Eating with the hands, Pacquiao style

If the viral photo of Manny Pacquiao eating with his bare hands was meant to mean anything, it clearly did not work. Whoever cooked up the idea of taking that picture of the Filipino boxing icon and neophyte senator with a moist eye for the presidency and posting it on social media neglected to take into consideration the possibility of a backfire.

And backfire it did, in the worst kind of way. It blew up in his face. If the intention was to show that Manny was an ordinary man the hand-to-mouth masses can relate to and identify with, he didn't have to go through that charade, especially if the same picture shows he evidently eats with golden utensils. It is no secret he used to be dirt poor and therefore had to eat with his hands, if there was anything to eat at all. He was "masa" already long ago.

On the other hand, if the picture was meant as a tutorial on utensil-free eating, Manny only succeeded in driving away any potential first-timers from trying out hands-on dining. Manny did it in the most yucky, pukey, and unsanitary way. He was shoving his hand almost half-way up into his mouth, for God's sake. If he cannot do a good job eating with his hands, I wonder how he would fare taking on the more complicated tasks of the presidency.

Of the many preoccupations Manny had chosen to busy himself with at one time or another, having also tried singing, acting, pro basketball playing, and coaching, where he excelled in none, it would seem that boxing is where he is most adept. All that boxing requires of him is to hit his opponent as hard as he could and try not to get hit in return.

As the picture suggests, eating with the hands is proving to be far more difficult than boxing. It requires dexterity and precision. You have to be able to control not only your hand and mouth movements, you also need to control any inordinate urge to shove the food all the way in to your throat. The food needs to be chewed first. If you are not careful, a hand that strays halfway into the mouth like Manny's did could get involuntarily chewed.

But eating with the hands, as complicated as Manny demonstrated it to be, is nothing compared to the presidency. There is no need to list down everything that is required of a president who has to be president 24/7 for six years. Most people have a fairly good idea what the job entails. But if there is one thing that needs to be emphasized, it is that a president needs to be very astute in his thinking. He has to be able to get it right away.

A president needs to be able to grasp a situation the moment it arises. He must see things for what they are. His thinking cannot be clouded by emotion. He must be coldly calculating in a world of competing interests. Unfortunately for Manny, he just does not fit into that mold. He gets carried away by his emotions. He is too sentimental.

When the wife gets into trouble for flaunting her wealth on social media, Manny goes to the press explaining their wealth is not stolen, that it was earned through his blood, sweat, and tears, and therefore he and his family had all the right to spend that wealth as they please. Manny is correct, of course, only that he missed the point entirely. Missing the point is dangerous and potentially disastrous when committed by the president of a country.

Nobody is going after the wife because of her wealth. Nobody is questioning such wealth or how it was acquired. The whole world knows the story of Manny Pacquiao and is proud of his achievement and happy for how his life turned out to be. What makes people uncomfortable is the in-your-face flaunting of wealth during a most difficult time. It is insensitive. It is callous. It is displeasing to God who teaches humility in prosperity.