Holy Nightmare, Batman!

[JAM]

Of course by vision is skewed by my nationality, that's the way it is. Similarly, your vision is skewed by your nationality. That's what all this is about. How you see things, how I see things, and then perhaps, how they really are.

It is quite tough to draw accurate conclusions with all of these skewed views, especially based on third/forth/fifth hand skewed-view information. To do so is quite unfair. However it is happening pretty regularly around here ! This ends up being a gossip forum, but it goes a bit far sometimes, that is my point.

In retrospect I should not have replied to your post JAM, instead I should have created a direct post. I applogise for not doing so, and thus singling you out, when I really meant this as a general comment about the mob-mentality that sometimes develops out of national pride.
Dave

I appreciate your thoughtful post, DaveK.

We do, however, have one firsthand account coming from the fingers of TheOne relating to how, in his opinion, he was treated as a foreign alien in Taiwan. I would think this could be considered as a firsthand accounting.

American Danny "Kid Delicious" Basavich's girlfriend, who I'm pretty darn sure got her information out of Danny's mouth, also relayed Danny's opinion of how he and his American brothers are experiencing their collective WPC experience, not mention the poor lodging facilities, lack of air-conditioning, and non-English-speaking referees.

It is very telling when Alex Pagulayan last year applied for dual citizenship so that he could represent the Philippines as well as Canada. As a Canadian and as a Philippino, though, Alex has been a favorite of many American pool fans, and nobody treated him in any derogatory manner. And as such, he enjoys the best of all worlds, I would say.

Picture of a Canadian, an American, and a then-Canadian enjoying their tournament experience in the United States. By the way, both Canadians won the $30,000-added event.

JAM

 

[King Kong]

A few thoughts on this

Hello All,

I have read much of this tread and want to comment on several items. I truly respect JAM and have known her for years and respect her feelings about openning the closed markets of Asia to American.

I truly believe this is done to support national pride and given the prominence of Efren and others making sure the country does not loose ground or a hold of that dominance in pool are paramount to that goal. One can argue that America has baseball, hockey, basketball & etc. that the USA Olympic committee pours millions into it as well as other US companies. The only difference between the San Miguel and US support of figure skating and etc. at the Olympics is that San Miguel pours money into events versus direct contributions. But, the outcome is one and the same. The money gets in the hands of the players of that nationality!

As far as Danny Basavich, Americans classified his behavior as a Joke with the slow play. The referee had to have been aware of this. Based on his post he checked the table because of a "bad role on the table" a table that both players had to contend with. "No table is perfect" I believe the ref laughed because he felt it was not a valid compliant. Like Danny was incapable of having hit it bad or error in judgment in flirting with the pocket like that.

The language difference is something that all countries contended with. Asia has many different languages and Tagalog and Chinese and Japanese languages were struggling as well. America was not alone.

The heat in that region is intense. I visited the region and went to the Philippines 2 years ago. They do not use A/C because it is really expensive to run due to electricity prices being insane. You are lucky to have a window unit if anything at all. Then again all the countries had to contend and Dan's weight does not help in the intense heat!

The other comment was about the Referee not allowing Earl Strickland to speak to his opponent. If history and my memory do not fail me. Earl is notorious for sharking and getting under peoples skin. He robbed an Asian player of victory in the open a few years back and Americans all held their heads low and let it happen! Additionally, the Asian may not have been paid. I have heard it said that Asians would have been treated better here in the states. But, we excluded these two BIG ISSSUES. Additionally, several Asian players that do come here are under the guidance of "Tony Soprano" and no one would think of pulling anything if you know what I mean and they have to split the take. Those not with the sopranos have faired far worse Mika included. The committee knew this history and took action to prevent any hanky panky by having the referee prevent verbal exchanges between players.

Their was a mention of John Schmidt breaking down his cue mid match due to a foul call and I would like to know more about that issue. He is a personal friend of my family and he may have a serious grievance. The others seem logical to me and not far fetched or in appropriate. Just my opinion!

 

[BlowFish]

I think that was Luat on blue shirt and black jacket.

Yah, that's Boy Samson (Rodolfo Luat).