-^-for posterity-^-

i turned on the tv tonight feeling a bit lazy. i didn't really want to think, but it's difficult to find an appropriate outlet for boredom here. you turn on the tv and you still have to think. if you want to understand anything, you have to furrow your brow and concentrate. that is, unless there's a football game on.

vietnam was playing iraq. they were playing some qualifying game for the olympics in athens. i couldn't believe my eyes. the contradictions and historical conflicts and personal experiences all welled up.

who knew iraq still had a football team at all? i mean, during war (let's at least admit to ourselves that the war isn't over. however much a president wants to end a war, it's not possible to do so by landing on an aircraft carrier) i would have expected them to look ragged and bruised. they should have been skinny and hungry. their uniforms should have been nothing more than tatters and rags. they were wearing nike's and gold chains. they stood there and sang along to the national anthem (does an anthem change when there is a 'regime change' or does it stay the same? i wonder what was going through their minds.) the flag was the same. their hair was gelled and they were young and virile.

the game was held in vietnam. the crowd was decked out in red and yellow and kept chanting, 'viet nam! viet nam!' they would cheer every time vietnam touched the ball. they would fall silent every time iraq took control.

the game moved along slowly. there were many random balls kicked and much of the play was a vie for control. it didn't make for a terribly interesting game. i'm not going to stay up for the final but, at half time, iraq is wining 1-0. they don't really even have a government but their football team is somehow wining. nothing makes sense anymore.