Manny Pacquiao

Manny Pacquiao is the ultimate hyphenate star of the Philippines. Boxer-basketballer-Congressman-Pastor-Billboard … he’s got so many titles under his belt it’s ridiculous. What isn’t ridiculous though, is that Manny Pacquiao is most definitely living the Filipino dream.

Whether we admit it or not, we all wish we were Pacquiao. Think about it. He’s stupendously good at one thing and he has parlayed that skill into opportunities we can only dream of. We may not want the same things he’s gone after, but that’s not the point. What matters – and what we envy him – is his ability now to literally reach out and grab whatever he wants, regardless of how silly it may seem to anyone. He has taken his very Filipino obsession with karaoke, for chrissakes, and managed to annoy the world and not just his neighbors.

Which makes all the grief he gets, whenever he scratches another itch, very hypocritical. If any of us had the same sort of clout this guy has, we would all do what he’s doing now, although we’re likely to choose to do other things. However way you justify it, the hate all boils down to one thing: the desire to keep Pacquiao in his place which most people define to be boxing. God forbid he try out anything else.

Now, this isn’t to say that he’ll automatically be good at everything he tries (he’s basically an absentee elected government official) but how can anyone say with a straight face that he shouldn’t go ahead and try anyway? Isn’t having the freedom to be anything you choose precisely the point of living in a democracy?

Reality check: Apart from his lackluster performance as a Congressman – which I think is fair game for criticism – Manny Pacquiao’s predilection for embarking on all sorts of endeavors is nobody’s business but his own. Anybody who believes otherwise – who thinks that just because we’ve draped him with the mantle of national boxing hero, we get to have a say in what he chooses to do – is in error.

So instead of harping on and on about how he shouldn’t be doing this or that, why not just focus on how he might actually be defining what the Filipino dream is?

Think about it.

 

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