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<h2><b>Maradona: the anti-imperialist perfect ten<br><br>
</b></h2><h4><b>July 1,
2010</b></h4><font size=3>
<a href="http://machetera.wordpress.com/2010/07/01/maradona-the-anti-imperialist-perfect-ten/" eudora="autourl">
http://machetera.wordpress.com/2010/07/01/maradona-the-anti-imperialist-perfect-ten/<br>
<br>
<br>
</a>José Steinsleger – <i>La Jornada<br><br>
</i>Translation: Machetera for <i>Tlaxcala<br><br>
</i>In journalism schools, when young people learn about the concept of
“news,” their teachers resort to a classic example: news is when a person
bites a dog, not the other way round. But just this past March in
Buenos Aires, Diego Maradona’s dog bit his upper lip, and the news flew
round the world.<br><br>
The star was rushed to emergency surgery (stitches and facial surgery)
and experts on the subject turned their attention to the grotesque Bella,
a costly example of the Chinese Shar Pei species. With serene,
balanced, affable characters, Shar Pei can react unpredictably if one
looks them in the eye, face to face.<br><br>
Whatever he says, or doesn’t say, does or doesn’t do, Maradona is always
news. And leaders like Fidel Castro, Hugo Chávez, Evo Morales,
Néstor Kirchner or Mahmoud Ahmedinejad understand that the star’s
political messages move the consciousness of the poor and exploited on
five continents.<br><br>
With some disdain, the elite on the left and right agree: he is a diva,
alienated, crazy, demagogue, opportunist, degenerate, media phenomenon,
cocaine-addict, populist, myth…myth? A myth, I believe, is the
sublimation of intellectually inflated references and abstract imagined
theories to avoid practical adherence to the real and concrete.<br><br>
From poverty, to soccer and fame, from the abyss of cocaine and
treatment in Cuba for his addiction, the best player of the twentieth
century according to FIFA (53.6 percent of those polled) has proven
himself to be a generous and grateful man. In 2000, he donated the
royalties from his biography “<i>I am Diego</i>” to the people of Cuba
and to Fidel, and ever since, he has carried a tattoo of Che on his right
arm and one of the Comandante on his left calf.<br><br>
Liberals can’t stand Maradona. Is it because his speeches barely
trouble the powerful? In contrast, the right wing mob and parrots
of world power are alarmed to hear his statements in favor of player
unionization (the soccer workers, he says), and the eventual impact that
this would have on the businesses in this industry that move billions in
cash every second.<br><br>
In clear, fierce, confrontational struggle, Maradona has leaned on his
untouchable fame in order to liberate, upward and to the right, ideals
that correspond politically to those below and to the left. And
alas, here lies the real substance of his differences with Pelé, the
Uncle Tom of global capitalist soccer.<br><br>
In November of 2005, motivated by the historical presidential summit in
Mar del Plata (where the free trade project for the Americas, ALCA, was
buried), the people closely followed Maradona’s thinking. Before
boarding the so-called ALBA train (the Spanish acronym for the Bolivarian
Alliance for the People of Our America), that left from Buenos Aires for
Mar del Plata along with then presidential candidate Evo Morales, the
musician Manu Chao, and the Serbian film director Emir Kusturica, Diego
told the media: “I ask Argentineans to understand that we are heading for
dignity, to defend what is ours…It’s a matter of pride to be on this
train in order to repudiate the trash that is Bush…If I had him under the
goal, I’d tear his head off with a well placed ball.” It was a
statement of faith that the obsessed Boca Juniors fans accompanied with
bands of street musicians and bass drums.<br><br>
In December of 2007, after a game with Brazil, Maradona was in the locker
room where he met Iran’s charge d’affaires, and expressed his admiration
for President Ahmadinejad. “I’ve already met Chávez and
Fidel. Now I want to get to know your president…I’m with the
Iranians from the bottom of my heart, honestly I say: I’m with the people
of Iran.”<br><br>
Kusturica presented the documentary <i>Maradona </i>at the Cannes film
festival in 2008, and spared no praise toward someone who is seen as a
god by his followers. He observed: “He creates magical
moments. If we were to compare soccer’s popularity in imperial
Roman terms, he'd be qualified to be a god.” Which led El Diez
[Number Ten] to hurriedly respond that he didn’t feel like a god, “but if
the people consider me one, I’m not going to contradict them.”
Maradona has altars in his honor in Naples, and after the God-granted
goal against England (México, 1986), the Scottish Tartan Army team
included him in their anthem. And in Rosario (birthplace of Che and
Messi), fans founded the Church of Maradona in 2003, its era beginning in
1960, the year El Diez was born.<br><br>
Maradona’s political convictions and faith are something to
watched. Once, after hearing the Pope and seeing the golden
ceilings in St. Peter’s Basilica, his voice echoed down the hallways of
the Vatican: “The church – according to the press – assures us that it is
worried about poor kids. So: sell the ceilings, man! Do
something!”<br><br>
Understanding something about destiny, the technical director of the
Argentinean team dealt calmly with Bella’s bite. And upon seeing
that he'd been lodged in Room 606 at the Los Arcos* hospital, he took it
as a sign of good luck. Or is there anyone alive who doesn’t know
that for Chinese gamblers, the number 6 stands for a dog, in the
interpretation of dreams?<br><br>
<i>*Translator’s note: the Spanish word for a soccer goal is
“arco.”<br><br>
<br><br>
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