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Saturday, July 18, 2026 - 21:27 SGT
Posted By: Gilbert

Civilization By Proxy


Colonial victims seeking redress on the world stage
(Source: straitstimes.com)


Only the World Cup finals and third place match remain, and the former will feature the foretold (and maximally lucrative) baton pass between Messi and Yamal, this coming after England bottled it once again despite arguably outplaying Argentina for an hour, and taking the lead. While none of this is particularly new to England fans (including yours truly, if along with Brazil), the manner in which it happened was painful; Tuchel (the England manager) replaced some starters with defenders after going in front, which quite predictably was an open invitation for Argentina to attack them, moreover while led by perhaps the best offensive player of all time. The most damning indictment of this parking-the-bus strategy was probably that England managed just 12% of the possession between their scoring and Argentina's 85th minute equalizer, after which the Argies won it in stoppage time to spare them further misery.

This had irate England supporters and pundits deride Tuchel as a "German spy" after the perceived cowardly botch, with world-renowned football expert TRUMP further observing that forcing Harry Kane on defence was "a little unusual" - about which GEOTUS is basically correct as usual. Tuchel would of course reject the criticisms (perhaps missing TRUMP's self-humility in making his statement) with some support from Klopp, insisting that his tactics were sound and that it was easy to condemn his decisions after the fact (and in his defence, it was not utterly impossible for England to have held out for about twelve more minutes - just not very likely), to which not a few fans retorted that they had complained during the game.

To give some additional background context, part of the reason why England fans had been against going defensive after taking the lead, was that this was what previous boss Southgate had been known for, which brought the team no major successes. Additionally, England had been causing the Argentine defence problems, and from how Argentina had barely won 3-2 against both Cabo Verde and Egypt - ranked 64th and 24th respectively, with Egypt nearly going three up - it just made sense to put the likes of Saka and Rashford on to keep Argentina honest in leaving some defenders back. As it was, the manager piled on his own defenders instead, before later claiming that ball possession was not in the English footballing DNA, unlike for the Argentines (or Spanish, or Brazilians)



Malvinas or Falklands?
(Source: bbc.com)


The spice would continue after the final whistle, as the triumphant Argentina side then unfurled a "Las Malvinas son Argentinas" banner proclaiming the contested Falkland Islands as belonging to them. The islands have remained a sore point between the countries ever since a brief war in 1982, that ended with the United Kingdom retaining the territory. Argentina's claim has been getting increasing recognition in recent years, however, with the European Union meaningfully endorsing Argentina's naming in 2023, with China officially backing their sovereignty in the same year, possibly with an eye on their own analogous situation with an island off their coast.

The display had a British minister call for a FIFA investigation given that it appeared to violate the rule against political messaging (never evenly enforced, by the way), only for the White House to stand up for principles in invoking the Argentine players' First Amendment rights to free speech - which are being increasingly curtailed in Europe, what with a proposed Digital Services Act potentially projecting control of online content onto Americans as well. This has to be especially concerning from how France and Germany are seemingly trying to ban conservative parties after they have become by all accounts the most popular options, which one hopes can be recognized as an obviously undemocratic power-grab. As Elon Musk has rightly noted, Le Pen is probably France's last hope.

To expand on the above, the main driving force behind parties such as the AfD and National Rally has been their opposition to (current levels of) immigration, and to be frank there is absolutely nothing wrong with that - a country's immigration rate should be part of the political discourse. France for example receives about three hundred thousand new immigrants annually, and there is really no call to slander those who would desire a lower number as "xenophobic" or "far-right", no more than it would be right for somebody wanting a higher rate to label those happy with the status quo thus.

The same goes for supporting measures against illegal immigration, because there is no country that allows unrestricted immigration to the best of my knowledge, and for good reason. Then, if there is some limit as to immigration, it merely follows that this limit should be enforced. Note that the point is not to be cruel - if a person wilfully overstays his visa, then he should just be informed of the law and told not to do it again (with biometrics taken for enforcement, as they would have been), and given a ticket to their original country... because otherwise what?



China's answer to the White House MMA event
[N.B. More technical discussion on A.I. and robotics advances soon!]
[N.N.B. Some way yet to Real Steel though.]


That said, for all its intensity, the football game did end with all concerned safe and sound, which is more than can be said for the many unhappy conflicts ongoing globally right now. This has led me to wonder whether they could have been resolved in a more civilized manner, say by duels or even arranged set-piece battles, to minimize unnecessary suffering and collateral damage. One of my favourite fictional examples would be the Battle of Tukayyid in the BattleTech verse, that had Terran (i.e. Earth's) defenders contract for a proxy war on a minor outlying planet, against the returning Clan exiles. But then again, maybe that is what we are already seeing with Ukraine and Iran...



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