Proud of Brazil, maybe.

As soon as the Brazilian opening ceremony ended, I rushed to my computer to find out if Brazil's enormously effective pleas to save the environment wasn't a gross display of cynicism. I knew that during the last 40 years close to 20% of the Amazon Rain Forest has been eliminated, Brazil being the largest country and thus the most culpable.

As I searched the net, I was happy to read that since 2009 Brazil has been making an effort to stem the destruction. Proof is in the pudding, as they say, and in the case of this Amazonian pudding, the Brazilian Environmental Agency IBAMA has cancelled the Sao Luiz doTapajos mega-dam project in the heart of the Amazon. Hurrah, good for them! Now, lets work on the other 42 hydro dam projects planned in the Tapajos Basin and the hundreds ear marked across the Amazon Forest. I say this with respect. The ceremony that opened the summer Olympics was not, thank goodness, just for show, and in this regard Brazil and its citizens can be proud.

Another note, and less to be proud of, Brazil should do more than praise the culture that originates out of its slums and do more about doing away with its slums. 

All the politics aside, what's not to like about all the best athletes in the world meeting and competing head to head. Sure, the Big Dogs usually take home most of the medals, but occasionally some of the smaller countries get to stand on the podium and watch their flag being raised.

In my humble opinion, more should be done by the networks to promote more of the less sexy sports, (actually, they are sexy) like Tae Kuan Do, badminton, table tennis, Greco Roman wrestling, archery, fencing, equestrian.

One more shot at the ad biz. Was anybody annoyed by the number of commercials that interfered with a splendid opening ceremony last night. Auto sales vs The Girl from Ipanina?? Are you kidding?

Sorry that Pele did not light the Olympic flag. If Pele was physically unable, couldn't they have done what Atlanta did with Ali, have him standing at the top and receiving the torch for the final touch. I don't get it. There's got to be more to this story.


David Allen Evans wrote a fine poem about pole vaulting:

Pole Vaulter

The approach to the bar
is everything

unless I have counted
my steps     hit my markers
feel up to it      I refuse
to follow through
I am committed to beginnings
or to nothing

planting the pole
at runway's end
jolts me
out of sprinting
I take off     kicking in
and up     my whole weight
trying the frailty
of fiberglass

never forcing myself
trusting it is right
to be taken to the end
of tension    poised for 
the powerful thrust to
fly me behyond expectation

near the peak
I roll my thighs inward
arch my back     clearing
as much of the bar as I can
(knowing the best jump
can be cancelled
by a carelss elbow)

an open my hands 



 

This and That

This mornings' sports page produced a number of interesting articles and subjects. I was fascinated to read about the Olympic starts of different countries, like Ning Zetao the Chinese 100 meter freestyle swimmer, who according to Chinese press is a heartthrob among Chinese women because he's so "handsome." Also glad to read that Steven Adams' (OKC Thunder) sister,  Valerie Adams (2 time Gold medalist) has recovered from injury and is out to win a gold in the shot-put. An Chang-rim, a Japanese citizen of Korean parents is competing in Judo for Korea, which has endeared him to the Korean people. Understanding the tragic history of these two countries, makes this move by him significant and newsworthy. My favorite was reading that Sir Mark Todd, gold medalist in equestrian will be competing at age 60. Go Sir Todd, we seniors are with you all the way.

A very disturbing piece of news for this writer was the announcement that because of the publicity surrounding the Zika virus, polluted water, and political unrest in Brazil "Advertisers are exceptionally bullish on these games." Like F--king hyenas is my thinking. It is the absolute brazenness of the ad industry that they have no qualms about admitting taking advantage of illness to sell space to the  companies they represent. And fie on the companies who go along with it. It is a moral and ethical disgrace. And they should heap ashes on theirs heads. Or, better yet, let me do the heaping.

Okay, I ADMIT to a prejudice against television commercials. It's getting to a point I can hardly watch golf or football any more because of the plethora of commercial time that interrupts the flow and commentary of the games. Although I'm not a huge fan of soccer, the saving grace watching soccer is they play without timeouts except at half, thus limiting commercials.

It's too bad Mark Gasul is not playing for Spain. With him on the Spanish team, our Americans would have been challenged by Spain. As it is now, I don't see any other country beating U.S.A. Hope I'm not jinxing them.

Great interest to see if Usain Bolt can defending his 100 and 200 meter strangle hold on gold. And what will Michael Phelps do?

On to NFL: Ken Stabler, The Snake, made it into the Hall of Fame, posthumously, but well deserved. Snake and I were contemporaries in our separate sports. It was an era when sports among a great many professional athletes was never allowed to interfere with "the post game rock & roll." It was a time before "Big $" drove the pros to take themselves so obnoxiously seriously. Not that the athletes of that time didn't take their sport seriously. They did and their greatness speaks for them. The Snake and players like him, of which there were many, me included, loved the camaraderie of the post game celebration. Okay, so we didn't pay as much attention to our physical condition as we should have, but I wouldn't, and I daresay Snake wouldn't either, have missed out on hoisting a few in exchange for better looking  abs. Congrats, Snake. You're upstairs rubbing elbows with the Saints.

Women's basketball: Elena Delle Donne came out of the closet. Who cares any more? Perhaps a bunch off rigid religionists and bigots. Why am I commenting? Because it seems strange to me that when women athletes come out, there doesn't seem to be any huge uproar in the locker room or about the locker room, but if a male athlete comes out, whoa, all sorts of anxiety surfaces. Enough said.

Back to the Olympics. I suspect the opening ceremony is going to be one big Samba. I'll be watching and dancing. My son, Matthew, spent a semester in college in Brazil and came back a huge fan of Brazilian music and dance - the martial arts dance, the Capoeira in particular. Let's hope all the athletes of all countries compete safely and return illness free with their victories.

Here's a prose poem I wrote about the Olympics.

Olympics 2012    by Tom Meschery

I'm watching women's beach volleyball
and trying to tell myself it's not about the bikinis.
My wife is grousing about wanting to watch
dressage on another channel, a sport in which
all the riders are not only fully clothed
but wear formal riding attire, with top hats
and sit elegantly astide their horses.
How can that compare, I say, to Kerri leaping
for the ball in the sand for the save?
Who're you kidding, my wife asks. 
I don't see you smiling that way when you're watching
the guys play. The truth needs to be acknowledged,
but I remain sullen, unable to accept I have not
changed much since I was a teen lying on the sand,
rubbing myself with oil, watching all the girls 
go by, the sun turning us golden.