Ukraine-Italy: 3-0, some afterthoughts

Welcome back to the real world of football. In that world, Italy and Ukraine belong to different categories and only a miracle could've averted the predictable outcome. Seemingly the story is the same - 0:4 from Spain don't look that much different than 0:3 from Italy. However, in terms of the quality of Ukraine's play the contrast was stark - Ukraine played better and actually did have first-rate scoring chances. Had Kalinichenko scored on 62th(?) minute to have the game tied 1:1, who knows...
And Shevchenko might as well not to try to save his excellent dribling till the very last minute.
Italy goes on Ukraine goes home with pride...

Thank you lads, for everything!

Cheer for Ukraine!

"Cars" in Ukrainian

Cars, a quintessentially American cartoon flick, has brought 1,5 million hryvnia since it opened on June 16 throughout Ukraine. Sounds like small peanuts compared to America’s 11,5 million dollars (the exchange rate is 1:5 in favour of the green so go figure). However there is something truly revolutionary about this, seemingly banal, show biz event. Half of Ukraine’s 70 copies were in Ukrainian and on average, as Kommersant reports, more people watched the movie in Ukrainian than in Russian. Up to this day the movie industry has been the one where the Russian language totally dominated. No matter where you live, in Kharkiv, Odessa, Ivano-Frankivsk, or Lviv – all movies would be dubbed in Russian, leaving Ukrainophones with no choice (subtitles are not very popular in this part of the world). So things are a-changin'...
It’s a very good news – I’m definitely elated.

Ukraine-Switzerland

BBC reports
Ukraine reached the quarter-finals after beating Switzerland on penalties.
The Swiss missed three spotkicks, but Ukraine's Artem Milevskiy, Serghiy Rebrov and Oleg Gusev made no mistake to seal a 3-0 shoot-out victory.

What can I say? Few people, including all four TSN analysts, believed in Ukraine. Yes, it was not an impressive game - no goals, scarce shots, lack of technical skills . And yet, ultimately all that matters is the final outcome - Ukraine has done it!!!
An interesting (and sympathetic to Ukraine) account of the match can be found here.

Ukraine - Saudi Arabia: a total comeback

4:0
That's the score of the game in which Ukraine trounced Saudi Arabia thereby redeeming themselves for the identical loss to Spain.
I'm happy as everyone else in Ukraine and the diaspora but the skeptic and cynic in me urges to come down and take it easy.
From what I've seen so far, Saudi Arabia is THE worst team of the tournament. Zero skill, louse defence, impotent offense. How come they mananaged to get a tie against Tunisia? I have no idea.
The game was a slow paced one which differed it markedly for other games. Ukraine scored some nice goals but again there is still much to be desired in terms of qualityn of their play.
I was very happy that Serhiy Rebrov scored a long-shot. After all, my team Ukraine shirt bears his name :-)

Anyways,
Вперед, Україно!

P.S. If you can read Russian here's a funny online commentary from RTR-Sport.

falafel as the weapon of the infidels

It's that remarkable how a small story can make you ponder deeply about deep socio-cultural trends shaping the modern world:

Aqeel Hussein
Daily Telegraph
441 words
4 June 2006
BAGHDAD - As the purveyors of nothing spicier than the odd dash of hot chilli sauce, Baghdad's falafel vendors had never imagined their snacks might be deemed a threat to public morality.

Now, though, their simple offerings of chickpeas fried in breadcrumbs have gone the same way as alcohol, pop music and foreign films -- labelled theologically impure by the country's growing number of Islamic zealots.

In a bizarre example of Iraq's creeping "Talibanisation," militants visited falafel vendors a fortnight ago, telling them to pack up their stalls by Sunday or be killed.

The ultimatum seemed so bizarre that, at first, most laughed it off -- until two of them were shot dead as they plied their trade.

"They came telling us, 'You have 14 days to end this job' and I asked them what was the problem," said Abu Zeinab, 32, who was packing up his stall for good Saturday in the suburb of al Dora, a hardline Sunni neighbourhood.

"I said I was just feeding the people, but they said there were no falafels in Muhammad the Prophet's time, so we shouldn't have them either.

"I felt like telling them there were no Kalashnikovs in Mohammed's time either, but I wanted to keep my life."

It's of course highly ironic that the imagined return to the sixth century way of life can only be enforced with the help of a twenty century weaponry. So the vendor is right and wish him well and hope he's still alive.
But on the other hand, setting aside the extremity of this particular case, this example may serve as a perfect metaphor that separates the post-modern world of the West with its obsession on keeping up with the current (from fashion to religion) and other parts of our planet where people discuss whether falafels should be banned or not.

News from the Wonderland Russia: the guard is tired...

The guard is tired said saylor Zhelezniak and that's how the short-lived era of free Russian parliamentarism ended in 1918.
Soviet parliament (the Surpreme Soviet) was a fictitiuous institution stripped of any power of decision-making whatsoever. And so is apparently the Federation Council (Senate) in the new, supposedly free and democratic, Russia.
The latest proof thereof came just today after Putin sent packing his fiercely loyal Prosecutor General, Vladimir Ustinov. As usual, no explanation was given so the media is abuzz over it, speculating about possible reasons for his dismissal.
But senators who according to the law are to dismiss the prosecutor formally, are in a difficult situation, struggling to explain the sacking. Striving to rise to the occasion some of them reached the heights of Kafkaesque absurdity.
Gazeta.ru reports:

Левон Чахмахчян, член Совета федерации от Калмыкии
- Я считаю, что отставка принята, потому что нужно уважать права человека. Он имеет право уйти с должности. То, что никаких вопросов не возникло у членов Совета федерации, это нормально.

Levon Chakhmachchyan, member of the Federation Council from Kalmykia
- I think the resignation was accepted because one should respect human rights. He has the right to resign from his position. That's why no questions were asked and that's normal.

[translation and emphasis mine]

Welcome to Putin's Wonderland indeed!