November 14, 2005
WELL, WE KNOW HEADING THE BALL CAUSES BRAIN DAMAGE...:
The Idiots Abroad (John Tierney, 11/08/05, NY Times)
If President Bush wants to know what went wrong on his trip south, I recommend a book by three Latin American journalists. Their Guide to the Perfect Latin American Idiot, a best seller when it was published nine years ago, remains indispensable for understanding phenomena like Diego Maradona.Posted by Orrin Judd at November 14, 2005 8:30 AMMaradona, born in a shantytown near Buenos Aires, became the world's most famous soccer player in the 1980's after he left Argentina to play for teams in Spain and Italy. Besides collecting his $5 million salary in Europe, he played exhibition games in Arab countries at $325,000 per appearance and made $10 million annually in endorsement contracts with corporations based in at least four continents, companies like Puma, Fuji-Xerox and Coca-Cola.
And what did he learn from this international rags-to-riches tale? During Bush's visit to Argentina, Maradona took time out from his busy schedule (he now has a television show) to help rally tens of thousands of people against that horrible modern scourge: free trade. [...]
''Maradona embodies the wonderful possibilities of globalization, yet he does everything in his power to deny people poorer than himself to participate in that world,'' said one of the ''Perfect Idiot'' authors, Alvaro Vargas Llosa, the Peruvian journalist (and son of the novelist Mario Vargas Llosa). ''Everything Maradona and Chavez stand for has been tried before. These populists are repeating the mistakes of the Mexican Revolution, of Brazil in the 30's, of Argentina in the 50's, of Peru in the 80's.''
I guess because I don't get most of my information from the MSM, I wasn't aware that Pres. Bush's trip went all that wrong...
Posted by: Rick T. at November 14, 2005 9:38 AMActually, NOT heading the ball is what Maradona is most famous for. Tee-hee...
Posted by: b at November 14, 2005 11:29 AMThat's a great book. I got a copy for my friend the Intrepid Girl Reporter when she went off to cover South America for her newspaper.
The book does a good job of taking the idiots at their word and showing how they don't make sense, even in their own terms (like, believing that trade with America is destroying South America while objecting to the Cuban embargo. If the first is true, isn't the second a win for Cuba?).
Posted by: Annoying Old Guy at November 14, 2005 2:42 PMAOG: Exactly the point I've made to various leftists. How can they object to the Cuban embargo? Aren't we stopping Cuba from being exploited by American capitalism?
Posted by: PapayaSF at November 14, 2005 4:40 PM