The National Pastime

For years I've heard people question our country's obsession with basketball. Basketball, according to some, is a dead-end sport for us hobbit-like people. We're not tall enough, fast enough, or athletic enough to compete with caucasians (they're bigger), blacks (they're faster than a speeding bullet and can leap tall buildings in a single bound), and yes, even the Chinese-- who have the luxury of having a billion players to choose from.

But hey, obsessions aren't supposed to make sense. Filipino bodies may have been made for football, but Filipino hearts belong to basketball. Take myself, for example. I may enjoy playing the beautiful game more than shooting hoops, but I'd be lying if I said I'd prefer to watch the finals of the UEFA Cup rather than the NBA Finals.

Why the love affair with hoops? Why the sudden dip in office productivity during the NBA Finals? Why the noticable absence of male students in UP (and, I suppose, other universities) during the start of classes?

Basketball is just more entertaining to watch, period. Football fanatics will say otherwise, but then again these are people who've grown to love the sport, understand the intricacies of the game, and appreciate everything happening on the pitch even if a single goal isn't scored in ninety minutes of play. In short, football is an acquired taste, one that is best acquired when one is young.

Basketball, on the other hand, is exciting to watch, even for the uninitiated. With only ten players on the court, the viewer can be taken close to the action, and see the likes of Lebron James soar for dunks (tell me, who doesn't know Lebron James?). Even when the camera zooms out and shows all the plays unfolding, it's easy to keep track of players darting in and out of the paint.

There is a lot of grace, power, speed, and skill on display in both football and basketball. You just don't see most of it in the former, unless you're really familiar with the game of football (read: you play the sport).

Football may be closer to being the ideal team game, a sport where the individual weaknesses of the players can be overcome by great team play. It's a sport where star-laden football superpowers can be upset by the collective effort of a group of spirited, well-motivated average players. A good example is South Korea's upset win over Italy in the second round of the 2002 World Cup, which would be akin to the Philippines beating the US in a basketball game. (Well, I may be exaggerating a bit here...)

If the greater probability for success dictated the focus of our national sports programs, then football would be the logical sport of choice. Unfortunately, it does not. As with most matters of national policy, popularity reigns supreme, and right now basketball is the most popular sport among us Filipinos, hobbits or not. So unless we can re-orient succeeding generations of Filipinos, we'll have to settle with finishing last in the sport we love watching the most.

Digital Bra

Thank you to Disney for giving me something interesting to write about:

Teen actress Lindsay Lohan's breasts have been digitally reduced for forthcoming Disney film Herbie: Fully Loaded, to avoid offending family audiences.

Test screenings for the new movie, the fourth sequel to the 1968 film The Love Bug about a Volkswagen Beetle car with a mind of its own, indicated that some parents felt Lohan's character Maggie Peyton was too raunchy for a children's film. (emphasis mine)

Disney technicians were forced to plough through numerous scenes - especially those showing the busty actress jumping up and down at a motor racing track, reducing her breasts by two cup sizes and raising revealing necklines on her T-shirts. (read full article here)

When I first read about this (in a sports column, no less), I couldn't believe what I saw. I know Disney is synonymous with wholesome entertainment, but come on!

This is puritanism taken too damn far. Kids watching the movie will be too focused on the digitally-enhanced Herbie to give a hoot about Lohan's breasts. As for kids who'll actually be more interested in Lohan than in Herbie... well, watching the movie won't make them any less innocent than they already are.

Note to all parents: your kids will eventually learn about sex, will eventually fantasize about having sex, and will eventually engage in sex. Limiting their exposure to large breasts will not change that.

Labor Unites

A press release I got today from the Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino (BMP) read:

With the specter of a rock-bottom crises for the working class amidst the railroading of the expanded Value-Added Tax and its anticipated impact on real wages, militant labor groups have crossed ideological and organizational lines to unite in struggling for a legislated Php125 wage hike.

The leaderships and affiliates of the Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino (BMP) and the Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU) met this morning under the auspices of a forum of the Congressional Committee on Labor and Employment and pledged unity, cooperation and coordination in advancing their common struggle for the much-needed wage increase.

This is a first for the two biggest labor alliances in the country, who've never worked together becasue of idealogical differences. That they were able to set these aside to achieve a common goal should give GMA pause. It's unprecedented, and indicative of how far organized labor is willing to go to get what it wants. They could call for a welga ng bayan (people's strike), and it could very well be a real welga ng bayan-- one that will actually be felt by the country, and not be ignored.

Mayor Lito Atienza : "My wife was a demon!"

(The following is a news article based on a feature entitled "In Manila, Pills and Condoms Go Underground" by Jaileen F. Jimeno of the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism. No serious newspaper will publish it. But the facts are all true. If it sounds idiotic, it's because it is.)

Manila Mayor Lito Atienza recently revealed that his wife became the devil incarnate after taking birth control pills without his knowledge after the birth of their fifth child.

Though Mayor Atienza refused to reveal details of his spouse's demonic behavior, the mayor confirmed that birth control pills were behind his loving wife's transformation.

Atienza says his wife "took the pill without my knowledge and I tell you, she became a devil, a demon."

Mrs. Atienza could not be reached for comment.

To ensure fellow Manileños do not share his fate, Mayor Atienza has prohibited hospitals and barangay heath centers funded by Manila City Hall from distributing contraceptives like condoms and birth control pills to residents of Manila.

The mayor-- who is also Chairman of Pro-Life Philippines-- issued Executive Order 003 on February 29, 2000, which upholds natural family planning methods and discourages "the use of artificial methods of contraception like condoms, pills, intrauterine devices, surgical sterilization and others."

In line with this, Atienza has ordered hospitals funded by the City of Manila to deny requests for sterilization procedures like tubal ligations and vasectomies. This is consistent with his "the more, the merrier" population policy anchored on his thesis that a population boom will lead to prosperity.

(Read the full report of the PCIJ here.)

Obi-Wan Kenobi

After watching Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith, I now have a new-found respect for Obi-Wan Kenobi, the Jedi Master played by Ewan McGregor (in the prequels) and Alec Guinness (in the original Star Wars series).

I used to think Obi-Wan Kenobi was a jack-of-all-trades-master-of-none sort of Jedi Master. I thought he wasn't as talented as Yoda with regards to handling the Force, not as good with a light saber as Mace Windu, and not even close to his padawan, Anakin Skywalker, as a pilot. This, plus the fact that he couldn't control Anakin-- or prevent him from turning to the Dark Side-- were major points against Kenobi.

I changed my mind, however, when I reviewed the villains Obi-Wan cut down in the course of the Star Wars series. In Episode I, he cut down Darth Maul. In Episode III, he beat General Grievous and Anakin Skywalker-- two supposedly formidable opponents. Keep in mind that by beating Darth Maul he defeated someone who had just killed an experienced, full-fledged Jedi Knight (Qui-Gon Jinn). And to think that, at that time, Kenobi was only a padawan, or apprentice. Grievous, on the other hand, was personally responsible for the deaths of numerous Jedi, and, in The Clone Wars Animated Series, showed he was capable of taking on a team of Jedi and coming out on top. But the clincher for me was how Kenobi beat Anakin Skywalker-- the Chosen One. True, Anakin's hubris got the better of him, but you have to give props to Obi-Wan for holding his own until Skywalker made that fatal move that cost him his legs.

Last point. When you think about it, Kenobi never really "lost" a battle. Against Darth Vader in Episode IV, he appeared to have been cut down in their duel, but-- as revealed in later episodes-- he merely became "one with the Force."

Forget the Skywalker hype-- Obi-Wan is the real deal.

The Scarlet Letter

I have been asked to wear red to the office for the next few days. The request is not based on my skin's compatibility with that particular color-- it (my skin) is not. It is also not being made because someone in the office is celebrating his or her birthday next week-- no one is.

The request is being made in line with a campaign to protest one of Chief Justice Davide's latest Memorandum Orders-- Memorandum Order No. 20-2005, AMENDING THE NATURE OF THE APPOINTMENT TO THE PLANTILLA POSITIONS IN THE PROGRAM MANAGEMENT OFFICE (PMO) FROM COTERMINUS TO PERMANENT OR AMENDING FOR THE PURPOSE ADMINISTRATIVE ORDER NO. 71-2001.

Some background. The Program Management Office (PMO) is the office responsible for overseeing the projects of the Supreme Court under the Action Program for Judicial Reform, or APJR. The APJR is the Court's modernization program, which the Chief launched shortly after he began his term. Projects under the APJR include the Court's Electronic Library, Court Administration Management Information System, and the Justice on Wheels mobile court. The PMO's job is to source funds for these projects, and oversee them from conceptualization to implementation.

The status of the appointments of PMO personnel were-- per the Administrative Order that created them (AO No. 71-2001)-- originally coterminus with the Chief, meaning they would have had to go upon the Chief's retirement in December. Memorandum Order 20-2005 changes that. Under the order, the positions in the PMO are now permanent, regular positions.

This hasn't sat well with some people. A few days after the memo came out, a white paper was circulated among the different offices of the SC. It criticizes the Chief's order to make the PMO's plantilla permanent, and calls on Court employees to wear red as sign of protest.

I won't, for a number of reasons.

First, as I said, red doesn't suit me.

Second, I don't have red clothes.

Third, I just don't believe in supporting causes being espoused by nameless, faceless people.

(I won't even go through the points made by the white paper, which really don't tackle the main issue, which is whether the PMO should be made a permanent office. There are a lot of side issues raised, but they distract from the main issue, and don't do much in strengthening their case.)

I've always subscribed to the belief that the courage to speak one's convictions must be accompanied by the courage to stand by them. There are a lot of accusations made in the white paper, but the anonymity of the accuser(s) coupled with the paper's less-than sound arguments have made it impossible to determine the motivation and logic behind this so-called protest. For all I know, the paper could have been written by someone with an axe to grind with the PMO, or the Chief. Heck, the way the white paper was written, it probably was.

The Memo-- and the office it benefits-- should be judged on its own merits, not by the personalities involved. Any commentary on the Chief's Memo and the issues it raised should spark intelligent debate, not fuel petty jealousies.

Till somebody has the guts to claim responsibility for the white paper, and can make a logical case against the permanent existence of the PMO, I'm sticking to what I usually wear.

Dead-weights

In an ideal world, everyone would get what they deserved.

To be more specific, in an ideal workplace, only the truly deserving would enjoy advancement, the hardworking would be given additional pay for the extra hours spent slaving away at work, and only the competent would enjoy job security.

Conversely, the undeserving would not get promoted, the lazy unable to produce any output would be subject to pay cuts, and the incompetent would be fired.

Unfortunately, for those of us who work in government, the opposite is more often than not the way things are.

We wonder why this country isn't going anywhere? Look at Congress, Malacañang, and yes, even the Judiciary. The ranks of government service are filled with lazy, incompetent (not to mention, corrupt) idiots who couldn't write a memo if their lives depended on it.

Of course, not all government employees are a waste of taxpayers' money. There are those in the Supreme Court who've worked here since graduating from law school, and have shunned higher-paying jobs in the private sector to serve the public. They put in long hours and work their butts off for measly salaries and poor benefits.

But for every dedicated public servant are dozens of NPAs (Non-Performing Assets)-- individuals who collect their pay every month even though all they do is stare at their monitor pretending to be working.

It's bad enough that these dead-weights in the Philippine bureaucracy do nothing but contribute to our ever-expanding fiscal deficit. Worse, some of them-- by virtue of their ability to kiss-ass and act busy-- even get promoted! Others, simply by holding on to their jobs, get raises through "stepping," a process by which one's salary is upgraded after a number of years, regardless of one's salary grade. (Under this system, it's possible for a lazy secretary who's worked in Congress for a loooong time to bring home more than a newly-appointed congressional chief-of-staff.)

Then there are those who, despite being obviously incompetent, get promoted after earning the title of "attorney." Their output (zero) may not change, their attitude (impolite, bastos, uncouth) may be the same, and their hours (in at 8:00, out by 4:30) remain unchanged, but lo and behold, they're suddenly considered for promotion?

Bloody hell.

Nothing like a cold dose of reality to kill whatever's left of one's idealism.