EDITORIAL - The in crowd

If only they had a choice. But they don’t. And so, after five golds and two silvers at the 10th World Dragon Boat Racing Championships in Florida, our dragon boat team now must endure being praised, paraded and photographed by a nation that once almost completely ignored them.

How ironic, that right at the very core of the great honor they brought home for their country, which should be cause for great celebration and happiness, lies a certain sadness born of the great fakery that surrounds the human condition.

At about the time the Philippine dragon boat team was preparing to leave for the Florida competition, almost nobody bothered to take note of the fact that they did not have the money for their air fare, equipment, and other needs.

The focus of the entire nation at the time was on the Philippine Azkals football team, guided in no small measure by the giant television network that was the team’s nursing mother. A review of the network’s video archives will probably show next to nothing about the boaters.

Luckily, a few corporate good Samaritans came to the rescue. Cobra Energy Drink took care of some of the boaters’ needs, while Philippine Airlines took on the job of flying them to the US and back.

And then, apparently learning of their plight, Filipinos in the US took care of the rest. They converged in Florida from all over the states, providing food and encouragement for their compatriots. And our paddlers responded with a performance boosted by a deep sense of gratitude.

All of a sudden, the entire nation is head over heels for the dragon boaters. They are now on everybody’s lips. They are all over the place — in the front pages, in Malacañang. And who should be in the thick of it, leading all the noise, but the giant television network itself.

As to the Azkals, after all the adulation and hype, they have all been swept aside, aided in no small measure by their early exit from the World Cup qualifiers. What a fickle world this is. And how exploitative. It is a world not even the greatest of athletes can survive in.