Monday 19 September 2011

Immigrant baby boom

50 Polish children are born every day in the UK. It's amazing what kind of cconsequences this piece of statistics is going to have in the future when many of these legally British citizens are raised and educated there. Are they going to change Poland when they come back? Are they going to come back? It's also a big deal for Britain, which is already full of talk about the immigrant baby boom.

Tuesday 13 September 2011

Squash tenets

I'm getting more and more hooked on squash after every match. This short round up of objectives and principles nicely sums up what this great racquet sport is about and why it might become so addictive.

Don't buy government bonds

Here's a great piece from 1962 by a thought-provoking intellectual Frank Chodorov on the immorality of government bonds. The recent soveregin debt crisis has made it acutely relevant nearly half a century since its original publication.

Monday 12 September 2011

Adamek vs Vitali

It was a sorry sight two days ago at the municipal stadium in Wrocław to see Tomasz Adamek get punished so badly by Vitali Klitschko. The following day I woke up at my brother's flat and felt really bad for the guy. You could see his own disappointment in the bruised eyes as he took questions from the media in the press conference immediately after this one-sided display of boxing superioriy from Big Bro.

I was skeptical of Adamek's chances with the older, better Klitschko well before the event and had few expectations going in. And yet the way the bout turned out left me devastated, if only because the Pole failed to even threaten his opponent once throughout almost 10 rounds. He sorely lacked the right instruments to get the job done and it clearly was not just a question of smaller size, weight and reach. His saving grace were courage and chin, but there was little consolation in seeing a compatriot getting battered around by a more skillful, more intelligent and more destructive giant from Ukraine.

My utmost respect goes out to Vitali regardless of the fact that he thrashed the boxer I and the entire stadium had been cheering for furiously. I was embarrassed by the Polish audience, though, for not giving him a well-earned applause after the fight. Both Klitschos apart from being outstanding athletes are class acts outside the ring, a world apart from a big-mouth, small-balls David Haye. Vitali deserved to get a hand for what he'd done in the ring that night and for his readiness to give credit to Adamek when the fight was over. Wrocław was lucky to host one of the all-time boxing champions and it could have done more to mark his classic performance.

Here is a bit to read from the Ring's mailbag. Interesting stuff.