Whistle concert for denying Sepp Blatter

When Fifa chair Sepp Blatter entered Soccer City during the finals (NL - ES) in Jo'Burg, the complete audience was whistling sharply as a sign of firm disapproval of his conservative and bureaucratic policies at Fifa, now and then threatening to kill the popular interest in the game. Later Blatter said to a journalist, who asked about the whistle concert, that he didn't hear that and that he felt to the contrary a warm welcome. Maybe that is his way not to loose his face, maybe he is in outright denial, or maybe he has lost all sense of reality at his age of 74. Probably all three has some truth in it. Anyway, it is probably wise not to extend the term of Blatter at Fifa, but probably he will manage to continue until his death like Samaranch as former president of the international olympic committee (IOC). Actually, this only shows that in its heart FIFA and IOC are not democratic at all, and far from transparant. We have a long way to go before these two biggest sport federations open up for the people it intends to serve.

A fair game is all we ask the FIFA

Also the worldcup final has shown that FIFA has to open up and become more transparant. Otherwise, it will gradually kill public interest in the football game. In many matches, including the final one, the referee was not able to judge off-side positions correctly, and in the finals referee Webb gave a record of thirteen yellow cards. It seemed that the referee was biased in favor of the favorite team: Spain. Maybe the complains about referee Webb in the Spanish press had helped Spain in the end. Or were the teams taking the prediction of octopus Paul serious?

FIFA officials have promised to change the referee structure. Putting more referees on the field will not do, because the ball is often too fast for the human eye. Placing chips in the ball for tracking if an outer line has been passed is very efficient and the result is available in a split second. The other menace, judging off-side positions, can be done via an instant video replay. But, for example, only when one of the sides (coaches) asks for it, like in tennis.

Also in case of penalties and red cards an instant video replay is necessary.

The Netherlands were not good enough to win the game during the 120 minutes playing time. Neither the Spanish side. It was a pity the defaulting referee impacted the game heavily by wrong decisions about an off-side goal for the Spanish and sending the wrong person off the field. Just saying that that is football is similar to saying "this is Africa" when the subject is the sky-high criminality figures in South-Africa. We shouldn't settle for less than a fair game.

Bending FIFA rules about NOT reprinting a worldcup ticket

The FIFA and its regulations is an example of an organization with a very closed, intransparant culture. Yesterday, Ward van Riel, found out that his passport and -worse- worldcup ticket for the final Netherlands - Spain were stolen. The embassy is quick with a replacement, but the FIFA refused to solve the issue. Ward had paid 900 USD for the seat, and had followed all the matches of the Netherlands until now, and is then supposed to miss the grand finale? No way.

After three hours of complaining - visiting the FIFA center in the international Joburg airport, being redirected to the FIFA center in Sandton, Joburg - to the frontdesk, the frontdesk manager Daniel Howard, we still had no more result than an ongoing debate about the policy of FIFA that "tickets under no circumstances are reprinted".
Daniel: "the ticket is probably already being resold on the black market."
Me: "Well, please block the old ticket in your system then!"
Daniel: "Ok, yes I can do that for you. Give me a minute".
Daniel then blocked the old ticket.
"Ok, now that you have done that. Why not give out a NEW ticket with a NEW bar code. That's not the same as a reprint of the old ticket in which case you would have two duplicates with the same bar code."
"No, we can't do that. We don't reprint tickets."
"But, that is not reprinting. It is giving out a new ticket for his seat. He bought the right for his seat. Can we talk to your manager?"
But, manager's manager Jess Constant was not in. Also after an hour not back from lunch.
Luckily a cameraman and journalist of a Russian TV network with running camera and open microphone. They were extremely willing to make an item of Ward's dramatic story in the FIFA-land of bureaucracy. Russians are always very critical about Western institutes. A minute later also BBC Radio made its appearance and did a short interview with us, and promised to make an item of it as it is devastating for a fan like Ward to miss the final, for which he had acquired a FIFA-ticket already eight months before, complacent to FIFA rules.
Next, three FIFA officials exited the office area and we jumped upon them, explaining the situation for the tenth time. A catch22-like discussion unfolded in which Ward was actually accused without having done anything wrong that "he may have resold the ticket illegally".
"Prove that! The old ticket is blocked. He followed all the games of the Netherlands until now. He can't help it that his tiket is stolen. The police made a report of it. What more can he do to prove his case?"
One of the three officials felt sorry, and phoned to the responsible manager Gary Scott. A few minutes later Gary exited the office area as well and met Ward in the help desk area. Within 30 more minutes the FIFA regulations were bent in the righteous way, and Ward's ordeal came to a happy end.

How many other FIFA clients have been mishandled by the FIFA helpdesks? How many had to miss matches and even the upcoming finals, because of being robbed of their valuable tickets and consumer rights? It is not a 21st century solution to rob clients of their customer rights. It is a mere technicality, to cancel tickets that are reported stolen, and give out new numbers. If that is PRed well at the same time by FIFA, the black market will collapse at once as people become uncertain if the ticket that they buy second handed is still valid or not.
FIFA can also regulate this second hand business by offering integrity checks for resold tickets, or allow already printed tickets to be resold via the official FIFA website.

Singapore English added to open ICEcat

Today, we added Singapore English to the free Open ICEcat catalog. This in response to requests from a Singaporese etailer and Philips. We had noted before, that Singapore is a very active ecommerce market in Asia, like Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Hong Kong.

Producing security in South Africa: continue the good job after the games are over

During the FIFA world football championships, South Africa has proven to be able to deliver security. A complete crackdown on crime, by placing a host of police officers on every street corner. Even South African citizens in Durban, Cape Town and elsewehere, admit that they feel secure now.
This raises a question: can't the south african government produce security after the games are over? Is there sufficient political will to continue the good job or will the government fall back to its old habits of corruption, self-pity and bureaucracy?
Delivering food and economic security to ALL its citizens, will attack the roots of economic crimes. An effective deployment of the available police force, patrolling its borders, and education will do the rest. There is no reason why South Africa can't become the civilized society that it once was, but now on a full democratic basis. Fully realizing its potential. The economic strength is there, as it is one of Africa's four strongest economies with a GDP growth in the regions of 4-5% annually.

If South Africa is NOT able to delivery security to all its citizens after the games are over, the opportunity to become a real African Growth Tiger are missed. And another lost decade looms where the brains are exported to more promising countries.

Changing FIFA rules to improve the football game

Some FIFA rules need to change to make football (we don't call it soccer) more attractive: more goals, less irritation about erroneous referees, less dead moments.

First, the offside rule has to disappear. This causes now to many dead moments. Without it the field will be much "longer", and there is more space for the man with the ball.

Second, the yellow card has to be changed into a real penalty: get the player for 5 minutes off the field. So that there is room for a kind of power play during that time. This gives a real and immediate advantage to the side that was victimized.

Third, the video referee is deadly needed. No discussion about that. Too many games are decided by wrong referee decision. Hands balls that were overlooked. Off side situations that were missed or wrongly seen. (Offside has to disappear any way).

Fourth, draws are not decided by penalty series. But a golden goal. If that does not work, each team has to withdraw two players from the field every five minutes. Believe me, in the end there will be a decisive goal. And a lot of fun in the mean time.

Computex focuses on 3D and tablet PCs. Rest is business as usual.

The Computex 2010 in Taipei, one of the largest IT fairs in Asia, has 3D displays and iPad clones as major themes. Asus and Acer are presenting their newest tablet PCs, now that Apple has revived this drooling market segment with the iPad. Everything that Steve Jobs touches becomes gold.. at least it looks like that. Perfectionism in intuitive interfacing is doing the job.
3D display technology still looks clumsy. 3D holograms in a kind of plexiglass boxes. 3D TVs that work well as long as you don't change your viewing angle. 3D videos, displayed on a notebook screen, that still need the so-called 3D glasses. Yes, they are shipped in the box with the notebook.
Further, the Computex is business as usual. Halls filled with small OEM manufacturers. Taiwanese firms that claim that all their production is in Taiwan, not outsourced to mainland China "as there are quality problems in Chinese factories". A few firms are investing in their own brands and try to win the world market in the slipstream of Acer, Asus, MSI and Gigabyte.
Although the IT sector is still vibrant, the number of visitors is dwindling.