Rants’n Raves: Euro 2008 Football (soccer) championship

Been sitting around this afternoon watching the semifinals of the Euro 2008 football championship via the Internet (there is no post on this site how to use a proxy to watch German TV from the US - go look somewhere else). Have to admit that I normally never watch football or golf or TV in general since they’ve replaced most of the interesting stuff with game shows, but today I made an exception.

So I’m sitting here nibbling on Lieber’s Kosher Winkies (that’s what my Deli had for sweets - not bad anyway, but full of artificial flavors) and watching parts of that game - the Germans win and there’s that big huha going on, everybody’s celebrating - besides the Turks of course - and dancing people anywhere as if they would have contributed to the result.

Then what would you expect German TV to do - interview some players, the coach, your grand uncle who knows everything about soccer - NO WAY!

They go straight ahead for some political schmoozing and interview the German canceler Angela Merkel. So some say, as a trained physicist she might already have problems in understanding the more complex parts of economics - but then, that’s not her job anyway - isn’t it?

Could you imagine some of the commentators in the US - directly after the Superbowl is over - go forward and as their first interviewee would ask George W. on the game??? I guess not.

But isn’t it great to watch that some people do get enthusiastic about something after all - would it be not soccer but unemployment, corruption and sleaze, diminishing citizen rights and surveillance powers Heydrich could have never dreamt about, children growing up in poverty with no chance for change, societies falling apart into the rich and the others like a few hundred years ago, natural disasters on the rise, global warming turning parts of the country into savannas, and the complete loss of ethics throughout business and government resulting in paralysis and non-acting on any of these and other most pressing issues within that country. And yes, I’m still only talking about Germany (once they got that sorted out they are happily welcomed to show everybody else to solve the problems plaguing the rest of this planet).

Well I guess it’s more important to send out populist messages (I’m one like you) than acting. On the other hand this lady should better remember that these effects will be gone latest when the people come home or wake up the next morning and still don’t know how they might be able to provide a future to their children or even feed them.

But some of the advisers might have found within their million dollars research projects that the EURO 2008 could potentially create similar windfall profits for politicians like the Soccer World Cup in Germany did two years before.

One does remember that history repeats itself, but soccer championships are not the kind of events this saying has been coined for.

Our Rants ‘n Raves posts are best swallowed with a grain of salt and a good sense of humor.