US Super Bowl: Militarization

The militarization of corporate sport and its spectacles such as the NFL Super Bowl is justified by the “war on terrorism” Yet, according to the U.S. military’s own super_bowl_xlviii_event assessment “no credible terrorist threats to Super Bowl XLV or its associated events and venues,” as revealed by WILLIAM M. ARKIN in 2012.

(February 5, 2012) – Janet “The American Commandant” Napolitano, the Secretary of Homeland Security, must be a hell of a football fan. She’s employing the full might of the Department’s “If You See Something, Say Something” ™ public awareness campaign to secure Super Bowl XLVI. Napolitano has toured the security operations at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, overseeing the additional security being brought in to screen cargo, secure the air space and provide security screening.

US blockade: The war on Cuban sports

Australia, Canada, France, Germany and, of course, the USA have gleefully participated in this talent theft, not only from former and present socialist countries but from poor countries in general. “The blockade is far more than an embargo. It is an economic and political war against the island, and a war against its sport. Through this, it attempts to spread dissension amongst the people and turn them against their government.”

(Sept. 28, 2013) – THE economic, commercial and financial blockade imposed by the United States on Cuba resulted in the loss of 1 million 70,000 US dollars to the amateur sports in that country just last year alone.

Nova Scotia female baseball players heading to Cuba

Team of 24 also bringing $70K of donated equipment and school supplies

Hannah Shea thinks it will be a great experience for the girls from Cuba to have an all-girls’ team to play on. | CBC

CBC NS (Jan. 30) – Baseball season may seem a long way off, but for two dozen girls from Nova Scotia, it will begin next week.

A team of 24 is heading to Cuba and taking $70,000 worth of donated baseball equipment and school supplies to donate to young, female Cuban baseball players.

Maritime kids heading to Cuba to play baseball

This is the second year for the project

Brandon Wentzell, 11, is looking forward to bringing baseball gear and school supplies to the kids in Cuba | CBC

CBC (Jan. 24) – A group of young Nova Scotia baseball players is heading to Cuba to play ball next week.

As part of the trip, the kids will be bringing down baseball gear and school supplies to give to their Cuban counterparts.

Quebec gets ready to open big empty hockey arena, mayor jokes that ‘my cousin Réjean’ will play there

Yet another pay-the-rich scheme, all the while imposing “austerity” on the people

By Neil deMause. Field of Schemes

A proposed arena to NHL standards for Quebec City is shown in an artist’s rendering released on Thursday, October 11, 2012. THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO na012815-arena

(Jan. 29) – That Quebec City Mayor Régis Labeaume is such a card! Check him out talking about the hockey arena that he (and Pierre Peladeau of Quebecor, the media monopoly that will manage the arena – TS) saddled taxpayers with between $270 million and $330 million in payments on, in order to get an NHL team, and which now persists in not having an NHL team:

“What are you going to put inside?” host Marie-France Bazzo asked the man who was the project’s biggest booster.

“Listen, we’ll have public skating,” Mr. Labeaume joked. “My cousin Réjean wants to play there too,” he added, struggling to contain his own laughter.

More

The god of football and Silvio meet in Havana

Diego Armando Maradona attended one of Silvio Rodriguez’s concerts in the neighbourhoods. Later on, the former football player and the singer-songwriter had a brief and friendly meeting

Diego Armando Maradona and Silvio Rodríguez. Maradona, for his part, presented Silvio with a t-shirt from the De Zurda sports show, which he hosts together with Víctor Hugo Morales and whose second season for Telesur premiered in Havana on Jan. 11 | Kaloian Santos Cabrera

Hiking in Cuba

Contact with the unique nature of the Sierra Maestra and the possibility of ascending to the highest peak of the island are deals from the Popular Camping Company in Santiago de Cuba with departure from La Mula, the oldest of its facilities

Despite the pitfalls in La Mula there is union in what they want to do. Damaris Méndez, the director for about four months, said: “We work very hard to provide a quality product, where visitors feel at home.” | Odalis Riquenes Cutiño

US sports media: Bleacher Report and the death of journalism

Illustration by Michael Waraksa

Its dramatic success came via valuing site growth and pageviews over any semblance of journalistic “quality” or even readability.

SF Weekly (October 3, 2012) – LAST YEAR, sportswriter King Kaufman stepped up to the lectern at a symposium held on the Google campus. In a 14-year haul at Salon.com, Kaufman earned a reputation as one of the best and most cerebral sports journalists on the Internet. But his subject that day was his new job, improving the content quality at Bleacher Report — an outfit with a reputation almost directly opposite Kaufman’s own.

FC Barcelona sanctioned for buying child players

Camp Nou | Philipp Rümmele/Flickr

By Lars Andersson

(Jan 2) – The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has dismissed FC Barcelona’s transfer ban appeal and confirmed that the club has breached the rules regarding protection of minors. The verdict may be a step against the use of underage footballers.