Week 10 Chapter 9 Blog 10

How Soccer Explains Islam’s Hope.  What is Islams Hope?

 

I could not care any less.  I hate, hate, hate Foer.  I think it stupid that people would risk their lives for a stupid game.  Born into Islamic rule if it is against their religion/law for women to participate or even watch a damn soccer game then they should probably wrap those sheet things around their faces and stay home.  I do not give a damn about Islam to me they are the enemy. I do not care what Foer has to say on the subject. I feel less intelligent for having to contend with this fruitless exercise.  I wish that the IRA would have whipped his ass when he was running around with those other idiots.  Oh well to hell with it. Semester is over I read a book I believe would better serve as use for toilet paper than reading material and survived.  This blog is late apparently saved as a draft and forgotten incomplete.  The sons of Ishmael in biblical times and the curse and promise that was made in antiquity making the Moors in the past and ISIS today enemies set forth in ancient times. Genesis chapter 16.

Week 11 Chapter 10 Blog 11

How Soccer Explains the American Culture Wars

What are the American culture wars?

Soccer can not explain the American culture wars.  Foer is an idiot. I made it to the end of this rather misguided book, with the exact feeling for Foer that I had in the first chapter. If I ever have this misfortune to travel to the dark corner of the country, I would like to look up this lunatic and see just how far up his fifth point of contact I can get my boot. I am so glad I found this book on Amazon for a very good price so I will not feel bad at all leaving it in the bathroom just in case I run out of toilet tissue.  In the end it has been a grand adventure, but for the love of all that is good and holy would you please consider any other book for this assignment in the future.  There have to be some really good books that really have to do with the subject of World Regional Geography.  This over privileged wind bag making money from writing a book about a self indulgent trip to around the world to follow soccer is neither entertaining or informative. In my opinion a complete waist of my time and money.

Week 13 Blog 13

How have migration flows to Latin America since 1500 created a complex set of racial identities in the region?

There is no single system of races or ethnicity that covers all of Latin America, and usage of labels may vary substantially. In Mexico, for example, the category mestizo is not defined or applied the same as the corresponding category of mestizo in Brazil. In spite of these differences, the construction of race in Latin America can be contrasted with concepts of race and ethnicity in the United States. The racial composition of modern day Latin American nations combines diverse indigenous American populations, with influence from Iberian colonizers and equally diverse African groups brought to the Americas as slave labor, and also recent immigrant groups from all over the world.

Racial categories in Latin America are often linked to both continental ancestry or mixture as inferred from phenotypical traits, but also to economic status. Ethnicity is often constructed either as an amalgam national identity or as something reserved for the indigenous groups so that ethnic identity is something that members of indigenous groups have in addition to their national identity. Racial and ethnic discrimination is common in Latin America where economic status generally correlates with perceived whiteness, and indigenous status and perceived African ancestry is generally correlated with poverty and lack of opportunity and social status.

Week 9 Chapter 8 Blog 9

How Soccer Explains the Discreet Charm of Bourgeois Nationalism 

I believe that this is the chapter that is finally going to put a positive spin on this whole ugly book, but I can not get past the first page where Foer provokes me to anger yet again.  Oh well,  after choking back the bile and getting into this chapter.  FC Barcelona or Barca as Foer likes to call them, being the fanatic, is the team with a positive impact on the game. They do not sell ad space on their uniforms so that they can keep big money out of their game. They play the game for the love of the game and purity of the sport.  The fans are supportive and excited about the games but do not tend to express the hostilities of the other soccer clubs. This results in non violent games that everyone can enjoy.  If the managers or coaches start being greedy and playing politics, the team fires them. The team is proud and positive and expresses that through their playing.  They strive to keep all the negative of the sport out of their game.  Barcelona is one of the most supported teams in the world, and has the largest social media following in the world among sports teams.  In 2011, the club became European champions again and won five trophies. This Barcelona team, which reached a record six consecutive Champions League semi-finals and won 14 trophies in just four years under Pep Guardiola, is considered by some in the sport to be the greatest team of all time. In June 2015, Barcelona became the first European club in history to achieve the continental treble twice.

http://www.fcbarcelona.com/

Week 12 Blog 12

The movement to post-Fordist production in the automobile industry has meant a massive loss of jobs in Detroit. As a result, Detroit has approximately 90,000 vacant or abandoned houses and residential lots. What can Detroit do to encourage development and make the city vibrant again?

The newly appointed emergency financial manager of Detroit begins the Herculean task of turning the once bustling capital of the car business back from the brink of bankruptcy.  Though Detroit still has its cultural centers, restaurants and packed sporting events downtown, the city has suffered an urban blight that has slowly eaten away at its neighborhoods.  People are literally dying waiting for ambulances. The things that we would expect any city to deliver at a basic level just do not happen in Detroit.  The people have no jobs and little hope.  Detroit was a booming metropolis at the height of auto manufacturing. The population of inner-city Detroit, dropped by a million since 1950, leaving empty neighborhoods, abandoned properties and very few residents from whom to draw tax dollars to pay for everything.  Those that remain are increasingly stuck in poverty.  Michigan Governor Rick Snyder, took a dramatic step by taking financial control away from the city government and naming Kevyn Orr, Emergency Financial Manager. The move is legal under Michigan state law, but residents are protesting what they see as a violation of their rights, since they didn’t vote Orr into government and he now controls their tax dollars.  Financial accountability and the willingness of businesses and citizens to live in and invest in Detroit are the keys to turning around  the decline and create growth.  Otherwise Detroit may decline into a modern day ghost town.

 

Week 8 Chapter 7 Blog 8

How Soccer Explains the New Oligarchs 

Foer begins this chapter using big nonsensical words to describe one Pierluigi Collina a referee of some celebrity.  Referee’s in Italy are apparently held in high regard.  Italian referee’s retire to become sports commentators and endorse merchandise much like athletes in America.  Colliana is revered as one of the greatest.  Italians follow the careers of referees with great scrutiny because they are the deciders of games and can make or break a team. A corrupt referee would be a great scandal and the teams try very hard to influence them in any way they can making room for the “Top Hats” or the “New Oligarchs”.  The second section of the chapter starts describing a wealthy family and their interest in a soccer team. Foer starts talking about people you are just suppose to know without a backstory or anything to tie them to the subject except these are the rich people who buy and sell teams for fun as a side hobby.  Due to wealth and greed the rest of the second part of the chapter describes how corruption set in and the rich crooks act like the poor crooks.  The third part of this chapter tries to tie in a mob connection.  That is right just because the story is taking place in Italy there has to be a mob connection.   The very last section sounds like a homosexual date that does not have anything to do with anything. Thank God this is almost over and I can actually see me finishing this awful book.

Week 7 Chapter 6 Blog 7

How Soccer Explains the Black Carpathians

The “Black Carpathians” refers to Nigerian soccer players brought to the Ukraine to play soccer for the Karpaty Lviv team, named for the Carpathian mountains. The chapter mainly follows the journey of a Nigerian named Edward Anyamkyegh who played for the former Soviet Republic of Moldova and was sold to Karpaty Lviv.  I could not care less really.  I do not see the point of anything this book has to say. I do not see how the book relates to Globalization. What does a handful of transplanted Nigerians have to do with globalization?  I used to like soccer now I think if my son asks to play soccer I will wring his little neck.  Okay now I will get back to the chapter.  Now we visit an idiot dentist named Yuri who is also the captain of the Karpaty Lviv team.  Something about making the team more global with a coach, captain and players that did not speak the same language so they got a manager that could translate.  The last section of the chapter talks about the team going to a Greek Orthodox Catholic church even though some of the players were actually Muslim. I’m not sure if Edward had converted but the manager of the team commented “Edward is always crossing himself.”  I thought it comical when it describes how the Muslim players moved out of the way when the priest is blessing the players with holy water. Maybe Edward was really a Greek Catholic the last paragraph describes how he prayed hard.

Week 6 Chapter 5 Blog 6

How Soccer Explains the Survival of the Top Hats.

This chapter starts with praise of the early Brazilian soccer or more fitting FUTBOL teams. The purity of the beginning and how beautiful Brazilian soccer was in the glory days, but it does not take very long before it starts describing the corruption of the teams and managers.  It goes on to expound how eventually soccer in Brazil became very political.  Then the chapter talks how that political influence becomes political corruption and two politicos at odds turn the nations pass time into a full out riot.  A war between the two factions of political figures.  I did find the reference to the “Top Hat’s”, the corrupt managers and “volunteers” that steal from the soccer clubs in Brazil. Although I see this reference,  I see the battle between the two political factions to be the most corrupting factor in the Brazilian soccer clubs.  A long fall from the glory days of Pele` ,then again were the good old days in Brazilian soccer really all that good? Million dollar blackmail, pay to play. Pele having been once a superstar working hard to make changes in the clubs, making the “Pele Laws” really trying to reform Brazilian soccer or were they? I do not know.  The political battle between Eurico Miranda and the Governor Anthony Garotinho was entertaining although Miranda showed what a neanderthal, ignorant, fool he was due to the way he handles himself in the manner that he did in the situation with Garotinho.

Week 5 Chapter 4 Blog 5

How Soccer Explains the Sentimental Hooligan.

This Chapter is starting out like the last or picking up where it left off I am not sure.  I guess it is time to step away from this again. All I see is an Anti-everyone else racist Jew.  I sent an email out to my classmates to find out if it is just me or was anyone else struggling with this stupid little book. I asked advice from outside sources most come back with just do it, but what does that mean. I am just a curmudgeon I guess. It seems to me that I can only write about how much I hate this book and I really am trying but I fail to see anything real in this book that has anything to do with the subject of Globalization. How do I get past all the negative feeling for this book and see it in a logical manner?  There has to be some merit in it, right?  I mean the Chicago Tribune, The Washington Post Book World, The Wall Street Journal, and Newsweek SPEW accolades about this book mostly all over its cover. So really, how bad can it be?   It stinks and I feel like an idiot for not managing to have a better attitude about it.  It’s like that one person, the one person you just can not stand no matter how hard you try if you just see that person in passing it spoils your whole day. I am publishing these rantings in the hope of figuring it out by the end. Classmates any suggestions?  dblack4526@students.southplainscollege.edu

 

Week 4 Chapter 3 Blog 4

How Soccer Explains the Jewish Question.

Oh Lord HELP me get through this as I have a venomist hatred for the book and the man who wrote it. This subtitle has me even more worked up, as the Jewish Question has for many years been the devise used by privileged little Jew boys to remind themselves of the horrors that their ancestors had to endure, so that they feel entitled to their privilege and therefore do not have guilt. Here we go.  I hate this but can not get a grade for spewing how much I hate it so I will try not to do so anymore.

I read “poor pitiful me  there are no Jewish sports heroes except prior to World War II and then Hitler controlled all and Jews had to hide.”  Except there was this one soccer team that held its pride.  He uses a great of great big words that are either made up or a form of Yiddish or something some one else made up. I am not going to ask Webster anymore about these asinine words. Judendot, Musklejudentum. The wonderful belief system of one Max Nordau. 1909 Anti-Semitic Vietnamese.

This guy is a Jewish Racist. So that I do not sound any more Anti-Semitic than I already do, I am not going to discuss this disgusting chapter any further.