Davis Cup Tennis in Ramat Hasharon

Its not often there are "big" sporting events in Israel and it is not often Israel excels and causes a whitewash and it is not often that rain stops play in Israel. So I had the privilege of seeing all of this as Israel took on Luxembourg in the Davis Cup tournament in Canada Stadium at Israel's main tennis centre in Ramat Hasharon. Luxemburg is by no means a tennis nation they have one player ranked in the mid 100's of the ATP equivalent to the two Israeli single players and the rest of the team are ranked way out in the 1000's. So the excitement was there as a few thousands supporters packed the stands. Off it went, the powerhouse and Israeli number one Noam Okum cruised past his opponent losing one game only in the third set. Then it was the more evenly matched Dudu Sela (who was in good form from the Australian Open) taking on the Luxembourg number one. By that time, like two hours into the day the crowd was restless, either the Israeli crowd were so excited to have some good live professional sport or they just did not know how to behave or letting in lots of unsupervised youths is a bad idea. You be the judge! But I have never sat at a tennis game where the crowd throws paper jets onto the court and get up and walk around during points! Quite the experience, anyway, Sela was in good form and had the upper hand when rain stopped play, the next two days Israel won all their other games setting up a convincing whitewash victory!

Senior Zimbabwean Davis Cup supporter and once a week player in Israel, Hilton Burke, gets mesmerized by top Israeli female player Shahar Peer (front left) in the blue cap.

The Last King of Scotland

Staying on a similar topic from my last post that being of Africa, I went to see the Last King of Scotland - a movie based on a novel depicting the life and rule of Ugandan President and horrific dictator Idi Amin.

The movie starts of in that happy African spirit (similiar to Hotel Rwanda) of beautiful countryside landscapes, dancing energetic people and African sounds and slowly slowly the problems arise and it all deteriorates into disaster. The power, corruption lack of trust, seer madness (Amin gave himself the title: "His ExcellencyPresident for Life, Field Marshal Al Hadji Doctor Idi Amin, VC, DSO, MC, Lord of All the Beasts of the Earth and Fishes of the Sea, and Conqueror of the British Empire in Africa in General and Uganda in Particular.") symbolises most of the stories of African rule and government, a President with the charisma, who starts off promising his supporters change and hope lands up "taking out" every threat or suspicion that arises.

The acting was superb especially by Forest Whitaker who plays Amin, and portrays the decorated soldier who is big active and sporty with a sense of humour and charisma that charms all. I even read recently that Ugandans are struggling to watch footage of Whitaker because it reminds them so much of Amin and the traumatic past. Also, amazing how Israel always gets a mention in everything (Amin played a part in dealing with the Palestinian Entebbe Hijacking of an air France plane which Israeli troops later stormed and rescued the Israeli and Jewish passengers).

So, thats my recommended movie from on top of the world this week.

The Bang Bang Club

Snapshots of a Hidden War by Greg Marinovich and Joao Silva

The one thing I was looking forward to when I was in South Africa for two weeks at the beginning of the year was to peruse the local book store to pick up a few of my favourite genres, that being non-fiction African books. I tend to prefer the books displaying the hardships, complexities, misunderstandings that portray the forgotten continent. These type of books give off a mystic, inspiring, hope to this fascinating place. The Bang Bang Club is one of those that hit my genre tastes. A book about the heart of the South African Apartheid changes and transformations from the 80's to the mid 90's. The stories of a group of a close knit friends, companions and photojournalists termed the Bang Bang club for their pursue of the perfect picture to expose the world to the realities of the violence and warfare in the transformation of a country to democracy and freedom. They were Kevin Carter, Greg Marinovich, Ken Oosterbroek, and Joao Silva. A group of photo journalists in the thick of the tribal black hostel wars where the killings and death were brutal, indescribable and obscene. They had this rush and feeling of responsibility to be at the scene and capture the images that were portrayed all around the world at the is time. Aside from astonishing pictures, the book goes into the personal life's, their relationships, their ideologies, zest for life, battle with drugs and dealing with the images they saw. Which untimely resulted in death and suicide for some.

The one point that stands out from the story and reminded me again and again that during South Africa's "miracle" transformation the democracy change which allowed one person one vote, thousands of people lost their lives in tribal clashes, riots against the police and political instability. It was far from a smooth transition and presents that any transformation in a country will see and have to pay many, many sacrifices. A highly recommendable and a must read for those interested in the South African transformation.