I had a quick look at this fun graphic thing in the Wall Street Journal, the "World Cup of Everything Else". Iran wins quite a few things, e.g. most married women, most Muslims, highest consumption of tree nuts, highest traffic death rate. I also had an Iranian on my MA course and went to her Persian New Year party in the year when the Guardian was suddenly hyping being the only non-Muslim at a Ramadan party, which made me feel slightly ahead of the curve.
I think I kind of like Iran, it seems a case of good people, bad government. Even their (very unpleasant) government seems to have a sense of humour in how they wind up the UK and US, unlike, say, the tiresome high camp of North Korea. I like their food too, what little I've tried of it.
But I think I'm going to have to go for Bosnia and Herzegovina. They only win one of the WSJ's World Cups - unemployment, a staggering 44.3%. There were serious riots in Bosnia in February, dubbed the Bosnian Spring, which I must confess completely passed me by. Bosnia has pretty much been victim to the classic post-communist disease of having all the state assets sold off to dodgy characters who then strip the assets and screw the workers.
They also have a fascinating political structure: the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina accounts for only 51% of the land mass of the country "Bosnia and Herzegovina", with the rest taken up by semi-autonomous regions. I don't have time to explain it in full but check out the Wiki page. There is also the High Representative of the international community who can bypass parliament and fire elected officials - Paddy Ashdown was one for a bit. That office will remain until Bosnia and Herzegovina can prove that it is grown up enough to run itself properly.
So yeah, I feel like B&H getting out of the group stages will mean a lot to the country - they are also the only one out of them and Iran likely to even have a shot, and I'll be watching the final group stage match. So while Iran are technically the underdog in the head-to-head, I'm supporting Bosnia & Herzegovina as the underdog in the broader sense.
Also check out this flag!
I mean what the fuck is going on here? It's really long, a 1:2 proportion, very rare. I love the half stars on the top and bottom, thinking outside of the box there.
Sudden panic: you're going to keep this blog going when the World Cup is underway (and afterwards), right? Keep the same title.
ReplyDeleteI don't mean from Brazil. You can take a holiday then.
DeleteHmm well the initial conceit was that it would run until either the start of the World Cup or the start of my trip, i.e. where I was delaying life decisions. I have since passed through a series of personal crisi-tunities and developed something of a plan, somewhat ahead of schedule. Writing the blog has helped me do that. The blog is thus already feeling (to me anyway) that it's run its course. However, not all has been settled for me yet, so I should probably keep updating, partially for the blog to make sense (object, too, have agency) but also to maintain some thread of continuity to the crisis state of early 2014 even as I am re-enveloped into the world of corporate ghosts.
ReplyDeleteSo I'll wrap up the daily updates tomorrow before kick off, and then give some ad hoc updates. I hope it will eventually become the most boring blog imaginable, just an endless series of updates related to tapestry, sauerkraut and brewing.
That sounds good. Occasional updates. Don't feel like you need to entertain anyone. It's the future of blogging.
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