If you build it, they will come... with their wickets: Afghanistan FTW!

I am truly one of the last people you should expect to see writing anything about sports.

I'm a born and bred American who watched my first Superbowl only 3 years ago (I am several decades into my existence on this earth). And my first real awareness of it was only when it was postponed after 9/11 and how that kind of screwed the schedule up so now it always happens later. I grew up in Southern California during the years when the Lakers were Magic and there were apparently ticker tape parades happening on a regular basis and I honestly only made concrete in my head maybe a year or two ago that the NBA championships 1) are a thing and 2) happen in May. This despite the fact that my grandfather, who I grew up with in the house, was a die-hard basketball fan and former college player for a big b-ball school. And two days ago, I learned there is a basketball team called the Golden State somethings from where else but my home state and that they're actually like kind of famous right now.

Incredibly, I also have a very special place in my heart for sports movies. Thank god I was alone when I watched, in the privacy of a darkened economy class flight somewhere over an ocean, "61*." Long, heavy tears rolled down my face as I watched Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris battle it out over something sportsy during the fateful summer of 1961. "A League of Their Own," "The Cutting Edge," "The Wrestler," "Radio," all take places of pride in my fondest movie-watching memories.

You don't need to be a cinema critical theorist or a psychologist to pick out what's going on here--clearly I like a good underdog story that starts with a struggle, wraps up nicely with a feelgood happy and/or successful ending, and the earnest, moral-of-the-story cherry on top together make the perfect recipe to bring on a very satisfying crying session. Forget chick flicks, nothing is a surer tearjerker than seeing those hardworking kids/down-on-their-luck hockey players/aged former stars bring home the gold/take down one last foe/finally get their chance to take the field. And "Rudy" is iconic for teaching us that dreams are the stuff of perseverance and for making the slow clap a national phenomenon.

 

Which all segues very obviously to how will this impact Afghanistan?

What? You aren't following the Cricket World Cup with bitten-to-the-nubs fingernails?

Okay, I admit, I understand the rules of Quidditch better than I know anything that involves cricket. But something amazing is happening right now in New Zealand, and I'm not just excited because of the heartwarming sports movie potential (though I'm obvs pretty happy about that... Hollywood, wake up, you're on, it's time to pay attention.)

First, there's the fact that Afghanistan is playing the Cricket World Cup at all. Hello, this place has been war-torn for decades, fighting off heavily armed foreign invaders and violently dogmatic domestic terrorists.

Second, cricket has only been a serious thing in Afghanistan since 2001! Is there any better meet-cute beginning than war refugees picking up the game while growing up in exile in neighboring Pakistan, where cricket is serious business, and bringing the enthusiasm and skill for the game back with them to their home country after the U. S. of A. took down the evil Taliban?! (Seriously, Hollywood, I'm doing ALL.THE.WORK.FOR.YOU.)

Third, in this transition year of 2015 in regards to the character of future US engagement with Afghanistan, with all the hand-wringing from SIGAR and the DOD and the State Department and POTUS about what programs US taxpayers have funded and which ones worked and what ones are effective yada yada yada, maybe the place money could make a BIG DIFFERENCE is if we NBA/NFL/MLB-ed the shit out of that sport in Afghanistan and turned it into the nationally galvanizing/money-making machine (read: tax revenue providing! Taxes fund good governance!) that it could be. What could make a more epic story than the little sport that could turning a whole country from the Bad News Bears to the Chicago Cubs winning the World Series??

Fourth, Afghanistan just won its first game in the Cricket World Cup! They're gonna leave the Cubs in their dust at this rate.

Take a knee, everyone.

Look, this team isn't just an underdog in the cricket world, its country is an underdog in the world world. There have been amazing development gains in Afghanistan in the last ten years--dramatically increased life expectancy; game-changer level reduction of maternal mortality and all that is indicative of in terms of general healthcare access, nutrition, women's education and literacy, etc.,; unprecedented school attendance for boys and girls across socio-economic strata.

Yet, with all these gains, Afghanistan still ranks as one of the poorest countries in the world, continues to be fraught with violence from within and threats from beyond its borders, all while waiting with baited breath with the uncertainty of what will happen to the country's ephemeral security and seedling economy when the U.S. packs up its last boots sometime in the next few years.

Sure, you could say I'm selling idealism in its naivest form by framing this story as the best sports movie ever made, but I'll counter with, So what?! Sometimes underdogs need their story to be told with high production values and record-busting opening weekend ticket sales! What the hell kind of contribution to human society is the "Ironman" franchise when compared to the David-triumphing-over-Goliath lesson of "Miracle"?!

(And if we really want to tone down the idealism and naivete of this proposal, let's get the World Cricket Federation--Is that a thing?--on board for some promotional effect and some heavy product placement for American goods that would appeal to Afghan markets and we'll be on the right track to wipe that slimey sheen of earnestness right off this project.)

Anyway, I'll be paying attention to the news of how Afghanistan fares in the 2015 Cricket World Cup and keeping my fingers crossed that whether the outcome is more gold medal or more "Cool Runnings," Hollywood and Washington both have their eyes open and their idea hats on for making the most out of the country's heartwarming, tearjerking triumphs in cricket.

Take heart, Team Afghanistan, like Coach says, you were born for this.

Keeping things in perspective

So, with all the back and forth and haggling and bartering and contacting people who might know someone who might know someone to get a ticket for one of the inaugural balls, I've been stressing out and acting like a neurotic nincompoop. I've finally got a ticket and I'm still recovering from the emotional ups and downs of "will I or won't I" have a ticket for one the balls at what will surely be the most memorable moment of my life (Hello! Women have babies and get married every day, how many times will Barack Obama become President of the United States for the first time?? Oh, yeah... once!).

But, after all this, regardless of whether I'd been able to get a ticket to an official event, wow, this is going to be a frickin' off the wall, off the hook, holy shize, amazing time.

Meanwhile, in Gaza...

Really bad, serious shit (and, no, there's no point in watching my language on this topic) is still going down and the number of casualties is approaching 1000 (approximately half civilian), with tens of thousands having fled their homes. There is no right party or wrong party in the shitstorm that is going down there, mistakes have been made on all sides (not just between the Israeli government and Hamas)--this includes the US, EU, other Middle East countries, the official government of Palestine, etc. I will make no suggestions or comments on what the core of the problem is or what a solution could be (I mean, if the people who are paid the big bucks to figure this out haven't sorted it yet and people who are living it haven't sorted it yet, what the hell could I offer?), but the least that any of us can do is to follow what's going on and be aware that while, yeah, life goes on (ahem, the Golden Globes?), the life that's going on is not the same everywhere.

So, I've been reading a lot of news, trying to get all sides (which is hard because most foreign press is not allowed in Gaza right now) and following a few blogs, to try to get a more personal perspective on it. The main blog I've been following is East Med Sea Peace; the writer is one of my co-contributors at Global Themes and is an Aussie-Israeli living in Yaffo, Israel. He's a lawyer and a surfer, a blogger and a peace activist, a guitar player and a photographer, and an overall great observer of people.

This is how he usually writes (from a 6 January post about the current conflict):
we are caught in a sandwich.. doomed if we do and damned if we dont.. i think the worst part of this war just like its previous one was the lack of an exit strategy.. there is no elegant way out.. particularly as the parties stall with respect to a truce because no one can agree as to what a truce means.. and duties and prohibitions it comprises..

in the meantime the rockets from gaza have crept northwards.. hitting a baby's face in gadera today..

not only is hamas not ceasing the rockets buts increasing the stakes.. i find it perplexing.. really.. the formula for a hamas victory is simple.. wait till its over and fire a missile.. thats all you have to do.. if you show that you werent crushed you'll win.. so why didnt you do that to begin with.. why drag out this conflict and invite so many thousands of litres of bloodshed..

to my own government i ask - do you believe that this is truly the most responsible way to act? AGAIN - just like last time - where was your UN security council resolution? where was your use of international institutions? where was you effort to engage the world in advance? what benefits did we really gain from this surprise attempt? we could have crushed their skulls anyway with bunker blasters if we wanted to even with advance notice.. so why have we snuck in like theives if we really believe that it is our freedom to defend ourselves that has motivated us?

Thoughtful, balanced, trying to see both sides and open an inclusive discussion (hey, even I chimed in).

This is how he wrote just a few days later:
this is not just news mind you.. i am fuming over the rally situation.. people will tell you about the many many pro gazan protests.. and im fine with people who genuinely care.. many thousands of israelis have partaken in these pro gazan protests as well.. however where the fuck did you all suddenly come out from.. what political coma did you suddenly snap out of?! i would like to remind you that these people were the dance crew of 9/11 that when 3000 innocent people died in ny city palestinians nation wide took to the streets and celebrated.. they didnt protest and demonstrate - they threw candy and flicked tongue.. where were you when hamas was scouring gaza and mass murdering fatah members.. where the FUCK were you?! where was your undeniable sense of justice when they were purely aggressive and where has it disappeared to now that things are more complex and you have a nation returning fire against a terror organisation that has openly stated that it seeks our destruction..
...
DONT GET ME WRONG - i want the killing of people on both sides to stop now! i wish we had chosen a wiser course to respond to the violence from gaza over the past 8 years but its not them im talking about right now.. its you.. yes you the champions of human rights.. the same people who sat and ate dinner every night while darfurians were slaughtered by the hundred every time you chewed.. you'd hear it on the news and then have desert.. and you didnt even stop for a second.. let alone get up and protest..

I know this might sound trite, but I just wanted to give him a hug, somehow it seemed like that could make things just a little better. I can't even come close to imagining what it must be like for anyone who has to deal with this situation right now (beyond how all of us, as world citizens, should be at least acknowledging it). And he's right, where have people been? I don't know, I don't have an answer--just getting on with their own lives, I guess, and who can really be faulted for being human? If we tried to take on all the suffering and heal all the pain in the world, besides having a ridiculous Jesus complex (one that would definitely require medication), we'd all be so frickin' overwhelmed and depressed and cynical and over each other that we'd turn into zombies who didn't give a shit about anyone or anything else. There has to be a point where we have to shut things out and turn the emotions off, otherwise we'd be emotionally crippled by everything we saw.

But, that doesn't mean turn your back, close your eyes and ears, stick your head in the sand and pretend that stuff isn't out there. I guess the least we can do is know what's going on and then pick and choose our battles (small and large) to try to leave the world a better place than how it was when we found it.

My two cents, anyway...

Stay safe and healthy, everyone.