Well, I wouldn't call it fever, really, but more of some kind of unknown virus that is quite nasty but you don't know where you picked it up and you can't get rid of it because its resistant to antibiotics. So who would've thunk it: the Czechs are out even after beating the mighty US of A, who also dropped out earlier than expected. That leaves the old hands, the great footballing nations of the world; us English, the Argentinians, the Germans, the French, the Italians and the Brazilians of course, in fact, no real surprises apart from Ukraine and Portugal...well their manager Scolari led Brazil to victory in the last world cup so their progress was expected. I only wanted to say how fucking shit England have played and if it weren't for Beckham - the free-kick Meister, we'd be already out, not that he's played particularly well. Well, tune in on Saturday to watch Portugal thrash a mediocre England who through some tactical play and a solid defence with a team lacking any skill or flare, have somehow made it to the last 8 of the World Cup. Predicted result: a win for Portugal on penalties. It will be worth it if only to see Beckham cry (its his last world cup - 31 years old already). Maybe Rooney however will live up to his $70,000,000 price tag and score a goal.
Well the above title poses a tricky question: can retribution ever be justified? I guess many Americans would say that retribution is justified after the shock of September 11th, a sleight to America's sense of self: but was it an attack on freedom? Maybe a freedom which involves freedom to torture and to hold people without trial on the basis of the said people being in the wrong place at the wrong time is a freedom which should not be protected in the first place. 85% of American soldiers in Iraq believe that the war was a retaliation for Saddam Hussein's role in the 9/11 attacks, but maybe Iraq really is just about the black gold. If so, to what end Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay? Are the Americans profiting from such 'acts of terror' or are they simply practicing retribution? And should a nation state be practicing retribution in the first place?
Post mortems are now being carried out on two Saudi men who killed themselves while detained at Guantanamo Bay. According to a UN report 'the war on terror does not constitute an armed conflict for the purposes of the applicability of international humanitarian law.' Further, 'the persons held at Guantanamo Bay are entitled to challenge the legality of their detention before a judicial body...and to obtain release if detention is found to lack a proper legal basis. This right is currently being violated...' and finally, 'the excessive violence used in many cases during transportation, in operations by the Initial Reaction Forces and force-feeding of detainees on hunger strike must be assessed as amounting to torture.'
The UN report on Guantanamo Bay recommends that 'The U.S. Government should close the Guantanamo Bay detention facilities without further delay.' I suggest you read the full report here:
This is part of an interview with a Guantanamo Bay detainee given through a legal representative to the BBC:
"I loved America. It freed my country from Saddam Hussein. My father fought with America against Saddam. I respected America. It stood for human rights and fairness around the world. America was the country we all looked up to."
What is your view now?
"It has abandoned all of its own traditions and beliefs which were the cause of my respect for it. As someone who lived in the US, I cannot believe the American people know what is happening down here. This is wrong."
No, it's not a misprint. The World Cup is NOT in Dresden because the stadium here looks more like a vintage 60's Parteitaggelände for the DDR, but we (Adam and I), and Hannes are in Dresden, so this is where we spent opening day of the World Cup. The opening kickoff between Germany and Costa Rica coincided perfectly with our hour-long layover in Leipzig, so we watched the kick-off outside an Adidas store with some crazy Germans while cracking some beers (which were promptly re-capped when the Polizei informed us that there is Alkoholverbot in the mall area of the Bahnhof...at least he didn't hit us with a 'du bezahlst jetzt 20 Krone Alkoholstrafe!). In any case we got to watch the first jubilation as Germany went up one nil, and then the first sub-human growls as Costa Rica slipped past the German defense. Our hour trip to Dresden on the ICE was uneventful, and we found out from the train guy that Germany had extended their lead against a fearsome side (ok, maybe not fearsome, but the Germans are still happy with the win). So then we arrived in Dresden, city of construction and the Semper Oper. The shaved-headed Hannes snuck up behind us and he quickly informed us that he missed the last 30 minutes just for us. He was already mildly intoxicated when he picked us up, but he still successfully led us to his abode, which is most fitting: a gray, forlorn, concrete block of a Studentenheim, this is the building that Hannes calls home. We're staying in some textbook Plattenbau with a towering smokestack looming over the view out the window. This is the former east Germany. Adam and I are completely fertig from the 11 train journey from Austria, so we shoot down Hannes' requests for hitting the discos at 2 AM (this is his suggested departure time, mind you). So we drink beers in Hannes' room, which has frighteningly similar attributes to Hannes' room of old. Poland and Ecuador at 9PM gets off to a fast start. I'm pulling for the upset, because in the picks that Adam and I wrote down, I figured, hey, Ecuador is in South America, right? Brazil is from there, too, so Ecuador must be pretty good as well. Turns out my bastardized betting logic actually worked, because Ecuador pretty much dominated the game and came out with the first surprise of the tournament, blanking a degraded Polish team (they're not really a country anyway, right, but just united ex-sections of the German and Russian Empire!). So thus ends our first day of the world cup, with Hannes characteristically stumbling around the room, tripping over Adam and I as we try to sleep off the train journey. Let the games begin. Photos will follow!
Morsch's timely post has kicked off the StuSie's contemporaneous coverage of Germany 2006, or as I'm sure fans everywhere are already referring to it: WC2K6. I encourage all of you, especially those who are lucky enough to be in Deutschland during this next month to post on the subject and share your hopes, dreams and drunken predictions. In the spirit of the whole thing, and in keeping with my new-found affinity for embedded video, I give you Ronaldinho vs. Zidane:
