Mines Shut Down, Monks Miss Alms, Gorby Makes his Bet

The World Cup rolls on. So do the stories about how this month-long football love fest is forcing this spinning globe of ours to rotate out of whack in countries both far and near. We start in Ghana where the nation’s gold mines are being told to cut down on their power during the World Cup so that the country can avoid the much dreaded blackouts that are happening in countries like Mali and Bangladesh.

Considering the way the Black Stars played against Czech Republic, Ghana has already enjoyed its share of riches for this month.

We next move to Thailand where monks are being chided for staying up all night watching World Cup matches and not waking up early in the morning to beg for alms. When you are busy begging your team to score one more goal, who has time to go door-to-door asking for food?

In Bangladesh, politicians are ready to throw in the towel and concede that watching the World Cup is more important than running the country. Members of parliament are ready to vote to shorten their sessions so that they can get home to watch the matches. Now that is good governance!

Finally we head to Russia where Mikhail Gorbachev does not have to worry about silly things like holding a political office. The former Soviet leader is busy with a new hobby: predicting the World Cup winner.

Gorbachev’s choice? Brazil will beat Germany 2-1.

He’s quite the glasnoststicator, isn’t he?