The Homeless World Cup and Mighty China

Not too much noise is made by an international sporting event now nearing its final stages in the city of Paris, France. This is the 9th edition of the Homeless World Cup. So what is the HWC?

The tournament was conceptualized in 2001 during a conference by the International Network of Street Papers. INSP is an organization of street papers that provides employment and offer support to homeless and economically deprived people. Using football as a medium, the annual tournament encourages the marginalized sector of society to improve their lives thru the sport.

The first HWC was done in 2003 at Graz, Austria then followed by Sweden in 2004, South Africa in 2006, Denmark in 2007, Australia in 2008, Italy in 2009, Brazil in 2010 and this year in France. Our participation to the HWC began in 2008 up to the present.

This year’s tournament has 48 national teams divided into two groups. The top eight will vie for the HWC title but the rest will still battle for six team trophies. All the athletes will receive medals at the end of the tournament.

The six team trophies are the Dignitary Cup (9th to 16th place), the City Cup (17th to 24th), the Host Cup (25th to 32nd), the Community Cup (33rd to 40th) and the INSP Cup (40th to 48th). Last year, Team Philippines won one of these cups, I’m not so sure if it was the Host or Community Cup.

To be eligible to play for the HWC, athletes must be at least 16 years old at the time of the tournament. He must be homeless at some point after the previous year’s HWC or make their main source of income selling newspapers.

Our country is populated by more than 30 million people, 40% live in depressed areas and about 1.2 million children and young adults live on the streets.   A handful of the 1.2 million found their way to foster homes and institutions.

From these institutions around the country was where the PH HWC team selected and sometime in April, Team Philippines to the 2011 Paris HWC was formed composed of team captain Janrick Soriano, co-captain Jeffrey Guelas, John Celis, Michael Rojo, Aljhoun Matulac, Jeffrey de Castro, Ricardo Padilla and Bert Anthony Sienes. Soriano, Celis, Rojo and Matulac are Ilonggos.

The HWC and their noble cause will go places with no less than Europe’s football association, UEFA and Nike as major sponsors. The EPL’s Manchester United and Tottenham as well as Spanish Primera Liga’s Real Madrid also support the cause. This year’s organizing committee is headed by Arsenal coach Arsene Wenger.

Team Philippines, at the rate they’re going, has a strong chance of making it to the top 8. As of this writing, they are to meet Poland and then Scotland. If they make it past these opponents, then we’re in. Go Pilipinas!

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In all aspects, China is getting powerful each day. Their athletes always figure prominently in every sporting discipline the world has to offer. The US and the rest of the world know this for a fact and they don’t take the Chinese lightly anymore.

China has about 20% of the planet’s total population and it’s no wonder the country can achieve whatever they want with all the available manpower around. Consider some of these facts.

In heavy industry and manufacturing, China consumes 53% of the world’s cement, 48% of iron ore and 47% of coal. With this consumption, they have produced, in 2010, 11 times more steel than the US and have made and sold 18 million vehicles. As to the quality of these vehicles, it’s another subplot.

Majority of us are familiar with Ma Ling, those little round tin cans filled with processed meat. As per 2008 data, China’s 446.4 million pigs produced annually are more than the next 43 pork producing nations combined. A far second is the US with a mere 65.9 million heads produced per year.

At the end of March this year, China accumulated $3.04 trillion in foreign reserves, making it the largest stockpile of cold, hard cash on the planet. They also control more than 90% of the world’s supply of rare earth elements.

These are just some of the facts that can well make our Asian neighbour a big spoiled bully and they have all the reasons. They even now have a floating airport patrolling the China Sea.

Our government wise guys better think twice or thrice about agreeing to disagree with China before the agreed disagreement becomes un-agreeable.   The “new” navy boat emboldened these people?

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