Building The Revolution
I went to the Royal Academy to see the exhibition on Soviet Art and Architecture entitled Building the Revolution – Soviet Art and Architecture 1915-1935.
It was fascinating and sad in equal measure.
The former because some of the buildings were spectacular and ground-breaking. It was all rather sad to see the state of decay that some of them are now reduced to.
But then some of our best buildings from the era have suffered a similar fate. Although, it is from just after World War II, I once went over Cliff Key Power Station in Ipswich. That was a real pleasure and it was a pity that it couldn’t have been transformed for a modern purpose. But then those power stations, were built to last thirty years and often the foundations weren’t of the best. Just look at the state of the iconic Battersea Power Station today.
In the Courtyard of te Royal Academy, there was this tower.
It is a modern reconstruction of Tatlin’s Tower; a giant tower that was never built.
Bonkers FIFA
I can understand giving the World Cup to Russia for 2018, but to give it to Qatar for 2022, is probably one of the stupidest decisions they have made in recent years, amongst a whole basketfull.
I’ve been to Russia to support Ipswich and although it was a day trip, it was a pleasureable experience. Especially as Ipswich won in the Olympic Stadium, where Seb Coe and Steve Ovett won their gold medals.
My only worry about Russia is that the Russian police are not noted for being friendly. Even a few thousand Ipswich supporters, who are not noted for trouble, were treated with strong suspicion. When I went to Belarus to support England, other England fans, I said that Minsk was a really pleasureable experience compared to an earlier visit to Moscow, where the police were overly aggressive.
But that is a problem, they will have to overcome, just as they’ll have to come to terms with black players, who often don’t get the best of reception from the crowds in Russia.
When I heard Qatar had won, I thought it was a joke.
The games will be played in very high temperatures, drinking by fans will be a problem and the population of Qatar is only 1.6 million, so it must be the smallest country ever to stage a World Cup. So if they fulfil their promise of building 12 stadia, they would just about be big enough to hold the whole population of the country.
I suspect that it will be the first World Cup that will be played in an alternative venue or it might well be the least successful in terms of visitor numbers. After all, some of the cheaper options for travel and accommodation, will just not be available.
I suspect too, that we’ve not heard the last of these two World Cup bids, when a few investigative journalists get their noses into the story.
I also can’t get it out of my mind, that for 2022, the United States was one of the bidders and I suspect that their bid was strong. So did the invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan mean that no-one would vote for England or the United States.
This article from the Brisbane Times is a good summary of the farce. Like England, Australia got just one vote.
This paragraph from the article quotes Henry Winter of the Daily Telegraph.
But prominent English football analyst Henry Winter, while lamenting his country’s loss, wrote in London’s Daily Telegraph that Qatar’s win was “the real scandal” and that FIFA credibility was battered by its decisions.
“Yet the real scandal in FIFA-ville was the decision to award the 2022 tournament to Qatar, a soulless, featureless, air-conditioned, cramped place with so little connection to football it required hired hands like Pep Guardiola. It was as if FIFA were saying ‘to hell with the fans’. Qatar 2022 will be a joyless experience for supporters,” Winter said.
“FIFA’s credibility was battered yesterday, not by any allegations of corruption but by the cynical game of collusion and vote-trading that patently went on in Fifa House. All the fish are soiled.”
We’ve not heard the last of this scandal.
The FBI Wades In
I posted the question, Are We Winning the Spam Wars, a few days ago.
Today there is this fascinating article on how the FBI is targetting a Russian spammer, on a web site called The Smoking Gun. The web site was started independently, but is now part of media giant, Time Warner, and gets a lot of its information through the Freedom of Information Act.
The numbers in the article are huge. The Russian is alledged to have controlled 500,000 computers and sent billions of spam e-mails every day, selling fake Rolexes and all the other rubbish. For one six-month period, he was paid, $459,000 by his clients.
I hope Mr. Putin is taking note and sends a few men round with heavy boots and large machine guns!
James Blunt and His Part in Stopping World War 3
The story isn’t quite as dramatic as that, but it shows the different in attitude between US and UK forces, when it comes to dealing with a little local difficulty over Pristina airfield in Kosovo with the Russians.
In the end the view of General Mike Jackson prevailed over that of his commander, the US general, Wesley Clark. So Blunt and his troops, encircled the Russians and when the Russians food and water ran out, the Russians felt it prudent to co-operate and share the airfield.
But even so, Blunt admitted that he wouldn’t have fought the Russians, as he didn’t want to be the man who started World War 3, even if he had been court-martialed later.
What a Disappointment!
The Russian football is not being shown! Sad, but in the grand scheme of things, not really! But suppose there was an elderly Muscovite, living in the UK, who was not very well and had been really looking forward to watching Spartak Moscow! ESPN have just made his day!
The Russian Attack
It would appear that Russia has been using Twitter, Facebook and other sites to silence a Georgian with whom they disagree.
I take a dim view of this, as I’m a great believer in free speech, but it doesn’t really matter that much. The fact that it’s now clear that the Russians attempted the silencing does them more damage, than one Georgian blogger.
Technology will continue to improve over the next few years and censorship of the Internet will make these sort of attacks much more difficult.
I do find it strange that Russia should use the Internet in this way, when according to Internet spam experts like SpamHaus, three of the top ten spammers are based in the Russian Federation. I think of phrases that use pot, kettle and black.
The Anonymous Widower 