blackshama's commentary on Philippine issues

After Cuban jin Angel Valodia Matos gave a roundhouse kick to the head of the Swedish referee of his match, Taekwondo's prospects of being retained in the Olympics became dimmer. The world's blurbs and YouTube has carried the infamous incident whose image is iconic of being a poor sport. Matos and his coach have been banned from international competition for life. A series of bad refereeing and scoring decisions dating back from the Athens games have clouded the sport's reputation. Even our own Tshomlee Go may have been cheated of a two pointer during his match. The blurbs report that Taekwondo barely survived being taken off the Olympic calendar for London by 1 vote. With this incident it may have a harder time to get into the 2016 Olympics. Taekwondo faces stiff competition from sports that want to be included such as cricket, rugby, golf and karate. Also Wushu, China's national sport is lobbying strongly to be included. As for Wushu, we have a chance to get real gold...

First of all allow me to congratulate our Olympians in Beijing. Athletics: Marestella Torres and Henry Dagmil Boxing: Harry Tanamor Diving: Sheila Mae Perez and Rexel Ryan Fabriga Swimming: Daniel Cockley, Ryan Paolo Arabejo, Miguel Molina, James Walsh and Joan Christel Simms Weightlifting: Hidilyn Diaz Shooting: Eric Ang Archer: Mark Javier Taekwondo:Toni Rivero and Tshomlee Go For doing their best, the Philippines deserves to congratulate them. They represent really what sports mean. It really means doing your best this time and better the next, the medals are only incidentals. (BTW, I also have to congratulate our Wushu artist Willy Wang who bagged the gold! Wushu is a special event and not a demonstration sport at the Olympics. Since China is now a superpower, Wushu can be an Olympic sport in 2020!) Perhaps who really deserve the bokya are the heads of our sports associations. They have failed to get their act together everytime the Olympics come about. My sister was a national ath...

An Indian shooter bagged his nation's first individual Olympic gold in Beijing. I thought that India had been winning golds ever since it first competed in 1900. The Indian teams then were composed of Indo-British athletes. India has won a team gold in field hockey but this is the first time that an Indian won an individual gold. India is a huge country with a billion people. It is surprising that for such a big nation, it has won quite a few medals. This should give us Pinoys hope. If we try long enough, we will get that gold. I hope our Taekwondo jins, Toni Rivero and Tshomlee Go get twin golds and of course boxer Harry Tanamor gets that gold too. Arianne Cerdena bagged our first Olympic "gold" in Bowling in Seoul 1988. Bowling wasn't in the Olympic calendar and was a demonstration sport. But a gold is a gold by any other name. I recall jumping for joy in 1988 when we saw on TV her splendid last frame. We wept when the Sun and Stars were raised and Lupang Hinirang ...

Jordan, Guimaras - The hotel I am now has Solar Sports (which we don't have on SkyCable in Kyusi) which they get from Satellite TV. Back from a grueling field work day, we watched the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics . The ceremony not only was an important didactic tool for teaching the Party's version of Chinese history, but displayed the Middle Kingdom's technological savvy with that giant scroll on the Bird's Nest stadium's tarp. One thing is sure. This Olympics not only marked China's coming out party but belatedly inaugurated the Asian century. We have heard that this 21st century is Asia's but it was hard to believe that it really is until now. While Superpower Lame Duck Prez Dubya was on the reviewing stand, he didn't get as much airtime as backstage Russian Prez and now PM Vladimir Putin got when Russian athletes marched by. It was probably because as the Russians paraded along the track, their tanks paraded into Georgia ! Bush and Putin...

In light of the protests over Beijing's crackdown on Tibetan protests and the protesters' attempts to extinguish or trip the Olympic torch bearer, Jacques Rogge, International Olympic Committee (IOC) chair has spoken out. Mr Rogge called on Beijing for a "rapid, peaceful resolution" of the Tibetan problem. The IOC has finally got sense in its head! I think everyone who has competed in sport would realize what the IOC belatedly realized and the Beijing government (as well as most governments) can never realize is that sport and liberty are inseparable. The athlete wants to be better than his/her best and that can only be achieved in total freedom. This is the same freedom that citizens in democratic countries enjoy. We can thank the protesters for waking us up on that truism. Olympic sport and probably all sport has become big business and of course the politicians benefit from it. Nation-states would use sporting events as a stage to demonstrate their superiority. An ...

The Olympics have earned its share of power plays ever since the Superpowers made it a Cold War arena. We have seen the Americans and its allies boycott Moscow 1980, the Palestinians massacre Israeli athletes in Munich 1972, the Russians boycott L.A. 1984. The end of the Cold War saw almost all of the Olympic movement participate. Now with Beijing 2008, there is talk of world leaders boycotting the opening ceremony but the Olympic teams will compete. There are protests over China's appalling human rights record in Tibet and elsewhere. Since China is the new superpower to rival the US, we are not surprised at the latest protest actions. Olympic boycotts and unfurling separatist flags (banned by the IOC) at the opening rites are now passe. The protests have moved to newer ground with new techniques. One technique is to trip the torch bearer and if that doesn't work have a water pistol or a fire extinguisher and douse the Olympic flame. Well that is really assasinating the flame! ...