An "Of the people, by the people and for the people" campaign

It all came to me in a dream. For much of the week I had been thinking of how the problems that confront my United States of America can best be solved, using common sense.

I was thinking along these lines when I fell into a deep slumber after a night of ballroom dancing. I was dog tired. In an instant I was dreaming.

I had seen the movie Inception and was convinced that people could, with practice, change their realities inside their dreams.

This, as far as a I can recall, was the content of my dream:

I arrived at the White House gate in a limousine - not clear how I got into the limo. The driver was flashed an OK sign to drive deeper into the White House grounds and I was dropped off at a special entrance. A couple of suits met me and motioned me to an elevator where the two men accompanied me. When I came out of the elevator, a nice-looking woman, someone I wouldn't mind ballroom dancing with, took over. She asked how I was and I said fine. I told her it was all so unreal to me.

When we got to a heavy lacquered door, she opened it for both of us. I was startled when I saw four figures inside what I immediately recognized as the Oval Office. The President was sitting behind his desk, while Senator Reid and former speaker Nancy Pelosi sat in the sofa and lounge chair. I did not recognize the man who was standing beside President Obama, but after the computer in my brain sorted out the features of his face I decided it was the Chief of Staff, Richard Daley.

"Mr. President," began the young lady in a smart green dress, "this is Cesar F. Lumba of Las Vegas, Nevada. If you don't need me for anything else, I'd like to go back to my office."

She left as I stood frozen in front of the President with whom I have at best a lukewarm personal relationship. I like his policies on national security, but I am thoroughly disappointed in his economic policies and his tendency to give up the bank in his compromises with Republicans.

"Sit down, Mr. Lumba, right here in front of me," said the President, as he motioned me to one of the chairs in front of his huge desk.

Just then, Senator Reid and Speaker Pelosi rose from their seats and sat in the chairs next and in front of me. President Obama and Mr. Daley came around the desk and sat in the other two empty chairs.

We formed a circle - the five of us - and carefully eyed each other.

President Obama opened up the conversation: "We called you in here, Cesar - can I call you Cesar? (I nodded) - because we think that of the millions of Americans who consistently vote in elections all across America, you represent the great majority of Americans. You are liberal on social issues but you are economically a conservative. You have a firm grasp of what's going on in the country, but you are also in many respects misinformed. You love your adopted country with a passion, but you also hate what it has become. To us, you are the perfect person to ask about what the heck we should do leading up to the elections of 2012, which we feel will be the most important elections of our lifetime - more important even than the 2008 elections."

"Mr. President," I replied, "how can I presume to know more than you and the others in this room about how to solve the many problems that are sinking America's chances to recover from its doldrums? Shouldn't I instead be asking each of you this question?"

The soft-spoken Senator Reid interjected: "If I may, Mr. President. The reason we called you in, Cesar, is that we know that we can count on you to speak your mind. We want to know what the American street is thinking. How do we solve the Medicare problem? How do we strengthen Social Security? What will Americans accept and not accept?"

"You want to take the pulse of average Americans and perhaps pick their brains?"

"Exactly," said Speaker Pelosi. I noticed that the former Speaker looked younger than her years. It must be the genes.

"We think that the elections of 2012 will be pivotal in our nation's history. We can put the country on a trajectory towards solving most of the problems, or we can assure continued paralysis through constant politicking on both sides. We would like to know what you think so we can fashion a campaign geared towards the great majority of Americans. If we can speak to the heart, soul and mind of the majority of Democrats and Independents, we will take back the U.S. House, the Senate and retain the Presidency. And this time, we will all be united so we can pursue policies that will benefit the poor and the middle class and not just the richest 2% in our country," said President Obama.

This was all I needed to get started. "Mr. President," I began, "I have a winning Democratic strategy that I have been carrying in my head for some time now. I am deliriously happy that I am face-to-face with you and Mr. Reid and Speaker Pelosi. Even your Chief of Staff is here. What an honor you are bestowing on me. I am so passionately involved in the 2012 elections - despite the fact that it is only May, 2011 - and you do me a great honor by asking me for my input.

"We must take back the House. But this time, we must take it back with people who will be in lock-step with us. We don't need any more Democratic congressmen who are marching to a different drummer. We tried this before and voters were livid. They thought they elected Democrats; turned out some of the people they elected were Republicans.

"Especially in the Senate. We had sixty Democratic senators, Mr. Reid, yet we couldn't beat back the threats of the Republican filibuster. Why? Because we had among us Republican senators we were passing off as Democrats. If we want to get things done in the new Congress, we must have only Democratic senators who will vote as Democrats and not as Republicans.

"We start by running only House and Senate candidates who will pledge in public that they will support our party's platform. People such as Senator Nelson of Nebraska must be made to understand that he is expected to vote as a Democrat and that we will not tolerate his pro-health insurance industry policies.

"With the right kind of people running for office, if we win back the House and expand our majority in the Senate, we can do a lot of good for our country. We will have a government of the people, for the people and by the people, and not a government of the special interests, by the special interests and for the special interests."

"That's all fine," said President Obama, "but how do you turn right-of-center America into basically a left-of-center society?"

"Mr. President," I quickly replied (I felt myself completely animated), "the old labels are no longer important because the Independents are now a huge chunk of the electorate. And the Independents will go left-wing or right-wing, depending on their mood and convictions. Right now, the mood in this country is to solve our problems. The independents don't care if the solutions are left-wing or right-wing, all they care about is that the solutions must make sense and hold a lot of promise.

"We know we can count on Democrats. If we ran Charlie Sheen for the Senate, Democratic voters will vote for him. It's the Independents who hold the key. We must therefore gear our campaign towards the Independents.

"How do we do that? We must come up with our own version of the New Deal, or the New Frontier, or the Contract with America. And don't forget the Great Society. Americans have been clobbered by the Great Recession, by the jobless recovery, by the flight of jobs to China and other countries. They look around and see that the only people who are benefiting from the recovery are the super-rich, the rich and the well-connected. Everybody else is struggling. Our homes are under water. There are many among our friends, neighbors and relatives who are either unemployed or who constantly fear of becoming another unemployment statistic.

"There is clearly a resentment for the rich and privileged few. Since those rich and privileged few will never vote for Democrats anyway, we must exploit this resentment by turning the 2012 campaign into a campaign against those rich and privileged few. If we are successful, those whose knee-jerk is to support the rich and privileged few (the Republican Party) will fall by the wayside.

"Mr. President, your 2008 campaign was a 'Yes, We Can' campaign. It was also about 'Change We Can Believe In.' So why don't we call the 2012 campaign an 'Of the people, by the people and for the people' campaign? This will strengthen our hold on the middle class, the poor, the immigrants - those who feel that they are getting the short end of the stick while the rich and super rich have never had it so good.

"This 'Of the people, by the people and for the people' campaign will have as their foundation eleven pillars:

"1. If a Democratic Congress is elected again, our first order of business will be to put Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security on solid financial footing.

"2. We will tax the rich and super rich. We were the undisputed greatest country in the world when our top tax rate was 70% - during the Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford and Carter eras. I don't know if the top tax rate should be 70% again, but it must be high enough to generate much needed tax revenues that will help strengthen the entitlement programs and reduce our sovereign debts.

"3. We will also increase taxes on the middle class and on businesses that outsource their manufacturing to other countries. The middle class must share in the sacrifice, while the businesses that are responsible for creating economic booms in other countries while decimating the work force in the U.S. must be taxed heavily for the privilege of selling their products and services in the U.S., the world's biggest market.

"4. We will scale back our military commitments abroad and convert our military to rapid-response and high-tech warfare combat-ready units. We will completely withdraw from Iraq and Afghanistan, close many of our military bases and shore up our national defenses. The goal will be to cut down our military expenses to 75% of today's level.

"5. We will work for a Medicare-for-all system, patterned after the Canadian and Australian models. The American people and their employers will be taxed to pay for this Medicare-for-all system. The important difference will be that the premiums will not be as high as today. Since Medicare and Medicaid are the biggest drivers of the government's deficit spending, the savings will immediately put the government firmly on the path to fiscal sanity.

"6. We will introduce a financial services tax of 0.5% to be in effect for at least ten years, or until the nation's sovereign debt is reduced to about $5 trillion. All financial transactions, without exception, will be subject to the tax, which over the years could raise trillions.

"7. We will create incentives for American and multi-national businesses to bring jobs back to America by selective tariffs and other disincentives for locating factories in China, India, Ireland and other countries.

"8. Full employment will be a goal against which every U.S. national administration will be measured. Full employment will be defined as 4% unemployment rate or better, and any substantial increase in the unemployment rate will cause a series of fiscal remedies to automatically go into effect.

"9. The U.S. will not accept anything less than preeminence in green technology. We Democrats will put our best and brightest students in the field and will devote as much resources and attention to the attainment of that goal as the country did to put a man on the moon by the end of the 1960s. Of course we will not neglect our energy needs during the transition to renewable sources of energy. We will encourage massive production of natural gas and increased oil drilling and production within our shores and offshore.

"10. We will do our part in the fight against global warming and will prepare the country for what appears to be inevitable: the inundation of cities, the disappearance of barrier islands, the sinking of marshes. The U.S. will be best prepared to meet head-on the challenges of rising oceans and violent changes in weather patterns.

"11. Finally, and most importantly, the Department of Commerce must be replaced by the Department of Exports. It will be the Secretary of Exports that will promote American products throughout the world and the Cabinet Secretary will be tasked with promoting the manufacture of U.S. products for export. The Secretary of Exports will have the power to discipline organizations such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which lately has been advising its members to manufacture products overseas."

Just then, as if on cue, White House stewards opened the door and wheeled in a coffee cart. One of the stewards was a cute Filipina, and there was a smile in her eyes as she briefly stared at me.

"Oh, just in time," the President announced. "You make a lot of sense, Cesar. You have exceeded even our highest hopes for this meeting."

The transition to my waking was jarring. I wanted to go back to sleep and resume my dreaming, though I knew there was no guarantee that I would pick up the same dream. Slowly but surely I became wide awake. It must be 5:00 a.m., I thought, since I always wake up at right around 5. But, when I looked at the alarm clock, it showed 6:37 a.m. I had overslept.

South Orange

I've always known that the number "11" was my lucky number. In my early years I believed in horoscopes and read everything I could to discover what was in store for me according to the stars. I learned that as a Piscean I was given to mood swings - from the depths of the ocean to the bright light of the noon sun, as the fish swims just beneath the ocean's surface.

After my tumultuous early career years, when my body was in the U.S. but my soul was in the Philippines, I hit my stride only after I had moved to 11 Warren Court, South Orange, New Jersey and started working at 11 Kulick Road for a Japanese company in Fairfield, New Jersey.

My love affair with number 11 started in my 13th year as a student athlete in De La Salle College, a kindergarten to Masters private school in the Philippines run by the Christian Brothers. Having been told by syndicated astrologers that my lucky numbers were 1 and - less so - 2, there was no question that I would adopt number 11 as the number on my basketball uniform at La Salle. On opening day of the Archdiocesan Athletic League Midgets 1954 season, I exploded with 14 points out of my team's total 42 points. It was the highlight of my brief career as a basketball player.

I had dreamed of a career as a basketball star in the Philippines. I played basketball, breathed basketball, sunned my heavily pigmented skin shooting baskets all day in the hot equatorial sun. Basketball was my life.

My parents had other ideas. They took me to three different cardiologists because they wanted to hear from a doctor what they needed to hear: that I needed to stop playing basketball for health reasons. Long story.

I did not know it as deliverance at the time, but my tumultuous marriage fell into ruins while I lived at 11 Warren Court. It was bad for the kids - all divorces are bad for the kids - but for both my first wife and me it was an opportunity for a new beginning. Would I have gone through it all if I had known how it would affect the kids? Of course not. But, what's done was done and we all had an opportunity to move on. Compliments of 11 Warren Court.

The house was 40 years old and in bad shape inside when we bought it. It looked like a sparkling all-brick English tudor on the outside, but it was crumbling inside. I would spend tens of thousands renovating the interior over the years, when $1000 was still a lot of money. The moldy bathroom. The termite infestation. The worn and dirty carpets. The unfinished third-floor room. The unfinished half of the basement.

It felt like home. I had never felt more at home than after I had moved to 11 Warren Court. I remarked to my first wife that I suspected that I might have been reincarnated and that in an earlier life I had lived in that house at 11 Warren Court.

My former next-door neighbor, a guy named Bob Krueger, who had raised his kids at 9 Warren Court, wept when he saw his house a few years after he had sold it. It was the only house he had owned and in his sickly old age he was overcome with deep nostalgia as the memories rushed while he sat in his car watching the old house - the one and only house he had ever owned.

I was afraid something akin to that rush of emotion would await me upon seeing that old house in South Orange once again. It was my son's spring break from April 16 through April 24, and I took him back to South Orange, where he could reconnect with the friends with whom he first saw the world. I had a lot of loose official business to take care of and spring break 2011 was as good a time as any. It was after all my lucky year - the 11th year of the 21st century - so what could possibly go wrong?

Sure enough, the trip went smoothly as son Paul and I renewed our friendships with old friends and former neighbors. Paul and I stayed at the house of long-time neighbors Mike and Carolyn Banks, who had just remodeled their kitchen and bathrooms at a cost of $100,000-plus. I immediately called my wife to tell her how elegant and expensive the kitchen and bathrooms looked.

It didn't start auspiciously though since we went from the brightness and warmth of the Las Vegas sun and 90 degree weather to winter in New York and New Jersey. When our plane touched down in New York's JFK airport at 6:00 a.m. on the 16th of April, it was winter. What about spring? Wasn't it supposed to be spring? It was obvious from the start that the New York area was the land that Spring forgot. It was cold, dreary, foggy, damp, wet and soporific. And I had lived in this neck of the woods for thirty years?

From across the street, on the lawn of 8 Warren Court, our house in South Orange looked small and boxy. The couple who had bought the house cut down the front-lawn tree that had framed the house and made it look like a tudor on the English countryside. Now it sat there on a tiny lot squat and unpretentious, looking like a decorated box. This was not the house I remembered. I had romanticized this house over the past four years. This was the house that I had thought would bring me to tears when I cast my eyes on it one more time - perhaps for the last time before I moved on with finality?

No, this can't be that same house. This house was small, much smaller than I had
remembered. Now I fully understand why some friends who had seen our house years ago remarked that our house looked like a cute gingerbread house, where Hansel and Gretel might have lived.

Son Paul had the greatest week of his young life. He spent three days with Marshall, his Warren Court friend who is a few months older and with whom he had discovered the hypnotic spell of video and computer games. The two best friends forever never really lost touch because they kept communicating in cyberspace through XBox Live and web cams. Marshall is still a head taller than Paul, but since the two of them move like Thing One and Thing Two, nobody notices the height disparity.

The poignant scenes were reserved for the meeting between Paul and his best friend in school, Sean Taylor. Paul knocked on the front door of the Taylor residence even though the house looked like there was nobody home. I had remarked to Paul that the Taylors were probably not home because it was spring break. "Let's just knock," Paul said.

When Mrs. Taylor opened the door, she was smiling from ear to ear. I sat in the car and observed the scene at a comfortable distance, but it was obvious that she was so happy to see Paul. She called Sean Taylor down and Sean and brother Brian came rushing down the staircase. When Sean reached the fourth or fifth step, he stopped and clutched the bannister and eyed Paul. I had already entered the house and was standing in the anteroom. Paul stood at the bottom of the stairs while Sean had the look of a kid who did not know what was happening all around him. Paul had the same expression on his face he always has. He had the confident airs of someone who knew exactly what was happening because he had made it happen.

Kathleen (Mrs. Taylor) related to me that Sean had often wondered if he would ever see Paul again after we had moved to Las Vegas. Sometimes, Sean would ask his mother to drive through Warren Court just so Sean could see the house where Paul used to live. Paul and Sean were best friends at Marshall School from kindergarten to 2nd grade - both mildly ADHD and both having each other's back as they learned to form alliances on Marshall School's rough and tumble playground.

Paul wanted to see as many former classmates on this trip as we could find. Unfortunately, I had forgotten where his other friends lived. Except Zach Britton, who made a brief appearance at the Taylor residence after hearing that Paul was at the Taylors'.

South Orange in grown-up talk is a disaster. A lot of houses are on the market but are not selling. Everybody we saw on this trip told us how lucky we were that we had sold our house in August, 2007, just before the housing market crashed. Now, every third homeowner in town is trying to sell his house because of the insane property tax system. Property taxes have skyrocketed as the New Jersey state's finances have taken a turn towards possible bankruptcy. The state is no longer there to help the small towns and cities, so South Orange must raise funds by taxing its residents.

The brother of one of my friends in the old neighborhood now pays $33,000 a year in property taxes because his house has been appraised by the town at $1.5 million. Furious, he put his house on the market so he could, like me, become a property tax refugee. Nobody is buying. He is selling his house for $799,000 and still nobody is buying.

He went to the town assessor and argued his case for lower property taxes. He could not even sell his house for $799,000, so how could it possibly have an assessed value of $1.5 million? To no avail.

Some good things - enough to tickle - are happening in South Orange. The old supermarket building in town has been renovated, and new tenants - an upscale supermarket and a swanky restaurant on the second floor called "Above" are the new occupants. The dumpy parking lot of the old supermarket now has a three-story mixed use building, with two floors of ritzy apartments and stores and offices on the ground floor.

On the main street, South Orange Avenue, store owners are fleeing the high cost of commercial rentals, which have been made necessary by the dreaded first-in-the-nation property taxes.

What will become of South Orange as residents flee for low-property-tax areas like Florida, Nevada, Texas and California? For years there have been talk of South Orange and Maplewood merging and becoming one town once again. South Orange did in fact start out as a part of Maplewood, broke off because of concerns about its needs not being met. Now it may be necessary for the two towns to become one once again if those two towns are to have a decent chance to be viable in today's fiscal environment.

The New Jersey governor, Chris Christie, is gutting the state government to force a balanced budget. He obviously wants to set an example for the local governments like South Orange and Maplewood. If Christie's state government is the wave of the future, local governments all over the state will be forced to scale back and pool resources. Public education will suffer, roads and bridges, public safety will deteriorate.

More will be demanded of county governments, as small towns and cities become less independent and more dependent on the counties' meager budgets.

The limits of taxing properties in South Orange have been reached. Unless property taxes are rolled back, few residents would want to stay in that town. We, the Lumbas, fled South Orange in 2007 primarily because of our high property taxes. Others before us and still others after us have done the same.

Paradoxically, a monumental collapse of the housing market may be the only hope for the town's residents because that would force the local government to substantially roll back taxes. This, of course, would be the worst thing for seniors who until the housing collapse had been counting on selling their houses and using the proceeds to partially fund their retirement.

Is South Orange the metaphor for the entire United States experiment?

Sweet Bird of Youth

About a month ago, I took a sabbatical from this blog to view my blogging from a distance. Was I writing useful stuff? Was I helping anyone? Was my blogging centered in people's needs and interests and not merely my attempts to prove I had something to say?

A part of me knows I have something important to say, yet another part of me says that I delight in appearing knowledgeable, smart and sometimes witty. A part of me wants to write for the sake of writing. It's akin to arguing for the sake of arguing. You hear people say all the time, when they interject a hypothetical, "Arguing for the sake of argument."

A little more than a week ago I was introduced to a book that could possibly change my life and perhaps other people's lives.

The book, called "NO More Heart Disease," traces the author's life's work to Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite. Nobel, as almost everyone knows, at the end of the 19th and dawn of the 20th century packaged powdered nitroglycerin mixtures in dynamite sticks that revolutionized modern-day living. Through Nobel's invention, mountainsides have been blasted to make way for roads, mine shafts and tunnels have been built, neighborhoods have been demolished to make way for shopping malls.

Nitroglycerin, invented by a chemist in 1846, is a substance that has been around for more than 150 years. Nothing new with this product, which is even used to treat angina pectoris, or chest and other pains. Exactly how nitroglycerin works to ease the pain was not widely known during Alfred Nobel's time, and that is probably the best explanation for why Nobel himself refused to be treated with nitroglycerin for his cardiovascular disease, even when all other treatments had failed. He died of complications of that disease.

Nobel, against his doctors' advice, refused to use nitroglycerin for his ailment because he did not want a substance used in producing dynamite, or its by-product - nitric oxide, which comes out of automobile tailpipes - to enter his blood stream. To him, nitroglycerin was simply a product for the sewers, not his body.

A Brooklyn boy with a prodigious love for chemistry, Louis Ignarro, was so fascinated by Alfred Nobel's life and dynamite itself that he soon found himself devoting his scholarly energies to a greater understanding of nitroglycerin. His research took him to the study of nitric oxide, which most assuredly comes out of cars' tailpipes but is the primary substance in nitroglycerin that treats angina pectoris.

His interests led him to a career in pharmacology. Through collaborative research with other medical scientists, he learned that there was a silver bullet in the treatment of atherosclerosis - hardening of the arteries - and arteriosclerosis, the clogging up of arteries. It was nitric oxide, but he did not know this at first.

The enormity of the subject transfixed him. It was well-known that the average human body has 80,000 miles end to end of arteries, veins and capillaries. Every cell in the body needs oxygen and nutrients, and the body's infrastructure of arteries, veins and capillaries are the conduit for the blood that oxygenates and feeds the cells in our bodies.

Heart attacks and strokes are the result of blood vessels no longer functioning at optimal levels or are clogged up, depriving organs - especially the heart and brain - of oxygen and nutrients. His life's mission, he felt in his gut, was to find ways to improve the functioning of the blood vessels. His medical research and experiments led him to an amino acid known as L-Arginine. This protein would prove to be effective in repairing the endothelium, the one-cell-thick lining that protects the blood vessels' interior walls.

Ignarro knew that the interior walls had to be protected, otherwise the vessels would harden, a condition known as atherosclerosis. Atherosclerosis or hardened arteries, makes arteries inefficient conduits for blood.

Ignarro knew that the key to delaying, even reversing aging was the proper functioning and health of the blood vessels. In fact, 75% of aging is caused by damaged and worn-down blood vessels.

His research revealed that a substance, which he called "endothelium-derived relaxing factor" or EDRF, was produced by the endothelium and was the body's defense against harmful molecules and substances that damage both the endothelium and the blood vessels' interior walls.

It took years before researchers discovered that the substance was nitric oxide, the very substance found in nitroglycerin and auto exhausts, and which substance the human body produces in sufficient quantities in youth but in ever-decreasing quantities as we age. Nitric oxide, chemical formula NO, or one atom of nitrogen and one atom of oxygen, is secreted by the endothelium in much the same way that the linings in our mouths produce saliva. Nitric oxide protects the endothelium from free radicals and bacteria.

Once this relationship between the health of blood vessels and nitric oxide was established, one would think that it would all be downhill from there. No such luck.

As we age, the endothelium is damaged, veins, arteries and capillaries are blocked all along the 80,000 miles of blood vessels. Because the endothelium is the main source of nitric oxide, not enough NO is produced, and eventually the blood vessels harden to the point that organs no longer get enough sustenance, leading to disease and eventually death.

Ignarro knew that to delay aging and prevent strokes and cardiovascular disease, the key was to keep the blood vessels young and healthy. To accomplish this, the endothelium needed to be repaired.

His research introduced him to an already known protein called L-arginine. That protein was found to repair the endothelium, bringing it back to health and appeared to reverse the hardening of the arteries and other blood vessels. It also appeared to melt away the plaque buildup in arteries, sending the liquefied plaque to the kidneys for disposal.

The problem with L-arginine, however, was that its effect lasted only a few seconds. Hardly the kind of treatment that anyone would be interested in. Through his many experiments he found that L-citrulline, another protein, when combined with L-arginine, worked synergistically with the latter to encourage production of nitric oxide by the endothelium for 24 to 36 hours. This pharmacological breakthrough eventually won for Ignarro the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1998.

Ignarro was almost home. Since much of the damage to the endothelium is caused by free radicals (oxygen atoms missing one electron) he knew instinctively that the mixture of L-arginine and L-citrulline had to be combined with powerful anti-oxidants to do the job. Determining sufficient quantities of antioxidants was the next big challenge, which Dr. Ignarro was more than equal to.

Ignarro was at Nice (France) airport in 1998 when he retrieved his voice mail and heard his friend in the U.S. tell him that he had won the Nobel Prize for Medicine for his successful research into the cocktail mixture of L-arginine, L-citrulline and antioxidants to combat atherosclerosis and arteriosclerosis. He got the call on April 1, so he assumed that it was an April Fool's joke.

When he arrived at his destination - Naples, Italy - some journalists and photographers greeted him as he alighted from the plane, walking down the metal staircase. He looked behind him because he thought that a celebrity was closely on his trail. There was nobody there.

When his Italian friend, a pharmacology professor, handed him a copy of a press release announcing Dr. Ignarro's Nobel prize, Ignarro fell to his knees on the tarmac, overcome with emotion.

It was as though the decades of hard work and disappointments typical among researchers looking for that proverbial needle in the haystack - all those years of not being taken seriously by the medical community - had melted away. History, of course, is replete with examples of announced breakthroughs that in the end proved to be worthless - even harmful - junk. So how does society know that this time, this discovery is for real? Society only knows after the fact.

The book, "NO More Heart Disease," is a runaway best-seller at amazon.com. It sells for $10.87, with free delivery.

More importantly, the book has encouraged medical researchers to conduct parallel research on the effectiveness of nitric oxide treatment on cardiovascular and other diseases. A brilliant researcher, Dr. Joe Prendergast, has confirmed not only that nitric oxide treats and repairs the endothelium and interior wall of the blood vessels, it also acts as a signaling agent for the maintenance of the vessels.

A substance that is present in dynamite and that comes out of auto tailpipes - nitric oxide - is our own bodies' defense against degenerative diseases of the organs, the blood vessels themselves, cellular damage, and even microbes and other harmful substances that invade the blood stream. In fact, Ignarro and others discovered that our white blood cells repel invaders by producing nitric oxide and using that gas as an important weapon.

And because nitric oxide, through continued and prolonged use and in sufficient quantities, cause normal functioning and regeneration of blood vessels, the effects of disease and aging are known to have been reversed. People who were on the waiting list for heart transplants in the High Desert Heart Institute in Victorville, California (Dr. Prendergast's study and treatment, not Ignarro's) recovered and were taken off the waiting list. Thousands of Dr. Prendergast's diabetes patients recovered from the organ damages that the disease had wrought on those patients.

Because blood vessels tend to become new again when sufficient quantities of nitric oxide are used in treatments, physiological aging stopped for most patients, and in many cases there was evidence that aging was reversed, meaning that people actually got younger.

The excited buzz among the researchers is that because aging is caused primarily by blood vessel decline and because nitric oxide repairs, regenerates, makes supple and softens blood vessels again - to the point that old people eventually become physiologically young again - theoretically people's life expectancy could someday increase to 150 years, instead of today's 79 years.

Has modern medicine found the fountain of youth? I certainly hope so. If man can build robots that think, look, feel and fall in love like humans, why can't man discover a way to doubling his life expectancy?

So far, only man's optimism is eternal. But, in the not-too-far distant future, maybe man himself will be close to being eternal.

(Disclosure: I am involved in the marketing of a product that uses Dr. Ignarro's discoveries to treat cardiovascular, diabetes and other diseases. The product, which increases blood flow as one of its primary effects, also allegedly treats some forms of male impotence. I can't vouch for this personally because this claim is based on theory and not on actual testimony of the product's users.)

Singularity

For the first time in a long time I stayed up till 2:00 a.m. Saturday morning. And so I spent much of Saturday recuperating. I watched the History Channel all day practically, comfortably sunk in the couch in the master bedroom, with a light blanket draped over me, the kind of blanket that has pockets for one's feet.

I watched in amazement many scientists argue that earth must have been visited by intelligent beings in the ancient times because that is the only way we can explain the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt, the massive sculptures on Easter Island and other monuments to a superior civilization that flourished on earth when the homo sapiens species had just barely come out of the wilderness. Those superior beings obviously used sophisticated tools that would be considered a marvel even today. Archaeologists point to numerous cave and wall drawings and carvings depicting humans in what look like today's astronaut suits and in the controls of what look like space ships. There appear to be great similarities in the drawings supposedly made by ancient humans and today's astronauts.

I of course had seen this movie before. Nothing new, except the bold assertion from astronomers that it is only a matter of time - not IF - before man discovers other life forms in the universe. The History Channel program asserts that while in the not-too-distant past scientists overwhelmingly held that the earth is unique in the universe, that our earth is probably the ultimate exception in that it supports life, now the prevailing notion among scientists is that there must be life on other planets somewhere in the universe, probably on not one but many of the heavenly bodies circling certain suns in the Milky Way. And that's just the Milky Way.

The lady astronomer interviewed bravely predicted that within our lifetimes we will discover life outside our planet. What would be hard to tell, she said, is if that life is intelligent life.

The lady astronomer (astronomatrix?) is confident that the very powerful telescopes on earth and mounted in deep space probes will allow man to discover planets that have water. Once these planets - or moons - are found, it will be a "mere" analysing the data to determine if life does exist in the waters.

We of course will not know if the life that is found is intelligent unless we humans interact with that life.

That means we have to get closer to that life. Which means we have to go on a voyage of discovery. The nearest candidates for extra-terrestrial life is millions, even billions of miles away. Man cannot travel that far. It's nearly impossible.

Or can he?

Lately, scientists have revived the notion of Singularity, which was first introduced by futurists in the 1960s. According to futurists, there will come a time when men and machines will become indistinguishable. Thus the word Singularity.

In a recent issue of Time magazine, in the New York Times, on CNN and other major channels, the buzz word is now Singularity. Futurists are predicting that at some point, probably in 2045, robots will be able to duplicate human intelligence to the point that they will also have the capacity for empathy and other emotions. Shortly after that Singularity moment, there will be a machine that will be able to store knowledge equivalent to the combined knowledge of all 7 billion people on earth.

The Time magazine article goes one step further. It quotes experts who say that the post-Singularity era will make man immortal. How does this happen? Imagine yourself at the point of death in 2045 or shortly after. A robot would go into a room with you and scan your brain for all your knowledge and your memory, including your emotional memory that may at that point be for the most part hidden from even you.

The robot, armed with what amounts to be your essence - your personality - will then absorb that scanned and digitized person into its own cpu (central processing unit). After that procedure, which probably will take no more than a minute, the robot becomes you. It will have your consciousness, your emotions, your loves, your hatreds, etc.

This robot is immortal. It will grow as it accumulates more knowledge and stacks up more memories. It will interact with your friends and family and they will recognize you in that robot. The robot probably would even look like you, either your older version or younger version.

If you're a Don Juan type, the robot might even be equipped to function as a lover to people who depend on you for emotional attachment and fulfillment.

Recently, an IBM computer called Watson challenged two of Jeopardy's all-time champions and demolished them both. A few years ago, a computer called Deep Blue trounced the then reigning world chess champion, Gary Kasparov, who admitted that man was no longer a match for a machine that could think thousands of moves ahead in a matter of seconds. The computers and robots in the future will be infinitely smarter and will have not only artificial intelligence but also artificial emotions and human intuition.

OK. Now assume that you have become a machine and that you are now immortal. You can then go on a space probe that will travel billions of miles and not miss a beat. You will no longer need to sleep. You will be permanently posted watching TV screens in your spaceship, looking for life in other planets in the Milky Way and other galaxies.

Time will not be an object because you are now timeless. You are immortal. You can travel at the speed of light because you are a machine.

What happens to religion? Well, your human body has died and your soul has gone wherever it's supposed to go. The only thing that the machine has that used to belong to you is your memory, your consciousness. That part of you is immortal.

Science fiction? No. Futurists are very confident that this will happen eventually. Computing power since the early days has increased by a factor of 2. First, it increased by twice the original increase, then 4 times, then 8 times, then 16 times, then 32 times, and on and on and on. Someday, probably by 2045, computing power will be such that it will be possible for robots to function as humans with their artificial intelligence, complete with human emotions, idiosyncrasies and intuitions.

The post-Singularity world? Futurists are unanimous in saying that that world is unknowable. Will the machines eventually replace humans? Will they cause a world war so devastating that humans will be wiped off the face of the earth, replaced by machines with human consciousness and human attributes? Or will they usher in a new world order where national boundaries and national origins no longer matter, and where people will respond to John Lennon's famous invitation in "Imagine":
I hope someday you will join us
And the world will be as one.

It's a giddily-scary thought because, as the Chinese would probably characterize the not-too-distant future, it presents an "opportunity riding the crest of a dangerous wind."

The Many-Countries Solution

I promised my friend Fritz Reith that I would provide him with a blow-by-blow and round-by-round account of the Donaire-Montiel fight last Saturday. I was just behind ringside and no more than thirty feet from the boxers. I could see every punch thrown. I had my Composition notebook on my lap and was prepared to take notes.

After the first round, I wrote on my notebook: Boxers feeling each other out. Donaire appeared to be stronger and his hand speed remarkably superior. Donaire slipped a couple of left hooks in, Montiel didn't do a thing.

Then came the second round. They were still sizing each other up. Montiel threw a right straight which Donaire countered with a stinging left hook. Montiel fell forward and as he was going down, Donaire met him with a right upper cut. Montiel, sprawled on the floor, tried to get up but looked like a newborn horse trying to right itself. He managed to clear his head and sold himself to the referee as fit to continue. Donaire went after him with two punches to the head and the referee stopped the fight.

There was not enough material for this blog.

It occurred to me that since kindergarteners and early grades public school students in the Philippines are now being taught in their native tongues, it may be the right time to introduce the idea of a "many-countries solution" to folks who have not read my book. Teaching early grades students in their vernacular would make it easier for them to learn their academic subjects, but it would also reinforce the strong regional identities of those students. That's the unintended consequence.

So I'm reprinting Chapter 11 of my book, Out of the Misty Sea We Must, in this blog. I hope y'all like it.

------- O ------

Kayangan Lake Carlos Esguerra Photo
Chapter 11
The Many-Countries Solution

I favor the confederation, or many-countries solution, over federation because of the fragmented nature of Filipino life and psyche. We are many islands, many nations, many languages, cultures and traditions.

Yet 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 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 deeper 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 a nearly 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. Guangdong, 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 Hong Kong 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 Metro Manila 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.

David C. Martinez, who writes prose with equal passion as his poetry, is the foremost proponent of breaking up the Philippines into separate countries. His book, A Country of Our Own, has been reviewed very favorably in international literary circles. I am reading that book – it is not meant to be for one sitting – and I often wonder how someone who was not born in the language could write so well in English.

Here’s an excerpt of a review of A Country of Our Own published by the Tambara, a publication of the Ateneo de Davao University – that Jesuit university in Mindanao, Philippines:

This book shouldn't be read in one sitting. Martinez' critical analysis of the fabricated state that is the Philippines is a lifetime thesis on a subject so insistently compelling to its student, filtered through years of anguish, outrage, confusion, yearning, and hope against hope.

The Dumaguete-born exile essays Philippine history sans the distracting, driving emotions that had fueled his fevered inquiry, in a brutally honest tone that engages reason, in lyrical words that speak to the heart. What is left is the distilled conviction of an intellectually honest man who knows what he is talking about, though he is constantly on the verge of digressing given the sheer volume of data he needed to present. What makes this book well argued is the magnified clarity to detail that must have come only from remembering ever so often that which had been forgotten every now and then.

The book poignantly begins with the newly exiled casting off into the high seas to escape the political persecution that came in the wake of the proclamation of PD 1081(the Marcos martial law decree). Adrift in the waters, the world rendered aloof, he became as one with the countless many who came centuries before, seemingly tied to the world only by the fragile moorings of his unutterable hope, the distant stars and an ancient map on cloth. He discovered for himself the emergence of the age-old need wrought in the human psyche to search for authentic identity…

In the first nine chapters, Martinez provides a thorough depiction of the accidents and intents that have led to our (Filipinos’) current experience. Like a marriage made in hell, this tells us why we're not likely to stay together forever. Advocates of federalism and secession would find this book indispensable.

Martinez posits that it is the imposition of uniformity that set the Philippines on the road to self-destruction. He examines the myriad ways through which homogeneity in thought and behavior was hammered over time through conversion, colonial governance, and elitist protectionism, regimented by a twisted concept of Catholicism, an equally twisted concept of democracy, and a system of education meant to indoctrinate attention to form rather than substance.

Can uniformity be fashioned from diversity? Of course not. But oh, how we all suffered in the cruel attempts to make this pipe dream (a single Filipino nation) come true for its deluded dreamers.

Will diversity achieve harmony and equality? Only if consent to be inconvenienced is respectfully sought and willingly given.

But if legacy is about planting seeds that would take root, this book deserves to be read by the young who, in their unconscious wisdom, deny the lie that is Philippine history taught in our schools, are repulsed by it, and cannot relate to it. Excised from their indigenous communal roots and trapped in the incongruous exercise of a culture alien to where they are, four out of five seek psychological congruence in the expression of this desire to be out of here. For all intents and purposes, the next generation has virtually seceded anyway. Rootless, they long for solid ground under their feet, one that would allow them to stand firm, stand proud.

Roots are not so much about where we are physically as they are about who our minds know us to be. Reading this book would lead the young to seek a connection to their authentic roots, to find genuine validation of their psyche, and to finally come home to their primal selves. That, I think, was what the author had in mind when he rose to the duty of putting this out.

As promised by its subtitle, this book audaciously dares to make a case for partitioning the Philippines according to its indigenous nations: the Cordillera, Luzon, Visayas, Mindanao, and Bangsamoro.

Gail Tan Ilagan teaches Social Justice, Social Psychology, and Sociology at the Ateneo de Davao University.

YOU CAN’T GO HOME AGAIN

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 were ending up.

This was not the country I had left in 1967, when I promised myself that I would study for five years in the U.S., get my Masters, perhaps even my PhD and then return to the Philippines to be a part of the nation-building.

I had dreamed for 25 years of going back and seeing the Philippines once more. I had envisioned myself dropping to the tarmac at the Manila International Airport (already renamed the Ninoy Aquino International Airport) and kissing the tarmac.

When I saw the tarmac and the countless chewing gum discards stuck to it and other forms on the surface that I judged to be dried up spit, I quickly changed my mind. I would rather kiss a four-foot two midget woman with no teeth.

I recalled what a doctor in Seattle once told me when I told him of my plan to go back to the Philippines to do important work there. He quoted Thomas Wolfe. “You can’t go home again,” he said.

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 Hong Kong, 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 to 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. 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?

THE ECONOMIC AND POLITICAL CASE FOR PARTITIONING

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 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 or 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 certain, 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.

THIS, FOLKS, IS THE LINEUP OF INDEPENDENT STATES

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, Nueva 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 us as a country discuss. But before you hop on your soapboxes, I want you to know that upon breakup of the Philippines, 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 if that is their wish, while Northern Mindanao can be absorbed by Central and Southern Mindanao.

.

The Other Filipino Boxer

The global Filipino's near deification of Manny Pacquiao has rendered us blind to the exploits of another Filipino boxer whose ring triumphs are nearly as amazing as Manny's. This boxer is taller than Manny - is 5 ft. 7 inches - has a deadly left hook, like Manny, and has not lost a fight since 2001. His only loss in a career that has matched him with the best fighters in his weight classes, was to an unknown fighter. In only his second professional fight he agreed to be a last minute substitute fighter and got tripped up by an unknown. That would turn out to be his only loss in his 10-year fighting career.

On his way to multi-weight championships, he demolished the careers of many a world-class fighter.

He is the reigning WBC Continental Americas Bantamweight king. He is a former WBA Super Flyweight World Champion, IBF World Flyweight Champion and IBO World Flyweight Champion. He is rated by Ring Magazine number 5 in the ranks of best pound-for-pound fighters in the world. He is four years younger than Manny and retirement is still far into the future.

He is 28, in his prime, now fights at 118 pounds (bantamweight) and is the most fearsome fighter in that weight class.

On February 19, Nonito Donaire, Jr. will clash with Fernando Montiel at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas for the latter's WBC and WBO world bantamweight titles. Montiel is a decisive underdog, but Donaire and most observers of the boxing game predict that it will be a savage struggle and may in fact turn out to be the most competitive fight of the year. Ring Magazine's "Fight of the Year" honors probably await this fight, notwithstanding the Manny-Mosley fight coming up in May.

Montiel has a record of 44 wins, 2 losses and 2 draws and is considered a knockout artist. He is also a technical boxer, which means that Donaire must learn to box scientifically or it will be a long night for him.

The fight is another Filipino vs. Mexican contest and both the Philippine and Mexican flags will be on display. National honor and pride are at stake. I don't know if the Philippine politicians will descend upon Mandalay Bay, the way they do at every Pacquiao fight, but they should. If Donaire wins this fight, and he is favored to do just that, there is really no one out there who can challenge him in the bantam class. He could take fights that will cement his place in the history of the sport and claim the title of best pound-for-pound when Manny decides to hang up his gloves.

Donaire, being only 28, has four years on Manny. He hasn't had brutal fights with an Eric Morales or a Juan Manuel Marquez, the way Manny has. One is tempted to conclude from this that Donaire is not as battle-tested as Manny. But Donaire grew up with a sibling, Glenn Donaire - also a boxer - who constantly beat him up in sparring sessions. He developed his survival instincts from his sparring sessions with his older and stronger brother.

Donaire was born November 16, 1982 in Talibon, Bohol, the Philippines. Like Manny, he grew up in General Santos City in South Cotabato. He trained in the same school as the fabled Manny. Nonito, Sr. - his dad - was in the Philippine Army and was an amateur boxer who immigrated to the U.S. in 1990. Donaire joined his dad in Van Nuys, California in 1993, at the age of 10.

Emulating their dad, Nonito Donaire, Jr. and his older brother Glenn both took up amateur boxing and both honed their skills by beating each other up. It wasn't long before Nonito, Jr. discovered the classic fighter with the devastating left hook, Alexis Arguello. He watched countless videos of the great fighter Arguello and patterned his fighting style after Arguello's. Let's hope he doesn't completely follow in Arguello's footsteps, since Arguello became mayor of a city in Nicaragua and, while mayor, allegedly committed suicide.

While still enrolled at San Lorenzo High School in San Lorenzo, California, Donaire and his brother Glenn won many amateur boxing championships in the U.S.

Donaire has only 26 professional fights over ten years, winning 25, 17 by knockout, the rest by unanimous decision. Don't be fooled by that, because he had 76 fights as an amateur.

From Wikipedia: "As an amateur, Donaire won three national championships: the National Silver Gloves in 1998, National Junior Olympics in 1999 and the National USA Tournament in 2000. He also won the International Junior Olympics in 1999. Donaire's amateur record was 68-8 with 5 TKOs."

After starting with a 3 wins, one loss record since turning professional in 2001, Donaire went back to the Philippines with his brother and dad. He was listless in the Philippines and decided that he really would be better off training in the U.S., where there were far fewer "distractions" than in the Philippines. He landed in a boxing club in San Leandro, California.

Unlike Manny, Donaire is a natural flyweight-bantamweight. He has not experienced the growth in heft and power that Manny has. On any given fight night, he can be a flyweight, super flyweight or bantamweight. Nothing bigger. He has a thin frame and unlike Manny has no room to build up additional muscle. He is however all muscle in his 112 to 118 pound 5 ft. 7 in. frame.

Donaire's opponent, Mexican Fernando Montiel, is three years older at 31. Like Donaire, Montiel is in his prime. A much busier fighter than Donaire, Montiel was undefeated as an amateur and has been a professional since turning 16. It is not clear how many amateur fights Montiel had before turning pro, but it is clear that it was in excess of 100. By 20 he was the WBO world flyweight champion.

Montiel has fought the best in the flyweight and bantamweight classes, and has been responsible for derailing careers of many up-and-coming boxers in his weight classes. Those who think Montiel will beat Donaire point to this record as a foreboding prospect for Donaire's first setback in ten years.

Donaire's only loss in his stellar career came on March 10, 2001 to Rosendo Sanchez in Vallejo, California. It was his second professional fight, a fight he took on short notice, with little time for training. He lost by unanimous decision, but observers claim the bout could have gone either way. Donaire never got a chance to avenge his defeat because Sanchez retired from boxing after chalking up an unimpressive 2 wins, three losses record.

The smart money has Donaire knocking out Montiel. Though the two are evenly matched, Donaire appears to be the fresher boxer. If Pacquiao was relatively unscathed in his recent fights, Donaire has emerged fresh from all his fights. Except in that loss to Sanchez, he has either knocked out or knocked down all his opponents. Smart money feels that when Montiel goes down, as he probably will, he will not be able to get up from the canvas.

You're wondering what happened to Donaire's older brother Glenn? Glenn Donaire has compiled a record of 19 wins, four losses and one draw, has had two title shots but lost both. His first title fight, with Vic Darchinyan, ended in a technical knockout, as his jaw was knocked out of position. Glenn Donaire claimed that it was Darchinyan's elbow that did it, but videos do not show an errant elbow being the culprit.

Nonito avenged his brother's defeat on July 7, 2007 by knocking out Darchinyan and taking the latter's IBF and IBO world flyweight crowns. The knockout was awarded Ring Magazine's "Knockout of the Year" and "Upset of the Year" distinctions in 2007.

I might be able to get tickets to the Donaire-Montiel fight and to the Pacquiao-Mosley fight in May. I'll tell you after the Donaire-Montiel fight on February 19 if I actually do get the tickets and watched the fight at the Mandalay Bay in Vegas.

Donaire may not be exactly another Manny - because Manny is a unique boxer in that he has been able to climb 8 weight classes over his long professional career - but he promises to be another Alexis Arguello. Those familiar with boxing history and watched Alexis fight in the 1970s and 80s know this fighter intimately because in those days, the important fights were televised free on network television. People grew up watching Ali, Foreman, Frazier, Sugar Ray Leonard, Roberto Duran and Alexis Arguello.

I can't wait for the Other Filipino Boxer to get in that ring in Mandalay Bay Hotel and Casino in Vegas - Vegas, baby - and climb that rarefied atmosphere now reserved only for Manny.

Did I tell you that Manny's fight in May sold out as soon as tickets were made available last week? There are tickets still available to the Donaire-Montiel fight and Fil-Ams still have a chance to watch Donaire fight before he becomes a huge international celebrity and the hardest ticket in town, like Manny.

The Catholic Church and Freemasonry

"Freemasonry unambiguously states that it is not a religion, nor a substitute for religion.[44] There is no separate "Masonic" God.[45] Nor is there a separate proper name for a deity in any branch of Freemasonry.[46] There is no general interpretation for any of the symbols.[citation needed] In keeping with the geometrical and architectural theme of Freemasonry, the Supreme Being is referred to in Masonic ritual by the attributes of Great Architect of the Universe (sometimes abbreviated as G.A.O.T.U.), Grand Geometer or similar. Freemasons use these variety of forms of address to God to make clear that the reference is generic, not about any one religion's particular God or God-like concept.

"Nevertheless, Freemasonry has been criticised for being a substitute for Christian belief. For example, the New Catholic Encyclopedia states the opinion that 'Freemasonry displays all the elements of religion, and as such it becomes a rival to the religion of the Gospel. It includes temples and altars, prayers, a moral code, worship, vestments, feast days, the promise of reward or punishment in the afterlife, a hierarchy, and initiation and burial rites.'[47]" (From Wikipedia)

The most eloquent critics of Freemasonry in the Catholic Church, notably Father William Saunders of Notre Dame Institute, argue that since Freemasonry partakes of quasi-religious rituals and beliefs, Catholics are committing a grave sin by becoming Masons. What they try to hide from their Catholic faithful, however, is the fact that Masonry prohibits discussion of any religious beliefs precisely because it does not want to become another religion that competes with the religions practiced by its members.

In fact, when some Illinois Mormon Masons turned their lodges into religious places of worship, they were expelled by the Masonic Grand Lodge of Illinois. No religious practices are allowed in Masonic lodges, under penalty of expulsion.

There are Catholics, Protestants, Hindus, Muslims - Catholic priests, Jewish rabbis and protestant ministers even - in the Masonic community. The Masons who have studied Freemasonry and have been admitted to the brotherhood know that it is not a religion and that it is not an enemy of their true faith. In fact, because of the Masons' emphasis on righteous living, those who join the Masons become more righteous members of their individual religions. The Catholics have become better Catholics, the Protestants, the Jews, the Muslims, etc. have become more righteous and more tolerant practitioners of their individual religions.

When Masons attend a lodge meeting, they do so not to worship but to meet and practice camaraderie. It is a place where grown men discuss how they can be of service to their fellow men. Religion is farthest from their minds.

What am I saying? I am saying, categorically, that the Catholic Church and other critics of Freemasonry are dead wrong about this sublime society of men who are sworn to righteous living and the defense of freedoms. Fellow Masons treat each other like brothers and the wives, children, sisters-in-law, mothers and mothers-in-law as sacred relations. A Mason will have nothing to fear leaving their children with fellow Masons and their families because Masons consider other Masons and their families as their own.

In contrast, many Catholics would not leave their children alone with Catholic priests or other Catholic elders for fear that those in position of ecclesiastical and lay authority over their children might molest them. Pedophilia is unknown in the Masonic movement, while it is a terrible disease in the Catholic Church. This is also a growing problem in the Protestant churches, of course, but the protestants never claim to be superior to Masons.

The prohibition, under pain of symbolic (not actual) severe corporal punishment, against marrying widows of fellow Masons or children of fellow Masons has erected an impenetrable sexual barrier between Masons and all members of the Masonic family. Furthermore, the Masonic insistence on righteous living is considered by every Mason as a command to go out and seek peace with all men (and women).

When one looks at Masonry and the way it is actually being practiced and contrasts that with the picture being painted by the paranoid zealots in the Catholic Church who are obsessed with the continued demonization of Freemasonry despite the fact that Pope John Paul II had approved the removal of Freemasonry from the list of condemned organizations in 1983, one senses that the Catholic ban on membership in Freemasonry is not only illogical, it is also ridiculous.

The Masons had been condemned by the Vatican since the mid-18th century and all Catholics who would become Freemasons were subject to excommunication. In 1983, the Code of Canon Law, signed by then Pope John Paul II, dropped Freemasonry from the list of organizations membership in which would automatically result in excommunication. This was big, very big. It was something that the Masons had been waiting for over more than two centuries. But, the paranoid zealots in the Catholic Church were not to be deterred. They would continue to demonize Masonry if that was the last thing they did before they - presumably - joined their maker.

The logical conclusion from the de-listing of Freemasonry is that Catholics were allowed henceforth to become Masons. This was the prevailing conclusion of many Catholics post-1983 and many Catholics, by the hundreds of thousands, started joining Freemasonry. Catholics are still joining Masonic lodges in droves to this day.

Those Catholics who became Masons after 1983 are still practicing Catholics, their faith strengthened because of the Masonic call for righteous living. In contrast, the general (non-Masonic) Catholic population continues to abandon the Catholic Church. Church attendance is at an all-time low in the world, yet the Catholics who joined Masonry continue to worship as Catholics.

It is truly ironic that some very influential people in the Catholic faith, first and foremost the current Pope, still think of Masonry as the enemy. In November, 1983, the current Pope (Benedict XVI, then Cardinal Ratzinger), prevailed upon Pope John Paul II to issue a clarification, stating that Freemasonry was still an enemy of the Catholic Church and Catholics were forbidden, under pain of mortal sin, from joining the Masons.

Any impartial observer of life in the 21st century, however, knows that the true enemy of the Catholic faith is modernity. As the world turns increasingly to science and to technological progress, people's religiosity is taking a hit at an alarmingly increasing pace. Catholics are staying away from their parish churches, staying away from the priesthood, openly defying bans against divorce, birth control and - in some cases, abortion - and are in open revolt against the priesthood that they suspect are either defenders, enablers or practitioners of pedophilia.

One of the emerging countervailing forces that the Church could turn to is Freemasonry, which promotes righteous living and belief in God. Yet, some important voices in the Catholic church apparently are hell-bent on continuing the deep chasm that divides the Church and Freemasonry. Pope John Paul II, who in the 1980s obviously saw that Freemasonry was not a threat, and who was forced by the heavy hand of Cardinal Ratzinger to issue his "clarification," must be turning in his grave.

If one is looking for proof that Masonry is not a religion and certainly not one that competes with the Catholic faith, one only has to look at the fact that the Catholics who have become Masons are generally better Catholics than those Catholics who only know about Masonry from priests who are rabidly anti-Mason. This proof is sadly not available to everyone, only to those who are deeply involved in the Masonic movement.

The accession of Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger to the Papacy was the worst thing that could happen to Catholic Masons. Cardinal Ratzinger was the head of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, the very agency in charge of the Inquisition and the enforcer of the Catholic vendetta against the Masons. Many Catholic Masons are hoping that there will be another Pope soon and that the next Pope would not be as hostile towards the Masons.

But what about the charge that Freemasonry uses religious symbols in its rituals? Masonry traces its roots to antiquity and the symbols are the accumulation of the rich traditions from which the society derives. Masons do not regard the symbols as religious symbols but are rather part and parcel of the Masonic culture. The words "In God We Trust," for example, are ingrained in American culture but are not a religious symbol, which is why in America, where there is a strict separation of church and state, those words are allowed in its currency.

The Masonic "G" and the square and compass - which are the most recognizable symbols of Masonry, stand for the Grand Geometer (the Grand Architect of the Universe) and the two tools of engineering and architecture. Belief in the Grand Geometer, or the Grand Architect, is the least common denominator with all religions. The members are expected to supplement this belief with their own religious beliefs. The Christians call the Grand Geometer "God," the Muslims "Allah," the Jews "Yahweh," etc.

Masons believe that the universe was created by a Supreme Being, but they are not required to believe in any one religion. The members themselves decide which particular religion they are to practice. This proves, except to the paranoid zealots in the Catholic Church, that Masonry is not a religion but a secular way of life.

There is currently widespread fascination with Freemasonry as a result of books and movies that have been shown worldwide and that have become blockbuster successes. Foremost of these is The Da Vinci Code best-selling book and movie. National Treasure, a movie that stars Nicolas Cage, is about Freemasonry in the U.S. Americans are being unduped, if there is such a word, meaning that they are coming out of the circle of the fooled and duped and are seeing in the light of day that Freemasonry is not that secret society that some priests and bishops had warned Catholics about.

Freemasonry is perhaps one of the last stands that the world has erected against the very powerful forces that argue for atheism and the worship of science and technology. Freemasonry is, indeed, an ally of Catholicism and not its enemy.