MayaFlaminda's Pen: The Soccer Coach from Ireland

Thursday, March 4, 2010

The Soccer Coach from Ireland

Stephen O. is a big, black and bubbly VSO volunteer from Ireland. He's originally from Nigeria and speaks English with what I suppose is a Nigerian accent. He's now in Davao City to do volunteer work in Tambayan as soccer coach of the streetkids. We're just his host family for 10 days.

On the first day of work, Stephen said he sang and danced for the kids. He also mentioned meeting a tomboy and was shocked she was so masculine. Stephen: "She really looks like a man!" So he lectured her about why it's better to go through life as a woman. And she (miraculously) had a change of heart.

I don't know if Stephen seriously thinks that pep talk really 'cured' the girl. Gullible to think so. I didn't have the energy to tell Stephen there's nothing wrong with being a homosexual. What held me back was that there are African countries where overt homosexuality is still a sin and people can be imprisoned for that. So sige nalang, I let the urge pass.

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About VIEWFINDER

This year I want to revive VIEWFINDER, my defunct radio talkshow on 105.9 MIX FM. Plan is to continue getting top student debaters in Mindanao. In the past, we talked about beauty pageants, fraternities and hazing, political dynasties, animal intelligence and animal testing, the rice crisis, homophobia, etc. Wherever you are in the world, you can listen and join our discussion through the live internet radio feed found on 105.9 MIX FM's website. (Details to follow as soon as show resumes.) I'm crossing my fingers.

Previously on VIEWFINDER

MOA on Ancestral Domain - (Aug. 10,'08)
Planning Subdivisions - (Aug. 3,'08)
Living Meaningfully - (July 20,'08)
Call Centers - (July 13,'08)
American Elections - (July 6,'08)
Reality TV - (June 29,'08)
Vegetarianism - (June 22,'08)
Homophobia - (June 8 & 15,'08)
Rice Shortage - (May 25,'08)
Aerial Spraying - (May 18,'08)
Indie Filmmakers - (Apr. 27 & May 11,'08)
Basic Education - (Apr. 6, 13 & 20,'08)
Graduatin & Workin - (Mar. 16 & 30,'08)
People Power - (Mar. 9,'08)
Corruption in Pinas - (Mar. 2,'08)
Choices We Make - (Feb. 17 & 24,'08)
Matters of the Heart - (Feb. 10,'08)
You Are Filipino If - (Feb. 3,'08)
Global Warming - (Jan. 6,'08)

The Ironies of the World

Irony, Alanis Morissette croons, “is a free ride when you’ve already paid. It’s finally meeting the man of your dreams -- and then meeting his beautiful wife! It’s ten thousand spoons -- when all you need is a knife.”

In the real world, irony is much more than just wanting a knife but having a spoon instead. How does a country with only a few thousand elementary schools accommodate 30 million children? Answer: Improvise! Let one group of children go to school in the morning and let the other group go to school in the afternoon. That’s exactly what’s happening in the Philippines.

The irony is that there has never been so much food and so much money in the world: twice the amount we had in 1975 and seven times the amount we had in 1950. There’s certainly more than enough money for decent schools for all the 30 million Filipino students.

IF the world’s nations were to divide their resources equally, each one of us would be earning 15 euros. In reality, however, half of the world’s people earn less than two euros. And one in five people earn less than one euro. This is while the richest 200 people of the world earn 25 euros - every second! Irony is one European cow being worth 110 Africans. It’s some people dying of too much food while every day, 800 million others go hungry.