take hold is just beyond me.I can see how most kids these days just want to get out of here.
The problem here is that the Philippines is in such a bad shape that they as a country should focus on more relevant things. Sports should not be one of them. Like Rome in ancient times where “games” were given to the populace to divert everybody’s attention from the real problem.
This is all just smokescreen. So why did we even bother to?
Many times things are used to divert attention from somewhere else. Even political events are used to sneak in other political agendas. Again, look at all the politicians who surround Manny at every fight and public appearance.
When the politician steps in the ring,why doesn’t someone KO him/her?That would be entertaining.I’d pay to see it.Not much,but a few pesos.
If only bayanihan qualifies as a/an SEA/Asian/Olympic game sports, we will have a gold medal.
We can’t even do “bayanihan” that well, by the way.
Off-topic but I love that pic.
“Dude, look at my hands. They’re so big…”
I was really debating what pic to use. Was tempted to use for the nth time the You Light Up My Life pic that I already used in a previous blog.
Gogs, nice article as usual although Im very sure our “favorite” yellow idiot will soon show his/her face here and blame gloria again for this prob. I wish idiots like him/her would just get lost.
The thing about our favorite idiot. My blog about Noynoy disrupting TV Patrol did mention the troll division of Malacanang’s communication team. Not a peep from any of the usual yellow idiots.
It might be because of the fact that the yellow idiots don’t want to be detected as members of the malacanang troll team. Unfortunately for them, they were already found out the moment that they post their stupid yellow propaganda here. It seems that malacanang itself is afraid of GRP since this site is gradually removing the yellow mind control from the filipino people.
Hey, this is gonna be completely random, hope you don’t mind.
No budget for athletic training. Not enough money for a lot of people to concentrate on being an athlete. We always depend on the private sector for this. The government does not take the initiative to raise these standards. The private sector would only do so if it’s profitable. We can’t really blame much on the people alone. Dreamers exist mostly among the middle class. And they are just 15 percent of the population. The rest would not know of having dreams like these because no one taught them to. Something is wrong with our social conditioning. The education sector and the media shape the minds of the people mostly, it has to start from there.
I hear you. It all has to come down to values. A topic that I touch on is almost every post I have written here in GRP. Your hierachy of values will affect your decisions and your decisions affect your output. Like I said the universal rule is garbage in garbage out. There is no magic in the real world. We do value the family in pinoy culture which can be both good and bad. Nothing like real competition to show how inefficient pinoy society is. No one can get explain to me that our president is there not because of merit or track record but because of the timing of his mother’s death. How dysfunctional are we??
I’ve all but given up on the Philippines even winning a bronze medal. Their collective ineptitude is a gold standard however.
Yeah, the whole b-ball fixation Flips have totally turned me off the sport. Besides, football (soccer) was labeled, “the most beautiful” game. I guess that is completely lost in most Filipinos.
Come to think of it, the Canadians kinda have this mentality with hockey. What makes them different is that they’re actually very good at the sport.
@Ronnie – Tell me if I am making too much of this but who is Manny’s main trainer and in the weeks leading up to a fight where does Manny’s most intense training happen? It just can’t be climate. It might be environment.
@ Sid- based on my observations in hockey in Canada. Canadians really understand hockey so they know not everyone can be Wayne Gretzky ( scorer but no muscle and won’t go into the corners) so others accept their role as doing the nasty unglamorous things necessary to win a game like a Larry Robinson . Pinoys from what I have seen feel everybody in the court is Allen Iverson and nobody should be Kurt Rambis or Rick Mahorn. Europeans gained ground on the Americans as players and as teams because they were well coached in fundamentals and the team concept. Can pinoys say the same?
Why did we fail in the Olympics? First and foremost is the lack of resolute political will. Add the fact that the state has no world class support or training facilities for our athletes. Our politicians suck and all they give a damn about is their political image, political expediency and opportunism games. Yes people… we shine in political circus games.
Politicians in short don’t care about productivity for the whole. Just as long as they get what’s “theirs”.