There's The Rub : Yes, he can
By Conrado de Quiros
Columnist
Philippine Daily Inquirer
Posted date: September 09, 2009
The thought, or challenge, persists: Can Noynoy do it? Or variations thereof: Is he qualified to become president? Is he prepared to become president? Does he have what it takes to be president?
The question doesn’t just come from Arroyo’s people, who ask it with dutiful sneers. The question comes from readers who ask it with dutiful concern. One e-mail I got put it this way: If you’re applying to become CEO of a company, you have to submit a résumé. What commends Noynoy to become CEO of this country?
I’ve written about this in past columns, but a couple more things need pointing out.
First off, the question, “Will Noynoy be a good CEO?†is a wrong one. The job at hand is not CEO of a company, it is janitor of a building. What this country needs today is not someone to manage things, it is someone to clean up things. What we need today is not someone to make a business flourish, it is someone to make a dwelling place habitable, one whose previous tenant left it in a condition only cockroaches, rats, and real-estate speculators, in ascending order of predation, can appreciate. Who better to do this than Noynoy?
Or if you persist in using the CEO image, the job at hand is CEO, but only of a company that has been bankrupted by a bunch of crooks. Whom would you hire to revive it? An efficiency freak with a long résumé but who has business interests that compete with the company, who is a known tirador or beholden to people who are, and who therefore can only be trusted to efficiently pillage some more? Or someone you can trust?
Again, a no-brainer.
The applying-for-CEO idea presumes these elections are normal elections, or a peaceful transition, or a routine transfer of power like 1992 and 1998. They are not. These are extraordinary elections, a fitful transition, a still uncertain transfer of power. We need in the first place to make the transfer happen—like 1986. The pissing contest of submitting résumés presumes moreover that the contest is just elections. It is not, or it has gone beyond elections. The elections are just a battle, they are not the war. The war is not between candidates offering relative merits (or demerits), the war is between Good and Evil, between yoke and freedom, between oppression and liberation. As with 1986 and last year’s US elections, the cry is the epic “We shall overcome,†not the miserable “We shall underwhelm.â€
Noynoy represents the first, the rest of the field the second.
Second off, the question “Can Noynoy do it?†is a wrong one. The real question is, “Can we do it?†To paraphrase John F. Kennedy, what we need today is to ask not what the president can do for us but what we can do for the president.
That’s what makes trustworthiness the most decisive qualification of all. If the president is just an InGlorious Basterd, why on earth would you want to ask yourself what you can do for your president? You would want to ask yourself only what you can do to her, particularly if she refuses to go.
Indeed, that’s what shows the folly, or danger, of the CEO template. A CEO is accountable only to the stockholders, not to the hundreds of men and women employed by the company. The hundreds of men and women he can order around and fire as he pleases. Its political equivalent is that the president is accountable only to the taipans and coniotics who spent for his campaign, not to the citizens of the country. The citizens he can bully around and screw as he pleases.
That may be so for a dictatorship but not so for a democracy.
The power of a democracy does not lie in a strong leader—or heaven forbid, strong republic—it lies in a strong people. The power of a democracy does not lie in excluding the people, it lies in including the people. The folly of our elections is that it is premised precisely on excluding the people, in looking for “presidentiables†who can fill the role of Savior or Padron, who can save us from ourselves, who can spare us the need to apply ourselves to improving ourselves.
Which in any case is a monumental exercise in self-delusion. Or self-flagellation. We demand heaven but expect only hell. We ask of candidates the virtues of a messiah, but expect from the winner only the conduct of a cur or asal aso, as we say. Who seriously believes the candidates with the résumés will deliver on their promises? We get a moderate (the greed) crook, we’re happy; we get an immoderate one, we say, “What else is new?â€
We want to change the equation, we change ourselves. We change the way we are governed by including ourselves in our governance. Which is what a democracy is. Look at all the successful democracies and see if they are not premised on an active people, a vocal people, a people demanding to have a say in how they are governed.
I’m perfectly serious in pushing “Noypi,†both in the sense of “Noypi†as “Noynoy for President Initiative†and as “Noynoy’s People’s Initiative.†(I am aghast that another group is using that very name to promote their own political agenda!) We need to unleash the power of the people in everyday life, not just during elections, not just when things have gotten so bad we need to act to save ourselves. We need to unlock the key that makes People’s Initiative—the young and feeling-young Noypi—a force in everyday life.
All this is premised on a president we can trust. All this is premised on a president who does not crave power so badly she or he won’t part with it at all costs, least of all to the governed. All this is premised on a president who is as much willing to believe that the voice of the people is the voice of God as the voice of God is the voice of the people. All this is premised on a president who is one damn good person.
Can Noynoy do it? Believe it:
Yes, he can.
Friday, September 11, 2009
Thursday, September 10, 2009
Opinion: Stockton always came ready to play - NBA - NBCSports.com
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Opinion: Stockton always came ready to play
All-time assists leader’s greatest asset was durability over 19-year career
OPINION
By Sean Deveney
updated 8:47 p.m. ET Sept. 9, 2009
Suppose you were a player for the John Stockton-Karl Malone Jazz teams of the '90s, and suppose you were feeling a bit of soreness flaring up in your knee just before a game. Not unbearable pain, but enough to give you a limp. And suppose you took that limp into the locker room. Well, there was one quick cure for that hitch in your step-a Stockton stare.
"That was all it took," former Jazz center Mark Eaton said. "A guy would come limping into the locker room and he would get that look from John. All the sudden, the limp would go away. He didn't need to say anything. But you knew the way things were in John's eyes. If you could walk, you could play, and if you could play, you were 100 percent."
Over the course of 19 seasons, durability was one of Stockton's strengths, and he demanded the same from teammates. He suited up for 1,504 out of a possible 1,526 games, only missing time for two stretches of his career. That's one reason he was able to establish an incredible NBA record for career assists, with 15,806 — well ahead of Mark Jackson, No. 2 on the list at 10,334. It's also a big part of the reason Stockton will get the call from the Hall of Fame on Friday. He played through sore knees. He played through illness. He even played for the Dream Team in the 1992 Olympics despite a stress fracture in his leg.
"I will tell you, there was one year in the early '90s and we were playing Seattle in the playoffs," said Jazz assistant coach Phil Johnson. "John had an elbow injury, and he could not lift his right arm. He spent most of the series dribbling with his left hand. He even considered shooting free throws with his left hand, but he did not want to let the Sonics know that he was hurt. He never told the press, never told anyone. After the season, he had surgery on his elbow. No one ever knew. We knew in the locker room only because he didn't want to hurt the team. But he hated for anyone outside to ever know he was hurt."
There was more to Stockton than merely staying on the court and his famed reluctance to let the media know about his injuries (or to let the media know anything else, for that matter). His toughness and work ethic were big parts of his identity, but they should not overshadow the fact that he was, arguably, the greatest natural playmaker in NBA history and perhaps the best point guard ever to run the pick-and-roll. He led the league in assists nine straight times, from the 1987-88 to the 1995-96 seasons, and put up a record 14.5 assists per game in 1989-90. He holds the NBA career record for steals (3,265), also by a wide margin. And, when needed, he could shoot-Stockton made 51.5 percent from the field in his career, and 38.4 percent from the 3-point line.
"You could say he was the perfect player in the way he handled himself, the way he prepared himself to play," coach Jerry Sloan said. "He is one of the few guys who when you watched him play point guard, from the time he started off as a little guy, he was always facing the basket. He never played with his back to the basket."
Despite his gaudy numbers, Stockton seemed surprised to have been selected for the Hall of Fame. He was, after all, a little-known point guard out of Gonzaga-the first player from Gonzaga to play in the NBA-when he was drafted in 1984 with the No. 16 pick, just after Jay Humphries, Michael Cage and Terence Stansbury. Jazz fans booed heartily at his selection, though it didn't take long for Stockton to change that first impression. In April, when he learned of his impending induction, Stockton said, "Growing up, I never thought about the Hall of Fame," Stockton said. "All I wanted was a chance to go to college."
He got that, of course. And much, much more. Stockton remains the NBA's gold standard for playmakers, and it's hard to imagine someone even nearing his assists record. "When I am asked about John," Johnson said, "I go to what (late Jazz owner) Larry Miller used to say: John Stockton is exactly what you would want him to be."
© 2009 Sporting News
URL: http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/32766347/ns/sports-nba/
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© 2009 NBCSports.com
Opinion: Stockton always came ready to play
All-time assists leader’s greatest asset was durability over 19-year career
OPINION
By Sean Deveney
updated 8:47 p.m. ET Sept. 9, 2009
Suppose you were a player for the John Stockton-Karl Malone Jazz teams of the '90s, and suppose you were feeling a bit of soreness flaring up in your knee just before a game. Not unbearable pain, but enough to give you a limp. And suppose you took that limp into the locker room. Well, there was one quick cure for that hitch in your step-a Stockton stare.
"That was all it took," former Jazz center Mark Eaton said. "A guy would come limping into the locker room and he would get that look from John. All the sudden, the limp would go away. He didn't need to say anything. But you knew the way things were in John's eyes. If you could walk, you could play, and if you could play, you were 100 percent."
Over the course of 19 seasons, durability was one of Stockton's strengths, and he demanded the same from teammates. He suited up for 1,504 out of a possible 1,526 games, only missing time for two stretches of his career. That's one reason he was able to establish an incredible NBA record for career assists, with 15,806 — well ahead of Mark Jackson, No. 2 on the list at 10,334. It's also a big part of the reason Stockton will get the call from the Hall of Fame on Friday. He played through sore knees. He played through illness. He even played for the Dream Team in the 1992 Olympics despite a stress fracture in his leg.
"I will tell you, there was one year in the early '90s and we were playing Seattle in the playoffs," said Jazz assistant coach Phil Johnson. "John had an elbow injury, and he could not lift his right arm. He spent most of the series dribbling with his left hand. He even considered shooting free throws with his left hand, but he did not want to let the Sonics know that he was hurt. He never told the press, never told anyone. After the season, he had surgery on his elbow. No one ever knew. We knew in the locker room only because he didn't want to hurt the team. But he hated for anyone outside to ever know he was hurt."
There was more to Stockton than merely staying on the court and his famed reluctance to let the media know about his injuries (or to let the media know anything else, for that matter). His toughness and work ethic were big parts of his identity, but they should not overshadow the fact that he was, arguably, the greatest natural playmaker in NBA history and perhaps the best point guard ever to run the pick-and-roll. He led the league in assists nine straight times, from the 1987-88 to the 1995-96 seasons, and put up a record 14.5 assists per game in 1989-90. He holds the NBA career record for steals (3,265), also by a wide margin. And, when needed, he could shoot-Stockton made 51.5 percent from the field in his career, and 38.4 percent from the 3-point line.
"You could say he was the perfect player in the way he handled himself, the way he prepared himself to play," coach Jerry Sloan said. "He is one of the few guys who when you watched him play point guard, from the time he started off as a little guy, he was always facing the basket. He never played with his back to the basket."
Despite his gaudy numbers, Stockton seemed surprised to have been selected for the Hall of Fame. He was, after all, a little-known point guard out of Gonzaga-the first player from Gonzaga to play in the NBA-when he was drafted in 1984 with the No. 16 pick, just after Jay Humphries, Michael Cage and Terence Stansbury. Jazz fans booed heartily at his selection, though it didn't take long for Stockton to change that first impression. In April, when he learned of his impending induction, Stockton said, "Growing up, I never thought about the Hall of Fame," Stockton said. "All I wanted was a chance to go to college."
He got that, of course. And much, much more. Stockton remains the NBA's gold standard for playmakers, and it's hard to imagine someone even nearing his assists record. "When I am asked about John," Johnson said, "I go to what (late Jazz owner) Larry Miller used to say: John Stockton is exactly what you would want him to be."
© 2009 Sporting News
URL: http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/32766347/ns/sports-nba/
MSN Privacy . Legal
© 2009 NBCSports.com
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
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