Journal Round: Time, Foreign Policy, Rolling Stones

Call me old-fashioned , but I still enjoy reading paper magazines rather than electronic ones, just like I love holding a real book rather than turning pages on a electronic book reader like kindle.

I'll talk about a few topics from this week's magazines.

TIME MAGAZINE

I never thought about summer vacations, but according to Time's edition this week, summer vacations are harmful. It's a period during which school students forget a lot of things they have learnt in school. The tradition of summer vacation started 100 years ago when school kids had to help in the farm during the growing days, but now it should become obsolete. The writer emphasizes on how students of low-income families are the ones hurt the most from summer vacations. their Maths skills seem to deteriorate following any summer vacation.

Local governments can't add more school days to the calender sue to cost and culture. Also tourism industry won't like it that much.

----------------

Time dedicates one page to talking about Panera bread, a restaurant chain that is not asking its customers to pay whatever they want for their sandwiches. It gives a "requested amount" and generous well-off people may pay more than that in order to allow the less fortunate to buy sandwiches at a lower price. It's working well so far although some people seem to be abusing the idea.

This is a wonderful idea, if it works maybe other chain restaurants will start considering it.

----------------------------------------------------------

Foreign Policy (FP)

This magazine is worth every girsh you pay for it. It provides good analysis of any political problem that's going on, often giving both sides of the story. The articles are written by world intellectuals. If you are a regular reader there is no way your letter will be published in the comment section.

Let me quote something about Lebanon, which might be well-known to a few,

" No one knows who exactly lives in Lebanon. The country hasn't had a census since the French colonial government conducted one in 1932. A census would likely reveal the uncomfortable truth- for Lebanon's Maronite Christians- that their numbers have been slipping as percentage of the population. When Lebanon became independent in 1943, a national pact divided power between Christians and Muslims in a 6-5 ratio based on the 1932 census, later changed to an even split after the brutal 1975-1990 civil war Since then, the Shiite community is believed to have grown faster than any other community, but Christians, despite making up only an estimated quarter of the population, still hold half the parliamentary seats. They'd prefer to keep it that way. "

In the last page, FP writes: Five things you don't know about Ramadan:

1- Ramadan is Big Business

2- After oil, Ramadan is Saudi Arabia' biggest export.

3- Ramadan is a time of peace, but it's also marked by war

4- Globalization has changed Ramadan.

5- Ramadan is a tyrant's best friend.

-----------------------------------------

Rolling Stone

(Special Collectors Edition)

The Rolling Stone has a special edition of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time

The top ten were:

1- Like a Rolling Stone - Bob Dylan, which by the way never reached number 1 on the charts when released

2- I Can't Get No Satisfaction (Rolling Stones)

3- Imagine (Beatles)

4- What's Going On (Marvin Gaye)

5- Respect (Aretha Franklin)

6- Good Vibrations (Beach Boys)

7- Johnny B. Goode (Chuck Berry)

8- Hey Jude (Beatles)

9- Smells Like a Teen Spirit (nirvana)

10- What I'd Say (Ray Charles)

I don't think you'll find 2 people in this world who can agree on the same list, but it's good to run through the top 500 songs in the list. Songs from the 1960s had nearly 40% of the songs on the list.

See you next week

Hareega

Punctuation, Punctuation.

This is why punctuation and pauses are extremely important while reading the news.

This news anchor was telling listeners that his co-anchor was off that day, then proceeded to report a murder. Punctuation was, apparently, missing from the teleprompter.

Scream

Taxicab from the hotel to the airport.... 19 dollars

Coffee at the airport..... 4 dollars

Flight from Las Vegas to Minneapolis...... 206 dollars

Having a random 40-something male passenger wake up at the end of a 3-hour flight in terror, grab your arm and scream at the top of his voice, "Daddy" then stare awkwardly around him .... PRICELESS

There are things that money can't buy,

For everything else there's MasterCard (or Visa, cash, your parents...etc)

In Conclusion, Best Moments of the World Cup

Casillas' Interview with His Girlfriend

Casillas, Spain's captain and goalkeeper, did an interview with a sports reporter who happened to be his girlfriend right after the final game. She was asking him who did he thank for the victory. He answered, "to everyone who supported me, my parents, my brother..... then he said "to my friends, and to you", then you can tell she was very uncomfortable with what he did next. It's a little unprofessional but very excusable. She can also be grateful they don't have honor killings in Spain.

Maradona's Press Conference

As you've noticed Maradona is very close to his players, kissing them before they hit the field and when they come out of it, which made this insecure reporter ask this question.

you can always tell Maradona's response from his eye.

I have to say, this is a much more friendly response than his response to Argentinian reporters who previously predicted he was too bad of a coach to get Argentina to qualify into the World Cup. I can't even post that video here, it was so incredibly nasty that the FIFA had to suspend him from attending his team's games for 3 months. Click here to watch it.

Most Outrageous Penalty Drama

Without a doubt it was Gyan's missed penalty in the 121st minute against Uruguay. Not only that, but Uruguay's winner penalty by Abreu was one of the most classical of all World Cups, a Panenka style penalty.

Gyan's Miss

and Abreu's classical penalty

Best GoaL

I might be biased here, but I'll go for Tevez' 3rd goal against Mexico. The reason is that Tevez looked as if he was losing control of the ball and falling down just before he fired his missile.

Van Bronckhorst's goal against Uruguay comes second

Worst Behavior By Anyone

French Coach Domenech refusing to shake hands with a (much better) coach Carlos Alberto, for no reason other than Domench being an asshole.

Worst Tackle On the Field
That happened yesterday, in the final game, as Dutch defender De Jong kicked Alonso
in the middle of the f-ing chest. Surprisingly enough he only got a yellow card.



Close second, Felipe Melo against Holland in the quarter-finals.

Most Affectionate Player

On average, North Korea makes it to the World Cup twice every 100 years, so some players like Jong Tae-Se can get very emotional when their national anthem was being played during their first game against Brazil, which was their best.

Most Arrogant of All

Kaka, of Brasil, proving again why does his name mean the same in all languages and cultures across the world after refusing to swap his shirt with a North Korean player.

See you in 2014 !!

Spain, World Champions, I Think

The final game of the world cup was played today, and sure on paper they deserved it perfectly, Spain winning the last 32 of their 34 matches and the Netherlands winning their last 10 games. However it felt like the wrong teams were playing this final.

The Netherlands have been a pleasure to watch several times before. The 1970s team was a powerful team, total football, Cryuff, Neeskens, Krol, then the 1988 team with their shocking awesome performance and the genius Van Basten and the others with their curly hair. Even in the last Euro 2008 Holland seemed to be on top of the world after destroying France and Italy.

But in this world cup, they won their 3 games in the first round simply because the opponents sucked more than they did. They seemed to lack spirit. Even in the game against Brasil they were a little bit lucky with ball deflections and Filip Melo doing them some favors.

Meanwhile, Spain would have exited from the first round if it wasn't for David Villa. They would have exited from the second round if it wasn't for David Villa. They would have exited from the quarter-finals if it wasn't for David Villa. They won the world cup after scoring 8 goals only by 3 different players. Some teams that were relegated in the second round and quarter-finals scored more goals than them.

None of those 2 teams looked convincing enough to be world champions, in my opinion. Before this game they were the best 2 teams to never win a world cup, besides Hungary and Czechoslovakia, and now Spain the worst team to win a world cup. However there was no cheating, no referee mistakes, no deals made behind the door (I think), so it's all fair and square. Welcome the new World Champions: Espana!

Brasiloooo

Congratulations for Brasil for making it to the quarter-finals in this world cup, I was not expecting it and they indeed impressed us with average victories against the Ivory Coast and North Korea and even scored a goal against a real team like Holland. I can comfortably say they're an above-average team, and they proved they deserved to qualify to the world cup.

Clip of the day:

Snjiedier screaming at the camera after the first goal! At 0:35 !

Funny Clips From The World Clip

Fabio Capello almost getting a heart attack while yelling at his English players to pass the ball!

---------------------------

Eboue, the Ivory Coast player, pretending to be listening to the North Korean coach who was giving instructions to one of his players



----------------------------

This is before the world cup kicked in. Diego Maradona, during training, divided his team into 2 teams to play against each other. The team that lost had to stand on the goal and let the winning team shoot balls at their butts. Maradona stood with the losing team!

Have You Seen This?

----------------

In case you haven't, make sure you see this too, Maxi 2006



----------------------

And since you're here, watch this Messi magic, 2007 Copa America



-------------------

All of these goals, ladies and gentleman, were against Mexico.

Argentina is a worse nightmare for Mexicans than Arizona's new immigration law.

VAMOS ARGENTINA

Arrivederci

USA-Algeria

That was about to become the best 0-0 game in the World Cup.

Even though Algeria had good chances, but they lacked a striker. They failed to score in the 3 games they played. Even in the 5 last games they had before the World Cup, they only scored one goal from a penalty kick against UAE. Problems don't fix themselves, and the lack of scoring ability paralyzed them in this World Cup.

The US wanted to win so badly and they did. It was totally deserved. Dempsey scored a goal that was wrongfully disallowed due to an offside that did not exist.

Anyway, Arabs are out from the first round, which is the rule.

Enjoy the goal:

Closing Time, First Round

* South Africa will go in history as the first country ever to host a world cup and fail to qualify past the first round. I don't care that they played well against France: they sucked in the 2 other games and that's why they are out by now.

* Portugal doesn't have a great team. I know they won 7-0, but they still don't have a great team, average at best.

* The whole continent of South America should qualify automatically to the World Cup next time, including Suriname and French Guyana.

* Domenech, the French coach, refused to shake hands with South Africa's coach after the end of the game, proving again that he is extremely rude even by French standards. (clip below)

* Red cards are the new yellow.

* I get very nervous when I see Argentina playing a great game. If they wanna win the world cup they have to attack for 10 minutes and score a goal then spend the remaining 80 minutes with 10 players in defense.

* Stop saying you're shocked by England's poor performance. Just do like me and don't put England among world class team. So not qualifying to Euro 2008 or getting knocked off early in the World Cup becomes a very normal thing. Drawing with Algeria and the US? Sounds perfectly normal to me.

The Mundial Kid

I was on the phone with a Paraguayan friend who was on his way to South Africa to watch the World Cup.

"When are you leaving?"

"Today, I'll fly from New York to Dubai then Johannesburg, just to watch 4 games then will be back in 10 days"

"Why don't you stay all the way?"

"Wife is pregnant, she's due in 3 weeks, I wanna make sure I'm back before that"

"Awesome!! Have fun!!"

"I will"

-----------

24 hours later he was calling.

"I wanna tell you that we now have a new member added to our family"

"What?"

"My wife just had a baby boy, they're both doing great, he's a little underweight, but otherwise doing great"

"This is great, where are you now?"

"Dubai"

"Can you go back to New York?"

"Maybe, I think I can , but you know, I bought 4 tickets, it's the World Cup....."

"I know, listen..."

"What?"

"When your son grows up, he will understand"

"That's what I'm saying to myself"

"Congratulations"

"Thank You"

"Take pictures"

"I will"

I used to respect my friend. Now I respect him much more.

MicroBloGGinG..... World Cup Edition.... Lidd Lidd Chaif Enno, Chaif Akhathel Taba Minno

-You cannot judge how the World Cup will end just from its beginning. A lot of teams that won the world cup lost their opening games or even barely made it to the second round. This is not the NBA, baseball, or fake American football.

- I thought Argentina played very well. A lot of players didn't give all what they had, and the defence was in poor shape. Higuain needs to concentrate more. Zanetti and Riquelme were definitely missing, but Zanetti was there for 4 World Cups and we didn't win anything with him.

Maradona has matured a lot in the last year as a coach. The next time a game ends 6-1 it has to be a win on our side!

- So far South Korea played the best game ever. They dominated Greece. If they stay in this shape they might do really well even without help from the referees.

- The US has a good team. However they will never win the World Cup if they keep calling this game soccer. Sorry, but your "football" lost. The world likes the real football where players play with their feet, not helmet ball where players play with their helmets.

here are some moments for Messi against Nigeria:

24 years later

It won't be a problem waiting for 4 more years, but it would be wonderful to get it now, with the greatest human being on the face of the planet as the coach.

Good luck boys

Vamos Argentina

Best Red Card Ever in a World Cup

1990: Claudio Caniggia, the great Argentinian striker, was running at a speed of a Toyota with faulty breaks towards Cameron's goal. One Cameronian guy tackled him a little, another one jumped on him and tackled him more, and the third one (Massinga) just frikin threw himself at Caniggia and threw him on the floor.

Watch out the shoe flying in the air with the attack!!

England, Three Pussy Cats on a Shirt

The British invented football, but their contribution to the game stopped there. They refused to participate in the World Cup up until 1950, only to get defeated by the US 1-0 on their first game ever. Since then, their participation has been less than perfect. They won the Cup they hosted in 1966, but other than the only time they made it to the semi-finals was in 1990 when they came fourth, thanks to some genius skills from Gascoigne, Platte and Lineker.

This time, their strongest link is the coach, Fabio Capello. England has transformed into a big giant since his arrival, a giant only against mediocre teams. Even under Capello they lost to Spain and Brasil and drew with the Netherlands. Unless Gerrard and Lampard play their best and avoid getting injured, and Rooney scores in every single game, it will be difficult for England to achieve something, especially when they're playing in South Africa.

At any rate, I'm hoping from some solid performances from them. If it wasn't for their victory in 1966 their record in the World Cup would have been shameful. Well, it still is.

Clip For Memory

This is from recent memory. Michael Owen , 18 years old then, scored a wonderful goal against Argentina in 1998. Argentina won in penalties after a 2-2 draw.

-------------------------------------

Picture above: Lucy Griffiths, a British actress, who I suppose will be cheering for England. Just saying.

Top 50 Goals in World Cup History

There are a lot of clips on youtube on the best goals ever scored in the World Cup. I think this list is the best one, maybe you won't agree with the ranking, I don't think you can find 2 people who can agree on one list, but I think it really contains the best 50 goals ever scored. Besides, they are fast and mention the player's name and the game.

In my opinion: the best free kick ever was that of Cubillas in 1978.

Best solo effort: Diego Maradona.

Best team work: the last goal on the list of Brasil plus Cambiasso's against Serbia in 2006.

Best shot from outside the box : Socrates against USSR.

Fastest son-of-a-bitch : Maradona and Stoichkov

Enjoy the magic!!

Waving Flag

It's time for Argentina......

Spain: Not This Time, Either

Spain currently has one of the strongest teams in the world. They're ranked # 2 in the FIFA rankings behind Brasil. Given their magnificent performance in Euro 2008 that they won, many people predict a wonderful performance in this World Cup. With players like Casillas, Puyol, Pique, Xavi, Torres, Alonso and Villa they can defeat virtually any team and score a large number of goals.

But here, on this forum, I predict a miserable world cup for the Spaniards. Not only will they fail to advance past the second round (if they actually make it past the first one), but they will fail to connect, fail to defend, and fail to score. They will concede quite a few goals and they will be defeated, badly, by less talented teams.

The hardest prediction in the World Cup is not to predict who's gonna win, but who's gonna lose. Predicting the surprise, and this is the surprise I'm predicting: Spain OUT. Barrrrrraaaaa....

Clip For Memory

In their first game in 1994, Spain were leading South Korea 2-0. The Korean came back and scored 2 goals in the final 5 minutes to equalize it 2-2. That kind of sums up the Spanish experience in World Cup history.

--------------------

Picture Above: Casillas, the magical keeper.

Algeria... الجزائر: Dream On

Algeria fought its way, literally, to this World Cup after a major challenge with the Egyptians. Tension rose between both countries to a shamefully disgusting level, and I was happy to see one team emerge as a winner before a military conflict arose between the 2 countries.

Algeria played twice in the World Cup, 1982 and 1986. In 1982 they became one of very few teams in world cup history to win 2 games in one round and not make it to the second round, thanks to a conspiracy between Germany and Austria. In 1986 they didn't play nearly as well except with their 0-1 loss to Brasil.

As an Arab I am glad to see Algeria qualify. Very happy indeed, and I wish for them more than any other Arab team to have a good tournament. We saw a terrible decline in the performance of the Algerian team in the past 20 years, and these qualification were the first ones in ages where Algeria actually had any chance of making it to the finals. They still remain the weakest African team in this tournament, but that doesn't matter, because Morocco in 1986, Cameron in 1990, Nigeria in 1994, Senegal in 2002 did not care either, neither did the 1982 Algeria of Rabah Madjer and Akhdar Balloumi.

Let's wish them the best.

On June 13th they'll play Slovenia

June 18th vs. England

June 23rd vs. United States

Clip For Memory

This is Algeria kicking some arrogant German ass. What's very beautiful about this is the 67th minute. It was 1-0 for Algeria and Germany just scored the equalizer. They barely celebrated the goal, because you know, we are Germany, Europe's champs, playing against those amateurs form Algeria, and now we're ready to load them with goals. But in 30 seconds the Algerians got back to the game and Balloumi netted the ball very comfortably into the net, giving Algeria a well-deserved 2-1 victory.

We want to see more of that.

------------------------

The Picture Above: Rabeh Madger, the King of Algerian Football (and a bad commentator too!)