Pinoy pride soars from Oracion’s conquest of Mt. Everest – at last

With triathlete and tested mountaineer Heracleo "Leo" Oracion planting our flag at last on the summit of Mt. Everest, the world’s tallest peak, our people will now be able to say, "We dunnit."

It was not only a climb, it was a media event, with ABS-CBN backing him. GMA-7’s Romeo Garduce, also a veteran mountaineer, was still in Camp IV at press time. The network said he was not in a race to reach the top. Nonetheless, even in mountain-climbing, network rivalry is fierce. There’s nothing like competition, though, to make champions, as well as media success.

That 29,028-feet tall challenge, of course, was conquered long ago, by Sir Edmund Hillary of New Zealand, and Tenzing Norgay, his Sherpa guide and partner in the expedition. This achievement on May 28, 1953, made Hillary, a beekeeper born in Auckland, a national hero. Tenzing was equally lauded by his fellow Nepalese, but fared less grandly in terms of publicity. Both, reportedly, were on the "crown of the world" for only 15 minutes before they had, buffeted by weather, to step off the highest peak on this planet.

The Nepalese call their peak "Sagarmtha", meaning "forehead in the sky," while the Tibetans on the other side call it "Chomolungma," or "goddess, mother of the world."

The English name Everest came from Sir George Everest, the British military engineer who served as surveyor-general of India from 1829 to 1843.

Among the interesting trivia dug up was that the first ascent by a woman was that of Junko Tabei of Japan on May 16, 1975, and that the first woman to reach the summit of Everest from both the north and south sides was Cathy O’Dowd of South Africa, on May 25, 1996 for the south, and May 1999 for the north side.

Sus, even a blind man, Erik Weihenmeyer, conquered the peak on May 25, 2001.

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This early, more than a month before Congress opens its session in July, House minority and majority members are already saber-rattling and creating a lot of noise about a new impeachment complaint against GMA. In reply, Malacañang is already predicting that the impeachment complaint, yet to be filed, will end up in the trash can. House opposition members must muster 79 signatures to send the complaint directly to the Senate if their planned bid is to prosper.

Let’s not forget that the prospect of filing a new impeachment complaint against La Presidenta – and this includes Congressmen from both the opposition and majority camps – is a very welcome event, like manna from heaven. Foreseeably, there will be opposition members who, like their diehard anti-GMA colleagues, may initially display a belligerent attitude, only to subsequently trot out a variety of reasons for abstaining during the voting, or conveniently absenting at the zero hour. On the other hand, staunch "Defenders of the Faith" are now strutting about proclaiming their solid loyalty to GMA.

I can’t help agreeing with a snide comment made in the House of Representatives that the prospective impeachment complaint will once again increase the "market value" of a number of majority and minority solons. (One remark is that the new complaint will mean "an early Christmas in July" with . . . er, solons who know how to drive a hard bargain).

Will La Presidenta once more feel compelled to be a "transactional president"? No, it may not be money which changes hands but other perks, such as scholarship dole-outs for alleged "scholars" of certain House members, etc. The immediate casualty is good governance and the administration of justice. If you look closely, you’ll find that some proteges of members of Congress had been appointed to government posts as well as to the judiciary, during the 2005 "impeachment" battle.

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I’m not sure Finance Secretary Margarito "Gary" Teves got it right when he announced that Germany is going to withhold infrastructure investment in this country pending the resolution of the NAIA-3 terminal controversy in which the German firm of Fraport AG, the big shareholder in PIATCO is paid "compensation." But if such a threat was really made, I support Secretary Teves and the government in their statement that they will not be cowed by this kind of pressure.

However, this writer had a more than two-hour luncheon briefing in the Tower Club with German Ambassador Axel Weishaupt, and other Embassy diplomats, and they were eager to stress that Germany has a total investment in the Philippines of $1.14 billion (P60 billion), while total annual sales by 220 German companies here and Filipino firms carrying German labels amount to P65 billion ($1.25 billion).

Dr. Weishaupt was both friendly and upbeat about Filipino-German business relations having intensified, and the number of German companies increasing "considerably over the last few years."

As a football enthusiast, the Ambassador was even more excited over the FIFA 2006 Soccer World Cup contests which will be hosted by Germany from June 9 to July 9 – a month which is being billed by Germany as "A time to make friends." He is returning to Berlin soon for consultations with his ministry, a period which (he asserted with a happy glint in his eye) just happens to coincide with the World Cup football games in which 31 countries will compete for that 18-carat gold trophy. The Cup is 36 centimeters tall and weighs 4,970 grams, the base containing two layers of semi-precious malachite. The trophy, the German publication Deutschland says was created by Italian sculptor Silvio Gazaniga in the early 1970s when the Brazilians won the championship and were gifted with its predecessor, the Jules Rimet Cup, after winning the title three times – 1958, 1962 and 1970.

The Germans are hoping "World Cup fever" will bring attention to their country, which now has a population of 82.5 million people plus over seven million "foreigners" from all over the world.

The German government invested heavily in infrastructure, such as setting up 12 World Cup stadiums, from Berlin to Munich, counting on the event to be an ideal platform "on and with which Germany can present itself as an innovative and forward-looking country in an optimistic mood . . ." Don’t blame me if that sounds slightly corny, but that’s what Franz Beckenbauer, the President of the Organizing Committee announced.

The Germans like to underscore the fact (sometimes overlooked) that, despite rising China they are the third largest economy in the world. They declare that their country places in the Top 3 preferred locations for foreign students. They are promising that the FIFA World Cup tournament will not only be the world’s biggest sporting event but also a huge art and cultural show.

They’re billing themselves as "The Land of Ideas". Indeed, 76 Germans over the years have been Nobel Prize Laureates, with 65 of these honorees winning their laurels in natural sciences and medicine. In fact, aside from being the largest economy in the 25-member European Union, they claim to be the number one country for patent registrations, with 22,000 foreign companies (including the 500 largest) investing in Germany. They exported 734 billion euros worth of products and goods in 2005.

But enough of propaganda. The statistics are impressive – and the statistics have always been the Germanic strong suit.

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Germany, however, will have to work at a faster pace to attract football fans and tourists to the World Cup events. Yesterday’s Financial Times reported that FIFA, football’s world governing body, has just handed back to the German hotel industry more than one million room nights it had reserved in hotels for next month’s World Cup tilt.

FIFA had reserved 2 million room nights, but had sold less than one million, now leaving German hotel operators with "a mountain of unsold room stock during a month that is expected to be the busiest in the history of the country’s tourism industry."

The truth is that many fans did not bother to buy match tickets because they were worried there would not be enough hotel rooms available. Now, is it too late for them to make their plans? The World Cup, in sum, is in danger of being hurt by the "sold out syndrome", Matthew Garrahan the FT’s correspondent wrote, where people don’t even try to go because they think they won’t be able to find a hotel. Now, hotel operators are being compelled to issue an "open for business" plea to people, including non-sports aficionados who gave up plans to visit Germany during the Cup season.

So, if you’re a frustrated football fan, or tourist, it’s a chance to go.

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THE ROVING EYE . . . The news that Romano Prodi, Italy’s new Prime Minister, has just organized that country’s 61st government since the end of World War II, is interesting. If you ask me, this is the biggest argument against a "parliamentary" form of government for the Philippines as proposed in Cha-cha. Imagine this: the man whom Prodi defeated, by a small margin, mind you, the Centre-Right’s Silvio Berlusconi, was one of the longest-lasting Prime Ministers, having held on to that post for five years. If we had the same kind of parliamentary system, the "Prime Minister" and his government might "fall" every year, or every two years. Italy, for that matter, has turned sharply Left. Fausto Berlinotti, the Speaker of the House, belongs to the Refounded Communist Party, the head of the Senate is a labor leader although of the Moderate Left, while the just-elected President of Italy comes from the former Communist Party. Prodi, of course, has also enlisted Tomasso Padoa-Schioppa, the internationally-respected central banker, and former member of the European Central Bank board. What’s the future of Italy under such a government? Prodi ran a good government in 1996, before he left to become President of the European Commission, but can he juggle a government of Reds and Bankers today? One thing is true – the Italians have always to surmount their difficulties, with a shrug and a smile. Even La Dolce Vita and dolce far niente.