Bridge Between Gaps
Sports should be the bridge to unity, not a way to discrepancy.
Just a month ago, one breaking story flooded every news station around the world. On 23rd of August, ex-policemen Rolando Mendoza boarded a bus in Manila and took twenty-five passengers as hostage including 21 Hong Kong tourists. But then, the negotiation turned to disaster when Mendoza killed eight Chinese nationals.
On the other hand, Philippines will join the 16th Association of Southeast Asian Nation (ASEAN) Games scheduled to take place in Guangzhou, China from November 12-27 2010. Predicting possible things that may happen out of these two events, we can see the probability of unfair treatments that our athletes will face during their battle in China. Is it reasonable for our warriors to suffer those things because of the tragedy happened? Is it fair for our athletes to experience the backlash? It should not be that manner. They should fight in a balance way.
Reports regarding the anger of the Hong Kong community surged the newspapers and TV news. They alleged us many controversies that not only hurt us but also stained the dignity and honor of our country. They criticized Filipinos working abroad and treated them unjustly just because of the hostage crisis. But even though, not all of the Hong Kong citizens are vengeful to Filipinos working there. They understand that they are innocent to be blame because it was merely an accident. Also, they have established great comradery and friendship, a trait that is common to all Filipinos.
The only thing to do for all of us is to move on and forget what happened. The ASEAN games is approaching, and we should put in our minds that the main goal of this is to bind every Southeast Asian countries into one for a greater progress which can be done through sports. It should not become the torch of misunderstanding, instead serves as a bridge that will connect the broken relationship between two nations to achieve the...