RE: What is The Fascination of Beckham as a Footballer?????

Beckham CAN dribble. It might not be his strongest point but he does dribble from time to time. As has been pointed out, his game is about passing and crossing, vision, the dead ball situations. He also runs non-stop during a game, challenges for the ball all over the pitch, can be inspirational (for England for example) and can also chip in with very good goals in open play.

But I disagree with the fact that he is in the same league as Best. Best was a total genius and his skills and abilities, will not be matched by many players. A wonderful talent and definitely in the same bracket as Pelé ,Maradona and Zidane as far as I am concerned.

RE: Can we get over the grief first?

I think you are being insensitive Geforce.
I am sure many people do cry when they think aboiut this case. People who can imagine the grief the family are going through, and people who have lost close ones. And just people who sympathise with the families and can feel their hurt. Just because you do not feel it, doesn’t mean others react in the same way. I think most people in the UK were very shocked to hear the news after days and days of hoping against hope for the best.

I disgree that the case will be forgotten in a few weeks. It’ll stay with most people, just like The James Bulger murder, Sarah Payne and many others. And we are talking about the general public. Family and friends of the two girls and probably many people who helped in the search will probably never forget about this.

RE: Your fav place in the world?

Hi Glenn,
Sorry it took me a while to reply.
I’d been interested in Japan from a fairly young age, mainly because I was fascinated by martial arts. This was reinforced when I started doing martial arts, mainly Karate and getting interested in Japanese history, particularly the activities, philosophies and way of life of various warriors such as the Samurais and the Ninjas.
Since last year, I have been fortunate enough to spend a total of month and a half in Japan on business. I have been totally and utterly conquered by the country. There is so much to admire there. For starters, it’s a complete culture shock, which in itself is a great reason to go. I admire and appreciate the way Japanese people approach work. They work very hard but from my experience do not get angry or fall apart when things go awry. They just get on with it calmly and efficiently.
The level of service is astounding, especially when you are sued to being treated like a nuisance in Western shops by surly assistants.
I absolutely adored the impression of calmness that seems to be a feature of daily life. I know that because of the clichés we often see in Western culture, most people would expect the Japanese to be all stressed up and running around like headless chickens. In fact I found it was completely the opposite. People are quiet, modest, unassuming, natural and there is none of the posturing or ego-feeding you see on any Western street. Sure, lots of kids try to look as American or Beckhamesque as possible. But my impression was one of great politeness towards everyone, an almost total lack of aggression and a refreshing lack of “attitude”.
Being surrounded by calm people rubs off on you and after 3 weeks last time I went, I felt tremendously calm myself.
There are so many fascinating aspects in the country, the mixture of old and new, the modern and the traditional, the Western attitude and the Japanese approach to life… The history is fascinating. The sights (modern and old, town and countryside) are, from the little I have seen, gorgeous.
I had a moment of revelation last year in Iga. Atop the local castle, with the sun descending on the far away mountains, and the wind blowing in pure air, few noises around, I felt utter and total peace with myself, the world, the past, the present, the future. Each new breath I took made me feel calmer, as though I had entered a state of ultimate inner peace. All burdens dropped from my shoulders with each breath. (and I wasn’t either drink or stoned 😀 ). I have never felt anything like this in my entire life…

I known that I have only tapped into Japanese culture and identity, and I hope I will have an opportunity to find out more about it, because I feel there is a world of things to discover.
Oh, and I must say that I find a lot of Japanese women crushingly charming, beautiful and sexy! 😛

I seem to remember you lived or are living in Japan. Do you share these impressions?

RE:

Hmm, yes… I think we’d probably see the same as now, the struggle betwwen slefish people and decent ones, only in a much more intense way.

RE:

I’d be torn between having a good time and preparing myself for the afterlife.
I’d be tempted to get drunk to deaden the nervousness about the impending doom. And there’d be no hangover the morning after…

Hand, you say “I’d certainly cuddle my kids and maybe make love a last time”. What a liar you are… You are French and we all know that 24 hours is not enough for a normal French session between the sheets! 😀

The thing that strikes me is the amount of people who say they’d tell their friends and family they love them. When you think any of us could die in the next half hour, do you not think that tells us something? Obviously if you start coming on all affectionate to you mates and loved ones, they might think you’ve gone bonkers, but IMO it’s worth keeping in mind that one shouldn’t wait too long to say those things. We might feel that “there’ll always be a time for that’, but those who lost close ones know that sometimes, the ‘always’ turns into a ‘never’.

On a lighter note, I think we should all be a tad careful in these situations. If you tell your boss / in-laws you hate them, and rob banks, run naked in the streets, etc. AND the world doesn’t end, the consequences could be a bit unconfortable! 😉

RE: Your fav place in the world?

I’d say parts of Paris, most of Marseille, and Japan.

RE: Is Hollywood working together with the Pentagon?

A recent article in the Sunday Times explained about the increasing level of collaboration between Hollywood and the CIA if I remember rightly. I’ll try and find it because it made some interesting points.

It’s fairly inevitable that some films will reflect the general
preoccupations of the public they are aimed at. But some film-makers will always choose to treat the subject in a sort of fantasy-world way. I trsut part of the audience will see it for nothing more nor less than escapism.

War themes are not a new thing anyway; wasn’it it during WW2 that Laurence Olivier shot Henry V and its patriotic and rousing message?

RE: Eugenics

We have indeed come a log way, Kev. Interesting read, though.

Geforce, I understand what you mean about the leader of a particular country reprensenting the nation and its inhabitants. But there are instances when the elected governement makes decisions you disagree with. (you might not even have voted for them). It is then unconfortable to be associated with the country making these decisions. An exemple: when Chirac was elected in 1995, one of the first things he did was to resume nuclear testing in the Pacific. There was an international outcry. Some of the French who did not vote for him or those who did but disagreed with the nuclear testing felt very uneasy and resented being tarred with the same brush as him.
Same remark for the scenes you sometimes see on television, where French dockers or lorry drivers blockade ports near the Channel. I cringe with embarrassement to share the same nationality as the selfish morons who take foreign holiday makers and family hostage. I utterly disagree with the blockades. But for many Brits, it’s typical of “the French”.
This “strike” business is certainly a French attitude and to an extent a disease, but it also affects French citizens. When postal workers go on strike, businesses and ordinary people suffer the consequences. When railway workers or the charming people at Air France go on strike (usually at busy holiday times) a lot of French users bear the brunt.
My point is that it is really important to distinguish between a group of people making a decision or taking action , and the nation as a whole. I think we agree on this… but I just wanted to point it out, because it really rankles to be associated with a decision made by someone in your country, especially if you were against it in the first place. It is surprising sometimes to see supposedly clever and cultured commentators in the papers or on TV relinquish all sense of proportion and pontificate on one country’s inhabitants as though they were all the same.

As for your remark on sympathy, of course I do not mean a shallow display of solidarity. If you choose to express your sympathy with flags because it works for you, fine. But if it’s an empty gesture, obviously, one shouldn’t bother. I actually beleive flags and candles and vigils we saw in many countries were expression of strong and genuine feelings in the aftermath of the attacks.
I think the events of 9/11 shocked the world in a way rarely seen in recent years. Hence the pretty universal reactions. It’s not to say that other tragedies do not deserve our attention. I feel quite strongly for civilian victims of Allied bombardments, for victims of other terrorist attacks around the world, victims of torture, of hunger, disease, pollution… But there was something unique in the attacks on the USA which struck our collective psyche I think. (quite apart from the fact that there foreign nationals also died in these attacks).