The Whiz’s Crucible

…a society where below the veneer of respectability there is crassness, intolernace and a susceptibility for violence and degrading acts. A society where women just do not get the rights and respect they deserve.

For details of the specific incident you can launch off Scoble’s article – http://scobleizer.com/2007/03/26/taking-the-week-off/

This is one reason so many of my friends, including my wife, are scared of publishing on the net. In today’s world being frank and open can make you a very easy target for intolerant idiots.

And please do not tell me that you can threaten somebody and that is all rght as long as you do not do the act. As Kathy rightly points out in her blog, the threat itself is enough to derail a person’s life – to make a person start looking over their shoulders day and night. This is no less intense than a terrorist threat and should be treated as such!!!

No – not because Italy won. They won it fair and sqare and played very well to deny France the chances. Even the first penalty was dicey and if the defender had not had his leg raised it would never have been a penalty. Again to be fair to France they were denied a clear penalty later – c’est la vie.

What shattered me was Zidane’s head-butt. What the $%&@!!! I tried to explain it to myself. Rather than see my icon fall I told myself that he had a shoulder injury – maybe Materazzi worsened it in some way. Pain has known to make people go crazy. Or maybe he said something extremely disparaging. Still whatever he did Zidanae should have know better. In the last 10 mins of his footballing life he SHOULD not have lost his cool. HE SHOULD NOT HAVE!!!

Like the title reads I am shattered. I remember seeing the rest of the match in a daze. Somebody won somebody lost there were a lot of fireworks but nothing registered. I lost all spirit.

The only image in my mind that remains is of the fall of an icon.

P.S: Really like this one
What Materazzi said to Zidane to spark the attack?
Materazzi asked Zidane — “Hum Chloromint kyun khaate hain”

flinched from freegeek’s site.

[UPDATE: Zidane's interview]

[UPDATE: Interesting news at The Age -
specifically

FIFA president Sepp Blatter explained that Zidane's red card was not the reason he failed to reappear on the pitch after the match.

"I was told that at the end of the game, the French federation executives asked Zidane to go and receive his medal and he replied that he didn't deserve any medal," Blatter said.

I thought he did not appear because of the red card. Btw I was reading about Radheya and found many parrallels, as usual:)]

[UPDATE: I am happy too]

The only thing I am happy about – inspite my gambling streak I did not put any money on this game:)

Well I seem to be giving the Kiss of Death to my favs. But then again, if my choosing them as favs is jinxing 11 overly paid players then I guess they do not deserve to be playing at all;)

BTW inspite of my rant yesterday’s semi was a beautiful game. I thoroughly enjoyed the game. If there was one game which deserved a big hurrah for both teams it was this one. My special kudos to Cannavaro, Gattuso and Buffon. I personally feel that Grosso is another of the crybabies but his goal was superlative. Deserved to be a match winning goal. This Italian team is really getting better. As an aside it was fun to see good ol’ del Piero get a goal.

Now my predictions again;)

First
Second
Third

Whoah! This was one of the most emotional days at the games – absolutely heart-in-the mouth action.

First the heart-wrenching defeat of England. Yes they should have played better-yes Lampard and gerrard should have scored etc. etc. Still I am not really sure that Portugal deserved to win that one (Ricardo is a fantastic saver of the penalty, i will give you that) The real culprits for me – the actor/cheater Roanaldo and Sven Goran. No mood to go into the reasons.
Still it is the scoreline that matters – the victors –

The came the Brazil-France match and it was magical. Really sad that Brazil were out but they only have themselves to blame. On a day when Zizou came alive it would require a sterling performance from any team to be able to beat France, and Brazil did not look that team. Very disappointing performance by them. A great win for France. Hope they go and knock out Portugal(Though it will not be easy with Deco back) The victors –

In short both my predictions for the day fell by the wayside. Still I am happy I did buy a lot of virtual shares in the name of France in the BBC sportDAQ

- Begin Rant –

Personally I think that AB and SRK are THE two leading entertainers of India. Coupled with LPY(Laloo Prasad Yadav) and SS(Shekhar Suman) they have a monopoly on all mediums of entertainment. Nonetheless I would be really really happy If one Sunday could go by when the Times Of India does not have to depend on an article on SRK or AB(if not Amitabh it is something about Abhishek) to sell their papers. Give it a rest, you unimaginative sorry stand-ins for true newsmen!!!

- End Of Rant -