Psychoanalyzing us

We are adrift in a sea of confusion. That is how best to describe the standards of Philippine sports today. Ironically, we seem to know what the problems are, but do little to remedy them. We are mired in habits that retard our growth instead of accelerate it. And we don’t know why.

Perhaps we may glean from the history that we found so boring in high school and college, and learn from it. As has been said, those who do not know their history are bound to repeat it. Let’s learn what we can before bringing this spoken curse upon ourselves.

In over 330 years of Spanish rule, we learned many things. We learn to show off, start things we couldn’t finish, and cheat as long as we didn’t get caught. Culturally, we never outgrew this training, and it is now part of our consciousness as a people. Moreover, we developed an orientation towards quick fixes and short-term solutions, which are never any good when ranged against firm foundations laid on the solid ground of planning. We rely on our native ability, and natural grace and talent. But as the other countries have progressed, we have regressed.

Let’s take an example. What do many of our sports officials do? Perpetuate themselves, all for self-aggrandizement, and financial interest. Is there really any long-range creative process in laying down blueprints for the advancement of their sports? I would love to see it. They more often than not go through the routine of perpetuating what is already there, not seeing beyond it. In "El Filibusterismo," Jose Rizal notes how, after being gone seven years, nothing has changed in his country. He was shot over a hundred years ago. Has anything really changed?

Secondly, we go for starts, never following through. The Narciso Ramos sports complex in Lingayen, Pangasinan, was a stellar attraction when it hosted the Palarong Pambansa and the MBA’s Pangasinan Presidents in the late 1990’s. Today, it is a white elephant, perched and rotting on the beach where Gen. Douglas MacArthur first came to shore. Where is the progress in that? How many more white elephants sit like graves on expensive land, built with our taxes?

In other countries, gold medallists in Southeast Asian, Asian and Olympic events are either given lifetime employment or financial security. How have we rewarded, Onyok Velasco, Pol Serrantes, Arianne Cerdeña, Paeng Nepomuceno, Bong Coo, Lydia de Vega, and others? They have had to seek sustenance elsewhere. Instead of passing on their knowledge, they have even been punished for their successes with decreased allowances, the threat of losing their hand-picked coaches, abandonment, or simple lack of attention. And how many times did we ride on their shoulders?

Let’s look at basketball, our national passion. When was the last time we had a full-time national team, almost two decades ago? Yet we proclaim that we love basketball. Our officials claim they have their hands tied, that nobody will give them players. Yet private corporations like FedEx, adidas, San Miguel Corporation and other sponsors of club teams have found players worthy of recognition, worthy to put on the tri-colors. So why are they there in the first place?

As for colonial mentality, it still lies in all the schools and PBA teams who prefer Fil-Ams over locally-bred players. We like the flash and dash, the hip-hop, street style that many of them play. Yet, all over the world, US basketball is in decline. Its players, initially a stop-gap against defeat at the Olympic level, meet success with much more difficulty, or far more infrequently now. But we still want America on our courts, even if the players aren’t good enough to play in America itself.

Splintering politics is another pastime. Whenever a Filipino loses an election, he puts up his own organization. That’s the way of the world with us. If you don’t want to play my way, I put up my own team, sticking my tongue out.

Then there’s the matter of corruption, now starting to rear its ugly head again in our leading government sports agency, if one is to believe the reports. Why is it that government appointees try to take as much as they can? Are they so afraid of how abbreviated their tenures may be that they must fill their pockets before fulfilling expectations? Why not invest in the athletes and training programs and facilities instead of new cars first?

Even with individual athletes, we still act upon the belief of "pwede na." Once a player reaches a certain level, he goes no further. His comfort zone has expanded enough. He stops going to the gym, and no longer improves. Rare is the athlete whose numbers go up after five years. So deeply ingrained are these nonsensical psychological aberrations in us that we can’t shake them. And we don’t seem to care.

When are we going to shake the indoctrination of generations past, and look ahead?

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