Finally FIFA intervened and explained to the team from Togo that they will play … or else … after the Togolese Football bosses proved to be completely incapable of resolving this embarrassing dispute.

The coach Otto Pfister appears to be sympathetic to the players’ grievances:

“I understand the players, they are being promised things but then nothing happens,” he told reporters at the hotel before the team left for the airport.

Pfister said the federation had yet to pay the players an agreed 50,000 euros ($62,500 dollars) bonus for reaching the finals.

Each team at the World Cup is paid one million Swiss francs (642,000 euros) by FIFA who also pay the travel cost of 45 people per squad.
Togo players end cup boycott fears, CNN, June 18, 2006

That’s probably extra hard to swallow, when all these FTF so-called-officials come to Germany and expect to live large on FIFA expenses.

FRANKFURT, June 18 (Reuters) – Togo did not leave their team base Wangen on Sunday on time for a planned departure to their next World Cup group match.

‘We are still in the hotel,’ coach Otto Pfister told Reuters on the phone when the team was meant to get on the plane to Dortmund, where they are due to play Switzerland on Monday.
Will Togo turn up for Switzerland match?, ESPN, 6/18/06

What will it take for the FTF to figure out a solution??

What a day full of surprises in the Worldcup! Ghana v. Czech Rep. was one of the best, most exciting games I have seen so far. The Black Stars brought the Czech team to its knees and won a great upset. And then the USA – Italy battle … horrible football … but what drama. Wow!

We watched both games at Satisfaction in Durham, and the USA game drew quite a crowd – who says the Americans don’t like football (the real football). Americans appreciate a good, competitive sport when they see one! I noticed a few people stay and watch the game, although they did not go there to see the game, and probably had no idea the Worldcup was on.

I am looking forward to next Thursday’s games – this should be interesting!

[UPDATE: Ghanaweb summarizes today’s game in three words …]

The ongoing trainer/premiums comedy has inflicted quite a bit of international embarrassment upon Togo’s Worldcup team – mostly due to the incompetence of the Togolese football management. Yet, the eperviers gained some respect back in today’s game against South Korea. They fought hard, and showed a strong defense, and some good offense action. Had it not been for a bad foul by their captain, Jean-Paul Abalo on Ji Sung Park, for which Abalo saw the red card and was sent to the bench, this game might have very well ended differently. But for a team without coach and with one man down for half the game, they still gave South Korea a run for their money.

Summaries: ARD (de) | RFI (fr) | BBC (en) | reactions from Togo (BBC)

It makes me mad when the media discuss the premiums of the players for Togo and they point to the average per-capita income for Togo as a comparison for the 155,000 Euro premiums promised to the players. BULLSHIT. Most Togolese players live and work in Europe, and in the European context that is not such an outrageous premium. Some of the other teams pay a lot more than that. Also, the FIFA contributes at least 4.5 Million Euros to every team in the finals. And the Gnassingé clan, who runs Togo, is worth Billions of Dollars (Google cache).

So, the players see their boss Rock Gnassingbé get off his private jet with an entourage of FTF fonctionnaires, expecting to live large in Germany on FIFA money. Yet, the FTF bosses are surprised that the players are not very inclined to play for the honor of the nation and a bowl of fufu??

[UPDATE: here’s another Togo Football blog]

[UPDATE: Agbessi over at Au Village vents his frustration (fr) about the situation with the Togolese Football management. You tell ’em, my friend.]

In one way Togo already lost the Worldcup. Sadly, this loss was not inflicted upon the team, and the country, in a fair sports competition in the stadium. Rather, the incompetence of the football (soccer) bosses of the Togolese Football Federation (FTF) bear full responsibility for the current, sad state of affairs.

The lack of leadership within the FTF is almost comical. It seems rather unclear who is in charge there. Winfried Schäfer, who at one point was supposed to take over as coach, reportedly (de) said that “too many officials are running around” at the camp of Togo’s team in Wangen, and one of the coaches, Mawuena Kodjovi, is scheming in the background. Schäfer cited the persistent, total chaos and lack of leadership as the reason he lost interest in the job.

After Schäfer’s retreat, on Monday, Messan Attolou announced that Pfister would be back on the job. Reportedly, an intervention from Rock Gnassingbé, who is supposedly in charge of the FTF, brought about an agreement. Then, two hours later, a special envoy from the President of Togo, Faure Gnassingbé (yes – the brother of Rock Gnassingbé!) – the President of the Togolese Olympic Commitee Zoumaro Gnofame says that, no, Kodjovi Mawuena will be coach.

None of this helps to clarify to the rest of the world who is in charge at the FTF. But it does shed some light on the management competence of Rock Gnassingbé.

Oh boy – that’s IT for the eperviers’ chances in this worldcup.

Pfister only took charge of the team earlier this year Togo’s World Cup Group G preparations are in turmoil after coach Otto Pfister resigned over a pay dispute.
His former assistant Kodjovi Mawuena will take charge of the side for their first game with South Korea on 13 June. “When I started to be manager of Togo, I was promised that bonuses for the players would be cleared,” Pfister told Fifaworldcup.com.
Togo coach Pfister quits over pay, BBC News, 10 June 2006

There had been rumblings about money problems and the, but this really sucks. I guess the Togolese Football Federation just has NO interest in the team doing well and earning some respect for the West African country.

Many years ago, I spent several intense, fun summers in Morocco. Besides biking through the Atlas and hanging out at various beaches, I spent weeks roaming the Médina of Fès with my Fassi friends Mammoun and Mohammed.

Samir at A View from Fès posted some great accounts – and wonderful pictures by Suzanna Clarke – about the ongoing Festival of Sacred Music in Fès. Boy – I wish I could be there! The Sufi Nights sounds amazing! Maybe next year …
photo copyright Suzanna Clarke 2006

The word of the day, on this day – 6/6/06, I guess, is hexakosioihexekontahexaphobia:

Hexakosioihexekontahexaphobia is a fear which originates in the belief that the Biblical verse, Revelation 13:18, indicates that the number 666 is linked to Satan or the Anti-Christ. Outside the Christian faith, the phobia has been further popularized as a leitmotif in various horror films.

Hexakosioihexekontahexaphobes avoid things related to the number 666, such as a building in which the number is prominently displayed.
Wikipedia

So if you’re freaking out over today’s date, or maybe even feel like participating in prayer marathon, this one’s for you. You may think you know the number of the beast, but we now do know the name of your illness.

PS: I guess the word for this affliction would be Hexakosioihexekontahexaphilia?!

It’s spring and the wildlife in the woods is going – uh – wild!

Chipmunks
The cats are out hunting every day. They catch frogs, lizards, shrews, and chipmunks. Yesterday I saw Deha, the Siamese, in the driveway, hovering over what I thought was fresh kill. So I went to see what she got, and found it was a juvenile chipmunk. Deha had lost interest in it, so I picked it up and carried it off into the woods, so the children would not find it. When I dropped it on some leaves in the woods, it started squirming, and I took another look, and it did not actually seem seriously injured, and probably was just pretending to be dead. When I picked it up it started to squirm vigorously in my hands. “Very clever” I thought “You play dead, and cats get bored with you.”

I put the little guy into our chipmunk habitat, where our other rescued chipmunk has been living for well over a year – pretty happily, I think. After a while the older chipmunk came over to check out the new guy, who was still pretty freaked out. Finally the little guy settled in in a hollow log and went to sleep. That’s where he/she still is. Once in a while the older one goes over there and sticks his head in the log. This morning, Laura dropped a grape on the little guy’s head. He looked up, sniffed the grape, and proceeded to chow down on that yummy “manna from above.”

When chipmunks die and go to heaven, they end up in a place where it rains grapes.

Read the rest of this entry »

Last night I received this email from Marc Dreyfors, who is a co-founder of Bull City Biodiesel, and who runs Carolina Biofuels and Forests of The World:

Today, a 23 year old Marine from Lousiana came by looking for B100 on his way back to Camp Lejune, NC. He had a very nice VW Jetta TDI on which he put an SVO kit. He wanted to fill up and find a way he could get more biodiesel. He was an adamant biofuels advocate, and said he had been to
Baghdad and did not want to go back. He understood the value of biofuels as an alternative to fossil fuels and what our fossil fuel “addiction” was doing. His buddies called him a “hippie Marine.” He, along with several other of our tank users, are military or ex-military and seem to have come
to the alt. fuel world because of their experience in service to our country.

We filled him a 50 gal. plastic barrel and four of us heaved it into the back seat of his TDI, putting it on a nice cardboard box to keep his seat clean. We gave him a $.20 per gallon break, which I hope the Coop will appreciate and stuffed him full of literature to take back to his buddies. We even included our “How to start a B100 Coop and Tank Trail Tank” from our website, carolinabiofuels.org. We hope that this may start a revolution down there. Maybe we should offer a special program for the military?

He wasn’t sure what he wanted to do with his life and asked us lots of questions about what we do and where he could go to college. We pray he doesn’t have to return to the Mideast, and that he can help get more military interested in real solutions to our geopolitical problems.

Marc

The Greensboro Truth and Reconciliation Commission last night published its final report on the events of Nov. 3, 1979 in Greensboro, NC. That day, five people were shot to death during a confrontation between a leftist, black worker’s rights demonstration and a caravan of white-supremacists. The picture the report paints is of two groups ready for a violent confrontation and a police department that was either incompetent, indifferent to the potential for violence, or possibly in cahoots with the white supremacists.

The Greensboro Truth and Reconciliation Commission was an independent, democratically selected body seeking truth and healing transformation for Greensboro, N.C., a city left divided and weakened by the events of Nov. 3, 1979. The seven commissioners were a respected group of individuals selected for their diverse perspectives, strengths and resolve to fulfill their Mandate.
Greensboro Truth and Reconciliation Commission

So far, I have read the Summary (pdf) and found certainly truth. However, it seems that one of the most divisive questions – whether the Greensboro Police was conspiring with the white supremacists – remains without closure:

Even though no legal basis for law enforcement involvement in a conspiracy was
found in the trials, the majority of commissioners believe there was intentionality
among some in the department to fail to provide adequate information or to take
steps to adequately protect the marchers.
Greensboro Truth and Reconciliation Commission – executive summary – p 10

The commission certainly made a big contribution for documenting the truth – reconciliation is another matter altogether. That will be up to the community of Greensboro.

A journalist at the Greensboro News-Record is writing a detailed analysis of the report on his blog.

The worldcup team from Togo won a warm-up game against a selection of German players 3:2 (2:1). The German players were selected from Bavarian amateur teams: FC Augsburg, FC Ismaning and TSV Aindling. The German coach of the Togolese team was not at the game – he was reportedly bed-ridden with the flu at the team’s quarters in Wangen.

WM-Neuling Togo hat sein erstes Testspiel in Deutschland gewonnen. Im Rahmen der Vorbereitung auf die Titelkämpfe in Deutschland (9. Juni bis 9. Juli) schlug das Team des deutschen Trainers Otto Pfister eine Bayern-Auswahl mit 3:2 (2:1).
Togo tut sich bei Testspiel-Sieg schwer, AFP, 23. Mai 2006

ALLEZ LES EPERVIERS!

The “Master Race” is at it again in Germany. The brown shirts are marching, the nazi thugs are beating up innocent people. They are not particularly popular, but they are gaining ground, and they are making headlines.

The Interior Minister Schäuble presented today the annual “State of the Constitution” report (Verfassungsschutzbericht (de)) which documents a 27 percent increase in right-wing crime and violence in Germany to a total of 15,360 incidents last year.

One big debate is about whether to declare “no-go zones” for the worldcup tourists. The government is insisting that it is safe for anyone to go anywhere in Germany. Others disagree, like the former spokesman of the former red-green (center-left) German goverment:

There are towns in [the state of] Brandenburg that I would not recommend to people with other [not white] skin colour. They might not leave alive.
Zu Gast bei Freunden? , Sueddeutsche Zeitung, 21.05.2006

This statement is supported by several recent horrific cases of racist violence:

• In April, a 37-year-old German man was the victim of a violent racist beating (en) in the city of Potsdam
• Also in April, a 39-year-old Togolese was attacked (en) in Wismar
• Last week, a 56-year-old Berlin politician was beaten (en) by racist criminals

These incidents sparked intense, and often awkward debates on the issue of racism in Germany, especially in the eastern states. The attack in Potsdam prompted Schäuble to issue a comment to the effect of “white people get beaten up, too …” which prompted quite an uproar and eventually he issued a mea culpa.

With the world cup just around the corner, this is not the kind of publicity the marketing folks are looking for. Yet, the right-wing extremists are particularly interested in using the world cup as a platform to market their brand of “German hospitality.” This puts German authorities in an awkward spot. How much freedom of speech can Germany afford to grant the “master race?” Should they forbid nationalist and white-supremacist events and pretend that all is well? Or should they allow the world to catch a glimpse of the smelly underbelly of German “Stammtisch Kultur” – sticky steins and stale world views, and all that?

Organizers say that 3000 turned out to welcome Togo’s Worldcup Team (minus Emmanuel Adebayor):

Togo’s National Team arrived in the southern town of Wangen today, where they will be based for the duration of the 2006 World Cup:

Otto Pfister, coach of the West African side, has admitted that the debutants have a tough task of putting up a credible showing at the finals.

“We’re obviously underdogs,” said Pfister after being welcomed by German organising committee officials as well as leaders from the local state government.

“But I think we can achieve a thing or two at the World Cup.

Togo’s Hawks land in Germany, BBC News, Monday, 15 May 2006

I hope the guys have a great time in Wangen. Southern Germany is nothing if not hospitable. The folks in Wangen set up a special website for their guests. What’s more – Wangen’s own Soul Band – the “Double Cooked Pork Slices” have come up with a special welcome tune for their guests from West Africa: “Miawo-ezon-Lo-o”

[UPDATE: Togolese blogger from Wangen: http://togo.wordpress.com/]

Yet another cold front moved in today, and the temperature dropped 20 degrees Fahrenheit in one hour. This cold front spawned some severe thunderstorms and at one point a 15-Minute hailstorm that almost covered the ground with chick-pea-sized hail.

I like the effect of the hail in the flashlight in the picture above.

More pictures below the fold …
Read the rest of this entry »

Last night, Laura and I had the privilege and pleasure to see Mamadou Diabate at the Art Center in Carrboro. He was the star performer in a benefit show that highlighted the Publik Kreativity Drama Krew, a community theater troupe from the Alexandra township in Johannesburg. The kids from Jo’burg were great – authentic, a bit unpolished and quite talented.

Mamadou was just awesome. This huge, quiet guy from Mali comes on stage and sits down on a milk crate in front of his amp, plugs in his kora (!) and proceeds to tease the most deliciously lyrical, breathtakingly acrobatic and the most joyfully soaring melodies from his ancient instrument which he made from a gourd, cow skin and strings. I think he played the entire Behmanka album plus one encore. The crowd was small, but quite enthusiastic. He’ll be back in the area for the Eno Festival and I very much look forward to seeing him there.

The Kiwis have figured out how to turn shit into money:

A New Zealand company has successfully turned sewage into modern-day gold.

Marlborough-based Aquaflow Bionomic yesterday announced it had produced its first sample of bio-diesel fuel from algae in sewage ponds.

It is believed to be the world’s first commercial production of bio-diesel from “wild” algae outside the laboratory – and the company expects to be producing at the rate of at least one million litres of the fuel each year from Blenheim by April.
NZ firm makes bio-diesel from sewage in world first by Errol Kiong, New Zealand Herald – National News 12.05.06

In the meantime the US government is flushing our money down the toilet.

Yesterday, I got a huge, 82 gallon used waterheater from a guy in Raleigh. This gray monster is going to be the cornerstone of my biodiesel homebrew operation, as I am planning to turn it into a appleseed reactor.

I also have begun filling a 250 gallon storage tank with used fryer oil. I scored that tank (two, actually) for no cost from a construction site. They had been filled with a concrete-sealing wax, and I was able to get the first one pretty clean with a pressure washer. Now I have to do the plumbing to hook it all together, so that I can pump the grease from the storage into the reactor, add the methoxide, stir, settle, pump out the glycerol, and pump the biodiesel into the wash tank.

An interesting issue is the question of where, and how, to store the Methanol. I plan to set up the Methoxide tank outside, with plumbing into the reactor in the basement. But if I buy 55 gallon drums of Methanol, where do I store them? Probably I’ll build a shed somewhere away from the house. You have to be careful with this stuff.

The nice thing about the biodiesel is the safety aspect: storing it near or in the house is no more risk than storing firewood or piles of cardboard.

The jet engine in Ron Patrick’s car puts out 1,450 horsepower.
Photo by Ron Patrick, SF Chronicle

Why would a 48-year-old engineer want to bolt a Navy surplus General Electric T58-8F jet engine into the hatchback of a New Beetle? Just because he can: “This is entertainment. It’s a toy, a toy for silly boys” he says. It’s the ultimate hot rod. And like most hot rods it’s kind-of fun and pretty pointless. Too bad. All this creative energy expended and the problem that was solved is “can I power a beetle with a jet engine?”