IEI

IEI, where I worked in the US for three years, gave safety awards. Six months injury free? Have an IEI baseball hat. One year injury free? Have an IEI sweater. Two years injury free? Have a jacket. On us.

This jacket is sweet. It was presented to me at the IEI Christmas dinner at the golf club, since I was leaving the country four days later. Note that I worked in the office for most of the time there…so staying injury free meant avoiding the dangerous sharp edges you can find on a piece of paper.

Some people said, “You do all this work and they give you a jacket? It really shows what they think of us, man. It’s not worth it.”

Let me say again. This jacket is sweet. I love IEI.
They gave me a cool jacket. Who says you can’t buy my love?

Turkey (3) def. Australia (1)

I can’t say I was impressed with the way Australia played against Turkey tonight. Yes, I like a tough game. I want them to go hard, not take the dive, be prepared for a bit of argy-bargy. But tonight was petty. The Australians looked like they were playing to piss off the Turks.

Late challenges, reckless challenges, pushing, shoving, pulling. Yes it’s all part of the game…but for a ‘fight’ to break out in a friendly is a bit much. If it was a tactic to put the turks off their game, it’s one we can do without. If it wasn’t a friendly, I think Australia could have been playing with ten, or even nine. There was a glut of yellow cards, some unnecessary, but you could tell the referee was frustrated with the way the game was being played as well. He used the card early in the game to try and convince he was going to be tough, but it just meant he had to keep showing it.

The Australians put in a good game. They had some good chances and some slick passing in attack. Looking forward to seeing them again Monday night, hopefully a little more composed. A crowd of 28,236 is not too shabby either.

China Holds Its Tongue on Chen’s Inauguration

Apparently Taiwan’s re-elected president, Chen Shui-bian, is pro-independence, so of course bound to raise the ire of the Chinese government. The amazing thing is how strongly China feels about Taiwan, despite being “ideological and diplomatic foes since the end of the Chinese civil war in 1949″.

1949!! Self-determination Taiwan has. And self-government. To an extent. What they are being denied is their right to choose secession, or, more accurately the right to call themselves a separate state. It could be accurately said they seceded 55 years ago. That’s the reality. China refuses to recognise it, and threatens force to deny it. I don’t know what percentage of Taiwanese people want to remain separate from mainland China, but they should be allowed to do so openly.

I would like to think China wouldn’t invade them, but there’s no knowing. I would like to think the US (because nobody else will do it) would threaten to protect Taiwan in the hope this would force China to accept it. That would of course be a dangerous call, because things would get ugly if the US and China ended up fighting over a small island in the East China Sea.

So we try to keep the status quo. And the Taiwanese lose because they’re not allowed a free choice. 55 years. When is effective separation long enough?

Just quickly.
Brazil v France this morning was not the spectacle I was hoping it would be. They both wanted to not lose so badly that it was played like a World Cup final. Not too much excitement. It was more to do with two fantastic teams cancelling each other out (I stole that from the commentator) than not playing well. They both played brilliantly, just not recklessly going after goals. Thus, it finished 0-0. Good individual skills on display every now and then. Oh well, bring on Turkey tonight.