BK in BJ

Another post on Chinese football?  Yes, and you should be glad it's not longer.  I've got a lot of stuff on it, but I'll try to keep this short and (for now) in one post.

But first let me say I despise the Chinese football team as well as the federation running them (which in the end is answerable to the government - technically not allowed by FIFA.  They've been warned and could face expulsion if they don't change.)  Like, really despise them.  Following the Olympics, many want to try for the World Cup.  Submissions are due sometime soon for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups with the decisions made simultaneously in 2011.  I personally will be disappointed if they embarrass themselves by trying and will be even more disgusted with FIFA if they grant them it.  Many of the fans are also against even submitting.

So what does that make me?  Well, you're typical Chinese football fan.  These poor souls have endured a lot and the only reason their anger isn't growing by the day is that many are starting to give up.  If it doesn't stop soon, it may be the death of Chinese football on the international stage.  The fans are rabid about the international club and country teams; they seem to be just fine disbanding their own before they get embarrassed more.

So, why am I writing?  Well, I'll try to be as brief as possible.  They truly are an embarrassing bunch.  There's a scandal during the Olympics that apparently at least one was out with the ladies in between matches.  There's a blog post purporting to have a picture of 3 of them, though it's far from definitive proof.  What there is, though, is an admission that they know someone checked into a hotel at 9:50 pm and checked out at 10:20 pm.  Later, in a self-criticism letter (how Chinese does that sound?), this unnamed player said it was just to shower because the hotel one was broken (which you can check!).  This has led to the newest Chinese internet meme - "I'm here to take a shower."

And then, another one ... the 2011 Asian cup qualifiers start early next year.  The Asian fed wanted the locations and starting times by Sept 5th.  Apparently China's federation was too busy preparing their team for the Olympic disaster and never bothered or forgot to look into this.  No - seriously.  They didn't set the stadiums or start times!  They're just now doing it, after the deadline.  That'll make you some friends in the federation.

And for now, the final one.  And this could get uglier if they can't keep it from blowing up.  The federation head is expected to be let go when the government's sports bureau finally is done with the Olympics (as I said, the government eventually has the say) - probably in October.  Apparently, there is an audit any time the head is changed.  Makes sense.  Problem is, there was a huge hole.  A European company, Iphox.com, signed up as a sponsor of the domestic league in 2006.  Then they either pulled out of the contract or refused to pay.  I'm not sure of the details, I'll see if I can find some.  The company eventually paid 600,000 euros in June 2007, but that left 5.4 million to be paid.  So, the head has now (finally) filed a lawsuit.  I haven't seen a huge expose on it yet, but it looks like the contract was actually signed with a middle-man, that Iphox is not the direct signing party.  China's federation could be up the proverbial creek.

I don't mean to bore you with the problems of Chinese football.  To me, they are a huge source of amusement (and entertaining study material) and continually surprise me with their patheticness.  But the last story is what prodded me to post.  This could become bigger as it may bring down many people in the federation and expose corruption.  Or it may be "glossed" over, who knows?.  It also may be the last straw for the fans as they stop supporting the domestic league.  I feel for them.  They seem like passionate and reasonable football fans and deserve better, but they're getting hosed by a bureaucratic structure that is probably rotten to the core.  I'll see if more comes out and I'll keep you up if it does.

One of the topics for the Olympics was the overwhelming excitement the average Chinese had to hosting the Olympics.  Ignore the empty seat fiasco - that was due to the organizers and the government.  The Chinese citizens welcomed the Olympics with a passion and large crowds gathered for even traditionally poorly attended events.

In a completely selfish way, I'd have preferred them to not care so I could have hopped on over to any event at any time I wanted.  But in the end, it was their Olympics and they were truly proud of them.

I'm really happy to see the excitement continuing.  The Paraolympics opened last night and during the first day all I'm seeing are great crowds.  Biking is currently on right now in the same Olympic venue and I don't see any empty seats.  There was a large crowd to watch a bocce-like game earlier.  The early rounds of ping pong while not sold out still had vocal supporters cheering the players on.

Fantastic.  I'm glad to see Paraolympics received with this much excitement.  I'm hoping to make it out to some events this week, but sheesh, tickets may be a problem again!  As I said: fantastic.

Yes, yes.  I'm working on a couple of posts (in my head) about being in China... but I'm awfully, awfully lazy these days.  So, here's another post on politics.  I have to post this.  It's just the most absolutely disturbing, disgusting, awful, insulting and devastating 3 seconds of video I've seen in my life (I assume all my readers (my reader?) know I'm kidding).

Obama calls them the Nittaly Lions

Well.  Maybe my state school-alma mater is no Ivy League, but I'd still like some respect, Mr. Obama, sir!

I haven't posted much recently and I don't have much to talk about related to my stay here, so I'm going to go with a political post.  It's hard to talk American politics with Chinese, so I'll tell it to my blog.

First, in case there is actually a reader here un-related to me, some background.  I'm a socially-liberal, fiscally-conservative, life-long Republican.  In recent years I'm been basically apathetic to politics as the Republicans became more socially-driven and less conservative fiscally, so I've stayed home on election days.  The best term for me is libertarian, but that's unfortunately tainted by the well-known nutcases that give it a bad name.

At first, the only thing I was hoping for this election season was entertainment.  I certainly didn't care enough to go through the hassle of overseas voting, so I just wanted to laugh a little.  The Republicans were disappointing in this area during the primaries, but the Democrats more than made up for it.  I preferred Hillary over Obama in that race only because I had more confidence she wouldn't be a disaster.  So it was with fun, and a little trepidation, I watched her get destroyed by the powers-that-be by some a-ok sexism.  I wasn't going to cry over her losing and it was pure entertainment watching the so-called "tolerant" party descend into ridiculous sex-based attacks, while any word with "bla" in it was racism.

It all seemed to settle down, though, by the summer.  Obama picked Biden as his running mate and that was just plain boring.  The news that Hillary wasn't even vetted created a brief enjoyment period, but Hillary supporters had already been abused enough.  It was getting thin.  So, it was up to McCain to save my enjoyment this general election season.  Ideally, he would have named Hillary.  That would be sheer entertainment gold, but was merely a dream.  Palin, at first, didn't seem too exciting.  And then the whole country gone and blowded on up over it.  The publicly-allowed sexism came to the forefront again, and with viciousness as it also went after kids of hers.  After all, shouldn't she be at home?  Maybe her husband can replace her on the ticket.

So, where does this leave me?  Well, aside from wasting hours on this news alternating between joy at the absurdity and disgust at the seriousness, I'm going to vote (assuming there are no problems with my registration still being in a state I don't have an address in anymore).  And here's how my vote will go: If she shows that she can keep her personal beliefs separate from her political beliefs as she seems to have done some in the past, she'll get my vote.  If she proves to run too much on the evangelical side, I guess I'll write in myself or vote Ron Paul.  Consider it my libertarian protest.  However, if she gets forced off the ticket or senior Republicans continue to turn their back on her under these ridiculous attacks, I'm voting Obama.  I don't support Obama at all and don't want to see him president, but under this case, "my" party has become a complete joke to me.  I have no other option.  "My" party embarrasses me.  Maybe by voting them out, they will re-build as a brand I can stomach again.  Or if they continue to destroy themselves, maybe that opens up a space for a legitimate, mainstream libertarian (small "l") party to form.

So, maybe my eyes are blurry from reading Chinese characters all day ... but is our election Osama bin Laden as one ticket, and Michael Palin as the other?  Huh?  A terrorist leader against a Monty Python?  Sweet.  This could be worth watching.