My 10 favourite sporting moments/stories of 2005

As its fashionable to make year-end lists, i thought i'd jump in too...here are my 10 favourite sporting moments/stories of 2005:
10. Kim Clijsters' win at the U.S Open.
9. Yelena Isinbayeva crossing 5 m. in the women's pole vault.
8. Sania vs. Kuznetsova at Wimbledon....the emergence of a true indian sporting star(even though she lost that match)
7. The Chicago White Sox winning the World Series after 88 years.
6. Lance Armstrong on top of the podium of the Tour de France for a seventh and final time.
5. Tie between Warne's 600th wicket, Sachin's 35th century and Lara becoming the highest scorer in test cricket.
4.Robert Horry(Big-shot Bob) left open with seconds to go in game 5 of the NBA finals and doing what he has done his entire career- nailing the game-winning shot.
3.Liverpool coming fom 3-0 down to win the UCL final on penalties against Milan.
2.Tiger's unbelievable chip shot for birdie at the 16th hole in the final round of the Masters on his way to the title...best golf shot i've ever seen.
1. The 2005 Ashes....need i say more.

Happy New Year!

Something to think about

In the age of POTA and the Patriot Act, Abu-Ghraib and secret wiretaps; something to think about:

'Every civilization finds it necessary to negotiate compromises with its own values. '
-Golda Meir in 'Munich'

Obssessed with corruption

'sau mein ninyanve be-imaan,
mera bharat mahaan'

Our nation is obssessed with corruption. Our press is obssessed with exposing it wherever it exists, our politicians are obssessed with using it as their only weapon against their opponents and the public is obssessed with blaming all the nation's woes on it. All of this might have been a good thing if it was not for the fact that india is one of the most corrupt nations in the world and the whole nation getting riled up when a new scam is unearthed just reminds you how the liar is the loudest to defend his integrity and the coward his bravery. Operation Duryodhan has just uncovered that MPs are 'selling the nation' by taking money to ask questions in Parliament and the whole nation is 'shocked'. Anyone who is shocked by this 'revelation' is either extremely naive or putting up an act.Come on, in india today everyone has a price and we all know it.

My problem with this obssession is that it has become so pervasive that the real issues are forgotten. The Delhi blasts were not two days old when the Volcker story broke. The government did not respond to the worst terrorist attack in this country in over a decade and they were allowed to get away with it because of some names mentioned in some appendix of a report with no legal standing. Its ironic, isn't it, that the report has names of politicians from all over the world but it creates a storm only in new delhi. Parliament could do with a proper discussion on India's vote against Iran in the IAEA but the BJP won't allow Parliament to function. They should have attacked the government on the unconstitutional and malafide dissolution of the bihar assembly but they are so busy with volcker that buta singh is still the governor. AIDS is probably the biggest hurdle this nation faces in becoming a great power in the years to come but i doubt if most of the media realized when world aids day slipped by. They were probably planning the next sting operation-maybe ministers fixing government tenders.