Manny Means Business

Champion boxer Manny Pacquiao has always had a business plan: Fight my way out of poverty

by Jim Plouffe

The first thing you notice when entering the dressing room of Manny Pacquiao is just how crowded it is. The room, right across the hall from where the best pound-for-pound boxer in the world has just finished taping his Filipino television show ‘’Pinoy Records'’ is spartan, basically furnished with people. The next thing you notice is that the current World Boxing Council Lightweight Champion seems to get lost in this sea of people. His agents, family, handlers and just hangers-on, are all better dressed, louder and more domineering. It takes a few seconds to even pick him out.

It’s not until Manny tells one of them to ‘’take the journalist to the other room'’ and then saunters in a few minutes later, laying his hands – complete with several diamondd adorned fingers – on the grimy table that his presence is felt.Here are the knuckles that have knocked out 35 opponents, including American David Diaz last June to win the Lightweight title. Here is the fearless dynamo, the Mexicutioner, the Destroyer, Pacman, the People’s Champ, a man so wild in the ring that he’s constantly had to move up weight classes just to find boxers who can endure his lightning-fast punches. This 169-centimetre-tall man is a weapon, and the sparkle in his eye reveals that he knows it.

But it’s not until he tells one of his handlers to ‘’be quiet, I can speak for myself,'’ that it becomes truly obvious that Manny Pacquiao really means business.

It seems the only time you’ve taken a real beating is when you went for public office.
It was not the right time to run for office because I was in my prime in boxing. [The Filipino people] are looking at me as a role model in boxing. The time has come now. I think they will want me because I have a big heart.
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Two Thumbs Up For Dayo!

          In celebration of this day, Christmas 2008, my family and I went to see a movie  of the MMFF. We were  actually divided on the choice of film. Only 3 of us chose Dayo against the majority, 5 of them, who went for Iskul Bukol. Still, my sisters and I made up our minds and we didn’t regret it. 

          I have my two thumbs up for Dayo. I highly recommend it especially to children who are still on the value-formation stage of their lives. It teaches a lot of values from giving due respect to the elderly to protecting nature, valuing one’s family, etc. At the same time, it is uniquely Filipino in the sense that much of the concepts in the story are based on Philippine folklore.

          It’s a great movie with great animation, sound effects, dubbing and OST.  No wonder it got an A rating from the Cinema Evaluation Board.

          Below is the movie’s trailer and another video clip shows Lea singing Lipad, the official theme song.

Cancer to be world’s top killer by 2010, WHO says

I got this article from yahoonews. It’s good to be updated…

ATLANTA – Cancer will overtake heart disease as the world’s top killer by 2010, part of a trend that should more than double global cancer cases and deaths by 2030, international health experts said in a report released Tuesday. Rising tobacco use in developing countries is believed to be a huge reason for the shift, particularly in China and India, where 40 percent of the world’s smokers now live.

So is better diagnosing of cancer, along with the downward trend in infectious diseases that used to be the world’s leading killers.

Cancer diagnoses around the world have steadily been rising and are expected to hit 12 million this year. Global cancer deaths are expected to reach 7 million, according to the new report by the World Health Organization.
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