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World Cup 2002

I suppose it’s inevitable, as there seems to be a blog for all tastes (and then some) these days, but I’m quite a happy blog surfer to find this great World Cup blog (via The Blog of Chloe and Pete).

I consider myself incredibly fortunate to be in Japan at this moment of World Cup 2002, and while my wife and I haven’t been able to scrounge up (or afford!) any tickets (yet! apparently FIFA is now doing some same-day Internet sales), what a thrill just to be here, walk around Tokyo and feel the excitement in the air, and watch the games LIVE on tv at normal viewing times (which reminds me, I need to finish this up as Argentina vs. Nigeria will be coming on the telly in less than an hour’s time).

Being an American, naturally I have not been much of a fan of soccer (or football as most of the world calls it, though here in Japan it’s known as “soccer”). Actually, I think it’s more accurate to write that I was never really allowed to become a fan of soccer. But having the World Cup in one’s own (albeit brand new) backyard does wonders for fandom, not to mention the nerve-wracking excitement of watching Senegal hold off France for 60 minutes after going up 1-0 in the opening match. Of course, being able to watch uninterrupted 45 minute halves with no annoying ad banners helps too, as does utilizing the SAP button on the tv remote and being able to listen to English-speaking Premiership commentators who are unmatched in their pithy brilliance (although I do have to admit to missing Andres Cantor — his patented “Goooooooal” must have gotten a workout during Germany’s 8-0 rout of Saudi Arabia last night).

Japanese TV is all agog with World Cup coverage as can be imagined, most of it centered on the national team, which will be lucky to make it past the first round, although we’ll be rooting for them. However, as I can still barely understand the language, I’ve been starved for alternative sources and for stories that don’t feature the term “hooligan” (the hooligan angle has been played up in just about every World Cup story on Japanese tv for the last two months, the Japanese are obsessed with the idea of unruly foreigners disrupting their hallowed “wa” or harmony). The World Cup blog perfectly fills the need. Where else can one find links to stories like this one from a Johannesburg newspaper about the South African team being allowed to have sex during the World Cup if they want to?

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September 11 and hijacked grief

Yesterday I went to the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography. On display, among other exhibits, was “New York September 11 by Magnum Photographers.” This exhibit or a variation thereof is currently on display at the Smithsonian in Washington D.C., and will soon be traveling to other US cities. There is also a book that has been published.

I have to admit that I was hardly moved by the images, as powerful as the photos admittedly are and as much as they brought back that day in my memory. I reflected on why it was that I was so unmoved by the exhibit, and it didn’t take long for me to find the answer. It has to do with the fact that I was never allowed or given any space within which to process the tragic event in the days — no, hours — after it occurred.

As I looked at the photos, what came back to my mind of that day more clearly than anything else was remembering Sen. John McCain, on some news program I forget which though it hardly matters as they were all the same, being interviewed by telephone and hearing him say “I consider this an act of war.” It must have been 2 – 3 hours after the second WTC tower was hit, and it was the first mention of “war” I heard that day though hardly the last, nor as it turns out, was this utterance to remain in the realm of the rhetorical.

The next day or so — or was it the same day, it is all blurred now — came the CNN and co. miniseries-style titles for their news programs: “America at War,” “America’s New War,” ad infinitum and nauseum, beating the warpath drums in lockstep rhythm to the Bush, Rumsfeld, Ashcroft war dance. Soon thereafter flags on anchor lapels echoed (or helped usher in?) Americans putting flags on their cars (ironically appropriate) and just about anywhere else.

In short, what I reflected on as I looked at Steve McCurry’s photo of the WTC towers on fire, or David Alan Harvey’s photo of the New York Fire Department chaplain Michael Judge in a casket, or of Thomas Hoepker’s photo of a candlelight vigil, was that my grief, my period of mourning, was hijacked by politicians and warmongers and a pathetically unfree press all too eager to stoke revenge from the burning embers of “Ground Zero”.

~

One thing that bothered me about the photos was the unmistakably clear liberal bias of the exhibit. While there were the requisite photos of American flags or “I Love NY” imagery, there was also the inclusion of not one but four photos showing various demonstrations for the “war is not the answer” (to quote a placard in one of the photos) position, including not surprisingly a couple by Susan Meiselas. While that has more of less been my position since 9/11, I think it’s safe to say that certainly in the days after 9/11, it was a decidedly minority position, and definitely not a position that one would encounter in mainstream media. Of course demonstrations of this sort existed, and they were documented. However, the inclusion of four images documenting antiwar protests (out of a total of 35 in the “After (9/11)” section) is evidence of the liberal bias of Magnum and undermines the “documentary tradition” they claim to represent.

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Operation painted toenail

Haven’t seen much if any mention of this, other than at Cursor.org: The Scotsman ran a story late last week about how there’s an “alarming new threat” in the the war on terrorism: gay Afghan farmers! Apparently British marines involved in the recent “Operation Condor” mission were propositioned by “swarms” of men wearing make-up.

An Arbroath marine, James Fletcher, said: “They were more terrifying than the al-Qaeda. One bloke who had painted toenails was offering to paint ours. They go about hand in hand, mincing around the village.”

[…] “We were pretty shocked,” Marine Fletcher said. “We discovered from the Afghan soldiers we had with us that a lot of men in this country have the same philosophy as ancient Greeks: ‘a woman for babies, a man for pleasure’.”

It’s a weird story, and sounds like something you’d find over at The Onion. I could have done without the “heavens to betsy” shocked tone. I mean really, considering how poorly the British presence in Afghanistan has gone, I think those boys should loosen up and get their toenails painted. And I can’t resist the thought that perhaps those “gay farmers” were merely attempting to give a little back in kind for what the “coalition” has done to Afghanistan.