Wednesday, 21 October 2009

RP: A country you love to hate

Written by John Mangun / Outside the Box Business Mirror

It does not make any difference in the big picture of things. In fact, no one listens or cares. But it does make me feel better, so every few months I need to react to some of the negative attitudes and analyses about the Philippines.

I have compared the Philippines to its national sports hero Manny Pacquiao on occasion and I still think that comparison holds true; the best pound for pound and always confusing the experts.

Prior to Pacquiao’s fight with Ricky Hatton, Floyd Mayweather Sr. had this to say: “Is he crazy? [Ricky] Hatton will beat the socks off of [Manny] Pacquiao.” Of course, Pacquiao beat Hatton in what the British Broadcasting Corp. called “a devastating second-round defeat” in an article titled “Hatton floored by brutal Pacquiao.” And I particularly like the final sentence: “He [Hatton] was taken to hospital for a precautionary brain scan.” Maybe the “experts” who picked Hatton should have had that brain scan.

But that wasn’t the first time they misjudged Pacquiao and had it wrong.

Bob Velin, the boxing “expert” for USA Today, wrote this: “There are some who say that Manny Pacquiao must be crazy to get in the ring with Oscar de la Hoya.” We all know how that bout ended.

Underestimating the Philippines, like Pacquiao, is common. I like this from BusinessMirror on October 20: “Admitting it underestimated the flow of Filipino worker remittances and taking into consideration other growth factors, the World Bank [WB] is now likely to upgrade its full-year gross domestic product forecast for the Philippines originally pegged at negative 0.5 percent.” READ MORE

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