Life changes can happen in an instant. Nowhere is this more evident than in the Beijing Olympics, where the amazing record-breaking achievements of world-class athletes like American swimmer Michael Phelps, with seven gold medals and counting, are attained with only fractions of a second to spare. For instance, Phelps roared back from seventh place at the 50-meter mark to out-touch Serb Milorad Cavic by one-one hundredths of a second to win his seventh gold medal, tying Mark Spitz’s record haul from the 1972 Munich Games.

But misfortune also takes mere seconds to unfold. Behind the glitter and hoopla of the “greatest show on earth”, are tragedies which occur without warning, changing people’s lives forever. American tourist Todd Bachman, father of former UCLA All-American and 2004 volleyball Olympian Elisabeth “Wiz” Bachman McCutcheon, was killed while sightseeing in Beijing by a 47-year-old, knife-wielding Chinese assailant, who later committed suicide by leaping 130 feet from a balcony on the 13th-century Drum Tower, located 5 miles from the Olympic Games site. His wife was gravely injured, although Elisabeth was unharmed.

Surely one of the more poignant tales behind the Olympics is that of Chinese dancer Liu Yan, who was seriously injured during a rehearsal for the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympic games just days before the show, and faces the prospect of being paralyzed for the rest of her life. Considered one of the country’s top classical Chinese dancers, Liu Yan, a graduate of the prestigious Beijing Dance Academy, was preparing for the performance of a lifetime: the only solo dance in a four-hour spectacular that was expected to be seen by a global audience of more than one billion people. During a rehearsal, she leaped toward a moving platform that malfunctioned and plunged about 10 feet into a shaft, landing on her back and breaking her spine. Read the rest of this entry »

Suddenly, there’s a lot of hype about a possible big-ticket fight between the Pacman and the Golden Boy. After initial reports that Manny Pacquiao’s next bout will be with Umberto Soto, Edwin Valero or even Ricky Hatton, talk has now shifted to a match between the two most “marketable” boxers in the world today, Manny and Oscar De La Hoya. With the emphasis on marketable.

Pacquiao trainer Freddy Roach, explaining why he would choose Oscar de la Hoya over Humberto Soto for Manny Pacquiao’s next opponent, bluntly said that it’s all about the money:
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Here are my forecasts for the next half of 2008, and I feel gloomy just thinking about most of them.

1. More Oil Price Increases – a worldwide trend with no let-up in sight. I get a fever every time I go to the gas station. Unleaded is now P60.00 plus per liter at the pump and rising weekly. Crude hit a new record high of U.S.$ 143/barrel and keeps climbing. It will get worse in the last quarter as winter approaches. I fear we will hit the nightmare scenario of U.S. $ 200.00/barrel sooner than predicted.

2. Food prices and other basic commodities will increase - a no- brainer. The effect of rising energy costs, combined with other factors like increased demand and diminished production, will drive up the inflation rate, which in Metro Manila has reached double digits. Expectedly, food will exhibit the steepest price increase. The negative impact on overall income due to inflation will naturally lead to a drop in personal consumption. Which will in turn slow down the economy etc., etc. ad nauseum. Read the rest of this entry »

Manny Pacquiao knocked out Mexican-American David Diaz in the 9th round to grab the WBC lightweight championship in Las Vegas and become the first Asian to hold four different titles at different weights and the first Filipino to hold the crown. Even the late, great Gabriel “Flash” Elorde failed in his 2 attempts to wrest the world lightweight crown.

An animated Diaz, surprising for someone who just kissed the canvas, admitted after the fight that he never saw Pacquiao’s right-left jab combination coming and walked right into it. Diaz was lavish in his praise of Pacquiao. Manny won it on speed and accuracy, rather than power, putting to rest speculations that he might have slowed down as he went up a heavier weight class. He also mixed a solid body attack with combination shots to the head, but the sturdy Diaz refused to go down. Until the decisive 9th round.

It was a battle of lefties, and Manny outfoxed Diaz by coming out with his “secret weapon”, a crushing right jab which he followed with his left, thereby putting his opponent off guard. Pacquiao first snapped Diaz’s head with a mean right jab, moved in closer to his opponent and unleashed a 1-2 combo capped by a powerful left cross that decked Diaz. In Diaz’ words:

He was fucking fast, I didn’t see [the left hand] coming.

Boxing writers have dubbed Pacquiao the “Mexecutioner“, for obvious reasons. Read the rest of this entry »

Typhoon Frank (international code name: Fengshan) hit the Visayas region yesterday, killing at least 17 with scores missing, including the passengers of an inter-island ferry which sank off Sibuyan Island in Romblon province, and continues to lash Luzon as I write this. Thankfully, while it slammed Metro Manila full force early this morning , with maximum winds of 120 kph and gustiness of up to 150 kph., our abode suffered no damage as far as I can see. It blew part of the roof off the church annex being built across the street, but spared our house. The debris now hangs across the utility wires adjacent to our neighbor’s house. It could have hit our residence but didn’t, thanks to divine providence.

Read also: Typhoon Frank, the MV Princess of the Stars Tragedy and the Culture of Disaster

My good fortune was compounded when I found this video in the Far East Economic Review’s Travellers’ Tales while surfing. In the run-off to the Beijing Olympics in August, the Chinese have set new standards for taste and class in promoting the games, this time involving around 1,200 girls forming the iconic Olympic rings.

Something to brighten up an otherwise gray day. Such is life.