.The MDM . Wonderlance.

Featured Interviews
Artistry
MICHAEL BLAKE
(HOLLYWOOD, USA)
TOM PIPER
(RSC, London, UK)
CHRISTOPHER GUEST
(UK)
ROBIN FOX
(UK)
Music
JAMIE LIDELL
(NEW YORK, USA)
TOBIAS WILNER
("Bichi", "Blue Foundation", "Ghost Society", Denmark)
LIN DI
("Cold Fairyland", China)
KILLAFLAW
(UK)
Scientech
DR ROBYN LUCAS
(National Centre for Epidemiology and
Population Health, ANU, AUSTRALIA)
DR SETH FORMAN
(Tampa, USA)
Socialogue
ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR THOMAS BEAMISH (University of
California-Davis, USA)
ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR
GEORGE GONZALEZ
(University of Miami, USA)
Articles
OIL vs. PEOPLE
OIL VS. EARTH
THE SUN IS BURNING
HOLOGRAPHIC EVERYTHING
THE HOROSCOPE BATTLE
UFO
Specials
STONEHENGE
LEARNING HOLLYWOOD SECRETS
WORLD CUP
Reviews New Releases
film
SPLICE
(Featuring exclusive interview
with award-winning
special effects expert
JASON BOARD
(Canada - USA)
KARATE KID
Other Reviews
film
IRON MAN2
Recommendations
Books
SOLAR
PARALLEL WORLDS
AHAB'S WIFE
THE HOST
INSTANT SELF-HYPNOSIS

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SPECIALS

WORLD CUP
“Game or sport, football unifies masses”
By SRM

The underdog, the team that nobody expected (well, except Paul the Squid) to win a FIFA World Cup, finally did this year, as this is indeed the first World Cup for Spain.

With it, Spain has finally ended years of struggling to get passed through quarterfinals.

Many argue whether Germany was most deserving of that first place as it was the highest-scoring team (16 goals). The truth is that, whether by 1 goal or by 4, La Roja rose above a team that seemed to be compelled to break down its midfield artistry by hook or by crook.

Masters of their usual renowned "tiki-taka" style, the Spaniards were pushed out of their comfort zone by the Netherlands and their number 6, Andres Iniesta, saw his chance to re-write history.

And he did.

Two years ago Spain celebrated another well deserved European championship title. The streets filled with people in an apotheosis such that it seemed as if world peace and the end of hunger had both been proclamed at once.

This time the frenzy was even higher. Football supporters and non-supporters, Spaniards and foreign alike, have united in a celebration that has lasted days.

Why does football seem to have the power to unify masses?

Maybe it is not even a question about why football (soccer) itself yields such power.

Maybe it is a question of why we need to compete with others in order to unite in hope and in celebration.

Of this knows very well South-African president Nelson Mandela. In his first term as President of the country, which this year has held the FIFA World Cup, initiated a unique venture to unite the apartheid-torn land, enlisting the national rugby team on a mission to win the 1995 Rugby World Cup.

And they did.

Oustanding film director Clint Eastwood, portrayed this feat in his acclaimed "Invictus" (2009).

Invictus (which is Latin, meaning 'unconquered'), is a poem by William Ernest Henley that kept Mandela' spirits up while he was imprisoned.

The poem goes like this:

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll.
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

In 1995 both white and black South Africans were cheering for their team in celebration, thus fullfilling both the desire and the vision of Nelson Mandela to see his country at last united.

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(Continue below)

Paul the Squid

In 2008 I happened to be in the Costa del Sol in Spain when their national team won the European title.

What striked me the most, was not the fact that the Spaniards were united to celebrate their team's awaited victory but the fact that all who were there at that moment in time, Spanish, English, French, Italian, Portuguese, Brazilian, German, Dutch, black, white, oriental, Christian, Muslim, agnostic, ALL were united in celebration.

It was a world-peace-and-the-end-of-hunger-proclamation feeling as I could testify, with my own eyes, how daily prejudices, distrust and fear, all were washed away by buckets of water thrown in cheers.

If football, rugby or tennis, any sport can prompt us to do this, even if just for one day, I am declaring myself a sports fanatic, a game player, a believer.

And today I am wearing red.

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Specials