The event was really fun and there was a carnival like atmosphere there. The game itself was great, despite India being very much off form. Below are a few photos from the night.

On Friday morning’s Sunrise TV show there was a discussion about racism and they gave the dictionary definition of racism as:

“The belief that each race has distinct and intrinsic attributes; The belief that one race is superior to all others”

Now I am not of the politically correct belief that any comments about any race is instantly racism. In fact I believe there are differences between races, these have developed as cultural differences in some cases genetic differences based on the local world in which people have lived over a long period of time (a good study of this is Jared Diamond’s book Guns, Germs and Steel). However, these differences do not make one race superior to another instead it makes us different, in exactly the same way that as humans we are all unique and special just like everyone else.

What is more interesting is looking at the excuses people make for making racist remarks. In the case of Andrew Johns his excuse was that he was merely rallying the troops with a pep talk. In the ARL case it was brushed aside as merely being an in-joke.

Closer to home someone I know wrote a blog post the other day in which they referred to “gweilous”. I have been around enough south east asian friends to recognise that as an extremely offensive racist comment towards “white people”, in fact Urban Dictionary* defines it as this:

Gweilo is Cantonese. It translates as ‘Ghost Man’ and is used to describe a Caucasian foreigner.
Although most of China is familiar with this word only Cantonese speakers use it as a derogative way of describing a white person.
It is considered highly offensive in Mandarin China and with some white people.

When I asked the author of the blog if they knew the meaning of that word they replied that they did and the reason why they had chosen to use it was because they were in a bad mood. That begs a question, is a bad mood a good enough excuse to use foul language? I think not.

There are always times when we lose our cool and say things that we regret at a later date but there are certain words that no matter how bad a mood you are in you are fully aware of the meaning of and there is simply no excuse for the use of.

In the case of Andrew Johns he lost two coaching jobs as a fall out from his comments, so far the ARL coach has kept their job, and the blog post was taken down – with me being accused of over analysing things.

Is taking offensive at racist comments an overreaction? Or should we take offence more often to stamp out racism?

*I know Urban Dictionary is not a real dictionary but it was the clearest, simplest and best definition I could find.

The current NZ team that is doing very well is the Football/Soccer team, The All Whites. This is the first time in 28 years they are playing at a World Cup, and last night they earned their first ever point at a tournament with a draw against Slovakia.

To watch the match I went down to the office FIFA Fan Fest site at Darling Harbour, to join with ~2,500 fellow supporters to watch the match. The balance of NZ Supporters to Slovak supporters was probably 10:1, however, the Slovaks know how to chant and cheer on their team while the NZ supporters are passionately quiet.

That was until the 93rd minute of the game when NZ scored and leveled the game 1-1. Personally I have never screamed so hard in my life and my ears are still ringing even now from the amount of noise that was generated as a result of celebrations of the goal. The last few seconds of the game following the goal were not heard as the NZ supporters continued to scream, yell and dance while the Slovak supporters who had been so vocal all game when quiet.

It was a lot of fun to be around people so passionate and it is a pitty that NZ never seems to put on public gatherings like this to support its teams, instead people are confined to their couches at home watching Sky, or at the local pub.

The next America’s Cup Regatta currently held up in court rooms because of Alinghi’s desire to be able to change the rules and remove any competitor whenever they desire.

And yesterday they flew a Maori sovereignty flag off the back of their boat in an aparent attempt to stir up some emotions and controversy.

But todays debarcle takes the cake.

Refusing to race Team NZ.

On the news tonight Dean Barker could only repeat two words: “Pissed Off” over the incident.

Alinghi are claiming that racing would be of no benefit to them. Well even if you are leading the regatta it is still decent to race. Especially when it is a hyped rematch of the final of the last America’s Cup.

It seems Alinghi are running scared when they cannot control the rules for the regatta.

I watched the first day of racing streaming on the Internet and yesterday I headed up North Head to watch it live. You can check out the live photos on facebook http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=88301&id=656762268&ref=mf

But below are some screenshots from the online footage, Virtual Eye has really come a long way over the years and it is very impressive this year.

Edwin Derricutt

At 2.20 was the great Kiwiana Party aka The Great Indoor Cricket Battle: The Americans (Family Force Five and Kutless) vs The Punters (randomly picked campers).  It was a bad but funny idea to send The Americans into bat first. No one explained to them that cricket is not baseball. Firstly you hold the bat differently, and secondly you don’t drop it after hitting the ball. The cricket match was a great way to get out of the sun though.

About half the crowd that had packed into the Palladium to see the cricket

That is not a baseball bat, and that is not how you hold a cricket bat!

About three quarters through the cricket I left to see Season Pass play. They were awesome! For a band that has not played together for more than a year and only had a few practices. Also partly because I know almost everyone in the band so it was a more personal performance than most other bands.

Luke Oram and Evan Cooper

Evan Cooper, with Steven from Mumsdollar playing Bass in the background

The entire Season Pass band with Gareth Hodges on keys and a guy from The Ember Days on drums

Second highest score on debut ever, high score not out on debut, highest NZ score on debut.

NZ 275/4. West Indies will start batting in about 30 minutes.