What One Man Truly Represents To A Country

The hope and pride that represents the Philippines stands at 5'7" and 135 lbs. No, it is not their President. It is the man they call Manny 'Pac-Man' Pacquiao.

This was Pacquiao's first match as a lightweight boxer. He was previously boxing as a featherweight boxer. In order to be in the lightweight class, Pacquiao had to gain pounds of muscle until he reached the 135 lb. limit. He was fighting for the WBC lightweight championship against title holder David Diaz. Diaz's record before the bout was 32-1-1, as Pacquiao's record was 46-3-2.

I've seen highlights of many boxing matches, but watching Pacquiao was a highlight in itself. The man can flat out box. He is just ridiculously quick, great recovery speed, VERY evasive. Just an unbelievable athlete. Once he throws in a haymaker that connects, MANY, MANY more follow. The man is a southpaw boxer (left-handed), but he was just dominating with his right against Diaz. Diaz at times threw in some pretty good power punches, but the Pac-Man was just way too quick.

The match ended in a 9 round knockout when he landed a left-hook to the side of the face of Diaz who fell face first into the mat. The Pride of the Philippines (current record is now 47-3-2) stood tall to the elated Filipino crowd in attendance, raising the Filipino flag, and became the new WBC lightweight champion.

At first glance, the man with a charming looks like just another hard-working and innocent Filipino. But behind his 'pogi' (handsome in Tagalog) face, contains a fierce boxing champion.

Today, I was over at a neighbor's house to experience and watch this phenomena that is the sport of boxing. It was not until the actual match that I realize how Pacquiao meant to the country of the Philippines. Watching the family and friends that surrounded me, it seemed as if they were witnessing a suspense film. They were at the edge of their seat the whole time; leaping for joy and yells of "hit him in the head" (spoken in Tagalog of course, I just don't know it) for every blow Pacquiao delivered. And for every blow delivered to the Pac-Man, was a blow to the cheerful attitude to everyone in the room which triggered the emotional outbursts of "oh no!" and "oh shit!"

It was not only a victory for the prized champion, but a victory to those who were watching as everyone felt that they were in that ring themselves. To Filipinos everywhere, Pacquiao is more than just a boxer from the Philippines. He is the hope, pride and joy of the whole country. Albeit, the country has dealt with a corrupt government and relentless destruction caused by bagyos (typhoons in the Philippines) over the years, but the sun has never shined so bright than it has today. Pacquiao represents what Filipino citizens are. High-spirited champions that keep on fighting, never letting anything get in their way.

Every hardship that the country has encountered can easily be forgotten for every hard-fought win Pacquiao brings home. But even if he does lose a match once in a rare while, Filipinos will always give their heart and soul to support the lone man who not only fights for himself, but fights for each of the 97+ million citizens in the Philippines and the 4 million Filipinos in America. For every jab, hook and punch thrown by Pacquiao, the morale of the country gets higher and higher. Given that the state of the country is in poverty, Paquiao just proves that pride has no cost, it's priceless.

How Cool! That Dude Just Got Hit By A Car!

Late last week, there was a 78 year old man in Connecticut who got hit by a car. He was walking across a busy street when he became a victim of a hit-and-run accident.

There is video that has been released by police and audio of 911 calls of the accident. In the video, you can clearly see the man jaywalking on the busy street. Then seconds later, you see a car crossing the double yellow line and hitting the man, hurling him into the air and laying helplessly on the street. The car did not stop, as it just drove continuously and turned on a nearby street.

It is also shown in the video that it looks like some kind of chase between two cars. After the first car hits the man, you can see that there is another car that is directly following the first. It crosses the double yellow line, just like the first car and turns where the first car turns. So there clearly is another story to this between the car chase.

Now, that is just two of the only immoral acts in this video (1. hit-and-run, 2. crossing over the double yellow line and driving on the opposite side of the road and endangering oncoming traffic, including the chase). The third is the most shocking and despicable.

After the man had been hit by the car, he is shown laying there on the street as bystanders watch on the side walk. According to reports, police have been called and were on their way. What's shocking about this is that there were clearly witnesses, but no one goes up to help the man or carry him to the side walk to avoid him being hit for a second time.

There is a concept to this called the bystander effect. People are less likely to help someone in distress when they are in the presence of other bystanders than when they are alone. There are a couple of reasons why people have this effect. One could be that they do not want to look stupid in trying to help a person. Second could be that they believe someone else has already called for help or will help. Third could be that no one wants to be responsible if something fatal happens to the person they tried to help.

Good Samaritan laws are placed in the United States which protect people from being held accountable should something happen to the person they try to aid. It also protects them from being sued or prosecuted against in case death or unintentional injury results from trying to aid the victim.

It comes to my attention that people are too caught up in their selfishness or self-consciousness to help someone in need of it. Noted that people do not want to be responsible for anything that happens to the victim should they help. But couldn't anyone at least try to get him out of the road?

In the video, you can see all the people on the surrounding sidewalks just gazing at the paralyzed man. There are even people who walk up to him to see if hes alright, but then go on about their business. Seriously, are people just too caught up in their own selfishness that they can't even help others in danger? Does no one even care about helping others? Or at the very least, help them so they are out of the way of danger?

Surely, there will be someone to call 911. Anyone can do that in a cell phone-ridden age. But the act of physically helping someone? Not in this day and age. Anything out of the ordinary is just a form of entertainment to the people that just watch from the sidelines. They whip out their camera phone, send it to everyone they know, drawing out a reaction of "oh my god" or "how cool". It's all just another movie to these insensitive and immoral assholes we call human beings.

Calling 911 is something anyone with a phone can do. But just standing there, not making an effort to help someone is just cold. And just downright selfish. If someone is too concerned with looking stupid to help someone, they do not deserve to have anything good happen to them.

Watching someone get hit by a car to these bystanders means nothing to them. There is no sympathy or compassion being felt at all. It's just the excitement of witnessing something that is seen in movies. Do people know nothing about morality anymore? I know that there are no moral classes being taught in school. Morality is acquired by the individual. They know what they consider what is right and what is wrong.

Just take note of what the bystander effect shows what people really are. Conformists. Sheep. "Oh hey, they're not doing anything, they're just standing there. I will to. Because I am a fucking sheep and a selfish son of a bitch."

So next time some man flies ten feet in the air, pull up a chair, grab some popcorn, and enjoy the 45 seconds of entertainment in front of your eyes. Don't bother going out of your way to help that man. If no one does, why should you right?

Concert Review-65daysofstatic at Chain Reaction 6-02-08

Monday night....what can I say, it was AMAZING. I can't say that all of it was though....

The night took place at the very generic post-hardcore/hardcore all ages venue in Anaheim, CA called Chain Reaction. I haven't been to that place in like 2 years...when I listened to not so good music. Anyway, I thought it was a strange venue for 65daysofstatic to play....since there are NEVER any post-rock or instrumental bands that play there.

The first two bands were the epitome of the type of bands play at Chain Reaction, pure shit. The first band, Atikan, were just your bland post-hardcore band that sound JUST LIKE EVERYONE ELSE! It's like they broke off the Vans Warped Tour tree and landed in a pile of dung. There's already like 50 bands that sound like you, shitty song structures, bad singing, a weak breakdown here and there. The sing said that Chain Reaction was a pretty far place to drive to and felt like they have been driving for 50 hours. Well next time, just drive into a large body of water and drown.

The next band was this trying-to-be-experimental band Set to Sea. There lyrics were, as my friend Ray described it, three word chants. The vocalist was very whiney. VERY whiney. It was just disgusting. I will sum them up in multiple three word phrases, like their songs. Just terrible music. Sucked really bad. Tried too hard. Horrible horrible lyrics. No one cares.

And another thing that pissed me off about both bands. THEY DID NOT EVEN ACKNOWLEDGE 65DAYSOFSTATIC. THE VERY BAND THEY DID NOT DESERVE TO OPEN FOR. How ignorant can a band be to not even give a shout out to the band that they are opening for? Do they have some kind of rock star attitude where it is all about them? The only time I will ever care about this band is if their van flips, for I will celebrate in happiness.

On to the headliner. 65daysofstatic is such a unique band blending perfectly together the genres of electronica and post-rock. They brought so much energy and very sincere with the small crowd. They played around 8-9 songs, mainly from their latest album "The Destruction of Small Ideas". The guitarists were great and the drummer was so good. He played along with the drum samples and played with it in time! Which is very hard to do. Very impressed by this band live. They even played a couple of dance-beat interludes between each song which got the crowd to move. One downside though is that there actually was a mosh pit during one of their songs. Only in a city filled with bros and scene kids would do such a thing. Some songs they played live were "Primer", "Radio Protector", "A Failsafe", and "Retreat! Retreat!". The last song they played, "These Things You Can't Unlearn" had a very notable highlight. As the song was ending, the drummer Rob just flipped his whole drumset and throwing all his cymbals to the floor. What passion! It was amazing! They were just flawless live and Chain Reaction should have been honored to host such a band.

I took video of six songs which I post later. I only have two pictures, their setlist they gave me and signed and a picture of their flipped drumset.

Next time this band rolls through town, I suggest you see them! This show was their headlining show and an off-date of their tour. They are currently opening for The Cure.



Check out the videos here:
"When We Were Younger & Better"

"These Things You Can't Unlearn"

"Radio Protector"

"Primer"

"A Failsafe"