In the last few weeks in the United Kingdom, the reading public has been treated to a raft of sensational stories, all purporting to be in the interests of the public good.
First, there was the sting involving the England football coach, Sven Goran Eriksson, who was invited by a reporter from the “News of the World” tabloid to come to Dubai, on the pretext that the latter was a “sheikh” who was interested in opening a football academy in the emirate, and wanted Eriksson’s advice on managing it. The Swedish coach, thinking this was a legitimate business opportunity for him, went along for the ride.
And boy, what a ride it turned out to be!
The coach was wined and dined by the fake sheikh, during which he was asked “private” questions on various things - from his plans after the World Cup, his thoughts on his players and his views on the English football scene. All along his responses were videotaped and recorded, and were then sensationally “revealed” to the British public in typical tabloid style.
The resulting fallout was toxic.
Eriksson was baited into thinking that the sheikh was interested in buying an existing English club (Aston Villa) and asked if he might be interested in managing it if offered the job after the World Cup was over. Sensing an opportunity in the hypothetical query, he answered positively to the overture, i.e. he would consider it. This was not the end of his woes yet.
When asked what he thought of his team, he remarked that some of them were less hardworking than others, etc. As a final blow, when asked about the state of English football, his reply was that he thought it was rampant with corruption, with managers and agents involved in huge kickbacks and payoffs with players moves and transfers.When all these revelations came out in the papers, the man was crucified. Many called for his head to be on the chopping block, notwithstanding the fact that in five months’ time, the tournament that this whole nation has been waiting for will kick-off in Germany, with Eriksson’s team among the early favorites to come home with the crown.
POLITICS. On the political front, Britain’s third largest political party, the Liberal Democrats, was marooned in a press storm of its own. First its leader Charles Kennedy was forced to resign due to revelations that he was a recovering (yes, recovering!) alcoholic. As if this was not enough, one of the frontrunners to replace him in the party leadership was exposed as being gay and associating with male consorts. Of course, tragedy always strikes in threes because what happened next was that another senior frontrunner was also revealed to be gay, and sadly, also happily married with children.
In both instances, the tabloid media has been instrumental in revealing the salacious details to a news-hungry public. In fact in one case, it went out of its way to create the news, rather than just report it.
All these of course are justified on the bases that it is “in the interest of the public” that these stories are published.
But what public good is conceivably being served here? If anything, Eriksson’s men may feel that much less motivated now, after hearing from third party sources what he has supposedly said about them. And the fact that their coach is now definitely leaving after the World Cup is over may not make him work as hard as he would otherwise have, to win the crown. After all, he may still be bitter after being betrayed by the English press.
(More on this next week)
Published in the Sun.Star Cebu newspaper on January 28, 2006.
Saturday, 28 January 2006
Wednesday, 4 January 2006
A day without a Filipino
In 2004, the movie, “A Day Without A Mexican,” was shown in the United States. The film’s plot dealt with a hypothetical situation that many Americans cannot even contemplate happening today - what would it be like in the state of California if all the Mexican-Americans living in the state today (all one-third of the state’s population) suddenly disappeared. Without a trace and without any explanation.
One day, all the nannies, gardeners, pool cleaners, storekeepers and, of course, professionals of all careers and fields of endeavor that have helped the state run smoothly all these years were nowhere to be found. Of course, the result was total chaos and dysfunction.
The film was meant to be humorous and tongue-in-cheek, but underneath the comedy was a very serious reality — the economy of the state of California, and indeed many states in the US, was being run by immigrant labor. From California in the east to New York in the west, the American economic machine would cease to function if there were no immigrant workers to do the critical jobs necessary to make it run.
One can easily substitute the world “Mexican” in the film to “Filipino” and no one would probably notice the switch. For that matter we can extend the state of California to include most of the Middle East, many countries in Europe and majority of the United States — and the hypothesis of the movie would still stand.
Quietly, but efficiently and with total dedication and commitment, we Filipinos can be very proud of the role we play in today’s global economy. In airport duty free shops, massive oil tankers and containers ships, inside blue chip corporations, working in schools and universities and, of course, running hospitals and critical health care facilities — we Filipinos are everywhere doing critical and value-adding roles that make the world run smoothly.
In our little corner of Stockport in northwest England, in our own small way, we carry on the role that so many of our brothers and sisters perform in most parts of the world. Health care professionals, most of us, we keep the folk of the Northwest hale and healthy that they may themselves perform the various roles that they do in the community.
We are in information technology too, designing websites that help businesses in the area advertise their products and services to the world. We are even in management, looking after markets and territories far beyond the confines of English shores.
Whatever it is that we do — whether assisting in an operating theatre, designing a state of the art website, developing strategies for a global organization, whipping up fantastic culinary creations or working in a learning institution — we do so with the same enthusiasm and dedication that have made us favorites the world over, including here in our corner of the United Kingdom.
This much-admired work ethic is due to our faith and spirituality as a people.
Whether it is Hong Kong, Geneva or Stockport the best place to meet and greet fellow Filipinos is in the Church. Wherever we are in the world we always strive to preserve our faith — and in keeping with its teachings — express it with the example and witness of our own lives.
Small wonder then that one day without a Filipino — wherever it may be in the world — will be one day nobody would like to experience.
GREETINGS: Warmest greetings to the Parish of St. Chad’s in Cheadle, Cheshire (United Kingdom) on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of its founding.
Published in the Sun Star Daily, Saturday, April 01, 2006 (http://www.sunstar.com.ph/static/ceb/2006/04/01/bus/batuhan.a.day.without.a.filipino.html)
One day, all the nannies, gardeners, pool cleaners, storekeepers and, of course, professionals of all careers and fields of endeavor that have helped the state run smoothly all these years were nowhere to be found. Of course, the result was total chaos and dysfunction.
The film was meant to be humorous and tongue-in-cheek, but underneath the comedy was a very serious reality — the economy of the state of California, and indeed many states in the US, was being run by immigrant labor. From California in the east to New York in the west, the American economic machine would cease to function if there were no immigrant workers to do the critical jobs necessary to make it run.
One can easily substitute the world “Mexican” in the film to “Filipino” and no one would probably notice the switch. For that matter we can extend the state of California to include most of the Middle East, many countries in Europe and majority of the United States — and the hypothesis of the movie would still stand.
Quietly, but efficiently and with total dedication and commitment, we Filipinos can be very proud of the role we play in today’s global economy. In airport duty free shops, massive oil tankers and containers ships, inside blue chip corporations, working in schools and universities and, of course, running hospitals and critical health care facilities — we Filipinos are everywhere doing critical and value-adding roles that make the world run smoothly.
In our little corner of Stockport in northwest England, in our own small way, we carry on the role that so many of our brothers and sisters perform in most parts of the world. Health care professionals, most of us, we keep the folk of the Northwest hale and healthy that they may themselves perform the various roles that they do in the community.
We are in information technology too, designing websites that help businesses in the area advertise their products and services to the world. We are even in management, looking after markets and territories far beyond the confines of English shores.
Whatever it is that we do — whether assisting in an operating theatre, designing a state of the art website, developing strategies for a global organization, whipping up fantastic culinary creations or working in a learning institution — we do so with the same enthusiasm and dedication that have made us favorites the world over, including here in our corner of the United Kingdom.
This much-admired work ethic is due to our faith and spirituality as a people.
Whether it is Hong Kong, Geneva or Stockport the best place to meet and greet fellow Filipinos is in the Church. Wherever we are in the world we always strive to preserve our faith — and in keeping with its teachings — express it with the example and witness of our own lives.
Small wonder then that one day without a Filipino — wherever it may be in the world — will be one day nobody would like to experience.
GREETINGS: Warmest greetings to the Parish of St. Chad’s in Cheadle, Cheshire (United Kingdom) on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of its founding.
Published in the Sun Star Daily, Saturday, April 01, 2006 (http://www.sunstar.com.ph/static/ceb/2006/04/01/bus/batuhan.a.day.without.a.filipino.html)
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