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O'ong
To: "Oong" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Fwd: Column
-Original Message-
From: "Michael L. Tan" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> Subj: Column
> Date: Sun 10 Jun 2007 9:04
> Size: 7K
> To: rosalia Sciortino <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>
>
http://opinion.inquirer.net/inquireropinion/columns/view_article.php?article_id=60985
>
> PINOY KASI
> Boxing's other faces
>
> By Michael Tan
> Inquirer
> Last updated 01:05am (Mla time) 04/18/2007
>
> MANILA, Philippines -- Manny Pacquiao's victory last
> Sunday came only
> two weeks after another Filipino boxer, Angelito
> Sisnorio, was killed
> by a brain hemorrhage sustained during a boxing
> match in Thailand,
> where he was pitted against flyweight champion
> Chatchai Sasakul.
>
> Pacquiao's victory might make us forget, too
> quickly, Sisnorio's
> death. Yes, the Games and Amusements Board has since
> banned Filipino
> boxers from going to Thailand and there was some
> outrage expressed,
> with Inquirer sports columnist Recah Trinidad
> writing an article with
> the title, "Did they have to deal with savage
> Thailand?" Trinidad
> exposed a racket in Thailand: "Saturday night fights
> featuring
> hapless Filipino pugs against rising or established
> Thai boxers have
> been regular dinner fare in Bangkok." Not only that,
> Trinidad said,
> some fights are rigged, with Filipino boxers
> "advised" to
> intentionally lose a match.
>
> I can believe Trinidad's claims, and will give my
> reasons shortly.
> But I did want to write, too, about the need to ask
> ourselves some
> tough questions about the many faces of boxing,
> other than that of
> the victorious Pacquiao.
>
> Paid gore
>
> Last year, during a visit to Thailand, I picked up a
> magazine in a
> rural market newsstand. The magazine happened to be
> displayed with
> its back cover facing me, and it caught my eye
> because it showed a
> Thai boxer with a bloodied face, his eyes wide open
> with pain and
> with fear. There were blood stains as well in
> different parts of his
> body and the Thai captions were printed in a way
> that made it look
> like it was dripping blood, much like you see in the
> titles of horror
> movies. Inside the magazine, there were more
> photographs of this
> type, including the boxer on the back page shown
> during the match
> taking blows from his opponent.
>
> I bought the magazine and showed it later to O'ong
> Maryono, an
> Indonesian martial arts expert who currently lives
> in Thailand. O'ong
> shook his head sadly and explained that this happens
> very often in
> Thai boxing, with people paid to both inflict and
> receive such injuries.
>
> I was shocked, having thought of muay Thai or Thai
> boxing as a sport
> that had become refined through the years. Two years
> ago, Discovery
> Channel featured a documentary on muay Thai showing
> how it had become
> almost an art. I had also read books with detailed
> descriptions of
> the rituals and rules that accompany muay Thai, with
> boxers actually
> praying before each match.
>
> The magazine I got showed another side to Thai
> boxing, one of
> bloodthirsty spectacle with ties to syndicates and
> paid gore.
>
> I was disturbed mainly because all that lust for
> blood seemed to go
> against the perception of Thailand as a gentle
> Buddhist country that
> eschews violence of any kind. But then as a social
> scientist, I
> should know better. In many parts of Asia, you will
> find the gentlest
> people, overly concerned about maintaining smooth
> interpersonal
> relations. Yet, beneath the surface, there may be
> simmering tensions
> and conflicts in values.
>
> Many Thais themselves object to the transformation
> of Thai boxing
> into a gladiator sport, but acknowledge that it
> reflects a disturbing
> side of the Thai psyche, one that occasionally
> erupts in the
> political arena. Thai history has its share of
> extreme violence even
> up to fairly recent history. There was for example
> the "Thammasat
> Massacre" of 1976, when Right-wing paramilitary
> forces fired at a
> pro-democracy rally near Thammasat University.
> Officially, 46 people
> were killed, but the death toll may have been
> higher. The brutality
> went beyond the killings, with bodies mutilated.
>
> And us?
>
> I've always felt uncomfortable about the way we lash
> out at other
> cultures and fail to see how we, too, may have a
> similar "underside"
> to our culture. If Thai brutality seems to
> contradict Buddhism, we
> shouldn't forget that we, too, have cultural
> behaviors that run
> against Christian compassion.
>
> I'd start with our brutality to animals, from
> dog-eating to
> cockfighting to the "killing me softly" way of
> slaughtering chickens
> and ducks in parts of the Cordillera region, the
> hapless birds slowly
> beaten to death.
>
> I was once
