ALI

This is an interview of Howard Bingham of READER DIGEST with Muhammad Ali when he was already 60 years old.

Bingham: When you became a Muslim, the religion was perceived as anti-white. Has that changed?

Ali: The real Islam comes from Mecca. All people are God’s people. The devil can be any color.

Bingham: Do you know some black devils?

Ali: A lot of them.

Bingham: Has it become easier to be Muslin in America?

Ali: Yes. When I first accepted the religion, you’d say you were Muslim, people thought that’s funny. Now there’s not half the trouble.

Bingham: How do you feel about different religions?

Ali: Rivers, ponds, lakes and streams. They have different names, but all contain water. Religion has different names but all contain truth.

Bingham: What does your faith means to you?

Ali: It means a ticket to heaven. One day we’re going to die and God’s going to judge us, our good and bad deeds. If the bad outweighs the good, you go to hell; if the good outweighs the bad, you are going to heaven.

        I’m thinking about the judgment day and how you treat people wherever you go. Help somebody through charity, because when you do, it’s been recorded.

        I go to parties, to see good-looking girls. I take a box of matches with me. I see a girl I want to flirt with, which is a sin, so I light my matches, touches his finger- ohh, hell hurts worse than this. Buy a box of matches and carry them with you. Put one on your finger and see how long you can hold it. Just imagine that’s going to be hell. Hell’s hotter, and for eternity.

Bingham: What was your best fight ever?

Ali: The fight against famous Joe Frazier in Manila.

Bingham: Which loss hurt most?

Ali: Amos Johnson in the Pan Am trials in 1959.

Bingham: Did you ever win a fight that you thought you’d lost?

Ali: No.

Bingham: Did you ever lose a fight that you thought you’d won?

Ali: No

Bingham: Should boxing be banned, like so many people advocate?

Ali: They said it should be banned because it’s too brutal. Football is brutal, and wrestling. Motor-car racing. The reason they think its bad is black people control it.

Bingham: Knowing what you know now, would you go back and change anything?

Ali: In boxing I would do everything the same, wouldn’t change nothing.

Bingham: What about taunting Joe Frazier?

Ali: Joe Frazier, I‘d do everything the same, wouldn’t change nothing.

Bingham: All those years back, you were a kid who believed in himself enough to tell everyone that one day you would become champion of the world. Where did your confidence come from?

Ali: I had it in my heart. I believed in myself, and had confidence. I knew how to do it and had natural talent and I pursued it.

Bingham: Now, after you were older, who influenced your life and the beliefs that you have?

Ali: After I started boxing, Sugar Ray Robinson. And my idol was a man named Elijah Muhammad. His Islamic teaching is what made me so confident.

Bingham: What people have inspired you- or who is the most unforgettable character you’ve ever met?

Ali: Malcolm X. He said courageous things, wasn’t afraid of nothing. He was a good speaker about black people and their condition and treatment by whites.

Bingham: Your wife, Lonnie, Asaad’s mother… you’ve been with her longer than any of your first three wives. What does she mean to you?

Ali: Everything.

Bingham: You’ve said that some people are chosen to spread a message and that you were chosen to spread the word of Allah. What exactly do you mean by that?

Ali: For an example, black people called themselves Negroes for hundred years, and now they say Afro Americans. But that started after they heard Elijah Muhammad. They didn’t accept all Elijah said, but the part about Afro Americans they did. Chinese have Chinese names; Cubans have Cuban names, Germans after Germany, Indians after India – all people by the name of their country. There’s no country called Negro.

        When I heard that, It shocked me. We have our names for Chinese. Castro- here comes a Cuban. But here comes Jones of Washington, he doesn’t know who he is. He got slave names. Negroes named George Washington.

        So we took- we have- slave names. Muhammad Ai is Muslim.

Bingham: What does Muhammad Ali mean?

Ali: Muhammad Ali worthy of praise and praiseworthy and Ali means the most high. Clay means dirt. When I heard that. Then everything came together. We’re taught to love white, hate black. The color black meant getting put out, you are being blackballed. Black was bad. There’s blackmail. They made angel cake white and devil’s food chocolate. Think about that, angel’s food white and devil’s food chocolate. They ugly duckling is the black duckling. Black magic.

        I mean, black is good. In business you want it black. Blackberry juice- the blacker the berry, the sweeter the juice. The rich dirt is black. Black ain’t bad. The greatest baseball players are black. The greatest football players are black.

Bingham: Everything but boxers, huh?

Ali: The greatest boxers are black.

Bingham: What were your thoughts when you lit the Olympic flame in Atlanta?

Ali: It showed that people in the past didn’t hold it against me because here I am rejecting the Vietnam War, joining the Islamic religion, and then, of all people, raising the flag. They were thinking of me to light the Olympic flame, so that was a good thing.

Bingham: Do athletes have a responsibility to become role models for people?

Ali: They don’t have to, but it’s good if they do because then the kids look up to them and wants to be like them. It’s good to be an example for them I the way they live.

Bingham: Are you a role model that people look up to?

Ali: I’ve been told so.

Bingham: Why?

Ali: Because I’m daring, bold courageous!

Bingham: If there was one thing that you could make happen in this world, what would it be?

Ali: I’d find a cure for cancer.

Bingham: What disease do you have?

Ali: Parkinson’s.

Bingham: Have you ever asked yourself “Why me?” for no condition. There’s so much good, I’ve been so blessed. God tries you. Some things are good. Some things are bad. All of them are trials.

Bingham: How would you like to be remembered?

Ali: He took a few cups of love, one teaspoon of patience, one tablespoon of generosity, one pint of kindness, and stirred it up well and serves it to each and every deserving person.

Drifting

David Feliciano said that drifting is not all about slipping and sliding, but about power and control.” He is one of the two scholars of Goodyear Philippines to be sent to Second Annual Goodyear Formula Drift in Thailand.

He is armed with the “great white” his white 1989 Nissan Silva PS13 and his companion Norman Agojo have Nissan Silva RPS13.

This new sport is still in the process of being known. And only those who have the means can participate in this sport. A well maintain car that has a 350+ horsepower with some good tires to strike gold in the competition.

Both Feliciano and Agojo are scholars of Goodyear Philippines as it strengthen its commitment to the drifting sport.

Pauline Lopez

Pauline Lopez, 14 years old lass, the youngest in the Philippine contingent in the past Guanzhou Asian Games in taekwondo

She is a 9th grade school student of Vistamar High in California. She was endorsed to replace Antoinette Rivero who was injured two months before the game.

Last October she won gold in the Korean Open, beating other athletes at least three years older than her, that earned her a slot in the National Team. The coaching staff believed that she should be given a chance because she is tough for her age.

Jun, her father is also a teakwondo expert who trained her and her older sister in this field.

Pauline and other contingents are our hope for the campaign of the Philippines for gold. If we keep on supporting these young talented individuals, in the near future we might win gold in the Olympics.

Efren Bata Reyes

We would like to acknowledge our Filipino Athletes for their endeavor in their chosen fields and contribution to the Filipino pride.

One of which is Efren Bata Reyes.

Efren Bata Reyes is most popular billiard player in the Philippines and also known as the Magician mainly because ability to overcome improbable shots.

He is the first Asian billiard player to be the Hall of Fame awardee of Billiards Congress of America in 2003 and paved the way for televised billiard match in the Philippines.

In 2004, he ruled the inaugural WPA 8-ball championship, becoming the pool’s first ever double winner and the year’s richest cue artist.

During his peaked, he made many commercials including the San Miguel beer advertisement, with an appearance fee of million of pesos. And he made a movie with FPJ and some TV guesting that contributed to his popularity.

Now he competes with fellow champion Jango Bustamante in tournaments in and out of the country despite of his age and blurring vision.

Rey Saludar

In the recently concluded Asian Games in Guanzhou, China, Filipinos athletes were sent to compete on different events including boxing, karate, bowling, chess, diving and others. Few of them lost but there were some who emerged as winners in the tournament.

Rey Saludar of a talent-rich Panabo, Davao del Norte, became the newest toast of amateur boxing as he gave the country its lone gold in boxing in the Asian Games.

He defeated the hometown boy Yong Chang by a score of 13-11, although many people said that the he deserved to win in a bigger margin.

“Suntok ginto sa Olympics/Punch for gold at the Olympics” the battle cry of Filipino Athletes in China. Ricky Vargas president of the Amateur Boxing Association of the Philippines said that “we are proud of our athletes and coaches in China”. We should keep on sending athletes outside of the country to compete for them to gain experience and in effect we might get our first gold in the Olympics.

3 Million pesos was rewarded to Rey saludar for getting the only gold in Asian Games to be given by Manny Pangilinan, a businessman and the godfather of the Amateur Boxing Association of the Philippines. Silver and bronze medalists were awarded with 1 million and 500k respectively.

At the end, Philippines got 1 gold, 1 silver and 1 bronze medal.