Sandsation

Be the change that you wish to see

45 years to the day that Martin Luther King Jr delivered his "I have a dream" speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial to crowds that reflected the diverse cultural melting pot that is America, a similarly culturally diverse crowd thronged the Mile High Stadium in Denver to witness the dream become a reality.

His critics had accused him of being light on specifics and heavy on rhetoric, a triumph of style over substance, but in accepting the Democratic Party's nomination for president, Barack Obama's outlined a detailed work plan of how he planned to change things once he was in the Oval Office. He paid a poignant tribute to his, now elderly, grandmother who "poured" what she had into him and ended by invoking The preacher.

He empowered the audience in the stadium and the million of Americans watching at home, by reminding them that the election is about them. Gandhi said "be the change that you wish to see" so here's to hoping that the American electorate, on 4th November, will do just that.

The audacity of hope is a beautiful thing to behold

Access All Areas

The words, in the photo on the right, lie over the entrance to the Reichstag and translate to The German People, a visual reminder for German politicians as to whom they serve.

Last Sunday, all German ministries held their annual open day where members of the public could tour the ministries and meet the ministers. We went to the Foreign Ministry and the access was such that I now know the incumbent Foreign Minister is a Mac man and I saw the gift that Barack Obama brought when he visited Berlin - there was also a seriously bejewelled pens, earrings and watches set from the Saudi king. There were mini-workshops on what being a diplomat means, Mandarin lessons and chances to question the Foreign Minister, town hall style.

The open day had been heavily advertised and despite the inclement weather, there were a good number of people who did not want to miss the opportunity to get up close and personal with the people who represent them.

As a way of getting people engaged in the political process, the German method gets my vote.

Comment is free, no it's not

In response to this article, I wrote the following comment:

All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing

Osama, you and your Freedom Boaters are good men. It's a stain on the world's conscience that the oppressed are now the oppressors and continue to dehumanise a people because of their own securities.

Why is it that such a small country has a Napoleonic complex to the nth degree (where n is large and positive)? Israel is a belligerent, bellicose bully, but bullies get their comeuppance eventually.

Somebody complained about the comment and instead of the above, my entry is now as follows:

MusingsofaFailure

Aug 23 08, 8:08am

This comment has been removed.

My Olympic predictions vs the actualities

With less than 72 hours to go before the curtain goes up to mark the start of the XXIX Olympiad, I thought I should gaze into my Olympic rings and pick some winners. So here goes:

Women

100m - Sherone Simpson, Jamaica - right country, wrong athlete
100m hurdles - Susanna Kallur, Sweden****
200m - Allyson Felix, USA SB
400m - Christine Ohuruogu, GB SB
800m - Pamela Jelimo, Kenya WJR and it's goodbye to the legend that is Maria Mutola
5000m - Tirunesh Dibaba, Ethiopia
10,000m - Tirunesh Dibaba, Ethiopia OR
4x100m relay - Jamaica DNF
4x400m relay - Kenya******
BMX - Shanaze Reade, GB
Football - Brazil
Heptathlon - Kelly Sotherton, GB - fifth
High Jump - Blanka Vlasic, Croatia
Long Jump - Carolina Kluft, Sweden - ninth
Marathon - Catherine Ndereba, Kenya
Pole Vault - Yelena Isinbaeva, Russia WR
Triple Jump - Françoise Mbango, Cameroon OR

Men

100m - Olusoji Fasuba, Nigeria**
110m hurdles - Liu Xiang, China***
200m - Usain Bolt, Jamaica WR
400m - Jeremy Wariner, USA - right country, wrong athlete
400m hurdles - Kerron Clement, USA - right country, wrong athlete
800m - Abubaker Kaki*****, Sudan
1500m - Bernard Lagat, USA*
3000m steeplechase - Ezekiel Kemboi, Kenya - seventh; right country, wrong athlete
5000m - Bernard Lagat, USA - ninth
10,000m - Kenenisa Bekele, Ethiopia OR
4x100m - Jamaica WR
4x400m - USA OR
Basketball - USA
Decathlon - Bryan Clay, USA
Football - Argentina with the mercurial Messi and a stellar supporting cast
High Jump - Stefan Holm, Sweden - fourth
Long Jump - Irving Saladino, Panama
Marathon - Sammy Wanjiru, Kenya OR
Tennis - Rafael Nadal, Spain World No 1
Triple Jump - Phillips Idowu, GB

Legend

DNF - Did not finish
OR - Olympic Record
SB - Season's Best
WJR - World Junior Record
WR - World Record

I'm hoping my predictions will epitomise Corinthian ideals in their quest for Olympic glory.

Citius, Altius, Fortius

**REPLACEMENTS**
**Oh well, Olu didn't run as Olu can run, but Usain Bolt sure looked mightily impressive as he jogged his way to 9.92s so I'll plump for Usain to complete a sprint double.
*I reserve the right to nominate someone else as Bernard Lagat did not qualify for the final so I'm putting forward Asbel Kipruto Kiprop, Kenya
***I was hoping Liu Xiang could provide Beijing with a similar moment to the one Cathy Freeman provided in Sydney, but in reality the form guy leading up to the Olympics is the world record holder, the bespectacled Dayron Robles of Cuba so I'm nominating him.
****Lolo Jones, USA - right country, wrong athlete
*****Alfred Kirwa Yego, Kenya - right country, wrong athlete
******GB - fifth SB

Kenya 5 Ethiopia 4

With Kenya women chipping in with their first ever golds in the 800m and 1500m, Kenya was able to pip Ethiopia in the number of golds won. All of Ethiopia's golds were won by 2 people completing incredible double doubles in the men and women's 5000m and 10000m, Tirunesh Dibaba and Kenenisa Bekele. Sammy Wanjiru claimed Kenya's first ever marathon gold and Pamela Jelimo and Nancy Langat victories were historic for Kenya. Kenya confirmed her middle distance supremacy completing a men and women's double in the 800m, the men's 1500m and the event that is regarded as Kenya's own, the men's 3000m steeplechase.

Jamaica 3 USA 0

3 is the number of world records Jamaica's men set in the 100m, 200m and 4x100m relay, but perhaps I could have gone for Jamaica 4 USA 0 given that Jamaica won the men and women's 100m and 200m. The USA may point to their wins in the women and men's 4x400m relays, but then again the latter win wasn't so surprising given that they swept the individual event. It looks as if the era of US sprinting supremacy is well and truly over, roll on 2012.

The Emperor and Empress of Entoto

Entoto is the mountain at whose feet, the city of Addis Ababa lies and is the resting place of Empress Taitu. It was Empress Tatitu who convinced her husband, Emperor Menelik II to relocate Addis Ababa from the top of the mountain to the bottom to be nearer to the therapeutic hot springs at the base.

The forests that cover Entoto's slopes provide trails on which Tirunesh Dibaba, the double Olympic champion in the women's 5000m & 10,000m, trains. I was in Addis Ababa's national stadium in May when she won the 10,000m at the 16th CAA championships and the wall of sound that the spectators made throughout the 31 minutes that it took her to complete the race caused the stand in which we were sitting to vibrate.

Kenenisa Bekele emulated his compatriot Tirunesh by winning the men's 5000m & 10000m, but went one better when he set Olympic records in both events.

Double flake

What do Sanya Richards and Jeremy Wariner have in common? Well, they both represent the US in the 400m, they had both posted the fastest times in the world in the lead up to Beijing and were considered favourites for the gold medal, they both went out fast in their respective finals and were ran down in the last 50m and they are both under the tutelage of Clyde Hart who used to coach the 400m world record holder, Michael Johnson. It would seem to me that while their speed certainly isn't in doubt, their mental fortitude when under pressure is.

It's catching....NOT!!

Who said lightning doesn't strike twice?! No sooner do the US men's team botch the fourth leg baton handover in the men's 4x100m relay than the US women's team repeat the same botch on the same leg in their relay. In the case of the US women's relay team, it's a recurring nightmare, as the same botch, on the same leg with the same individual involved, occurred in Athens 2004.

UN-FLIPPIN-BELIEVABLE!!

Usain Bolt was in the middle of a press conference in Beijing when he was informed that he would be doubling up - his coach had given him the green light to compete in the 100m & 200m. When asked which event he would prefer to win, he said that he really wanted to win the 200m because it would mean so much more. Well tonight we witnessed just how much it meant to him.

He ran 19.30s with eight races in his legs so how much faster could he have gone if he was fresh? And if he decides to take up the 400m, we can probably expect to see the first sub 43s run.

He turns 22 tomorrow and I'm sure he'll celebrate with the youthful exuberance that we saw in the aftermath of his wins.

Wishing you a very happy 22nd birthday and I hope you'll continue to light up the track for many years to come.

She's SLOWER, but was FASTER when it mattered

Sanya Richards, the US 400m runner has a PB of 48.70s, Christine Ohuruogu from GB has a PB of 49.61s. In the lead up to the 400m final, Sanya Richards implied that Christine shouldn't be in Beijing on account of the 1 year suspension she served for not being available for 3 out-of-competition drug tests, over an 18 month period. Now when I read the article, I thought that Sanya Richards had exhibited her mental frailty by worrying about her competitors when she should have been focusing on herself - Christine backed herself, with good reason.

Christine's 1 year ban meant that she returned to competition in July 2007 and 4 races later, she won gold in Osaka, at the World Athletics Championships, and set a PB in the process - that is what mental fortitude is all about. The BOA (British Olympic Association) have a by-law that states that any athlete who serves a drugs suspension is banned from competing at the Olympics for life - only Britain and Norway have this by-law. Following her gold medal win in Osaka, Christine successfully challenged her Olympic ban and got the green light to compete in Beijing last November as the BOA ruled that she had not sought to deliberately avoid the tests - this assertion was backed up by WADA, UK Athletics and the IAAF. Sanya Richards, despite being the fastest women in the 400m last year, did not compete in Osaka because she came fourth at the US trials - only the first three athletes make the US team. Sanya gained post-Osaka consolation by winning the grand prix jackpot and beating Christine on the European circuit, in one off races at various grand prix meets.

Christine spent the early part of this season running the 200m to hone the first part of her race and focused entirely on peaking in Beijing. Drawn in lane 7, Sanya was running blind, while Christine in lane 4 had Sanya in her sights. While Sanya made her usual blistering start, Christine was content to ensure that Sanya didn't get too far ahead so that by the time she came into the home straight, the gap between Sanya and Christine was considerably reduced. Timing her final surge to perfection, Christine overtook Sanya, who visually deflated and allowed Shericka Williams of Jamaica to pip her to the silver medal.

Christine has won every major championship that she has competed in and she is now Commonwealth, World and Olympic champion.

Olympic fashion faux pas

• Now I don't about you, but men wearing full length costumes and caps in the pool, what's that all about?!
  
• I'm not really feeling the halter top back that some of the men have opted to wear, especially Yaroslav "lose the mullet" Rybakov. Irving Saladino looked good in his, but that was because it flippin' fitted.
  
• As for the detachable sleeves, I'm speechless - Walter Dix, I'm talking to you because while the sky blue colour is very fetching they definitely did not look fetching on you. Tatyana Lebedeva, you are a fashion pioneer and not in a good way - your decision to wear one red sleeve and one white, along with your skunk-like hair was a no, no.
• Also, if you have bulging calf muscles please, please, please steer clear of the long socks - that would be you Kerron Clement among others.
  
• Long socks are bad enough, but multi-colored ones as worn by Ariane Friedrich are eye catching for all the wrong reasons.
  
• Mix and mismatch would be Sanya Richards with the sky blue detachable sleeves + black long socks.
• Ryan Braithwaite's cutesy baby blue top with white clouds and the sun looks good on a little boy not a muscular man.
• Even if you are competing at home, wearing one long red sock is so not cool.
• I'm don't see the point of a headband if one doesn't has long hair, so maybe Bershawn Jackson and Phillips Idowu could enlighten us.
• Martyn Rooney's shades remind me of those glasses they used to hand out to watch films in 3D
  

Maximum efficiency and the economy of effort

When Yelena Isinbaeva cleared her first vault of the final at 4.70m, there were five competitors left from the original twelve. By the time she cleared her second vault of 4.85m, she was Olympic champion. To complete her warm up for a world record attempt, she took 3 attempts to clear 4.95m, an Olympic record, and then it took her another 3 attempts to vault 5.05m and set her 24th world record in the pole vault.

To compete or not to compete

In the run up to XXIX Olympiad, the following had injuries:

• Tyson Gay, USA - triple gold medallist in the 100m, 200m and 4x100m at last year's World Athletics Championships in Osaka. He pulled his hamstring while competing in the 200m at the US trials in July and if it was any other year, he would have probably ended his season right then.
• Susanna Kallur, Sweden - gold medallist in the 60m hurdles at the World Indoor Athletic Championships in March. She pulled a hamstring shortly after Valencia.
  
• Paula Radcliffe, GB - world record holder in the marathon and winner of last year's New York Marathon. Had a stress fracture and was bitten by a poisonous spider.
  
• Nicola Saunders, GB - silver medallist in the 400m in Osaka. Sustained injuries of various types in the earlier part of the season - the Olympics arrived too soon for her.
• Kelly Sotherton, GB - bronze medallist in the heptathlon in Osaka. Had a kidney infection amongst other injuries
• Chris Tomlinson, GB - British long jump record holder. Sustained a muscle tear while competing at the London Grand Prix in July.
  
• Liu Xiang, China - gold medallist in the 110m hurdles in Osaka. He hurt his leg back in May and has been carrying a foot injury for a number of years.

So why did they come to Beijing in the first place, knowing in their hearts of hearts that they probably would not be able to do themselves justice? For Liu Xiang, the defending Olympic champion and the face of these games, after becoming China's first athlete to win a gold medal in a track event, the expectations of 1.3 billion people played a part in him putting himself through what by all accounts seems to be a very painful ordeal to the start line. For Paula Radcliffe, haunted by the memory of Athens where she failed to finish, Beijing was to be her redemption.

I'm sure that for all of them it was a case of, I've spent the last four years training for Beijing and I'll be damned if I'll let a kidney infection/stress fracture/hamstring pull/muscle tear get in the way of my ambitions - unfortunately for them, their bodies objected, protested and eventually shutdown. To paraphrase, the mind was willing, but the body was weak.

10.32 m/s

speed = Distance/time acceleration = speed/time.

With the second slowest reaction time, 0.165s, of the eight man field, Usain Bolt uncoiled his 1.93m frame and ambled (he ran for 80m and jogged for 20m) to a world record of 9.69s at an average speed of 10.32 m/s, but the word average should never appear in the same sentence as Usain Bolt. And what of his acceleration to 80m? How many Newtons did his 76kg mass generate to propel himself forward from his starting blocks as he transformed potential energy into kinetic? His run makes for a very interesting mechanics study.

Usain Bolt is a 21 year old 200m specialist. He first came to prominence at the age of 15 when he went under 20s to win the 200m at the World Junior Championships on his home patch in Kingston. Great things were expected of him in Athens 2004 after he ran 19.93s at the start of the season, but leg injuries curtailed his progression. When he broke Asafa Powell's 100m world record of 9.74s, in New York, in June, that was his fourth 100m race. His coach, Glen Miller, told him to run the 100m this season to improve his start for the 200m.

So how fast can he really go? If he had run flat out, he would have probably stopped the clock in the 9.5x s. If the Jamaica 4 x 100m team can get the baton round, we may yet see another world record because he can probably go much faster from a standing start.

No pre-race jitters like his older compatriot, who's anxiety was as illuminating as the neon signs that light up New York's Times Square. Observing him at the start, as he enjoyed the dancehall music playing over the PA system, he came across as the 21 year old that he is. He'll be at his peak in 5 years time - what a scintillating prospect!

He has completely torn up the rule book - YOU ARE NOT SUPPOSED TO RUN THE 100m LIKE THAT!! Unconventional Usain ruled the day and to think he didn't realise that he had broken the world record until after he had completed his victory lap - he just wanted to win. Let's hope his plan to just win the 200m allows us to witness more spectacular unconventionality.

For a detailed breakdown of Usain Bolt's sensational 100m run, read this.

To whom it may concern

I would like you to know that it was a baaaaaaaaaad idea to give ABCDEF GHIJKLMNOP 5+ million euros to implement the 4 year QRSTUV programme. Here's why:

• they are making a pig's ear of implementing this very important programme which has the potential to transform millions of lives in sub-Saharan Africa
• they are running the programme to suit themselves at the expense of the end client's priorities
  
• they really don't have a clue about any of the projects under this programme so they rely on another organisation for misinformation
• despite the fact that you gave them more than 50% of 10 million euros, they have a really hard time paying the contractors who actually work on the project - payment delays of more than 2 months are not uncommon and it would appear that they look for the flimsiest excuses not to pay
• they don't have a deputisation or escalation process that works

I know the EU likes to bandy about the words accountability, transparency etc so why is it SOOOOOO difficult for me, an EU taxpayer, to find the right person to handover my report detailing the issues and concerns that I have with the way the programme is being run?

Incapacitated

Incase you are wondering why the talks between Zanu-PF, the MDC faction led by Morgan Tsvangirai and the MDC faction led by Arthur Mutambara are so protracted, here's the reason. Robert Gabriel Mugabe is beholden to the JOC (veterans of Zimbabwe's war of independence and now heads of Zimbabwe's army, airforce and intelligence services) and they have instructed him not to concede executive power to Tsvangirai, despite the latter winning the majority of parliamentary seats in the March elections. In other words, the talks are Mugabe's way of stalling for time while he and the JOC devise a way for Mugabe to continue his misrule of Zimbabwe.

Mugabe has previous here because he held talks with Joshua Nkomo's ZAPU which was subsumed into Zanu-PF and then he deployed Perence Shiri (current head of the Zimbabwean airforce and JOC member) to Matabeleland where the North Korean trained 5th brigade proceeded to ethnically cleanse the Ndebele fron Matabeleland.

SMS or email

I got an email, but if I was in the US, I would have got an SMS. BO has let us know just how down he is with technology by employing it to reach millions with minimal effort and expense. The manner of the announcement of his running mate is unprecedented and therein lies his brilliance at strategising. Conversely, the old white haired guy has fessed up to rarely using email.

The audacity of hope is beautiful thing to behold

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