There is this article that came out in the Manila Bulletin last Sunday (November 20) where pound-for-pound king Manny Paquiao appealed to his fellow Filipinos to stop having crab mentality. This is his response to some of them who regarded him as the real loser in his last fight with Manuel Marquez.
As quoted by the article, Manny said "Bilang Pilipino, alisin natin 'yung crab mentality kasi napakapangit sa atin...Sana maalala nila na...na dapat 'pag Pilipino ka is kailangang suportahan mo."
Just what is crab mentality? It is an attitude of crabs who pull down their fellow crabs in their attempt to rise up in a container.
When some Filipinos voiced their opinion that it was marquez who really won, are they having crab mentality?
I, for one, believes that Manny really won. I think there is an unwritten rule in boxing where the challenger must knock out or at least he must have outboxed decisively the title holder before he could be proclaimed as the winner. In the last Pacquaio-Marquez fight, it was a close fight and since Manny was the title holder, then using the unwritten rule he must be the winner.
For some Filipinos who still believe that Marquez was the real winner, I think Manny Pacquiao should not take it as crab mentality. Perhaps they are just echoing what to them is fair. It is not also correct to keep on supporting a fellow Filipino if it would amount to being unfair to other nationalities. It is one thing to be nationalistic but it is another thing to hurt other nationalities.
These Filipinos may still have a high regard to Manny Pacquaio but in all fairness, they think Manny should be humble enough to admit whatever deficiency he has. After all, he is a public official and should not be easily be affected emotionally by criticisms.
(image above courtesy of http://www.kingskiddd1.wordpress.com )
