I saw this great opinion piece by Kofi Annan about how the UN is jealous of the world cup. It stated lots of reasons, like how everyone is enthusiastic about it, everyone knows a lot of about the players and countries and how the game is played, and even that the playing field was even (hmmm).
The bit I like the best was how he came across very real and down to earth. The principles were lofty, but the language and attitude wasn’t.
“Which brings me to what is perhaps most enviable of all for us in the United Nations: the World Cup is an event in which we actually see goals being reached. I’m not talking only about the goals a country scores; I also mean the most important goal of all — being there, part of the family of nations and peoples, celebrating our common humanity. I’ll try to remember that when Ghana plays Italy in Hanover on 12 June. Of course, I can’t promise I’ll succeed.”
And old posting about Kofi. I love laughing at my own jokes.
Someone has to!
http://wheel.blogs.com/binary/2004/11/kofi.html