Cirque du Soliel...Now THAT's true Athleticism

Well, on Friday evening, I left directly from work and headed Downtown to the Bicentennial Park to see Cirque du Soleil's "Varekai" (the 4 p.m. show). I had a bit of a time getting there, however, because, as anyone who lives in Miami knows -- Downtown, with all its dizzying construction cranes and hideous traffic, it's easy to get lost. I use Miami-Dade's public transit system quite frequently, but I've never had any reason to deboard the Metro Mover at the 11th Street station, so I got a bit lost trying to find the entrance to the Bicentennial Park. Of course, the 15 minutes I spent wondering around Biscayne Boulevard was well worth it! The show was a brilliant display of physical cunning, musical wonderment and just overall fun. I honestly felt as if I had been carried away into another world, another place. In Romani "Varekai" means "Wherever", and I certainly felt as if I was taken to a netherland where constraints of time and reality do not exist.

After seeing the show and being amazed at how these performers are able to contort their bodies into such amazing, awe-inspiring positions, I realized that that is "true" athleticism. Forget American football or basketball. The kind of acts that these Cirque du Soleil actors were able to pull off transcends anything that Shaq could ever do. Perhaps I'm being too harsh on traditional sport, but not only are most "team" sports boring, they certainly don't have the capacity to take me away to netherworlds as the Cirque du Soliel shows have.

I'm giggling in my mind. Could you just imagine seeing Shaq in one of those outfits? Now, that wouldn't take me away to a netherworld, per se, but certainly to a comedic one. : )

Religion Wearing Its Ugly Head...Again.

It has occured again: the unbridled ignorance that comes along with orthodox religion, particularly, monotheistic religions. Everyone has heard by now about the ridiculous outbursts and outcries of racism and religious discrimination over a controversial cartoon that was initially published in a Danish newspaper. These protests have been sweeping across the Muslim world during the last two weeks, as far away as Indonesia. Fleming Rose, the Dutch editor responsible for publishing the cartoon, has since taken an indefinite vacation from the Danish newspaper, Jyllands-Posten, after some pressure from his colleagues, and, of course, the Danish-Muslim community.

Now, I do understand that journalists and those in any sort of media should always practice the highest level of professionalism and ethics, and thus should be held to those same standards. But, we in the West, have always believed in freedom of expression. Yes, some might be offended by this "expression," but when is the line drawn? When is freedom too free? When is being offended too much? These are tough questions.

With that said, however, the response by many in the Muslim community was completely unnecessary, and religion is not looking very good right now. Many argue that it's not religion that is the problem, it's when it is used for political ends. I beg to disagree. The minute we start to believe that there is an invisible being whispering commands and such in our ear and the minute we think that some mythic god-child can save earth's inhabitants from personal and collective destruction, we are asking for trouble. Why? Because the discussion stops, and no more can be said. How can one reason with another who believes that Allah governs his very life? Why should we even trust people who claim that they hear voices from some invisible being, particularly, when this voice is "giving" them commands and direction on policy issues that could potentially affect the lives of millions? Okay, okay. I'm referring to President Bush.

It is time that we, who use logic and reason to govern our lives, start asking these tough questions. Of course, there will be no worthwhile answers from those who embrace such nonsense, but by virtue of asking these questions, we'll send the message that enough's enough.

PRIVATE Bureaucracies Mess Up, Too

I've often heard the argument that the U.S. public bureaucracy is too large, has itself too wrapped up in red tape, and is completely inefficient and, in some cases, useless, particularly when it is compared with the private enterprise or corporartion.

Well, this weekend was quite strange. First, on Friday evening, just before heading to bed, I received an SMS text message on my cellular phone, informing me that I was about to run out of "fair & flexible" minutes, based on my cellular plan/contract. Of course, this was plainly not so, so I jumped up out of bed and decided to check my latest invoice on www.sprint.com. After meandering through a maze of webpages, I finally came across what seemed like an invoice. Of course, the information supported what I thought was right: I was not nearing my minute-usage cut-off. Of course, I did not feel that checking my invoice on line was enough, so I decided to call customer service. After several key strokes, I finally was placed on hold by an automated voice. After being on hold for about 3 minutes, the automated voice announced that the Sprint Customer Service office was closed, and it proceeded to rattle off the hours the office is opened. Frustrated, I went to bed.

Now, on Saturday, after getting up and even before having breakfast, I decided to call the Sprint customer service center. After, once again, meandering through a maze of key strokes, I finally got a live person, who, after I explained my situation explained to me that the reason my invoice doesn't show my latest minute usage is because my account had not been updated. So, I kindly asked the young lady why she could view my latest invoice, yet I couldn't. She responded that on Monday, my online invoice would be available, and then days later, my "paper" invoice would be mailed to me. When I asked to speak with her supervisor, she hung up on me! I called back and finally received the information from a young man who explained to me that my bill was that high because I had made some long-distance calls to Latin America, which, of course, was not true, so now, I have to wait until my "paper" bill comes in the mail to dispute this! Argh!

Later that evening, my brother and I decided to order pizza for dinner. I, being high-tech and all (Yeah right! Lol), decided to order my pizza online at www.papajohns.com. I opted to pick up the pizza, as opposed to having it delivered because I was going to stop at a Blockbuster store that was close by. Well, after arriving at the pizza parlor, the representative, quite abruptly told me that my order had not been received. He, not knowing how to read the screen properly, it seemed, disappeared from the cash register and went into the backroom to fetch his supervisor. The supervisor, then, rudely told me that the order had not been received and that I should use MY cellular phone to call the pizza parlor in MY neighborhood to see if the order went there. At this point, I was frustrated, so I simply called...IT WAS NOT THERE EITHER. The supervisor promised that she and her staff could have it done in 10 minutes, I gave in and decided to burn time by visiting the nearby Blockbuster store.

I got to the Blockbuster store, and eyed a wonderful "foreign film" section, and chose, what would have been, an interesting love story from the Czech Republic. I got to the register and realized that I left my "Rewards" card at the apartment. After explaining this to the representative, he claimed that since I had not been to that store in under sixty days, he would not be able to look up my name in their system. I placed the DVD on the counter and darted out of the store in utter frustration.

At least the pizza was good...

The lesson I learned, here, is that the U.S. public bureacracy is really not that bad after all, as I have gotten better service, and I have witnessed greater efficiency at my local Team Metro office. What's the difference? Team Metro is a localized, neighborhood-oriented division of our county's government, so personal service becomes easier. All the other corporate franchises I had to deal with this past weekend were just off-shoots of a larger (or too large) machine, hence the rules and "redtape" that people tend to associate ONLY with government. Therefore, it's an unfair assessment to assume that only PUBLIC bureaucracies have redtape and inefficiency. How could Sprint not have its online invoices updated and prepped for the customer to view right away? How could Papa John's not have a back up system for issues concerning online orders? And finally, how could Blockbuster NOT have a back up system for its patrons who may have forgotten their membership cards? These corporations have the resources and the where-with-all...Don't they? Or do they just Not care about the consumer anymore? Hmmmm...I am inclined to believe the latter. *Sigh*