As anyone who might happen upon these digitized thought balloons will quickly discover, they have either nothing, or maybe everything, to do with grilled cheese sandwiches; and most likely never touch on anything relating to cooking or the kitchen... except perhaps, the very first posting. And so, with your indulgence, may I present, the ramblings of a reforming philosopher...

Wednesday, June 11, 2014

Fe, Fi, Fo, Fum…

In a world where there are so many people sincerely trying to do good, attempting to live decent and positively progressive lives… earnestly sharing their skills and talents in efforts to improve the common good, it is nevertheless severely challenging to be faced, almost daily, with blatant, deeply rooted corruption at the highest levels of our so-called “civilization.”
 
Sadly, it is a repetitive phenomenon within human history that when individuals and organizations manage to gain a certain level of authority, unrighteous dominion begins to taint their interests; power and gain become their hidden agenda, and wholesale corruption becomes their legacy.
 
Gratefully, in growing opposition to that malignancy, there are much more intelligent voices crying in the wilderness collectively illuminating the corruption; ever hopeful of diminishing the negative influence and removing its destructive potential.
 
An unknown author wrote that: “Corruption is authority, plus monopoly, minus transparency.” Consequently, the more we do as individuals to add our singular lamps to any problem’s shadows, the sooner the true essence of the image will be revealed. Ingenuous authority can then be challenged more effectively, and the scurvy of monopoly eventually eliminated.
 
A present example of increasingly questionable legitimacy is that of the FIFA organization (Fédération Internationale de Football Association) the governing body of European style football that we in the untamed New World call "soccer." Initially founded in 1904 with the noblest of intentions to foster and encourage popularity of the sport, the association has succeeded beyond it’s wildest dreams and has become a major player in influencing world governments to support its endeavors.
 
Perhaps due to an unknown quark of cosmic consciousness, the pendulum of avarice has been legislated to swing both ways, and Karma inevitably, must come due. The debatable financial rewards reaped by those in authority, and the ensuing havoc created by such corruption is now generating sufficient critical commentary that eventually the focus will be so intense upon the association, that its final existance will be nothing more than a flash in a pan.
 
In reference to the current World Cup event being held in Brazil, architect Miguel Capobiango detailed that… “in order to stage the tournament, the country built or refurbished 12 stadiums at an estimated cost of $3.6 billion, including one in the city of Manaus deep in the jungle. This particular 42,000-seat Arena de Amazonia in Manaus cost an estimated $319 million but will only see four World Cup games. In addition, after the event, the stadium's future is unclear, since Manaus's home club, Nacional, only attracts about 1,000 spectators per game.”
 
And, in addressing the dubious social benefits FIFA claims to produce for it’s host countries, Scottish journalist Andrew Jennings, author of Omertà: Sepp Blatter's FIFA Organized Crime Family, brought up the controversy surrounding the planned 2022 world Cup in Qatar, the sweltering Gulf state that is currently the subject of a FIFA bribery investigation.
 
"[FIFA members] either have to be committed to an asylum for the mentally ill or taken to court and accused of corruption. You don't give it to Qatar in the summer."
 
And finally, to lighten things up and bring the entire fiasco into sharper focus, the sarcastically biting wit of John Oliver’s “Last Week Tonight” injects the dot of the needle right over the i and slashes surgically across the t in a brilliant, but regretfully true, condemnation of one of humanity’s greatest weaknesses!
 
 
Fe, Fi, Fo, Fum... I smell the blood of an Englishman! - J.
 
Article Copyright J. Michael Lyffe - 2014