Roundabout Dubai

TBADTB

Too Busy And Depressed To Blog!

posted by bandicoot @ 8:50 PM 2 comments

Logos

How iconic are local icons? And how do they compare with non-local ones? The recent debate about the origins of Modhesh the yellow brat has prompted me to have a closer look at some local logos to appreciate the uniqueness (or lack of) such logos. The first two are above.

Edit: Please check out this previous post from 25 May on the same topic on seabee's blog; it shows three more possible dimensions of the "new" logo!

posted by bandicoot @ 11:18 PM 5 comments

"Midwife From Hell"!

Yesterday, an Arab MP of the Israeli Knesset (parliament) mused about Condi Rice’s visit to Israel by saying, “she is bringing with her smart bombs and stupid ideas!” I think that “stupid ideas” is an understatement; more accurate would be “dangerous ideas” or “fundamentalist thinking”. This couldn’t be truer than with Rice’s now-infamous “birth-pangs” statement: "What we're seeing here .... are the birth pangs of a 'new' Middle East and whatever we do, we have to be certain that we are pushing forward to the 'new' Middle East, not going back to the old one." - Ms. Rice.

I don’t think I need to prove here the pure evil and extremism behind this line of thinking; this has been done by many already. I’m interested though in presenting some of the interesting reactions to Rice’s speech that I found in cyber static:

”Hell's Midwife: Condi Rice's "Birth Pangs" in Lebanon/Palestine;”
More here.

“Anybody who knows their Bible will identify immediately with the phrase "birth pangs". Birth pangs are mentioned several times in the Scriptures,....Both 1st Thessalonians 5 and Revelation 12 refer to the tribulation period, and describe the sorrow Israel must go through before she sees her Messiah at the Second Coming of Christ…….Friends, this could be it;”
More here.

“Secretary Rice has worried me since she became National Security Advisor. Actually, my concern began with a puff piece on her in The Presbyterian Layman in 2000, which pointed out, among other things, that she's a frequent worshipper at her local right-wing Presbyterian megachurch. Just the implied endorsement by the Layman is actually enough to worry me.”
More here.

“Say hi to your baby, Condy!”
More here.

“While 'birth pangs' are painful and definitely not comfortable, how can they compare with the carnage caused by Israel's bombs on Lebanon??? Yet, the absurd, unfeeling Condi seems to think they are similar.”
More here.

“CondiLIAR Rice Calls Ceasefire a 'false promise'.”
More here.

For me, my favorite is, the “Hell’s Midwife” metaphor; how appropriate!

posted by bandicoot @ 6:09 PM 2 comments

Atrocities

This is what the war in Lebanon is doing.


Please join the Petition.

posted by bandicoot @ 2:01 PM 0 comments

War Crimes

TOO MANY WAR CRIMES

posted by bandicoot @ 2:24 AM 0 comments

SILENCE

SILENCE IS MURDER

posted by bandicoot @ 9:14 PM 0 comments

DSS and LSS

When I first came to this town some years back, I arrived here in the middle of the DSS, the Dubai Summer Surprises. Initially I didn’t know what to make of it; but it didn’t take me long to discover it was basically a very long shopping frenzy, punctuated by short halts of entertainment (but still inside shopping malls). Was I surprised? Well, yes, sort of. A short list of the things that surprised me includes:

- Deira City Center (or Centre); never thought something like this in the desert
- IKEA (where I think I spent enough money I should now be a share holder)
- The temperature (always hovering at 49 c.)
- Dubai Skyline (awesome, I thought every time I saw it, I still do)
- The elegance (and elevation) of the apartment where we first stayed
- The unbelievable number of new and shiny cars and 4x4 vehicles
- The convenient, clean, and affordable taxi system
- The closed trucks carrying laborers like sheep (glad they’re gone)
- The demographic facts about expatriates and locals
- The disparity in salaries and wages among jobs and across ethnic groups
- The very high cost of living
- The availability of all elements of the good life (providing you got the money)

If you’re already wondering about Modhesh, I’m sorry to say this was before Modhesh was born; so he isn’t on the list. The detestable yellow creature always manage to surprise me now that I pass his cutout board figures hanging from overpasses, standing at petrol stations, and peering from behind traffic signs, among other weird poses. But overall, I lost interest in the DSS as it turned into a meaningless annual ritual. Yet clearly for many people, namely shoppers and visitors from the Arab World and Europe, the DSS is still a big attraction, and more so as Dubai gains in stature as a modern and funky tourists destination.

This summer though, the DSS seems to have been taken over by something much more sober and unpredictable: the LSS (Lebanon Summer Surprises). That’s where much of the attention and action has shifted and where some REAL surprises are popping up everyday. For example, the fact that such a total war is now being waged against Lebanon, almost out of the blue, is a bit of a surprise.

However three things don’t surprise me personally: first, the madness and inhumanity of the Israeli bombing; second, the indifference of the USA and some Western countries to the suffering of Lebanese civilians (and their unconditional support for Israel), and finally, the courage, steadfastness and high spirit of the Lebanese people.

Make your own list of LSS if you wish; but keep it wide open, as I think this is one hot summer in the Levant where the events will literally catch many people by surprise!

posted by bandicoot @ 2:17 PM 2 comments

UAE Helping

Few months ago I attended a concert at the Irish Village by the international aid campaigner Sir Bob Geldof. Sir Bob was in Dubai as part of coordinating aid effort to help the growing famine in Africa. Before he came to the concert Geldof was in a press conference in Dubai Aid City where he criticized the level of aid from the Gulf countries and the UAE to Africa. This is up for debate, to say the least. Yet it is also true that this region (and the UAE in particular), is one of the most generous aid contributors, perhaps the highest per capita world wide.

Recently we heard with dismay about the Israeli bombing of the UAE ambulance and truck aid caravan in Lebanon, as it was making its way to Beirut. At least one truck was destroyed and the vehicles had to cut their trip short. What is admirable is the speed with which the aid caravan was put together and delivered; a fact that show considerable seriousness and experience for the UAE in this respect.

The following are links to examples of UAE humanitarian aid given over the last few years. It's not meant to be comprehensive, but rather as random illustration of the size and scope of such effort. It is impressive, commendable, and must be appreciated, but there is always room for improvement.

Recently in Lebanon

Cosovo

Azerbaijan

Palestine

Kenya

Albania

Africa

General Related Links:

DIC

UN Praise

USAID in Dubai

Zayed Gallery

Princess Haya Inteview

Index of Groups

posted by bandicoot @ 9:15 PM 0 comments

A Little footnote in the War!

The IDF (in its usual modesty) doesn’t like to take credit for such brilliant display of war ethics. I know some of you will read the story in the newspapers tomorrow, but here's the footnote version of it:

1- Morning of Saturday 15 July 2006. The IDF, using loudspeakers, warns the residents of the village of Marwahin in South Lebanon to leave the village within two hours or face complete destruction of their homes and endanger their lives.

2- The residents, or many of them, run frantically to a UN peacekeeping unit HQ, which is not far from Marwahin, and they beg the Ghanian soldiers there to allow them to take shelter at the UN building.

3- The UN soldiers, perhaps remembering the Qana incident in 1996 at the Fijian UN peacekeeping HQ, refuse to let the people in.

4- The people, desperate and running out of time, scramble to flee for safety any way they could.

5- Two families cram their members into 2 vehicles and drive away from the border village.

6- Not far from Marwahin the 2 vehicles are hit directly by Israeli shells or missiles. Both families, all 20 people or so, including women and children, are killed.

7- Bravo to the IDF for warning innocent civilians in advance and for their surgical accuracy in hitting their targets.

8- End of story.

Post Script: Well may be not quite the end of story; I just listened to Mayada Abdalla, the only survivor from the bombed Marwahin villagers caravan speaking to Al Jazeera by phone from Tyre. According to her, there were 23 people killed in the bombing. All of the people were from the Abdalla family, her family. The girl was very brave and her spontaneous responses were moving and profound. Despite losing all of her extended family, Mayada kept drawing attention to the plight of other civilians under siege in Lebanon. One sentence in particular is worth repeating here: "Those who died, they're gone, may they rest in peace; but who is going to guarantee the safety of the living?"

posted by bandicoot @ 9:38 PM 0 comments

Quick Lessons!

This is a semi-random list of quick lessons I’ve learned already from observing the actions and reactions of groups and countries regarding the situation in Lebanon. I tried to keep them to 2-per-party, except in one case:

From Hizbollah:

1-that there are Arabs who actually value the lives of fellow Arabs held prisoners by Israel indefinitely and are willing to go to great lengths to secure their freedom.

2-that “great lengths” here means a complete miscalculation of the Israeli response.

From Israel:

1-that Israel continues to value the lives of its soldiers who are captured by Arabs and is willing to go to great lengths to secure their release.

2-that “great lengths” here can also mean bombing Arab countries to the ground and even starting a regional war.

From KSA, Jordan and Egypt:

1-that they are more afraid of Hizbollah than they are from Israel.

2-that they are more interested in keeping an image of credibility and moderation with the West than with heir own people.

From the USA:

1-that Bush remains the most ignorant and embarrassing president in US history.

2-that the one thing he is not so ignorant about is how to please Israel and its friends.

3-(OK, this will make them 3 lessons I know, but please bear with me, the man is an academy): that he sees no apparent contradiction between considering Israel’s attack on Lebanon as self-defense and then calling the Lebanese Prime Minister to make sure he has not been weaken by Israel’s actions!

From France:
1-that President Chirac, with little hair and less political clout, still has enough decency to wonder if Israel is destroying Lebanon.
3-that Jacque is probably more popular among Arabs than most Arab leaders (and not only because of his praise for Zidane).

From the UK:

1-that Blair can still repeat the same exact lines about the urgency of peace making in the Middle East he voiced so passionately prior to the Iraq War as if time has stopped since then!

2-that oratory can hide your mistakes and failures up to a point; and then your oration becomes more laughable than less convincing (except to you of course).

More lessons and reflections on this situation to follw later...

posted by bandicoot @ 11:31 PM 3 comments

Six Bills Only!

Yes, you're right, the existence of the word 'bills' in the title of this post means that it's about the one and only: Etisalat! Please don't read it as another whining piece, but rather in the spirit of observing a little misadventure and perhaps some fact-sharing!

I usually pay my bills using phone banking, which is just great; however this time I collected my DEWA and Etisalat bills 10 days later than usual from my work address (isn’t it funny how our work address here becomes our home address?). Phone banking takes 2 days to register; so I was a bit concerned about being disconnected. My main fear was of course DEWA, where cutting electricity and water services in this time of year is akin to extreme inconvenience if not out right misery. But I was also apprehensive of losing phone and internet connections.

So Wednesday on my way to DEWA I stopped first at the Etisalat office by Defense Roundabout; it was close to 11:00. I haven’t been there in a while, so I was a little surprised to see there was sonly one person in the queue and that there were somewhat longer queues at the 2 or 3 bill paying machines. Anyway my turn came quickly and I headed to one of the 3 open windows and handed the lady in black my 3 bills. She looked at them and then said flatly, “less than six bills must pay at the machine!” I looked perplexed; so she explained, “only six bills or more at the window; don’t you see the sign?” and she pointed to a sign that escaped my attention with that same message.

And then it hit me; that’s why there were no queues at the windows and a little crowd at the machines. OK, I thought to myself, I understand, it’s not your rule, and I’m not going to argue with you about it. I walked to one machine and stood behind a couple of people till it was my turn. It wasn’t that bad, but then I got all exacerbated by the screen menu and the options given; and thinking that I would have to do that 3 times, once for every bill, I decided I’ll take my chances and pay them later from home via phone banking and just walked out unhappy. As I was leaving I looked at the windows and there were zero customers, with the three “employees” just sitting there them doing nothing.

Now how many people, I mean ordinary people, would have six Etisalat bills or more monthly? In other words, customer service here seems now to be only for businesses (and perhaps people with many phone and internet lines); and machine service is for the rest. All I can say is, way to go Etisalat; there is only one place in town that beats you at creating less work for its employees and more for their machines

posted by bandicoot @ 5:35 PM 5 comments

Zidane in a Flash!

well, he left the game of his life in a flash; but he comes back to us (at least those of us who loved him and forgave him) again in a flash. Try this link (from Abunawaf.com) and find out how many Matarazzis you can headbutt and how much satisfaction you'll get!

posted by bandicoot @ 12:21 PM 2 comments

Unlikely News! - Part 1

Unlikely News Stories from Dubai

By Safouh Zilzal- Staff Reporter - Special for Gulf Blues

Dubai - The Dubai Court of Fifth Instance yesterday found a local man guilty of reckless driving and criminal negligence in causing an accident that resulted in the serious injury of an Indian motorist and the death of his wife. The local, A.H. was sentenced to 80 lashes, a blood money fine of Dhs.500,000.00 and a jail sentence of 10 years followed by deportation. In his verdict, judge Abduladil Farouqi said that the defendant had broken the law and acted with no regard for the life and safety of others. The 25-year old local pleaded not guilty and his lawyer argued that the tragedy was an unfortunate accident. He added that his client suffers from RBSSS (Road Blind Speed Need Syndrome). RBSSS is very common among local drivers in Dubai. He also presented testimonies from the defendant’s family and friends to prove that he has a multiple-personality disorder. The judge rejected the defense arguments and ruled that A.H. was guilty on all accounts. The accident happened on Sheikh Zayed Road last month when A.H., driving a 4x4 Lexus at a very high speed, tried to overtake the Indian victim’s Nissan Sunny on the hard shoulder, hitting the Indian’s car and causing it to overturn and skid across the road before crashing against a barrier on the other side. V.S.’s wife was killed instantly as she was thrown against the metal barrier and her head was severed. The husband had a concussion in addition to broken bones and bruises. It took rescue personnel 2 hours to extract him and his wife from the wreck. The judge said that the verdict should be a lesson to local drivers who think they are above the law and that they can get a way with murder. The blood money should be paid within six months maximum. The defendant would be deported at the end of his prison sentence to his country of origin, Yemen. A.H.’s lawyer said they plan to appeal the ruling.

posted by bandicoot @ 12:10 AM 0 comments

Azzuries!

Last night as I watched the Italians beat the French and win their 4th World Cup, I experienced a case of divided loyalties. Given my background, I was naturally inclined to cheer for Italia; and I did, as I followed the match at the bar overlooking the Ski Dubai in the MoE. But given my love for Zidane, I couldn’t help but show some support for him and his comrades too. In effect, I was cheering for both teams, though with a bit more bias toward the Azzuries. But this changed in the 2nd half and I became more disappointed with the Italians as they faded and lost their focus; so I found myself gradually shifting loyalties. It actually got to the point where I was convinced that for justice to be served France had to win. The French team played a more convincing football most of the time and the Italians struggled to keep level. Zidane’s expulsion was quite shocking though, especially knowing this was his last international game. I don’t know what prompted him to do what he did, but it was a big mistake, and it might have cost the French the championship. It brought sad memories of Zidane again being ousted from the 1998 World Cup in his team’s game against South Africa. The difference though, that wasn’t the final game then, and France went on to win the Cup; but this was different. The irony is, Zidane wasn’t supposed to be there in the first place, but he worked to bring the team together after he had a mysterious vision or calling to do that; and he/they almost made it! I’m just sorry the secret voice didn’t tell him about the red card! In all fairness, judging from the overall performance of both teams, France was more deserving of the win, and Italy’s winning in a penalty shootout made it even less impressive. But a win is a win; so congratulazioni Italy and au revoir Zizou and France.

posted by bandicoot @ 3:53 PM 2 comments

A Big Bus Dubai Tour

Ever since I saw the Big Bus Company tours criss-crossing Dubai I wondered where these tourists go and what they see. I still don’t know. I’ve seen the double-decker buses leave Wafi City, usually virtually empty, and wondered if the trip includes much more than shopping malls and the museum. The fact that they start at Wafi City, the most outrageously expensive shopping mall in Dubai, and end there is very revealing. The company web site, referring to the bus as “the King of all sightseeing vehicles,” shows indeed that the Dhs.120 ticket includes a visit to the Dubai Museum and one to the Sheikh Saeed House at Heritage Village.; perhaps more importantly, it also includes a “free 2-hour beach tour” and even a “free walking tour”! I didn’t know there was a fee for beach touring and walking in Dubai! Never mind, I decide to put together a much more informative and exciting tour plan for the Big Bus. Here’s a preliminary plan subject to alterations later:

- Ok, start at Wafi City, but have a short visit first to the nearby construction site; give tourists helmets and make them stand out there for 30 minutes (no need for physical labor or climbing scaffolding).

- Karama Market Mall: Tourists can buy latest brand name gadgets and fashion plus many unique Dubai items for ridiculous prices (without having to bargain).

- Golden Sands Apartments Square (Bur Dubai): Ladies can disembark and check out the streets; see how many will get drive-by propositions. Men can watch the fun from their seats or take a more active role.

- Sheikh Zayed Road Ride: A must experience; make sure driver goes maximum speed for five minutes and passes by getting on the hard shoulder at least once.

- Al Qouz Cemetery Park: Tourists tour the cemetery and surrounding area; Get inspired by reflecting on life and death and enjoy the harmony between graves, remains of Oasis Mall, and luxury cars dealerships.

- Al Qouz City: Tour the attractions of the area, including an unschedueled visit to a labor camp (even if it’s empty).

- Jebel Ali Free Zone Crematory: Watch cremation alive, or at least tour the facility and do more reflection on the meaning of life. Take advantage of being there and visit the nearby Hazardous Waste Treatment Center.

- Palm Island Underwater Theme Park: Tourists can use naked eye or dive (diving equipment supplied free) to enjoy the incredible richness of marine life and coral diversity in that area.

- Immigration and Naturalization Department Spa Club: Tour this most popular area of the city; see how cheap and easy it is to get visas and sponsorships done; an added thrill: get a souvenire e-Dirham card by joining the quos in the local bank branch there.

- Al Baraha Hospital Land (formerly know as the Kuwaiti hospital): Walk around this charming place (it’s free) and make sure you visit the room where people wait for the mandatory x-ray and blood tests; don’t mess with the Bedu guy in charge (if he’s still there).

- Women Prison Paradise (AL Wasl): Reflect on the motto “the human being before the place”! Take your chance to check that out and see for yourself the human beings inside, their ages, nationalities, sentences, and how they ended up there.

- Back to Wafi City: This time though drop tourists on the other side of SZR and ask them to cross the street running in mid traffic. No other thrill comes close! If they make it alive, they can go shopping.

- That concludes our Big Bus tour of Dubai; thank you for riding with us!

posted by bandicoot @ 3:24 PM 3 comments

Prediction Bet

Last night saw me wind up in Fibber Magee’s with D and a couple of friends, A and T, to watch the France-Portugal World Cup football semi-final. We got there at 10:45, a quarter of an hour before action. The place was packed! You really had to shove and push and squeeze through a mass of humanity to get from point A to point B. We had decided to go there for a change in the atmosphere from Nad Al Sheba and the Evory; and clearly we got more than we bargained for. But we stayed after we found a relatively convenient spot right at the entrance. T suggested we put symbolic bets on predictions for first goal scoring time; the closest to the time would win. Without thinking much I just said 35 minutes, as others threw in their times predictions. Well, we watched the beautiful and fast-paced game progress without goals, until, lo and behold, France earned a penalty kick and Zidane scored from it what would be the only match goal in the 33rd minute! I just couldn't believe it! Not only I won the modest bet, but I guessed the time with only a 2-minue difference! I'm now thinking of contacting some coaches of World-class teams and offer them my prediction services. Until then, please don't ask me to tell you who is going to play in the final game and what the score will be; I’m afraid such information is not freely available in the public domain anymore!

posted by bandicoot @ 4:03 PM 0 comments

Dubai 1998

posted by bandicoot @ 8:27 PM 0 comments

Close Encounter

Do you know what 2004 XP14 is? Is it a new mobile phone? Is it anew video game? No, It’s a giant asteroid that came close to leaving a deep impact and start the chain reaction of an Armageddon-like event.

Every time I learn about a new asteroid zipping by planet earth and missing us by a tiny astronomical distance I find myself questioning the meaning of our existence and see humanity in a different universal perspectives. Such news is one of the rare examples of potential finality where obsession personal destiny and depression over unlived tomorrows give way to cosmic reflection. Disasters at this level leave little time for us to worry about our individual fates. If everything is going to go up in smoke and our planet might be switched back few hundred million years, who is going to bother about their infinitely insignificant personal affairs?

Ok, well, the point of this long introduction was to say that yesterday our planet was very close tot the point of suffering a cataclysmic event that would have resulted in massive destruction (if not its complete annihilation) when a large asteroid passed us at a distance slightly farther than that of the moon. To be exact, it passed as close as 433,000 Kilometers from our planet. Its name is Asteroid 2004 XP14; and according to scientists, we were very lucky not to have had collided with this rocky monster traveling at a speed of 8 miles/second. I love reading the different descriptions of this near calamity in different news media: asteroid "came within a hair's breadth" according to The Hindustan Times article; "hurtled harmlessly past the earth" says the story of The Calgary Sun; "misses us by a whisker" as reported in the Daily Express; "zips harmlessly past earth," says Forbes.com; "has close encounter with earth," reported ABC Online described it; "phew! It's missed us," declares the Mirror. My favorite though comes from the Irish Independent: "Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it's a giant asteroid!"

Even newspapers get excited about this! If it wasn't for the real possibility of not being so lucky every time, I'd say let's have more of these close encounters!

P.S. Why do I have the weird feeling that last summer we had something similar? Is it only my imagination?

posted by bandicoot @ 7:29 PM 0 comments

Curse of the City?

When we decided to move to this beautiful villa some 5 years ago, we felt justifiably happy but apprehensive. We had a depressing experience living in an apartment in a tower on Sheikh Zayed Road and had to really fight to get this place from an exceedingly corrupt Egyptian manager (I’ll blog about this one day hopefully). And since we didn't have the best neighbors at the tower, you can imagine why we were nervous about the new neighbors. You see, we had no idea who they were since all the villas were new and tenanats were moving in around the same time. Anyway, we relocated and were soon relieved to find that we have such nice neighbors. A European couple on the left with two kids (let's call them the Andersons), another European couple on the right with two kids (let's call them the Grants) and an American couple right across, again with 2 kids (let's call them the Simpsons). We have 2 kids ourselves, and we though it was a plus to have neighbors with children despite the age differences (they’re somewhat younger). And as we got to know them and we really liked them; they were all such friendly and funny people. Though we never really became close friends we certainly had a good neighborly existence and once in a while even socialized a bit.

Then it happened. Less than 2 years after we moved there the Andersons divorced and left. It was a bit of a shocker; we've overheard the fighting once or twice, but never expected it to come to this. Then it happened again. One year later it became clear that the Grants have either divorced or permanently separated. The husband moved somewhere else and the wife stayed with the kids. Suddenly the peaceful lovely corner of the neighborhood became more like a potential divorce-land (or divorce city, to use the favorite Dubai parlance). My wife freaked out and once in awhile she would ask me if we're going to be next! On few occasions we got together with the Simpsons and we'd wonder if such calamities come in threes and jokingly try to who’s going to be the third leg of the triangle. Well, less than a year ago it was no joking matter as it happened yet again; no, it wasn't us; it was the Simpsons. I'm not going to get into the details of this one, but let's just say their divorce was the hardest to witness. They moved out and a mixed couple (Older European with a much younger Asian) with 2 kids lives in their place. My wife and I are now keeping a vigil, praying that it was only a triangle and not a square. We hope the curse is broken.

I often heard that divorce rates among expatriates are generally high; but it’s more hearsay than solid information. I searched in vain to find facts and numbers and couldn’t find any. However if my neighborhood experience is a reliable indication, then it’s got to be really high, perhaps as high as the local divorce rate if not more. As to the national divorce rate, I’ve heard and seen different numbers, but it’s probably somewhere between 45-60%. One estimate is given in this article in the KT. And as some of you already know, this country is known in the divorce annals as the first place where a digital divorce has taken place; refresh your memory by checking this link.

posted by bandicoot @ 11:14 AM 0 comments

Zizou & Co.

Stayed home all day; literally didn't take one step outside the door, and just did some reading and writing (including some blogging), and savored the beautiful display of football from last night by Zizou and his friends. I watched most of the first half at the Aprés Bar in the MoE; but as the sound was hardly audible I ended up migrating with my friend D to the main floor's Evory Lounge, where we watched the whole game. Brazil was not in its form and almost completely neutralized by a very effective French defense. France played a better and more deservedly winning game, and I was glad they won. For once at least one team wins fairly and squarely in this crazy championship. I'm now looking forward to see Zidane and company in action for at least one more game, if not for a repetition of the 1998 coup de'fifa.
And yes, the other game, England vs. Portugal? I must say it was so boring and artless (and scoreless) that I almost already forgot about it. If games have some minimum performance requirement (based on some point system over different aspects of play) that teams must meet every game to stay in the competition, I'd think both teams would've been out last night. England deserved to be out, but I think to be fair Portugal should have exited too. But again, who said there was fairness in football?

posted by bandicoot @ 11:57 PM 0 comments

Argentina Heartbreak

The heartbreaking defeat of Argentina last night to the host country Germany was so far the most tragic episode of this FIFA World CUP. I should say first that this was by far one of the most beautiful games of the World Cup, with both teams showing superb football. But I saw that defeat coming as soon as it became clear after 120 minutes of play the tied teams were heading fro a penalty shootout. I wasn’t quite sure, but I told the man standing next me that I thought Germany has never lost a penalty shootout at the Mondial before. Anyway, I watched with trepidation as the German mean football machine hammered in goal after goal and some of Argentina’s kicks got blocked by the magnificent Lehman. This was the final blow in a game where the Slovanian referee made some outrageous calls, Argentina’s main goalkeeper was injured and had to be replaced, and their team played without the brilliant and mesmerizing Messi (nicknamed “the flea”). Perhaps worse than all of this was Pekerman’s decision (or blunder) to take Riquelme out and bring in Cruz when Argentina was only leading 1:0. Germany scored the equalizer soon after; and despite Argentina clearly having the edge most of the time, they had to bow out as the game was decided by the dreaded penalty shootout wheel of fortune. As one friend texted me after the game, ‘what a horrible way to lose, knowing you had he advantage all along!”

This morning I did some research to confirm my belief that Germany always won their World Cup penalty shootouts; yes they always did:

1982 Semi-finals: W. Germany vs, France: 5-4
1986 Quarter-finals: W. Germany vs. Mexico: 4-1
1990 Semi-finals: W. Germany vs. England: 4-3

Those of you who like to check out all the World Cup shootouts since they were adopted in 1982 can find it all in this list.. There si also aninteresting article on penalty shootouts and its controversial history in this Wikipedia article. As I walked out of the club last night, I find myself humming the tune from “don’t Cry for me Argentina” but with the lyrics changed slightly to fit the occasion:

I cry for you Argentina
The truth is I never expected you
All through the wild match
And till the shootout
To break my heart so
This was a massive blow

And in keeping with the original rhyme, you may also replace the last two lines with:

………………………..
To fade into the distance
What a wretched existence

Either way, the bitter final fact is the same. Argentina’s fate has been sealed; and till 2010, when they hopefully come back with a bit more luck in their shoes, many Team Argentina’s admirers 9along with the players themselves and all of Argentina) will be nursing the painful wounds they suffered last night at the hands (or feet) of a the random justice of the penalty shootout. I cry for you Argentina!

posted by bandicoot @ 12:53 PM 0 comments