NOLI EALA CRITICIZES RP YOUTH COACH FRANZ PUMAREN

That's what you get when you have a part-time coach... part-time loyalty

Comment from Philstar.com

Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas Executive Director, Noli Eala criticized RP Youth coach Franz Pumaren for the unbelievable act of leaving his team in the final game of an international tournament for an inter-collegiate meet.

“Regardless of what’s the situation back home, he (Pumaren) had the morale obligation to stay with the team. I don’t agree with what he did and I think it’s a ground for the organization to re-evaluate his commitment to the team,” said SBP executive director Noli Eala.

“I don’t want to second guess him but I’m sure he knew the commitment, he knew the schedule. It’s his moral obligation to be with the team until the end of the battle,” Eala added

Eala remembered his own experience in Tokushima, Japan during the 2007 FIBA Asia men’s championship where he stayed on despite a personal problem that cropped up in Manila. In Iran, he said he came over only briefly since it’s clear from the beginning that he’s not part of the team and he had an SBP conference to attend to.

Source

Coach Pumaren's actions didn't sit well with basketball fans too. In the Phistar comments section, many were angered by the coach's move. One said he shouldn't have accepted the job in the first place since he has the right to refuse (the college season conflicts with the international basketball calendar. Despite the case, no one bothered to adjust the schedule of the local college basketball competition).Other posters want to sanction and fire Franz for lack of commitment. In fairness, Coach Pumaren went back to the country supposedly for one of his assistant coaches' father fell ill - that reasoning didn't fare well too. One poster cited his case don't even compare to the Team USA volleyball coach whose family was stabbed to death in China in the Olympics but still led his men to the gold medal.

The SBP Executive Director lamented the fact other talented young cagers weren't able to represent the country as their school allegedly stopped them:

Eala said the RP boys could have performed a lot better if Arvie Bringas, Nico Salva and Kyle Pascual were allowed to join the team.

Too many people paying lip service about wanting the country to regain international prominence in basketball but couldn't walk the talk so to speak. These schools love to criticize our country's politicians as putting themselves first before the country, look who's talking about nationalism now!

For this reason, the SBP wants a foreign coach (and a full-time one) to helm the country that way it could avert ridiculous controversies such as this.

I always believed in hiring a foreign coach. Don't get me wrong it doesn't mean I look down on local coaches. It's just that PBA or local coaches don't have much experience in international competitions. Besides, we need the know-how that only a coach with a proven international record (like Toroman, led Iran to the Olympics) have. In the end, the transfer of technology will ultimately benefit us. The last time the country qualified to the Olympics was in 1972 and from then on - everything went downhill.

MCCAINT AND NAILIN PALIN CONVENTION - REPUBLICAN PARTY!!

The coolest Republican?

The Republican National Convention looked like a high school pep rally minus the cheerleaders! There were a lot of balloons and confetti like they won the Superbowl or the World Cup -OH YEAH - this was the Republican PARTY after all. It looks fun with many cosplayers in cowboy hats minus hopefully their guns (NRA RULES!!!). The average age must be 70 years old in that convention.

We have a lot to be thankful for to the REPUBLICAN PARTY. If it weren't for them, we wouldn't be an American colony (Sugar not oil was the reason right Teddy?). We wouldn't have enjoyed the Martial Law so much with 10,000 people damaged as a testament to it (with approval from Reagan the so-called champion of democracy). The Filipino war veterans who fought for America should have been paid their due right now but thanks to overenthusiastic Republican congressmen who blocked it with the excuse money should be better spent somewhere else and then gloriously pitting one group of veterans against another.

Thank you Republican Party!!!

McCain's speech today were filled with these words: defend, fight, war, terrorism, and love of country. It makes me think another war is forthcoming. Hopefully, it will be Iran - in their perspective.

Here is his choice for Vice-President Sarah Palin. She has a stellar resume!


— In her earlier career as mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, Palin hired a lobbyist to help the tiny town secure at least 14 earmarks, worth $27 million between 2000-2003. McCain has touted Palin as a force in his long battle against earmarks.

— Under her leadership this year, Alaska asked for almost $300 per person in requests for pet projects from Stevens, one of McCain's top adversaries. That's more than any other state received, per person, from Congress.

— Her husband, Todd, twice registered as a member of the Alaskan Independence Party, a fierce states' rights group that wants to turn all federal lands in Alaska back to the state. Sarah Palin herself never registered as a member of the party, according to state officials, though party members said she attended a 1994 convention with her husband.

— The head of the firm hired to defend Gov. Palin in a state ethics investigation was previously her family's lawyer and is permitted to bill the state up to $95,000 for work in the current case. It involves the dismissal of public safety commissioner Walt Monegan after he refused to fire a state trooper who had divorced the governor's sister.

— Palin opposed the U.S. government's listing of a variety of animals as endangered, including the polar bear and the beluga whale, both of which inhabit areas also rich in oil and natural gas.

— Palin previously acknowledged she smoked marijuana but said in a 2006 interview she no longer used the drug. "I can't claim a Bill Clinton and say that I never inhaled," she said.

Good, she could relate with young voters in the USA.

— Palin sought pork-barrel projects for her city and state, contrary to her reformist image.

— Her husband once belonged to a fringe political group in Alaska with some members supporting succession from the United States.

— A private attorney is authorized to spend $95,000 to defend her against accusations of abuse of power.

— She has acknowledged smoking marijuana in the past.

— And this: Bristol Palin's boyfriend, Levi Johnston, plans to join the family of the Republican vice presidential candidate at the GOP convention, the boy's mother said. He left Alaska on Tuesday morning to join the Palin family in St. Paul, Minn.

Source


Most importantly she's a former Miss Alaska runner up!!!

Some people say she's a typical Republican. I don't know about that!!!

AN ANALYSIS OF PALIN'S CANDIDACY - FOX NEWS SHOULD BE CALLED FOX 360. Watch this.
TYPICAL REPUBLICANS, RIGHT REAGAN?

Please proceed to Comedy Central website if it doesn't play - that's their right, of course, to stream the video or not.

CHINA OWNS THE UNITED STATES

To show, its public that their nation still dominate, American networks NBC.com, ESPN.COM and others began ranking countries by total medals instead of sorting it by gold medals deviating from generally accepted international standard (like Kyoto Protocol). Fox, which wished it thought of it first, followed days later to prove that it isn't anti-American and a true-blue patriot (along with the routine sex ads on comment sections). Thankfully, the rest of the world (including my country's) news and sports news organizations refused to follow it and presented the truth as it is.

It prompted one very disgusted response:

Has it come to this? Is the USA really so desperate to avoid accepting defeat gracefully, that we have to start inventing our own medal tables in order to find a way to claim we're still the best? What an immature nation we are. From Yahoo.com


Here's the BBC

Much has been made of the Great Britain team's lofty position in third place in the official Olympics medals table.

That is based on the number of gold medals, with the number of silver and bronze medals only counting when two countries have the same number of golds.

Maybe with this in mind, and half an eye on China, media in the US have been publishing a table of total medals won, regardless of colour, and that puts the US top.

Meanwhile, American media accuse Chinese media of not presenting the news accurately, slanting it to suit their needs effectively fooling their own people.

Enough with the double standards!

Final Medal Tally

China 51 Golds 21 Silvers 28Bronzes 100 Total
United States 36 Golds 38 Silvers 36 Bronzes 110 Total

Gold is the standard at the Olympic games esp to a powerful nation like USA (for us a bronze would be enough realistically speaking). For example, Phelps won also 8 medals in 2004 but wasn't as celebrated as he is now for he only won 6 golds and two bronzes then. Now its different - he still won 8 medals all of it gold. To say otherwise is baloney.

MORE OLYMPIC NEWS: BIGGEST UPSET, TKD SCANDALS, MORE BOLT RANTS

TKD WTF

As usual Taekwondo stirs up fresh round of scoring controversies. This is not the case of losing jins whining but it has become commonplace. When a sport turns athletes into whiners most of the time - the sport must have a huge problem.

Taekwondo kicked up a storm of complaints against referees and judges at the Olympic Games on Wednesday as Canadian Ivett Gonda claimed she was robbed after losing her opening match.

"Everyone is saying it's unfair. I got ripped. Everyone is saying I got ripped," said the 22-year-old, fifth in Athens four years ago, after going down 2-0 to Sweden's Hanna Zajc in the women's -49kg flyweight.

"I could crawl up and cry like a baby but I am trying to be strong. I guess this wasn't meant to be, I guess God has other ideas for me.

"The reason for no points was they didn't see it," she said after her protest was rejected. "All I can do is laugh or cry about it. I prefer to laugh."

Protests against referees and judges have been part of the taekwondo competition since the Korean-born martial art made its Olympic debut in 2000.

Zajc faced misfortune in her second match after beating Gonda.

Her coach Chago Rodriguez said the Swede landed hits that didn't score.

"We were disappointed with that."

European champion and world number-five Levent Tuncat of Germany also questioned the judges after losing to Afghanistan's Rohullah Nikpai 4-3 in his first -58kg bout.

"For me it felt that I might have scored some more points," he sighed.

The fresh flare-up in refereeing controversy is a slap in the face of World Taekwondo Federation president Choue Chung-Won. He has insisted fair officiating is imperative for taekwondo to be retained as an Olympic sport.

"I will not hesitate to impose whatever is necessary, should you disgrace taekwondo or the WTF in any way," Choue told a meeting of referees here on Monday.

For Full Story

The IOC SHOULD NOT HESITATE TO REMOVE THIS SPORT ANYMORE! The sport's governing body had eight years to come up with more transparent and credible scoring but nothing ever changed. Time to take the boot TKD - along with Boxing. The IOC should concentrate on these important matters and not to petty things like this:

IOC President Jacques Rogge criticizes Usain Bolt

IOC president Jacques Rogge criticized Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt on Thursday for showing a lack of respect to other competitors after his record-breaking gold-medal performances in the 100 and 200 meters.

Mr. Rogge, if you have the guts tell that to the United States Men's Basketball team. We will see a lot of showboating tonight against Argentina esp. if they beat them big. Warn LeBron, Carmelo and Wade. You can't do it, can you? I thought so. Come to think of it I think it was the NBA-powered US Team that brought showboating to the Olympics (esp. the 2000 team - the most egotistical ever.)

BIGGEST UPSET

Japan scored the BIGGEST Olympic upset yesterday beating the United States 3-1 in the Softball Grand Finals held in Fengtai Softball Field. From the Olympic site the best and objective portal for Olympic news:

Japan put the first run of the game on the board in the third inning. Karino Ayumi beat out a ground ball hit deep to shortstop, allowing Mishina Masumi to score from third base. It was the first earned run given up by any of the Team USA pitchers in the tournament.

The second earned run came when Japan's center fielder Yamada Eri dropped one of Cat Osterman's pitches over the center field fence to lead off the fourth inning.

The United States got one run back in the bottom of the inning. Leadoff batter Crystl Bustos connected with a Ueno Yukiko pitch and pumped it into the right center field stands. The homerun was Bustos's sixth of the Games and the 14th in her Olympic career, both Olympic records.

But the wheels came off for the US team in the top of the seventh inning. Two errors, including one on a play at the plate by relief pitcher Monica Abbott, enabled Hirose Megu to score Japan's third run and end the United State's domination of the sport at the Olympics.

Ueno, who pitched 21 innings over two games Wednesday to get Japan into the gold medal games, picked up the victory after losing to Team USA the previous day. She pitched all seven innings, giving up one run, five hits and two walks. She struck out four batters to win her fifth game of the tournament.

Ueno Yukiko tormented the Americans again at the 2005 World Cup, she defeated the U.S. 3-1 in the gold medal game. Source: NBC

Umedeto! Bye Softball. Nice seein' ya.

Don't get me wrong - the Americans dominated this tournament like what they did in Greece. Japan's victory was a fluke. The Americans beat them twice in the tournament. In Athens, USA scored 58 runs against opponents 1. In this year's Olympic tournament, USA scored 58 gave up 5. There's no parity in this sport yet and it shouldn't return from the Games soon - that's almost 6 runs a game!

Venezuela	WIN	11-0
Austraia	WIN	3-0
Canada	WIN	8-1
Japan	WIN	7-0
Chinese Taipei	WIN	7-0
Netherlands	WIN	8-0
China	WIN	9-0
Japan	WIN	4-1
Japan	LOSS	1-4

See the pounding USA gave its opponents?

There are other sports with much better parity than softball and they deserve to be in the Olympics.

You may ask why Badminton is an Olympic sport. Pure and simple - it is the second most popular in the world based on number of national federations. It has parity. No country has come to dominate it. The matches are high quality. Can you honestly say it for Softball? Are 11-0, 8-0, 9-0 and 7-0 games competitive? Good riddance.

The IOC prioritizes the World not any single country.

As one person in Espn.com commented:

It's not the Olympics' job to boost America's ego.

COCKY BOLT RANT

Usain Bolt - "cocky" (like LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, Paul Pierce, Stephon Marbury, Dwayne Wade...blah blah blah)

From ESPN.com

Comments 1-15
Comment from rpsboyz - the usual cocky Jamaicans rant

Has anyone else noticed how cocky and arrogant the Jamaica runners are when they win a race? Talk about poor winners.

Reply from AlMan4242

rpsboyz, the Jamaicans are just as cocky and arrogant AFTER they win a race as the Americans are BEFORE they lose a race.
OWNED.

Notice LeBron James' face everytime he makes a powerful dunk at the game against Australia last night? Enough of the double standards! By the way it only makes LBJ older than he actually is!

Who wouldn't be happy right? This must be the first time Jamaica could compete with the United States on level ground and they are winning. For years, they have to put up with steroid powered athletes coming from the U.S. Now it is their time to shine, so to speak.

Comments section reveal what people are really thinking since their identity are concealed. There are more anti-Bolt comments (amidst the array of sex ads) in Foxports.com

"Is it just me or does Usain Bolt look just like T.O. He has that same annoying swagger and one-upmanship. He is also completely classless and it is a shame that he broke the great Johnson's record. The record should belong to someone with class. Bolt is the opposite of what the olympics are about. The olympics are about the joy of competition, it is not right to show up your fellow athletes."


"christiano get real jumping around like an #### and posing in front of the record time gee .phelps was involved in seven world records and 1 olympic record and not once did he act like bolt. Pumping the fist ,slapping the chest,raising the one all in class but bolt just showed me the true meaning of a M_O_N_K_E_Y" jtdf - poster

Another Bolt is monkey comment from Fox Sports members. These internet toughies are disgusting.

I saw Phelps pump his fist in his team's victory over France at a relay - I didn't think he was cocky (the American was ecstatic after a close win). Why is Bolt being singled out now? Is it because of the race thing again or he tends to threaten Phelps dominance of the spotlight in the US press? (C'mon you think Phelps saved the Olympics? Cycling saved the Games for the British. Other countries concentrate on their own winners! It saved the Olympics for them. Get real.)

Only in America where Phelps and Bolt are being compared to each other! lol

Bolt doing his usual thing. UNBELIEVABLE. Another day another World Record. Congratulations!

If Bolt is an American, I'm sure none of the cocky rant would come out - some fans will even justify it as normal celebration like what Team USA is doing - dunking and making faces afterwards. It is a fundamental rule in Basketball that after making a spectacular, monstrous dunk it is imperative the dunker should contort his face like he smelled someone else's fungi-infested foot or like he is about to cry

Hypocrites.

TRASH TALKING AMERICAN GIVEN A HUGE LESSON IN HUMILITY

Know your place, American girl
source: Wikipedia

She thought she was the Team USA of Pole Vaulting and began like a typical American athlete disrespecting her legendary opponent who just happens to be the greatest women pole vaulter of all time. The American was given a huge and humiliating lesson in humility.

Yelena Isinbayeva got the Olympic gold and a world record; American Jenn Stuczynski got the silver and a lesson in humility.

And we now have a new rivalry that should make woman’s pole vaulting fun to watch for many more years to come.

Big poles and big mouths don’t go together. Stuczynski knows that now. Pole vaulting isn’t basketball or boxing. It’s far too graceful of a sport for the kind of trash-talk she doled out before the Beijing Games.

“I hope we do some damage,” she had said, “and, you know, kick some Russian butt.”

Big mistake.

Isinbayeva is Russian but she understands English just fine. The greatest women’s pole vaulter of all time heard Stuczynski’s challenge loud and clear.

“I am not deaf,” she said. “It made me really angry.”

Like any good fight, the public announcer introduced the combatants first. Isinbayeva was presented last and got the crowd’s biggest roar. No mistaking who the Bird’s Nest was rooting for.

Isinbayeva is a bit like those supermodels who supposedly don’t get out of bed for anything less than a very lucrative photo shoot. Only when the bar has reached dizzying heights that most other vaulters can’t clear does Isinbayeva deign to take her first jump.

She’s just that good.

Monday night, her first jump was 4 meters 70 (15 feet, 5 inches). She soared right over. Seven of the 11 other vaulters had already dropped out by that point.

And so up the bar went, and up again. It’s that exquisite turning of the screw that makes pole vaulting so addictive to watch. Who’ll crack first?

Women’s pole vault has only been an Olympic sport since the Sydney Games in 2000. It was an instant crowd pleaser. Almost single-handedly thanks to Isinbayeva, the sport has grown by leaps and bounds since then. Stacy Dragila’s winning height in Sydney was 4.60 (15-1), which Stuczynski and Isinbayeva now sail over that in their sleep.

On Monday night, the last two hangers on dropped out with the bar at 4.80 (15-9), leaving Isi and Stu to fight it out for the gold alone.

The Russian won by KO. She cleared 4.85 (15-11). Stuczynski vaulted no higher than 4.80. Game over.

Almost.

With the whole stadium now eating out of her hand, Isinbayeva wasn’t going to stop there. The crowd had only seen her jump twice—that was all it had taken for her to defend her Olympic crown.

She wanted to give them more … and perhaps rub that American nose just a little deeper in the dirt.

It was showtime. Isinbayeva-time. And that meant a world record.

First, she broke the Olympic record—her own, from Athens four years ago— as an appetizer.

Then, the bar went to a height it’s never been before, 5.05 (16-6 3/4).

She got it on the last of her three tries. She was celebrating even before she had fallen back to earth. She screamed. Clutched her face. Screamed some more. Did a forward somersault. Grabbed a Russian flag from someone in the crowd and set off on a lap of honor.

And that whole time, Stuczynski was made to wait, sitting on a row of plastic chairs, until Isinbayeva had cleared the magic height. It was the 24th time that the Russian had set a world record; she generally likes to eke them out one centimeter at a time.

Isinbayeva tried not to be smug. She had done what she had set out to do: let her vaulting do the talking.

“I just wanted to prove who is the best at the Olympic Games.”

But she couldn’t resist one last little dig

“She must respect me and … know her position,” she said.

“Now she knows it.”

Full Story

I'm glad. She really made the American eat her words hehehe.

Most Americans are such poor sport even the country of Jamaica became a target after Usain Bolt won the 100m with one internet toughie calling him a "monkey" at Foxsports comments section (he looked foolish in his celebrations but that's his right - to enjoy his moment). Bolt's fault? He intruded in the American domain - the 100 m dash. Of course, they wouldn't admit that instead they began citing the guy's celebration as "show boating" conveniently forgetting Team USA basketball players' antics are even worse!

So, Americans don't lose, they are just being cheated. No way - the only reason Jamaica is winning, is simple BALCO - THE STEROID FACTORY - was busted paving the way for more deserving people to win. By the way if the Chinese female gymnasts are really below sixteen (which I also believe might be true judging from the age manipulation they did to their youth basketball team). It is even more humiliating. Besides, the United States could've won but they clumsily bungled their routines. It's their FAULT. Serves them RIGHT!

Double standards. Hypocrisy. Boy, do they have that in abundance!

REPUBLICAN PARTY'S SKELETONS

I found no record of McCain speaking out against the now repulsive idea of America endorsing a tyrant like Marcos, but in a speech in 2006 -- 20 years after his downfall – Senator McCain spoke of the importance of promoting human rights abroad, recalling how in 1986, "the United States condemned Ferdinand Marcos' sham reelection, we earned the abiding gratitude of the Philippine people, who promptly threw out the dictator."

That's not exactly the complete story as he conveniently left out the part about Reagan and the Washington establishment praising and bankrolling the Marcos regime even as it rigged elections, threw opponents in jail, tortured them and looted the Philippine treasury. (And how could he forget Imelda's shoes and shopping sprees?)

Nearly 20 years after Marcos died in Hawaii, however, McCain has unexpectedly had to deal with the despised dictator's ghost.

In an embarrassing twist, it turned out that Charlie Black, one of McCain's closest advisers, once ran a lobbying firm that represented brutal dictators, including Mobutu Sese Seko of Zaire and – you guessed it – Ferdinand Marcos. Black resigned from the firm, BKSH & Associates, and is still with McCain (although he got him in trouble again recently by saying that another terrorist attack against the US would surely help boost his candidate’s chances in November.)

For Full Analysis

emphasis mine

I become nauseous every time Ronald Reagan is presented as "champion of democracy" because of his stand against USSR in the 80s. His tear down this wall speech only evoked a "whatever" response from me. The guy never stopped acting even when he was President.

NO REST FOR THE GUILTY!

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina - The world's top Nazi-hunter said Thursday he's made progress in finding 94-year-old "Doctor Death," a former concentration camp physician accused of torturing Jewish prisoners as they died and who may have been living for decades in Argentina or Chile.

Efraim Zuroff, head of the Israeli branch of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, told a news conference that his mission to the southern reaches of the Americas led him to at least four people who claim to have seen Aribert Heim in the past 45 day.

Heim was indicted in Germany after World War II on charges he murdered hundreds of inmates at the Mauthausen concentration camp in 1941. The Wiesenthal center says he injected the corrosive poison phenol directly into the hearts of many and used "other torturous killing method

The South American probe is part of the Jewish human rights organization's "Operation: Last Chance" — an effort to bring aging war criminals to justice before they die. If alive, Heim would be 94.

Answering critics who say Heim's age undermines the validity of the hunt, Zuroff said to "keep in mind what he did when was a very young person."

"If we put a limit on age, in a practical sense that means we're saying you can get away with genocide, which is morally outrageous," he added...

For Complete Story...

There should be no rest for the guilty! The mental torture Heim's is now suffering must have reminded him of his victims' agony when he inflicted cruel death to them. If the Israelis were Filipinos, some people would have given him a pardon for humanitarian reasons (advanced age) to show the world that they are compassionate and morally upright. No justice no closure. It is so easy for them to do that because they weren't the ones victimized.

CHALLENGING THE LAW

The National Anthem sounds even better sang in my language. I look forward to the day when this version of the National Anthem is sung in our schools without the fear of getting arrested for violating the law. Don't believe me please see chapter 2 section 36 of Republic Act 8491. The National Anthem should be sung in the National Language (whatever it means and it doesn't exist). (The law is very discriminatory! I can't believe my country has that and no legislators from other non-Tagalog ethno linguistic groups raised a howl over this.)

So, technically this girl is violating the Flag and Heraldic Code of the Philippines. Singing the national anthem in my native tongue is a crime in this "democratic country". Long before there was the Republic; the Hiligaynon-speaking people were already here. Screw the law! What will the national government do? Arrest these people? NO WAY. It will create UPHEAVAL AND STIR REGIONAL SENTIMENT if it does that.

HALLELUJAH! HALLELUJAH! HALLELUJAH! HALLELUJAH!

A great day for the RESISTANCE MOVEMENT: (wow hehe)

Philippine National Anthem in Bisaya

SHOOTING STRAIGHT By Valeriano Avila
Wednesday, July 16, 2008

A week ago today, the session at the Cebu City Council started as usual by singing the National Anthem in the Cebuano language or "Nasudnong Awit or Yutang Tabunon" despite the fact that there is a national law that penalizes anyone singing the national anthem in their own native tongues except in Filipino, which as we all know is a not-so-cleverly- disguised Tagalog. But after the National Anthem and the prayer in Cebuano, Presiding Officer Vice-Mayor Michael Rama suggested continuing the session using the Cebuano language in order to clarify all matters.

Thus it was a sort of unique, albeit historic day last week because Cebu City Councilors were speaking their own native tongue in their official session. That the City Council of Cebu defied that law against singing the National Anthem in another tongue other than Tagalog proves our point that that law has become inutile, especially when faced with our Constitutional realities where one of the most basic freedoms our people enjoy is the Freedom of Speech, which means the freedom to speak our native language.

How many times have we said it here before that we Filipinos are very good in making great laws, but we're the worst in implementing such laws? Year 2008 has been declared the International Year of Languages, which was proclaimed by the 61st General Plenary Assembly of the United Nations in their effort to promote "Unity in Diversity and Global Understanding. " This year, the UN is pursuing multilingualism as a means of promoting, protecting and preserving diversity of languages and cultures globally. I have been advocating our right to speak and be educated in our Cebuano language from the first day I became a columnist. Now something like this finally happens, almost like a dream come true!

The Philippines is also a signatory of this UN declaration, hence for a nation of more than a hundred spoken languages, we should be the first to understand the realities that we are a nation of diverse cultures and languages and that one of the most basic of human rights is the Right to Free Speech! Yet our educational policy is killing other Filipino languages.

We Cebuanos have long been proud of our cultural heritage and language; after all, the first people in this archipelago that the Europeans knew were Cebuanos. Oh yes, the Spaniards didn't forget Cebu, as this is where the leader of the Armada de Moluccas Ferdinand Magellan met his death in the hands of Chieftain Lapu-Lapu.

We are also known as the First Christians in this part of Asia. While we embraced Christianity, I would like to believe it was due to the Sto. NiÒo, the statue of the Holy Child Jesus that is so richly decorated and dressed up. Back then, Rajah Humabon and his Queen Juana had their Anitos small wooden idols, hence when Magellan presented them with the Sto. Nino, they immediately embraced it.

Back on our advocacy on language. I won't forget that 22 years ago when President Corazon "Tita" Cory Aquino issued a directive ordering all government offices that official communication in her administration was through the use of the Filipino language. The Province of Cebu then under Gov. Emilio "Lito" Osmena defied that Presidential Directive and filed a case in court to stop that Presidential directive and won.

I remembered Gov. Osmena asking the question, "What is really the Filipino Language, when the reality is, it is 99.9% taken from the Tagalog language?" Since that time, despite a law ordering the singing of the Philippine National Anthem in Filipino, the City of Cebu, the Cebu Provincial Board starts its sessions with the singing of the National Anthem in Cebuano. This includes the Rotary Club of Cebu (Mother). Let's hope that in today's session in the City Council, they would continue holding it in Cebuano, today and in the next sessions to come! Mabuhi ang Sugbuanon!

source

emphasis mine - Mr. Avila makes more sense and should be at the opinion page of the Philippine Star but his article is consigned at the back pages in the regional news section where most people don't even bother to read!

PEOPLE AND INSTITUTIONS HAPPY WITH THIS DEVELOPMENT

1. NON-TAGALOG FILIPINOS (for inspiration 75% of the pop.)
   
2. DIVERSITY LOVING TAGALOGS
3. GROUPS SUCH AS DILA, SOLFED, DILFED AND OTHER PRO-DIVERSITY INSTITUTIONS

PEOPLE AND INSTITUTIONS UNHAPPY WITH THIS DEVELOPMENT

1. TAGALISTA ELITE IN MANILA UNIVERSITIES
   
2. INSTITUTE OF NATIONAL LANGUAGE (You're not? Prove it.)
3. TBHON QUEZON and his wannabes
4. RGMA -Bigtime Balita
   
5. Some Television writers and directors
   

ANOTHER EXCUSE

Europe's best and wealthiest football clubs formally took sides Tuesday against FIFA's plan to restrict their use of foreign players.

Members of the new European Club Association - representing 103 teams from 53 nations - used their first business meeting to reject the so-called '6+5' rule proposed by Sepp Blatter, president of world football's governing body, to protect the national identity of clubs.

The rule would force clubs to start matches with at least six players eligible to play for the national team and a maximum of just five foreigners, despite European Union law on the freedom of movement of workers.

Clubs prefer a plan put forward by European governing body UEFA which is based on a quota of players on the roster who were developed in that country, regardless of nationality.

"There is no necessity for a 6+5 rule and the organization favors instead UEFA's homegrown approach," the ECA said in a statement Tuesday.

Club delegates meeting at UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland, confirmed Karl-Heinz Rummenigge and Joan Laporta as chairman and vice chairman of the ECA.

Rummenigge, the chairman of German champion Bayern Munich, and FC Barcelona president Laporta represented clubs last month at a meeting with the European Union during which Brussels made it clear that '6+5' was unacceptable. For Full Story

Japanese player in Scotland

Now, it is to protect the national identity of clubs - yeah right! This stupid rule is discriminatory - it is even against EU rules of movement of workers can you believe this? I hope this stupid rule will never materialize. Hypocrites are alive and well in Europe. The continent is enjoying a high level of play thanks to these foreigners - how backward can their thinking be?

English Premier League Chairman Richards (PL harms England)thinks foreigners hinder the growth of local players. But victories of Italy and Spain in the World Cup and Euro respectively debunks his assertion (Italian and Spanish leagues have many imports too but manage to develop local talent).Whatever it is that prevents the English National Team from winning is definitely not the fault of foreigners but by cojones-less players abundant in their side (there's so much hubris and hype surrounding this team that they fall flat on their faces at every failure). They blame everything surrounding them (David Beckham blamed the pitch for penalty miss in Euro 2004) but themselves.

WAKE UP!!!

I complained about that racist RGMA program "Big Time Balita" and I hope the stereotyping stopped as the show was moved in the late afternoon with a new title. The Bisaya stereotype character Bai - the show's clown only appears on Saturday. I will not let say whether the hateful program has actually stopped I'll have to confirm it first. I felt relieved at the moment for its weekday program has no Bai in it and therefore no disgusting joke would come his way - after all he usually says he is the representative of the Bisaya people. However the genius at RGMA made his character dumb. So the envoy of the Bisaya is stupid as the program suggests. Though I'm not a Bisaya I was appalled by "Big Time Balita" lack of respect towards non-Tagalog Filipinos. I'll check tomorrow and I'll lash out if the outmoded comedy style is still used.

Speaking of racists clowns here is another one:

Ma. Consoliza P. Laguardia
Chairperson
Movie and Television Review and Classification Board (MTRCB)
6th Floor President Tower
#81 Timog Avenue Cornewr Sct. Ybardaloza, Quezon City
Phone: 925-5006, 925-5007

and

Purificacion C. Valera Quisumbing
Chairperson
Commission on Human Rights (CHR)
Phone: 928-5655, 926-6188, 929-0102
Email: drpvq@yahoo.com

With copy provided to the Honorable Senator Aquilino Pimentel, Jr.

This is a protest letter against the film, ‘Sakal Sakali Saklolo', written and directed by Jose Javier Reyes, which opened on 25 December 2007 in movie houses all over the Philippines, and a petition to have it banned.

Hereinbelow are some important facts.


1. There is an excerpt from the said film that goes like this:
Yaya to grandchild: "Ayaw ug dagan, basin madam-ag ka."
Grandchild: "Kadyut lang, nagduwa pa ko."
(Grandfather with bulging eyes grimaces incredulously at the Visayan words of his grandson.)
Yaya: "Anhi dinhi."
Grandmother (with a pained expression) to Grandfather: "Carlo, did you hear that?"
Mother: Ay naku Ma. Nakuha ho niya ‘yon sa yaya niya. Sinabihan na namin si Susan na huwag niyang Binibisaya si Rafa. Dapat Tagalog."
Grandmother: "But the boy should be talking in English."
Mother: "Hayaan niyo na sa eskwelahan matutunan ‘yon Ma. Dapat Tagalog kasi Pinoy ang anak namin eh."

2. The above excerpt is defamatory, discriminatory, racist, and an open insult not only to all Visayans but all non-Tagalogs as well. It conveys the message that if a person is not Tagalog or Tagalog-speaking, then he or she is not Filipino. To ask a rhetorical question, are non-Tagalogs aliens in their own country?

3. The Philippines is a member of the United Nations and thus its Government institutions including the Movie and Television Review and Classification Board (MTRCB) and Commission on Human Rights (CHR) have an obligation to implement and follow the UN's declarations. (See Appendix A) Moreover, the UN has voted to declare 2008 to be the international year of languages. The film directly contravenes UN declarations.

4. Senator Aquilino Pimentel, Jr., speaking for Visayans who have complained to him, has rightfully denounced this film in public (Annex B). In line with this correct action by the Senator, have petitioned the honorable Senator Aquilino Pimentel, Jr. to call for a Congressional hearing regarding this issue of discrimination and hatred against non-Tagalogs, and possibly sponsoring an anti-hate and anti-discrimination bill to protect the non-Tagalog peoples of the Philippines from the hatred and discrimination of Tagalistas.

We therefore protest this film and petition that it be banned from the movies and TV.

Dr. Jose Palu-ay Dacudao (sgd)
On behalf of Save Our Languages Through Federalism, Inc, Foundation (SOLFED) and myself as an individual.

You know what the movie exposed - hypocrisy. One of the film's staff is supposedly a staunch advocate of equal rights which I think is only applicable if his own kind was involved. Be more consistent next time, how can we give you equality when you can't reciprocate it with other people different from you?