World Cup Update #4: north Korea will be missed

For an article about north Korean player Jong Tae-se, click here.

To see video footage of the north Korean national team at the Johannesburg Zoo, click here.

What I have been reading lately #42

A Dog In a Hat: An American Bike Racer's Story of Mud, Drugs, Blood, Betrayal, and Beauty in Belgium by Joe Parkin

Joe Parkin raced bicycles in Europe (mostly Belgium) in the late 1980s and early 1990s. This book talks about his experience. There are actually fewer stories about performance-enhancing drugs than I had expected and more stories about outright cheating. For example, I did not know that in small kermis races it is (or, at least, was) common for riders in the final stages of the race to makes deals with and offer money to other riders to be allowed to win. Also, it is (or, at least, was) common for riders to be helped and pushed along by team officials riding in nearby cars when no one was around to see.

Burma Chronicles by Guy Delisle

Pyongyang: A Journey in North Korea by Guy Delisle

Guy Delisle is a French-Canadian animator. He spent a few months working in North Korea for a French animation studio and then wrote a comic book about it. Later on, he went with his wife and child to Burma while his wife was working for Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders). He wrote a book about that as well.

Adding insult to injury after injury

The Egyptian national soccer team (above) has had an up-and-down week at the Confederations Cup to say the least.

1. They played brilliantly against Brazil, coming back from 3-1 down to tie, only to commit a handball in injury time (penalty kick converted by Kaka).

2. They played even more brilliantly to beat Italy 1-0 (see celebrating fans below).

3. They then collapsed and lost 3-0 to the USA, thus missing out on the chance to move on to the semi-finals.

4. Several of the players then had their hotel rooms robbed.

5. The South African media subsequently reported that the players were robbed not by burglars but by prostitutes who had been invited up by the players.

Egypt appears unlikely to qualify for the World Cup, so this trip represented their team's only chance to achieve glory in South Africa.

Meanwhile, in much more exciting, but unrelated, news, north Korea qualified for the World Cup finals this week with a draw against Saudi Arabia. They join south Korea, Japan, and Australia in representing Asia at the 2010 tournament.

Where are they now? #2

One popular character on the television show Eight is Enough was Susan, played by Susan Richardson (picture below). On the show Susan married Merle "The Pearl" Stockwell, a minor league baseball player.

After Eight is Enough ended, Susan Richardson spent some time in a rock band and also battling drug addiction. However, most importantly, in 1987, she claimed she was the victim of a kidnapping and attempted murder in north Korea* by greedy filmmakers. It is unclear whether the filmmakers were themselves north Korean and/or whether they were working on behalf of the DPRK government; however, the north Korean government has allegedly been involved in many kidnappings, often of Japanese citizens, and has been believed at least once to have kidnapped a movie director to help with north Korean movie productions. Nevertheless, Ms. Richardson's claims do not appear to have positively impacted her acting career, as she currently works in a nursing home in Pennslyvania.

Former north Korean leader Kim Il-Sung

DPRK flag

The DPRK has a long and rich tradition of military parades. Enjoy the video below!




* The Korean peninsula is currently artificially divided into two separate countries - the ROK and the DPRK. The editors of Ape Canyon News Service have chosen to follow the common practice of labelling these two nations south Korea and north Korea using lower case "s" and "n" in recognition of this temporary division and in the hope that some day soon, the two Koreas will be united once again.