my country is better than yours
I hate nationalism and I generally have a hard time stomaching patriotism (which is often just nationalism dressed in casual clothes, which is often xenophobia wearing a dressing gown*). Anything that implies "my country is better than your country" is generally imbecilic and idiotic. As is the sort of patriotism/nationalism that expects uncritical support for dubious wars.
BUT…
I confess that I become irrationally patriotic (not that it's ever necessarily rational) when it comes to sport. Not all sports, but some. Even when I think the individuals involved are probably arrogant dicks (e.g., most of the Australian cricket team), I still feel happier when the Australian side wins than when it loses. It's fleeting and superficial, generally, but it's there.
I KNOW the Australia Vs Italy World Cup game was (as Brother of Secret Wombat would say) just a bunch of sweaty men chasing a leather egg – but I felt gutted, damn it. Ah well. There's always curling – we need to find the Guus Hiddink equivalent (i.e., curling supercoach) and build our way up to the fairytale…warm country…no tradition in winter sports…oh, what a fairytale it would be. Any sport that involves brooms and uniforms like this is numero uno in my book.
*The clothing metaphor is a stretch, I know. But, if you avoid analysing it, it surely comes across as profound.
posted by secret wombat at 10:52 am
8 Comments:
Curling - the Scots are the olympic gold medal holders, you have nay chance mate!
Anon - if only because the ref would call a dodgy penalty with 10 seconds remaining.
The Swedes (ladies) are olympic gold medal holders 2006. And Canada won the men's tournament. Not that I'm really interested in curling, I just catch up every four years since it's one of the few events we actually get medals in. (In the summer games it's usually double trap skeet shooting or something). But I'm sure the ref was the reason for the scottish team not going all the way this time.
BTW 1. Wasn't there an aussie winning speed skating four years ago?
BTW 2. I didn't see the game, and the penalty was dodgy but no way you would have stood extra time/penalties against the italians. And this has nothing to do with frustration over the swedish team sleeping it's way through the first half of the game against Germany.
/J.
LG:
BTW 1: Yes, Steven Bradbury, I think his name is. He was coming third (or 4th?) and everyone in front of him went arse-over-tit in the last 50 metres.
BTW 2: 1 man up (the Italians lost a guy to a red card) and apparently superior fitness...I think, given the Italians one the whole thing, had it not been for the dodgy penalty, Australia would have been world cup champions. The logic is impeccable.
Impeccable indeed. You got me.
/J.
I got you even if I did write "won" as "one", LG. Coulda happened to anybody!
Won good thing about having english as second language is that we're not particulary sensitive to misspellings.
/J.
But you spelled "misspelling" correctly, so you're doing better than many...
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