A very Patriot-ic Love

For the record, I was invited to Tom Brady’s wedding in Santa Monica; I had other engagements in Houston so I rescind the invitation. I had to clarify that especially for my hater-friends who didn’t know I was on Patriot’s payroll.
For all my anti- New England Patriot friends, this is only another page in the perfect Patriots script; Tom Brady is using his recuperation time very productively. Tom and Brazilian supermodel Gisele Bundchen married in a private ceremony and on behalf of my fellow Patriots –nation, we officially locked in a supermodel cheerleader.
2009/2010 season will be another remarkable year for the best team in the NFL, on several levels. Signing Fred Taylor from Jacksonville is a nice off season thought, but there is nothing more luxurious than having Matt Cassell (who will easily be a starter in any other team) agree to watch from the sidelines. With all the pieces coming together, Tom Brady’s complete recovery is the last puzzle to rally the true champions to a perfect season.

Congratulations Tom, now let’s go win a Super Bowl.

Finally an Exit Strategy - Adios Iraq

The main point; - America's combat brigades will leave Iraq over the next 18 months. If you decide to ignore the rest of this blog, I promise you won’t be missing much. I was tempted to stop writing at this very juncture except that I have an odd fascination with semantic details, plus I care a little too much about fine prints.
This morning, President Obama spoke to military troops and officers at Camp LeJeune , in North Carolina and he was very candid and succinct in his arguments. So candid, that his Democratic hard cores like Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi are almost fuming. I know the Pelosi ‘fuming’ part of the sentence discredits the whole case (because she fumes at every proposal), but apparently Obama’s timeline for an exit strategy is not what Democrats want.
Before I get sidetracked with any details, this is actually where my disgust for ‘party politics’ start. When a person is so confined to ideology and biased reasoning that no matter what the circumstances are, they are stuck to it. Isn’t that the same criticisms we piled on George W. Bush? Obama’s administration wants to "proceed cautiously”, but Pelosi’s crew want the withdrawal to start immediately, and having troops in Iraq till 2011 is too far into the future.

Yeah, yeah, I remember listening to the campaign speeches about pulling troops out within 16 months of taking office. The timeline involving roughly 100,000 troops will be two months longer, roughly speaking. Give the guy a break, this is Iraq we are talking about here; a country where a bomb is guaranteed to explode just as likely as Dunkin Doughnut’s can guarantee hazelnut coffee on a Monday morning. Hard timelines are marginally unrealistic in most cases, and it’s not surprising that the same people who hailed Obama as a ‘pragmatist’ are the same people wondering how he became a Republican.
I maintain that we cannot just flip a switch and fix the chaos in Iraq; else G.W. would have pulled that off a long time ago. The reality is that leaving about 50,000 troops to help train Iraqi forces and undertake counter-terrorism missions, is a sharp improvement from not having any clue of what we do next. Disregard my opinion if you may, but that is not too bad a proposition.

I listened carefully as the President made it unequivocally clear the date August 31, 2010. You can bet your rent on it that many Americans have already misconstrued what he meant by that. An exit strategy from Iraq is no easy task, (rust me on this one) it’s not your usual trip to Wal-Mart. After 8 years of hanging out in Iraq, redirecting the military traffic into Afghanistan will mean having a very clear outline in what the mission should and will be.

Another 8 years in the desert will be a costly excursion, something the American taxpayer cannot afford. The fact that John McCain applauds Obama’s game plan shouldn’t alter the validity of the proposal. Not to give any credence to Harry Reid’s and Nancy Pelosi’s ‘beef’ with Obama’s timeline on troop levels; on one side of the aisle, violence is down significantly in Baghdad and most of Iraq, but that is not enough reason to pack up and exit.

So here we are in 2009, with a practical and tactical plan to leave Iraq in the hands of Iraqi’s, whose national surplus swells by the minute, and just as rapidly as America’s plunge. We all knew that at some point, Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki and his people will have their destiny in their hands, and to do with it as they so wish.
Fortunately or unfortunately, the time has come. Adios Amigos.
Another random thought.

The Thong Paradox in Saudi Arabia

Disclaimer: I am neither an ACLU spokesperson 'wannabe' nor a pro-bono activist for any Feminist Group. Now that we cleared the skies on that note, let me express my discontent for a case of culture’s collision course with commonsense.
In ultra-conservative Saudi Arabia, where ‘unmarried men and women cannot even be alone in a room together if they are not related’, only men work in lingerie shops. And this is the law. I bet you know where I’m going with this; - in a country where a strange man is not supposed to see a woman's forehead, but it is perfectly fine to sell bras, underwear, and the whole nine to women. Call me loony but there is something "off" on this one. If I ever end up in Saudi Arabia, I will make sure my wife has two suitcases full of just underwear because the very idea of male-only staff in any lingerie shop is a creepy one.
Not too long ago, I stumbled into Victoria Secret in Houston's Galleria(don’t ask me for what purpose), and I was almost blinded by all the vibrant colors and sexy designs, so much that I had to find a chair and look normal. There is nothing more awkward than watching women shopping for underwear, and having to imagine how it fits them. Besides the perfect woman who forced me into the shop, some of the images still haunt me till today. I saw women of all shapes and sizes (literally) grab the same poker-dotted thongs, and on several occasions I wanted to scream for help. But that is what the women sales representative are there for, rescue missions. Trust me on this one; it’s a strange place to be for a 'normal' guy.

When it comes to traditional beliefs, "normal" is a subjective word. I am sure Saudi traditionalists don’t find anything awkward with this experience, but I am not sure how it will sound if a wife came home and said “honey, the man at the lingerie store said my butt is too big for a size 12 thong”. Outside the fact that this law is extremely inconsiderate to women’s feelings, and illogical in all facets of cultural sanctity, the entire premise is self-defeating. I am not anti-culture, but I have a problem with tradition at face value and no-questions-asked policies, where a society fails to question the commonsense aspect of any practice. Even back in the 1500’s when panties were not invented, such laws were still outmoded and contradictory in concept.
It is entirely possible that culture permeates into a human psyche to such an extent that at some point logical reasoning flies out of the window, and Saudi Arabia lingerie law is living proof.
This is 2009 people, and I definitely don’t want some creepy dude starring at my wife’s butt in the name of ‘customer service’.

Trust Me!

President Barack Obama’s only mission in speaking to the Joint Session of Congressional members last night and the rest of us was to restore confidence, and ignite a sense of optimism. Why? Because if there is any index to measure the state of consumer confidence in the general American society, it is not hard to decipher that we are in the all time lows. If you watch MSNBC, CNN or even the Maury Show, you can’t help but flood your thoughts with the impending danger, if the rescue mission delays. The unemployment numbers, crunchy financial and credit tightening policies and overall uncertainty, has collectively affected the American psyche. You know the times are unpredictable when I occasionally contemplate playing the lottery (an act that I still maintain is extra taxes unintelligent people are tricked into paying). No wonder the President spent fifty-two minutes imploring Americans to trust him.
So I sat back all evening (well, I was actually working), paying attention to President Obama’s speech, all that he said, the inferences and the implications. Any sane person in America knows that our world is starkly different from what it once was, and unless the $787 billion ‘salvation package’ works, there is no telling how far from the bottom we will be. The President said we have to fix the problem with an honest evaluation and assessment of the habits.
I personally think we have seen the worst of the downturn, and the collective panic of the world is nothing unusual. An economic phenomenon called creative destruction creeps into the conversation, something that happens (more than we like to fathom). The hope is that when the dust settles, the future will be filled with a lot more promise than the past 8 years. Although this is not the usual and formal State of the Union address, the President had to look sharp and confident, a calculated appearance to reassure the American public that the light at the end of the tunnel is definitely not an oncoming train. The President said, "the day of reckoning is here", and he is mindful of the massive inheritance of debt stuck with the country.
Unless you are completely blinded by party politics (or clueless), Obama’s honesty, pursuit of transparency and promises of genuine accountability should mean something. The next few years will mimic a journey through a dark forest with a flashlight; unsure of where the road leads but optimistic that every step takes us closer to town.

Frankly, I didn’t need Barack Obama to tell me about how much we are in need of an economic recovery; the evidence is all around us. AIG and GM claim that they need more money, the rest of Wall Street are scared to death of government nationalization of the banks, and the economy in general is bleeding jobs in unprecedented numbers.
At the end of the day, the standing ovations and the endless cheers in the crowd seemed to me that the Presidents message sunk in. Obama is asking that we trust him on his ideas to ‘restart the engine of prosperity’. I am hopeful on one note, that the President appears committed to fixing the deteriorating conditions of the economy.
In his own words, "the time to take charge of our future is here. . .we will rebuild, we will recover, and the United States of America will emerge stronger than before." The way forward will be through sacrifices of muddy waters and winding roads costly repairs, but if the President asks for my trust, judging from his track record in 30 days, he’s earned it.

Just a random thought.

The ‘N’ Word on Wall Street

No I am not talking about the racially charged ‘N’ word you are probably thinking of. Nationalization also starts with the letter ‘N’, thank you. If I catch you completely off guard with the facts of this blog, chances are that you are not paying too much attention to anything happening around you. Believe me, there is a lot more stuff that affects our lives than Madonna’s love life. My best guess is that not too many people know about the possibility that Obama’s administration could take drastic measures on the banking industry. Of course, after shoveling billions of taxpayers’ dollars to Bank of America, Wells Fargo, and their siblings, accountability could be much swifter than many of us anticipated; for some odd reason I don’t share the pity-me sentiment on Wall Street.

This is not a public service announcement; I am only reiterating what I heard through the grapevine. Investors across America are wondering if a comprehensive banking reform could take away the private initiative, the driving force behind capitalism in general and the free market enterprise. Of course the reason why this topic is not floating in the mainstream media is that most Americans don’t have a clue what it means to nationalize the banking industry in the first place. Just in case you are expecting an economics lecture here, sorry.
Nationalization, in this context, or at least as I understand it, is not referring to an outright takeover of the banking industry, but rather Obama’s wise guys will become key players in the overall operations of it. I know a little too much to know that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the mortgage powerhouses, had to be taken over by the government to save the rest of us from gross mismanagement and dire economic ripple effects. The rest of the big players asked for bailout cash to readjust their operations, and so far as I am concerned, they are doing just that.
Don’t ask me what exactly Bank of America is doing with your $20 billion (or however much it got), but the plan is to let them navigate their way through their own mess. Nationalization will almost immediately shift every responsibility to the government, something I bet Barack Obama do not want on his clock.

In my own unintelligent estimation, interventions shouldn’t involve breaking up the system or lumping them together, but the agenda should start finding ways to bring in new capital and finding new owners and management. That is not nationalization, that’s accountability and fiscal responsibility, a concept which the banking industry is not immune to. Either way, Citigroup shares and Bank of America stocks both took a substantial plunge today, a 22% loss. Any other day, no one will care, but if the two biggest banks in a nation come to a grinding halt, you can be assured that rest of the herd will follow in a no time.

In this current climate, the government is probably the most trustworthy investor (because we are the government), but you do not want Obama’s wise guys snooping around in your profit and loss statement every weekend. Let’s face it, when you look to your government to bail you out, you are ripe and ready for a government takeover, thus the self-inflicted apprehension by the banking industry.
The reports from the grapevine suggests that the banking system will stay in private hands, run by private shareholders, managed by private institutions, but no one will hand over billions of dollars and leave you to formulate your own rules. Regulations, the ‘R’ word, is the next logical step, and mark my words, it will be so invasive it might as well be nationalization.

A Case of the Young’ns

I have tried (obviously just failed) to leave this almost ‘pointless’ story alone. The simple reason is that in my world, I don’t call 19 and 20 year-olds bickering and fighting ‘news’. Pardon my insensitivity but that is what teenagers do. Welcome to America, where everything is a big deal, and on a slow news day, even Tito Jackson can make the front pages of the New York Times. So that my good friend Mia doesn’t misconstrue my point, let me be explicitly clear that I do not condone any form of abuse, to women, to dogs, or even to butterflies.
The scary side of the argument is that this Chris Brown – Rihanna story evokes some awkward nostalgic feelings for most people, and I frankly believe that is where the post incident drama is coming from. Remember Ike and Tina? Well, I think that is a little stretch if ever any argument will be measured on the famous Ike Turner scale. For the most part, this is why I chose to ignore the story altogether. Of course, if it was any other person (whose fan base starts and ends with his mother) he would have been in jail for life. A little over-exaggeration here, but you get my point.
Chris Brown allegedly said he ‘acted a fool’ because his father was abusive. Give me a break dude! Leave your poor daddy out of this. I am sure you didn’t call him when you cashed your $17 million check, welcome to ‘Responsibility Avenue’ son.

According to TMZ (that in itself spells drama), Chris Brown and fellow superstar Rihanna were driving around L.A.’s exclusive Hancock Park neighborhood when an altercation took place. The rest of the story is old news; every fifth grader knows it like a nursery rhyme. Both were scheduled to perform hours later at the Grammy’s, and that was the first time I heard of it. The rest of the story is fuzzy, but apparently Chris Brown threatened, hit and choked her to the point of unconsciousness. That scene has Ike Turner written all over it. BUT do I dare ask what Rihanna did to aggravate Chris Brown? Well, I dont want the anti-chauvinistic ACLU-looking crew to be banging on my door tommorow morning, so I'll leave that question alone.

But how the scary banged up picture of Rihanna showed up online is the mystery. Again, TMZ was there. My best guess is that some genius made good use of Adobe Photoshop and went ‘Picasso ‘on us gullible humans. Either way, for Chris Brown, its damage control moving forward. His fans are the young girls who happen to like Rihanna too, so I’m not sure how this will affect CD sales for the couple.
The ‘parent’ side of my brain says Chris Brown should face the maximum punishment in Alcatraz for the assault, but of course I’m not a parent so I am only thinking in abstract terms. My ‘true self’ however tells me to advise Rihanna to move on, stay pretty and “live your life”, just like your song with T.I. suggests.

Will the Real ‘Slim Shady’ Please Stand Up?

Politics is s a funny sport. The same people who ‘zooms’ you up in high esteem are usually the same people who gladly orchestrate your demise. Case in point:- Senator Roland Burris. Just a month ago, he was a hero in some circles in Illinois because he wanted (so badly) to be an Illinois Senator taking over Obama’s vacated seat, and the rest of the Democratic Party pleaded with him to take a chill pill. The reasoning was fairly simple, the ousted and crooked former Gov. Rod Blagojevich was the sole reason why Burris had to wait in line. After the eventual shake up, due process takes its course, and Roland Burris could have been seated as a senator without any political clout.
Oh no! Roland Burris was in a hurry to secure his seat (which he probably had paid lots of cash for), and logical persuasion fell on deaf ears. Furthermore, community activists, clergy embers, respected politicians all jumped on the bandwagon to cry foul. I vividly remember the afternoon that Congressman Bobby Rush showed up on CNN to remind us of the color scheme in Washington, and asked that we separate the “appointor” from the “appointee”. We did just that. Sorry sir, the appointee may be just as crooked as the “appointor”. I will be glued to my television all week praying for Bobby Rush to make his case in reverse.

I don’t have any ambitions on becoming a public official, but if I were to do so, I definitely will not want an endorsement from one of the most ‘shiesty’ politician of the century, and that is allegedly what Roland Burris did. A man going down in flames is the last person you want to ask for water, but now it all makes sense. The Ethics Committee has launched an investigation of Burris in the wake of disclosures that he spoke with Blagojevich's brother about possibly raising money for the former governor.
What adds salt to injury, Burris told reporters that he informed Blagojevich's brother Robert in November that no one was willing to give money to the governor and that it would be inappropriate to raise money because he was interested in being appointed to the Senate. During his testimony under oath in Blagojevich's impeachment trial, however, Burris failed to mention any such conversations when asked about contacts with the governor's office. Did I hear someone say ‘perjury’?

Where are all Burris supporters who claimed that Roland Burris’ character was being questioned because of his skin color, at least now we all know better. The state of Illinois just sank political sandals to an all time low, and whether or nor Roland Burris resigns will not change the facts, at least in my mind. I am sure Barack Obama is sitting somewhere in the White House wishing he could have been a senator from Vermont or Idaho somewhere. Disgrace often has a long trail, and I had a sneaky suspicion that Rod Blagojevich wasn’t going down alone.
The amusing twist in all this mess, Roland Burris has "no plans to resign" and intends to "let the process work itself out”. What process? Wow, the same scripts from the Blagojevich rule book. This is usually where I find politician’s blatant disregard for common sense and arrogance absolutely repulsive. Roland Burris may be innocent (I didn’t take him for a shady politician) but the devil is always in the details, apparently.
I don’t want to call for Burris’ head too soon, but I don’t often have any sympathies for dishonest politicians who spend eternity telling us how saintly they are.

Repulsive 101

‘Poor taste’ is poor taste; no matter how far from left field you attempt to spin a story. The reactions and outcry from large sections of the mainstream America about the chimpanzee cartoon suggests two things. First, either the editor of the New York Post is completely oblivious to the potentially polarizing implications of a bad joke, or secondly, that the cartoonist “don’t just get it”. On Tuesday morning, a New York Post cartoon depicted the police shooting of a chimpanzee. Two police officers, one with a smoking gun, are near the chimp's bullet-pierced body. "They'll have to find someone else to write the next stimulus bill," one officer says.

Before we get to any subjective reasoning, the New York Post's Sean Delonas used a typical editorial cartoon supposedly ‘linking two current news stories: the shooting of a chimp after it mauled a Connecticut woman and President Obama's signing of the stimulus bill’. Let Delonas tell the story; the cartoon was in no way in reference to Obama or African-Americans in general. It was supposed to be funny. Really? For the most part, I like to think I am a smart guy(I graduated SummaCumLaude for a reason), but I find it a little tricky to connect the two stories, unless like Al Sharpton pointed out, the cartoon is suggesting that a monkey wrote the stimulus bill.
I am usually conscious of the oversensitive and hypersensitive allegations of African-Americans in the media, and realistically speaking, the brunt of slavery, legacy of oppression and dehumanization for hundreds of years have an interesting way of altering your perspective. But you cannot simply label Al Sharpton, Mark Morial, the NAACP and any African-American who speaks against this as oversensitive. For instance, if you say that my Mama is so stupid, that she went to the dentist to get a Bluetooth, I get the joke. But when you call my Mama a chimp, or insinuate that my Mama is a monkey, we have a problem. Now that is not hypersensitive.
The inference is a blatant swipe at the racial past of African-Americans, and controversies of this nature have a potential to question how far we have come in race relations.
So, on many levels, the New York Post screwed up, and you can bet that secretly, a top guy is wondering, ‘is this really necessary?’ I am surprised Kinkos have not pointed any signs for the Animal Rights activists yet.
There are some people who are eternally restless about Obama’s safety, as a first black president (especially with his semblance to the JFK image), so it is only fair that any “gun-related” cartoon will receive a cold reception from the general public. Will I go as far as calling the New York Post irresponsible? Not exactly, my best guess is that they probably never thought through this carefully. All you need is a fraction of a brain to connect the dots, and I personally don’t find any primate imagery flattering.
Of course discerning minds, (even my buddies on the shortest bus) captured the meaning, and that is why the controversy is brewing. My personal opinion has absolutely nothing to do with whether I am black, white, or even a Caveman. I would have found it offensive even if I lived in Pluto.
You know as well as I do, Rev. Al Sharpton doesn’t need my help to protest against any idea, person or concept. I know also that oftentimes, their reasons for concern are slightly off the mark, but I have to admit that this case is one of those that he is on point.
When it comes to satire, cartoons and editorial judgment, context is crucial; and this is one story that the New York Post should have known better. Satire is when you wonder what color crack pipe a crack head is using, offensive is when you insinuate that all African-American women do drugs because of Whitney Houston. Satire is a spin off factual stories with clear intent on meaning, repulsive is when you insinuate that every priest is secretly fondling every altar boy behind some confession chamber. You get my drift.

The famous Obama/Michelle turban-fistbump-afro-warrior picture from the New Yorker magazine drew enough heat from the general public, outrage for the most part; and sometimes you will think the mass media takes the clues from any mass fallout. Not in New York. I am not in no way insinuating that the New York Post are taking their cues from the National Enquirer, but there is a trick in journalism; create a buzz, spend the rest of the time cleaning it up, and when the dust settles you would have sold enough units to cover your mess. Simple strategy, but it works. Why on earth do you think Rush Limbaugh makes a living off saying the first off-the-wall idea that shows up in his occipital? Did you ever think Howard Stern was walking away with $200 million because he was a nice guy, choir boy or a fair player? If you are in doubt (or delirious) ask anyone in the SEC.

Back to my point.
The news media knows exactly how to stir drama and publicity, but the overall return on investment for this cartoon would be more for their sales, than for the goodwill of many Americans. Of course, with Barack Obama at the helm, a lot of satirical and controversial headlines will certainly hit the scene. You can bet Al Sharpton placed an emergency order for a hundred white shirts from JC Penny for his Action Network rallies. The precursor to all this media chaos was George W. Bush, a man who was sure to make the headlines in one form or fashion every day. In his absence, Sean Delonas and his cartoonist co-workers will have the work overtime to think outside the box for new material, to save their jobs.

Of course the Post’s response has been calculated (for reasons I mentioned earlier), that the ‘cartoon is a clear parody of a current news event, to wit the shooting of a violent chimpanzee in Connecticut. It broadly mocks Washington's efforts to revive the economy.’ I get the ‘Connecticut’ part of the story; it is the ‘stimulus’ part that I don’t get. Trust me, I am not slow. The next time New York Post attempts another 2-for-1 stunts, any sane person will expect them to desist from polarizing imagery, repulsive racial connotations and evoking unpleasant memories.

Just a random thought

This Is Our Moment

(Excerpt of my speech at the - 2009 “CHANGE” Breakfast - Saturday February 21, 2009)

The world changed forever on that night in Chicago when America witnessed a one man’s humbling and even improbable journey. President Barack Obama is carrying the weight of history and the hopes of the world on his shoulders. Through his personal fortitude and countenance, he proved to the world that he is capable, equipped and determined to fulfill his part of destiny. Obama looked to the cheering crowds, filled with mothers, sons, fathers and daughters; blacks, whites and all colors in between; and assured them all that indeed “this is our time, and this is our moment.”

Ladies and gentlemen, the collective pride we share first as Americans, as African-Americans and as a nation with a colorful blend of nationalities, cultures and ideologies, is rooted in the legacy of our fathers in whose trail we live today. The magnitude of Barack Obama’s symbol to the entire world transcends our wildest imaginations, that America with all its differences will elect a black man to be president. November 4, 2008 was the birth of ‘change’ and our world will never be the same again. Even more fascinating will be the changing stereotypes that defined African-American men, women and even the innocent children.
In Barack Obama’s success and historic leadership of the world, all of us will find our stories woven into his. The White American can believe in success and collective hope, the Asian American’s dream will not be left on the sidelines, the Hispanic child will not fall through the cracks of racial bias and complacency, the American Indian will judge our country with a fresh set eyes, the foreigner will not feel out of place, a father can promise his son a bright future and mother will not doubt her own hopes for her little girl.
When the Puritans and Pilgrims showed up in Virginia and the Carolinas, they had no idea what our future will become. The Civil War, Emancipation Proclamation and the sacrifices of the Civil Rights in the 1960’s were all the building blocks for a nation so that a promise for liberty and optimism will not become an empty pledge.
In Barack Obama we are reminded of our own journeys. Difficult and uncertain but we cannot afford to lose the hope, falter, faint or give up. All of us will have to carry our own cross, fight our own battles and push down our own doors, but one man proved that indeed no dream in too big and no battle is too tough for a person who is committed to a future. Our sons and daughters will learn of this year in history as a turning point, not just for America or even the world, but for each one of us.

On January 20, 2009, Barack Obama reminded all of us of George Washington in one of the defining moments of America’s history, and in his words “let is be said by our children’s children that when we were tested, we refused to let the journey end, that we did not falter; and with our eyes fixed on the horizon and God’s grace upon us, we carried forth that great gift of freedom and delivered it safely to future generations.”
My friends, let Barack Obama’s story be the beginning of new dreams for some of us, and the rebirth and rejuvenation of bigger dreams for the rest of us. It is an unfinished dream if we fail to acknowledge that all of us have an obligation to chart our own courses, write our own histories and leave a legacy for the next generation. The challenge is for all of us to stand tall in the belief that ‘yes we can’; and with the help of God Almighty, ‘yes we will’.

This is our time, and this is our moment.

$250Million ‘Noblese Oblige’

Noblese Oblige is the French phrase which means "nobility obligates". In the real world, it implies that a person must act in a fashion that conforms with his position, and with the reputation that he has earned. 'Noblese Oblige' for David Beckam means that someone paid him a hefty amount of cash to be a ‘soccer ambassador’ to the relatively mediocre Major League Soccer, and now, that 'noble action' hangs in the balance. $250 million sounds to me like a soccer stimulus check, but he accepted the offer, took the money, became a die hard Lakers fan, appeared in every magazine including the National Enquirer, and now its time to deliver. Well, this is where we have a slight problem.
Of course during all of Beckam’s PR stunts on ESPN, no one told him that in America, unless you are Michael Jordan, you will never get constant cover page ads or center spreads in any magazine, not even in a community newspaper. Even the paparazzi are too busy hunting down Lindsay Lohan to be chasing around David Beckam and Posh Spice. There are too many stars to go around here in America, and the phrase ‘fame is fleeting’ was born here.

The scoop: Once upon a time David Beckam’s career was fading in Europe at the Spanish club Real Madrid, so he bit the first available bullet and flew to America. It wasn’t necessarily greener pastures but it was enough to thrust him into another limelight, even if he will be playing against a much watered down talent pool. The point was to stay on the radar, because at the end of the day all goals are counted equally, irrespective of how much of rubbish your opponent is.
The upside of this transition is that American soccer fans (all 50 of them, including me) will hail Beckam for 90 minutes and flip the channel to see Kobe Bryant’s Lakers or the New England Patriots win a super bowl. We even have to make room for the people like Andy Roddick who has no plans to win anything major for US tennis. But this is America, and I am sure David Beckam knew all these underlying factors before he signed his name and cashed the 250million check.
Two years into the deal, LA Galaxy (a rich team in the midst of a soccer nowhere) loans Beckam to AC Milan (one of the best, loaded with the best of the best and richest in the world), and now Beckam is loving his new team. The man wants to stay in Italy, and it has nothing to do with Francesco’s tomato sauce. Ooops! I’m not sure if I would have returned either.
If his loan deal ended up a miserable journey, he would have been in Los Angeles a long time ago, but since things turned out well, he is considering the smart alternative. Call him an idiot but playing in Italy, Spain, England or Germany (for that matter anywhere in Europe) is his best chance of regaining top form for England’s roster. I know this has the markings of a good scam, but the 'bloke' has dreams too.

David Beckam was dubbed a ‘savior’, but my guess is that this salvation process would be put on hold for a few years as David Beckham seeks a permanent move to AC Milan. His family is still in Los Angeles, but with the housing crisis here in America and California’s near bankrupt government, I won’t be too surprised to see him renege on his commitment to the MLS. The price tag was huge, the opportunity cost is even bigger but Beckam just had the taste of elite soccer, real football, and he is wondering what the heck he was thinking to leave all that fun behind.

To make soccer popular in The United States would be no easy task. It may probably be even harder than O.J. Simpson staying out of the courtroom or baseball players staying away from steroids. American’s loyalty to sports is fickle, and for any one to win (and maintain) the support of people who are transfixed on the next big event, a lot of cajoling needs to take place. David Beckam was a good start, but I know enough to know that one man cannot carry this gigantic cross.
This is ‘mission definitely impossible’ and David Beckam is using the perfect opportunity to bail out. Beckham is playing alongside mega stars like Kaka, Ronaldinho and Paolo Maldini, who in his right mind will trade all that to play in the Home Depot Center? For starters, please change the name to something a little more exotic. Seriously speaking, it is perfectly fair for the LA Galaxy organization to feel bamboozled and hoodwinked, but the first question most people are asking is ‘what the hell were they thinking’?

The City of Angels will need a lot more than contractual agreements to get the salvation train back on the tracks. For now David Beckam is gone, and it looks like he is gone for good. The $250 million adventure (or experiment) was a noble exercise but at age 33, Major League Soccer will have to do without their British savior.
Memo to MLS: next time an overpaid, overhyped, and under-dressed British ‘superstar’ show up to spruce up soccer in America, the first person you should call should be AFLAC, not GQ magazine.
Just my random thought.

Reshaping Venezuela

I know five people who believe that I am politically delirious, and socially naïve. That’s fair. I agree to a large extent that my apparent naivety is rooted in the imagery of life, good or bad. Today is significant for one such reasons, 54% of Venezuelans have voted in a referendum on removing term limits for politicians (including President Hugo Chavez) to run for office.
The conversation is one of those that you will rightly wonder why we got here in the first place. Depending on your perspective, Venezuela is a pacesetter of an ambitious proposition, but unfortunately nothing new. Just last year, Vladimir Putin pulled similar stunts in Russia and the rest of the world watched in awe as he cemented himself in the highest reigns of public office. All sarcasm aside, I admire Putin, just like all of you and including Time Magazine (remember he was the Man of the Year). In the same season, Russian trips to Venezuela were misconstrued as an ammunitions exchange, but now we know that it was a little more fascinating than that. Hugo Chavez has said he needs to stay in office beyond the end of his second term in 2012 “so he can secure Venezuela's socialist revolution”. What the heck is a socialist revolution?
Whatever it is, you and I know that Chavez bought himself another 6 year term(with option to extend it to a lifetime), because he has the next three years to carefully articulate his game plan. Pardon my line of reasoning; I have nothing in particular against Venezuelan proposition to make a president entrench their agenda. In the rudimentary form of democracy, I will be first to say that if one person is a unifying, progressive leader, whose abilities are unrivalled, please let him stay as long as he can. The operative word is ‘unrivalled’. Proponents of this argument are hoping for more ‘social programs’ and the rest of us can only hope that this is not a sign of the times ahead.

I know that any comparison will insinuate the wrong idea, but if Robert Mugabe tried the same stunt, the United Nations, NATO and even the Girls’ Scouts will be swarming him like flies on the Feed the Children infomercials. It goes beyond the issue of political double standards, but the problem arises when democracy turns in autocracy, a potential for despotism and tyranny. It bears mentioning here that I am not one of the anti-Chavez bloggers, but I will bet also that he is not the smartest man in Caracas.
The problem with a country having 15 elections in 10 years seems to suggest that something is structurally wrong with the very constitution upon which the country revolves around. With a 30% inflation (the highest in Latin America), and the struggling export sector, Hugo Chavez will have a lot more drama on his hands, but if there is any pitfalls ahead for Venezuela, only Chavez will know how deep the bottom is.

A random thought.

Happy Valentine’s Day, Capitalism

February 14 is the day set aside for people to show their appreciation to loved ones, other people (and things) that have made some affectionate impact on their lives at some point. Where and how Valentine’s Day came to be is irrelevant to this premise. Karl Marx will be turning in his grave today, seeing capitalism get another $787billion lifeline to prove him wrong. The devil is in the details, they say, please read carefully.

In the wake of the global financial meltdown, the United States economy is not the only one coming to a grinding halt. The global economy as a whole is on trial here, the ingenuity of capitalism in its finest form. If we fail (capitalism I mean), another depression will probably be all the proof we needed to reiterate the evils of a free enterprise. Just before you label me a communist, remember that the stimulus package in the United States is designed to stimulate more than just the domestic economy; instead an economically ruinous free market system whose ‘collapse’ has had a much wider effect across the board.
In the crossroad argument to jumpstart the world economy, Democrats and Republicans are deadlocked on which plan would be the best way forward. Believe it or not, even the Libertarians (Bob Barr included) are reluctant to append their signature to either versions of the stimulus plan, although they agree that government spending is warranted to save a failing economic system. Capitalism is on trial here, and just in case you get red tulips and stargazer lilies from an unknown sender, at least now you know who it is from. Whether 838 billion or 819 billion, it is very difficult (not impossible) to state the case for any one recipient of this stimulus package, but in the bigger picture, I still argue that the real beneficiary is capitalism.

Reasserting authority on the economy would mean spending on different levels and that is what the Obama administration hopes to do. The stimulus bill has gone through several changes, 40% tied to government spending, the rest split between tax cuts and state spending; and is a humungous victory for Barack Obama’s presidency. Even bigger beneficiary is the free market economy which brought us to this point in the first place.

Just a couple of days ago the Federal Reserve unveiled a $1 trillion program aimed at revitalizing lending to consumers and businesses. Don’t mistake that for free lunch either, because it’s actually a lot farther away from freebies. Last November there was a $200 billion effort to lend money to investors to purchase securities backed by debt such as credit cards and auto, student and small business loans. Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility (now called the Consumer and Business Lending Initiative), are all parts of an audacious plan to resuscitate a broken system.

It’s the days for love, our tax money and future is at stake to bail out ‘free enterprise’. The logic of this affectionate economic gesture is that rescuing the ailing US economy has a long way to go to restore consumer confidence on Wall Street, Main Street, and just about everyone in between. The other side is that no one really knows how this is going tow work, except that we know the answer to the alternative (doing nothing=0).
For that reason alone, the success of the stimulus package ought to be measured less by the ‘evident achievements’ and more by the principal beneficiary, capitalism.

Australia is the one continent (and country) that seldom shows up in the news media on this side of the world. Relatively speaking, Australia is a little too far away to worry about, or perhaps more accurate, nothing really happens on that side of ‘town’. Once in a while Russell Crowe will punch a camera man or the tenth installment of the Lord of The Rings movie will remind us that real people live in Australia, and it is not some remote place next to Mars.

The latest of such geographical enlightenment is (present tense) the deadly bushfires which is apparently the worst natural disaster in Australia's history. Of course, insensitive people will deride the magnitude of this tragedy (in comparison to 9/11, Tsunami or Peruvian earthquakes). That is why they are insensitive in the first place; ignorant may be an even apt description. I am combing through front pages of my usual News-Search-Engine (Newseum) for up to the minute information, because I genuinely care. What I know for a fact, at least 181 lives lost and destroyed 1,834 homes according to credible sources. One of my favorite people in the world is in Melbourne today, and when you ever have close friends or family in the heart of a tragedy, the emotional dynamics are greatly affected.

You can bet that Valentines Day in Victoria and surrounding areas will be far from flowers and candy. Six main fires are still burning uncontrolled, including blazes at Kinglake, Yea-Murrindindi, Maroondah-Yarra, Bunyip, Churchill and Beechworth-Murmungee.
In a related update, an alleged idiot was arrested and charged with various crimes, including arson, but still unclear is the extent of his involvement. That is why I didn’t just call him an idiot, yet. The fact that this potential arsonist and idiot could also be charged with possessing child pornography is the part of the story completely irrelevant to the burning fires. That is the weird part of the tragedy, but unfortunately that is how we get our news (a mumbo jumbo if information for the discerning minds to sieve through).

Back to my main point; on behalf of all the regular readers on Random Thoughts, our collective hearts goes to the victims of this still-blazing fires. Australia is front and center in our prayers today.

Surprise Surprise

What’s up with America’s weird fascination with Sarah Palin? Actually there is none, but for the sake of courting the one person who is a surefire lighting rod for political drama, Palin is worth every bit of the hype. I have a sneaky suspicion that the will go away eventually, but that will take time. Palin needs a good reason to fade into the sunset, and my best guess is that no one has given her anything close to one.
The latest story in the “Palin Files’ (I just made that up) is that she will not be attending this year’s CPAC, Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington later this month. Who cares?
Well, considering the fact that the Conservative ideology found a champion (no matter how fickle) in Sarah Palin’s hardcore stance on abortion issues, among others, it only made sense for her to show up. Conservative icons like Newt Gingrich, Rush Limbaugh, and Ann Coulter are definitely showing up. Just in case you thought Palin was not a smart woman, the light bulb in your head should be blinking any moment now.
The game plan for Sarah Palin is to stay as far away from the like of Limbaugh and Coulter as she can if she ever plans to appeal to moderates and ‘independent thinking’ Americans. We are sold on her ‘hot factor’; what she ought to focus on between now and 2016 (not 2012), is her image on the intelligence grid. I have continually proposed a 3-step plan to repackage her image and gradually fine-tune her for 2016 when Republicans will have a real chance to reclaim the White House. I am still waiting for the call from my buddy Michael Steele on how my plan will work, but until then, Sarah Palin is on track to stay outside the political limelight.

Americans are not tired of her (far from it), but the timing will forever be mixed blessing for Sarah Palin. Not a bad idea to leave the stage for people like Mike Huckabee and Mitt Romney who may have seen their last days on the big stage. Palin’s absence from the CPAC may seem to many as a ‘no-news’ story, but in the big equation of ‘Palinism’, this is a very big deal.
And that is the surprise.

The Jerusalem Countdown

One month ago, it was raining fire and brimstone in the Gaza Region, and Israel had a lot more pressing issues than political elections to worry about. So much for circumstantial priorities, but that is exactly the reason why the rest of the world is keeping a close eye on who emerges on top in this ‘snap’ general election.
The impromptu exit of Ehud Olmert (see blog December 08 if clueless), left a sensitive vacuum to be filled. Of course this elections will not generate any publicity close to Barack Obama’s , but I bet even Obama is aware of how the shift in power could affect the dynamics of the Middle East peace process.
According to what we know today (which isn’t too much) both the Kadima and Likud parties are claiming a win; a scenario is which is technically incorrect. What is at stake? The future of a country trapped in a potentially antagonistic region, and its survival represents a fragile ideological truce and trust, for the Middle East and the world as a whole. My buddy Tzipi Livni (the word buddy is used loosely here) said she was ready to lead the country, something all of us figured out many months ago. So is every politician in Israel. There is a fraction if Israelis who are slightly apprehensive to hand over the security and future of Israel to Livni. Call me a sexist, but I bet such hardliners cannot see a woman leading the way in a scary desert. I don’t doubt her credentials for one bit, but I see where that argument is heading. The road forward into the future is a lot more hostile than most outsiders assume, and for that reason alone, it is no surprise that Benjamin Netanyahu seems to be making a push for his agenda.
I am nothing close to an Israeli foreign policy expert, but Ultra-nationalist Yisrael Beitenu and Labour Party Ehud Barack will not gain enough momentum for his critical election (and no reason to assume otherwise).
Majority in the Knesset (parliament) is just as crucial as who emerges victorious. I am not particularly concerned with democracy in Israel as I am curious about how the next few days, or even weeks, will play out in a highly charged elections where everyone (almost everyone at least) have an equal chance of winning. Talk about probabilities.
I am not sure exactly who President Shimon Peres will prefer as an ideological sidekick, but my best guess is Benjamin Netanyahu will slide past Livni when the dust settles. Don’t count on my educated guesswork, I have been wrong before. The entire process is fascinating (of course that’s because I’m no where near Israel), and it wouldn’t take a brain surgeon to evaluate how much the recent Gaza strip conflict factors into the equation.

The countdown is on, and until the final results show up, every serious student of international peace and politics will have to keep their fingers crossed. In a land filled with God’s ‘own people’, we might as well keep our presumptions to ourselves; only God knows what tomorrow holds. Especially in Jerusalem.

A Hudson Grammy

Jennifer Hudson is beautiful and on behalf of the rest of the world, we appreciate your taking center stage at the 51st Grammys and “representing”. Pardon my dwarfed library of pop icons, but I did not know who Robert Plant and Alison Krauss were until their "Raising Sand" song won the record and album of the year honors. Any other time, I will easily mistaken either Plant or Krauss for any two people in Wal-Mart’s frozen foods section, definitely not pop stars.
Of course there were many weird moments, (like Miley Cyrus singing) and Lil Wayne looking like one of us. No pun intended. He walked away with four awards, and I can say for a fact that he was no where near an embarrassment like he was in the now infamous Katie Couric interview(please find it on U Tube if you haven’t seen it). Coldplay won song of the year, for the title track of their album "Viva La Vida." I love that song, I just never knew who did it.
Adele won best new artist. That’s my new favorite girl. I call her the pavement girl(because of her song), but she is a refreshing image of pop stars that look like regular Homo-sapiens. Paul McCartney did "I Saw Her Standing There", and for the first time in my life, I’m thinking about learning the lyrics to a Beatles song. One of the interesting performances belonged to the "Rap Pack", T.I., Kanye West, Jay-Z and Lil Wayne. The jury is still out on M.I.A., extremely pregnant and should have stayed home. The 51st Grammy Awards was average overall, high moments but a lot of “what?” moments.
At the end of the night, my favorite Jennifer Hudson made it all worth it. Home girl was on point and she pulled me in with "You Pulled Me Through”. A little emotional (for obvious reasons but she did what she had to do.
What made the story even more refreshing was Whitney Houston looking like pre-crack Whitney, and glowing. Jennifer was tearful, full of emotion and I am sure the rest of the cheering crowd loved her performance as much as I did. Too bad Miley Cyrus sang at the same event, but I guess like anything else in life, I can’t have it all.
Just a random thought.

A Long Road to Recovery, Maybe?

Supporting Barack Obama’s economic recovery plan (stimulus bill) neither makes you a sycophant, or a clueless American with a blatant disregard to sound economic principles and commonsense. On the contrary, supporting an economic proposition with the primary focus to rejuvenate a struggling economy and stop the bleeding is more than a short-term patchwork.
No one really cares what I think(that’s why I blog anyway), but when consumer confidence is at an all time low, unemployment rising through the wazoo, and no telling how steep the decent will be, it only makes sense for government intervention in some enormous magnitude. Am I a fiscal conservative? Probably so. The rebuttal of the hard-line Republican(especially the conservative wannabe’s) is some wild calculation of the national debt. That is undeniably a fair concern but if we don’t get past 2009, who cares how 3009 looks like?

Anyone with half a brain knows that we cannot as a country afford to spend our way out of the crisis and everything will be kosher. Even a caveman will tell you that is stupid. I am anti-carte blanche, neither do I in anyway assume that approving 700billion, or 800billion (whatever version will finally show up next week) is a blank check. A pile of the heat emanates from the vague answers we are getting from George Bush’s handlers for the first phase of this ‘stimulus’ agenda. Bank of America took billions and only God knows where the money went. Credit is still tight, and with no signs of ease on the home front, I don’t really know how the first–round of stimulus worked. With that said, I completely agree with the frustration as a result. I do not however deem this proposition irrelevant because of the failures of the previous. That was then, and this is now. Accountability is the watchword here, and if I’m not mistakening,President Barack Obama is done a clever job on that angle. All partisan bickering aside, ordinary people are hurting and looking for any signs of economic salvation, from God, Obama, or anyone in between.

How much do I really know about the impact of the stimulus bill? Not much, and I will tell you why. Outside the 534 people (minus the one always-absent Congressman) who make decisions for all of us and the 2 journalists who really take the time to read the hundreds of pages, none of us know anything more. We think we do, and that is the crux of the problem, and so we talk like we know something. Economic activity shrank by 3.8% in last three months of 2008, and that is according to the government's own gross domestic product report. What does that mean? It means that it could take until the wee hours of 2010 before we show up on level terms again. This is the biggest slide in almost 30 years, and it makes the hair on my back stand up (all three of them). Gross domestic Product (GDP) is the broadest measure of the nation's economic activity, the part that you can’t really tweak (of course besides inflation). I am not an economist but I know more people unemployed than employed in the past month alone, and that is cause from grave concern. I am a pragmatist (in the true sense of the word), so when I vote ‘yes’ for the stimulus bill, I do so conscientiously.

For my ‘slow bloggers’, declining confidence alone affects prices, which in turn forces companies trying not to lose any more money to cut back on production. You figure the rest out from there. I am not a big fan of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (maybe because I don’t now too much about him) but I hope he knows what he is talking about when he projects a compromise bill sometime next week. With what we know so far (according to what I’m hearing from CNN of course) the plan is now cut down to $780 billion. That is still plenty to spend on infrastructure, housing and other programs that would create or save jobs. Just do something.
Sen. Ben Nelson, a Democrat from Nebraska and one of the chief negotiators of the plan is reported as saying "we trimmed the fat, fried the bacon and milked the sacred cows.” Pardon my sense of humor (or lack thereof) but save the boring metaphors for your plain ride back to Nebraska. The flip side of the argument is to safeguard against spending abuses. Good point, this is America, and before we know it, a genius and crooked politician will figure out a way to siphone 20billion to build a cave in the Himalayas.
Tax incentives for small businesses, targeting alternative-minimum tax and tax-relief for low- and middle-income families, for instance makes sense, but I bet some genius will find a way to label it welfare.
At the end of the day, this stimulus conversation is one of those stories that depending on which side of the fence you sit on; every idea is either ingenuous or dumb beyond redemption. This is unprecedented financial crisis we are talking about here, but I am guessing a person gets a little oblivious to the plight of ordinary Americans when you roam in the fancy hallways in Washington DC long enough.
Sorry I had to resort to my Rodney King archives, but why the heck can’t we all get along?
On behalf of mainstream America, this picture is looking gloomier by the minute, and I can’t help but wonder if people really comprehend the magnitude of the crisis. For all us, and for the majority of Americans who have no clue what day it is today, please do something before the rest of the bottom falls apart.

Just my random thought.

A Republican Extreme Makeover

Change came to America on November 4, 2008. Barack Obama as President, and Eric Holder as first ever Attorney General of United States. Of course there are a lot of symbolisms with the 'changing faces' of America highest offices, and Sasha and Malia won’t be the only beneficiaries either. Just in case you think that is where the ‘change’ stops, think again. I always told of how the Republican Party is filled with geniuses, and PR gurus who know exactly how to tap into any momentum; and they pulled it off again.

This week, Michael Steele was elected to be chairman of the Republican National Committee, becoming the first African-American to lead the party.
Wait a minute, Republican Party led by a black man? Now that is where the story gets a little weird. The upside is that Steele is a new brand of Republican (besides his color of course), but relatively moderate and pragmatic. Obviously this is a stark deviation from the hardcore “business-first”, “whites-only”, and “stock portfolio-required” group. Incumbent chairman Mike Duncan pulled out of the elections and perhaps gave Steele an unprecedented march to a win. “Unprecedented” is a word that is lately becoming a staple of American politics, especially in 2009.
Any first grader knows what exactly is going on here. Barack Obama successfully swiped into the white majority (moderates and hard-cores alike), and any successful comeback would require an Obama-lookalike, with smooth talking smarts and charismatic personality. To every action, there sure is an equal and opposite reaction. That is exactly where Michael Steele comes in. The mission is simple, “get our White House back in 8 years.”

Please don’t sleep on Michael Steele’s skills. I know he is no Obama, but he is been in the game for a minute. From Maryland’s Lieutenant Governor, and chairman of GOPAC, (a conservative political action committee), he knows a thing or two about being a Republican and also about being black.

Unfortunately, owing to the cheap Palin for Hillary trick which backfired, I bet I am not the only one who sees this recent move as a cheap shot to sell a bootleg version of diversity. The Republicans are in desperate need for an extreme makeover and this is an interesting start. The tricky dynamic is how the grassroots conservatives will accept this sudden imagery of change. They are the Sarah Palin-loving, Rush Limbaugh-listening and FoxNews-only—watching Americans. This is where the rubber will meet the road for most ‘conservatives’, and that in itself promises to be an interesting show coming to a city near you.

Just another random thought.

PS: I’m not on Facebook

For once in a long time I am proud of something I haven’t done, and no chance to rescind on that decision anytime in this lifetime. I met a 12 year old kid whose soccer team I coached at a YMCA a year ago, with his mother at the Borders bookstore. Just before we parted ways, he asked if I had Facebook, so that he would send me an ‘invite’ to be his online friend.

That was the magic moment when it hit me that I have made a pretty smart choice by not having a Facebook account. Not a bad decision to stay away from the latest ‘social networking’ platform, flooded with teenagers and many people in search of strangers they can call ‘friends’. Social networking is the code name for cruising through endless lists of online profiles, with the hope of stumbling into someone you really didn’t want to find. Often, or in my case, I have the phone numbers and email addresses of all my friends I intend on staying in touch with, and in case we have to sign online to be buddies, then we weren’t buddies in the first place.

I am not anti-avatars or techno-Luddite (anti-anything technology), I just never saw the light in MySpace, Hi5, Facebook, and the millions of its predecessors. Of course the very fact that I am blogging means that I believe in social networking to some extent. Some of my best friends have found their long lost buddies, and friends from second grade, which I honestly think to be very cool. I don’t have any such crew to find, and occasionally the very thing which serves a ‘connection’ purpose is been the framework for a chunk of breakups, confrontations, bickering or even divorce. Of course those are extremities, but either way I will pass.
The little 12 year old kid taught me something about myself, that I am not as young as I thought. I am not old by any means (thank you), not at all, but the moment you find yourself evaluating the relevance of any platform (technology included) you know your life has moved along. I never signed on to EHarmony or Match.com, but if I plan on finding ‘my soul mate’, if any such thing exist, that won’t be a bad route to go.
The point here is that I value any form of networking, except that I can do without having a thousand friends, 99% of whom I can’t point in a line up. I can imagine how many of my ‘friends’, imaginary as they are, would really care about what happens in my life in the first place. Of course my real friends will, and that is why I have their phone numbers. I will pass on the “BBWLovers Lounge”, “Single and Sexy”, “Africa Unite” “Obama Negros”, “Super Model Lovers” and the “OnFireforJesus” groups. I look forward to one day when people won’t flood my email address with invitation to join Facebook.

On behalf of all bosses around the world, maybe Facebook should only function after 5pm. My buddy Nick lives on his Iphone and Facebook all 8 hours during work. What on earth could you be ‘connecting’ to your imaginary friends about that cannot wait till your shift is over? Nick boasts of 3200 online friends, whatever that means in real life. My problem with that is that I have to pick up his slack, while his fingers are glued to his phone, so that a three legged hairy girl in Istanbul will know that he likes broccoli.
Faecebook like all the other ‘state of the art’ innovations are ‘addictive’, and I can only imagine how much more productive time people will save if they invest the same amount of quasi-communication for real life. Once upon a time, I had a page on Blackplanet.com, and I really thought I was ‘networking’. Now I look back everyday wondering how much of my valuable time I had spent responding to messages from the hot chic in Australia who turned out to be a drunk and hairy dude in Alabama.
In 2 years, I met 8 real friends (one whom I adore still today), and 985 idiots. Experience they say is the best teacher, but I see why Verizon and Sprint carved a marketing niche to target young people with Facebook applications. What a savvy way to entice you to get the ‘whole package’ on your phone for an extra 9.99. Thanks guys, it’s a recession just in case you forgot, and I have real stuff to use my money for.

Like MySpace, being on Facebook is like volunteering to receive spam, and the more successful you are at finding friends, the more spam you get. In the end, Facebook is really the emptiest, loneliest place on the whole World Wide Web. Those are the words of someone who actually loved Facebook until one day he thought of how many of his ‘friends’ were 1/5 his age. The rest of the people on his friends list were strangers who have no idea who he was.
I think I can live without constant photo updates and music videos of wannabe Beyonces. I certainly will rather save myself from the million face shots with camera phones supposed to remind me of why we are ‘online buddies’. I think I can survive without the virtual flowers of Brwnskingirl58 from Lithuania and the sentimental insights of Rambonegro2 from Senegal.
I actually got an invitation from someone who would swear was my kindergarten classmate. Oops I don’t remember anything from my days when I peepeed(not a real word) on myself without remorse, and definitely don’t remember Kathy in Uzbekistan. I read an article a second ago, and I laughed the whole way through knowing that I am not the only creature who thought Facebook is a new avenue to waste our precious time, under the pretext of doing something productive.
On that note I have to go; a real friend called my phone so I have to talk to someone I actually know, and who I actually care about, not an avatar.

United States of Africa?

‘United front’ is not a phrase that usually (and freely) circulates in Africa, and that is the product of many intricate political and socio-economic factors. The African drama transcends myopic restructuring programs, which more often that seldom only makes sense even on paper. Fast-forward to 2009, African Union and some ‘visionary’ leaders plan to take the continent into a new direction amidst the sliding relevance in the global age. The audacious plan is to create a United States of Africa.
All jokes aside, that thought in itself is very commendable and anyone who cares about global emancipation initiative should applaud Africa’s initiative, although a daunting vision. I said daunting, not improbable (but I am a realist, not a whimsical idealist). The ‘unity’ idea in itself is far from ingenious. In 1961, prominent leaders like Kwame Nkrumah (Ghana) and Nnamdi Azikiwe(Nigeria) drummed up a similar framework, except that petty regional squabbles and short sidedness killed the dream before it saw daylight. This time around, people like Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi are spearheading the charge to unite Africa on several key fronts. United States of Africa is an admirable vision, finally a creative agenda and romantic prospect.

Let’s face it, with key alignments like NAFTA, European Union, Andean and ASEAN blocks making economic waves, it is only a logical step forward for Africans to change their game plan. It makes sense on several levels, except that someone would have to carefully indoctrinate Africans that trade agreements and market unions do not necessarily infringe on their sovereignty. That is where the sales pitch will require finesse, before the idea plunges the continent into a series of coup d’etats and chaos.
African ‘wise guys’ are in Ethiopia today working out details and I have a sneaky suspicion that the African Union leaders will not manage the two thirds majority to uphold this initiative. This is a not an issue of putting carts before horses; rather this is one with a bunch of horses and no carts. Of course that is where the optimism ends.
Muammar Gaddafi is no Barack Obama. Even from the sidelines, I vehemently oppose any political merger into single-state federation. I am all for economic arrangements for obvious reasons; but Africa is a very fragile continent for such an idea, foreign to its political infrastructure. Democracy (even a vague version of it) is almost elusive in African countries, let alone implement such a grand scale ambition. The idea itself is breeding ground for wide scale corruption and dissent. Loyalty in Africa will never work the same way it worked in the United States for example, and I have a century of records to base my assumptions on.
The United States, a country who shared enormous stakes in each other’s success learned through the famous Civil War. The Europeans took a page of that mess, and opted for economic alignments. Even in Europe, it made sense to leave the political sovereignty alone. In that same regard, African Union leaders should be careful what they wish for. How do you expect Senegal and Morocco to wake up one morning worrying about tribal confrontations in Sudan and Malawi? Not in this lifetime; and for that reason alone, the African leaders better come up with a pragmatic dream.

African ‘unity’ is one of those ideas that no matter how well you articulate it, something about it just doesn’t see to add up. Africa is struggling on many levels, and a renewed enthusiasm to restoring its bargaining power in the United Nations, and other international platforms is the obvious impetus for this plan. Nothing at all, the continent will be able to present a ‘united front’, except that the absence of realistic hopes is recipe for disaster (multiplied by 53).

Two decades ago, South Africa’s Nelson Mandela was the closest person to that ‘liberator’ with the kind on hegemonic mandate it would take to convince Africans to surrender to this dicey agenda. Muammar Gaddafi is a hero in Tripoli, but I bet no one is Kigali and Lagos is rooting for his ‘supreme’ leadership anytime in this lifetime. The African Union was formed for this same idea, what happened to it? Another stash of bureaucracy is bound to emerge if the fickle ‘unity’ turns into anything more than a meaningless kum-bah-yah. If Africa plans to restore its continent collectively, that’s fair game, but there is a fine line between impudent plans and reasonable execution.
If you are curious enough (or understandably cynical), the related website is Africa-union.org, and my guess is that someone will be uploading pertinent information in the near future. In the meantime, I can only hope that the African Union will not squander its golden opportunity for progress with a ridiculous proposition.

Just a random thought.

The Reincarnation of MJ

For most people, Kobe Bryant will forever be the obnoxious, ball hogging, whining and selfish player who is wildly overrated. Those are usually the hardcore anti Kobe fanatics who will never give the man his credit even if he parts the red sea with his bare hands, or find Bin Laden in the Pakistan caves tomorrow morning.
When Kobe rained 81 points on the Toronto Raptors, the naysayers jumped out of their usual hiding spots to call it a fluke. Ask Chris Bosh and the Toronto guards, and they will tell you how much and how hard they tried to defend the impossible. The guy scores at will, and tonight he rained 61 on New York Knicks to prove that he can do whatever he likes. All that Kobe needs is the motivation and a few booing fans and he will be in top form.
The problem for most of us is that we are finding it hard, if not impossible; to come to terms with the fact that Kobe Bryant is the closet creature we will ever see like Michael Jordan. Unstoppable is an understatement and the scary thought is that he can score a 100 points if he really wants to, and if Phil Jackson gives him the green light to be Kobe. Lakers won 126-117, but the numbers fail to tell the real story.
Down here in Houston, we have a guy called Tracy McGrady, the ever fragile and perpetually hurt, pseudo-superstar in whom we have seen our hopes of championship vanish and the Yao Ming magic window closing fast. You know it’s bad when you can’t get Memphis Grizzlies to trade Rudy Gay for T-Mac (that’s according to unreliable sources anyway). The Rockets will do anything to get a fraction of Kobe, the reincarnation of Michael Jordan in purple and gold. Just in case you were wondering, the Knicks players weren’t just staring at him; they play tough. 61 in Madison Square garden? That is no fluke. Bernard King's mark of 60, set on Christmas Day 1984, was the record (Jordan’s record was 55).
Knicks fans booed Kobe at first, only to figure out that it wasn’t helping the situation, so they gave him his MVP respect. Paul Gasol banged in 31, Trevor Ariza and Derek Fisher all got in the act, so please the selfish argument won’t work here. I just watched th highlights, and ever mannerism, shot selection and reaction reminds me of MJ.

I know that for many hardcore basketball fans (and my buddy Luis is fuming over this one), it’s hard to see Jordan reborn in another player, let alone Kobe Bryant. Get over it. Lebron will never inherit the legacy, and for whatever it is worth Kobe Bryant just proved again why he is the second coming of his airness.
Please save the Jordan-Kobe timeline argument and the same worn-out different era-different players garbage and give the man his respect.

Super Bowl XLIII

Thanks to the economic downturn, all the preparations have been scaled down remarkably for the Super Bowl XLIII. I know the NFL is cutting back on their lavish budgets when it makes no qualms about squashing celebrity wild parties. Not a bad move, just in case it plans to go look for a bailout in the next few weeks, spending records will come in handy. But the game must go on.
The Pittsburgh Steelers and Arizona Cardinals will do just that, except that none of them can obviously generate the same enthusiasm and magic like the New England patriots can. The Arizona Cardinals are the most surprising story of it all, with Kurt Warner becoming the image of withered dreams reborn through hard work and commitment. Who would have thought that his departure from St. Louis (Rams) meant anything more, let alone Super Bowl for a team whose winning season is a .500 record? Kurt Warner’s unlikely story will happen in the desert of all places, Arizona of all places.
The Pittsburgh Steelers' top-ranked defense has brought them to an unprecedented sixth Super Bowl championship, and no one can wonder why they are the favorites to win. They are hardnosed, play touch every week and laden with top flight performers. Pound for pound, I will say they are better on paper, with enough weapons to give any team a run for their money.

The problem however, football is not played on paper. We have seen the unlikely happen over and again, recently with New York Giants pull off an upset over New England. Frankly, the underdogs have been delivering the goods quite well in recent memory, and that is where Arizona possesses the slight ‘cinderella’ advantage. Receivers Larry Fitzgerald and Anquan Boldin will bring some excitement, just in the same way Try Palomalu will spend a chunk of the afternoon flying around the Tampa. How about the Ben-Kurt match up? Experience versus confidence? Not an easy pick on that one but for some odd reason I am looking forward to the Willie Parker – Hines Ward combo.

One reservation however, the Patriots (ooops! I meant the Steelers) have been here so often that it almost feel like a day in the park. The Cardinals are hungrier, and raw zeal is the defining element to crowning a champion. At the end of the day, it comes down to who wants it the most. I have no personal investment in either team; I like the Arizona Cardinals in this game simply because I have to go with the part of my brain which thrives on pure adrenalin.

The economy is struggling, dry and parched. If the Super Bowl should be any indicator of economic destiny, it may very well be the river which revives the Arizona desert, and in turn our nation as a whole. A little over the top analysis here, but you get my drift. For that reason alone, the Lombardi Trophy ends up in the desert today. And for the rejuvenation of excellent football and a competitive spirit in spite of the incredible odds, the Arizona Cardinals deserves it all.