All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others especially if you are Real Madrid and you would like to have your influential Malian midfielder play in a La Liga determining match as opposed to playing for Mali in an African Cup of Nations qualifier. FIFA is always trumpeting on about how countries take precedence over clubs, but in a complete volte-face, FIFA instructed the Malian federation to release Mahamdou Diarra and Frederic Kanoute (who plays for Sevilla). JS Kyblie, an Algerian team, that wanted their international players released to play in a cup final had their request turned down. BTW, Mali beat Sierra Leone 6-0 to top their group.
David Beckham finally got his hands on a La Liga medal after Real Madrid beat Real Mallorca 3-1 yesterday.
Well, I predicted awhile back that Lewis Hamilton would win the Formula 1 Driver's Championship in his inaugural season and he's going about it in the right way after following up his Canadian Grand Prix win with one at the US Grand Prix.
Tiger Woods maintains his consistency of not having won a major coming from behind.
The "first watch" disappeared from the "first hand" of the "first man" aka the Bushman during a meet and greet in Albania. If Secret Service detail, can't keep a watch thief at bay, well....
Monday 18 June 2007
Tuesday 12 June 2007
Controversial
Is it just me or has the word controversial become ubiquitous in its mainstream usage. It's quite amazing how many news articles (written and reported) are prefaced by the word controversial. I thought news was supposed to be objective in its reporting, but by labelling an article controversial, the news networks and newspapers are telling us what to think. Noam Chomsky has researched this extensively and his DVD, Manufacturing Consent illustrates how pervasive this is.
Monday 11 June 2007
Mmm
Yesterday belonged to a couple of early twenty somthing year olds. First, Rafael Nadal became the first man since Bjorn Borg in 1980 to win the French Open for the third consecutive time when he defeated Roger Federer. Then Lewis Hamilton claims his maiden Formula 1 Grand Prix win in Montreal and by doing so, he's extended his lead atop Formula 1's drivers' championship by 8 points. Given that they are so young, they can only get better which isn't good news for their rivals.
The destination of this year's La Liga title will remain unknown until the last day of the football season in Spain. Real Madrid and Barcelona have the same number of points, but Real are top because of a better head-head record against Barca. Lionel Messi emulated his idol, Maradona, to a tee when he scored the first goal with his hand and went onto score a legit second goal, in Barca's penultimate match against Espanyol - let's hope that's as far as he takes his emulation.
Bliar attended his last G8 summit and in Berlin and there was the obligatory munificence show towards Africa. This time the headline grabbing figure was $60 billion, but when you drill down, it's not as generous as it sounds, especially when you consider that the $50 billion boost to aid for Africa, announced at the G8 summit in 2005, has not been honoured. "Trade not aid" is what Africa needs.
In the wake of the furore surrounded BAE, a former Lord Chief Justice has been appointed to head an independent review of BAE's business practices. How independent the review will be remains to be seen considering BAE's contribution to Britain's national coffers. Consider this, even after Haliburton was found by the US Army's Auditor General to be overcharging the US military for petrol in Iraq aka war profiteering (which is a felony), their contract to supply the US military in Iraq was not terminated.
The US wants to set up a missile defense shield in central Europe which has sent temperatures plummeting in its relationship with Russia.Russia has offered the US joint use of a radar station in Azerbaijan, which borders Iran and it remains to be seen if the US will take up this offer.
Till next week.
The destination of this year's La Liga title will remain unknown until the last day of the football season in Spain. Real Madrid and Barcelona have the same number of points, but Real are top because of a better head-head record against Barca. Lionel Messi emulated his idol, Maradona, to a tee when he scored the first goal with his hand and went onto score a legit second goal, in Barca's penultimate match against Espanyol - let's hope that's as far as he takes his emulation.
Bliar attended his last G8 summit and in Berlin and there was the obligatory munificence show towards Africa. This time the headline grabbing figure was $60 billion, but when you drill down, it's not as generous as it sounds, especially when you consider that the $50 billion boost to aid for Africa, announced at the G8 summit in 2005, has not been honoured. "Trade not aid" is what Africa needs.
In the wake of the furore surrounded BAE, a former Lord Chief Justice has been appointed to head an independent review of BAE's business practices. How independent the review will be remains to be seen considering BAE's contribution to Britain's national coffers. Consider this, even after Haliburton was found by the US Army's Auditor General to be overcharging the US military for petrol in Iraq aka war profiteering (which is a felony), their contract to supply the US military in Iraq was not terminated.
The US wants to set up a missile defense shield in central Europe which has sent temperatures plummeting in its relationship with Russia.Russia has offered the US joint use of a radar station in Azerbaijan, which borders Iran and it remains to be seen if the US will take up this offer.
Till next week.
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