Of FIFA World Cup celebrations and clean stadiums

The U-17 FIFA World Cup is currently underway in India and the U-17 national team had a commendable outing for their maiden appearance even though they lost all 3 games in the group stage and are knocked out. A first-ever goal scored in a football world cup for India in the match against Colombia could be hailed as the highlight.

In all those celebrations though, images have been making the rounds of all the mess left behind by the spectators. Is it too much to ask for to carry the waste to a bin on your way out? We keep grumbling about the mess at every corner in the country. Forget political weightage to the cleanliness drives. It's just a simple carry-and-drop to teh nearest bin. If it's full and overflowing and you cannot carry the waste to the next bin, no matter. At least the authorities have an inkling that the provisions for the waste are insufficient. Leaving the mess at the seats only makes it that much more difficult to clean.

There have been complaints raised against organisers for the lack of drinking water available, unclean toilets, lack of signage, and where there has been signage, access has been blocked off with no alternative directions available. That is something we need the organisers to own up responsibility for and ensure better arrangements as the tournament progresses.

For now, one step at a time we say. Let's start with ourselves. And the change shall follow.

The return to blog life...

And so I'm back! 7 years, 4 months and 7 days since my last post, and multiple tours-of-duty later I finally manage to get to my blog. A LOT of water has passed by under the bridge.

Watched friends get married, have kids, move house, take new jobs even. Have had a lot of travelling while sailing too. Was lucky to get onboard a container feeder vessel doing the U.S. east coast and the Caribbean which allowed me to explore quite a bit of the much touted Carib culture. Another time I'd been ashore in Brasil for close to a fortnight waiting for my ship to berth so I could get on it. Had my ship involved in a collision with another on one occassion and on another occassion a different ship I was on had a grounding incident while exiting a river passage. Seven years is a long time with a plethora of tales. Let's see what I can put down from here on.

Currently I've been ashore for an extended period of time trying to clear my exams and get my next higher license. And given the amount of time I've had on my hands I can only attribute it to sheer laziness that I haven't gotten back to this blog.

Time and tide wait for no man, so here's to trying to get this blog back up and running.

In the words of the ever immortal Cap'n Jack Sparrow... 'Now - bring me that horizon'.

Collateral murder?

It's chilling. In 2007, in Iraq, a dozen people and 2 Reuters press staff were killed in an aerial attack by the U.S. military. The U.S. military assessment of the incident was that the attack was justified according to the Rules of Engagement.

Unfortunately, the footage of this incident which was recently released in Wikileaks shows that at the very least, the Rules of Engagement could be flawed. The casualness with which the egging on for a chance to shoot down some more 'targets' as it is shown in the video is .. I dunno... scary?

A REUTERS report had a U.S. defence official confirming the authenticity of the video and the audio.

It's just plain chilling.

Of Cricket, IPL and development?

It's funny watching the recent auction for the 2 new franchisees hike up the valuation ratings for the previous IPL teams by close to 200%!!! The cheapest team was the Deccan Chargers and they seem to be holding a GOLDMINE in their hands by the look of things.
It's interesting if you notice the 2 new teams to come in: Kochi and Pune (or Poona as some would have you say). Sahara Group won the Pune franchisee. The Kochi franchisee was won by Rendezvous Group.
Rendezvous group has Vivek Venugopal, Anchor switches, Rosy Blue Diamond, Mukesh Patel, Ravi and Sanjay Gaikwad as part of the consortium. (Info courtesty IPL Chairman, LKModi tweets). How did they get together? Our very own Tweet-Popular Minister of State for External Affairs, Mr. Shashi Tharoor would be credited over here.
Again courtesy of Mr. LKModi's tweets:
"Shashi Tharoor is a cricket enthusiast and always wanted an ipl team in his state. He was the galvanising force behind getting a group there. Shashi tharoor's role is just that and not that of an investor. He wanted a team in his state and he worked hard to get one. He managed it. Shashi tharoor worked hard to put this together and I must congratulate him in putting this together so quickly and swiftly."
Dr. Shashi Tharoor has always said he wanted to work towards making Kerala better. And how! He's utilised his position well! In an interesting article a couple of months ago, Dr. Shashi Tharoor concluded an agreement in principle with the Mayor of Barcelona for twinning of the cities of Barcelona and Thiruvanathapuram
This guy really makes sure he can do what he can for the development of his place. Unlike some others...
I mean, how many of us knew about a group called the IOR-ARC? That again is another interesting read.
Coming back to the IPL, with Kochi, it now means the 4 southern states of Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh now have an IPL team each! (P.S. did you know Dravida in our National Anthem meant Southern India? I didn't :( )
And with Sreesanth making public that he would not mind playing for the Kochi team next year, (Come on! It's obvious! Home boy for the home team!) I guess there would be quite the hunt around for some Fraud Mallus too as we so put it.
(Unfamiliar with the term Fraud Mallus? Look up the group on Orkut or Facebook! :P)