TRAVEL LIGHT

Cowboy Diplomacy

The present strife between Lebanon and Israel might turn out into a full-blown war in the Middle East if world leaders think the way George Bush does.

While the United Nations is carefully handling the conflict situation in a more diplomatic way by not antagonizing the parties involved, President George Bush was caught on open microphone during a leaders’ lunch at the Group of Eight industrial countries gathering in Russia, telling British Prime Minister Tony Blair that the key to defusing the Middle East crisis was for “Hezbollah to stop doing this shit”. He added,“What they need to do is get Syria to get Hezbollah to stop doing this shit, and it’s over.” Bush was on camera but apparently unaware that his words were being captured by a microphone. It was unclear who’s the ‘they’ he was mentioning about.

That’s “Cowboy” diplomacy at its finest. You can now imagine how the present White House leadership discuss about foreign diplomacy and global conflicts with George W. Bush at the helm. Yippee-ki-yay, m…fkrs!

Read about the Bush boo-boo here

The World Cup as I saw it …

Matapos ang isang buwang pagpupuyat, natapos din ang World Cup. Nagwagi ang Italya sa kanilang ika-apat na titulo bilang World Cup Champion.

I rooted for the Italians in their final match against France, but altogether I was not impressed how the matches were played during this World Cup. Except for some teams like Ghana and other underrated teams who really played with their hearts, most teams played a very defensive type of football. It seemed like most of the powerhouse teams have prepared themselves in playing defensive tactics than in scoring goals. So everybody ends up waiting and praying for the final whistle to blow in order for their team to settle scores in a penalty shoot-out. And a lot of matches during this World Cup were concluded in penalty shoot-outs including the final match, the second time where the World Cup title is decided by a penalty shoot-out. A penalty shoot-out is like a lottery, the team who wins it simply has more luck than the other.

The excitement and thrill of attacking football where scores are settled in full regulation time is what I missed in this World Cup. The only attacks I saw were attacks that gained nothing but flashing red and yellow cards. The great Zidane ended his brilliant football career this way, he retired with a flying color - red. World Cup 2006 will go down in history as having the most issued red and yellow cards.

I hope to see more exciting football four years hence in South Africa. By that time, I hope and pray that African and Asian teams will finally make it to the finals.

CBF

You know what the initials CBF on the Brazilian National Football Team logo stands for? It means Champions Beaten by France! And France did it twice. France had sent home Brazil in 1998 and now in 2006. Its deja boooooo for Brazil!

The only Brazilian left in the World Cup is Felipe Luiz Scolari, the man who coached and led Brazil to their Fifth World Cup title. But Scolari is now on the Portuguese side. Shame!

The Champions Beaten by France!