Political philosophy of football
Macroeconomists have an abysmal record when it comes to forecasting. As Tim Harford documents, as late as September 2008 —when the Lehman Brothers collapsed —consensus among the economists at the Wall Street and City of London was that no major economy would fall into recession in 2009. Not deterred by such abysmal failure, market economists have ventured into predicting the World Cup. The overwhelming favourite is Brazil.
And economists of Goldman Sachs —which dominates the Wall Street the way Brazil dominates football —have actually published the analysis behind their prediction. According to their analysis, Brazil has a nearly 50% chance of winning. Of course, Brazil is also the favourite in the betting markets. But as of kick off (that is, before the Croatian counter attack stunned the world), betting agencies such as Ladbrokes were implying only around 25% chance of a Brazil win.
Of cheats and phonies
When a Chinese girl smashed records previously held by American blokes, typical reaction was one of incredulity. And that’s the polite way of putting it. The blunt way was — she was on steroids.
In the event, no doping has been found. But so what if she was, indeed, on some drugs? Teenage swimmers, not just in China, and indeed not just swimmers, spend years, from their childhood, in intense training. For all purposes, they have nothing like what one could call a ‘normal’ childhood and upbringing. Would steroids have done that much more damage to her?
And that’s when we are talking about teenagers. When it comes to adults like Lance Armstrong or Ben Johnson, why do we care if they took performance enhancing drugs?
It’s against the law, you say. But that just puts the question one step back? Why do we have a law against doping? If someone risks growing a third nipple or disfigured testicles to win Olympics glory, should the society care?
সাতকাহন
To compensate for the recent hiatus — caused by microcosmic organisms with evil side effects — a double edition of trashes collected by the senses. Normal ramblings should begin soon.
A new nationalist synthesis
Last year, I posted Rumi bhai’s video of Amar Shonar Bangla sung during the opening match of the Cricket World Cup. I thought the tone-deaf singing perfectly captured the instinctive attachment with the song that most Bangladeshis feel. But quite a few thought the beautiful song was ‘mis-represented’. Thankfully, no one has taken me to the courts over this.
Just to be on the safe side, let me begin this year’s Independence Day post with a more harmonic rendition.
It is a beautiful song. Nothing I say over the fold will remotely match what you’ve just heard. So feel free to ignore the rest of the post — honestly, I won’t mind. 🙂
Mukti 
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