Civilization

According to some historians, we are living in that part of history we can label as civilized societies. Whatever civilization means, i leave it up to Merriam and Webster. But what one writer would say as to how we can gauge the civilization of a society is by judging the nature of the crimes committed by the felons of that society. The degree of civilization is thereby measured by the heinousness of the crimes by the criminals.

I would prefer another theory on how to gauge the civilization of a society, which, in my opinion, is apt to what we are seeing and hearing nowadays.

Civilization may be measured by the headlines in the news of a society. Lately, the headlines of both print, broadcast, and radio all contain one thing: the Hayden Kho-Katrina Halili scandal.

Pathetic people, pathetic country. in spite of the pressing important concerns relating to health (AH1N1 virus), economics (low GDP forecasts), governance (Ethics complaint against Villar in the Senate), and the world (North Korea's nuclear testing), the sex-video scandal is so pervasive that Hayden's name has become a by-word and has taken a new meaning: Hayden cam = hidden cam.

Humor aside, i am in disbelief as the events in the said scandal unfold as highlighted by the press.

It's more of a chicken-or-egg analogy i think. whichever came first is anybody's guess. ditto in our case. media in the philippines, just like any business enterprise, is dictated by the all-important maxim of "maximize profit." Profit increases if sales increases and sales increases if viewership increases. and viewership increases if you show, air, or print anything related to a sensational issue like the kho-halili scandal. is it because the public wants a huge chunk of the scandal that compel the various tv stations, newspapers and am stations to put the latest of the scandal in their headlines? or is it because these sectors of media have nothing good to offer than the scandal so much so that the viewers are left with no choice but to monitor the developments between hayden and katrina.

it is just frustrating and at times, disgusting, for me and for our youth to see and hear not the more important matters in our lives but rather how good katrina and hayden can interpret the sensual song of George Michael.

There goes the civilized society called the Philippines...

Losing skid

After a long day last Wednesday, May 27, i went home the next day just in time for the 3 am championship match of the UEFA Champions League featuring two of the world's most popular football clubs--Manchester United of England and FC Barcelona of Spain. The game is expected to be witnessed by 67,000 fans at the Olympico Stadium in the Eternal City of Rome, not to mention the anticipated 150 million (yes, you read it right, million) viewers from the world over according to MasterCard.

I only became a fan of football only this year after i purchased several apparels from the Manchester United Experience store at The Venetian-Macau during our honeymoon. Fortunately, it was the homestretch of the English Premier League in England, arguably the most popular and competetive football league in the planet.

As i was following the matches of ManUnited, i began to appreciate the sport in spite of its contradictions to basketball. Just weeks ago, ManUnited clinched the title in the English Premiere League, and at the same time, FC Barcelona (or Barca for short) likewise won the trophy in the Spanish Primera Liga, in what could be the best appetizer to the much-anticipated game of the year.

And after opening the tv as soon as i reached home, the score flashed before the screen that almost made me lose my footing: FC Barcelona 1 Manchester United 0. What the **ck! Samuel Eto'o of Cameroon already scored a goal in the 10th minute. I thought, hmm..., maybe the Red Devils were merely making the match more exciting by playing catch-up ballgame as they were picked by pundits to claim their second-straight Champions League hardware. Lionel Messi, the Argentinian scorer of Barca sealed the game for the Catalans by making a header past Edwin Van der Sar and the match was over before the final whistle...

There goes my first loss of the day... Quite early literally as the game ended at around 5:30 and my head already throbbing for apparently lack of sleep. I had to sleep as I had to watch another game, basketball this time, Game 5 of the Western Conference Finals of the NBA between the Lakers of Tinseltown and the Nuggets of Denver.

I got up at around 9:30 to catch the tail-end of the first quarter with my team (ehem, the Nuggets, not Lakers) down by two.

Lo and behold, after 48 minutes of action, i suffered my second loss of the day with the Lakers taking a 3-2 advantage in their Best-of-seven series.

Two of your teams in two different sports losing on the same day is definitely a skid if you ask me... but the worst has yet to come.

Just this morning, while i and red were on our way to the office, my chauffer decided to take the counter-flow lane as we were about less than a kilometer from office only to be hit by a U-turning cab. Wham! Next thing we knew, two doors of my car need to be replaced at a staggering amount of more than P83,000.00. Thank heavens for the animal called insurance policies.

And there goes my third-straight loss... and i can only hope and pray that the skid is all but over.