worldcup – Wis[s]e Words

Your Happening World (June 12th through June 15th)

Published on June 15, 2014Leave a comment

Blog fodder for June 12th through June 15th:

The Netherlands: Victory for Transgender Rights | Human Rights Watch – The law on transgender rights that the Dutch Senate approved on December 18, 2013, is an important step toward equality, Human Rights Watch said today. The new law will allow transgender people to change the gender marker in their official identity papers to their preferred gender. It does away with previous requirements for taking hormones and surgery, including irreversible sterilization, though it is a step short of complete personal autonomy for the decision.
On Telling the Truth – People of Color in European Art History – I’m sick and tired of suffering in silence. I’m sick of “keeping things civil”, and I’m tired of giving the benefit of the doubt to people who mean me nothing but ill. There is real violence happening to myself and other bloggers for more reasons than that people do not like what we have to say…people take exception to who we are, how we speak, what we look like, who we call friend, and who we call family. No one is obligated to justify their existence.
Holland’s World Cup win over Spain wasn’t the return of Total Football – Louis van Gaal has created something new – Telegraph – The 3-4-3 that Van Gaal played on Friday night was essentially a reactive formation designed to combat Spain’s dominant midfield. The wing-backs did not venture too far forward, and with midfielders Nigel De Jong and Jonathan de Guzman essentially screening the back three, Holland reverted to a 5-2-3, or even a 7-3, without the ball. And seeing as this was Spain, they were quite often without the ball.
Maliki’s most solemn hour — The Arabist – Just days ago, ISIS pushed forward from its safehouses and camps in the Nineveh Governorate, which it had won control over in the past months, to take over the city of Mosul. It has attacked several other cities in northern Iraq as well, and disrupted the siege that federal forces in Iraq brought against it and its allies in Al Anbar Governorate this Spring. Mosul was living under a state of siege with the government resorting to an air bridge due to the danger ISIS ambushes posed to highway traffic. The group has for over a year now been following a strategic campaign it dubbed "Soldier's Harvest": the aim has been to retake the territories lost by al Qaeda-aligned jihadists during the final years of the U.S. Occupation by terrorizing the local authorities into quitting the fight. ISIS would then fill the resulting vacuum caused by their retreat. "This started in rural sections of Iraq such as the desert regions of Anbar and the Hamrin Mountains that stretch across Diyala and Salahadd
Portugal indebted to Angola after economic reversal of fortune – "Portugal is in a tricky situation. It needs Angolan money and must also watch out for Portuguese residents in Angola," Filipe explains. About 100,000 Portuguese nationals currently live in the former colony. Much as with Brazil in the past, many young Portuguese, dogged by unemployment at home, see their future in Angola.

Now I know how the Germans felt all those years

Published on July 6, 20103 Comments

Giovanni van Bronckhorst scores in the semis

For the longest part in the Worldcup Holland was barely noticed. The world press talked about how badly England and France and Italy did and how Germany had a good youthfull team but which was not quite up to winning the title and how it was going to be Brazil or Spain finally or perhaps even Argentine for the win. Even after winning every game in the group phase, after winning the next match against Slovakia not much attention was paid — Brazil would puliverse the Dutch was the general opinion. It was only after Brazil was beaten like a redheaded stepchild that the press sat up and took notice.

Suddenly I know how the Germans felt through all those tournaments when they were cruising towards yet another title and everybody condemned them for not playing proper football. Because suddenly Holland as well is accused of not playing our usual beautiful football and only winning by making it impossible for others to play, by diving and cheating. The comments on this
Guardian thread are typical.

It’s gratifying. Let them moan, as long as Oranje wins I’m not bothered.

UPDATE: we’re in the finals. So long suckers.

They all think it’s over

Published on June 27, 20102 Comments

the ball was over the line

But unfortunately the referee decided otherwise. It can be difficult sometimes to see if a shot that doesn’t thunder into the back netting has actually crossed the line, but not when it’s half a metre or so behind the line. But the linesman was too far away to see properly and the ref didn’t overturn his decision and so England was denied a valid goal that would’ve been the equaliser. If England now exits the Worldcup it would be the ideal situation for the tabloids to wallow in that sense of outrage and injustice they like so much when it comes to football. But it should never have happened. Goal line technology is neither exotic nor expensive and it would’ve seen what the refs couldn’t.

You might wonder why such a multi-billion dollar industry like football doesn’t use such technology in its most important tournament, but it all comes down to seventyfour year old FIFA president Sepp Blatter, who adamantly refuses to introduce it. The Dutch football commentators at Voetbal International seem to believe it’s a combination of his age and his belief that it would be too expensive to use as it would need to be used in qualifying games as well and poorer countries couldn’t afford this. This last reason is of course utterly silly, as it is up to FIFA to make the rules and they could easily decide to only use it in the finals, hence sparing themselves this embarassement.

But you wonder if there’s more going on than just the innate conservatism of an old man. Using goal line detectors and other technology means referees are going to make fewer subjective calls. leaving less room for error — and fraud. Because we know there’s a multi-billion dollar betting industry sprung up around football as well, not all of it legal and we also know that players and referees both have been bribed in several national leagues to throw games already. Can we therefore be sure the Worldcup is safe?

Football and the English socialist

Published on June 8, 2006

It’s an even year, so as always the English socialist is put in an awkward position: who to support for the Worldcup? Supporting England is out of the question, because, as Snowball puts it:

As if the corporate takeover isn’t bad enough (many firms have produced ‘I love England’ badges for their employees), then the political consequences don’t bear worth thinking about. All of the main three capitalist political parties are doubtless gearing up already to associate themselves with supporting England – and it is likely that Blair will try to use a good Cup run and the associating ‘feel good factor’ to hang onto power – though one suspects the hapless croquet playing fuckwit Prescott will not be used in too many New Labour photoshoots playing football.

This sort of feeling is quite widespread amongst English socialists, but I’ve never seen its like in other countries. Certainly Dutch socialists are content enough to support the Dutch team, rather than coming up with convoluted reasons to not support it. That is not to say the Engerland-haters don’t have a point: the Worldcup is commercialised, politicised and will be used by quite disgusting people to bask in its reflected glory. But I still think you’re making a category error if you take your disgust about
the circus surrounding the cup as a reason to not support England. Your support of Trinibad and Tobago instead of Engerland will not stop the abuse, only boycotting the Worldcup might do it.

Even worse is being anti-England out of a misplaced sense of anti-imperialism: Blair’s policies will not change because the SWP does not support England! It just seems like yet another form of identify politics, a way to show how socialist you are without, you know, doing anything about it. As the Dead Kennedys said quite a while back “Play ethnicky jazz to parade your snazz On your five grand stereo / Braggin that you know how the niggers feel cold And the slums got so much soul“.