The Malagasy dwarf Hippo

6/10/06

World cup of comedy :)

Madagascar does not have a shot at the world cup of football. So How about the world cup of comedy ? Here are the teams composed of the best 2 comedians for each country. Feel free to add or argue the selection of the players or the team playing.

India: Russell Peters/Dany Bhoy
Australia: George Wallace/Steve "crocodile hunter"Irwin.
England: John "Monty Python" Cleese/Hugh Grant
France: jean-Pierre Bacri/Jamel Debouzze
Madagascar: Gotlieb/torak'hehy
Germany: Helge Schneider/Til Schweiger
USA: Jon Stewart/George "the decider" Bush
Taiwan: Tai Chih-yuan/Ni Min Jan
Cote d'Ivoire: Michel Gohou/Wintin Wintin Pierre
Spain: pedro almodovar/Antonio Banderas.
Canada: Jim Carrey/ Mike Myers

I believe that we have a shot at the 1/4 finals here. However, The "decider" teamed with Jon Stewart is just too lethal of a combination.

6/8/06

Sports: mindnumbing or inspirational ?

So starting tonight, I will be submerged in 3 great events:

1) what could be the most entertaining NBA finals in the decade. The Pat Riley/Shaq/Wade powerhouse vs the Mark Cuban/Nowitzki/Howard triumvirate. First time in the Finals for both cities: we can only hope for the same at the World Cup.
2) The World Cup in Germany. To tell you how psyched I am about this, I am starting a World Cup prediction tournament worldwide and so far, Palermo, Addis-Ababa, Paris, Bangkok and of course Lafayette have dived in. So join on the fun ! Sadly, I do not expect a prediction from Tunis because my sister thinks: "le sport et surtout le foot rend con ! (sports and especially football makes you stupid)".More on that in a minute, anyway Germany/Costa Rica will get started what I hope will be a great celebration of peace and sportsmanship.
3) The French open is closing on a bang after a very pleasant 2 weeks. We are all hoping for a final for the ages between Federer and Nadal (knock on wood). Federer could (repeat knock on wood ) achieve the greatest feat in sport by winning 4 grand slams in a row on 4 different surfaces nonetheless. Nadal is on his way at barely 20, to destroy every winning records on clay court and he beat Federer 5 out of 6 times. This has the potential for a classic confrontation.
Now how am I supposed to be productive in the next few days ? Should I just tell my boss: I may look like I am here but my heart is singing in Munich, my hands are dribbling in Dallas and my feet are sliding on the Parisian clay :).
So score one for my sister, productivity will slightly go down. I strongly disagree that sports make you dumb though. You either are or not. Many good writers and thinkers have pondered and waxed poetic about the complexity and beauty of sports. And to dismiss sports as just a game is naive. The triumph of Jesse Owens in Olympic games caused Hitler to withdraw in disgust. Something England and France could not do at that time. Ali refusing to fight Vietnam started the end of that ill-conceived campaign. And you bet that the World Cup in South Africa would mean the world to the continent of Africa. So without guilt nor remorse, I will indulge in the best week-end of sports ever !!! ( knock on wood).
( Yes, that was my poor attempt at trying to rationalize my obsession with men running in shorts,...oh well....).

6/6/06

"a great moral calling of our time"

It is always a little ironic when politicians are lecturing about moral calling. However in this case, the irony has to be singled out because one administration is pointing fingers at another one in an "holier-than-thou"manner that is quite frankly laughable.

The setting: "The United States warned key ally Germany on Monday that it should do more to stop a tide of sex workers arriving for this month's soccer World Cup.."
"The U.S. government opposes prostitution," which is legal in Germany, a State Department report on global human trafficking said. "These activities are inherently harmful and dehumanizing.''
No quarrel here. Prostitution=bad. OK, even I understand that. ( The Oscar winning-song, "it's hard out here for a pimp" could prove to be more prophetic than ever.)
The punchline: "At a briefing, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice denounced "the sordid trade in human beings" and said the fight against trafficking is "a great moral calling of our time." "Together we will stop at nothing to end the debasement of our fellow men," she said." [source]

Now let's see what is, apparently, NOT a great moral calling of our time:
* Making sure not to invade other countries for no apparent reasons.
And "together we will stop at nothing to...":
* prevent as many human losses as possible during Hurricane seasons....unless they are poor and won't vote for us anyway.
"These activities are inherently harmful ...":
* you surely would not be talking about excessive CO2 emission harming the ozone layer or the lack of initiative in the Darfur region now, would you ?

The point is: it is a bad idea to play the "moral calling" card in the face of other nations when most of "moral" offenses have originated from your own office.

Rant over.

6/4/06

Karma

We were blessed with a beautiful Sunday today. Perfect day to go cycling on a trail with friends and dogs. My friends were rollerblading, I was cycling and doggies were frolicking in the stream o the side of the trail. I was thinking that life wasn't too shabby in grand old Lafayette: green spaces, friendly folks, no real finance concerns....Then one of my friend fell flat on her butt trying to ... Hilarity ensues after making sure that no "derriere" were hurt too bad in the process. A few minutes later, another fall on the posterior, different person, and again, only feelings were hurt. I was having a good laugh pointing that out to my friends while driving back, windows wide open. That is when karma hit me square in the face. A bird , thinking I was having too much fun, dropped a little "caca" from up there that bounced on the side of the door, straight into my shirt's sleeves, and finally in my armpit, down to my chest. I was staring, horrified and what could only be some greenish birdcrap, hoping it was somehow, something (anything) else. Can you believe the sharpshooting ability of this bird ( hopefully flu-free) ? I was driving at about 35 mph (so definitely a moving target) and it squeezed a gigantic poop in the space between my arm and my shirt....I mean, this bird must be valedictorian of the sniper class at the avian academy. There is a thousand other things I can think of that are more pleasant that driving around with the feel of shit sliding slowly but surely down your chest. I think I am due for either winning the lottery, or an African nation will win the world cup. It could also be that it's just payback for making fun of my friends. You bet we are even now.
I was already a big believer in karma ( or "chawarma" as my mom calls it): how else can you make sure people will do the right thing if not for fear of unforeseen payback ? Bird, thank you for that lesson in humility.
Gael Monfils at the French open can only hope that karma will be served when he plays Djokovic tomorrow. Djokovic robbed him last year at the us open of a sure victory when he repeatedly called for medical assistance to break Monfils's momentum....Karma do your thing !
PS: maybe the week-end spent wine tasting the Indiana vineyards is the real reason for the bad karma. Hey at least, my friends and I finally got published ( not a scientific review but still...)

6/3/06

Perplexed by the Ivory Coast clip for the world cup

This video clip frustrates me. On one hand, It celebrates events I can only be cheerful for: peace for a country ( Cote d'Ivoire) where I lived for awhile, the world cup of course with the voice of Bono in the background and a reminder for the one.org cause. The music is even judiciously picked (U2's classic: where the streets have no name). Ivory coast on the front scene, World cup, U2.....So I am happy, right? Not quite.
The message of the video is that thanks to the world cup, Ivory coast managed to broker a truce between the North and South feuding factions to support the national team...Huuum, I am all in favor of hyping up all-things-sports but isn't there something very wrong that in 3 years, only the world cup can bring peace in this embattled region ? There was no better reason than soccer to try to find a way to stop killing each other ? Other reasons such as...I don't know...increased orphans, dipping economy, human lives lost...you know...details.
This truce for World cup means either that the two opposite factions did not find any reasons to try harder until the mighty ball is rolling or that a soccer game is so important that it negates all what they were fighting for in the 1st place.....I am not sure which case is less idiotic....either way it does not picture the men in charge in Ivory Coast in a very flattering way. And we wonder why 1) outsiders don't take us seriously 2)women are worried about the overbearing place of sports in society. Well, at least, a truce was achieved so this is good news right ? Kinda like the hunter who shoots himself in the foot and is glad that he did not shoot his face instead.
Here is the video:

PS: Junior, can I invite myself to Miami for the NBA finals ? :) lucky SOB, I loathe you. :) Go Elephants for the WC !!!!
PS2: the other clip with people from all over the world playing and cheering is far more engaging and powerful

I am going to be D- Wade: :)

Cute gatorade commercial with Kevin Garnett, Dwayne Wade, Pete Manning, Derek Jeter and Jennie Finch as little kids having fun on the playgrounds. I like the fact that these athletes can poke fun at themselves with Manning making the Manning face as Jeter hits a homerun. By the way, if Dirk Nowitzki goes against Dwayne Wade in the NBA finals , it will mark the renaissance of the NBA, reminiscent of the Magic vs Bird era. (I'm still hoping for Phoenix to rise from the ashes though).
Good piece on the value of Kevin Garnett to his team on gladwell.com.

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