France’s subversive psyche and art were in full display early hours of Saturday, July 27 (Manila time), as the City of Lights romanced us with the past, dazzled us with the new, and showered us with color at the opening of the Summer Olympics (check games results and updates here).
Not everyone was pleased, notably Christians, who felt that a Greek god satire poked fun at the Last Supper, and South Koreans, who were mistakenly introduced as North Korean athletes. Italy’s high jumper Gianmarco Tamberi begged for forgiveness from his wife after he lost his wedding ring at the Seine. The constipated comments from some US and UK news outlets notwithstanding, I would give it to Germany’s Frankfurter Allgemeine newspaper, cited by Reuters, to capture the river parade best: “As beautiful as it was mad, France revolutionized the opening ceremony…. By the end even the rain had been defeated.”
Over the weekend, Filipino athletes kept their Olympics campaigns going, while others ended their bids:
- Carlos Yulo advanced to the finals of three events in gymnastics.
- Rower Joanie Delgaco earned a spot in the quarterfinals of the women’s single sculls.
- Samantha Catantan powered through a knee injury to reach the round of 32 in women’s individual fencing. She held her own against a top seed, but eventually crashed out of the Olympics.
- The first female gymnasts to represent the Philippines in the Olympics in six decades, Aleah Finnegan, Emma Malabuyo, and Levi Jung-Ruivivar missed the cutoff for the event finals in women’s artistic gymnastics.
- Boxer Aira Villegas aced her Olympics debut against a Moroccan opponent, inching her way to a prized medal.
Get live updates on how the world-class athletes are faring in the games via this link. For the Monday, July 29 events of Team Philippines, visit this link.
The spectacular show on the Seine could not, however, drown the anguish and frustration left behind by Typhoon Carina (Gaemi), which caught Metro Manila and its neighbors — again! — with their pants down. It came days before public schools opened for this school year, a baptism of fire for newly appointed Education Secretary Sonny Angara.
- Wednesday, July 24, rained incessantly — a slow buildup that swelled Marikina River, reminiscent of the devastating Tropical Storm Ondoy (Ketsana) in 2009.
- Climate change is changing the behavior of storms, according to scientists in this story. It has made them more devastating even if less frequent, as Marikina residents could attest to.
- Can Metro Manila and other Philippine cities ever be flood-proof? Rappler head of community Pia Ranada interviews experts in this latest Be The Good episode.
- To the residents of Metro Manila’s sinking areas, is there relief? Here’s an answer from lawyer John Molo.
- President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. was irked by the insufficient situation reports from the field at the height of Carina. But his parade in flooded areas cannot bury the irony that he had just included, in his July 22 State of the Nation Address, flood prevention as one of his accomplishments. “We have completed 5,500 flood control projects,” he said. Well, that has yet to show. He should crack the whip on government agencies and elected officials who have siphoned off billions of flood control projects to their pockets.
- In 2023, the Commission on Audit flagged the 33 out of 47 unfinished flood projects of the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority in 2022.
- And how could private companies operating barges in the Marikina River not anticipate a worst-case scenario so the collision that damaged a Pasig bridge, killed one, and hurt another could have been avoided?
- Damage to agriculture in three Central Luzon provinces has hit half a billion pesos.
But some waters remained calm.
- The Philippines conducted an undisrupted resupply mission to Ayungin Shoal on Saturday, after Manila and Beijing came to an “arrangement” on how to avoid “misunderstandings” regarding such missions.
- The word war continued between both countries, however.
- In Laos for a security summit, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken criticized China’s “unlawful actions” in the South China Sea.
- Blinken is arriving Monday night in Manila again for the joint defense and foreign ministers dialogue between the Philippines and the US on Tuesday, July 30. It would be his first visit to the country.
Will the ghost month of August bring more calm — or its opposite? – Rappler.com
Rappler’s Best is a weekly newsletter of our top picks delivered straight to your inbox every Monday.
To subscribe, visit rappler.com/profile and click the Newsletters tab. You need a Rappler account and you must log in to manage your newsletter subscriptions.