La Sallites and Lasallians

It was an innocent, run-of-the-mill event in our lives as La Sallites, back in 1960. An announcement came out on campus, on bulletin boards, dubbed as "Name Your Campus Paper Contest." The faculty moderator of the school newspaper, Aurelio Calderon, wanted a new name for the campus paper to further distance itself from the old paper called "The La Sallite."

"The La Sallite" had been published by, for and of the students at De La Salle College in Manila for as long as anyone could remember. The quality of the paper had been under attack by some members of the faculty, including and especially Mr. Aurelio Calderon - later Dr. Calderon after he earned his PhD.

As one of those who organized the new campus paper, I was aware of the entries that were coming in. Some appeared to be good, others were particularly witty, while others just plain stunk.

Then one day, Mr. Calderon opened his mail and found an entry: The La Sallian. "This is it," he exclaimed. "This is what we will call the new newspaper. The La Sallite, after all, is a strange name. People are not called 'ites' anymore, they are 'ians' or 'ans.' Theresians, Paulinians, Ateneans, Bedans, Rizalians, Mapuans, Upians. La Salle students are the only ones who are called 'ites,' La Sallites."

We did not know it then, but Calderon apparently had planned to send us La Sallites prematurely to extinction.

When the first issue of the new campus paper came out in 1960 and it hit the homes of many La Sallite families, a huge throng of mothers visited the campus. They protested the name change. "My sons are not La Sallians," they screamed. "They're La Sallites. They will always be La Sallites."

Our mothers apparently knew what was really going on, while we La Sallites had no idea we were sauntering in, like Agamemnons, to our slaughter.

Over the years, the students at De La Salle College, later De La Salle University, became known as La Sallians. It was, however, an issue that wouldn't quit. It made its way all the way to the world's number one Christian Brother in Rome, and the scholars of the Christian Brothers felt obliged to rule on the question. The students of De La Salle College in Manila would henceforth be known as Lasallians, they ruled, following the tradition of calling students of nearly all schools run by the Christian Brothers worldwide Lasallians.

That ruling effectively made us La Sallites obsolete.

What's in a name? Is a rose a rose by any other name?

To a lot of people in the Philippines, the term "La Sallite" carried a certain cachet. There were very few La Sallites in the Philippines. The La Salle system consisted of De La Salle College in Manila and the La Salle College in Bacolod City in Central Philippines.

The Manila campus consisted of grade school, high school and college, later also Masters. Most people who went to La Salle grew up on that one campus. That was our home away from home, from kindergarten all the way through college.

We knew everyone, and everyone knew us. We were family. We fought like brothers. We had no sisters, not unless you count the obviously homosexual among us, who walked and looked like girls. There were very, very few of those and most of us went to school with torn pockets (from roughhousing) and didn't care if our socks had holes.

We played marbles on the soft muddy grounds, so we walked around with dirt caked in our fingernails. Nobody cared.

We were born into large families, and in every family there was a designated potential public servant, a designated potential priest, Brother or nun, a designated potential doctor, businessman, artist, musician. We were born in an age of heroes, minor and larger-than-life heroes. We assumed that no matter what role we played in nation-building it would be an important role.

Our mothers drilled into us the notion that we were special, that we would grow up to be leaders of the nascent democracy that was truly the Pearl of the Orient Sea.

Our role models were Rizal, Mabini, Bonifacio, Quezon, Magsaysay, Recto, Manglapus and Diokno. We would live our lives in the Philippines and breathe our last breaths there. We would go abroad just to hone our skills - skills that we could then apply to solving the problems in the Philippines - and not live permanently elsewhere, losing the nationality we were born with.

The movies that we saw were all violent - there were no boards yet that rated movies as PG, PG-13, R, etc. We saw all the violent movies of Errol Flynn, Humphrey Bogart, John Wayne. We saw the movie "All the Brothers were Valiant" and when we were in school we looked for fights. We also watched actors and actresses kiss in the mouth and as they un-clinched, we could see a string of saliva connecting the two mouths. That was the trademark of sexually suggested movies in those days - the string of saliva connecting two mouths.

There were four of us Lumbas in school all at once. The bravest among us was the youngest, Oscar, who was known on campus as "Bulldog." Oscar feared no one. The other guy could be a foot taller with a reach at least a foot longer, but Oscar would be unfazed. He was a bleeder - in the tradition of the boxer known as the Bayonne Bleeder. Every time Oscar got into a fight his nose bled.

One memorable fight he had was with the late Jaime Jose. The guy was just a regular La Sallite, decent-looking like everybody else on campus, and none of us had any idea that he would someday gain the ultimate notoriety of being sent to the electric chair - by Judge Lourdes San Diego for the rape and sexual mutilation of Maggie de la Riva, a beautiful actress in the 60s whose angelic face made her desirable to all Filipino men and pimpled teenagers.

One of my brothers, Amado, saw that Oscar was suffering a beating at the hands of Jaime Jose, so Amado wrapped his arms around Jaime Jose's arms and body and told Oscar to just keep punching. Oscar obliged and by the time he was done, Jaime Jose had tasted a horrible Lumba beating.

The oldest Lumba, Jose, was lean and easy to underestimate. So he got into a lot of fights. I never knew anyone with quicker fists than my brother and every time I saw him fight, the other kid got bloodied. And that brother of mine had a temper - he still does.

I was always big boned and, being a basketball player, I was muscular. Not too many wanted a part of me, and as a consequence I did not get into many fights. I did get into a lot of fights in my neighborhood in Santa Ana, Manila, however, and those were nasty.

Fighting at La Salle was part of growing up. We were all boys and we settled our differences as boys - with our fists. After we fought, we took our lumps, made up and acted like nothing had happened. We were all La Sallites, we were brothers who settled our differences bravely and without rancor. No one kept a grudge for longer than a week.

UNIFORMS. Our grade school uniform was a white short-sleeved shirt with one pocket on the left breast. On that pocket was sewed in a green "Religio-Mores-Cultura" insignia, the patch that identified a grade schooler at La Salle. Our pants were short khakis or long khakis. Most wore short khakis because it was hot in the Philippines and there was no air-conditioning in the classrooms. The short pants were cheaper; plus, we couldn't tear our short pants at the knees.

In high school, we wore grey military uniforms. La Salle High School was a quasi-military school and students were disciplined to the core. We respected our teachers - generally - and treated them like they were military officers.

One distinguishing trait of La Salle High School students was that we stood out in parties. We were well-behaved - generally - and gallant towards the girls. We were military officers and gentlemen. We were also dancers, as opposed to the standers - the Ateneans who preferred to stand in corners and philosophized, in Latin - among themselves while the La Sallites got to dance with all the girls.

In college, we wore white shirts and ties to school.

Everyone who went to college at La Salle had a younger brother or cousin in high school and/or grade school on the same campus. We all knew each other. We didn't know each other's names, but we saw each other on campus and we could recognize each other everywhere.

La Sallite was not just a brand, it was a way of life.

TEACHERS. Growing up in La Salle, nearly half of our teachers were Christian Brothers, all of them coming from the U.S. We grew up under the tutelage of Americans who taught us English, Religion, Math, Science and Sports - lots of sports.

In grade school we were not allowed to speak Tagalog; we had to use English. We were fined if we were caught speaking in Tagalog. The rationale was simple: we spoke Tagalog at home and everywhere, we had to speak English in school because the only way to learn a language is by using it.

The Christian Brothers education that we got at La Salle - in the minds of our parents - was one of the best that could be had in the Philippines at the time. The American Brothers had Masters amd PhD's in Education and were some of the best-qualified teachers that the Christian Brothers organization in California could send abroad.

My mother told me that when she was going to public schools in the early 20th century, they also had excellent teachers, some of them from the U.S. I never bothered to ask my mother if the American teachers she had were the Thomasites. We all know about the Thomasites from our history books, those American teachers who went to the Philippines to staff the public schools that were modeled after the public school system in the U.S.

The students of La Salle these days (now known as Lasallians, not La Sallites) are not growing up under the American Christian Brothers. They are not growing up under the Filipino Christian Brothers either because the Filipino Brothers rarely teach nowadays. They are busy with administrative concerns. There are 18 La Salle campuses now and a few years ago I was told there were not enough Brothers to staff all the schools.

The ideal set-up is three Brothers on each campus, so there is always a tie-breaker. A few of the campuses have less than three Brothers.

The Christian Gentleman. I may have given you the impression that La Sallites all came out of the cookie cutter. Of course there were many variations, many gradations of Christian Gentlemanliness.

Every time the Ateneo basketball teams played the La Salle teams on the La Salle campus on Taft Avenue in Manila, many Ateneans went home with shiners and bloodied noses. And every time La Salle visited Ateneo at Loyola Heights, La Sallites went home like they had been through a meat grinder.

It was a part of the culture, part of the fun. I personally did not join in the melees but I knew the kids who were regulars in those NCAA fights and I enjoyed vicariously all the stark details of those fights.

We had goons on campus, just like everywhere else in the Philippines. But we never strayed too far from the norm. Many of the campus goons became doctors, bank presidents and businessmen and are now some of the wealthiest Filipinos.

The La Sallite brand was, deservedly, elitist. For that reason alone, it was understandable that people would want to change it. This, however, should have been done through attrition, not by fiat.

La Sallites are unavoidably on their way to extinction. The De La Salle University campus in Manila is just a college campus now. Grade school is either La Salle-Zobel in Alabang or in any of the other campuses on the island of Luzon.

High School is primarily on the Green Hills campus and other campuses all over the islands.

Today's Lasallians grew up on different campuses and do not have the benefit of being classmates and schoolmates for fifteen to sixteen straight years on the same campus. And, since DLSU is now co-educational, the camaraderie is different. It's no longer a "boys will be boys" culture but rather a "Is she looking at me because she finds me attractive, or do I have food stuck on my cheek?"

Every time you throw girls in the mix, you change the culture. Girls are always welcome, of course, and very desirable. But you change the culture. The guys become more aware of their appearance because they are dressing up for their schoolmates now. We La Sallites could care less what we looked like, as long as we had a tie on when we were on campus.

Today's Lasallian is into appearance and being cool. The girls like being ogled at as they saunter past the Bench Boys who regularly sit on the benches lining up the walkways. Girl-watching is the rage, since many of Metro Manila's pretty lasses choose to go to La Salle.

La Salle is also trimestral now and a lot of students go through college in three years. It's like Lasallians are being mass-produced by a long factory line.

I visited the La Salle campus last year and the year before that and each time I saw a sea of faces. La Salle has so many college students now the campus looks like what FEU (Far Eastern University) looked like in the old days.

With so many students on campus, it's impossible to know everybody. Cliques are inevitable. Clique identities are far more important, with the Lasallian brand now a much watered down version of the old La Sallite.

Like most young people all over the world, Lasallians practically live on the Internet. It's where they learn, lecture, debate and sometimes fight. It is virtual fighting now, not the traditional mano a mano that La Sallites used to engage in.

And because it is all happening in cyberspace where people are in no danger of getting their noses bloodied, except figuratively, the protagonists can be very vicious or brave, depending on one's point of view. The Lasallian community is becoming divided, just as divided as the Philippine society at large.

Ideologies are hardening, just as they are hardening in the country and the world. The great philosopher, Plato, introduced the dialectical method of advancing knowledge, which is thesis, antithesis and synthesis. In between the first two steps - thesis and antithesis - there usually is conflict.

In Philippine society at large, and in Lasallian society as well, debates and discussions get stuck in the conflict stage. Rarely do national as well as private conversations progress to the synthesis stage: consensus or compromise.

I think that is why it is very difficult for the Philippines to make transformational changes. That is also why it is difficult for Lasallians to form a consensus on anything. National politicians simply stop talking meaningfully, they instead posture and play political games. Lasallians avoid talking about serious issues altogether.

We La Sallites did not grow up under a culture of permanent impasse and conflict. Many of us were born in the age of heroes and nationalists, people who could get things done.

We believe that it is possible to arrive at consensus and so we do not always avoid serious issues. We also get along well with each other because we settle our differences and move on. None of us carry grudges long term, with a few exceptions of course. Certainly not like some Lasallians who carry grudges that persist for decades.

My high school class (La Salle High School Class of 1959) held a Golden Jubilee reunion last year and it was a blast. It was like we were time travelers reliving our past.

For one brief moment, a fleeting moment it seemed though it lasted two weeks, we were all La Sallites. We seemingly had no idea we were going the way of the dinosaur.

A Hornet's Nest

Politicians in the U.S. stink. They posture and hide, posture and hide. They tell you and the whole world that they are for health care reform, but once hidden from the public eye, they do what's best for the industries that reportedly bankroll their political campaigns. The biggest contributors to political campaigns are health insurance companies and big pharmaceutical industries, so it is only natural that those industries would command the passionate loyalty of love-struck suitors.

So many of the Democratic and Republican legislators are in the pockets of the health care industry and the behavior of many legislators reflects this Mephistophelian influence.

Fed up over the impasse on health care, I decided to write an "I'm fed up" letter - a reverse psychology, a devil's advocate kind of letter - to the liberal-leaning Las Vegas Sun last Monday. The Sun published it on Wednesday and unleashed a torrent of befuddled, annoyed, defensive reactions from other readers. Even the Sun editorial writers chimed in - twice.

Here was my letter that elicited the cascade of other readers' reactions:

"... President Obama and the Democrats promised the country health care reform legislation during the 2006 and 2008 elections and the country responded by giving the Democrats overwhelming majorities in Congress, not to mention the Presidency itself.

"If the Democrats fail to reform health care this year, the resultant carnage in the 2010 elections will make the 1994 Democratic debacle look like a 4th of July picnic. Democrats and Independents are fed up with the Democratic legislators they elected in Congress.

"I am a dyed-in-the-wool Democrat - have been since JFK - yet I have become convinced that for the sake of the country the Republicans must control both Houses of Congress. Many of my friends also feel this way. (This is known as the take-away close: if you don't shape up, we will take away your Democratic majority in Congress, hold up our noses, and give it to the other side.)

"The reason is simple. The Republicans act as one, think as one. They proved during the George W Bush years that they could pass major legislation with narrow majorities in Congress. The Democrats, working with absolute majorities last year, could not pass health care reform. They passed a stimulus bill, true, but it was an anemic bill. They rescued the banks but did not insist on restraint on bonuses and a promise that the banks would start lending.

"Many of the Democratic legislators are compromised in that they take money from lobbyists for industries they are trying to regulate. The Republicans are also in the pocket of the same industries, but at least the Republicans are not being hypocritical. We know what we are getting when we elect Republicans. They're the devils we know."

The Sun published Las Vegan Bart Atwell's letter which read in part:

"Regarding Cesar Lumba's Wednesday letter to the editor...Republicans offered little but obstructionism, publicly stating that they were going to use the health care issue to undermine the president... It strikes me that the real solution is to increase the Senate's Democratic majority so that legislation doesn't require unanimous Democratic support to pass. Increasing the number of Republicans would only further stymie the legislative process."

The Las Vegas Sun editorial writers joined in the fray - twice - by claiming that the Republicans offer nothing but obstructionism. It's lead editorial "Blocking Progress - Republicans should quit slash-and-burn tactics, help push country forward" argues that "Republicans have mounted an incredible effort to try to derail the president, and in doing so, have further inflamed the nation's angst. Republicans have spread their dire prophecies of doom and gloom about health care, the economy and just about anything else the president has supported. They have consistently derided Obama's plans and refused to work with him - and then they blame him."

I checked out the Las Vegas Sun website and to my amazement, there was an ongoing debate raging in the "Letters" section featuring Democratic and Republican partisans' reactions to my letter.

I am a Democrat first and an American second. In the end, I will always vote for the Democratic candidates. But I wanted to stir up a hornet's nest, hoping that some good might come out of going public with my frustration over the failure - so far - of the Democratic majority in Congress to pass health care reform.

Because health care has not been reformed, the issue hangs over the head of Obama and he cannot give 110% to his efforts to create jobs. Because health care reform has not passed, the country calls into question whether Obama and Congress shall be able to come up with a jobs-creation bill that is pure job-creation and not a sausage made up of Republican and Democratic pork.

Because health care has not passed, other major legislations that will transform the country are now called into question. Will the country pass cap-and-trade, which will limit the volume of noxious and global-warming gases released by industry into the atmosphere? Will the country finally make the huge effort to convert to renewable sources of power - solar, wind, steam - creating jobs and rendering the Middle East sheiks irrelevant in our major foreign policy decisions?

Will the President be able to pass another stimulus bill that will provide a much needed push to the earlier stimulus bill that is currently stalled in the extremely complicated maze of government and private industry bureaucracies?

There is so much work to do to make sure the country - the world - does not slip into a double-dip recession and push the world economy into another Great Depression.

Will President Obama and the Democrats be able to pursue the agenda that got them elected in the first place?

My disappointment was not over the Republicans' obstructionism. Republicans have always been obstructionist in recent memory. But they are not to blame for the failure of health care reform last year.

The Democrats had a huge majority in both Houses of Congress in 2009. They still do, the only change being that in the Senate they have one vote short of a filibuster-proof majority. Last year, the Democrats could pass any legislation they wanted to pass because they had a super majority in the Senate and the House, but they failed to pass health care reform.

The Republicans did not succeed in obstructing health care reform. It was the Democrats themselves who torpedoed the legislation. Joe Lieberman, the Senator from Tel Aviv, held the legislation hostage by threatening to join the Republicans in their filibuster if the public option was not dropped from the Senate version of health care reform.

Sen Ben Nelson of Nebraska said he would not vote for health care reform if he did not get a huge concession for Nebraska. Harry Reid agreed to an exemption for Nebraska from picking up additional Medicaid costs arising out of the health reform package.

Senator Mary Landrieu, Senator Blanche Lincoln, Senator Evan Bayh all threatened to join the Republican filibuster if the bill was not watered down and emasculated. The bill that came out of the Senate was something that nobody wanted. The majority of Democratic senators felt no passion for the bill because it would not control costs. It does not include a public option - a mechanism for the government to compete with the Pac-Man health insurance companies and keep costs down.

Senator Max Baucus of Montana put the manacles on his fellow Democrats when he made haste slowly in the Finance committee to make sure that Obama's before-the-2009-Thanksgiving-recess deadline would not be met. Max Baucus - but of course - is one of the biggest recipients of political contributions from health insurance companies.

These are all Democrats, except for Joe Lieberman, who is an Independent but who caucuses regularly with Democrats. He would have shown his true colors earlier if he did not caucus with the Democrats, He was, after all, the Vice-Presidential running mate of Al Gore in the 2000 elections. Until he turned traitor, it was generally assumed that he was a Democratic Party statesman in the Senate.

In other words, it was not Republican obstructionism that stalled health care reform, but Democratic obstructionism.

We as a country elected President Obama and a huge Democratic majority in Congress because we wanted transformative changes. We demanded action - bold action. Instead what we got was a limp-wristed approach to governance where Democrats simply laid over and played dead.

They went to the airwaves and denounced Republican obstructionism - which was truly abominable. But Republicans were powerless to stop the Democratic train. Whatever the Democrats wanted they could have gotten, because there were not enough Republican votes to stop them.

What stopped President Obama and the Democratic initiatives in Congress were fellow Democrats.

I wrote that piece in the Las Vegas Sun because I wanted to let my fellow Democrats know that the time for blaming Republicans was long past. We Democrats must figure out a way to pass major legislation by bypassing, by pole-vaulting past Republican obstructionism. We must convince the country that we are capable of "change that we can believe in."

If our Democratic legislators cannot do this, it will be time to turn over Congress to the Republicans because the Republicans proved in the Clinton years and in the George W. Bush years that they know how to pass major legislation with narrow majorities in both Houses of Congress.

Happy, happy, happy, happy talk

There is an unwritten rule in Western nations regarding the smiling Oriental. Simply stated, the rule is that Europeans and other Caucasians must not mistake the Oriental smile as a sign of friendliness, for one is never sure what real emotions lurk just beneath the surface.

With Filipinos, however, and some Caribbean and Central American people, the smiles are genuine. What you see is what you get.

The Philippines and Costa Rica always rank high in happiness indices as measured by the Happy Planet Index. So do 10 Central American and Caribbean countries. Out of 13 countries that outranked the Philippines in the 2009 Happy Planet Index survey, ten were Central American and Caribbean countries. Vietnam, which ranked fourth, and Egypt and Saudi Arabia were the exceptions.

Costa Rica was number one out of 143 countries ranked, which was not surprising because that little country has consistently landed on top or among the top countries in survey after survey. A country that abolished its army in 1949 and instead invests heavily in education, Costa Rica has also increased the area of its forests from 20% in the 1980s to 50% of its total land mass today. A crash tree-planting program over the last couple of decades made a decisive impact on the quality of life in that tiny Central American country.

A separate survey made recently in the Philippines can explain the phenomenon of a dirt-poor and largely uneducated Philippines scoring high in its overall happiness index. The Survey, called Personal Happiness Index, noted that Filipinos consider family and health as the most important determinants of happiness, followed by religion and friends.

Factors such as politics and sex, the juiciest topics in the Internet - especially among Filipinos in the diaspora - rank relatively low in Filipinos' psyche.

I think we just hit upon the clearest explanation for the seeming disconnect between the obvious consternation among global Filipinos and the happiness index of Philippine society in general. If one were to survey the Philippine mood based on Internet discussions alone, one would think that Filipinos are some of the unhappiest people in the world.

Survey after survey confirm that Filipinos are generally happy, much happier in fact than people in the United States. The U.S. ranked number 114 in the same Happy Planet Index survey out of 143.

The preponderance of evidence that Filipinos are happy in most surveys ignores the Filipino sense of humor. If sense of humor were to be included, I predict that Filipinos would soar further in the rankings.

On a hunch, I explored the mood of the country during the Estrada presidency, when much of the country knew that they were led by a crony-hugging, mistress-splurging President who held nightly meetings with his true Presidential advisers: his friends and campaign contributors and boozing buddies.

The evidence was all there. While President Estrada mismanaged the economy, drove away investors from Subic, Mactan and other free-trade zones through a perceived capricious judicial system and anti-foreigner policies, slowly dismantled the structural improvements made by his predecessor, Narciso Ramos, the Filipinos held contests on who could come up with the best Erap (President Estrada) Jokes.

I revisited those jokes yesterday and I must confess I got up from my computer entertained and happy.

Some Erap Jokes:

"Why does Erap keep empty beer bottles in his fridge? Answer: They are for those who don't drink."

"How do you confuse Erap? Answer: Stick him in a round room and tell him to sit in a corner."

"Why did Erap stare at a can of frozen orange juice? Answer: Because it said concentrate."

There are tons of these Erap Jokes, with one particular zinger standing out as the finale:

"Why was Erap proud for finishing a puzzle in only six months? Answer: The box said 2 to 4 years."

The Filipinos knew that Erap was plundering their Treasury and lavishing taxpayer-financed gifts on his many mistresses yet they continued to smile and were generally happy.

In Costa Rica, there is a saying that a grudge - even the worst kind of grudge - must not last more than three years. The Filipinos, it seems, simply couldn't hold a grudge in the time of Estrada.

Filipinos scored high in the 2009 Happy Planet Index because of a relatively high life expectancy, a low carbon footprint, a top quartile personal happiness level. The same survey, however, showed that the personal happiness level of Filipinos had slipped. More Filipinos reported unhappiness over their personal circumstances in the 2009 survey compared to the level in 2006.

Thus, although politics and the economy rank rather low as two of the determining factors in gauging personal happiness, there appears to be a correlation between the deteriorating politics and economy of the Philippines and the people's personal happiness.

The correlation - or coincidence - is striking. The Philippines is led by a President whose approval rating is a minus 60: 80% negative, 20% positive. The President apparently has no endearing qualities that can cushion the impact.

How do we know this? There are hardly any jokes about President Gloria Arroyo going around that are remotely equivalent to the Erap Jokes. While Erap's critics - there were many - let go of their steam by simply laughing and mocking him, Gloria's critics just want her to go away.

I googled Pandak Jokes, the usual jokes that are aimed at President Arroyo's shortness of stature (she stands 4 feet, 11 inches on stockinged feet), and got nothing. No one is coming up with Pandak Jokes the way Filipinos used to endearingly make fun of their favorite dunce, former President Estrada.

The Garci tapes, which for the uninitiated refer to President Arroyo seemingly caught on tape talking to former Elections official Virgilio Garcillano and commanding him to change the outcome of the 2004 Presidential election in Mindanao to reflect a one million-vote lead for Arroyo, doomed the Arroyo presidency from the moment the tapes were released to the press in 2005.

Add to that the allegations of the First Gentleman (Arroyo's husband) being in charge of the much-ballyhooed 20% commission (or tong) system in the awarding of government contracts and you have a salacious mix of accusations, lies and videotape. No sex, thank God.

What do these recent developments portend? For the first time, there appears to be hope for the Philippines. There seems to be a growing congruence between people's objective station in life and what they think of their own lives.

The United States is number 114 out of 143 countries in the Happy Planet Index. That appears to be consistent with objective reality, because considering the many problems in front of the American people, they should be unhappy.

For the Philippines, there is no such congruence - not yet. They are happy despite themselves and their circumstances.

Progress can come to the Philippines when Filipinos start to feel unhappy. As long as they are happy, they will not seek to change the circumstances of their lives. They will not change the way they process their world. They will not seek the transformative change that starts with everyone asking, "how can I change myself to become a better citizen, a more productive partner in my country's drive towards a better economic and political future?"

Change the Filipinos must, else they wake up in 2050 and there's more than 200 million of them wondering each day if their food supplies will take them to the next scheduled arrival of imports of rice, fish, canned goods and other foodstuffs.

Jasmine Trias and the Seven Titans (not Dwarves)

I get free tickets to many of the shows in Las Vegas so I rarely pay to see shows here. Last night I made it a point to see a show that is not being given away free and to my delight, it was worth every nickel I paid.

Although the Society of Seven has been around for years - as long as fifty years? - last night was the first time I saw the group perform. I had a great time. The singing was superb, first-rate, the arrangements, lighting and effects were world-class and there was the grown-up Jasmine Trias to boot.

I remember Jasmine when she was sixteen and singing in the American Idol competitions in 2004. The whole Filipino diaspora voted for her week-in and week-out. I voted for her many times. I haven't voted in American Idol since.

The whole state of Hawaii and Filipinos in California and New York kept her in the finals until she was one of three who were still standing.

She did not make it to the final night of competition - the top two finalists - apparently because not even the state of Hawaii, the Filipino diaspora, the state of California and the New York metropolitan area could save her.

She was sixteen then and still had so much to learn.

Last night she was in full bloom as an entertainer. She looked like a star. She exuded charisma. She sounded like a veteran warbler. The years have been good to her. Her skills have taken her to a place Simon Cowell might never have imagined she was capable of going.

In 2004, even her most die-hard enthusiasts would not venture into an assessment of her skills. Jasmine's attraction in those days was centered in her innocent Filipina beauty and not in her singing prowess. Her vocal range was limited and she was clearly deep into the American Idol finals only because the state of Hawaii and the Filipino diaspora had adopted her.

I was curious therefore about Jasmine Trias and how she has developed as a singer over the years, going into the Showroom at Gold Coast Casino last night. I had no idea what to expect of her performance, though I was certain that I would find the Society of Seven entertaining because all those who had seen the group over the years had raved about them.

To my surprise and delight, Jasmine delivered. Her rendition of "The Prayer" - sung with Filipino sensation Michael Leyco - was one of the best I've ever heard, which is saying a lot since Celine Dion and other superstars have sung it. Michael Leyco's timbrous baritone was a great help, of course.

Jasmine impersonated Cher, Beyonce and Diana Ross with understanding and appreciation of those singers' salient vocal and physical mannerisms. Jasmine sang selections from her own collection over the years, taking us - the audience - down memory lane. She was the compleat singer and entertainer last night.

The Society of Seven ranks as one of the best groups to come out of the Filipino diaspora. I can't say it's the best to come out of the Philippines because it originated in Hawaii, where Pinoys reign supreme. As many of you readers know, Pinoys practically "own" Hawaii; in fact, at one time the governor of Hawaii was a Filipino.

The group is probably the best singing group performing in Vegas right now - even if you throw the Jersey Boys into the mix. They offer not just the blending of the best voices in the business, they have slapstick comedy that keeps you in stitches through most of the night. They are masters of impersonation. They each, individually, are great singers.

And this brings me to one of the Society of Seven - Michael Leyco. Introduced as a star in the Philippines before he joined the S of S, Leyco is the ultimate nightclub male crooner cum operatic star. His vocal range is unbelievably wide, and the guy has lungs. In his rendition of Paul Simon's Bridge Over Troubled Waters - sung at Josh Grobin's pitch - he stayed on a note for a full maybe 20 to 25 seconds and then immediately pivoted to another note - all done in a vigorous voice that reminds one of the lead in The Righteous Brothers. In terms of technique, his pivot was reminiscent of Andrea Bocelli, who effortlessly pivots from a very long stay at a single high note into an even higher note without sucking air in.

The reputation of Filipino singers all over Asia is legend. It is a well-deserved reputation because of the emergence of singers such as Michael Leyco. I have a sense that if there is a competition of male individual singers now performing in Las Vegas, Leyco will blow away the competition.

Rack one up for Filipino male singers. A star has burst onto the Las Vegas scene.

The cost of the tickets for two - my wife was with me - was less than what we would have paid if we had gone to dinner. The Society of Seven, with Jasmine Trias, was the best bargain in Las Vegas last night.

This show is a must-see for residents of Las Vegas as well as those who are thinking of visiting Las Vegas in the near future.

Breaking up is not too hard, after all

If Filipinos had a "free look" period of five to ten years, they would not take all that time but instead return the idea of a confederation (or federation) to the salesman immediately. Especially if the salesman is a Tagalog. Filipinos probably would claim that the confederation idea favors the Tagalogs too much and will put the other independent states in a deep hole.

Assuming that the partition of the Philippines is done along the lines of the 17 regions in the Philippines, the poorest regions would be Ilocos, Bicol, Eastern Visayas, Caraga and the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao.

Those regions would have per capita incomes of less than 20% of the figure for Metro Manila. In the case of the ARMM (Autonomous Region) the per capita GDP would be less than 12% of Metro Manila's.

Metro Manila, or more formally the National Capital Region, has an annual per capita income of $10,000+, with Makati having a whopping per capita of $29,000+ and Mandaluyong with an equally impressive $20,000+.

Metro Manila's per capita Gross Domestic Product is the 30th highest in the world. Beijing is barely ahead of Metro Manila, while Jakarta and Delhi, India are immediately behind Manila. Guangdog, China comes right after Delhi, and Bangkok is two places behind Guangdong.

Metro Manila is in giddy company. If Metro Manila becomes a separate country, it will look like Hongkong of a couple of decades ago.

Should the Visayans, the Ilocanos, Kapampangans, etc. reject the idea of a confederation as overwhelmingly favoring Metro Manila? If time were to be frozen, the answer is a resounding "Yes." This idea could be easily dismissed as a ploy by Manilenos to allow it to splinter from the archipelago known as Philippine Islands and never look back.

Time, however, stands still for no one. Along with time, huge changes will quickly follow. What are the prospects for the other regions which will now become independent states - alone or in combination with others?

Metro Manila has developed quickly since Independence on July 4, 1946 while the provinces, especially the remote areas, have stood still. Not completely stood still, for certainly progress has come to those areas albeit at a snail's pace. And it is progress at the barest of all minimums.

It's patchwork progress.

The first time I went back to the Philippines - in 1992, after a 25-year absence - I was dumbfounded when I saw the rivers in the rural areas. What used to be pristine rivers where the local damsels washed their laundry, all I could see were garbage strewn all over the banks, some sticking from beneath the water levels. People were using the rivers to dump their everyday castoffs.

Was there even garbage collection in those areas? In Boracay two years ago, the catamaran I took my family on was caught in a heavy downpour. We had to make an emergency landing in the back of the island. Then it struck me: that's where all the garbage and some of the sewage was ending up.

Even Paradise, it seemed, had been despoiled, all in the name of "progress".

Progress for the hinterlands has come at a tremendous cost. Because of a lack of infrastructure development at par with Manila's, the rural areas are overrun by the trappings of progress.

While people's garbage have increased a thousand-fold (progress is always accompanied by a geometric explosion of garbage), people still have no jobs or adequate education. People have nothing to look forward to but the prospect of going abroad someday - to Saudi Arabia, to Hongkong, to Malaysia, to Canada, California or New York. The luckiest ones have only to go to the nearest Western Union to claim remittances from relatives abroad.

The nearest convention center is in front of Aling Inday's sari-sari, where locals congregate at night to drink lambanog and trade jokes. Lately, the karaoke bars have served as the magnets for locals to trade jokes and drink.

The only truly significant, transformative progress over the years is the one that has come to Metro Manila, Cebu, Angeles City, Subic and Davao and only portions that are in excess of Metro Manila's needs have trickled off to the provinces. I know, some of you are thinking, what about Baguio, General Santos City, Cagayan de Oro? What about this and that city?

Once the regions become independent states, they will be able to carve their own destinies and implement laws that favor them. They will not need the permission of a Manila government to pursue their own dreams. All progress will accrue to them, not to an overbearing Metro Manila.

If the independent states wish to open their countries to foreign investments by scrapping the prohibition against foreign majority ownership of businesses, they will be free to do so. There will be no Manila government trying to stop them.

If those states want to scrap minimum wage laws to make them more competitive in the world market, there will be no Manila government frowning its face on them.

If those states want to offer their natural resources - industrial and precious metals - for development by foreign interests, there will be no Manila government trying to thwart their will.

If those states want to lease their territories to governments for commercial or military purposes, there will be no Metro Manila halting the construction.

If those states want to pursue social policies that differ from Manila's, they will be free to do so.

For example, if some independent states favor a more progressive family planning policy, there will be no Manila government or CBCP shaking a stick in their face. Spain, the source of the country's religiosity, has after all leaped into the 21st century and has legalized abortion (under certain strict conditions) and divorce. I do not personally favor abortion and divorce, but if the independent states want them, who am I to stand in their way?

Were some of the independent states to make ten-year temporary marriage contracts legal, there will be no overbearing CBCP to stop them. Because there will be no CBCP. Each independent state will have its own archbishop and lineup of bishops - or none at all, as in the case of the ARMM.

If some independent states want a more liberal or more aggressive tax policy, they will be free to follow their wishes, without some bureaucrat in Manila telling them they can't do it.

Each independent state shall be able to adopt economic, educational and social policies without interference from the other independent states. They will be free to set off on a course that is their very own.

All tax collections and revenues shall accrue to the states and will not go through Manila, where some funds are now being used to line pockets of some very powerful people there. There will be no corruption or favoritism at the national level, because there will be no national treasury to plunder or distribute to a national government's favorites.

Each state will be free to organize the equivalent of its own Bureau of Internal Revenue and Bureau of Customs. The old corruption-ridden BIR and Customs of the current Philippine government shall be scrapped and replaced, hopefully, with equivalent local agencies that will honestly collect income taxes and customs duties. It will be an opportunity to start over and set up tax collection agencies in the mold of the Internal Revenue Service of the U.S. In fact, I would advise the states to seek assistance from the U.S. government in setting up their Internal Revenue and Customs laws and offices.

Each state will have its own constitution and legal system. It can make justice happen as fast or as slow as its people want to. The corrupt arreglo system in Manila will be replaced by judicial systems that can dispense justice. Will there be a jury system? Only if the locals want it.

Finally, and most importantly, the focus of all activity in each of the independent states is the rise in the standard of living and educational level of their people. There will be no Manila-centric policies to pursue.

There is no doubt that the partitioning of the Philippines into independent states will be beneficial to the archipelago as a whole. We have to be careful, however, that the independent states we set up shall be economically and politically viable.

Because of what happened recently in Haiti, and more distantly in Somalia, the question of viability is front and center. Viability is the reason some states shall not be organized according to the ancient divisions of language and nations. For example, the Central Luzon state shall be made up of Kapampangans and Tagalogs.

I have tentatively drawn plans for setting up the various independent states and offer the following lineup. (All chartered cities shall be absorbed by the provinces where they are situated.)

1. Metro Manila, or National Capital Region.

2. Ilocandia - Ilocos, the Cagayan Valley Region, which includes Batanes, along with Abra, Benguet, Baguio City, Ifugao, Apayao, Kalinga and Mountain Province.

3. Central Luzon, made up of Pampanga, Bataan, Bulacan, Neva Ecija, Tarlac and Zambales.

4. Calabarzon - Cavite, Batangas, Laguna, Quezon, Aurora and Rizal.

5. Bicol Region - Albay, Camarines Norte and Sur, Catanduanes and Sorsogon.

6. Western Visayas and Mimaropa - Aklan, Antique, Guimaras Capiz, Iloilo, Negros Occidental, Marinduque, Mindoro, Palawan and Romblon.

7. Central and Eastern Visayas - Bohol, Cebu, Negros Oriental, Siquijor, Samar, Leyte and Biliran.

8. Northern Mindanao - Bukidnon, Camiguin, Lanao del Norte, Misamis Occidental and Oriental.

9. Central and Southern Mindanao - Davao peninsula, Cotabato, Sarangani, Sultan Kudarat, Agusan, Dinagat and Surigao.

10. Muslim Mindanao (Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao) - Basilan, Lanao del Sur, Maguindanao, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi.

There you have it, folks. Toss these in your heads and let's discuss. But before you hop on your soapboxes, I want you to know that upon breakup of the Philippines, the Metro Manila will be tasked with the development of Bicol to help that region become a viable state. The Bicolanos will have an incentive to build their nation properly, for the alternative will be their absorption into the Calabarzon state and resultant loss of the Bicolanos' country of their own.

Central Visayas, and Central and Southern Mindanao will be depended upon to help Northern Mindanao and the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao become viable states. If that doesn't work, the ARMM shall be allowed to break off in the future and become a part of Malaysia, while Northern Mindanao is absorbed by Central and Southern Mindanao.

I want to research these groups further, with an eye on economic viability for each of the states. This lineup is by no means final, so dear readers, please keep your comments and observations coming.

Breaking up is hard to do

I first thought about the breakup of the Philippines into numerous independent states as an academic exercise. I was detached; it was something intellectual, remote even.

As I tossed the idea in my head many times over, prodded by my friends on the Internet who forced me to look more closely at the consequences, I started to feel a sense of nostalgia, of loss, of a hole where the heart should be.

Do I really want our beloved Philippines to break up and its numerous parts be cast into the lonely ocean where every new nation must prove that it is a man?

That's when I realized I had to turn cold and analytical. I'm not suggesting that the country become like the old Yugoslavia, which was torn apart and its former dysfunctional parts cast away to become fully independent states. Or the old Soviet Union, which splintered into various fully independent states twenty years ago.

What I am suggesting is that the Philippines be broken up into numerous independent states bound together by a constitution. The government entity that will be the unifying force for the states will be a cross between the European Union and the first United States of America, which was a confederation and not the federation that it is now.

We know that the European Union is weak and is concerned mainly with common market and monetary issues. The EU model may not be sufficient for our purposes. So let's take a look instead at the United States of America when it was first established - in 1781. The thirteen states (former colonies) that formed the U.S.A. were independent states and will serve as models for the emergent states that shall be under the umbrella of a new confederation that I shall tentatively call Katipunan ng Mga Malayang Bansa. The authority that shall be ceded to the Katipunan government shall be:

1. A Katipunan Congress drafting laws governing the relations among the various states. The Katipunan shall be governed by a Congress made up of representatives of the various states. The Presidency of the Congress shall revolve annually among representatives. No President shall preside over the Congress for more than one calendar year.

2. Each state will be independent in every respect except where those states' rights are limited expressly by the constitution of the Katipunan.

3. An attack on any state by foreign powers shall be considered an attack on all the states and an army shall be raised for the purpose of repelling the invaders' attacks. Financing of the armed forces shall be provided by the states in proportion to the states' gross domestic products.

4. Laws of each state shall be honored by all the other states and extradition treaties shall be enforced from day one.

5. Taxation shall be the responsibility of each state. A percentage of those taxes will be assessed for the maintenance of the Katipunan government.

6. All military officers from the rank of colonel shall be appointed by the Katipunan Congress. Such officers will serve only in times of war.

7. A committee of states representing a simple majority can petition the Katipunan Congress to take up matters that those states feel important and warrant a special session of said Congress.

8. Assumption of debt. All debts of the former country known as the Republic of the Philippines shall be allocated to the various states on the basis of the states' gross domestic product.

Prior to the formal reorganization of the Philippines into the various states, the country shall seek to renegotiate the national debt under a range of options that shall prominently include interest moratorium and debt forgiveness.

No state shall be allowed to borrow in the name of the Katipunan government.

9. Currency. There will be a common currency, known as the Piso, with each state determining its own monetary policies through its own Central Bank.

10. Citizens of all the resultant states shall be free to move across borders, except vagrants, criminals and those who will likely be homeless in the states that they seek to enter.

The operating principle in the Katipunan should be that only those powers that are absolutely essential to an effective Katipunan government shall be granted to the central authority. All rights and powers shall remain with the states.

It is well-known that Jefferson, Franklin, Madison and others were greatly influenced by the Native American nations they found in mainland America. Those nations operated as confederations, complete with supreme councils that passed laws governing the various independent nations. The framers of the U.S. Constitution were impressed by the Iroquois supreme council and its management of the various Iroquois nations which for all practical purposes were independent states. Each Iroquois nation had its own tribal council that functioned as a House of Representatives.

Indirectly, therefore, I am harking back to the Native American confederations as a model for the Katipunan confederation. This is as it should be since the Philippines is a mere patchwork made up of disparate pieces that used to be separate nations.

We were taught in school that Tagalog is our national language and all the other tongues spoken in the islands are dialects. This, of course, is befuddling. A language is supposed to be the root and the dialects are its branches. Thus, if we look at English as the root language, the dialects are Cockney, Irish, Scottish, Australian, Filipino Standard English, Singaporean English, Hongkong English and many others.

Note that all the dialects derived from the English language.

In the case of the Philippine "dialects," none of the other tongues spoken derive from the so-called national language. One cannot recognize Tagalog in Cebuano, or Ilocano, or Kapampangan, or Panggalatok, etc. Each of the so-called dialects in the Philippines is in reality a distinct language.

I looked into this matter recently and discovered that the non-Tagalog languages were determined to be dialects only by a cultural commission and not because they had derived from a root language.

Why is language significant? Language evolves in a society where there is commonality in culture. And vice-versa. Cultural development is possible only when there is a common language. Language is what distinguishes one culture from another.

The Cebuanos evolved differently from the Tagalogs and have different thinking processes and traditional memories from the latter.

Imagine a world where the Cebuanos are independent from the Tagalogs and the two are in competition for foreign investments, tourism, economic development, exports, etc. Those two nations would be operating at optimal levels.

The Ilocanos, not to be outdone, will figure in the resultant free-for-all. So will the Kapampangans, the Bicolanos, the Visayan groups, the Muslims in the south and the Mindanaoans.

Intially, the Tagalog state, which I tentatively will call Tagala and which will be made up of metro Manila, Rizal, Bataan and Bulacan will be the preeminent state. Because it's GDP will be disproportionately higher than that of any of the other states, Tagala will have a per capita income that will approach those of the more developed Asean states. I will research this further and hopefully I can provide an approximate GDP per capita for Tagala in the near future.

This is important. A Tagala, with its higher per capita income and educational standards, will be able to quickly add vital infrastructure, further improve educational standards and approach full employment. The resultant vibrant nation will be able to compete with its Asian neighbors and quickly attract foreign capital.

It will be a short drive towards an economy that will approach that of Thailand. The net effect will be a further rise in wage levels which eventually will make it necessary for industries in Tagala to relocate factories in low-wage areas such as the Cagayan valley, the Visayas and eastern Mindanao.

Tagala factories shall eventually develop vast areas in the remote states such as Agusan and Bukidnon, which of course will also become attractive to foreign investments because of much lower wages than in Tagala and because those remote states may have constitutions that allow foreign ownership of land and businesses. I am assuming that the Tagala government may find it more difficult to scrap the constitutional prohibition against majority foreign ownership of businesses.

The accelerated economic development in the remote states will ease the pressure on the cities and equalize the availability of opportunity. While currently many of the remote provinces function as servile provinces to the metropolitan magnets such as Manila, Cebu and Davao, the hastened economic development in those servile provinces turned economic engines will greatly reduce the population flow from those areas to the metropolitan cities.

It will also dramatically slow the out-migration of the former Filipinos who find it necessary to uproot themselves and their families in search of jobs and the good life.

Because each state will be responsible for its own viability - in fact, survival - the voters in those new states will be challenged to elect only the qualified candidates in important positions. Depending on the electorates in those states, each state constitution shall mandate either a presidential or parliamentary form of government, or any form that they may elect to experiment with.

The initial leaders will be the founders of each state and the likelihood that such leaders will be of the George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams and James Madison variety will be greatly enhanced.

The people will know that their future and the future of their children will depend on the quality of their choices, so they will tend to vote into office only the best and most qualified leaders.

Every citizen in every state that emerges from the breakup of the Philippines shall know that she is in position to create her own world. Her children, too, will have an opportunity to create their own world. That is an opportunity of a lifetime, of many lifetimes, and with proper education of the electorate, when the breakup of the Philippines does occur - after perhaps an adjustment period of five to ten years - the people will be ready.

The leaders will no longer be of the Erap and Gloria variety because to elect such people into office in the various states would be suicidal. Leaders such as the Ampatuans would be run out of town.

Next week: How do we partition the Philippines into viable and inspirational states?

The Heart of a Champion

I've read countless explanations of why the Manny Pacquiao-Floyd Mayweather, Jr. fight spun into the kitchen sink drain, never more to be seen. Many have sided with Manny, nearly as many are on Pretty Boy Floyd's side.

No matter how I turned the issue in my head to look at all the possible angles, one image always stuck out. It was the image of a boxer's heart.

The boxer's heart probably pounds at 160 to 180 beats per minute while the boxer is in the ring, according to some scientific researches that have been done. In a championship fight that lasts 12 rounds, that means the heart races for 36 minutes at a pace that would kill average Joes like you and me.

I'm sure I would die of a heart attack after one round with my heart racing at 160 to 180 beats per minute.

Boxers, especially world-class boxers like Manny Pacquiao and Pretty Boy Floyd, don't even notice that their hearts are racing at breakneck speed for long periods. Manny Pacquiao, in fact, trained for 5 hours per session, non-stop, at the normal speed of his championship fights to get ready for his last outing, the one against Miguel Cotto.

I'm sure that Floyd Mayweather, Jr. also trains as hard and works his heart to the limit and even beyond.

Both fighters must have very strong hearts, else neither one of them would have reached the pinnacle of their boxing careers at this point.

But that is not the heart that concerned me about a month ago, when I decided to deploy the electronic fly I use to spy on famous people. The electronic fly, which I call "Drone-y" (I know, it's not original) attaches itself to walls in rooms where famous people meet and strategize, takes videos and tapes conversations.

I wanted to examine the true heart of the two boxers, the intangible "heart" that people talk about when they say: "Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier dug deep in their hearts and put on the show of the century, The Thrilla in Manila. They left everything in the ring that night, two warriors joined in a struggle that would define each boxer's life, two boxers whose hearts were bigger than their muscular frames, bigger than the sport that was their career and livelihood."

That is the heart I am talking about, the intangible that one cannot put a finger on, cannot discern with the regular senses, but which one can deduce from the actions, the words, the thought processes of the protagonists.

Why do I question the hearts of either Manny Pacquiao or Floyd Mayweather, Jr.? Haven't they proved enough to the world that they were two brave warriors who would take on the best opponents available to them over the years? Did they not handily or brutally beat all comers?

Yes, I would question them because while they have fought the best fighters around, they have never fought each other. Now it's Manny vs. Floyd. It's not about either of them fighting the other contenders in the world of boxing. It's now about them fighting each other.

Who was the first to blink? Whose intangible heart had a slight twinge of inadequacy? Who was first to decide that finding out who is the best pound-for-pound is not really that important?

I wanted to reconstruct the sequence of events that led to the cancellation of the Manny-Floyd fight of the century (so far in the 21st) so I went to work. I deployed my spy, Drone-y, to an undisclosed war strategy room of the Mayweathers. Drone-y came back to me after observing and recording the conversations of the chief strategists in the Floyd Mayweather, Jr. camp.

Floyd, Jr., his father Floyd Mayweather, Sr., Richard Shaefer of the Golden Boy promotions, were in the room along with a couple of handlers. They were just shooting the breeze, figuring out a ring strategy to use against Manny, a fighter unlike any that Junior had ever fought. What strategy would work against Manny, who has proved so unorthodox that none of the best fighters he has faced in recent years have been able to device a strategy that proved effective?

"I know," said Floyd, Sr., rising from a mahogany desk he had been sitting on, "Let's toy with his head. Let's make him angry, let's make him overeager and unsure of himself."

"But how do you do that?" asked Floyd, Jr.

"Do you see them muscles? Notice how Manny has bulked up too fast over the past year? Man-alive, how can anyone go from lightweight to welterweight in a year and not lose his strength?" continued the older Mayweather.

"No," chimed in Shaefer, "you just can't do that, not unless..."

"You mean he's on steroids?" said Floyd the younger.

"That's got to be the explanation," said one of the unnamed handlers, "he's got to be on steroids. After all, didn't that dude Atlas say Manny was on steroids?"

"Forget about Atlas," Jr. said, "How do we prove that he uses steroids?"

"I know," said Sr., "let's insist on drug testing a la Olympics."

"But nobody in boxing is tested for drugs using the Olympic Games rules," protested Jr. "Manny will not agree to that, he has too much pride. The Nevada Athletic Commission rules are in effect here, and those rules are far less restrictive than the Olympic Games."

"Well, if he doesn't agree to it, we have him by the b___s," Sr. says. "People will think that he has something to hide and the whispering campaign will make him put up. His mind will be all over the map, he will not be able to concentrate."

"Sounds like a brilliant strategy, dad," said Floyd, Jr. "Let's run with this."

My electronic fly went on the blink at this point and though I've tried and tried to make it reveal to me the rest of the taped conversation in the Mayweather planning room, so far I've been unsuccessful. Maybe someday new technology will be invented that will allow me to retrieve that part of the Mayweather camp's conversation that has been truncated off.

Oh, and going back to that intangible heart. The taped conversation that I played over and over was revealing in a very important way. Floyd, Jr.'s voice sounded tentative and suggested an analytical bent. Jr. appeared on the tape to be coldly analyzing Manny and trying to figure out how best to fight him.

There was none of the swagger of an Arnold Schwarzenegger promising "I'll be back."

The winner of the now-scuttled Manny vs. Floyd fight must have that Arnold swagger. He is the one who emerges as the brute in the ring, the one propelled by his heart, not his brain.

Floyd chose to fight with his brain, to out-think, out-strategize Manny. Unbeknownst to him, he was psyching himself to lose that fight. If the fight were to go on, he would be destined to lose.

He must be very glad the fight has been canceled.

If this fight can be salvaged at all, Mayweather must be prepared to fight with his heart. I mean his heart of hearts, that intangible palpable beating heart that tells the man that this is it, this is the place where the man either lives or dies, emerges victor or loser.

It takes a very brave man to put himself in that moment of decision. Will Mayweather find that heart that he had temporarily misplaced and call Manny and say he will no longer insist on Olympics-style testing for PEDs?

Is he even interested in finding out who the best pound-for-pound champion in the world is? Does he already know?

By the way, the Mayweather camp must now defend itself against a defamation suit brought on by Manny. Manny is very upset because there have been suggestions, in public, that Manny may be on steroids, something that Manny has never been accused of anytime in the past. Manny has passed every blood and urine test he has taken and no one has even remotely suggested that Manny was helped by steroids or any performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs) leading up to any of his fights, except from that Atlas flake.

This suit appears to be a potential KO in the first round, an open-and-shut case. In my opinion, Manny was in fact defamed.

The Heart of a Champion that beats in Manny's chest is now set to take the fight to the courtroom. It is not a one-dimension heart after all. It is also unafraid to fight in the ring of justice.

I said I was interested to find out which fighter did not really want a part of the other, yet I have deployed my electronic fly only to the Mayweather camp. I will next send the fly to Manny's camp in the Philippines.

(Looking at the recent pictures of the two fighters, which one appears more puffed up and bigger? Don't steroids make the user more muscular, rounder, bigger? You be the judge.)