Tag Archives: Basketball

The who now?

I do not know all the inn’s and out’s of sports, I freely admit that. I live in Australia and like Canada we enjoy an over interested sport community (read: a sport mindset population). 

So when I saw news item named ‘Saudi Arabia to host Islamic Games again’, I went ‘The who now?’ And this isn’t a new thing. As I read “Two decades after hosting the inaugural edition in Mecca, the nation is once again at the heart of regional sport. In November, Riyadh will welcome the world’s top athletes for the sixth edition of the Islamic Solidarity Games, event aiming to strengthen brotherhood among Muslim-majority nations.” So this isn’t a new thing. It has been going on for two decades. And we are about to face the 6th edition of these games. So how come I was utterly unaware of the existence of these games? I don’t need to be muslim to enjoy games I cannot participate in (for the most, with one or two exceptions I am not able to participate on any level in sports). So I was taken aback. 

Let’s recap for the sports ignorant people who might never have heard of these events as well and I am looking at the media with utter disdain at present for not illuminating these games. The first were held in Mecca. The Islamic Solidarity Games and these games involve elite athletes of the OIC competing in a variety of sports, as such we get to see the creme de la creme in sports compete. The first were as said in Mecca (2005), the 2010 in Tehran were cancelled, in 2013 it was Indonesia to host these games, which were done in Palembang, then it was up to Baku to host them in 2017, in 2021 Turkey hosted them in Konya and now, in August 2025 they will be held in Riyadh. So what exposure did these games get? I would have loved to have seen them in Indonesia. That place doesn’t get to much exposure other then touristy occasions. 

So what sports are shown?
Well, at present 28 sports have been shown and the bulk of these sports were shown as:

Athletics (since 2005), Basketball (since 2005), Diving (since 2005), Equestrian (2005–2013), Football (since 2005), Gymnastics (since 2017), Judo (since 2017), Karate (since 2005), Swimming (since 2005), Water polo (since 2005), Weightlifting (since 2005), Wrestling (since 2017)

These are the sports we are ‘familiar’ with in a Olympic setting. Right Nike? (I am talking to the goddess, not the brand next to me now). A little less known are the sports below, or at least I don’t remember seeing them in an Olympic setting. Nike is shaking her head in disbelieve and rolling her eyes. They are: 

Bodybuilding (2025), Handball (since 2005), Table tennis (since 2005), Taekwondo (since 2005), Tennis (since 2005), Volleyball (since 2005), Wushu (since 2013)

The list is important as they are ‘enjoyed’ watching by the bulk of the world, as such I cannot believe that I had never heard of these games. 

Media bashing
You might think that I am making light of the situation and perhaps that is true, but can anyone explain how any person remains devoid of this knowledge when we have countries like Canada, Australia, United Kingdom, New Zealand and America where sports seems to be on the mind of men optionally a lot more than sex? The old story (according to women) is that men look for their golf balls more than a g-spot? (no idea what they mean with that). 

It might sound weird, but there is a decent Islamic population in at least 4 of them, so why don’t these Islamic Solidarity Sports Federation and Islamic Solidarity Games enjoy a lot more exposure? As second issue I would raise that there is another hurdle optionally failed. The fact that in these 20 years Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates wasn’t a host. There might be many valid reasons, but with all the exposure that Abu Dhabi enjoys, these games could be flooded in the limelight as I personally see it. So will they host these games in 2030?

At present I am learning a whole new chapter in sports. And the next chapter will shock you. When I enter “Islamic Solidarity Games Riyadh” in Google Search I do not get ONE news agency on page one. Worse still, one mention from the BBC on page 4 which was given in 2010. The western world is sunning these games to THAT degree. The western world was eager to paint Saudi Arabia black at every occasion they could find regarding the 2034 FIFA World Cup. So where are they now?

I think the western media needs to take a hard look at themselves when it comes to sport reporting. We have seen a lot of media engaged in ‘Whitewashing sports’ when it comes to Saudi Arabia, so who will take the front space when it comes to showing the thousands of athletes and the struggles they face with these games? There is something to scold western papers on the fact that they are seemingly shunning thousands of athletes. 

The more I see exposed by the biassed western media, the more l appreciate having a cat.

Have a great day, I am 165 minutes away from breakfast (we all have our little day to day priorities). 

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Creative Dangers

Now that I have a functioning laptop again, my creativity takes another surge and I am getting back to the non developed ideas I am having. Whether it is an optional new TV series, whether it is a new video game or another story to be made into a novel. There is a danger that any creator faces. It is the danger of getting too many ideas before the first one has been developed completely. 

Even now as I am rewatching Independence Day (the first one on blu ray), the idea that some shows never developed, the idea that I know where other life is most likely to be and it is not based on geography, it is not based on where we know things to be, it is founded on physics based principles that every person in the universe faces. We went from the wheel, to the combustion engine, to nuclear fusion and from there to fusion, yet the elements holding us back (the fusion inhibitor) does not stop everyone. Depending on where we are, some others might have a benefit and can corner the universe on an essential need on elemental substances that keeps the others back who rely on it too. This is not a new concept, Nicola Machiavelli wrote “Nevertheless Milan was taken from France both the first and the second time. The general reasons for the first have been discussed; it remains to name those for the second, and to see what resources he had, and what any one in his situation would have had for maintaining himself more securely in his acquisition than did the King of France.” It is about the maintaining of position as secure as possible, for the most, any civilisation faces that setting. Unless the state is in a situation where it mimics the insect world, the setting of cast, we see the stage of asserting position, as a person, as a race, or as a united front and we see this here in turmoil as we see racial and statutorily states exempt themselves from the common foundation, it merely reinforces them, it usually does, so what happens when one group has a firm handle on goods and the other does not? Consider the state of things if the US (or Russia) had access to plutonium and the other does not, what would happen? Yet in opposition, what would the owner do to make sure the other does not get access to the materials needed? 

Now lets suppose that there are three elements that make the greater good towards fusion, Klaventium which is found on Jupiter, yet only below 3200 meters, it is a uranic element, Consider that our submarines run like a moped, they rely on shot burning fuels like Uranium, in the larger space of travel and fusion drives you need the equivalent of diesel and as such you need Klaventium, burning slower and a lot more intense than Uranium ever could, yet that is the sure way of getting a runaway engine and to temper it you need Celestrium. So in that stage there is also a crystal, I forgot the name (found in the Saturn rings) and it aligns energy, so when we get two out of the three we are on route, yet we cannot go anywhere without the third and that is the problem, in a stage where someone else has what we need, we are the losing party in the Machiavelli equation. It is what other places have learned the hard way and now it is our turn. The idea that everyone will deal with everyone is just a little too absurd, power is the only permanent element and when they have it, they do not want us to have it. If you doubt that? Be not afraid, get examples from the Native American Indians of the USA, the aboriginals of Australia, the Aztecs and Mayans in Latin America, consider asking the Apache’s in New Mexico, the list goes on and on and for the most several dozens will not answer, they are extinct, caused by, you guessed it the powers that were in the Vatican. 

When we find out we no longer matter, that is when we start fidgeting with the formula of power and that is what we see now and what wee have seen before, it is a stage where the loser wants to become Oliver Twist (Please Sir, can I have some more?), and we see a larger issue. A stage others have faced and they can now sit back and laugh, they faced it and we show a lot less dignity when our number is up. We can get as creative as we can, we can see the other show restraint and what the loser calls a set decorum of dignity, but that is merely in the eyes of the losing beholder, we are up for a resetting of powers and the people in charge do not like it, they are in the middle of a blame game and as they do that, remember how we got there. We did it ourselves, we dug our own graves with our grubby greed driven hands.

In that stage, do you even want to consider what is out there (or in the Sombrero galaxy)? If they can be the best of our past, they can also be our futuristic worst self, I reckon all in this galaxy face similar hurdles and there is no given that we are any different then the mere average of all the others, if so, we have plenty of things to worry about, well not us, the grandchildren off our grandchildren will and then? That is up to others to decide, we can only set the stage we can to the best of our abilities a setting that goes back to Marcus Aurelius (Roman Empire), Napoleon Bonaparte and Frederick Douglass, we can state that every person who came to the insight was basically too late, history shows that, so how can we set the stage to a larger frame where we have a chance? It is there that we see that not all is lost, John Wooden stated “Don’t measure yourself by what you have accomplished, but what you should have accomplished with your ability”, it is one way to look at it and it was Basketball that showed the way (even I, as a Hockey player will grudgingly give the field to a Basketball coach), so as we realise that there is more in all of us, how come that it is Wall Street that dictates the rules?

We are in a stage where we have no identity, no voice and no direction, but worry not, someone will come along and turn us either into conquerors or slaves, the universe tends to see one or the other, not the average middle. Balance can only be as direct as possible when the opposing forces are at polarised ends of one another, there are plenty of examples in that direction.

So how dangerous can creativity get? Ask that of the man who has nothing left to lose, according to James Baldwin that is where the purest form of creativity is. I wonder fig that is true, it seemingly is on a level playing field, but when elemental events are missing, the game changes in many ways, that is merely my view on the subject.

 

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