Library

Right to Surf, Dude

The last thing you would associate Finland and the Finns with is surfing. Insofar as jumping onto planks of wood and riding the waves is concerned you would probably be better off on a beach in Waikiki or Ooolalallalawotawave. There is another kind of surfing though that has just been granted the status of a legal right in the country that is neither Scandinavian nor Baltic but that just sits prettily between the two agglomerations.

“You have the right to surf the net at a broadband speed. You have the right to be constantly connected to the information superhighway. You have the right to kill off the boredom of those endless days and sleepless nights by hooking up to the virtual world“. That, in paraphrased J’accuse parlance, is what every Finnish citizen has just acquired thanks to a bold move by the Finnish government.

From 1 July every Finn will have the right to access to a 1Mbps (megabit per second) broadband connection. Finland has vowed to connect everyone to a 100Mbps connection by 2015.

To boldly go where no government has gone before is admirable. To do so with the declared intent to bring everyone up to standard on the information society is pure genius. The logic, according to Finland’s communication minister, is that it is useless to develop an information society if not everybody is using it. This is surely one way to tackle a huge source of poverty – ignorance.

Now listen to this. A poll conducted by the BBC World Service earlier in 2010 found out that “almost four in five people around the world believed that access to the internet is a fundamental right”. Way to go Berners-Lee.

Related articles by Zemanta
Enhanced by Zemanta

At a Medium Pace

I am not referring to Adam Sandler’s very pornographic parody of a song that is freely available on the net for anybody who is intelligent enough to search YouTube. I am referring, rather, to the very gradual unfolding of new posts on this blog. Believe me when I say that I have a 101 new subjects to post about and they vary from freedom of speech to constitutional discourse to sport to gadgetry and travel. What has happened of course is that having returned from ten days of gallivanting I have found a desk loaded with work and the little time I have to spare is spent obsessively following the unravelling of one of the best world cups in the last two decades. I know there are PR contracts to speak about, shameful re-marketing of poverty, church and state relations in the light of US court developments and more. It’s a shame really that such a gold mine that should be conducive to blogorrheic activity will go undiscovered for now. Unfortunately I have to pass on for a little more. In the meantime I take to bed with me the 82 page decision of the Maltese constitutional court. It’s my third and a half reading. Do bear with me before you get a nice long post about it all – from a new perspective I hope. And oh. Did I tell you? I bought a Macbook pro. We’re soon going to elope to Las Vegas and get married. Don’t tell my better half. She might get jealous. Over and out.t

Seleção – updated

Insofar as support is concerned, this corner of the web has two hearts that beat blindly. One is coloured black and white and the other, more fanatic one, is coloured green and gold. We held back from commenting the early forays of the seleção especially since we rarely believe that the first three matches of a WC offer any verdict other than IN or OUT.

Dunga’s Brasil are light years away from offering the “jogo bonito” that he tough Brasilian supporters expect year in year out. I too have given up on really “watching Brasil play”. Instead we are regaled with fiammate of genius interspersed with solid, pragmatic displays that take the best of what football has to offer with a very pragmatic perspective. Dunga’s Brasil would take a 1-0 victory home any day but time and time again it has offered unexpected goleadas even when the usual suspects where not around.

Forget O Fabuloso and Robinho (who has a magnificent track record vs Chile – 5 games/6 goals) – the man to watch is Juventus’ Felipe Melo. It has become more and more evident that he is the metronome of the team. His presence as a dam infront of the defence allows Kaka and the forwards to weave their magic one-twos and bursts. Melo and Dunga are like man and God… the former has been formed in the shape of the latter and that is probably why the Brasil coach has so much faith in the much maligned Felipe Melo.

Melo plays with a swollen ankle tonight. He has been Brasil’s Dr Jekyll to Juve’s Mr Hyde. Juve fans watched him in desperation as they hoped he would justify his 25 million tag only to be disappointed time and time again. In the first few matches with the seleção he has become an insurmountable figure on which the goal machine falls back when the going gets tough (true there is the not too ignorable presence of Lucio and Juan behind him).

Will Melo & Co overcome Chile with the same ease as the last eight encounters against los Riojas? It remains to be seen. Brasil are normally at their most worrying when they enter a match that seems to be a foregone conclusion. Also it remains to be seen how many Brasililan feet will get kicked about by a desperate second choice Chilean defence. Fingers crossed and lets hope that the ghosts of 1950 and 1982 – when Brasil was meant to be the inevitable victor – do not return to haunt Dunga’s braves.

Go Brazil!

***
UPDATE

So they won. Melo did not play in the end but Ramires replaced him well enough. The early forays into Brasilian territory where not enough for Bielsa’s plucky XI and Brasil built their victory with bloks of European cynicism coupled with moments of individual flair and strokes of magic. Kaka is slowly filling in the shoes of unsung maestro of this team distributing the passes with nonchalant tempo.

Hats off to Chile though. Like the Americans before them, they had the neutrals thrilled with their pluckiness, their enthusiasm and their unwillingness to play to some unwritten script. Well done Chile and it really is a pity that the knock-out round had to come about at some point. We cross our fingers as we wait for the Oranje next Friday.

If you think it's all over

Well. That’s a bit cliché really and I am not the kind of person to gloat over the losses of most teams (Argentina, Inter and Roma most years being the glaring exceptions) so this is not really intended as a sort of lemon-full post for Enger-land supporters. I could have easily bet a few quid on the three lions going all the way this year right before the world cup started.

The jerky knees they showed during the group round should have been enough to dampen any serious hopes for Capello’s troupe of WAG-less enthusiasts and although the press egged them on for the Germany match as though the freedom of Western Europe depended on it they would not have scared a toddler in a mad house. And so to this afternoon’s match. They played they were seriously ouwitted by the mainsschaft of youngsters and immigrant imports and they are on the next plane to London.

Two questions for the England fans:

1) It is rumoured that Capello promised the players a night with the WAGs should they overcome the Huns. How motivating can that be for all the team bar Terry ? I mean – letting the WAGs loose with Terry around – do you think the rest of the team would lock him in the cupboard till their better halves are back out of sight?

2) And now a more serious question. I am sure many of you are calling for the introduction of the Eagle Eye and Replay – replays during the match that would have pointed out to the referee that that rebound on the free kick was almost 50cm beyond the line. But if, unlike Blatter, you would like to review the game with hindsight what should stop us? What stops us from a “moralist” revision of past matches? Imagine this one – England’s non-goal today is allowed IF (and only IF) they accept that the 1966 goal was NOT a goal and the match is to be replayed. Would you accept that? Would you be willing to risk  relinquishing a world cup won on a phantom goal to be able to kick off both games (1966 & 2010) again at 2-2? Guess not.

Here’s a dedication to England football fans from their Scottish cousins.

Gufi on Record

Seeing how we have been taken to task on our objective reporting of superstitious elements we will set the record state. We will grant that Intercettati were Champions in 1938 before Mussolini‘s XI lifted the cup. (Mussolini’s XI won both 1934 and 1938 so Inter and Juve get an ex aequo in the not too sporty pre-war editions).

1930 – Inter (3) – DNQ

1934 – Juventus (6) – Campione

1938 – Inter (4) – Campione

1950 – Juventus (8) – 1o turno (superga)

1954 – Inter (7) – 1° turno

1958 – Juventus (10 *) – DNQ

1962 – Milan (8) – 1° turno

1966 – Inter (10 *) – 1° turno

1970 – Cagliari (1) – Finalista

1974 – Lazio (1) – 1° turno

1978 – Juventus (18) – 4° posto

1982 – Juventus (20 **) – Campione

1986 – Juventus (22) – Ottavi

1990 – Napoli (2) – 3o posto

1994 – Milan (14) – Finalista

1998 – Juventus (25) – Quarti

2002 – Juventus (26) – Ottavi

2006 – Juventus (29) – Campione

2010 – Inter (17) – 1o turno

The Record.

With Juventus as champions (9 times) Italy performed as follows: 3 times winners, 1 time fourth place, 1 time quarter-finalist, 2 times eighth-finalist, 1 time exited first round, 1 time DNQ.

With Inter-cettati as champions (5 times) Italy performed thusly: 1 time winners, 3 times 1st round exit, 1 time DNQ.

Other teams have too low a record to compare probabilities. The only other team who won more than one time before a WC is Milan and their record is still too low for probability: 2 times champions before WC and 1 time exit first round, 1 time finalist. A 50% chance of a good WC I’d say (or of a bad one if you saw it from the Intercettati point of view.

The facts are clear. Try as they might Intercettati will attempt to wriggle away the 2006 campionato claiming it as their own. While we still await the further developments on Moratti & il Defunto’s phonefest we will simply remind them that Italy’s 2006 world championship team was built on the team that won the campionato on the pitch. It is a glaring inconsistency to wave the flag for Italy singing Seven Nation Army one minute then claiming that that very same team would not easily have won the campionato without much help.

So back to the issue of objective reporting. First of all we never claim to be (objective). But even if for a second we tried to be so, the facts as shown above are obvious. With Juventus Champions 7 times out of 9 Italy obtained a decent result for a team of its stature. With Inter Champions that same nation got a decent result 1 time out of 5.

We said it once. We say it again.

Inter – Gufi d’Italia.

La realtà dei fatti è che quando la Juventus vinceva, la Nazionale volava. L’ultima volta, appunto, nel 2006. Oggi, che la Juventus ha fatto uno dei campionati peggiori di tutta la sua storia, la Nazionale esce quasi in silenzio, quasi dalla porta di servizio, quasi senza dignità. E forse il “quasi” andrebbe tolto.

I politici del calcio hanno voluto distruggere la Juventus e innalzare l’Inter a bandiera nazionale; l’Inter ha ripagato i politici del calcio perseverando nella sua politica esterofila, e abbandonando i suoi benefattori al loro destino. C’è della giustizia, in tutto questo; la Juventus non ha mai tradito l’Italia. Vinceva e proponeva blocchi vincenti. Però si sa che tutti i nodi, prima o poi, vengono al pettine, e oggi, con la questione Calciopoli 2, c’è la possibilità di ricostruire la storia, prima di svegliarsi un mattino e scoprirsi irrimediabilmente calvi.

Quella odierna, difatti, è solo l’ultima delle umiliazioni subite; quelle precedenti sono storia recente. Se dico “Blatter e la Coppa del Mondo 2006”, se dico “Europei 2016”, se dico “coppa del mondo restituita da un giocatore francese” penso che possa bastare.

source

Related articles by Zemanta
Enhanced by Zemanta

Last Kiss (snapshots)

On our first walkabout in NY still fresh from the transatlantic flight led us straight to the glimmering lights of Times Square at around four in the afternoon.  The sun was out in all its splendour and the square was readying for an invasion of the “Beautiful Game” with many of the lit screens and panels illuminated with details of forthcoming matches and other details of the football festival. We walked gently to what we thought would be the central point of the square and then just stood back and took it all in. The long queues of crowds searching for the bargain Broadway tickets criss-crossed trigger happy tourists capturing this or that moment on SLRs.

A makeshift football stand had been set up in the middle of the square and when you climbed to the top you could absorb all the atmosphere around you from a bird’s eye view. Just before going up the temporary structure we came across a wedding photoshoot. Bride and groom in full wedding regalia were posing against the magnificent metropolitan backdrop when all of a sudden they were joined by an unusual character. A promoter of the Cage aux Folles spectacle had pranced onto the “stage” intent on getting his photo moment with the happy couple while promoting his spectacle. I caught two great shots of the next few moments and had been playing around with them with the new photoshopping program (Lightroom) when I came across this news item.

Apparently one of the two protagonists of an historic snapshot taken in Times Square on 14th August 1945 had just passed away. The photo snapped by Alfred Eisenstaed pictures a sailor embracing and kissing a lovely damsel right in the middle of New York’s most famous crossroads. Edith Shain, the damsel in question, passed away last Sunday aged 91. I found the similarities between my two treasured shots and the context of this historic photo curiously coincidental. Go figure.

The Original Photo

Promoter Walks On

Promises Promises

Related articles by Zemanta
Enhanced by Zemanta