THE REMARKABLE LIFE OF MANNY PACQUIAO

Emmanuel Dapidran Pacquiao, more popularly known as Manny, a world-class boxer who also has a day job, one of the 24 Senators in the Philippines Congress, lost to Australian Jeff Horn in Brisbane this past weekend.  Manny himself was gracious in his defeat, but I saw the whole fight and I was shocked at the announcement, what I would label as just another one of those  homer decisions so prevalent to this sport.  Pacquiao landed 182 punches to 92.  I mean, what more can I say?  I thought he had easily outpointed his younger adversary:

This bout culminated the return of ESPN to world championship boxing.  Sure, they have had Friday Night Fights, but, over the past decade and longer, all the major boxing events have been on pay-per-view, where the cost usually ranges from $50-$100.  Manny wanted this one to be free to the viewing public, and ESPN will now continue to carry championship events into the future.

There was a time in my life when I actually went to boxing matches.  I grew up in Kakaako, a block away from the leading boxing gym in the state.  One of my recurring nightmares is sitting in the ring corner, awaiting my doom at the hands of some terrible beast across me.  Thankfully the fight never starts, but the fear is palpable.

So back to Brisbane, the whole production was classy.  There were four fights in this entertaining marathon from 2PM to 6:30PM:  American Shane Mosley Jr (son of Sugar) vs undefeated Australian David Toussaint (who won), Irish Michael Conlan (he won) vs Australian Jarrett Owen and a second championship battle featuring:

Anacajas from the Philippines retained his Junior Bantamweight title over Teiru Kinoshita of Japan.

Filipino Broadway actress Christine Allado (from Hamilton) sang the Philippines national anthem.

That's her in the middle, and the other girls trot inside the ring holding the number card between rounds.  Michael Buffer, of course, had to be on hand:

Suncorp Stadium drew a crowd of more than 50,000.  I felt like I was almost there, for it was this past August that I attended the University of Hawaii - University of California football game in Sydney, Australia.  Way back in 1989 I spent three wonderful days in Brisbane, surely among the most boring cities in the world.  But my adventure in Papua New Guinea leading to these three days were the most dangerous of my life.

This was the bloodiest boxing match I've ever watched.  So much so that I'll do you a great favor and not show you any photos.  Here is Horn after his win.  His right side, where the damage occurred, is mostly shielded.  He represented Australia at the 2012 Olympics and only reached the quarterfinals.  But he is undefeated as a pro, with one draw.

If Manny asks me, I'll urge him to retire.  Losing is no way to go, but he really won and doesn't need to redeem anything.  He is already considered to be one of the best boxers ever, for he has won titles in eight weight categories, from 112 to 154 pounds:

Does he have any future in the Senate?  Not really because he belongs to the United Nationalist Alliance, a party which only controls 4% of the votes in their Congress.  President?  Probably, for he has this ambition, and President Rodrigo Duterte, already 71, while popular, has a kill all criminals mentality, who earlier this year indicated that 40% of his police force themselves commit crimes.  Something will happen to him in the not too distant future.

Two years ago Manny helped broker peace between the government and a separatist group in the Philippines called the Moro Islamic Liberation front.  During the past half century 120,000 people have died from this violence.  Today, almost 100,000 still cannot go home.  During this period when he was set to fight Floyd Mayweather, the American boxer boasted of buying a $210,000 Mercedes and showed off his million dollar hats.

Pacquiao already manages the other countryman who won in Brisbane, Jerwin Ancajas, who retained his International Boxing Federation belt.  In the meantime, in addition to biding his time in Congress and continuing to bring peace within his country, he might establish his own political party and help provide funds to develop the first gold medal winner in the Summer Olympics.  As a start, he has said all Philippine gold medalists should get about a million dollars.  Next the presidency, then, perhaps Secretary-General of the United Nations.  Only 38, he has a bright future.

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ARE ALL MEN CREATED EQUAL?

The Bible nowhere says "All Men are Created Equal."  Yes, there is allusion to equality, but only in terms of relationships:  human beings should be treated with same level of dignity, regardless of class, sex, race or subgroup.

Thomas Jefferson's contribution of those exact words to our Declaration of Independence made clear that this had nothing to do with personal traits:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed;^[7]

Thus, rights, but not physical/mental/sociological attributes.  To begin, Jefferson owned 200 slaves.  I might add, as noted to the right above, that he did not believe in God.

However, twenty years ago a group of geneticists announced:

...every person on Earth right now can trace his or her lineage back to a single common female ancestor who lived around 200,000 years ago. Because one entire branch of human lineage is of African origin and the other contains African lineage as well, the study's authors concluded Africa is the place where this woman lived. The scientists named this common female ancestor Mitochondrial Eve.

In other words, we all today came from the same person!  So our original beginning argues for personal equality.  Whether she lived in Morocco 300,000 years ago or Ethiopia 200,000 years ago is irrelevant to this discussion.    The reality, in any case, is that we indeed are all different, for civilizations develop and fall, mutations randomly happen,  Humanity keeps evolving and, even, siblings in the same family show significant variations.

Homo erectus, Neanderthals and other early forms of us began crossing continents 2 million years ago.  The logic is complex, but it has to do, possibly (there are detractors), with Sumatra's Mount Toba around 70,000 years ago exploding in a mega-eruption, inducing an ice age that lasted 10,000 years, bringing humanity to the verge of extinction, with perhaps only 10,000 -  15,000 humans left---but only in Africa.

These secondary survivors, the founders of what we are today, ventured out of the continent around 60,000 years ago, leaving genetic footprints.  In 10,000 years, Australia was reached, but the tip of South American only, maybe, 15,000 years ago.  Add on something called mtDNA mutation, which can result in blue eyes and whiter skins, as occurred 6,000 - 10,000 year ago, and we are thus what we are today.

So after all this history, today, Black Americans certainly dominate the NBA, which is almost a taboo subject in the media.  Polynesians, too, seem to excel at certain phases of American football and Kenyans, with only 0.06% of the world population, continue to win in most international marathons.   The Daily Mail from the UK headlined:

     Survival of the fastest: Why descendants of slaves will take the medals in the London 2012 sprint final

The slavery selection and survival process refined the genetics.  Usain Bolt from Jamaica came from slave ancestors.

Mentally, White Americans on average score one standard deviation higher than Blacks on IQ tests (15 to 18 points).  Indigenous peoples score even lower, especially Australian Aborigines and Bushmen and Pygmies from Africa.  The IQs of developed countries are the highest. 

What about Asians?  Well, here is one country ranking by IQ, and some of this is surprising:

   1    Hong Kong           108
   1    Singapore             108
   3    South Korea         106
   4    Japan                   105
   4    China                    105
   6    Taiwan                  104
   7    Italy                      102
 16   Germany                 99
 23   USA                        98
 32   Israel                       95
 40   Greece                    92
 60   Mexico                    88
 83   Philippines              86
113 India                         82
120 Qatar                       78
161 Equatorial Guinea   59
  

Psychologists contend that these differences largely occurred because of education and sociological factors.  Cognitive and physical abilities are, further, developed through compelling need and practice, practice, practice.  

However, IQs only test one element of a person's ability.  What is important is determined by the custom of the tribe and the environment.  Qatar is way down there in smartness, but they have an abundance of fossil fuels.  People from the USA are ten points behind the top Asian countries in IQ, further, remember that Caucasians score 15-18 points higher, on average, than African Americans.  

Changing subjects, who really is smarter, male or female?  There is no significant difference, for what is IQ, anyway, and capability can depend on age and subject.  However, here is one study where men in the USA scored almost two points higher on average:

There also seems to be some acceptance that males clearly have higher IQs at the top end:

              IQ                  Female          Male          M/F Ratio

• over 150              8,398          31,278           3.73
• over 170                   10               104         10,40                   

While this bit of information is from Breitbart News, the home of White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon, the above bell curve also reveals this difference.

However, Forbes last year carried an article:  Why Women Are Smarter Than Men:

Perhaps this gets to the essence of what smart means.  Women score higher in emotional intelligence (EQ), and a higher EQ is more important than IQ at the top levels of business.  So you ask, why aren't more women running companies?  Sociological, religious, and all the other factors actually determine what occurs.  But the bottom line is that Homo sapiens are not born equal, female or male.

In any case, it appears in this gender comparison that women might today have caught with men on IQ in the U.S.  Further, females seem to be more sensual, cleaner (yes, fewer bacterial on desks), with better memory, immune system, pain and stress tolerance, multi-tasking ability...ah, read that article, for I think some of the 17 superiority parameters seem excessive.

Let me take this equality analysis to a higher level, from individuals to countries.  As much as there has been progress since the Civil War, the U.S. still ranks poorly in regards to "all men are created equal."  In fact here is one ranking:  discrimination, powerlessness, ethnic violence, communal violence, sectarian violence and religious violence, with zero being the best and ten as terrible--

• #  1  Iceland (1.0)
• #  1  Sweden (1.0)
• #  3  Finland (1.3)
• #  4  Ireland (1.6)
• #  5  Portugal (2.3)
• #  6  Uruguay (2.7)
• #  7  Oman (2.7)
• #  9  Singapore (2.8)
• #11  Canada (3.4)
• #14  Mauritius (3.5)
• #14  Switzerland (3.5)
• #18  Swaziland (3.6)
• #20  Norway (3.7)
• #26  Lithuania (4)
• #26  Mongolia (4)
• #31  Japan (4.1)
• #37  Hungary (4.4)
• #37  Germany (4.4)
• #41  USA (4.5)
• #42  Italy (4.6)

Life expectancy?

• #  1  Japan (83.1)
• #  7  Singapore (82.1)
• #26  Slovenia (80.1)
• #32  Cuba (79.1)
• #33  USA (78.7)

You would think we could improve on the above if we had a more enlightened spending priority, an America first attitude?  You mean like Donald Trump?  NO!   NO!  NO!  What gripes me most about his budget is that he has reduced spending for people and the environment and expanded them for fossil fuels and defense.  Amazingly enough, with no real enemy anymore, we spend more on war than the next eight countries, combined:

So what is success?  Most powerful country?  Most happy people?  There is a World Happiness Report, and the top nations are all from cold regions:

• #1  Norway
• #2  Denmark
• #3  Iceland
• #4  Switzerland
• #5  Finland

The USA comes in at #14, while the bottom ten are all in Africa or the Middle East.  Maybe worse for Americans, a quote from that report:

Happiness has fallen in America

The USA is a story of reduced happiness. In 2007 the USA ranked 3rd among the OECD countries; in 2016 it came 19th. The reasons are declining social support and increased corruption, and it is these same factors that explain why the Nordic countries do so much better.

Even more depressing is that our decline had nothing to do with Donald Trump. On the basis of his budget priorities and everything else he is doing, our country can only get unhappier.  On the other hand, those poems of Allen Ginsberg above and that comment by Nikita Krushchev to the right occurred around half a century ago.  

Since then we have become a lot more dominant and the place where everyone wants to come.  So we are doing something right.  We do have a good sense of freedom and liberty.  We are economically successful.  No doubt that with the right leadership promoting partnerships, not alienation...the betterment of our total society, not only the rich...I can go on and on on this point, but there are huge opportunities to get better.  Impeachment won't help, for Michael Pence then becomes President.  Maybe there is a clue here for Democrats.

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SOME PAIN AND A LOT OF PLEASURE

Nothing to do with masochism, but, really, no one lives a perfect life.  Donald Trump, billionaire and the most powerful man in the world, must truly be pained.  My recent global adventure was most satisfying, but I did bite my tongue at a meal once and suffered a minimal hangnail.  Both painful, but you need to overcome these obstacles to good life.  At least I didn't lose my wallet and tooth, and suffer from food poisoning, all which occurred in my 2015 Global Around the World Adventure.

I've honed my current existence to a lifestyle featuring sleep (now 6-8 hours/night, versus 5-7 before moving into 15 Craigside), exercise and optimal nutrition.  I'll soon review both, but now more contradictions:  fruits (too much fructose, which is terrible for your body) and nuts (too much Omega-6 fatty acids, which contributes to heart disease--more than half those who die suffer from this ailment) are now not so good for you.  But, anyway, as I'm soon to go, I probably too often enjoy too much of the finest cuisine.

Which leads me to the subject of today:  some pain and a lot of pleasure, which is my current lifestyle.  For example, yesterday I walked 18 holes at the Ala Wai Golf course, 5.6 miles over 4.5 hours in the very hot sun.  Incidentally, what a coincidence, but I have an odometer on my golf watch, and the trip (in my car) home was also 5.6 miles.  I thanked my body for finishing this ordeal, which I do twice/week so I can eat and drink what I want.  But the pain!  I hurt all over when I woke up this morning.  Was the golf pleasurable?  Not really, for I also managed to lose six golf balls.  The positive in these disasters is that those Walmart Nitro golf balls cost only $5/dozen, so the total loss was $2.50.  If I had used Titlist Pro-V's, that would have amounted to $24.

Then for dinner last night the 15 Craigside poker gang went to Happy Days Chinese Restaurant, rated  by Hawaii's Best 2017 as serving the best Chinese Food.  

Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday nights from 7-9:30 eight players pay $5 for 50 chips.  If you run out, then you need to buy more.  The "house" collects five chips (50 cents) at the end of every hand, usually accumulating from $15-$20/night.  Thus, if you lose $2-$3 you have pretty much broken even.  In six months the pot has something close to $1500, which is applied to these dinners.

A few photos:

This is a very large restaurant, but aside from our special side room, we did not see too many people eating dinner here last night.  We did have a lot to drink, mostly due to contributions from Henry's (below, top person, who is the 15C Poker Commissioner and planned the evening) daughter for the wines and Cardhu Scotch, with George and Marge:

The group numbered 18:

We started with melon soup:

I brought the bottle of Johnny Walker Double Black, which is poured into the soup.  That's the Cardhu (which I took home half full) over ice in the wine glass.  Back in those days when DUI's were not much of a danger, every major Chinese banquet featured a bottle of scotch, with the absolute best being Johnny Walker Black Label.  Double Black is a smokier version of the original.  

Here I've mininimized the size of the Peking Duck photos because they were out of focus.  PD I place up there with caviar, foie gras and truffles.  Every so often I drop by Happy Days and order half a duck, which is much too much for me, but the remains end up as soup.

Next was what looked like hamburger over broccoli, but were oysters rolls;

Perhaps the highlight of the meal was a combination of abalone, mushrooms and choy sum:

I loved the cold ginger chicken, which, with the above, I took home as leftovers, for I plan to enhance them with what I yet do not know for lunch today:

Finally, shrimp and Howard's Kumu head.

Fish is the final dish of a Chinese banquet, and Kumu is a very special local fish.  Here is a photo:

What was the pain from the great meal above?  When I woke up this morning I was hung over.  But with this pain came a lot of pleasure.

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