Think Global, Act Local - DRAFT

And another phrase or philosophy we at LineBallTennis - Clpahma like is "Everything Is Connected". So we join-the-dots for these global and local thoughts and actions:

> Eventually and actually "Brexit"
>Manipulated electoral  populism of Trump victory
>Le Pen defeated but Macron is more Hollande
>Corbyn victory possibility & implications:
>Re-Nationalisation of Railway & Utilities in UK
> Green Economy From Climate Change Actuality
>40 years of right-wing agenda changes cycles (neoliberalism or Friedman / Hayak economics)
>Celebrity fashion & popular culture fostered to sell globalisation

So we write about "over-crowding in turnover-economies" in broader or global meaning, and then relate that to a local context - even possibly a tennis one, as per the blog!

For instance principals at LineBallTennis supported "Brexit". LBT supported "Leave" campaign due to over-crowding in numerous aspects of everyday life; as an instance, the London Underground's Northern Line, is filth of an old line with assortments connecting north and south of the Thames. As one of the earliest tube-lines it was not built to accommodate such commuter traffic. Yet regionalisation of the UK into Europe means UNLIMITED Europeans. Where in fact there have always been European moving to London to live work and make home, but not on the scale of movement or influx since the EU membership. This was not in the capacity considerations when the tube-lines were planned. Aboriginal UK citizens never bought-in to idea that you were a "racist" for abandoning the European Union project, particularly to find national identity and not be lost and crowded-out, in a forever and faster changing England. But that, "State of the Nation" demands more nationalism and socialism, and less globalist expansion by countries and companies - i.e. massive "commercial  and land grab", via Freedom of Movement (which Britain will test-case via triggering Aricle 50 to Brexit). As if the exit process is not as simple as saying to EU: "This is not your "Treasure Islands" mate "F*** O**!"

Of course that distinct European countries are heading towards a Federal States of Europe via EU, exactly like the mess of American states, other wise known as U.S.A; a diaspora populous all heralding from somewhere and nowhere! If we are that mixed and lost in identity already, so soon may that end.  Lets fix an abode and address, at least for the sake of addressing the elephant in the room, climate change, and the other irreversible damage to the environment as we know it by a few "stupid white men" - title of book by Michael Moore. Then think of the USA / America as an example of a migrant society and what federalism had done for it! Think of States such as Illinois, and ghetto cities such as Detroit. Is this the role model we want to follow in the 21st century, one which has been badly re-enacted from old bad Europe days of imperialism?

A gathering and grouping of anything is a "regionalisation", just as "nationalisation" remotely meant nation-wide railway and utilities networks. Language is dynamic and meanings associated to words change. "Nationalisation" more probably means business operating within the remit of the national government, as British Railways once was.
If you are still following the train-of-logic: the regionalisation of areas and powers of Europe into countries, while fighting over them, was pre-occupation in pre-War era. In principal, togetherness unity and love of differences and cooperation without wars is INDEED the ideal; but all it actually exploitatively and effectively means is Lidl Aldi Starbucks MacDonalds and other multi-national companies - MNCs. Commercial expansion is the much less publicized essence of the EU and other multilateral groupings and organisations. For instance Virgin Trains is partly owned by DeutscheBahn, which is the government owned German highways authority. The EU membership facilitated such sovereign-state cross-border deals.

LBT are not cynical or hesitant about ideals, but for when it is a mere facade of propaganda we are strongly "anti-globalist", in context of what it in fact means. UKIP, Le Pen, Trump and Gert Wilders etc are such figure-heads for dissent against status-quo establishment; anti-sentiment by populism not often aired or voiced in multi-cultural secular societies. For instance, "America First" as President Trump calls his campaign is "nationalism". In one respects it is supposed to mean "put American interests first" eg bring back jobs offshored in globalisation, including tax-haven tax-dollars / loot. Or in that double-speak of lexicon it maybe interpreted as "lets shut shop to Chinese expansion interests".

Whether we like it or not the sentiment of the voting public are grass roots of long-term trend reversals. Conservatives' and Margaret Thatcher's ideal of capitalism has run its course in entirety to "excessive capitalism", since 1977. To balance and bring equilibrium, Jeremy Corbyn's opposite doctrine of socialism is a certainly the order of the day; better than more of the same as practised by New Labour and the Tories themselves over last last 40 years to 2017. All this excess in capitalism is highlighted more so in cities, and especially in vogue cities like London with its great history and a magnet for businesses.

Part II

So from this "overcrowding of interests" in a global world "geopolitics" contextuality,  we get to a local interest Clapham Westside context. So Europeans  Antipodeans provincials northerners and others moving to London's fashionable "gateway to the south", Battersea and surrounding wards, Balham and Clapham, wish to send their children or themselves for local tennis courses. They the diaspora of Clapham come across a uppermost name in their search-engine. They then enquire and send their children or themselves to that particular tennis business not aware of local knowledge or other options. The popularity of that singular tennis-vendor inevitably results in stiflingly overcrowded tennis participants - a clue to that maybe 12 to 32 players on just 2 tennis courts! This can be off-putting to the enjoyment of tennis. What can an enthusiast do about it once they have paid in advance and subscribed for a set course of 6 or so group lessons? But unwittingly parents and those adult enthusiasts of tennis are then loyally committed to that business as point of attention for their local tennis interests. All started from a reflex reaction from a 5-minute internet search. This has been the case since late 1990s.

Do they know local tennis clubs and their membership details like Grafton, Wigmore, Telford, Spencer and Magdalene? They don't even know of Krishna as the local tennis coach, operating under the sole proprietor banner of LineBallTennis, who has been living and playing in the local clubs for over 40 years? Is this not a symptom of overcrowding of a locality that everyone is in blissful ignorance and not knowing their neighbour perhaps an don't even care?






 

The King Is Dead: The New Guard!

While following the U.S. Open 2014 Grand Slam (GS) semi-finals on Saturday I flipped from a state of ecstatic surprise to beyond utter dismay and disgust! No I am not "bi-polar" labelled throughput of gutter social workers, or given to fickleness and mood-swings. The late evening disgusted mood was caused by Roger Federer's defeat to Marin Cilic. The latter player and US Open No.2 seed whom I venerate(d) as Royalty of tennis, moreover as the tennis world's current King, was the bane of my evening.  My stubborn refusal to accept that "The King is Dead" from Federer's lack of titles (ie 1 grandslam from finals), was finally delivered its death knell on Saturday!

My initial euphoria  stemmed from the first of the semi-final matches on "Super Semi Saturday". The conquering of World No.1 Novak "Nole" Djokovic by an Asian from Japan and U.S. Open top-10 seed Kei Nishikori was indeed historic, and deserved my elated awe struck feelings about a surprise win. At the time of the match I was out to dinner in central London with a group of friends (see pic below to remember Super SF Saturday), which included both a Japanese and Taiwanese ladies, and following the match results on "Live Scores" on Tennis.Com (not point-by-point coverage though!)  Due to my not religiously following tennis these days I had not realised that the former Asian-heritage legend Michael Chang (1989 French Open Champion defeating Stefan Edberg in the Final) was Nishikori's tennis coach. Just in case my alluded references are not joined-up in the reader's head: Chang is a America New Jersey-born son of Taiwanese immigrants. The other mentioned legend Edberg is of course Federer's current coach.

 

Friends with National Interest in Nishikori's

As I write this Monday morning and reading some headlines LineBallTennis (LBT) - Clapham & District are hailing that the King is Dead and that the Changing of the Guard is truly ONLY NOW underway. 

Previous instances of players breaking through for the majors "Grand  Slam" finals included our own Andrew Murray (or conceivably on 18th September to be independent Scotland's "own") and Switzerland's Stanislas Wawrinka. Other than these two breakthrough instances the triumvirate of Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic have won 33 of the 35 Grand Slams up to this year's opening 'Slam' The Australian, which was won by Wawrinka. The other 2 slams were won by yo-yo Mr Murray. The last time these three top players were missing from a GS final was at the 2005 Australian Open when Marat Safin defeated Lleyton Hewitt.   

During Wimbledon this year I tweeted my neighbourhood TV presenter and former British No.1 Andrew Castle @AndrewCastle63 to dismiss his commentary about the "changing of the guard". At that time of the year, 1st week of July, the would-be GS gatecrashers were Ernests Gulbis, Milos Raonic and Grigor Dimitrov. They had all reached the semifinals of GSs for the first time that year. I additionally mentioned Cilic in the 'new guard' in my tweet!  (@AndrewCastle63: who's the pundit and who deserves a guest-slot gig on TV!)

After Federer's tame defeat to Cilic - without wishing take anything away from the 6-foot-6 (1.98 meters) contemporary and countryman of Goran Ivanisevic (defeated Tim Henman to win Wimbledon in 2001) - here is why LBT prounce the death of the King of Tennis.The press interview reflected a character who simply cannot handle the mental pressures of the physical chess game any longer. He is no longer the brash youth with unbound natural self-belief. He has slipped at the final and penultimate hurdles of GSs far too often, and this last time is pathetically inexcusable. Yet Federer finds many reasons / excuses for having lost in his post-match press interviews quoted in the papers, which LBT analyse below: 

''It's fairly simple, I think: Marin played great and I maybe didn't catch my best day. That's pretty much it in a nutshell.'' Federer at U.S. Open 2014 post-match interview

This is not the sorrowful regretful post-mortem comment I expect to hear from an experienced record GS winning champion after losing an increasingly rare chance of more honours. Federer's whinging that "...I maybe didn't catch my best day" is insincere and lacks humility for the opponent; after knowing full well that these GS occasions are the matches all top players live to play.  Especially Federer in aiming to become an undisputed all-time champion. Djokovic's reaction after his equally sensational defeat was more sincere and self-deprecating: "Just wasn't myself".

The reason LBT write-off Federer's chances to add to his record 18 GS trophy tally is that he unprofessionally threw away his best chance away.  Federer was probably feeling invincible after a narrow escape against Frenchman Gael Monfils in the previous round, when he was 2-0 sets down and having saved 2 match points, to win through to the semi-final. Further complacency about the Cilic semi-final encounter may have crept in when Federer discovered that his opponent in the final would be Nishikori, and not the marginally superior nemesis Djokovic. As a fan of Federer, who believed his close GS matches in recent years against Nadal and Djokovic still held him in contention for further GS victories. My exasperation with his efforts at this hurdle sees a heart of a blubberer waning champion

Federer's analysis of Cilic that  ''...he played with no fear...'' reveals ultimately his own personal psychological weaknesses in certain pressure situations we strongly believe. Now I am going to watch a Japanese inclusion in the world elite hall of tennis fame. [ Editor Time-stamp: 10pm U.K.]