What use is another world crown if our national crown is damaged?

“I prefer to be alive, so I'm cautious about taking risks.”

—Werner Herzog

 

By Alex P. Vidal

 

DO we really need another world boxing crown? Why not if it will catapult the Philippines back to limelight?

But do we need to sacrifice a national crown for that additional world crown?

Of course not. Manny Pacquiao (62-8-2, 39 KOs) is the Philippines’ national crown, a sports treasure who has been inducted into boxing’s Hall of Fame on June 8, 2025.

It should have been enough. Being enshrined in the Hall of Fame is already worth more than another world crown at this stage of Pacquiao’s life.

But the story did not end there.

The 46-year-old former Philippine senator will climb back the ring to face 30-year-old Mario Barrios (29-2-1, 18 KOs) for the 12-round WBC welterweight belt at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas on July 19, 2025.

The former eight-division titlist from Saranggani province in Mindanao retired from prizefighting after losing to Yordenis Ugas (27-6, 12 KOs) by 12-round unanimous decision for WBA 147-lb crown on August 21, 2021.

 

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But the WBC and the Nevada State Athletic Commission (NSAC) agreed to sanction Pacquiao’s comeback fight despite being inactive for four years and his age.

In contact sports, neurological, orthopedic, and ophthalmological injuries are common. While some are life threatening others has the potential to cause lifelong disability.

Boxers, in particular, sometimes die in the ring due to acute traumatic subdural hematoma (SDH).

Concern is hence raised for the health and wellbeing of these older athletes. Should an athlete above the age of 40 compete in professional boxing? How old is too old to fight in boxing?

Unless medical science is wrong, we won’t argue that Pacquiao is risking a potential injury in his duel with Barrios win or lose as it is generally acknowledged that participating in contact sports after the age of 40 carries increased risks compared to younger athletes due to several age-related physiological changes.

Here's a breakdown of the dangers, according to medial science:

-Increased Risk of Injury: Decreased Muscle Mass and Strength: Muscle mass and strength decline with age, making older athletes more susceptible to strains, tears, and other soft tissue injuries.

-Reduced Bone Density: Bone density decreases with age, increasing the risk of fractures.

-Drier Cartilage and Tendons: Cartilage and tendons become less elastic and hold less water with age, making them more prone to wear, tear, and rupture.

 

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-Less Elastic Ligaments: Ligaments become less flexible, increasing the likelihood of damage when overstretched.

-Slower Recovery: Studies have shown that recovery rates from injuries are slower for older athletes, meaning injuries can take longer to heal and have more significant long-term impacts.

-Pre-existing Conditions: Conditions like arthritis and osteoporosis can be exacerbated by the impact and stresses of contact sports, according to AARP.

-Balance Issues: A degraded sense of balance can increase the risk of falls and subsequent injuries, says Sadler Sports & Recreation Insurance.

-Slower Reaction Time: This can affect an athlete's ability to make quick adjustments to avoid collisions and other injury-causing situations.

The specific injury risks are:

-Head Trauma and CTE: Repeated head impacts in contact sports are linked to an increased risk of long-term neurodegenerative diseases like Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE), even in young athletes, according to a study published in JAMA Neurology. This risk likely persists or increases with age.

-Joint Problems: Contact sports can damage cartilage and lead to early arthritis, particularly in joints like the knees and ankles, according to 2aDays.

-Nerve Damage: Injuries such as "burners" or "stingers" are common in contact sports and can result in nerve damage, says 2aDays.

 

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Again, we will say it straight to the faces of those who did nothing, and say nothing when there’s opportunity to avert a potential disaster:  What use is another world crown if our national crown is damaged?

(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor-in-chief of two leading daily newspapers in Iloilo, Philippines.—Ed)

 

 

Ilonggos don’t panic during floods unlike some New Yorkers

“Like air pollution, flood risk is a threat that government should be protecting us against.”

—Barry Gardiner

 

By Alex P. Vidal

 

I GREW up in a city in the Philippines where flash floods were a normal event.

Every now and then, Ilonggos grappled with flash floods during heavy downpours with or without typhoons. But not anymore today.

Asphalt overlaying and road widening projects had been done at dizzying speed in the 90s; government infrastructure developments have helped improved drainage systems, implemented early warning systems, and promoted responsible land use and construction practices.

Except in some underdeveloped rural areas, Filipinos in general don’t panic anymore if there are flash floods cascading in the metropolis.

But not some people in the United States. Americans are nervous when they see a big amount of water cascading in the Big Apple’s subway after a heavy downpour.

Especially when heavy rain struck in New York City and New Jersey Monday (July 14) night caused a flash flood that killed two Americans.

And to think it was caused “only” by a storm that was reportedly a combination of a low-level jet transporting moisture and a mid-latitude system. It was not even a named storm or a hurricane or a tropical storm.

When flood hit New York City July 14 night, I was sleeping in my apartment; I made the right decision to skip the night shift in my workplace, thus, thank God, I was not among those passengers stranded in the subway.

 

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At least 2.64 inches of rain reportedly fell in Central Park, shattering the previous July 14 record of 1.47 inches, which was set in 1908.

The city’s sewer system, like the subway, is reportedly more than 100 years old. About 60 percent of New York City has what is known as a combined sewer system, in which a single pipe carries both storm water runoff and sewage, according to the city’s Department of Environmental Protection.

This system can handle only about 1.75 inches of rain per hour, and Monday’s storm reportedly far exceeded that.

Flash flood happened because, according to Klaus Jacob, a geophysicist and professor emeritus at Columbia University who has worked with the city on subway flooding issues, every opening in a subway station, from a staircase to an elevator shaft, is a means of entry for rainwater, as reported by New York Times.

“There are 39,000 open grates that ventilate the subway, and many of them must be closed by hand,” reported the Times. “And while the M.T.A. is developing automatic closures for those vents, it will be expensive. The transit agency has projected it will need an additional $6 billion over 10 years for weather resiliency upgrades, only a portion of which has been funded.”

The New York City subway was inundated with rain on Monday night from severe storms, upending rush-hour commutes as water gushed onto platforms and trains and, in one station, shot up from a manhole like a geyser.

 

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The Times reported that the subway system, which is more than a century old, is relied on by millions of passengers daily and weaves together the city’s neighborhoods.

“But it has a longstanding infrastructure problem that is only getting worse as rainfall becomes heavier and more frequent because of climate change,” reported the Times.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the state agency that runs the transit system, has already reportedly invested billions of dollars into climate resiliency measures.

But there is no easy fix for subway flooding, and it could take years of cooperation among various government agencies to keep the subways dry, transit experts said.

On Monday, 20 stations were closed while 16 others had delays or partial closures. And as the rainfall deluged some stations but left others relatively unscathed, it demonstrated the unpredictable and hyperlocal nature of how flash flooding affects the city.

Riders like Larry Oquendo, 67, prepare for the worst when they see heavy rain in the forecast. A few years ago, he was stuck at a flooded station where people and rats alike scampered up the stairs to avoid the rising waters, according to the Times.

On Monday night, added the Tims, he canceled his plans to get on the subway. “I knew it was going to be bad,” Mr. Oquendo said. “So I ain’t traveling.”

The M.T.A., which operates the 472 subway stations and Staten Island’s 21 rail stations, said that, despite the shocking scenes on Monday, the system remains durable, and service on subway trains, buses and commuter railroads was back to normal by Tuesday morning.

 

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The torrential rains that inundated the New York City area left at least two people dead, officials said Tuesday, as road closures and transit disruptions lingered across the region. More than 2 inches of rain fell on Central Park in the span of a single hour on Monday night, the second-wettest hour ever recorded in the city.

A state of emergency was in effect in New Jersey, where Gov. Phil Murphy said flooding in the suburb of Plainfield swept away a vehicle on Monday night, killing two people inside. The sprawling storms swelled waterways up and down the Eastern Seaboard, and forecasters warned that flooding was still possible from Washington, D.C., to the Carolinas.

New York City’s public transit system was largely up and running after the storms sent water cascading into subway stations and bubbling up through sewer drains on Monday night, inundating tracks and trains and leaving some commuters temporarily stranded.

The flooding underscored an issue that some transit and environmental advocates have warned about for years: the inability of the region’s infrastructure to handle increasingly extreme weather.

(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor-in-chief of two leading daily newspapers in Iloilo, Philippines.—Ed)

 

Crazy world of black propaganda

“The feat of surviving is directly related to the capacity of the survivor."

—Claire Cameron

 

By Alex P. Vidal

 

WE remember during the 1986 presidential snap elections in the Philippines, then President Ferdinand Marcos Sr.’s Kilusang Bagong Lipunan (KBL) ran a blitzkrieg in the mass media that the Filipinos would end up as the next "boat people" of Asia if the communists were allowed to win.

Marcos' propaganda machine wanted to paint rival presidential candidate Corazon Cojuangco Aquino's UNIDO opposition party as left-leaning or "communist."

Many voters, out of ignorance and fear combined, swallowed the smear campaign hook, line and sinker.

The scuttlebutt was that Tita Cory and her vice presidential candidate Doy Laurel were backed by the communists that threatened to take over the reigns of the government if the pair defeat the tandem of reelectionist Marcos and vice presidential candidate Arturo Tolentino. 

 

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Footages of "boat people" and other macabre violence that allegedly took place when the communists overran Vietnam in the 1970s were played up repeatedly on national TV.

Marcos and Tolentino "won" but were toppled by the People Power in the EDSA Revolution months later.

The pre-election paranoia proved to be a hoax.

Filipinos did not become "boat people" when Tita Cory and Vice President Laurel ascended into power in a revolutionary government.

The rest is history.

We have experienced so many catastrophes in the past, political, economic, etcetera, but we never left the Philippines on board dilapidated boats to seek refuge in other neighboring Southeast Asian countries.

In every crisis, Filipinos became stronger and united. They always survived.

We recalled the "boat people" episode when hundreds of immigrants from Bangladesh and Myanmar landed in Indonesia and the Philippines after floating for months on overcrowded boats years before Marcos’ son, Ferdinand “Bongbong” Jr. became president.

Many of them were suffering from dehydration and were weak and starving, it was reported.

 

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It was believed that as many as 8,000 migrants may have been adrift in the Andaman Sea and Straits of Malacca, living in conditions so squalid that the United Nations had warned of an epidemic of “floating coffins.”

Some governments in the region had reportedly turned away migrants.

The Los Angeles Times had reported that "many of the migrants are fleeing desperate poverty in Bangladesh, while others are ethnic Rohingyas, a persecuted Muslim minority from Myanmar’s western Rakhine state who have been violently attacked, denied citizenship and confined to squalid ghettos at home."

It was in the 1970s and 1980s when the immigration of thousands of people from Southeast Asia impacted American-Vietnamese relations and gave rise to new communities of Vietnamese, Cambodian, Laotian, and Hmong Americans in the United States.

"Known as boat people for escaping Southeast Asia by sea, the exodus of hundreds of thousands of Southeast Asians (predominantly Vietnamese) generated a political and humanitarian firestorm for the international community, the United States, and Vietnam," reported the New American Nation.

 

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It added that the first wave in 1975 included 140,000 South Vietnamese, mostly political leaders, army officers, and skilled professionals escaping the communist takeover.

"Fewer than a thousand Vietnamese successfully fled the nation. Those who managed to escape pirates, typhoons, and starvation sought safety and a new life in refugee camps in Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Hong Kong," added the New American Nation.

For many, these countries became permanent homes, while for others they were only way stations to acquiring political asylum in other nations, including the United States.

 

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After reading some of my articles about the 2025 French Open and the recently concluded 2025 Wimbledon Open, many of our readers and friends told us they loved tennis, but they could not understand how it was scored.

In order to fully appreciate the sport that has produced Arthur Ashe and Billie Jean King, we must be able to understand how it is scored.

In tennis, a player wins a game by winning four points, with specific point names: 15, 30, 40, and game.

If both players reach 40, it's called deuce, and a player needs to win two consecutive points to win the game after deuce. A set is won by the first player to win six games, with a two-game margin (e.g., 6-4 or 7-5). If the score reaches 6-6, a tiebreak is played to determine the set winner. A match is typically won by the first player to win two out of three sets, or three out of five sets in some matches

(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor-in-chief of two leading daily newspapers in Iloilo, Philippines.—Ed)

 

The ‘sinner’ who avoids his ‘sin’

“Whoever said, 'It's not whether you win or lose that counts,' probably lost.”

—Martina Navratilova

 

By Alex P. Vidal

 

UNLIKE in the 2025 French Open last month when the match between Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner lasted five hours and 29 minutes, making it the longest final in French Open history, Sunday’s 2025 Wimbledon gentlemen’s final lasted “only” three hours and four minutes.

This time, world no. 1 Sinner, 23, didn’t commit the same “sin” when he lost to word no. 2 Alcaraz in a heartbreaking five-set marathon (4-6, 6-7, 6-4, 7-6, 7-6) in the French Open or Roland Garros final match that surpassed the 1982 final between Mats Wilander and Guillermo Vilas by 47 minutes.

His “sin” in the French Open included allowing Alcaraz to rally after a commanding lead in the second the third sets and thus broke the hearts of his fans all over the world for “letting” slip away the coveted French Open title.

At the Wimbledon, Sinner roared to a commanding lead after three sets to secure his first Wimbledon title with a phenomenal performance, toppling Alcaraz, the two-time defending champion, 4-6, 6-4, 6-4 6-4.

It was a sweet revenge.

 

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We rooted for the Italian world number one player in the Wimbledon final because of empathy.

We thought it was about time he avenged the brutal defeat to the Spanish superstar in the French Open where he became so emotional for losing a “winning” match.

The 2025 Wimbledon final was spectacular in many aspects as Sinner became the first Italian player to win a Wimbledon singles title and now stands as a four-time grand slam champion.

The lanky Italian broke his overall tie with an assortment of famous names, including the legendary Arthur Ashe, Andy Murray and Stan Wawrinka.

Perhaps most important, Sinner ended his great rival’s run of five consecutive wins against him, adding a new dimension to a rivalry that seems set to decide the majority of major tournaments in the near future.

In their own personal grand slam race, which still feels like it has only just started, Sinner’s win ensured that Alcaraz, who owns five major titles, remained within touching distance.

It was also Sinner’s first slam title away from hard courts, after two victories at the Australian Open and last year’s US Open title.

Also, it was Sinner’s first grand slam victory and overall title since his three-month doping ban between February and May last year when he was tested positive for the banned substance clostebol.

He was able to successfully argue during his initial tribunal in August that the positive test had been a result of contamination, receiving no suspension. After the World Anti-Doping Agency chose to appeal the case, Sinner’s team and Wada eventually entered a case resolution ­agreement, essentially a ­settlement, agreeing on the three-month suspension.

 

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There was this astounding story of a man who said that he would stop the motor of the world--and did.

Atlas Shrugged is a massive paean to capitalism and depicts a world where corporate CEOs and one-percenters are the selfless heroes upon which our society depends, and basically everyone else -- journalists, legislators, government employees, the poor -- are the villains trying to drag the rich down out of spite, when we should be kissing their rings in gratitude that they allow us to exist.

Rand’s protagonists are Dagny Taggart, heir to a transcontinental railroad empire, and Hank Rearden, the head of a steel company who’s invented a revolutionary new alloy which he’s modestly named Rearden Metal.

Together, they battle against evil government bureaucrats and parasitic socialists to hold civilization together, while all the while powerful industrialists are mysteriously disappearing, leaving behind only the cryptic phrase “Who is John Galt?”

 

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Atlas Shrugged is a work of fiction, but as far as many prominent conservatives are concerned, it’s sacred scripture.

Alan Greenspan was a member of Rand’s inner circle, and opposed regulation of financial markets because he believed her dictum that the greed of businessmen was always the public’s best protection.

Some politicians have required their staffers to read the book, while others have announced grandiose plans to build their own real-life “Galt’s Gulch,” the hidden refuge where the book’s capitalist heroes go to watch civilization collapse without them.

Reading Atlas Shrugged is like entering into a strange mirror universe where everything we thought we knew about economics and morality is turned upside down.

We’ve already learned some valuable lessons from it.

(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor-in-chief of two leading daily newspapers in Iloilo, Philippines.—Ed)