Howard mark II

I’m not sure what comments I can make about the Australian election as I haven’t been keeping all that up to date with news. It does look like Rudd is going to win. I think there is certainly an element of a desire for change amongst the feelings of the Australian population. Howard has been in 10 years so it is just human nature for people to want change. Howard should really have gone out on top and handed the reigns over to Costello before this campaign. I think it has harmed his party that he says he will not complete the full term if re-elected. If that is the case then he shouldn’t have run as leader.

I think Rudd though has moved the Labor party further towards the centre. In a similar way to how Blair moved Labour over here towards the centre. There isn’t a great deal of difference now between the left and right parties over here, both of them hover around centre because that is the changing nature of the societies we live in. There is no longer a large distinction between socio-economic classes and little difference now between blue and white collar workers. As technology improves, so does the need for manual labour decrease. Everyone is middle class now and so the traditional classes of people that were represented by labor parties in the past, no longer exist. So political parties now have to fight over the middle ground. It would seem that Rudd has managed to move the party towards the centre and in a position to win this election.

Those are my comments based on my limited knowledge of the situation.

Ing-er-land Ing-er-land Ing-er-land

The mood in England today has been somewhat of disappointment. MacLaren has been sacked, but we were all expecting that. It’s just a shame you can’t sack the players who are clearly very poor indeed. I don’t feel anything particularly about the result though it will mean that there isn’t much interest in the tournament next summer which is a shame because there is always a good atmosphere in England when they are playing the world cup or Euro championships.

The goalkeeper Scott Carson who has played very well for Aston Villa this season, should have not however been picked. Paul Robinson has had a poor season for club and country so far; he has let in far too many goals and made far too many mistakes. But MacLaren stuck by him for England which is fair enough. England played a friendly last Friday against Austria where he gave Carson a chance, then decided to leave him in there for last night’s game. But why stick by Robinson as your number 1 for ages, only to drop him for the final and most important game of the year? Robinson is a far more experienced keeper and Maclaren really should have left him in the side.

I think England really need to get over themselves. The print media in this country are very antagonistic and I think they are to blame for the negative attitude that exists towards England, and the supposed ‘born to rule’ mentality that exists here. It certainly seems that when it comes to football, there is an attitude that England have a divine right to be amongst the best teams in the world. It is very much fuelled by the print media and I think many would agree it was a large part of their downfall in last year’s world cup.

What has really irked this year is that the media have continually referred to the event of England not qualifying for Euro 2008 as “the unthinkable.” Why should it be so unthinkable that England not qualify? It is indicative of the attitude here that England have a divine right to win everything. The England team are no where near as good as the country thinks they are and if they are to get any better, then they need to wake up and accept this fact; then they can work on getting better. It’s no good to think you’re the best and then blame the manager, or blame the goalkeeper for making a mistake that means you don’t win. If they were as good as the press say they are, then the goalkeeper could make mistakes like that and it wouldn’t matter because they’d be enough goals in front.

My colleague says he thinks it’s the best thing that could have happened to them so that hopefully they will wake up and sort themselves out. I think they need to accept that they’re actually a bit rubbish first; it’s simple psychology, you can’t get better if you keep denying the fact that you are ill!

Jol Out?

Jol has certainly done well in the last couple of seasons; consecutive 5th place finishes and qualification for Europe is certainly an achievement and has brought the club closer to where we want to be. However we should consider that the club has spent a lot of money and brought in a lot of talent so it should not have been beyond a lot of managers to achieve what Jol has achieved.

The board's issue with Jol is that, while he has done well to bring Spurs to where we are now, they are not sure whether he has what it takes to break the club into the top 4. Indeed you only need to look at Jol's record against the top 4 sides, and see that he has won once against them since becoming manager. This does not give the board confidence that Jol is capable of taking the club to the next level.

He does though deserve a chance. When the first reports came out, I was appalled by the behaviour of the board and, like most Spurs fans, would have been pretty disgusted if Jol was sacked. He has done more than any other Spurs manager in the Premiership and should be given the chance to continue improving the club's standing.

However. After the utterly abhorrent tactical blunder made by Jol on Saturday against Fulham, I have now suddenly sympathised with the board. With Robbie Keane on the pitch, Spurs were totally dominating the game and even though they should have been more than 2 goals ahead, Keane was controlling the play and Fulham did not have the ball. The best form of defence is attack and if you are attacking, the opposition does not have the ball and they cannot score. Once Keane came off for the utterly useless Defoe, Spurs had only one more shot for the rest of the game; Fulham were allowed posession and you know what happened next.

It is not the first time Jol has made this mistake, let's hope it is the last, but that is where one is able to see where the board is coming from. These kind of blunders cannot be made if Spurs want to crack the top 4. Forget about keeping all your strikers happy, if Bent and Defoe spend most of their time on the bench, then so be it. Put your best team on the field and if some people are unhappy about being on the bench then so be it. Bent knew the stikers this club already had when he signed up; this game is not about keeping players happy, it's about keeping the fans happy by getting points.

Having said that, it would be a mistake to sack Jol now; all the players and most of the fans are behind him, and there will only be a negative atmosphere at the club if he is sacked in the near future. He should be given his chance but if, as the season progresses, it is looking increasingly like Jol will not be taking the club any further this season than he already has, then it is time for him to go. Next Saturday against the Arse is where he needs to prove he can challenge the top 4 sides.

A top 4 finish or at least a Cup trophy this season is a must!

Not much to say

I wish I had the commitment to keep this blog regular, I really do. It's inconvenient being a lazy, borderline alcoholic sometimes you know.

I'm going to go back to the gym this week, well maybe next week, I'm not sure yet. Of course I said this last week, and the week before.

There's a tube strike starting here in about 2 hours. Fortunately the Jubilee and Northern line will still be running through the strike though you can imagine they'll be ridiculously busy. I think I'll stay at the office until well after peak hour has finished and head home then. Tube workers striking is ridiculous; they can't run the damn thing properly, it always breaks down and now they think they have reason to strike. For something so iconic, and for something with such potential to be run efficiently, it really is a joke how incompetently run the whole thing is. Anyway, I'm sounding like a broken record on this blog now.

Unauthorised Overdrafts

I resolved to my friend Steve last night that I would resume blogging in some capacity. So since it is Friday afternoon and I have no intention of doing any more work for the rest of the day; here I am.

The topic that left me screaming at the television last night was the row over banks charging customers large sums of money for having their banks accounts go into overdraft without authorisation from the bank.

The Office of Fair Trading are now bringing a legal case against all the major banks in the UK over what they perceive to be unfair charges to customers who allow their accounts to be overdrawn.

I personally find this to be utterly ridiculous. In Britain it is appallingly easy to obtain credit. Almost every bank will offer you an agreed overdraft without question. So what this means is that the people who end up being charged for going into overdraft, have already reached their agreed overdraft amount and then gone over it. They have already been spending someone else's money up to a certain level; then, since they cannot stop spending, they have taken someone else's money, without first asking if it's ok.

That is what I feel this all boils down to: theft. These people have spent money that is not theirs, without asking. I think the banks should be allowed to charge as much as they want if someone spends their money without permission. Of course last night's news story was filled with the usual sob stories of people who only go into overdraft by a little bit and then rack up a whole load of charges. Well here's a message for you people; don't go to the pub on Friday night for a couple of weeks because you can't afford it. Learn to live within your means instead of spending the bank's money and then whingeing about the fact that they've charged you for it.

Right that'll do for now

NFI

It's been a while; I have been very busy and still am. Not much time for opinions really. I think the direction of this blog will take a direction involving smaller, more precise comments, than long, rambling commentaries that I have become so used to.

I will kick off this new regime by asking how, in the modern age of communication, can the second most powerful man in the world, be so out of touch with the rest of it?

http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/terrorists-aiming-for-empire/2007/02/23/1171734021090.html

I really do not want an answer to that question

Winter Solstice

Very early this morning, in fact at 00:22 GMT was the winter solstice in the northern hemisphere. In the geocentric view; the sun stopped travelling north, stood still over the tropic of Cancer at 23 degrees and 27 minutes north, and then began travelling south. In about 3 months time it will cross the equator, then in about six months it will stand still over the tropic of Capricorn.

What this means for us, is that the days will now start becoming lighter.

Something to look forward to!

A day for mourning

It is a sad, sad day today. The great man, the greatest ever Australian: Shane Warne, has announced his retirement from international cricket.

Thanks for all the memories mate

Kiwi FC v Boca Seniors

Kiwi FC surged to the top of the table with a resounding 6-0 win over Boca Seniors on the back of another solid second half. The Kiwis have played a lot of their best football in the second half of this season’s matches, regularly bringing on fresh legs and wearing the opposition down. Saturday was no different and after a rusty first half, Kiwi FC’s class and strength showed in the end to bag the points.

A combination of poor weather and defaulting opposition meant that Kiwi FC had played only once in the past 6 weeks; so they started the game a little slowly. Some good communication and patience from Cappy and Kris at the back meant that the side soon found some flow and began to dominate possession. Danny and Steve A controlled the midfield well and Kiwis regularly stretched their opposition; using the full width of the pitch. Mike and Dave made some incursive runs from their wing back positions, and Nick and Steve Mc also sought to take the attack into the opposition area, supporting the front two of James and Grog.

Though despite all their dominance, the Kiwis just couldn’t seem to put the ball in the back of the net. Cappy and Danny both came close with fine shots, Grog and Steve A also had chances and James and Nick both missed when it looked easier to score; though at least Nick made contact with the ball.

So at half time it was a rather disappointing 0-0. The lads all agreed they had played rather poorly but there was a sense that the goals would come and it was just a matter of a little more patience. Grog and Dave were replaced by Sam and Bede.

Come they did; shortly into the second half the floodgates opened. Kiwi FC continued their dominance of possession but in the second half they turned that dominance into goals. Danny started the rout after following through on a wicked strike from outside the area by Steve Mc. The goalie couldn’t handle the shot and Danny was there to hammer home the rebound. The Boca players then spent the next 5 minutes arguing with the ref that it was off-side, but he wasn’t going to change his mind, and this spurred the Kiwis on to net more goals.

The second goal came shortly afterwards. After some good build up work by Nick in midfield, James latched onto his pass and headed for goal. He played his way into the box and rolled the ball past the keeper. 2-0

Steve B came on for Steve Mc and immediately had an impact on the game. He worked hard and made some driving runs down the left; teasing the Boca defence and keeping Kiwi FC down the right end of the pitch. It was from one of these field positions that the third goal came. The Kiwis won a free kick wide out on the left, Steve A stepped up and curled a lovely ball into the box, Sam rose unchallenged and placed a perfectly directed header into the back of the net. This was getting easy now.

More goals were to come as the Kiwis kept piling forward. Cappy was making some good runs forward; passing it out of defence and then following his passes up. He wasn’t going to be denied having his name on the score sheet, some great build up work saw Cappy launch a stinging shot from just outside the box, the keeper had no chance and Cappy got his just rewards for another fine performance.

James bagged himself another shortly after that. Played through by a great pass by Steve A, he hit it low to the bottom left corner and that made it 5.

With credit to the Boca players they never gave up and still threatened the Kiwi goal once or twice, but Leighton was always on hand to clean up in goal. Kiwi FC were keen to record their first clean sheet of the season and even though a couple of times it looked like they might concede, it was the Kiwis who scored again. An excellent run into the box by Danny saw him tripped up and a penalty was deservedly earned. Smelling a hat-trick, James stepped up to take it. The kick was delayed by the opposition arguing with the ref about where it should be taken from, but the spot was marked on the ground, and nobody was going to miss from 8 yards out. 6-0

That was the last time the scorers would be troubled for the day, though Boca managed to finish the game with only 9 players after having a player sent off. It was just the result that Kiwi FC wanted going into the short Christmas break. They can look down at the rest of the league from the top of the table, ahead by 2 points still with a game in hand.

Cheers and farewell to Steve Bethune who played his last game for the club, sorry for not letting you take the penalty. Steve has been a quality member of the team both on and off the pitch and he will be missed.

It's in the bag

After day 2 of the third test, Australia clearly have the upper hand. They are odds on favourites to win this test and take an unsurmountable 3-0 series lead.

I can guarantee this will happen. The reason I say this has not anything to do with Australia's cricketing abilities or what my prediction is of how the match will unfold. I say this because of the following quote by Kevin Pietersen:

"If our batters bat well, and we have some pretty good batters, we could still draw."

Pietersen has really been the only England player that has provided any kind of consistent resistance in the series so far. This is his mindset; he has already resigned to not winning the game. He has already given up hope of winning and now at best thinks they can achieve a draw. I imagine this is the mindset throughout the England team. They have already lost. They will not even draw the match with this kind of attitude.

The Ashes will belong to Australia once again on Sunday afternoon.

3 totally random comments on a Tuesday

The London Paper is one of 2 free papers handed out to Londoners on their way home of an evening, much like the Metro is made available for free in the morning. It touches on a couple of news stories during the day, that anyone who pays attention already knows about; this way it can pass itself off as a newspaper and not a pile of gossip crap, which essentially is what it is. Every day the average IQ of Londoners is decreased by people reading this paper.

Yesterday, on the front page of The London Paper, was a picture of Nicole Richie eating. Yes that was the story to go with it too: Nicole Richie actually eats something. How anyone can even consider this worthy of pointing out, let alone mentioning it on the front page of a paper is way beyond me.


More good news on the Mat Rogers front, it seems as though he has been reading this blog and will actually be fucking off back to league. Thanks for nothing Rogers, and no thanks for losing us the world cup either. You never had enough class to play rugby, go back to your poor man’s game; I hope one day in the near future you decide to follow in your father’s footsteps.


Graham Poll isn’t everyone’s favourite ref and he has made one or two blunders in recent past; but he was right on the mark on Saturday when he showed Manchester City’s Bernardo Corradi a yellow card for diving to try and earn a penalty in the opposition box. It was his second booking of the game and he was subsequently given his marching orders. The most refreshing aspect of the whole situation was that after the match, City manager Stuart Pearce admitted that his player had dived, did not condone it and suggested that he would have a word with the player and not tolerate that kind of behaviour at his club. Well done Stuart, you are a man who deserves much respect. A week after Sir Alex Ferguson defended his player Ronaldo who clearly dived to earn a penalty; football needs more honest people like Pearce. I will qualify this comment however by suggesting that his comments may have been slightly different if Poll had fallen for the trick and awarded a penalty.

Not this week

I haven't had much to say this week. I will say this now though:

FUCK OFF MAT ROGERS!!!

North London Derby

Big game this weekend, 12:45 on Saturday it's Arse vs Spurs.

I think Spurs are in with a shout this year; Arsenal are not playing that well at the moment, they still haven't settled properly into the new stadium, though they had a midweek loss they will be looking to bounce back from. Spurs have had some good form of late and Berbatov has been at the centre of it all. None the less, form often goes out the window in derby games but I still think the Yids will fancy their chances tomorrow.

The odds I think were very generous indeed and so I have had a punt

£10 on Spurs to win at 5/1
£10 on Spurs to win 1-0 goal scored by Berbatov at 70/1
£2 on Spurs to win 1-0 goal scored by King at 250/1

Unfortunately I wont be seeing any of the match as the 12:45 kick off clashes with the time I must be arriving at Wandsworth Park for our match at 1:30. I hope that both results will go my way.

Come on you Spurs!

Bristol Cars

If I was asked how much the car that should be pictured above actually cost, I would not assign it a very high price tag. It’s not much to look at is it? I would guess it is at least 30 years old, takes leaded fuel, and couldn’t be relied upon to start on a cold day.

All of these things of course are wrong; otherwise this posting wouldn’t really be of any interest. The car is in fact, a current model Blenheim 3 made by Bristol Cars. It is powered by a 5.9 litre V-8 and will take you to 60mph from a standing start in 6.3 seconds. The cost? £150,000


One of the worst things about people with wealth, are those that choose to display it in the most garish and obscene ways. This is one of the reasons why I do not at all like the whole Rap/ R ‘n’ B culture in the US; apart from the fact that I don’t much care for that kind of music, the culture exists to flaunt wealth in the most ‘in your face’ way as possible. The bling bling, the ostentatious clothing, the shiny 36” wheels on huge gas guzzling SUVs. It is all rather tasteless; a consequence of ‘new money.’

I feel there is a much more refined and dignified way of displaying one’s wealth, a way that is perhaps adopted by those with ‘old money.’ The Bristol Blenheim though goes right off the scale when it comes to understating one’s wealth. Apart from those who know of Bristol Cars (and it is not a well known car brand) driving a Blenheim almost says, “I am poor.” Those who drive these cars certainly have no intention of ostentatiously showing off their wealth. I have said that if I were wealthy (which sadly I am not) I would choose to be refined with my money, however if I could afford a Bristol Blenheim, I would still be buying an Aston Martin.

There is another Bristol car however that I would be tempted to buy. However this car is so powerful I am sure I would end up killing myself and most likely a few other innocent people when I took it out on the motorway. It is the Bristol Fighter T. It certainly does look like a car you need to be rich to drive. At £350,000 you need to be more than rich. I will lean back so as to not drool on the keyboard when I type this; the Fighter T is powered by a twin turbocharged and intercooled 8 litre V10 engine. It pumps out a massive 1,012 bhp and 1,404 newton metres of torque. It will take the car from 0 to 60mph in 3.5 seconds, on it’s way to an electronically limited maximum speed of 225mph. Bristol have said they are...

"Responding to the needs of some exacting customers we have created a very special Fighter variant which, as ever, remains a compact and enjoyable car to drive around town or as an exhilarating track car. Yet it takes two people and their luggage in great luxury and ease for trans continental travel."

I would like to meet these customer who claim to need more than a thousand brake horse power.

First deliveries are in September 2007. I had better start saving.

It takes an eternity

Scotland is another of those progressive countries that has banned smoking in public places. The main issue as far as I am concerned is smoking in bars and pubs. As is the case also when going to Ireland, it was so refreshing to go out in Edinburgh over the weekend and not be assaulted by passive smoke in pubs.

Forget about the health effects of passive smoking; being in an enclosed room full of cigarette smoke is absolutely disgusting. It is an assault on the senses, it stinks, it hurts your eyes and it soaks into your clothes so that they reek for days afterwards.

Coming back to London after being in the wonderful smoke free Edinburgh makes you notice it even more; as soon as you step into the pub you can smell it.

Scotland and Ireland have got it right, sitting in a bar or pub is actually a pleasant experience there. Why is it not the same in England? Why is England so far behind her neighbours?

Fortunately, the government have finally voted on a blanket ban on smoking in public places. They voted on this back in February 2006. However it is not due to come in to place until summer 2007!!!!!!!!!! Why? Why does it take 18 months for this to actually be enacted? What preparations are required before this ban can be enforced that could possibly last for 18 months? Sure you’ve got to give people a bit of time to get used to the idea, but 18 bloody months?!?!

It is absolutely bloody nonsense. As with nearly everything in this country it takes an eternity to do anything. Why vote to do something in a year and half? Why wait that long? We’ve voted for it to happen, so let’s make it happen, NOW!

What's more, it is apparently going to cost £50 million to enforce the ban. How? What are they spending fifty million quid on? Are they going to make 50 million No Smoking signs? What else is required apart from saying "as of now, you can't smoke indoors" Fine, there are some costs associated with making sure everyone does comply, but FIFTY MILLION QUID? FFS!

Piss off Rogers

Mat Rogers wants to keep playing flyhalf for the Wallabies.

Fuck off Rogers, you suck, you're a reserve utility back at best. What makes you think you could bring more to the team at number 10 than Steven Larkham does? Forget about all this backline experimentation; Larkham at 10, Giteau at 12 and Mortlock at 13, Tuqiri and Latham and another winger in there. That's the best backline combination the Wallabies have to offer, why keep messing with it? Saturday's game showed how good they can be if the forwards give them a bit of space.

There's no room in there for you bitch, you shouldn't even be thinking about the World Cup next year, you're going back to league. Why don't you do us all a favour and go there sooner rather than later? You lost the World Cup final for us last time, don't stick around to fuck it up for us again.

Wanker

Good weekend to be an Aussie

There was no risk of me missing my flight this weekend and on Friday evening travelled to Edinburgh with 5 other friends for what turned out to be a high quality boys’ weekend. It was only my second visit to Edinburgh – the last time being more than 3 years ago. It really is a great city; very picturesque, lots of places to go out and have fun, there’s a good vibe about the place and plenty of nice people about.

The purpose of the visit of course was to see Australia take on Scotland at Murrayfield. While I have seen the Wallabies play in Scotland before, it was at Hamden Park and so I was keen to visit the home of rugby in Scotland as well. Murrayfield is a great stadium and my only complaint was that there is no big screen for the purpose of seeing replays of the action. This was most disappointing as there was some scintillating back-line play from the Wallabies in the second half especially.

The Scots certainly fancied themselves before the match and given the way the Wallabies have been playing, I was predicting a close match. However Australian teams are never ones to give up and I knew the Wallabies would fancy finishing the tour on a high note. That they did and it was probably the best I have seen them play all year, finally the forwards managed to gain some kind of ascendancy which meant that the backs actually had some time and space to show what they can do. Some great backline moves in the second half especially created some quality tries; it was very entertaining to watch. The defence as well was superb especially when Scotland were pounding at the line at one stage in the second half, the Wallabies just kept repelling them. I hope the Wallabies can take a lot from the tour and improve next year so they can be a serious challengers to the All Blacks in September and October next year.

It was of course an even better weekend to be an Australian, with a crushing of England in the first test of the Ashes. Congrats to England for winning the last series, but they went on as though they had won the bloody world cup. When taken into context, they had in fact narrowly won a single test series, that’s all. The fact that they had not been able to achieve this in 18 years was the reason that they were so elated. Now it seems though the team that won that series is a shadow if its former self. The Aussies are fired up this time and by the end of the summer, the urn will be back in its rightful place and normality will be resumed; it will be proven that last year was nothing more than an anomaly.

Last year though the Aussies won the first test pretty convincingly and then faltered so the series is far from over. Things though are different this time and I don’t think anyone can see that happening again. England will take some heart from their second innings fight back, but they don’t have the skill, class, ability, or confidence at the moment to retain the trophy they fought so hard to win last year. Before the series began, you could only get a paltry 4/1 on Australia winning the series 5-0, something that has happened only once in ashes history; now the odds are even shorter.

0.999...

0.999... recurring is exactly equal to 1

How is this possible you ask?

I demonstrate

x = 0.999…

10x = 9.999…

10x – x = 9.999… - 0.999…

9x = 9

x = 1


Freaky!

Oooops... She didn't do it!

I am very disappointed by the latest news I have received: apparently there is not any Britney Spears sex tape. Now it would have been very silly of Britney to have made one in the first place and I am pretty sure her advisors would have been certain to warn her against doing something like that. As good as it would have been to see Britney shagging on tape for 4 hours, I’m not quite sure anyone would have paid $22 million for possession of it, which is what was claimed was on offer.

Britney has always sold her image on sex; her videos are erotic, suggestive and leave little to the imagination. I don’t mind this at all and have no problems leaving MTV on when one of her songs is played. While she is watched by plenty of red blooded young men like me, she is also watched by millions of young and adolescent girls, mostly of course, in America. There isn’t anything wrong with this but we should take this into consideration when discussing America’s entirely hypocritical values with regards to sex.

A couple of years ago there was an enormous controversy in the US when Janet Jackson’s bare breast (though her nipple was covered) was exposed on national TV during the Superbowl half time show. It was a national outcry, a crime against humanity, Janet Jackson became public enemy number 1. The television station which was broadcasting the show was even sued for millions of dollars as a result.

It was really was much ado about nothing. How really is that anything different to what Britney Spears does in her videos, which earns her the adoration of people all over the country? Not to mention a hell of a lot of money!

It was just a breast, half of everyone in the world has two of them, why should it be so shocking to see someone else’s? The US would do a lot better if they showed more breasts on television instead of so many guns and violence.

Thirty Million Dollars?????

I have seen Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan; it is one of the funniest movies I have ever seen, and I do intend on seeing it again.

It is of course very popular, and as a result, is making a lot of money. However whenever you publicly make money in America, other people want to try and take some of that off you. It’s a national hobby in America to sue people and already there are plenty of reports of people filing suits against the makers of the movie. The latest one is by the Romanian villagers that were used at the start of the movie to represent a fictional town in Kazakhstan. They claim they were told they were making a documentary about poverty in Romania and they were not aware the movie was a satire. As a result, they are suing for damages due to the fact that they were represented as rapists, abortionists, prostitutes and thieves.

Of course this is absolute nonsense and proceeding with a case like this would be a complete waste of everybody’s time. Viewers of the movie are aware that it is satire; nobody is looking at the Romanian villagers used in the film and thinking that they actually are rapists, abortionists, prostitutes and thieves. We are all well aware that what we are seeing is in fact, fictional. Just like after watching Se7en, I did not think that Kevin Spacey was actually a deranged serial killer, nor do I think that Borat is a real person, or that the villagers were the people they were said to be in the movie.

So there really is no basis at all for a law suit against the makers of the movie. However no doubt there are American lawyers who are the driving forces behind these kind of actions. Suing people is their business, the more people sue others, the more money they make. Given the apparent remoteness of the village in Romania and the apparently poverty shown there; along with the fact that none of them speak English, it is quite unlikely that the villagers concerned, have ever actually seen the movie, or even knew of its existence. It is lawyers who have gone looking for them, they are the ones who have put these ideas in their heads, they are just using them for their own benefit.

The two plaintiffs in the case are suing for THIRTY MILLION DOLLARS in damages. Tell me please how two old Romanian villagers, living on the poverty line, could possibly ever imagine having 30 million dollars? Even if they actually had a fair case to launch against the movies makers, how could they ever justify that they should be paid 30 million dollars for their suffering? It is absolute and utter rubbish and it has been fed to them by greedy American attorneys who are using them for their own means.

The Borat movie did an excellent job of showing how ignorant and foolish some Americans are, and cases like this only further enforce that fact.