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Inter – Gufi d'Italia

It’s the words we like so much at J’accuse (the Banana Republic)… “We told you so”. Do you remember this post way back on the 6th of May? We warned the superstitious among you that Italy might be in for a bad time. The only two previous world cup tournaments in which Italy walked out at the first hurdle were 1954 and 1966. The league winners in the pre-WC season? Internazionale FC (now known as Inter-cettati).

Four years ago Inter fans were among those celebrating the Campioni del Mondo charade at the same moment that the World Champion team were “relegated” to serie B. This year they celebrated their Champions league “triumph” and other victories they have enjoyed thanks to their having escaped the long arm of the law (until now). Somehow, somewhere there is a little bit of poetic justice. They hang on to the reputation of eternal losers and harbingers of bad luck for the national team. Italy is out of the World Cup in another Inter campionato year. Who knows… maybe Moratti will buy Vittek now.

This is the original 6th May post entitled Superstition:

If you’re an England supporter and ever so slightly superstitious then you should be rooting for Labour. The general election of March 1966 elected Harold Wilson‘s Labour vindicating his early call in order to increase his then slender majority of seats. Four months later England’s football team would lift the world cup for the first and only time.

There’s all sorts of superstitions or quirks related to elections. One has to do with rain. Apparently Labour voters are supposed to be more likely deterred by bad weather – though this theory has been rubbished in practice.

For Italy supporters there’s another interesting coincidence. Three times out of four the team winning the campionato before an Italy world cup success has been Juventus: 1934, 1982, 2006. The odd one out has been Bologna (1938). Inter won a pre-WC league in 1954 and 1966. In 1954 Italy were eliminated in the first round by Switzerland (4-1 in playoff). In 1966 they also failed to pass the first round hurdle when they were eliminated by the memorable Pak Doo Ik goal (North Korea).

I’d hate to be an Italy supporter this year!

Harold Wilson

Image by rofanator via Flickr

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Democracy on Hold

The Banana Republic Files. In today’s Times we find the report that “At the start of yesterday evening’s sitting of Parliament, the Speaker gave a written answer to a question by Nationalist MP Franco Debono on progress in talks on the financing of political parties, which he considered urgent.”

Well, thanks to Labour’s recent walk out and tantrum this is the current situation: “The House Select Committee on the Strengthening of Democracy had advanced its discussions on the topic. A period of public consultation on the electoral process and system had expired on December 18, 2009. The Speaker expressed the hope that the current situation, wherein the select committee was not meeting, would be temporary and the committee would soon be able to continue its work.”

Notwithstanding all the Speaker’s high hopes the bottom line is: democracy is on hold.

Earlier this week the Green Party filed a judicial protest over the electoral law. The legal challenge to article 52 of the Constitution was filed in Court as another direct result of the Labour abandoning of the process for “Strengthening of Democracy”.

No way forward for rules on party funding. No way forward on electoral reform. The future is dull. The future is a Banana Republic.

The Banana Republic

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Ten days (and a bit) out of action meant a good deal of recovery. By recovery I mean refocusing and redefining the perspectives. It helps to take a step back from the daily grind and there is no place like the US of A to hit you hard with the hammer of ginormous perspective. Heavy dinners, long long treks and an immersion into the hustle and bustle of the world’s great metropolis all served to recharge the J’accuse mental and physical batteries. Back on the island of milk, honey and power cuts we only had time to notice that MediaToday have a snazzy new portal for their main paper that promises to cut huge inroads on the Times monopoly of the online MSM fora. We like both the online version (well done Matthew) as well as the pay-per-view version of the paper from the stands. The theme for the next few months of summer posting will be “The Banana Republic” – viewed from a global, social networking scale and hopefully from outside the tiny box. Stuck (delayed) in JFK airport I browsed the bookstands at Barnes & Noble  and I was sorely tempted to buy a copy of D.H. Lawrence’s “Lady Chatterley’s Lover” (screw the librarian and buy it now for 1.99)- if only to cook a snook at the imbecility I had left back at home. I opted not to – because some actions can be as useful as punching the wall when angry. Instead I bought an extremely engaging book called “Soccernomics” that has not let down my expectations until now. Yes we did visit an Apple store while in the Big Apple and I walked away without spending a penny. Discipline? Maybe. But I might be saving up for a bit of the iPhone OS4. I have not been brainwashed – only slightly readjusted the fulcrum of my mental perspectives. Which is why I cheered when Dempsey (of the 4-0 Fulham rout fame) scored the last minute goal for the US to pull through (ahead of the Old Enemy/Ally) and why I do believe there may be some truth in the American Dream.

Good night and good luck from j’accuse:thebananarepublic.

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Back

It’s not thanks to Delta Airlines but I’m back in Europe. Yes. Europe. There’s nothing better than a trip to the States to make “European” feel like more than a catchword. Where are you from? I’m European. That became my standard answer after giving up on explaining that Malta is not really that close to Papua New Guinea. (If you are wondering how it is that they know about Papua but not about Malta then join the club). I’m still sleeping off the jet lag after an extraordinarily long return trip (made long because we were “bumped” onto the next plane after some sorry excuse by the overbooking Delta guys – at least we got a first class upgrade for the hassle). “J’accuse – the banana republic” will be back by tomorrow. Thank you for your patience.

Hiatus

You’d have thought (like Chris) that J’accuse would be gearing up for the orgy of football over the coming month. We are. There is however something else that is distracting us from the main world event. We are off to NY city baby! Departure is 6am tomorrow Lux time and for the duration of our stay in the city that never speaks blogging will be rather sporadic. We will fly the Brasilian flag in any case and will try to keep in touch over twitter (jacqueszammit).

Be good. And be nice to each other.

Proper Priorities

Joseph might still be trying to get Dolores to resign, Tonio might have woken up and sniffed the coffee regarding VAT and vehicles but hey there is only one country that gets its priorities right. They may form part of the world economic slump and many financial eyes may be pointed at developments in their electoral back yard but hey the nation of the pentacampeon cannot really be so bothered with this political and economic nonsense.

J’accuse’s man in Brasil reports the following news from Brasilia:

Comunque qui sono tutti impazziti per la Coppa. Ad esempio:
1-Banche e uffici pubblici resteranno CHIUSI nei giorni delle partite del Brasile
2-I produttori di birra sono in crisi; non riescono a trovare abbastanza lattine e bottiglie per soddisfare la domanda dei torceadores brasileiros
3-Hanno montato un palco di mezzo chilometro sulla spiaggia di Copacabana
4-La campagna elettorale é sospesa fino al giorno della finale

That translates basically to: (1) shops close on the day of Brasil’s matches (and presumably no €700 payment to open); (2) the most worrying crisis at thsi time is the beer shortage; (3) Copacabana will be the place to dance samba in June (nothing changes there) and finally (4) NO ELECTION CAMPAIGN TILL AFTER THE FINAL. This is the country whose greatest depression was NOT economically related. It was that damnèd day back in 1950 where Varela’s Uruguay sent a whole nation in mourning.

With values like these I’d love to be able to cry out: Eu também sou brasileiro!
(two brazil drink ads: Skol & Guarana Antartica)

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