A superstitious nation

SAN FRANCISCO – Shocked as most Filipinos back home with the Pac Man’s knockout defeat in the hands of his Mexican opponent, the local Pinoy community here is also looking for reasons why it happened. Once upon a time subjects of the Spanish crown, Pinoys and Mexicans here have a rather unique relationship. The competitive cheering between the two camps every time Pacquiao fights Mexican opponents shows a fierce rivalry. But they can be strongly united as when Jessica Sanchez needed help to win American Idol.

The Mexicans are understandably jubilant with the outcome of last Sunday’s fight. On the other hand, we were desperately trying to find an explanation for the defeat. Not surprisingly for us, there has to be some supernatural explanation for the defeat.

That’s the superstitious Pinoy way of thinking. Never mind that Pac Man lost because he didn’t prepare as well as he should have. Never mind that Pacquiao himself admitted post fight that he had been overconfident. A few noted that our Pambansang Kamao had been distracted by so many things lately. He no longer had the single minded focus needed to win fights. He has become a fat cat. But his opponent seemed a lot hungrier than he was about winning.

There were those who thought Pacquiao lost because the visit of Mitt Romney, a loser, jinxed him. Pac Man’s mother thought her son lost because he changed religion. Others said he lost because he didn’t wear the rosary around his neck like he used to. He also had a Christian born again service instead of the usual Holy Mass before his fight.

That sounds pretty much like that Catholic bishop who said the devastating Typhoon Pablo happened because Congress was on the verge of passing the RH bill. One would expect such simplistic explanations of tragic events from Aling Dionesia, but coming from a Church leader who should know better is unforgivable.

 The thing is… misinformation appears to be the name of the game these days. Bishops use superstition among other propaganda techniques to scare politicians and ordinary folks into submission. Some claim the RH bill is a ploy to depopulate the country. Or you have politicians like Johnny Ponce Enrile erroneously claiming the RH bill will work against our economy because OFWs are our principal exports as if we want to forever send our people abroad and break up families in search of jobs our leaders can’t create at home.

The worse is that Catholic bishop who claimed Pablo’s destruction is God’s punishment for a people, surveys show overwhelmingly want the RH bill passed. I have been a Catholic all my life, but I do not think of an Old Testament vengeful God this Catholic bishop is foisting on us. I look at the Cross and I know all the lightning and thunder of the Old Testament are over. The Cross has redeemed us and our Savior ever patiently waits for us to come to our senses and follow him.

But folk Catholicism has strongly taken hold and our Catholic leadership is just too afraid or too lazy to rock the boat. So our bishops would rather abet if not encourage fanaticism and idolatry among our people. The superstition that overrides needed rational approaches to development explains why most of our people are unable to break out of poverty.

As the Pacquiao phenomena illustrates, we have become a nation hungry for idols we can look up to. While there is no doubt that the PacMan’s rise to fame is inspiring, we end there. We instead bestowed celebrity status on the fighter … something superficial. No one gets inspired enough to try as hard as Pacquiao did to attain his full potential. We just buy and wear t-shirts with his face, get his autograph and form a fans club.

It is unfortunate that most would think of Pacquiao’s success as luck that is not much different from winning the lotto which explains the large troupe of hangers-on hungry for balato.  Thus, when he fell face down cold on the canvass, many see it as his luck merely running out...or because he ceased being a Catholic. Few would think that perhaps Pacquiao deserved to lose because he didn’t prepare as hard as his opponent to win. Sure to come home with as much as $30 million win or lose, the motivation was no longer as strong to earn the continuing respect of the fans.

 Superstitions however need not be limited to religion. There are many superstitions too in the formulation of economic policies that hinder our ability to keep pace with our tiger economy neighbors. Some of these are even enshrined in our Constitution. Economic protectionism is really a superstition our leaders are afraid to challenge. Yet, it has so retarded our progress and must be confronted and done away with.

 Then there is this thing about land reform as our current law prescribes it. It actually keeps farmers in poverty but there is this strong superstition about its ability to promote social justice. Even the Church insists it must be pursued unquestionably. Fresh thinking would have made us learn from the continued failure of the concept but this economic and social superstition makes us stubbornly extend a failed law. This irrational thinking is certainly no different from the many other superstitions that rule our lives.

 There is no doubt some things in life defy rational explanations. But there are also many things that can be explained if we used our brains the way our God intended us to. In many cases, winning boxing matches, minimizing the deadly impact of natural calamities and breaking out of poverty require a people working with a strong determination to produce a desired outcome.

 A country does not become a first world nation simply because they were lucky or were favored by God. A fighter does not become a world champion simply because he got lucky even if such may have some role. I believe it would please our God if we looked more into what we have done with shaping our lives rather than just believe luck and fate are all that matters.

 Reports have it that our nation is in a state of mourning for Pacquiao’s loss. If we should mourn at all, it should be because his loss and Pablo’s devastation showed a failure to influence the outcome of these events a little more strongly by having done more to prepare for these events. Pacquiao should have trained better. Our government and our communities should have had better disaster risk plans. A vengeful God did not punish us. We did it to ourselves.

Mga Kapitbahay

Jose Villaescusa sent this one:

JUN: Pre, pinagtatawanan ka ng mga kapitbahay mo ah… ang ingay nyo daw mag-lambingan ng misis mo kagabi!

CHITO: Hahaha...gago ba sila? Eh wala naman ako sa bahay kagabi!

Boo Chanco’s e-mail address is [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @boochanco