... Battlescar Ontario ...

... sometimes in the combustive high drama of geo-political theatre you get a damp squib ... but this latest production of Summit G20 turned out to be a big deal ... a sort of coming out for Toronto, Ontario and Canada as a political stooge ... I mean ... stage ... a pretty ideal spot for a convention, eh, with its focal financial and shopping districts, two-line subway and that orderly, grid-like streetplan ...

... as we've seen, one of the problems in staging events with lofty agendas ... the South African World Cup, Vancouver's Olympics ... or a G20 summit ... is the actual cost and the not-always-obvious returns on the investment to the people who make up the local social infrastructure ... then there are those terms of fiscal inexactitude like ..."a billion dollars" ... that get tossed around as if rounding a figure to the nearest hundred-million is clarifying ... (can we get a G20 for two G8's and save ourselves 4G?) ...

... certainly one could see where the ... bulbous ... security budget from T-dot to Huntsville was deployed ... there were threats from all quarters ... real and perceived it matters not ... 'cos due dilligence is non-negotiable when anyone throws a party for such a high-profile gathering of guests ...

... the security forces seem to have worked close to the blueprint in tackling these threats ... but this remains troubling justification for the disproportionate hyper-expenditure it took to do so ...

... to those who watch these things, it has become de rigeur for summits of this kind to draw attention from public watchdogs, legitimately-motivated torch or cross-bearers and antagonistic contrarians ... it is within that latter group that you'll find the instigators and perpetrators of wanton destruction ... who by their actions seek to leave their mark in anti-social ways often to their own detriment and no-one's net gain ... like this angst-ridden saboteur who might have done better to stay away entirely ...













... inside the convention centre some global bargaining took place between football matches ... round-table, bi-lateral, in-camera, al fresco talks were held ... hands was shook (where's the fist-bump gone?) ... with the World Press Corps there to disseminate it all ...

... outside, shock-and-awe was droppin' on some anarchist ass and throngs got to hang close enough to say they were there when the rubber bullets flew ... I had just left town when the flex went down but they hit my Starbucks on Queen Street at John ... true to form the broken window instantly became art ...















.. if this all sounds cynical you shoulda heard me when I mentally flipped the script back to football and subbed Obama for Palin during the summary presidential Q&A ... every question was a potential Deep Water Horizon and had a trickier follow-up ... in other words ... Palin kryptonite ...

... nuff said ... when I stopped cringing I flushed that thought down the commode and moved on to contemplate the sheer enormity of the job the POTUS has on his hands ... engaged hotspots are ever-active and the U.S. is literally bleeding oil at the mouth of the Mississipi ... personally I'm thinkin' Barack should regulate that money-smile ... he's clearly familiar with the nuanced Jamaican phrase ... 'kin teet' ... (interptation; "skin teeth" - to smile, perhaps even obsequiously or disingenuously) ... it's handy in such crowds ...

... aaand when the smoke clears there are documents glittering in smiling promise but clouded by clause and condition ... agreements in principle at best ... leaving me to wonder if world leaders were to deal with the serious stuff in less distractingly overt fora ... develop a collaborative, Skype-type, HD cyber-summit to take care of the show-biz angle ... could they re-allocate funds for future gigs? ... I'm jus' sayin' ...

... in the run-up to the World Cup there were premonitions of crime and social unrest ... or hooliganism (which has not materialised despite an officiating faux pas or two) ... that this Ontario summit should be the scene of such babylonian behaviour while South Africa has held together is an irony which will please Pretoria but may mortify the Maple Leaf ...

... Papa's pride in the progeny ...

... this June carries with it a preoccupation with football ... for a growing number of us the quadrennial World Cup has the power to obliterate other concerns and commemorations ... for me, mid-June dates also prompt thoughts on fatherhood ... Father's Day falling, as it does, on or around my dad's birthday of June 19th ...

... the late Doctor, seen here c.1972 if memory serves me, surveying the kingdom of San Francisco, had journeyed there from Jamaica to be inducted as a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons (F.A.C.S.) ... four more letters to add to the M.D., F.R.C.S. ... all of which featured on letterhead, and in bronze on his office-door at Spanish Town Hospital ...












... he lived long enough to experience grandfatherhood through me and narrowly missed the birth of my twin nephews, but ... the old man survives in memory and photographs as we fast-forward through next generations, where it is left to his progeny, my brother and I, to buck trends of errant fatherhood in raising our own children ...















... we've all heard the platitude "they grow up so fast," - more a measure of our unceasing wonderment at creation of life and lives, than any exponential increase in physicality and size ... still, it's probably true that today's wired world thrusts wider variety of adult behaviour on ever younger people ...

... anyhow ... grow up they do and adults they become ... as parents it's hard not to feel pride and joy when children emerge through developmental stages or achieve something they've put effort into ... this year, Father's Day found me counting extra blessings for I was now a positively proud Papa to a bonafide University Grad. ... I conspired to attend the ceremony, happily capturing images from my seat in the wings of the crowded Toronto auditorium ...















... watching kid number one ... it seemed only a short while ago she was reading Dr. Seuss and Shel Silverstein ... now she was holding a Bachelor's degree in Journalism ... the latest achievement in a life that has consistently lived up to promise ... my pride in her must have bolstered her own pride in herself , strengthening self-esteem - a crucial requirement for dealing with future challenges, over which I'm certain she'll prevail ...














... kid number one-too ... calling him number two is not an option (wink) ... only sixteen months her junior, is also a source of Papa-pride ... with a different flava ... he's taken to rapping alongside a seventies-style rock band in Vancouver ... handling covers and original rhymes with a flair to make this musically keen Dad proud and slightly jealous ... y'see, every actor is a wannabe musician, in the same way so many singers seem to want movie careers ...














... his rude-boy rap, wisely minimising cliche and nodding consciously toward graffiti-ganja culture is spiced mildly with a ragga-reggae vibe in homage to his Van-sterdam/Jamaican roots ... old-school lyrical flow melds creatively with cool-classic rock runs provided by his band of talented homies, and it all comes together nicely in concert ... seen 'em gig twice now and swell with pride looking at the pics I took ... that he still persists at the day-job doubles my respect ... hey, it's a Dad's prerogative ...














... they're grown now yet they'll always be my kids ... the ones who ultimately taught me the truth behind some of my father's more curmudgeonly pronouncements, particularly the common admonishment "wait 'til you have kids of your own"... loosely interpreted, and giving the benefit of doubt, he could have simply meant "fatherhood is one helluva ride" ...

... the eight year old step-daughter I'm helping to raise now asked for a second helping of broccoli tonight ... I felt that familiar approving pride ... here we go again, aren't kids supposed to gag on the greens? ...

... I guess it's all relative ... pun intended ...

... sound Africa's trumpet ...

... the plastic replica souvenir cost eight Canadian dollars and I had no change in pocket so my friend Stevie picked it up for me until I could pay him back ... come to think of it, I'm not sure if I ever did ... so, I may have acquired my vuvuzela for free at Vancouver's home match against St.Louis back in April ... I've been blowing the plastic horn lustily from then on and particularly since the start of the World Cup in South Africa ...

... every four years I'm one of those who tries to watch all the matches, a fantastic way to see the world without the expense of travel ... there are no Caribbean teams among the thirty-two finalists this year, but we get six African outfits and the curious representation from North Korea - in the same tourney as South Korea, at a time of heightened geo-political tensions no less, threatening the mouthwatering possibility of a battle-by-ball, if the teams actually meet during the competition ...

... as always, there are the world's beautiful women in full regalia on show, and points-of-interest at each match-up, other than the game itself, are multiple and stimulating ...

... I can (and do) wax lyrical about African soil hosting sport's greatest extravaganza for the first time ... there are the South African Reconciliation and Mandela factors, patriotisms and post-colonial retributions, the wall-of-noise vuvuzela soundtrack in the stadia, the Jabulani-Ball aerodynamics too, but in the end it's the on-field exploits that are the real story ...

... watching the Argentinians strut their embarrassment of riches has been fulfilling so far and I for one appreciate the delicious spectacle of Messi-dona and supporting cast ... despite the absence of playmaker Riquelme, the Argentine bench could be the backbone of another complete team ... with Diego Maradona's son-in-law Sergio Aguero the prince-in-waiting ...

... it's too early at this stage (less than halfway through the roundrobin stage) to make definitive pronouncements, but certain storylines are clearly taking shape, like the familiar one of English great expectations ... ahh, those heirs to that '66 curse, you know, when Bobby Moore and his merry men won on home turf, forever causing England to rate itself among the world's best despite all indicators ... I write this after watching a 0-0 draw with Algeria, the least impressive display by the Brits in a long line of disappointing major competitions ...

... English hand-wringing has amped up several degrees ... only two matches into this tournament finds the blogosphere alive with the kind of acerbic witticisms no one does better than the British ... "at the risk of hyperbole, this is possibly the worst result since 1066," quoth one ...

... the pundits are blunt, spiking commentary with adjectives like "tossers," "wankers," and "shite"... so much so that one is inclined to believe any lay-expert could make team improvements without difficulty given the patchy results of the high-profile managerial appointments that are now the norm ...

... there's probably a restructuring formula that could work in the long run but I'd like to suggest English football take a leaf from the Scrabble playbook ... sometimes it's better to cut your losses ... return your cards to the jumble and draw a new hand ... hey, if it's good enough for the Brazilians ... ...

... while African sides cling to hopes of advancing further than ever before and usual suspects try to adapt to a leveling out of standards which can result in closer contests and more frequent upsets ... the public should try to stay in touch with the evolving nuances of the world game and the fine "art" of gamesmanship ... each successive Mondiale pulls the drawstrings of global community tighter, and somehow we emerge better for it ...

... the winds sweeping across Africa this summer, out over the oceans in every direction, carry the challenging sound of the vuvuzela ... like it or not we will all surely know it ... and knowledge is power...

... after the football finale, when all is said and done, there will be one World Champion, and whole world of winners ...

... and, likely, one or two whiners.