The devil's in the details; the credibility too

While many around here like to make fun of (or complain about) the local newspaper for their mistakes, even the vaunted wire services aren't immune from basic errors an attentive editor should catch. Take this paragraph an article on the NCAA hockey championship game between Michigan State and Boston College written by an Associated Press reporter.

Michigan State coach Mike Comley also won it all with Bowling Green in 1984. He and Boston College's Jerry York are among three coaches to win championships at two schools.

Two things wrong in the same sentence.

Michigan State's coach is Rick Comley, not Mike. And Comley won it all with Northern Michigan in 1991. In fact, it was York who coached Bowling Green to the title in 1984.

Though I happen to know this as a college hockey fan, these two facts can be verified quite easily at Michigan State's website.

It makes you wonder... if the AP is screwing up simple things that I know, twice in one sentence, why should I trust them when it comes to the things I don't know?

The devil's in the details. And so is the credibility.

Please do not feed the animals

I'm sure this won't generate as much reader outrage as the debate over entertainment choices in the Glens Falls area, but it's a lot more disgusting.

According to Reuters, an man in Orlando, FL was arrested for a most heinous crime. What was his crime?

Supporting terrorism? Child molestation? Not sufficiently supporting the city's hockey team?

No, his crime was feeding the animals. The animals, according to Orlando's city government, being homeless human beings.

An activist from the group Food Not Bombs was charged with violating a controversial law against feeding large groups of destitute people in the city center.

I would be speechless, but remember that Orlando is the home of Disney World and Universal Studios. Two institutions dedicated to the premise that artificiality should trump reality; that image should trump anything else, including humanity.

The Orlando law, which is supported by local business owners who say the homeless drive away customers but has been challenged in court by civil rights groups, allows charities to feed more than 25 people at a time within two miles of Orlando city hall only if they have a special permit. They can get two permits a year.

We can't have businessmen nibbling on their caviar or tourist families gobbling a bloomin' onion be distracted from their fantasy world by being forced to look at real Orlandoans, even from a distance and separated by a window.

I don't want to go to a place where they are so obsessed about superficial image that they'd ban private citizens from helping those in need. After the anti-Islamic filth faced by one local resident on her recent trip to the Florida town, this yet another reason for me to boycott Orlando.

Rwanda: remembrance day

This essay is part of a (more or less) weekly feature on this blog that presents interesting stories from elsewhere in the world, particularly Africa, that are little reported in the American media. It's part of my campaign to get people to realize there is a lot going on in the world outside the US, Israel, Iraq, North Korea and Iran.

13 years ago today, a plane carrying the leaders of Rwanda and Burundi was shot down, killing both men. The event was used as the pretext to carry a pre-planned genocide in Rwanda. At least 800,000 people were murdered in the slaughter.

A few years ago, I marked the 10th anniversary of the massacres' start with a series of essays and analyses exploring the genocide more deeply as well as addressing many myths surrounding its causes and implementation.

As i wrote in my introduction back in 2004:

Ten years ago today, the airplane carrying the leaders of Rwanda and Burundi was shot down, killed both. This was the pretext used by a group of extremists to execute a pre-planned genocide against the minority Tutsi community. It also targeted Hutu political opponents, most of whom were moderates in favor of a power-sharing deal with the Tutsis, a deal opposed by the regime's hardliners. In the slaughter, around 800,000 people were killed in only 100 days -- approximately 5 1/2 murdered every single minute of every single day for over three months. It is widely believed to be the most "efficient" mass murder in history. And far from being secretive or in the fog of war like previous genocides, this was unique in that it was broadcast around the world live and in color on CNN and the BBC.

Pieces in the series can be found:
-Pre-genocide history of Rwanda
-How the genocide unfolded
-Myths and realities about the genocide (part 1)
-Myths and realities about the genocide (part 2)
-The genocide's orphans
-Hate media and its role in the genocide
-International and American law on genocide
-Post-genocide justice
-The post-genocide government
-Lessons and conclusions

Please take a moment from your day to remember the dead.

And you thought I was exagerrating

Occasionally, I write about whimsical stuff on this blog but mostly I write about serious, sometimes appalling, topics.

This is the 1369th essay I've published on this blog.

Guess what topic recently set a record for generating the most reader comments in the history of this blog.

The disaster in Iraq? The war against our civil liberties? Health care? Governmental corruption?

No.

Surely it was genocide? Bigotry? The dangers of Christian and Muslim religious extremism?

Not even close.

The weighty topic that infuriated readers more than any of the other 1368 essays I've published here: the future of pro hockey in Glens Falls.

There's something disconcerting about such a fact.

The title of the essay was 'Hell hath no fury like a hockey fan scorned.'

QED.

Code red on Planet Soccer

Yesterday afternoon, there were disgusting scenes of violence in the Italian capital at a big European Champions League soccer quarterfinal between A.S. Roma and Manchester United. Despite the fact that the two groups of fans were segregated, they were throwing objects ('missiles' in the lingo) at each other. Police reportedly charged the English fans with batons. (Note: Though I'm a Roma fan, I didn't see the game, but I was listening to the Manchester United audio commentary) Ten United fans were stabbed outside Rome's Stadio Olimpico.

If I wanted to go with the mob mentality, I would blame it all on Roma. Italian soccer is now notorious for fan violence in much the same way English soccer was 20 years ago. In fact, the whole Italian league was shut down for a week earlier this year because of crowd violence and at least one club still plays home games at an empty stadium because of it. Like most other big Italian clubs, Roma has a group of ultras, a bunch of hard-core hooligans there to act like maniacs, not to watch soccer. Lazio is the more infamous club in the Italian capital but Roma is not immune to this scourge. If I wanted to be chic, I would condemn only Roma based on reputation. But I won't do that. Fairness means judging each situation individually and not engaging in guilt by association.

Even the Manchester United radio commentators I was listening to observed that the missile-throwing was going both ways; the announcers, up until that point, had effusively praised the atmosphere in the stadium ("More moving than Liverpool's 'You'll Never Walk Alone'" they said of the Roma fans' pre-match hymn).

Of course, if I wanted to, I could put in my blinders and blame it all on Manchester United. There was crowd trouble at United's Champions League match earlier this year against Lille in northern France. But I won't condemn them alone based on history either.

In reality, crowd trouble like this is almost never the sole fault of just one party.

According to press accounts (admittedly of English fans), Italian police attacked the English fans in the stadium with a shocking level of brutality. Sadly, since Italian fans can be brutal, it's hardly surprising that the police are as well.

There's no point in beating around the bush. There's a crisis in soccer. Particularly European and South American soccer. A crisis of fan violence.

As I said, I'm careful of guilt by association. Certainly not all clubs in Europe or South America have this problem. But fans and officials for too long have buried their head in the sand about this madness. Just because not every club is guilty doesn't mean there aren't trends that club should be worried about.http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif

To their credit, the English model should be the way forward. For most of the 70s and 80s, English officials tried the ostrich approach to crowd security. But after the great tragedies of Hillsborough (which was caused by overcrowding) and Heysel (hooliganism) in which a combined 135 people died at two soccer matches*, English officials were forced into taking serious action. Now, crowd security at English club matches is generally seen as a model for the rest of Europe.

(*-The Bradford City fire, in which 56 died and 256 were injured, also played a role, highlighting the dilapidated state of English stadia)

And much of the rest of Europe needs it. And South America too.

Consider these events
-One Paris St-Germain hooligan was shot dead and another injured as they were part of a racist mob attacking a black police officer.

-Soccer in Italy was suspended for a week when Palermo supporters rioted after they couldn't gain admission to the already full stadium of their rivals. They attacked and beat a policeman, who later died.

-Cameroonian star Samuel E'too, who plays for Barcelona, said he refuses to allow his children to attend his matches because of all the racist abuse hurled at Spanish stadia.

-Ivory Coast defender Marc Zoro, who plays for the Italian club Messina, walked off the field after being subjected to relentless racist abuse by Inter Milan fans. (E'too once tried to do the same thing in a Spanish league match)

-The Greek government recently suspended all professional soccer in the country for two weeks after a fan was stabbed to death at a brawl between two hooligan groups.

-As Franklin Foer explains in the first chapter of his book How Soccer Explains the World: An Unlikely Theory of Globalization, there are strong links between soccer clubs and organized crime syndicates in many parts of Eastern Europe. (By many accounts, fan violence is even worse in Eastern Europe, but Western European soccer has a much higher international media profile.)

-Rival groups nominally supporting the same club, Buenos Aires' giants River Plate, fought against EACH OTHER before a match in February.

-The same day, fan fighting at another Argentine league match led to the death of a 15-year old both while 12 others were injured.

-There have also been serious problems at stadia in Uruguay, Colombia and Chile.

All of these are events that have happened within the last year and a half, most within the last few months.

Explaining who soccer is more than just a sport in many parts of the world would take another essay. In fact, Foer's excellent book does a great job in exploring this in great depth.

In many parts of the world, a soccer club is not simply another entertainment option. It can symbol of your culture, of your religion, of nationalism and/or of politics. There are "Catholic" and "Protestant" clubs. There are "Basque" and "Catalan" clubs. There are "left-wing" and "right-wing" clubs. There are "fascist" and "anti-fascist" clubs. There are "upper class" and "lower class" clubs. No wonder that the emotions run a bit stronger than the mostly geographic rivalries in North American sports.

(This is also why I believe in the absolute separation of sport and politics. It's why I think the Olympics should be de-nationalized, at least in individual sports)

There is absolutely no doubt that these passions run deep. It would be easy to write this all off to passions, shrug your shoulders and declare fan violence something inevitable. It would be easy to write this off to me being an American who "doesn't get it."

Garbage!

I've lived to Africa. African fans are generally just as passionate as the Europeans and South Americans. But you don't see widespread fan violence inside African grounds. Or outside them either. You don't see rioting. You don't see fans shooting or stabbing other fans. Of course there have been a few exceptions. But they are just that, exceptions. Exceptions that prove the rule.

In 1997, I went to African Nations Cup qualifer between Guinea and Tunisia. It was a big match. Guinea were at the top of the qualifying group and Tunisia had been finalists at the most recent Nations Cup. There was a group of Tunisian fans sitting next to the section (of Guinean fans) I was in. There was no segregation. There was no police presence. There was no one to protect the Tunisian fans from the Guineans.

How come all hell didn't break loose?

Because the Tunisian fans DIDN'T NEED PROTECTION from the Guinean fans, or vice versa. It was a festive atmosphere, not a menacing one. Exactly the way soccer is supposed to be. Somehow, opposing fans were able sit near each other and GOD FORBID INTERACT WITH EACH OTHER without beating the crap out of each other, without stabbing each other, without running rampage like a bunch of wild animals. Somehow, this is possible in the heart "savage" Africa but not in "civilized" Europe.

No Virginia, fan violence is NOT inevitable.

I've never forget something I read about a decade ago. In 1997, there was violence at a match between the England and Italy national teams. In the aftermath, English officials blamed the Italian authorities for not sufficiently segregating the two sets of fans. I remember reading this and being gobsmacked. Individuals supporting different teams at a sporting event can't interact in a way befitting civilized human beings and it's not their fault but the police's.

I think this illustrates the fundamental flaw in the mentality of soccer administrators. It's not the police that have to change, it's the fans.

Several years ago, I went to a New York Yankees-Boston Red Sox baseball game in the Bronx. With the possible exception of NHL Toronto-Montreal, this is the most intense rivalry in North American sports. My family and I were all decked out in Red Sox gear and were sitting right in the middle of all Yankee fans. There was a lot of back and forth. A bit more vulgarity than my mom appreciated. But for the most, it was just good natured ribbing between the Yankee fans and mostly my brother. We weren't attacked, stabbed or shot. We didn't even have beer cups thrown at us. When New York City fans are well-behaved by comparison, you know how deep the soccer problem runs..

In soccer lingo, fans (short for fanatics) are usually referred to as supporters. This may seem like an insignificant linguistic point, but it's symbolic. It's ironic that fans (fanatics) at North American sporting events generally act in a much more sane way than supporters at European and South American soccer matches.

This symbolic linguistic point nicely illustrates what needs to change. For too many European and South American "supporters," actually SUPPORTING their team is the last thing on their minds when they enter the stadium.

I used to hate writing essays like this. I used to fear that the generally anti-soccer sports media establishment in this country would seize on stuff like this to bash soccer. But then I realized that the active soccer-hating nuts in this country (not to be confused with those who simply don't care) will find any excuse to bash the sport. The reality, that there has been to my knowledge zero violence in the 11-year history of America's top soccer league, doesn't matter to them. So why worry about the loudmouthed ignoramuses? The more soccer grows in popularity, the more they bash it.

I used to rationalize that violence soccer fans were a small minority. And it's true. They are. But just as a small minority of lunatics can ruin a country, they can also ruin a sport. And that's exactly what's happening right now.

I understand the defense mechanism against ill-informed cheap shots many American soccer fans have. But soccer fans need to learn from the neo-cons' failings in the political realm. We need to recognize problems, not be paralyzed to them because of a closed-minded, knee-jerk, hyperdefensive reflex. It's time for all soccer fans around the world to face reality. It's no longer acceptable to say that because it's a small minority, it's not a big deal. It's a huge deal. It's a huge deal in most of the world's biggest, richest and most high-profile leagues. It's a huge deal in the places that are the global face of the sport.

With the possible exception of the human trafficking of young soccer players from Africa to Europe, fan violence is the biggest crisis facing professional soccer.

Roma vs Manchester Utd was a great soccer match. People should be talking about Roma's scintillating attacking play or Wayne Rooney's great goal. Instead, the Beautiful Game was tarnished yet again by its most hideous side. Rather than apportioning blame to one side or another, it's time for a complete cleaning of the soccer house.

To say that fan violence is a crisis that threatens the future worldwide popularity of the sport would not be an overstatement. It would be the truth.

A real strike out at Finch

In 2001, contract negotiations between the Finch Pruyn paper mill in Glens Falls and unions broke down. Finch is one of the few primarily family-owned paper mills in the northeast.

During the strike, management insisted that the only way it could remain competitive in the industry was by breaking the unions. After a bitter six-month long walkout, apparently the longest labor stoppage in the company's history, management succeeded in breaking the union.

It turns out that breaking the union was a failed strategy both for workers and for management. Finch announced yesterday that it was being sold to Atlas Holdings, a large Connecticut company.

Management's rhetoric at the time was that breaking the unions was the only way to keep the company in the hands of local ownership. Five and a half years later, the company was sold to outside ownership.

I don't profess to be an expert in the paper industry, but my sense is this. The only way a small, family-owned mill was ever going to be competitive against much larger conglomerates was by motivating a loyal, dedicated work force to make a superior product.

Breaking the unions is not a very good way to keep your work force loyal and dedicated, nor to motivate it to go the extra mile to make a superior product.

Now, one of the oldest locally owned businesses is no longer locally owned.

NY legislature to study universal health care

Long-time progressive activist Mark Dunlea reports the following good piece of news regarding universal health care. to come out of the recently passed New York state budget.

NY Universal Health Care Options Campaign

For More Info: 518 434-7371 ext #1

Health Care Advocates Applaud Lawmakers for Funding Universal Health Care Study

New York State took an important step towards universal health care by agreeing to include $200,000 in the state budget for independent studies of the merits of various approaches to universal health care.

This follows on the recent announcement that the Spitzer administration was setting up its own internal task force with the Governor's health care advisors and the departments of health and insurance to explore how to provide universal health care for all.

"We want to thank Assemblymember Gottfried for his long-standing leadership on the issue of universal health care," stated Mark Dunlea of the Hunger Action Network. "New York is joining a number of other states that have taken leadership to resolve the issue of providing health care to all. We believe that we can create a universal health care system that also improves the delivery of services while saving money for taxpayers, employers and consumers."

The legislature adopted part but not all of the language developed by Gottfried, the Assembly Health Committee Chair, to create a Commission on Universal Health Care modeled after similar efforts in a number of other states. (language below). The groups hope to meet with Health Department officials to discuss implementation of the study, starting with an open and participatory process as outlined in Gottfried's bill. The bill passed the Assembly last year by 135 to 1 is endorsed by more than 250 organizations representing a wide range of consumer, faith and labor organizations. The group has been meeting regularly with business representatives to enlist their support.

"This action presents an unprecedented window of opportunity for New Yorkers. By enabling us to assess the pros and cons of various models for assuring health care to all, it can help us find our way toward that objective." said Sid Socolar, convener of Rekindling Reform, a NYC-based health care advocacy coalition that initiated the effort for the commission four years ago. "We look forward to an open implementation and review of the study to ensure that its findings are comprehensive and widely understood and that they gain great credibility, " he continued.


The Capital District Alliance for Universal Healthcare, a group organized in 2005 with representatives from social action committees from religious organizations, social agencies, advocacy organizations and interested individuals who want to work for universal health care, praised the legislation. Dr. Richard Propp, Chair of CDAUH, stated, "it is an excellent first step toward assuring that all New Yorkers have equal access to cost effective and comprehensive health care."

The sour side of a sweet product

This essay is part of a (more or less) weekly feature on this blog that presents interesting stories from elsewhere in the world, particularly Africa, that are little reported in the American media. It's part of my campaign to get people to realize there is a lot going on in the world outside the US, Israel, Iraq, North Korea and Iran.

Alternet posted an odd piece wondering if women enjoyed chocolate more than sex. Ironic, then, that the UK Independent published an article the same day on how that chocolate comes on to the lips of western women (and men). If the chocoholics read this article, they might lose their appetite.

The story may not be new, but it's precisely the lack of change that's making news. There was a big campaign several years ago to try to eradicate the use of child labor on cocoa farms in Côte d'Ivoire, which produces half of the world's chocolate.

Back in 2001, after an international outcry and a warning from the United States Congress, the global chocolate industry signed an agreement known as the Cocoa protocol. At first they promised to have made serious inroads towards ending the problem by July 2005. But they missed their targets, and Congress gave them three more years.
"That deadline came and went and we were very unhappy," said Eliot Engel, the Democrat congressman who initiated the protocol. "They now need to live up to that agreement. If they don't we'll make a decision in 2008.

The Independent reports that in Côte d'Ivoire, children carrying cocoa machetes are a common sight. They are kept out of school and many have untreated wounds on their legs. "I used to go to school," said Marc Yao Kwame, who works with his brother Fabrice on a remote farm. "But my father has no one to work on the farm, so he took me out of school. My mother's a long way from here. I haven't seen her for 10 years - since I was two years old."

Local officials reported that projects designed to take children off the cocoa farms and put them in school but, as one official put it, "We haven't seen any of the money."

Nestlé's slogan is 'Good food, good life.'

For whom?