There was a fellow sitting across the table from me @ May Day a few days ago. His companion had asked where he was from, as he had an odd accent. Their discussion verged into his impending U.S. citizenship.
He is from South Africa, sort of. Born in the UK, he was an English citizen, but promptly left. Growning up and spending most of the first half of his life in South Africa, he never voted. "There was not point." he said. He never bothered to for 2 years back in the UK. He's lived here for 20 years. He can't vote here. In fact,
He's never voted.
Never.
There was a tone of amazement and eagerness in his anticipation of elections in November.
The first time I voted was in 1984. Walter Mondale & Geraldine Ferraro and John Rockefeller were on the ticket. The last time I voted was in April at the nominating convention for the Green party. I wish more American citizens would look at the opportunity to vote with the same awe. .
Ole! ole ole ole ole ... ole ... ole ... Ole! ole ole ole ole ... ole ... ole ... Ole! ole ole ole ole ... ole ... ole ...**(hear below if anyone I know doesn't actually know what this is)
Jr.Gopher#2 was standing next to me singing in the middle of the 2nd half of the game. He looked pleased that he could sing with the grown-ups. Which is good, because I'm not sure he quite understood why the adults had been going bezerk.
At the end of the game, after screaming themselves hoarse, the Germans looked at each other and wondered: "4 to zero! ... but, against ... them...??"
Maybe because I'm not German, or perhaps because I'm not a serious soccer fan ... I've noticed the Germans, almost uniformly, seemed stunned at the score. Rabidly enthusiastic, but stunned. I don't get it. Sure, Argentina is good; but did these people assume their national team wasn't all that good? Sure, even I'm surprised, but my non-German mind says "wow, we won, cool. Pass the pretzels."
Goal #3 was a thing of technical beauty.
Goal #2, however, I think demonstrates why Germany won: they simply never gave up once they got the ball. From 66:50 until the goal, Der Mannschaft just passed and passed and passed and scored. Müller (I think) slips, goes down while the ball hits him, he spins on his butt on the ground to kick the ball while practically lying down, straight over to Podolski and then the video clips pick up letting you see the goal.
Messi might be the greatest soccer player in the world, but you don't win the World Cup by being the best player. Or by fielding the best players. Germany hounded him and simply kept him from doing what he does best; it interrupted Argentina's flow of play. Germany just ran them into the ground.
Ahhh ...
Jr.Gopher#1 got to sit next to another boy 2 grades ahead of him at the German school; they at least got to socialize a bit with someone their own age. One of the teachers @ the German School was there, as well.
I hear the jingle for the ESPN world cup highlights coming from the front room...
I can't find a short version with the chant/song - The first 20 seconds or so of this is all you would need to hear; the rest is icky.
In the continuing saga of "boy, did you get fucked by FIFA's refs" comes the English soccer team. Who were totally robbed of a 2nd point. Totally. That was even more gross a failure than the off-sides disqualifications on us.
How gross a failure of referring was it? The crowd at the Glockenspiel looked at each other in confusion and said curiously "wasn't that a goal...??" and then a pair of the more rabid German fans looked at each other and said "but that was a goal, that was clearly a goal!"
Jr.Gopher#2 actually made it through 30 minutes of the game before he & I headed to the back of the restaurant. Which, conveniently, was still within sight - distantly - of the TV and yet much quieter. We read some German stories & looked at a picture book where we practiced on his German vocabulary. He then walked back up to our table and snuggled up with Mr.Gopher & Jr.#1 for the last third of the game. Admittedly, he was totally entertained by a mechanical dancing groundhog. video to come soon, as soon as I replace the batteries in the camera.
Now, how big is soccer in the rest of the world? The G-20 summit was interrupted by Chancellor Angela Merkel and Prime Minister David Cameron taking a breathers to watch the game Sunday. Following the 'we were robbed' event, Chancellor Merkel is quoted: But a major diplomatic spat appears to have been averted this time round. Merkel apologized for the phantom goal, telling Cameron she was "sorry about that," his aides said.
Reuters-Canada reported: "There is an idea we might try and watch it together. I will try not to wrestle her to the ground during penalties, but we will have to see," Cameron told reporters. and A German flag was pinned to the UK room in the G20 media center. On it was scrawled: "See you on Sunday" alongside a smiley face.
up next: Saturday, at the Glockenspiel in StPl, 9 a.m. Germany - Argentina Jr.Gopher#1 has started keeping track of the scores from the games. Mr.Gopher is actually considering going over to see the Netherlands--Brazil game. If so, I'm going with him. It ought to be a good game - finally both of them are up against a rock-solid team. .
Here it is, what I was previously bitching/whining about:
And, admittedly, once you get to the still shot where it is abundantly clear there was a gross foul ... ummm... the other major holding foul was by uhhh... the US. Still totally horrid referring.
At least I still own a German flag. Glockenspiel, St. Paul, 9:00 a.m. CDT Mr.Gopher has the kids today; I promised to watch Jr.Gopher #2 once his attention capacity is reached tomorrow morning.
It's more than just a game as Have You Heard from Johannesburg? chronicles the history of the global anti-apartheid movement that took on South Africa's apartheid regime and its international supporters.
does the author mean Apartheid's supporters? or the anti-apartheid movement? In this particular context, it could really be either one:
the protesters' actions against Apartheid and the international businesses which were supporting it economically - or - the actions of the protesters' and their international supporters ?
This is why people need to learn how to write more effectively. Of course, I can't watch it anyway, since I don't have cable TV.
Am I imaging it? I was too busy on Friday getting read for a camping trip with the German school to post anything. I went over to the Riverview to see the USA:Slovenia game rather than pack in a more orderly manner (which would likely have involved packing our camera and a couple of books for the boys).
We were totally robbed. The rest of the fans at the Riverview equally seemed to think so. There were two calls: 1st - which made all the papers - was the disqualification of a goal that ought to have been our 3rd. This is the 'controversy' I can find in the news 2nd - was in the 89th (?) minute, and ought to have been a call. Where's the outrage on this? Hell, where's the video footage of it? Holding another man like that would get them lynched in parts of the Deep South. I can't even find it on youtube (actually there's very little -read nothing- on youtube at all, and I can't even find it on any other sports website). Please let me know where it is, if you can?
As far as I can tell, I'm the only one in the universe who saw it.
Given our level of play, getting a 3rd goal would not, in fact, have guaranteed a win. Gross, unbelievably excessive interference, however, should have resulted in a red card, and a free shot, which would have likely yielded a valid goal and a win. I would post a link to the video, but apparently it only happened in my imagination.
On a radio discussion, someone mentioned that the World Cup in South Africa was really not that important compared to the end of Apartheid. Absolutely.
They then argued that not much really has changed, or perhaps that the racial discrimination wasn't going away fast enough. Based upon our experiences here, it won't go away any time soon. Of course, we don't have a truth and reconciliation commission and are generally trying to pretend that everything is all better. If you doubt that anything has changed enough, look at the photo of the South African national team this year. Compare to 1962, when they were banned from playing. A greater indicator is to look at the stadium seating this morning for the South Africa fans. A veritable sea of yellow shirts. Is there a separate section for whites? No. Do you seriously think it even vaguely feasible to have seen this in 1960? 1980? 1990?
It's not as though racism disappears with the election of a black president - no more than it has here. I'm not delusional about the misery of poverty and racial discrimination (in which ever direction you want). Poverty is drawn on highly racial lines - as it is here. But it is unjust to say nothing much has changed.
Does it matter who's in charge? No. Because you'll never make everyone happy. This is why we have an oligarchical political system here. No one wants to lose the power and money that they have - one of those facts which transcends race or nationality.
