Who is the real hero? Efren Penaflorida or Manny Pacquiao
Efren Penaflorida recently won CNN’s “Hero of the Year” award for his work with street children. We deeply admire and respect his efforts at bringing education and assistance to street children. Manny Pacquiao is often derided as not being a real hero because he “fights for money.” Depending on how you define “hero”, both these men are heroes.
Manny is a hero to many because here is a native Pinoy who didn’t let his humble background get in the way of putting in the work, sacrifice, dedication, and commitment to excellence needed to be a world class champion in his field. He is an inspiration to many Pinoys who are mired in poverty that yes–you CAN rise up and you CAN give yourself a chance by working hard at something and building character. He didn’t let his color, his appearance, his background, anything … get in the way of his drive to achieve.
Unfortunately, the script Pinoys are being trained, since birth to believe in, are: you won’t amount to much because everything must be GIVEN to you. You must rely on the government. You will suck at business, leave it to Chinese/Indians/foreigners to make money in your homeland cuz you don’t have what it takes, there’s nothing you can do to make it out of this mess except to migrate or go ofw. You are too dark. You are too provincial. You are too poor. You don’t have breeding. You don’t have “class” The best things in life are reserved only to people who were BORN INTO a certain class, Etc etc. Many people buy that script and live their lives by it. They live in imaginary cages oblivious to the fact that they hold the key.
That’s why many local Pinoys marvel at balikbayans from the US and other countries who look exactly like them but have an air of confidence. This confidence propels their success. This confidence stems from the fact they didn’t BUY INTO the script described above. Many of them don’t have this mental limiting cage of assumptions and biases that conspire only to limit their achievement.
Pacquiao and Efren break the script and put in the effort, time, and sacrifice needed to reach their goals. That’s PART of why they are heroes. The truth is that everyone, as Efren says, can be a hero. People can start by depending less on others to make the move and start doing things themselves. Instead of thinking “sana” this, “sana” that, do something so you can do it yourself instead.
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