Vol. 1, Issue 3 (Special Triumph of The People Edition)

IN THIS ISSUE:

-- FREEDOM BY THE NILE

--TGG OLD SCHOOL JAM OF THE WEEK

--TGG BONUS OLD SCHOOL JAM OF THE WEEK

-- SUPER BOWL FOLLIES

-- ONLY ON FOX: "THE CHICAGO CODE"

-- KOBE VS. MICHAEL: WHO iS THE BEST?

-- WORLD SOCCER REPORT: 

   THE MOST EXPENSIVE GAME IN THE WORLD?

This week began as last week ended, with the world's eyes on Egypt,

watching to see if President-For-Life Hosni Mubarak had

yet realized that his time appeared 

to have run out....

The Sands of Time

Ground Zero remained Cairo's Tahrir Square, where hundreds of thousands gathered on Thursday night

expecting to hear Mubarak's announcement that he was leaving office after 30 years...

Had The Moment Arrived?

"I Am Still The Father of The Egyptian People"

Mubarak, in other words, was channeling TGG's Old School Jam of The Week.

You, Dear Reader, have by now already guessed which jam that would be.

No, Really --- think about it again for just a minute.   This one really is perfect.

Still stumped?  OK.  Think Broadway.   
Think Divas.   With the eyes of the world upon them, how would they have expressed themselves to 

 the Egyptian people?

And this gives us occasion to announce a new  TGG regular feature: 

"Why Old School Is Better Than New School"

Here, Part 1 -- and trust us, you want to spend the 8 minutes it will take to enjoy this remarkable 1982 clip (even if only on background as you scroll through the rest of The Global Game)

WHY OLD SCHOOL

 IS BETTER 

THAN NEW SCHOOL

 --- PART I

Egyptians were infuriated by President Mubarak's intransigence.   In the Arab world's universal sign of utter contempt and disrepect, they showed the bottom of their shoes to the President:

"Not Going?  We'll See About That...."

By Friday, however, as the pressure mounted, Mubarak, in a shocking development, decided, that the time had indeed come...

The People, Triumphant!

Freedom's Moment

Dawn of a New Day

The two questions now on everyone's mind were: Who's Next? (Syria, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Yemen) and What Happens Next? 

Global Gamer Jami Floyd offered a smart take on what should happen next, capsulized in this quote:

"Together the new leadership will need to start from scratch, building new institutions and, I would humbly suggest, drafting a new constitution --- 

so lacking in legitimacy is the current one"

God Bless The People of Egypt. 

  We Pray for their Next Thousand Years. 

Meanwhile, back home in the USA, much of the week had revolved around the Super Bowl's matchup of two Old School powerhouses, the Green Bay Packers and the Pittsburgh Steelers.  By Sunday night, QB Aaron Rodgers and the Packers would reign triumphant in a game that came right down to the last series....

How Sweet It Is

Rodgers, although too classy to say it out loud, appeared to have finally gotten the monkey of The 'Ol Gunslinger off of his back....

"Now We Each Have One Ring, Hoss...
--- and I've Got 10 More Years To Play"

Meanwhile, around the country, certain fans (aka "women") could not hide their delight that the game had not resulted in a Steelers' victory and "redemption" for Pittsburgh QB Ben Roethlisberger, who many felt had skated and continued to skate on charges of sexual assault and other misbehavior...

"Maybe This Is Not What Commissioner Gooddell Had In Mind When He Said,
 "Ben, I Want You to Be a Role Model""

"Americans Are a Forgiving People --- Right?"

As usual, the Super Bowl entertainment had been a sideshow in itself, as Cristina Aguilera "forgot" the lyrics to the national anthem......

"By The Twilight's Last, umm...."

And while TGG wants to know --- how exactly does that happen?

We still think the criticism of Cristina was a little bit harsh, given recent Super Bowl history.  At least she was visibly alive, unlike aging rockers The Who at last year's contest...

"We Won't Be Fooled Again!"

And while cultural criticism is not exactly  TGG's forte,

the biggest question of all had to be --- 

who kidnapped the real Black Eyed Peas?

"It's All Downhill From Here"

"Tonight Might Not Be Such A Good Night...."

The Global Game's tip to next year's halftime performers:

NFL Entertainment and their "stage notes" are not your friends...

The other main purpose of the Super Bowl, of course, is for whichever network happens to be hosting the game to heavily promote its leading mid-season replacement series.

In this case, it was Fox, and the series was "The Chicago Code," the story of a crusading

female police Superintendent who goes after a Black Chicago alderman who has

"built an empire of corruption"

"Fair and Balanced" ---
Just Like Our News Division 

TGG was puzzled.  While we were certainly familiar with the sordid history of corruption in Illinois politics, prior to the premiere of "The Chicago Code" we had never been aware that the problem was, well, corrupt Chicago politicians who"happened to be Black." 

The Global Game Gallery: 

Famous Corrupt Illinois Politicians

Blago

Governor George Ryan -- Convicted 

Governor Dan Walker -- Convicted

Congressman Dan Rostenkowski -- Convicted

Governor Otto Kerner -- Convicted

T

TGG's First Pop Quiz....

Accordingly, in its continuing effort to bring Knowledge to the People, TGG announces its first-ever Pop Quiz aimed at testing the reader's understanding of the above material.   

The quiz consists of just one question:

 "What Do The Most Famous Corrupt Politicians in Illinois and Chicago History Have in Common?"

"Yes.   You in the corner over there -- 

Mr. Blagojevich...."

"Ummm.....Let's See Now....
None of Them Happen to be Black?"

Even curiouser (that's a Chicago word) was Fox's choice in casting Jennifer Beals as crusading Superintendent of Police 

Teresa Colvin...

She's The Boss

As closely as we looked, The Global Game could find nothing in Beals' previous star turns in Flashdance and The L Word that would make her seem a credible 
Windy City crimefighter

What A Feeling

I Have Rhythm Now

But then again, what do we know?

The big (and little) screens weren't all that had people talking this week, however.   Kobe Bryant played in his 1,072nd NBA regular season game, meaning that he had now played the same number of games Michael Jordan had played in his entire NBA career.  This of course, revived the "Kobe vs. Michael" debate, which 

sportswriter Bruce Jenkins broke down brilliantly in a must-read piece for all basketball fans.  

As a reader service, TGG presents Kobe and Michael's comparative stats below:

Bryant	Stat	Jordan
	REGULAR SEASON
1,072	Games played	1,072
27,093	Points scored	32,292
25.3	Scoring average	30.1
5,672	Rebounds	6,672
5.3	Rebounds per game	6.2
5,020	Assists	5,633
4.7	Assists per game	5.3
1,617	Steals	2,514
1.5	Steals per game	2.3
45.5	Field goal pct	49.7
33.8	3-pt FG pct.	32.7
83.7	Free throw pct	83.5
711-361	Wins-losses	706-366
	PLAYOFFS
25.5	Scoring	33.4
5.2	Rebounds	6.4
4.8	Assists	5.7
126-72	Record	119-60
	MISCELLANEOUS
24	50+ games	31
106	40+ games	173
81	Most points/game	69
17	Triple doubles	31
5	NBA titles	6
1	NBA MVPs	5
2	Finals MVPs	6
2	Scoring titles	10
13	All-Star teams	14
8	First team All-NBA	10
8	First team All-Defense	9

Jenkins concludes that "It's no contest" in favor of Jordan, because of defense, team cohesion, titles, reputation, 

and "the spectacular."  But maybe even that doesn't put the finger on it.   Isn't it the moments that Michael gave us that we remember, the unsurpassed drama and competition always with the perfect foils?   Moments like this:

and this.....

and the "Flu Game"....

That's What Friends Are For

and the "3-Pointer Game"....

and so many, many others.  

What unforgettable moments did Kobe have?

There was certainly Game 7

 against Portland a few years back.....

but as much as anything else, when people thought of Kobe they thought of somebody or  something that always seemed just a little bit off, such as the strange "Kobe face" that had surfaced in the past few years....

His Mother Never Told Him
"If You Keep Making Faces It's Gonna Stay That Way"

TGG realizes that this debate may never be settled.  Not everything is as clear-cut in sports as The Best Basketball Play of All Time.....

(Readers may feel free to comment in 

the comment box at the end of the post)

Finally, we bring you news from The Wall Street Journal, which  reported on this week's Manchester United vs. Manchester City English Premier League match, aka 
"The Most Expensive Game In History"

-- or "the richest match played in any sport, at any time, anywhere on the planet Earth" -- with the players on the field having cost their teams $850 Million to acquire.  For comparison's sake, the Journal reported that when the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox meet, "there's only about $380 Million in player investments on display."   In pro football, according to the newspaper, the NFL record belongs to the
 Dallas Cowboys vs. Washington Redskins,
 whose joint player costs total

 $350 million.

No word if in compiling its data on the most expensive teams and games in the world, the Journal sent a reporter to Los Angeles to visit the USC football team's spring intra-squad scrimmage.... 

"I Had Absolutely No Knowledge That Any of My Players Were Paid Hundreds of Thousands of Dollars
 On My Watch...
I Remain Shocked --- Shocked!  By These Allegations"

"Yeah, Right, Coach!"

Stay tuned next Weekend for Volume 1, Issue 4 of TGG,

and be on the lookout for periodic updates

"as events warrant"

Vol. 1, Issue 2 (Special Egypt Rises Again Edition)

IN THIS ISSUE:

-- EGYPT IN CRISIS

--TGG OLD SCHOOL JAM OF THE WEEK

-- AMERICAN JOURNALISM UNDER FIRE

(LITERALLY AND FIGURATIVELY)

--JERRY'S SUPER BOWL: "THAT'S COLD-BLOODED"

-- WORLD SOCCER REPORT: THE KID RIDES AGAIN

"WHAT WE HAVE HERE IS A FAILURE OF COMMUNICATION"

As the streets of Cairo burned, Egyptians had an unmistakable message last week for 

Hosni Mubarak, their embattled 

President for Life:

Meanwhile, in Washington, 

Mubarak's staunchest ally was trying to walk

 a diplomatic tightrope:

President Obama, who many (OK, "we") had compared to young Kwai Chaing Caine ("Grasshopper")

of Kung Fu fame, had recently been through tumultuous times of his own

and felt he had wisdom to share with Mubarak:

By midweek, however, young Grasshopper's message did not seem to be getting through to the Old Master, as thuggish regime supporters on camels attacked the peaceful anti-Mubarak protesters in Tahrir Square....

Meet The New Dynasty --- Same as The Old Dynasty

Back at the White House, Grasshopper's

wise men met in the Situation Room...

"We Need A New Script, Gentlemen..."

While Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton issued a series of carefully modulated --- yet increasingly direct --- public pronouncements aimed at Egypt

 and the world....

"The People of Egypt Must Determine Their Own Fate"

The only problem with that approach 
was that back in Cairo,

Hosni Mubarak, after enjoying virtually unchecked power for three decades, was,

 in the words of

 TGG's Old School Jam of the Week, 

clearly finding it.....

Nevertheless, the hopes of  freedom-loving people all over the world spiked when reports like this one in Matt Drudge's tip sheet surfaced early in the week:

However, as day after day passed with Mubarak still in power, it became clear that either the report was erroneous or that any U.S. backing for the uprising was very secret indeed. 

It soon emerged that the Obama administration, hewing to a Weltanshauung that could perhaps best be described as 

"Cold War Realpolitik," was worried "what message would it send to other authoritarian [aka "dictator"] leaders who are allies of the U.S. if the U.S. at this point backs the protestors and abandons Mubarak?"

While The Global Game is no trained specialist in diplomacy, we humbly suggest that the message that the U.S. would have sent by backing the protestors would have been something basically like this: 

"If you are a corrupt dictator who has suppressed your people for 30 years, don't count on the United States of America to pull your fat out of the fire when they finally summon the will and the courage to 

rise up against you."

"And Maybe That's A Message I Should Have 
Given Him A Long Time Ago"

Meanwhile, the crisis in Egypt was also exposing some fault lines at the highest levels of American journalism.   The networks, as is their wont, had hastily dispatched their prize anchors to "report" from the chaos of Cairo's Tahrir Square.

The premise seems to be that news is not happening anywhere in the globe unless Katie Couric, Brian Williams, or Anderson Cooper is there live to tell us about it.

So there was Katie Couric, 

earnest-yet-measured in her best 

Intrepid Foreign Correspondent getup,

broadcasting live from 

the epicenter of the uprising!

Well, at least for 24 hours...

(Wednesday) Dateline: The Streets of Cairo --
 "The Revolution Will Be Televised"

(Thursday) Dateline: CBS Anchor Desk, New York --
"As Long As Things Don't Get, Um, You Know...
 Too Revolutionary"

TGG is not going to pick just on Couric, however.   Also making cameos in 

Tahrir Square were 

NBC's Brian Williams....

The Peacock Network, In Da House

and TGG's perennial favorite, 

CNN's "AC360s" own

Anderson Cooper.

"No, No -- It Was Keith Olbermann Who Said That"

As the situation deteriorated, the networks pulled their marquee names out of Cairo as fast as they could.   For its part, The Global Game has never claimed to be the moral conscience of journalism (our own press credential request was denied at the last minute by the Egyptian Ministry of the Interior, so we had no choice but to report on the crisis from a "safe undisclosed location" somewhere in the San Francisco Bay Area).   

That being said, however, TGG is firmly of the belief, to paraphrase the words of the old U.S. Army recruiting slogan, that if you are going to sign up to be a war correspondent, then

"Be The Best Little War Correspondent 

You Can Be"

Was this in the tradition of Edwin R. Murrow, who reported from London during The Blitz?

Was this in the tradition of Walter Cronkite, who reported from Allied bombing missions over Germany in World War II?  

More Than Half of All Bomber Crews Were Lost

Finally, if there were any doubt, today's anchors should have asked themselves one simple question:

"WWDRD?"

("What Would Dan Rather Do?")

So, simply put, if Cairo was too dangerous for Brian Williams and Katie Couric, 

Then what about NBC's Richard Engel?

and what about CBS' Elizabeth Palmer?

Ultimately, these issues came down to the age-old question: How much is any given human life worth?

and they underlay the inherent failings and contradictions in US foreign policy

If the tides of history are inevitable, why does the United States always have to be behind the curve? 

Hadn't we spent the 1980s and 1990s reaping the bitter fruit of American foreign policy's support for authoritarian regimes instead of the people in three strategic global hot spots?

Nicaragua....

Strongman Anastasio Somoza 

The Phillippines.....

Strongman Ferdinand Marcos and Mrs. Marcos

and Iran?

Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi,
His Imperial Majesty and King of Kings

One striking feature about the regimes the US supported was the intent of the rulers to install family dynasties in the countries they

 ruled over.

It is true that political dynasties are also a feature of American government.

After all, we have 

The Cuomos....

Andrew and Mario

The Clintons.....

The Big Dog and Hillary "1.0"

The Big Dog and Hillary "2.0"

The Daleys.......

Richard and Richie

The Bushes....

41 and 43

and of course, The Kennedys

Joe and Rosemary's Kids

of course, the difference was the scale of the family ambition.

In many of the corrupt authoritarian regimes propped up or condoned by the U.S., from Suharto's Indonesia

Strongman Suharto

Son Hutomo "Tommy" Suharto, Reported to Be Worth
$800 Million U.S.D.
Sentenced in 1982 to 15 years in Prison
 for Paying a Hitman to Assassinate
an Indonesian Supreme Court Justice
 Who Had Convicted Him of Graft

to the Haiti of "Papa Doc" and "Baby Doc" Duvalier

"For Your 21st Birthday, I Give You Haiti"

A form of what might be called 

"Zero-Sum State Enterprise Capitalism"

 was being practiced.

In other words, instead of just increased political influence and economic gain

(think Joseph P. Kennedy), the ruling clans or families in U.S.- supported client regimes

operated under the ground rules that the entire resources of the state and nation

were available to enrich their own family dynasties

President Mubarak was clearly on the same path with his son, Gamal.  

The Sins of The Father?

Mubarak has been in power since the assassination of Anwar Sadat in 1981.  To put things in context,

his plan to pass power on to his son was basically as if Jimmy Carter

 had never left office,

and now wanted Amy to succeed him...

"Not That There Would Be 
Anything Wrong With That, Jimmy"

When America supports regimes and families that loot entire national economies for their own personal fortunes, it simply ensures that the symbol of American values and foreign policy around the world becomes this:

Imelda Marcos' 3000 Shoes

Instead of this: 

The Allies Liberate Paris

Once again, it comes down to whose life is worth how much.

Every American schoolchild is taught that early American colonists revolted over

"No Taxation Without Representation"

"Tea Party" Had A Different Meaning Back Then

So why do we expect people around the world to put up with much more (see below) than high taxes

with no representation?

Was the only justified and legitimate revolution since 1776 the American Revolution?

The Father of Our Nation

Of course, the worst example of the United States' failure to live up to its democratic (and revolutionary) ideals had come in its relationship with South Africa,

where the brutal apartheid policies

implemented by the National Party in 1948 (and directly inspired by the Nazi Party's racial and ethnic policies)

Were being enforced during the 1980s by Prime Minister P.W. Botha, known in Afrikaans by his nickname

"Die Groot Krokodil" ("The Big Crocodile")

"We Don't Like To Give The Full Salute In Public"

Botha's hardline tactics had led to what a 1985 Time Magazine cover called 

"A Challenge to U.S. Policy"

But here is the other contradiction in U.S. Foreign policy: the United States' authoritarian allies, whether P.W. Botha in 1981 or Hosni Mubarak in 2011, typically do not have anywhere else to turn.   The U.S. props them up and supports them in the name of "stability," and declines to put meaningful pressure on them because of the fear of "instability" or the "loss of a strategic ally in a region of vital importance."   

 Who were Botha and the apartheid regime going to ally themselves with in the 1980s?   The Communist Soviet Union?  

And who is Mubarak going to turn to in 2011?  Hezbollah? Hamas?  Al-Qaeda?  Syria?

Fortunately, in South Africa, the results of a worldwide anti-apartheid campaign

and the bold leadership of a heroic Afrikaaner, F.W. de Klerk,

led to the outcome which we still celebrate all over the world.   

Take a look at these brief --- yet moving --- videos to remember what that moment was like:

and allowed Nelson Mandela and South Africans to once again enjoy their sports as people and nations all over the world did --- whatever their form of "football" might be.....

"We Are All Springboks Today"

Super Sunday?

Jerry Jones' big coming out party was supposed to be something like this....

and definitely not this:

You have to wonder if it didn't have Jones yearning for simpler times....

"There is no "I" in "Cowboys"!"

Meanwhile, across, The Pond, there was major football news of another sort as Liverpool sold ace striker Fernando ("El Nino") Torres to sometime rival Chelsea in a $75 million transaction that shook the Premier League to its core.   Was Liverpool abandoning ambitions to remain one of the Big Four (Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool and Manchester United)?

Could "The Kid" find happiness as a Blue, and no longer a Red? 

"At $75 Million, I'm Guessing The Answer is "Yes!""

At Chelsea, Torres would be paired with ace striker and penalty area "dangerman"

Didier Drogba, which some were billing as potentially the most dangerous 1-2 combination in world soccer.

The Magic Touch

The only question seemed to be if there would be enough mirrors in the 

Stamford Bridge locker room for the two prima donna pretty boys,

whose modeling careers drew almost as much attention as their football exploits:

"You Should See Me Pout When
They Don't Pass Me The Ball"

"And Americans Think T.O. and Ochocinco
Are Head Cases!"

Stay tuned next Weekend for Volume 1, Issue 3 of TGG,

and be on the lookout for periodic updates

"as events warrant"