A fascination with fighting cocks

As you may know, I have a fascination with the way men (or at least mostly men) in the Philippines have a special bond with their fighting cocks. As a consequence of this, they are everywhere, even in the downtown area of cities. I have written about this before and you can see that post here: “Men and their fighting cocks“.

And the more you learn about it, the more you see it. When we are driving in the province at a Sunday afternoon, chances are you will come across a large group of motor bikes parked along the road and I would bet good money that there then is a cockpit around. If there is a small piece of open space in downtown Cebu, there is a good chance you will see a fighting cock on a perch or just tied down to something. Seeing people travel with native bags or boxes with holes in them: fighting cocks.

The funny thing is that in my memory from Holland, there are just soo many people afraid of the rooster that they have with their chickens. I remember a neighbor of us before who really used a broom to keep the rooster away to collect the eggs and sometimes even let the rooster out of the pen, just to have some peace and quiet.

I think that this picture from Carbon Market combines these two worlds a little bit. The big rooster overpowering the woman in the background. I think she is actually hiding from the camera, but I prefer to think that she is cowering from the cock. Makes for a better story don’t you think?