Nicker on 23/11/2022 at 13:21
Small steps, SD. Slow but steady.
Cipheron on 23/11/2022 at 14:24
Quote Posted by june gloom
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I saw basically this same thing in the wild recently, they were attacking Greta Thunberg for riding a train and eating food, since electric trains need energy, which may be fossil fuels, and the food production also creates greenhouse gasses.
Basically they're attacking her as a hypocrite who can't speak out unless she walks to another country while foraging for leaves and berries along the way.
And the thing is, she won't ever shut up, and breathing produces CO2, the hypocrite. /s
SD on 23/11/2022 at 21:47
Thunberg isn't a hypocrite, because at least she's trying to clean up her act. Unlike the gas-guzzling meat-eaters.
heywood on 28/11/2022 at 17:47
I am supposed to go to a watch party tomorrow afternoon for the USA vs. Iran match. I'm going to see a bunch of old coworkers, so I want to go, but I am conflicted too.
The Arab states of the gulf are trying to buy prestige through sport. They're owning teams, bringing big sponsor money, and grooming future leaders of sport governing bodies. Gianni Infantino's right hand man is from Bahrain, and Infantino himself has a house in Qatar.
I think the focus needs to be on FIFA, because the host nations and promoters aren't going to set their own standards. The World Cup is here because of Sepp Blatter, Gianni Infantino, and a corrupt system. The money comes in from the top, mostly from the World Cup, and flows down through the confederations and associations. The votes flow up. To keep his job, FIFA's President extracts as much revenue from the World Cup as possible and distributes it to the associations. FIFA has a lot of small members who don't have their own revenue streams, so they are more dependent on FIFA and not as affected by bad PR. Unless they're facing a domestic backlash, they're going to keep voting for revenue over reputation. The only thing that's going to stop FIFA from chasing the money is if fans in wealthier countries decide not to be fans anymore.
I'm pretty close. I mostly skipped the last Olympics, and I'm watching less of the World Cup this year.
Tomi on 28/11/2022 at 22:00
USA vs Iran should be interesting!
Yeah, I hate the fact that FIFA are allowing all this to happen, but it's not just the Arab states that are doing it. Russia and China have also both spent so much money to clear their image and to draw away attention from their normal activities. FIFA's role in the world of football is so massive that they can't really be stopped, and the problem is that they're doing a lot of good stuff too. The corruption won't end and the problems won't be solved before enough nations say that enough is enough. Then again, all top level sports seem to be corrupt these days (or pretty much anything with lots of money in it really) so I can see no light at the end of the tunnel.
I'm finally starting to warm up for this tournament a little. I still haven't watched a single match from the beginning to the end, but I did watch most of Argentina vs Mexico, Spain vs Germany, and Cameroon vs Serbia earlier today. But it was a brief moment in tonight's game between Portugal and Uruguay that made me rethink my "boycott strategy". You see, the World Cup games here in Finland are split between two broadcasters this year; YLE, that is kind of the Finnish equivalent of BBC, and a commercial channel called MTV (not
that MTV). YLE constantly brings up the human rights issues in their broadcasts, even the commentators talk about it
during the games. MTV on the other hand has sent their own reporters and commentators to Qatar, and they avoid bringing up any of that stuff for some reason. I don't really even know why exactly.
So in tonight's match there was this rainbow flag waving pitch invader, with slogans supporting Ukraine and the Iranian women in his t-shirt. FIFA who controls the international broadcast of course quickly turned away the cameras, but the pitch invader and his rainbow flag were visible on the screen for a little while. This match was broadcast on MTV, with their own commentators on the stadium and they must have known exactly what's going on, but they didn't even mention the incident. Not a single word. That was kind of a heartbreaking moment, and I decided that I won't be watching any more games that are on MTV.
This guy is now the biggest hero of this World Cup for me:
Inline Image:
https://i.ibb.co/7gPVmgV/skysports-portugal-uruguay-5980908.jpgI hope that he's okay. :o
heywood on 29/11/2022 at 18:49
I'm going to guess that since MTV has press in country, they are worried about having their visas pulled if they say something that offends the host. I'm not aware that any press has been asked to leave yet, but everybody seems cautious, presumably because of financial risk: they sunk a lot of money into covering the World Cup and have advertising contracts to fulfill.
If I had to further guess, I'd say they're overreacting, because I don't think the Qataris are too concerned with rainbow arm bands and flag waving pitch invaders. It's an Islamic country and they're not trying to hide from that. Their concern seems to be with Western media wandering around looking for South Asian migrants workers to interview.
Tomi on 18/12/2022 at 21:51
So it's over now. Argentina won.
I didn't watch the games that were broadcast on "MTV", and I'm content with my little protest. No, I'm not pretending that it makes me a better person (I feel that I'm already at least somewhat decent though!) but it felt like the right thing to do. I'm a bit disappointed that most of the talk about the human rights and stuff seemed to slow down a little as the tournament progressed, and in the end we didn't see any real protests. The most worrying thing for me, however, is that a very common opinion seems to be that human rights are something that the western countries are trying to force upon other cultures.
The fact that the World Cup was played in December didn't bother me nearly as much as I thought it would. It felt weird at first, but spending rainy and dark winter evenings instead of sunny and light summer evenings didn't seem like such a bad idea after all. The matches that I watched were all rather exciting. The final, or at least the ending of it, is up there with the best games that I've ever seen. And for once in my life, a team that I actually like won! You see, one of the many good things about being a Finnish football fan (Finland has never qualified for the World Cup) is that we're allowed to have a second favourite team, one that at least regularly qualifies for the tournament. :D Joking aside, I'm so pleased for Argentina and particularly Leo Messi who can now retire from the international stage in style. Couldn't have asked for a better ending really. I don't have anything against France either, and Mbappe will go on to break some records and win all sorts of things in the future, but them winning again would have been a bit too much I think...
Hopefully the 2026 World Cup in Canada/USA/Mexico will have less drama and politics. There'll be 48 teams participating (currently 32) so it'll be different at least, and it doesn't feel like a good change, but we'll see. :)
heywood on 19/12/2022 at 14:37
That was one of the best World Cup finals ever.
Quote Posted by Tomi
The most worrying thing for me, however, is that a very common opinion seems to be that human rights are something that the western countries are trying to force upon other cultures.
Unfortunately, advocating for human rights is now called woke imperialism. The world's conservative leaders have framed the spread of human rights and individual liberty negatively, as a form of cultural imperialism. Even in the West, we're watching rabble-rousers stir anti-woke rhetoric with some nationalism and fear of cultural imperialism to build political movements. It seems like people have been leaning into this ever since the last recession.
