World Cup 06 in Germany

World cup is a real magnificient event that most everybody in the world know and watch it closely. George Bush,Tony Blair and many world leaders watch it closely and occasionally gave their comments on the World cup match.
This year the world cup held in Germany. Germany is still one of the leading country in world and Europe so far though it has been facing several years of economic stagnation and high unemployment ( still much lower compared to any developing countries including Indonesia ). It also inherit the Germany reunification cost which happened 15 years back. Well,anyway Germany is still a big and modern country to be count on.
The game itself so far has left Italy go to Final after defeating Germany. Now left Portugal ( the first time they go into semifinal ) and the return back of France. All of them are from Europe countries. This time no country from Latin America,Asia or Africa can go until semifinal. What a poor result which certainly reflect the effectiveness of European competitive leagues which then produce good players and teams in this world cup. Well many things to be addressed especially for Asian football.
This time no Asian football teams can go to 2nd round. Not even South Korea, one of the Asian strongest teams which I support. What a really poor result compared to Africa which still have Ghana as their only team went to 2nd round.
Well,one of social phenomenon of World cup and any other major sport events in the world is betting. Betting is legal and produces enough money for the governments in many countries such as UK,Singapore,US and etc. It is illegal in Indonesia ( my homecountry ) and some other countries. What a poor thing to do. Many people in Indonesia still bet in this world cup through illegal betting. The result surely is that people get poorer, Indonesian government get nothing and the betmaster together with their patrons get richer after this Worldcup. Of course if it is becoming legal can create problem also like what will happen in Singapore.
Singapore has a legal betting. As far as I know the biggest one is SingaporePool. During this world cup you can see many people queue every day to bet in front of SingaporePool counters islandwide.During latest survey published by StraitsTimes Singapore that at least 43% of Singaporean bet on the worldcup matches. The highest so far compared to China and South Korean. The betting industry here is fruitful and profitable to fullfill the need of many betting and gambling addicts. The bad thing of betting/gambling addicts is they can lose everything that they have and can even leave their jobs,families and etc just to bet with the hope of becoming richer easily.
Gambling addicts surely a social phenomenon which need to be addressed after this World Cup as many people lost this time ( many favourite teams defeated : Brasil,Holland,UK ,Argentina and Germany ).
Well,Worldcup is a celebration for the world. For me itself is a fantastic Worldcup and a cheap entertainment during my postgraduate study in Singapore.


Cheers,

Herman