2pac : 2 decades later!

2 decades ago today, rapper/actor Tupac Shakur (aka 2pac) died!

photo from "Me Against the World"

He died from gunshot wounds he received a few days earlier when him and Suge Knight were cruising the streets of Las Vegas.

2pac was only 25 years old when he died, but he led an interesting life.

He grew up with a single mother who was a civil rights activist who fell on hard times and developed a drug addiction.  He moved around a lot when he was a child, going from the various districts of New York City to Baltimore and, as a teenager, to Oakland.

He liked poetry and ballet, both of which are stigmatized by his peers as "soft" and "feminine". To show his peers he wasn't soft, he developed a violent temper that spiraled out of control. As a teenager, he embraced the "thug life", and developed a love of alcohol, weed and guns.

He used his poetic talents to start a rap career.  As a rap artist, he had an appeal that very few could match.  Whereas some rappers only focus on the same thing (ie. some rappers only do sex songs, others only do gangsta songs, others only do activist songs, etc.), 2pac does it all!

He could show

•  a sensitive side ("Dear Mama", "Keep Ya Head Up", "Do 4 Love")
•  a fun, playful side  ("I Get Around" "All About U", "How Do You Want It?") 
• a social activist side ("Changes", "Something 2 Die 4", "White Man'z World")
•  and an angry side ("Hit Em Up", "Bomb First", "Papaz Song").

In other words, 2pac expresses all the emotions we feel!   He wasn't a one-dimensional rapper, and we're not one-dimensional people. This was what connected many people to 2pac.

But this was also what disappointed many people with 2pac.  Many who loved his sensitive and social activists songs were disappointed by his violent angry songs!   Many of those people were also heartbroken by 2pac's run-ins with the law.

As mentioned, 2pac had a violent temper, which got him several assault charges. He was known to threaten others with baseball bats, beat up those who offended, and even shot at 2 off-duty police officers.

However, the one allegation that really got him to serve serious jail time was his sexual assault charge. A woman accused him of rape after a night of clubbing. He claimed the sex was consensual. The woman said she was intending to spend the night with just him, but his friends came in to the room and violated her, with him joining in!

Those allegations were so the opposite of what 2pac said in "Keep Ya Head Up", where he said

And since we all came from a woman
Got our name from a woman and our game from a woman
I wonder why we take from our women
Why we rape our women, do we hate our women?
I think it's time to kill for our women
Time to heal our women, be real to our women
And if we don't we'll have a race of babies
That will hate the ladies, that make the babies
And since a man can't make one
He has no right to tell a woman when and where to create one
So will the real men get up
I know you're fed up ladies, but keep your head up

Because of that song (and his other sensitive songs), many had a hard time believing that 2pac was guilty of those allegations.

But since then, anti-rape activism has gotten stronger.   Bill Cosby's reputation has been ruined when multiple women came forward with rape allegations.  Stanford swimmer Brock Turner is now a public outcast when he was convicted of rape.  Rick Ross had to publicly apologize for a rhyme in which he bragged about drugging a woman's drink. Nate Parker's new film is being boycotted over a rape charge from 1999 that he was acquitted of.

Granted,anyone can make accusations. Some people charged with raped were later found innocent of all charges. Famous cases of that happening included the  football player Brian Banks, pundit Tucker Carlson, rapper DMX and the Duke lacrosse players.  Unlike Bill Cosby, these guys didn't have a long line of accusers. Neither did 2pac.

Around the same as his trial for sexual assault, 2pac was going to visit a recording studio in which both Notorious BIG & Puff Daddy were present. But in the lobby of that building, 2pac got shot by unknown assailants.  2pac got paranoid and accused both rappers of setting him up to be killed.

Around the same time, he became close friends with Suge Knight, who was the head of Death Row Records, which was the most popular rap record label at the time. The label already had Dr Dre and Snoop Dogg.

While 2pac was in jail, Suge Knight mocked Puff Daddy at an award show, raising tensions between the East Coast & West Coast rap communities.

When 2pac was released from jail, he joined Death Row Records and made his #1 album "All Eyez on Me".  It had radio friendly songs ("California Love", "How Do You Want It"), gangsta pride songs ("2 of Amerika's Most Wanted"), sensitive songs ("Life Goes On", "I Ain't Mad at ya!"), and more! It was a certified street classic, and one of the best selling rap albums of all time. It set a standard to which other rap albums are compared to.

Meanwhile, 2pac publicly insulted the Notorious BIG (and anyone associated with him) on the song "Hit Em Up".  At awards shows, 2pac & Suge Knight confronted Notorious BIG, Puff Daddy and their Bad Boy crew!

Then it happened. On September 7, 1996, 2pac & Suge Knight were in Las Vegas to cheer on Mike Tyson at a boxing match.  After the boxing match, 2pac, Suge Knight and their entourage had their time to fight. Most of the people 2pac & Suge Knight were with were affiliated with the Bloods, and they attacked a person associated with the Crips.

After the fight was broken up, 2pac & Suge Knight were cruising the streets of Las Vegas when 2pac & Suge Knight got shot! 2pac received most of the gunshots and died 6 days later.

Meanwhile Suge Knight was found to have violated probation for the fight in Las Vegas and spent a few years in jail.

Notorious BIG was believed to be responsible for killing 2pac in retaliation for the "Hit Em Up" song. No evidence ever proved that claim. However, he was killed the following year after attending a party in Los Angeles.


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When 2pac died, there was a lot of unreleased music.  2pac was known to spend long hours at the studio every night making new tracks. He had more than enough to fill multiple albums that were released following his death.

Even 2 decades later, his music lives on! Songs like "California Love" still gets played at many nightclubs.  Car stereos still play "2 of Amerika's Most Wanted" or "All About U". "Dear Mama" is listed on the Library of Congress national music registry, as well as widely shared on Facebook every Mother's Day!

Rap music has changed since he died!  Whereas his era was the era of the "East Coast-West Coast rivalry", the  South has since dominated hip-hop by large margins.

Gangsta rap doesn't have the popularity it used to have.  Rappers still be rapping about getting drunk, smoking weed and having sex, but there's much less talk about drive-by shootings! Also, the videos are now more likely to take place in mansions & elegant nightclubs rather than poverty-stricken neighborhoods.



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In a few months, the movie about 2pac's life, titled All Eyez on Me   will be in theatres, This is coming a year after NWA had their own biopic Straight Outta Compton which itself was a pop-culture phenomenon, with a huge marketing campaign, huge tickets sales, and everyone claiming to be "Straight Outta" somewhere, even if that "somewhere" is a rich suburb or a religious private school.

Straight Outta Compton (the movie) will be a hard act to follow. Time will tell if All Eyez on Me (the movie) will have even near the same impact.

9/11 - 15 years later

15 years ago today, terrorists associated with Al Quaida hijacked 4 jets to crash them into symbols of American power.  2 of the planes crashed into the World Trade Center (the symbol of US economic power), 1 crashed into the Pentagon (the symbol of US military power).  In the last airplane (known as "United 93"), somebody in the plane got word that other planes had already crashed into the World Trade Center, so that led the passenger rebellion against the hijackers, which caused the plane to crash into a Pennsylvania field! It was believed that the terrorists were planning to use that airplane into Washington DC!

In the days and weeks following the attack, there was a strong sense of unity & patriotism, more than I had ever seen in my lifetime! People bought American flags, and there was even a flag shortage! I even wore a flag pin for a while, until they kept coming off!

  People wanted revenge against the attackers and anyone associated with them!  In the US Congress, out of 100 senators and 435 representatives, only 1 voted against military intervention! Very rarely was there that much consensus for anything in Congress!

 Overwhelming majorities of US citizens supported US military intervention in Afghanistan to fight against Al Quaida and the Taliban hosting them! Reports of Taliban's cruelty towards its citizens (especially the women) made even the most pacifist of US citizens want the US to take aggressive military action against them.

But as with any strong feelings, they do fade over time!


When  President George W Bush wanted to use the US military to overthrow the Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein (who wasn't involved in the 9/11 attacks, but did want violent revenge against the US for expelling his troops out of Kuwait back in 1991), US unity started to crack! Yes, most of the US Congress (including Hillary Clinton, John Kerry and Joe Biden) voted to support US war against Saddam Hussein, but many left-wing liberals protested against the war (including Bernie Sanders and low-profile Illinois state senator Barack Obama).

President Bush did get re-elected in 2004, but in the following year, his popularity went down the drain as news images showed the lack of quick action taken when Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans. Being that New Orleans is a black-majority city, it gave the impression that "George Bush doesn't care about black people" as Kanye West stated!  Nevermind that Bush hired African-Americans to prominent federal positions including Secretary of State and Secretary of Education.

But the damage to Bush's reputation was done. At the same time, Barack Obama became a political celebrity and many felt that he could be the one who could be the 1st black president of the United States.  At the same time, Obama's celebrity (and eventually political victory) scared those who feared he was a "secret Muslim"  (his father and step-father were from Muslim-majority countries, but they weren't religious extremist, nor were they a major presence in his everyday life growing up).

While many viewed Obama's victory in 2008 as a healing point where racial tensions would fade, that euphoria didn't last.

Anti-Muslim pundits used social media to fan fears of Obama's plans for America. They claim that Obama wasn't born in Hawaii, and made demands to see his birth certificate, even though it has been shown on Obama's campaign website in 2008!

Donald Trump, a man with no principles, noticed that there was a market that he could take advantage of for his campaign for political office. He exploited fears of the Mexican criminal and the Muslim terrorist to get media attention. He also exploited the fact that many of his Republican opponents were total wusses who couldn't stand their ground when faced with even the most minor of controversies!


At the same time, police brutality against African-Americans were highlighted in social media, bringing the Black Lives Matter movement to life. While the campaign to fight police brutality & racial discrimination is a noble cause, much of that has been overlooked as BLM's tactics (including blocking traffic and screaming in libraries) alienating potential supporters.


 To add insult to injury, non-white activists (some of whom were traumatized youth who grew up in mostly white communities) started to plot a shaming campaign against European-Americans by screaming about "cultural appropriation", "microaggressions" (a word I find extremely problematic as explained in this link) and "white privilege".   Those activists alienated white allies that would be so willing to listen to minority voices if they were given a chance to contribute their voices too!


So yes, the American unity after 9/11 had faded!



Let's hope it doesn't take another tragedy to bring that unity back to life again!

Why I like nightclubs more than concerts

R&B singer Solange Knowles was in the audience for a Kraftwerk concert in  New Orleans.  She was dancing, which angered other attendees who wanted to see the stage

https://www.yahoo.com/news/solange-knowles-fires-back-being-211533693.html


 People say she's supposed to stop dancing at a concert  so people can see  the performers on stage who aren't really doing anything visually spectacular? 

I love Kraftwerk and consider them one of the most under-rated influence on modern music! That being said, all the video clips I've seen of them performing live only show them playing keyboards, not making big dance moves, not grinding on females, not smashing things, etc! 




Why would I waste time at a concert where people just want to see the stage when I can to go a nightclub (w/ DJ's playing recorded music) where all eyes are on the dancefloor, and you can be the star of the dancefloor? 


That plus concert tickets for major acts tend to cost an arm, a leg and a left kidney! 

I can spend less $$$ and hear the same songs from the same artist being played by a DJ at the nightclub, be on the dancefloor and have much more fun!


No disrespect to those of you who play live music, I do sometimes attend block parties with many stages playing live music, I plan to do so again next Saturday at the Hoolaulea in Waikiki!


That being said, this news report just confirm my preference for going clubbing over going to concerts!

Coming soon - some anniversaries coming up

There are 2 blog posts I am working on to highlight some major anniversaries..


September 11 will be the 15th anniversary of the terrorist attack!


September 13 would be the 2-decade anniversary of the death of Tupac Shakur.

Both were major events in my lifetime, and both deserve some serious reflections.

The Rio Olympics

The 2016 Summer Olympics have come to an end.

International Olympic Committee

Back in 2009, when it was announced that the 2016 Olympics was going to be held in Rio De Janeiro, the announcement was symbolic for many reasons. It would be the first Olympics held in South America. The announcement was a symbol that Brazil was becoming a new economic power. Millions were rising out of poverty, foreign investments were increasing, and world institutions were trusting Brazil to be capable host of not only the Olympics but also the 2014 World Cup.

However, since the announcement,  Brazil's economy has declined, and people were angry that much of the taxpayer's money were being to used to build sports facilities instead of schools and hospitals.  Lower-income people were forced out of their homes to make room for more Olympic facilities, breeding more anger among Brazil's general population.

1) Crime

Brazil has long held a reputation for crime, especially in the favelas (lower-income neighborhoods), but the luxurious & tourist areas weren't immune either. 

And yes, some incidents did occur. Even athletes in the combat sports weren't immune, as Belgian judo medalist  Dirk Van Tichelt learned the hard way when he was attacked on the beach.

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/judo-medalist-beat-up-while-celebrating-on-copacabana-beach-234727753.html

 

But then a bigger celebrity said he got robbed at gunpoint. That would be US swimmer Ryan Lochte, who said him and 3 team-mates were robbed at gunpoint by people pretending to be police officers. 

But it turns out that Lochte and his teammates were vandalizing a gas station restroom, and an armed security guard stopped them. 

So in other words, Lochte was covering up for his own mistakes. 

 That gave Ryan Lochte an image of the "Ugly American with white privilege".

Just one example of commentary on how Ryan Lochte gave US tourists a bad reputation in many foreign countries.                                                                                                         https://www.thenation.com/article/ryan-lochte-is-one-of-many-privileged-first-world-tourists-and-brazilians-are-fed-up/

 

The interesting thing about using the term "white privilege" on Ryan Lochte was that even though Lochte looks like your typical white blonde Anglo, his mother is Cuban-American. As happens with many mixed-race people, their heritage gets ignored by the general public that focuses on physical looks over personal background.

 Learn more at http://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2016/08/19/490629815/roundup-smart-thoughts-on-ryan-lochte-and-white-privilege

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Not only was Lochte's ethnic background was mistaken, so was his age.

Rio Olympics spokesperson said about  Lochte and his teammates.

Let’s give these kids a break. Sometimes you take actions that you later regret.

Ryan Lochte is NOT some young adult fresh out of high school. He is 32 years old! He had a decade to get his act together and act like a mature adult.  His age, experience & fame should've made him a better leader when hanging out with teammates who are only a few years done with high school.

Learn more at
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/ryan-lochte-rio-robbery-child_us_57b5f38be4b00d9c3a160917
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/early-lead/wp/2016/08/18/meet-the-three-swimmers-ryan-lochte-left-behind-in-brazil/ 

2) International relationships &  sportsmanship

The Olympics is supposed to be about having athletes from all over the world come together to compete and make connections across cultural lines.  That means while the athletes compete hard, when the games are done, they come together in brotherhood & sisterhood.

A great symbol of that was when the gymnasts from South Korea and North Korea  came together for a selfie.

Reuters

Hong Un-jong (North Korea) and Lee Eun-ju  (South Korea)  

It goes to show that even athletes from countries with missles pointed at each other can come together in peace & harmony.


Meanwhile, in judo, the opposite happened.

Egypt and Israel signed a peace treaty back in 1979 (37 years ago), yet some people still can't let go of their armed rivalries.

After a judo match Egyptain judoka  Islam El Shehaby refused to shake hands with Israel’s Or Sasson.

Associated Press

Or Sasson (Israel) offer handshake, Islam El Shehaby (Egypt) refused!

It doesn't matter if you don't like the policies promoted by your opponent's country, the Olympics is supposed to be about putting all politics and tribal rivalries aside.

 3) Don't hate the player, hate the rules of the game

Athletes will do whatever they can within the rules to beat their opponent. Even if it goes against the values of the opponent or the audience.

US soccer player Hope Solo was angry that Sweden's team used stall tactics to slow down the game.  Solo view those stall tactics as cowardice. But the team didn't violate the rules, nor did they write the rules. Plus, Hope Solo missed a few block in penalty kick time.

It's like basketball in the past.  Fans got bored of the stall tactics, so the rules were changed so that now the team on offense have a limited amount of time to score, forcing the teams to hurry up and make the game exciting. 

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And then there's track & field. 

For the women's 400 meter, Shaunae Miller (Bahamas) was in the lead, and Allyson Felix (USA) was catching up when approaching the finish line. Not to be outdone, Miller dived across the finish line, making her the winner.

Many people didn't like seeing track runners dive across the finish line. Fans are accustomed to seeing  American football players dive into the endzone, as well as baseball/softball players dive onto homeplate to score points. But to dive across the finish line in track?

There are no rules against diving across the finish line. The only way to stop that is rewrite the rules so that feet that crosses the line first win, instead of the runner's torso.

4)  Race & genetic ability

 For a long time, it was assumed that European-descendants are better at swimming, African-descendants are better at running.   The stereotypes are reflected in the majority of those who win at such events. But humans are not an algorithm of averages, but individuals with their own abilities, interests, work ethic, and circumstances.

The large number of African-American and Jamaican winners in track have given much to the stereotypes that "black people run the fastest" or that "slavery made their descendants stronger and more athletic".

But Brazil has a larger population of African-descendants than the USA or Jamaica, but not much winners in track!

An article on how Jamaica develops its track athletes

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/14/opinion/sunday/the-secret-of-jamaicas-runners.html

 Also, if Usain Bolt was born in the southern US states, he might've been playing American Football as a receiver or a tight end. Or if he was from the large urban areas in the northern US, he might've played basketball.  Or he could be in either situation  and think "I'd rather run without worrying about being tackled or fouled!"  We can only guess! 

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Swimming is a more sensitive situation, in that not only do European-descendants long dominated the swimming events, there is a stigma & a stereotype about African-Americans & swimming.  Their drowning rates are the highest of all racial groups in the US! Also, for a long time, the swimming pools in the US were segregated, and most were in Euro-descendant communities. When the civil rights movement was going on, African-Americans who entered segregated swimming pools were attacked, and in a few cases, acid was thrown in the pool.

Interest  in sports have long been inherited within families. If the families had no tradition of swimming, chances are high that the children just aren't going to learn to swim.

Which is why gold medal victory for Simone Manuel has been so symbolic. She is the first African-American woman to win gold medal in swimming.

Associated Press

Simone Manuel

Whereas people long predicted Tiger Woods and Serena Williams could inspire African-Americans to play sports long associated with Euro-descendants, Simone Manuel's victory could have an even bigger impact in that learning her sport can save the lives of many! 

Learn more at

http://www.staradvertiser.com/sports/impact-of-manuels-gold-is-biggest-of-these-olympics/

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-37057236 

 But it's not just Simone Manuel succeeding in water sports. There was also Ashleigh Johnson, the water polo goalie for Team USA! The team also won gold!

Getty Images

Ashleigh Johnson blocks a goal!

Johnson was a competitive swimmer in high school, but got bored of it, and preferred the rough & tumble of water polo.

5.) Sexual orientation & trolling

  

Blogger Nico Hines did an experiment with gay-dating app Grindr while at the Olympic village. He bragged about interacting with allegedly gay athletes. Though he didn't mention names, he did mention the athlete's country & sport, giving people a chance to guess who it was he was talking about.

This caused major panic, especially since some of the countries identified are places where laws & social customs encourage homophobic violence.

Tongan swimmer Amini Fonua had the best responses to this controversy.

http://www.slate.com/blogs/outward/2016/08/11/gay_olympian_amini_fonua_speaks_out_on_homophobic_daily_beast_grindr_in.html

As an out gay athlete from a country that is still very homophobic, @thedailybeast ought to be ashamed #deplorable https://t.co/qzS9rDFJwx

— Amini Fonua (@AminiFonua) August 11, 2016

@NicoHines You (expletive edited out) disgust me. Do you realize how many people's lives you just ruined without any good reason but clickbait journalism?

— Amini Fonua (@AminiFonua) August 11, 2016

@NicoHines Some of these people you just outed are my FRIENDS. With family and lives that are forever going to be affected by this

— Amini Fonua (@AminiFonua) August 11, 2016

@NicoHines Seriously (expeletive edited out) off with your str8 white male privilege preying on closeted people who can't live in their truth yet. U ruin us

— Amini Fonua (@AminiFonua) August 11, 2016

Imagine the one space you can feel safe, the one space you're able to be yourself, ruined by a straight person who thinks it's all a joke?

— Amini Fonua (@AminiFonua) August 11, 2016

@NicoHines & @thedailybeast 1 of the guys you just outed is only 18 years old... I was 18 once & nowhere near ready to come out, (expeltive edited out) you.

— Amini Fonua (@AminiFonua) August 11, 2016

Fonua should win the gold medal in the best classic tweets related to Olympic controversies!

6.) Gold medal and pro titles 

USA basketball player DeAndre Jordan mentioned that winning an Olympic gold medal would have more meaning that winning an NBA championship!

 This caused some outrage among NBA fans, as well as taunts about DeAndre Jordan being an LA Clipper.

 

I saw DeAndre Jordan is right! When you play for an NBA team, you're just representing one city. When you win, the rest of the country is mad your team win while theirs didn't.

But when you play for the USA, you represent the entire country. When you win, the whole country is happy, not just one small dot in the USA map. 

 

That also brings up Carmelo Anthony, a player who has long been ridiculed for not winning an NBA championship.  But even if he ends his career without an NBA championship, he already has a great legacy with winning 3 Olympic championships!  3 times, he was the star player in the world stage. 3 times he shined in front of a worldwide audience. 

 It also shows what Carmelo Anthony could do with a better supporting cast and a better coaching staff! 

Learn more at http://www.espn.com/olympics/basketball/story/_/id/17361621/carmelo-anthony-retires-international-basketball-winning-third-straight-olympic-gold

======= 

 As for basketball in general, both the USA's mens & women's teams have been dominant, winning by huge margins.

While basketball is a global game, USA just dominates. Time for the rest of the world to step their game up!

7.) TV ratings

TV ratings for the Olympics have declined this year.  There is talk that the millenials are losing interest in the Olympics, and sports in general.

I actually the millennials are losing interest in watching  TV!

I already mentioned that in an earlier blog post
http://pablowegesend.blogspot.com/2013/07/cars-and-tvs.html


Nowadays, people don't watch live TV, they just wait until they can read about it on social media or watch clips on YouTube.

My TV isn't even working, but I did watch many short clips from NBC Sports on YouTube! And there was sure was a lot of sharing of clips & articles about the Olympics on facebook!

8) Other notes

I'm happy to see rugby back in the Olympics.  Rugby looks more exciting than American football (which I do watch, especially for the UH team!) Rugby also has an international audience.

Rugby also gave the smaller Pacific island nations a chance to shine, as Fiji's men's team won the gold!

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This might be the last time Micheal Phelps and Usain Bolt bless the audience with their greatness. They say they're retiring. But with them, you never know!

===============

Simone Biles is the  major star of this Olympics in the tradition of Mary Lou Retton, Dominque Dawes and other great US gymnasts.  While Gabrielle Douglas was the star of 2012, she struggled this year.  Biles, Douglas and Laurie Hernandez all symbolize the greater diversity in what was long seen to be the "white girl sport".

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Who said Olympic wrestling isn't as interesting as professional "wrestling"?

There's many interesting things going on in Olympic wrestling

Olympic wrestling has its version of Mike Tyson,  Ukraine's Andriy Kvyatkovskyy!
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ZEfwcjBquU



The sport also has coaches/managers that are suited to the professional "wrestling", as these coaches from Mongolia can show you
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-kFg86S6ww


 Japanese wrestler body slams her coach
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MueM8qpd3qM


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Olympic fame doesn't just come with winning but also speaking "outside of the box", as Chinese swimmer Fu Yuanhui spoke in very interesting interviews

expressing surprise for winning a bronze medal
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7MdF06KvHU


(about her period affecting athletic performance)
http://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2016/08/17/490121285/a-swimmers-period-comment-breaks-taboos-in-sports-and-in-china

 More funny moments
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jn0nPGfH1HI

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Tongan taekwondo fighter Pita Taufatofua has gone viral, not for his fighting skills (he lost in the first round) but for his shirtless entrance in the Olympic ceremony.

As I watched the clip from the Today Show, as the female reporters rubbed oil on him, I wonder what would be the reaction if a male reporter even dared to ask a female athlete to rub oil on her.
http://www.today.com/news/pita-taufatofua-flag-bearer-tonga-shines-today-show-t101587


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Donald Trump is a man with big bold opinions. But not much expressed about the Olympics.

Why?

http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/08/donald-trump-olympics-twitter-214176

You’d think Donald Trump would love the Olympics: The flag-waving pageantry, the pure, unbridled patriotism—and, my god, the winning. So much winning you almost get tired of the winning.

But actually, Trump doesn’t seem to be interested in the Olympics at all: As Team USA shatters world records and scores win after historic win, Trump’s Twitter account, his favored megaphone, has been virtually mum. Since the one awkwardly worded meme he blasted out to his feed on August 5, with his own photo in front of an American flag, Trump has tweeted about the Olympics exactly zero times. He’s attacked the media, retweeted compliments to Donald Trump, pumped up his rallies. Not a word about the events that people are tuning into every night.

and more

From the start of the opening ceremonies, the Olympics felt almost like a direct rebuke to Trump. As the 555 members of Team USA entered Rio de Janeiro’s Olympic stadium for the opening ceremonies, on an international stage before a television audience of nearly 30 million U.S. households, right up front walked fencer Ibtihaj Muhammad of Maplewood, New Jersey—the first Muslim-American Olympian to compete wearing a hijab. As a group, the athletes embodied an America utterly at odds with the one Trump’s campaign portrays on a daily basis: There was 19-year-old Mexican-American boxer Carlos Balderas of Santa Maria, California, the first in his family born in the United States, destined for the quarterfinals; there was U.S. Army Sergeant Hillary Bor, a Kenyan-born American who was poised to run the 3,000-meter steeplechase while his brother is serving our country in Afghanistan.

Trump even appeared as a subtext in athletes’ comments. “This is the America that I know and I love,” Ibtihaj Muhammad told CNN after winning a bronze medal and hugging her teammates as part of the U.S. sabre team. “The America that is inclusive, that is accepting and encompasses people from all walks of life.”

This America also wins, a lot. At press time, the United States sits far atop the Olympic medal leaderboard. We’re beating China. We’re torching the Russians. In the first 10 days of the Olympics, an American stood on the podium 84 times. Twenty-eight of those times, American Olympians stood at the very top, watching the flag rise, through tears, as "The Star-Spangled Banner" played on. For a candidate who tells us we “never win anymore,” “we don’t have a country anymore,” these soaring, transcendent images do more than evoke American pride—they also chip away, directly, at his campaign claims.

9) The Future of the Olympics

The next Summer Olympics (2020) will be in Tokyo.


However, many cities are no longer willing to host the Olympics. People are getting tired of taxpayer's money being used for athletic facilities that won't be used after the Olympics are over. People are also getting tired of forced relocations and heavy security that comes with the Olympics.

Some say that the Olympics should be just be in one place, to reduce the trouble that comes with cities doing extreme make-overs just for a once-in-a-lifetime event that only last 2 weeks. 

An example of those feelings was this article stating that the Olympics should have a permanent home in Greece, instead of moving around every 4 year.s
http://www.salon.com/2016/08/23/enough-with-the-world-tour-bring-the-summer-olympics-back-home-to-greece/?source=newsletter

However, places like Africa, Middle East, and India (country with a billion people) still haven't hosted an Olympics. Some might say those places have more important things to worry about.

But we already had a World Cup in South Africa, and I think Cape Town could be a great host for a future Olympics. 

For the Middle East, Qatar is on track to host a World Cup in 2022. Maybe Dubai can host an Olympics, though people might be hesitant to host the games in 100 degree weather). 

As for India, it is a rising power with a strong technology industry.  However, even though the country's middle class is rising, it may take a while for the roads to rise to First World standards.  But I still don't see why the world's 2nd most populated country shouldn't host a worldwide event like the Olympics.

India still doesn't have enough athletes winning Olympic medals, as compared to much smaller countries like Cuba, Jamaica or South Korea. Maybe they should add cricket to the Olympic games, to give India a greater chance to win more medals.

 

coming soon- Olympic blog post

A blog post about the recently finished Rio Olympics coming soon, pending time availability to work on it!

Stay tuned!

German last name & white privilege

Many mixed-race people have last names that don't really match the person's face.

What I mean by that is, if a person has a German last name, we usually think that person is a white-skinned, blonde-haired person.

I got a German last name, but I'm only 1/8 German, and that is coming from my mom's side of the family. And her father, who was Portuguese-German died months before I was born. My mother's mom, is Puerto Rican.

As mentioned in previous blog posts, my dad is from Mexico with a mix of Native Mexican  & Spanish ancestry, but with  mostly Native Mexican features physically visible.

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But with a German last name, all that gets ignored when participating in online debates.

On a facebook post for a Huffington Post article, a person by the name of Marvin Warlingfod Hansle  said "nobody chooses a life of crime", and a whole debate broke out about that statement.  I just jumped by saying that no matter the circumstances we came from, we all make choices.


That guy must've seen my last German last name and accused me of having "white privilege"! I told that guy if I'm "white", then so is Barack Obama who happens to be from the same island I'm from, and it's Obama that went to Punahou, not me!


Here are some screenshots

(note: in online debates, sometimes, your opponents be posting something while you're still typing, making yourself unaware of what posts under his/her name comes right before yours@

Afterwards  nothing from Marvin Warlingford Hansle!

If "privilege" means I have the ability to defeat useless cliches by using my rapid "all out" responses filled with logic & facts in an online debate, then I'll be happy to claim it!  #YouGotServed 

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PS: yeah, I know some people are in circumstances that makes them more vulnerable to temptations to commit crimes. But still, people have choices.

If Marvin Warlingford Hansle just sticked with examples of people selling drugs to pay the rent, or shoplifting because they can't afford to do basic grocery shopping, then he would've scored major points! 

But no, he had to assume I'm "white" due to my last name, and therefore assume I have "privilege".  There are consequences for using such extra-ordinarily WEAK debate strategies like that!