Hometown Heroes

Local support over homegrown talent was something I didn’t understand until I watched the 2012 Olympics.

My hometown, a seaside metropolis in the southern part of the Philippines, has recently raised its local profile owing to the growing number of native talents who made it in the country’s entertainment industry. Just last year, the city heralded a woman, who on her skimpy swimming attire, declared to the world that Filipinos have little or no acceptance for any other religion. Then there was an elementary schoolmate who appeared in the country’s version of Big Brother and who managed to get himself to the finals thanks to local support. Then very recently, a celebrity wannabe became a You Tube hit over a karaoke rendition in a shopping mall (we went to the same university so that ought to have made me feel proud). Of course the city’s major boast is our boxing champion Manny Pacquiao whose sporting fame allowed him to star in films and sell music and then even won him an electoral seat to become a lawmaker (an MP equivalent in the UK).

I’m sure it gives the city a morale boost when someone who has walked on the same streets manages to seize their dreams. But it is still perplexes me that success has all-inclusively meant becoming an entertainment celebrity, where the younger generation’s inspiration are people who have found ‘overnight fame’ by uploading a video online. It makes me shudder to think that children will be looking up to anyone who, in this day and age, would happily represent women as sexual objects in the guise of a 'beauty and brains' competition. 

Watching the Olympic Dreams in BBC World has made me appreciate just what it means to become a hometown hero. There was the feature on the two-time Taek-won-do bronze medallist of Kabul, training up the hill overlooking his war-torn city, inspiring young men to take up the sport in a place where war is a normality. There was the story on the South African double amputee Oscar Pistorius who lost both his legs after childbirth but who went on to become the first man to have competed on both the Paralympics and the Olympics. Then there was a documentary on the fastest man on the planet, Usain Bolt, a double triple medallist whose daily life was dedicated to his sport.

In Sheffield, we have our own golden girl: the face of the 2012 Olympics who brought the city's gold. Few people have done it, to deliver despite the burden of high expectations and to deliver in style. When Jessica Ennis crossed the 800m line on Super Saturday, the rest of Britain shared her big sigh of relief and her hometown, gathered at the stadium where she trained, burst into cries of jubilation.

I hope that these are the sort of role models that we can give our children to look up to: men and women who have conquered themselves and their dreams through extra-ordinary focus, unyielding dedication and continuous hard work. Real people whose motivation is not the glitz and glamour of a celebrity lifestyle (and who will not be making movies or selling albums to cash in their fame) but of personal bests. Because these are the qualities that everyone need to arm themselves in order to succeed in the world of reality.  

Last Sunday, when I stood beside Jess Ennis' golden mailbox in the city centre doing Mo-bot, I felt a bit relieved that in this part of the world at least, the younger generation have real heroes to look up to. 

Carrying the Flag

Yesterday, Jamaica celebrated 50 years of independence with the rest of the world watching the country's flag, two of them, waving proudly amidst an 80,000 packed Olympic Stadium while their national anthem was being played. The two fastest men in the planet, 'Lightning Bolt' and 'The Beast' Blake, stepped up the podium to claim their 100m sprint medals.

Fifty years of independence with 55 Olympic medals, 15 of them gold, all of which (except a bronze in cycling) have been from Athletics. But why not, that's the sport where they excel in, so they might as well be the best in it.

It only took them 50 years (or less) to put their stamp in the world, they should be proud. When you think of Jamaica, you think of the fastest man in the world (and woman in fact for Shelley Ann Fraser also successfully defended her 100m title). You also think of their music (Bob Dylan came from there). You also think of their cuisine (Jamaican jerk chicken for one).

We Filipinos are also very proud of our country. After 100 years of independence from Spanish rule, we have also achieved a lot:

1.  We have won world titles in numerous beauty competitions, the likes of Miss Universe and Miss World. In fact, in the Miss Universe competition last year we were represented by the country’s top performer in the Architecture Licensure exams who graduated in the nation’s premier university with Latin honours  (they take these things VERY seriously). She came home with a 3^rd runner up award and the country was in rage because she had the ‘best’ answer.  

2.  We have very talented singers too, Ellen de Generes (‘Ellen the Who?’ asks a European who doesn’t watch American shows i.e. my husband) has mentioned this in her show. From those who were born and bred in the Philippines, we have Charice Pempengco who broke America and therefore conquered the world (is America the world now???). It doesn’t stop there, we have singers who were born to at least one Filipino parent (it doesn’t matter if they haven’t been to the Philippines or couldn’t speak a word of Tagalog before claiming fame) i.e. Bruno Mars, Vanessa Hudgens (remember High School Musical?) and American idol hopefuls Jessica Sanchez and Jasmine Trio.

3.  We have exported skilled and unskilled workers to boost the country's economy. In my brother's graduation from his degree in Marine Engineering, the guest speaker said that the aim of the Commission on Higher Education is to make every Filipino graduate 'globally competitive', meaning, encouraging the youth to leave their families behind in search for greener pastures. This of course means that in exchange for sending large amounts of remittances home, they won't be able to see their children grow up and the only thing they will be looking forward to is retirement which they may not be able to achieve for who knows what kind of future they will have in a foreign land. Still they are carrying the country's flag.

4. We have doubled the country's population in less than 30 years (great! how did we do that?) In 1984, the year I was born, there were only 52.98m Filipinos. This year, it has reached the 100m marker and is estimated to be 103.8m with 26% of the families living in poverty.

4.   And of course our most favourite boast, we have Manny Paquiao, the best pound for pound boxer in the world, ranked second in the biggest sports earners of 2012 and he even lives in my own hometown! Yes, our country excels in sports, boxing for that matter.

But there was only one thing that eluded us, the Olympic gold medal. Since the first time it was represented in the 1924 Olympics, the Philippines had been to all but one (in 1980 when America led the boycotts) and currently holds the title of the country with the most number of medals without gold (amazing feat eh?).

Those medals, nine of them to be exact, are a far cry from Jamaica’s 55 and we have been celebrating independence more than 50 years before they did. Since award-winning Filipino boxers have raised the profile of the sport in the Philippines, we have constantly heralded winners in title matches that pay up to millions of dollars in prize money. But the last time we have won a medal in the 'Greatest Show on Earth' was in 1988 and we are yet to produce an Olympic champion in the only sport we are good at.

For a nation that is supposed to be ‘Proud to be a Filipino’, no one is carrying the Filipino flag up in that podium.