I’ve finally decided on the fairest way to choose which team I will cheer for at the World Cup: victory dances. I don’t think anyone will be able to beat 6’7 Peter Crouch doing the robot. He’s the only person in the world who is lankier than Chuck. He’s World Cup-level lanky. Therefore I must cheer for England.
Seriously though, the World Cup is brilliant. Or so I might say if I was British, after which I would say: “Top drawer old boy! Stiff upper lip and all that,” because that’s the ending to every sentence spoken by a British person. I don’t even know what any of that means. Oh well, what matters is that the World Cup is the most popular and most important international sporting event in the world, aside from dwarf tossing.
Among countries that don’t do the robot, I’m of two or three minds about which I should cheer for. Sometimes I want a tiny, poor country like Togo or Cote D’Ivoire to win. But other times—bearing utilitarianism in mind—I think it would be better for a very populous country (like Mexico) to win, because then more people would be happy overall. Unfortunately, the most populous country represented at the World Cup is the U.S., and no one wants them to win, not even Americans—most of whom don’t even know what the World Cup is. The second most populous state at the World Cup is Brazil. And it is really hard not to cheer for them; their style of the play is the reason it is called the beautiful game. Plus they have Ronaldinho, who is a spectacularly graceful and athletic freak of nature. He's like a kung-fu gazelle on steroids with an overgelled ponytail (do ponytails really need gelling? They do if you're the best soccer player in the world). But Brazil has won 5 times, so I can’t really cheer for them. So, I don’t really know who to cheer for. I guess I’ll just make it up on a case-by-case basis. I should be fine as long as I cheer for someone, everyone, or no one.
posted by DJH at 3:24 p.m.
17 Comments:
I cheer for england because I have an official shirt my grandad got me from england....and because my dad's from england....and because they have.....the crown jewels...heh
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Cote D'Ivoire is like the most prosperous of Tropical countries in Africa, and next to Kenya, it's the one that I will visit one day. I hope you really don't think that they're 'poor'. The rebel forces (2004ish) in north were given positions in the ministry in an attempt to end the civil war, and it has been some what successful.
Sure after being 'liberated' from France in like the 60's,
C. D'I. has had it's share of political turmoil, but what country doesn't?
hello? Stronach, hello Emerson?
word.
Dash,
You are right to point out that it is relatively wealthy compared to many of the countries in its immediate region—which I was not aware of—and I thank you for bringing this oversight to my attention. But a country can be both wealthy by one standard and poor by another. E.g., Côte d’Ivoire is wealthy compared to most of its neighboring countries, but it is poor compared to the average country participating in the World Cup (which is the context in which I meant to compare it, although it’s true that I didn’t spell that out specifically, not intending a political tone).
As for whether it is poor compared to all the countries in the world (well, those for which data is readily available), that depends on who you ask. To me, a country with a GDP (nominal) per capita of 850 USD is poor. That puts Côte d’Ivoire at #128 out of the top 180 countries.
To be fair, it does rank higher in terms of overall GDP (#87 for nominal GDP, #98 for PPP GDP). But it also ranks at #163 by the HDI, and #157 by PPP GDP per capita.
*all numbers taken from:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gdp#
Lists_of_countries_by_their_GDP
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_
countries_by_Human_Development_
Index
Hey Dash,
I was reading your blog, and you had on a shirt that read: "'poor' is a ..." What is the rest of the quote? Or should I not ask?
"poor is state of mind"
Thanks weird-British-spelling (?) Amy.
So many... statistics...brain..slowly..imploding
happy ultra-belated birthday dave.
that is one fierce victory dance! they should implement a dance-off component to every sport under the sun. i think i would watch if there were more dancing - less sporting.
I love Crouch. He always has the best facial expressions.
Although David Beckham has a pretty good facial expression when he's no reacting to anything. Or when he is. Doesn't matter.
that phrase or whatever came to my mind when I was at wendy's serving fries, and Amy was at the DT window serving squamish loggers and luberjacks...I liked it so much that I printed it on a shirt..
ps, all countries with an abundance of black man juice are rich (in every way shape and form), and that's that.
ps Amy
it's 'poor is a state of mind'...
this is proof that you don't stare at me as much as you should...
ps
luberjacks are like lumberjacks, only lubey-er
pps
this is no longer dave's blog, but dash's blog #2
pfft
Go Brazil! Did anyone catch their game against Japan last night? I saw the beggining but I didn't get to see the end(apparently, the female parental unit doesn't like sports at 11:00 at night). When I left it was 3 to 1 for Brazil.
Why Spain?
I think that's the closest thing to an answer you will get out of him, Rae. Cryptic nonsense is the lingua franca of IP.
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