Ghana Advances to World Cup Semifinals

In a world where sports were supposed to symbolize fair play and healthy competition, Ghana would now be the first African nation to advance to a Fifa World Cup semifinal. Unfortunately, as yesterday's game between the African nation and Uruguay demonstrated, such a world is simply a figment of our imagination. The game was a reminder that the world we live in is a place where greed, selfishness and cheating are good.

In this world, our world, two players other than the goalie can stand in front of the goal both trying to stop the ball with their hands. In this world, scumbag player Luis Suarez of Uruguay who got expelled for denying Ghana its rightful place in the semifinals exulted once he realized that his feat had had the intended results:

"This was the end of the World Cup. I had no choice. I have the 'Hand of God' now. I did it so that my teammates could win the penalty shoot-out. When I saw Gyan miss the penalty it was a great joy."

And so, the message that our so called role models in the world of sports and their corporate sponsors are sending is that it's good and just to sacrifice oneself for the team, and that victory can and should be achieved at all costs. It just goes to show how far we have gone from the Olympic Creed:

"The most important thing in the Olympic Games is not to win but to take part, just as the most important thing in life is not the triumph but the struggle. The essential thing is not to have conquered but to have fought well."

In a different world, Fifa would have forfeited the game to Ghana.

In the end, and as the 2010 Fifa World Cup turns into a sad spectacle of corporate greed and decadence, we can still rejoice in the fact that in some more just parallel universe Ghana has become the first African nation to advance to a world cup semifinal.