Sports and Humanity
I refer to the article of Joey Ramirez’ “Are Filipinos Racists?”, Rappler, August 12th and the “2014 FIBA World Cup Cancelled to Avoid More Derogatory Remarks in Case of Gilas Defeat”, sowhatsnews.wordpress.com, August 12th.
Though, the latter is a fictionalized article, a spoof and a satire, it also shows in a certain extent the thesis highlighted by the first piece.
As a philosophy teacher, a revolutionary and a radical humanist, I am categorically against all forms of discrimination, such as racism!
Hence, I condemned to the highest possible extent all of those individuals and idiotic freaks who committed acts of racism and discrimination!
Steve Connor reporting for The Independent, “A Philosophy of Sport”, January 6, 2012 noted that:
“For the Ancient Greeks, the relationship between sport and philosophy was obvious. The basis of a classical education was the alphabet plus swimming. The habits and discipline of preparing the mind and body were parallel and complementary. Plato, his name derived from platon or broad-shouldered, was an accomplished wrestler. Aristotle, an avid fan of the beauty of the pentathlete, taught at the Lyceum – itself a gymnasium.”
Plato’s Understanding of Sports
As lucidly stated by Professor Jernej Pisk, “What is Good Sport: Plato’s View”:
“For the Greeks sport was a sign of their culture and something inherent. Therefore also Plato could not avoid sport. Gymnastics and music are for him two of the oldest parts of culture. Plato found the mission of his life in political activity – in education. So he touched sport many times in his dialogs and exposed its role in the education of young people. All education is directed to the development of virtue. The value of sport is above all in development of the virtue of fortitude. This is not surprising if we recall that Greeks before Plato had understood sport as agon, that is competition for glory and honor where at the same time also courage has to be demonstrated. Plato took over this understanding of sport, he deepened it and included it in his educational system.”
Today, sport is part and parcel of the curriculum of any modern educational system. It is my view that this is the world’s way of following the Greek adage that, to have a complete individual, the person must have a healthy body, in a healthy mind, in a healthy soul.
The Question of Sportsmanship
Wikipedia define Sportsmanship (or sometimes sportspersonship) “an aspiration or ethos that a sport or activity will be enjoyed for its own sake, with proper consideration for fairness, ethics, respect, and a sense of fellowship with one’s competitors. A sore loser refers to one who does not take defeat well, whereas a good sport means being a “good winner” as well as being a “good loser””.
In general, indeed, “sportsmanship refers to virtues such as fairness, self-control, courage, and persistence…”
Fairness implies that to be a true sportsman, a competitor will abide by the rules of the game and will not resort to cheating or other forms of unjust means, just to win.
Self-control is refers to the character of the athlete. He or she must not give in to her or his emotion, especially when the contest is becoming dramatic and emotional.
Courage is the virtue that shows the person’s act of not giving up on the game until the final whistle.
While persistence, just like courage is the act of holding on to the struggle until the very end!
The FIBA Championship game between the Philippines and Iran
I congratulated the Filipinos for finally winning against the South Koreans at the semi-finals. (See my article, “Dare to Fail, Strive to Succeed: A Discourse on Life’s Struggle and the Way of the Warrior A Tribute to the Team (GILAS) Philippines”, Human Rights Online Philippines, August 11th, Etniko Bandido Infoshop, August 11th and Blog Watch Citizen Media, August 11th).
Said win gave the locals the right to meet the reigning FIBA Champion Iran in the Finals.
Though I am rooting for GILAS, as a realist, I perfectly knew that the Filipinos must exert all efforts in order to defeat these big men.
Though, the Philippines lost to Iran, I have nothing but respect and admiration to our players. They fought the Iranians tooth and nail. We are the only team that gave them a hard time. We lost, but we kept our head high!
Some bastard Filipinos’ Racism and Discrimination
I would like to reiterate my condemnation of those racists, idiots and bigots that destroys the beauty, not only of sports but of humanity.
To quote from Joey Ramirez:
Online Offense
“Then the online onslaught began. I suddenly saw posts crying foul.
“One by one, I saw status updates that focused on how the Iran basketball team “smelled” and that we would have won had our players worn gas masks. There were memes posted about how it was a battle of Puso (heart) vs. Putok (body odor), and how it was natural for the latter to win.
“Another faction complained about the height of the Iranian players, and how “unfair” this was for our boys.
“The worst of the lot was when people started singling out individual players, calling them “yucky looking” and at least three people mentioning a particular player, saying that “you look like a pedophile!”
“This might be a good time to talk about Pinoy Pride.”
Comment:
I would like to commend the author for writing this article and so as Rappler for publishing this piece.
I condemn those creatures who unjustly said that the Iranians as “smelly”, that they have “body odor” and that the Filipinos should have wore gas masks in facing them!
All of these comments are examples of below the belt pronouncements. These are all perfect example of character assassination. These are clear cut discrimination. This is racism. Worst, this is racism in its worst form!
In Logic, this is a perfect example of the fallacy of argumentum ad hominem.
If those idiots are proud to call themselves as Filipinos, then I am ashamed to call myself one. Shame on them and shame on us!
To that faction who complained about the height of our opponent, he or she or they just shown their idiocy and ignorance. The game of basketball is not only being decided by height, but also by speed, shooting accuracy, stamina, will-power, determination, etc.
Our boys may be “small”, but I certainly believe that they have big hearts and giant spirits.
Those idiots who engaged in name-calling and unjust accusation such as calling some Iranian players as “yucky looking” and “you look like a pedophile!” are bastard bigots of the worst kind.
Question
Do we have no sexual monsters here? Is this country free of criminals? Has that idiot forgotten that our country did possess the worst politicians in the entire planet?
Indeed, “this might be a good time to talk about Pinoy Pride.”
What does that mean? Does it mean that we are proud of lampooning and disparaging other people?
Does it mean that we are happy to attack other people below the belt?
Does it mean that to protect our “pride” we must engaged in slandering our people?
Hell no! I do not think so!
As the author further asserted:
“It’s a nebulous concept at best, because I subscribe to the late George Carlin’s philosophy: why be proud for something you were born into? Just as you happened to be a certain height, you also happened to be born in the Philippines. It is not an “achievement” to be paraded around.
“When people win in, say, international singing contests, I attribute it to that person’s personal singing talent and the hard work s/he put into it. I never understood the idea that it’s because “galing yan sa Pinas kasi!” (he/she is from the Philippines) – we barely have enough facilities for basic education, much less support for something viewed as “extras” like the arts. It has always felt like nakikisakay tayo, us piggybacking on the coattails of someone’s personal achievement.
“And when things don’t go our way, we are quick to view it as luto (a done deal); or we were singled out because of our color/nationality; and how discriminated we are on the world stage.”
Comment:
I overwhelmingly concur with the author’s concurrence with George Carlin’s philosophy!
Why should we be proud that we were born in a specific country? Should we also be proud that we were born tall? Or that we were born with fine features?
Myopic thinking like these clearly shows the arrogance and ignorance of people or rather creatures, such as those damned Filipino racists and idiotic bigots!
They failed to realize that nationality, color of skin, gender, sex, etc. are mere baggage or labels! They are just historical accident. It is NOT these things that will definitely define us in the final analysis but rather our virtue and character!
To quote from my article, “The true spirit of the Olympics and China’s approach”, The China Daily Mail, August 7, 2012:
“The Olympic Games is the Celebration of the Human Spirit, not merely the pursuit of the gold medal — that is my central message!
“Beyond the medals and the victory, what is also at stake at the said event is to highlight the indomitability of the human will, the tenacity of the spirit of the various athletes, their ways of conquering their limitations and fears, to emphasise the courage of all the players to go out and participate in the spirit of universal and international brotherhood through sports, to applaud the winners and achievers, to again and again to commend the braveness of the heart and unshakable value of the human spirit!
“The Olympic Games, as envisioned by the ancient Greeks, is not being held, simply to boast and/or to brag, who among the nation-participants have the largest/biggest medals harvested or captured; rather it is a celebration of manifesting the nobility of the boldness of man, his resilience, his passion and controlled fury, his willingness to go on regardless and irrespective of the result. That is the primordial point!
“It is a celebration of the courage, dignity and tenacity of man under pressure, in pain — both in defeat and in triumph!!!
“As the time-honoured principle of sportsmanship kept on reminding us:
“It doesn’t matter whether you win or lose the game; what matters most in the end is how you played the game!”
A Filipino who won abroad whether in a sports competition or a singing contest or whatever, won not because he or she is a Filipino but because he or she excelled in the said sport! The same is true with beauty contest. The contestant won because of her inner beauty and her brilliance not because of her nation or country. Yes, she is carrying the nation on her shoulder, yet at the actual competition, she can only rely upon herself.
We hate discrimination, yet some of our stupid citizens also love to discriminate. This is a shame!
Remember that bastard TV personality who alluded to the Vice-President of this country as “maiitim at maliliit na mga maligno (dark, little ghouls).”
This recently concluded midterm election, when Nancy Binay run for senator she was attacked viciously because of the color of her skin!
This is a shame!
I have no issue with the right of the people to attack her and question her, but do so responsibly and intellectually! Attack her educational attainment and question her qualification and competence, but not, never the complexion of her skin or her facial features.
Perhaps, some of our people are like this because we lack education and appreciation of the arts, humanities and other social science subjects, yet how would you explain those commentators who appear to be “educated”, yet their education failed to stop them from uttering, shouting, writings and worst, posting their racist and discriminatory remarks?
My view is that those idiots by nature are scoundrels and creatures that utterly lack good moral character!
The Greeks firmly believe that one’s physical prowess is nothing if it is not accompanied by a strong moral constitution and tampered by humility, justice, temperance and the virtue of character.
Are Filipinos Racists?
As Joey Ramirez further stated:
“I know this makes many people uncomfortable, but harping about achievements being dependent on one’s nationality lends itself to racism quite seamlessly. It can’t be helped – if we think that our pride is based on nationality – then any “infraction” is seen as an insult and an attack on this form of pride.
“Which then lends itself also to direct this “infraction” as a racist attack towards others who are seen as the “perpetrators” – and in last night’s case, to insult and disparage the Iranian basketball team that has somehow “wounded” our national pride.
“We feel justified in calling them foul-smelling and in declaring that we should wear protective gear should we come into physical proximity with them.
“We think we raise ourselves up by putting down others for the supposed “characteristics” of another country, as in “everyone knows they all smell bad!”
“We think nothing of calling someone as resembling a pedophile, as if it was a function of nationality, disregarding the fact that every country has its own share of offenders, sexual or otherwise.
“We disrespect the hard work that others have put into their profession – and they just happened to be Iranian, or Chinese, or some other nationality – and instead, label their victories as “cheating” because of their height, or some other physical characteristic that everyone knows would be a boon before stepping into the game.
“We disrespect ourselves, when we imply – actually, we went past implying and stated it outright – that our team didn’t win because of a lack of gas masks, negating and belittling how hard they have worked to get to where they are.
“We feel entitled because of where we were born, and not because of determination, hard work and perseverance.
“Until we celebrate achievement for being the product of hard work, I fear this country will remain stunted, substituting racism for pride.”
Sad but true, but some of our people are bastard racists, bigots and discriminative freaks! I condemn them all!
Nonetheless, let me state for purposes of the records that majority of the Filipinos are not like those creatures!
We are not racist!
We are known all over the world as one of the kindest, warmest and friendliest bunch of people on this planet.
On behalf of the majority of the good Filipinos, let me apologize to all people and nationalities who were offended and hurt by the stupid, preposterous and utterly idiotic acts committed by some of our citizens!
We disowned their ignorance, their idiocy and discrimination!
We condemn, not merely criticize their racism and bigotry!
We are brothers! We are One!
Jose Mario Dolor De Vega
Philosophy lecturer
Polytechnic University of the Philippines
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