northlondon comments

I really hope you dreamed that one up on your own.

Maybe if you actually watched the coverage from the BBC then you could judge it for yourself. Pretty sure I wasn't dreaming when I watched the BBC last night.

The US and British governments want him IN, they just don't want to be too obvious about it in case he does end up out.

So when the US government are calling for Mubarak to respect the people and leave at official press conferences, is that their way of not being too obvious about their love for him? And the BBC's rather prejudiced anti-Mubarak view being beamed around the world, is also the British governments way of not being too obvious about their support for him?

Willi,

I was referring to the pro-opposition demonstration posters here on Japan Today. The posters who are protesting why Mubarak has not left office and how he should just go. My defence is that he is trying to keep the situation calm and not just leave his country in civil war.

may be as silly a comment as I have read here in a while. Or did you forget that around 1776 a bunch of folks created chaos with the Brits so you could enjoy your definition of democracy?

You've contradicted your own statement without realising it. The reason why a bunch of folks created chaos all the way back in 1776 was indeed so that we could enjoy our modern-day definition of democracy. And our definition of democracy means voting in an election with a ballot box and no longer having to resort to creating chaos anymore!

northlondon -- nonsense. If you knew what you were talking about, you would know Mubarek has ruled Eqypt with an iron fist for over 30 years -- with nothing but phony elections to provide the PR cover of some element of democracy. And he is stalling until September simply because we wants to make sure his man Sulieman has time to consolidate power. (He actually wanted his son as his successor, but now knows that is a non-starter.)

Unless any of us here are Egyptian and living in Egypt, I don't think we can make sweeping statements about Mubarak's phony elections and his iron fist. That is just your personal (western) opinion. Were George Bush's elections whiter-than-white? Do the British police force deal with anti-student fee demonstrators lightly and softly?

What you and some others here do not understand is that some of us are not supporting Mubarak and his policies in any way. We are merely highlighting the grave precedent it sets when a rioting mob are allowed to dictate government change. That is just common sense.

And this is not 1776.

Journalists, human rights activists beaten by pro-Mubarak gangs

Even Japan Today are at it. The news footage I watched last night showed some pro-Mubarak supporter in an awful state being dragged away by an opposition mob (and Gold help him after that). Yet the headline here is only reporting on the pro-Mubarak attacks. Even the caption picture on this news story is showing a pro-Mubarak supporter acting aggressively and no balance by showing the opposition acitivists doing the same.

This is a done deal amongst the western news organisations and clearly being directed by the US and British governments who want Mubarak out.

what an apologist. Stand back and let real people take back their democracy.

I'm not quite sure what Mubarak is doing wrong in some peoples eyes. His responses have been measured and calm. He has even offered to stand down in September, despite being hounded out of office by opposition activists. And for a nation with the most strategic waterway on this planet, he is completely correct in saying that there will be chaos if he leaves now. It will become another Iraq. Don't trust any government supporting this coup, as they are only interested in a power share of the Suez Canal (eh, President Obama?).

And the BBC's reporting has been a one-sided disgrace to the term journalism. Anything to do with the opposition demonstrations has used the expressions democracy and people power. However, their reporting on the pro-Mubarak supporters included accusations of their banners looking suspicious and professionally made. Why not describe the opposition banners as suspicious? Especially as this whole uprising was planned in advance by the opposition. Independent journalism it is not.

I don't support disorder, but I do support real democracy; sometimes you need a revolution to get that. I take it you do not support real democracy; you seem to expect citizens to shut up and put up with whatever their leader gives them.

And whilst you watch on your TV, from the comfort of your living room, anti-government opposition activists demonstrating, you are perfectly happy in your TV living room world to accept those opposition activists as representing the majority of the whole population of Egypt? Is that your idea of "real democracy" then? Amongst a nation which has a voting population of 44.5 million. There were 23 million people demonstrating were there? I don't think so.

Better for Australia, a chance to compete seriously against more equal opposition rather than flogging the island nations of Oceania 31-0.

and signalled the death of soccer in Oceania, caused by one of it's very own territories. Meanwhile Blatter bleats on about promoting the game to new parts of the world by giving the World Cup to Qatar, whilst soccer in Oceania gets buried.

It was a footballing decision made for all the right reasons

Oh please. I think I'm going to throw up. It was a money decision based on greed and made for all the wrong reasons.

sabiwabi,

Interesting that you are accusing some of being misinformed, whilst you yourself declare that Mubarak is pro-Israeli and pro the peace treaty with Israel. Who do you think got Egypt back into the League of Arab States after their exclusion for signing the peace treaty? Do you seriously believe that the Arab States would have allowed Egypt back if Mubarak was pro-Israeli?

As for your comment ridiculing the ballot box and the vote as a better form of democracy. I take that as your support for outright disorder and rioting in the streets to decide who forms a government and when the opposition party want power?

Very silly.

Fortunately, the Asian Confederation disagrees with you. They voted - unanimously - 5 years ago to invite us into the Asian Confed. Win-win for all - and we saw that in the match up last Saturday. Socceroos and Samurai - 2 good teams representing Asia with pride.

After their accountants calculated how much more money Australia would bring into the Asian federation. If we are going to base our national identities on TV money and ticket sales, then lets have Brazil into Europe and the USA in South America. Brazil and England - 2 good teams representing Europe with pride.

Looks like Governer Morita's side parting has been severely singed by flying soy beans.

Here you have millions of people calling on reforms and freedom. Thousands of people are now in Tahrir Square demanding a change. USA on the other hand is supporting a corrupt tyrant. Ask yourself, America. Who are you? What do you stand for? Mubarak must step down and open up for democracy.

There are a lot of misinformed people posting on here about Mubarak and the current situation. Although corrupt, he seems a relatively balanced and independent individual in a regional hotbed of war and conflict. Mubarak replaced the pro-Israeli peace President Sadat when Sadat was assasinated for that very reason. Mubarak got Egypt back on board with the Arab world after they were kicked out of the Arab League for signing that peace treaty with Israel. However, Egyptian troops were also the first to attack the invading Iraqi forces in Kuwait and backing the US war in Kuwait. There again, Mubarak was the first to criticise Bush's war on Iraq warning of an escalation of terrorism in the wake of Bush's invasion of Iraq (and how sensible that criticism seems now).

And how can these demonstrations be described as democracy? I thought democracy involved a ballot box and a vote? How do we know whether these opposition activists are in the right? Otherwise every time an opposition party wanted to overthrow a government they just need to cause riots and claim democracy. These are opposition activists organising themselves via the internet and this sets a very dangerous precedent. Imagine if American or British or Japanese governments were determined by riots and demonstrations overthrowing the government.

After that World Cup warmup match against Japan, England drew twice and won one game in their World Cup group which was a very weak group where the USA finished top. England were then hammered in the 2nd round by the Germans. Japan however, won twice and lost once to Holland in their group which was pretty tough in comparison with Holland, Cameroon and Denmark. Japan then only went out in the 2nd round after losing on penalties.

After the World Cup England's results have included losing at home to France and drawing at home to Montenegro in a European qualifying game. Japan meanwhile, have beaten Argentina and won the Asia Cup.

So why would England be rated higher than Japan?

I hope one day you guys join us in Asia, and benefit the confederation with your refs, facilities and energy. The All-Whites would benefit greatly from playing in Asia, rather than pacific island banana republics like Fiji.

At least the All-Whites respect where their nation actually is, and remain within the Oceania confederation. Australia only weakened their own home federation by their own careerism. I believe that there is only 1 member of Australia's squad who plays in Asia (Kennedy), whilst the majority of the first team play in Europe. So where is the justification in FIFA allowing Australia to leave their continental association? If Australia were concerned by the difficulty of qualifying for the World Cup from Oceania's group, they could have requested a joint Asia/ Oceania qualifying campaign. Plus, they qualified for the last World Cup anyway? If they were concerned by a lack of competitive games, they could easily arrange internationals with European teams, seeing as most of their team live in Europe. Does this mean that Russia and Turkey will request a move to the Asian federation to make qualifying for the World Cup easier? Or Uruguay to CONCAF?

I agree about the Japan friendly versus Argentina. But what have they done wrong since the World Cup last summer? They have certified their improvement since the World Cup by winning a very competitive Asia Cup this year. I am not so sure that England would be certainties to beat Japan if they played them now. Many of England's so-called stars (Terry, Lampard, Ferdinand, Barry) are off form and passing their peak. Meanwhile Japan are producing young players making a name for themselves (Kagawa, Honda, Nagatomo, Kawashima).

These rankings are as big a joke as FIFA are. Japan should be above England (I'm English if you didn't already know). Japan only get to compare themselves properly with the likes of England once every 4 years. And Japan had a better tournament than England in South Africa. Since then Japan have beaten Argentina and won the Asia Cup beating South Korea and Australia along the way. And yet Japan are still behind England in the latest rankings. I can't help feeling that the old guard (England, Argentina etc) get to stay at a certain level in these rankings on their history alone. Argentina also had a disappointing World Cup and as mentioned above, have lost to Japan since then. Yet they also keep a high ranking.

That's pretty much the norm in every soccer game.

I have rarely seen the losing team line up in full and shake the hands of the winners. Formal handshakes before kick-off, yes. But at the end of a game you'll just have a few random handshakes on the pitch as they walk off. The Aussies made a point of doing this formally. And Cahill was very generous in his congratulations.

To be fair to Cahill and the rest of the Aussie team, they showed great respect by lining up to shake the hands of the Japanese at the end of the game. Cahill even made a point of walking over to congratulate the Japanese just before they received the cup.

Endo was once again magnificent

I still can't get my head round some of this praise about Endo. Did I watch a completely different game last night?? Being magnificent in soccer in my book usually constitutes never losing possession of the ball, certainly not as many times as Endo did.

Updated:-

"After an early exit from the World Cup and a decisive Ashes defeat, plus losing the Asia Cup Final to Japan.."

So we'll just go on and on vowing revenge and killing each other. Creating widows and orphans and fueling extremist terrorism, a la George Bush and his Iraqi solution. A look at the history books will also show that the Russian military response went way overboard. Hence the hatred for them.

It's fine for the likes of Putin and Medvedev to shout rhetoric and send the army in. People like them will have tight security for the rest of their lives. It's only the normal Russian civilians who suffer at the hands of terrorism such as this. I am disagreeing with people who immediately start screaming for revenge. Revenge is what reminds people to kill each other. As an example, the black widow group who have been mentioned as possible suspects for this outrage are comprised of women widowed by the victims of war with the Russian army. If the Russian army stopped creating widows, there would be no more volunteers for the black widow terrorists.

AdamB,

So you agree with just-a-guys remedy then do you ? Revenge ? That'll stop the terrorism on public transport will it ?

What Russia really needs is to take'revenges'for those 'perpetrators of airport bombing instead of punishment. those bandits were islamic fanatics and they respect no law or justice. So 'punishment' does not imply over those criminals. Revenges was what those bandits could understood and that doesnt require 'fair' or 'just'. I hope Mr Putin take his words in actions!

The very reason why terrorism such as this happens, is because of brainless gung-ho statements like the one above. If the Russian military had not gone to war in Chechnya and the like, then they would not have these extremist enemies.

Hold on a minute. Surely the bloke at the top of the chain assumes responsibility ? If Medvedev is in power, then he is the one who employs all the security chiefs and the police chiefs ?

A marauding monkey that terrorized resort towns in Shizuoka by biting nearly 120 people

Errmm, am I the only one wondering why a wild animal with a habit of biting people didn't receive a bullet ?

I hope that Sepp Blatter's oil millions are sitting comfortably in his pocket this morning. A dictatorship continually under attack from independence terrorism being awarded high-profile sporting events.

Too bad Zaccheroni was not brave enough to stick to the members of the third game.

?? The only changes were Uchida being dropped and Honda coming back into the team after being alternated with Endo against the worst team in the tournament, Saudi Arabia. Honda being one of Japan's best players that is. Learn about the game before you make 'Macaroni Japan' jokes.

With the amount of riches that joint has to shower on FIFA - you'd think they could pay some citizens say $200 each to attend the games and get bums on seats! Or even pay indentured workers from the sub-continent to go.

Good point Des. You would have thought they could have worked that one after getting the World Cup bidding right.

Their fans showed passion too, it seemed they were so loud they almost lifted that roof!

All 20,000 of them. Even the top 8 clubs in Englands second tier division achieve the same attendances.