Canadian soccer team deserves public support

[croatia dalmatia]

On Thursday night, June 21, I was all set to drive around Stoney Creek and Hamilton waving my Canadian flag. I know Canada Day is this Monday, but my flag waving venture had another purpose - I was hoping to celebrate the Canadian Men's National Soccer team's victory over the USA and ticket to the Gold Cup game at the recent CONCACAF tournament.

In 2006, I had to endure the flag waving soccer hooligans during the World Cup. I found out flag waving is alive and well in Canada during those few weeks, especially if it's the standard of any other nation than Canada.

We all know Italy won. It wasn't hard to tell after all the green, white and red flapping around town last July.

But was anyone watching and cheering as Team Canada put forth an impressive performance at the recent Gold Cup tournament played in the US?

Canada won its group with a 2-1 record, and then defeated Guatemala 3-0 to advance to the semi-finals. In the semis, Canada appeared to score the tying goal in extra time only to have it waved off after a terrible offside call by the officials.

It was a great tournament for the Men's National Team, and it resulted in Canada climbing 38 spots in the FIFA world rankings to No. 56 overall. The USA is ranked 16th in the world. No other team on the planet rose as many spots in the FIFA rankings as Canada from May to June.

And while I wasn't able to drive around town, waving my Canadian flag and honking my horn, I wanted to remind soccer fans out there that we can all feel a great pride in the continuing improvement of our national players.

What gives me the greatest pride when watching our national team is how it reflects Canada as a nation of diversity.

For those soccer fans out there who cheer so passionately for teams from your parent's birth country, have you ever stopped to take a look at who makes up Canada's national team?

Here's a few players to prove my point:

Paul Stalteri - grew up in Brampton, of Italian descent, plays for Tottenham in the English Premier League.

David Simpson - grew up in Scarborough, his mother is Portuguese and his father is Jamaican.

Stephen Ademolu - born in Windsor, his mother is from Nigeria, his father from Jamaica.

Tomasz Radzinski - born in Poland, now a Canadian citizen, plays for Fulham in the EPL.

Adam Braz - grew up in Quebec, is of Jewish descent.

Marc Bircham - born in England, plays for Wembley.

Chris Pozniak - born in Poland, grew up in Aurora, plays for Toronto FC.

Julian de Guzman - born in Scarborough, father born in Philippines, mother from Jamaica. Was selected to Gold Cup all-star team. Plays for Deportivo de La Coruna in La Liga (Spain). His brother Jonathan is one of the top up-and-coming players on the planet. Jonathan plays in Holland, and is rumoured to be possibly changing his citizenship to Dutch.

Dwayne De Rosario - born in Scarborough, both parents from Guyana, plays for Houston Dynamo in the MLS.

Jaime Peters - plays for Ipswich Town in England, parents born in Grenada.

Tam Nsaliwa - born in Lilongwe, Malawi. Plays for AEK Athens.

Ali Gerba - born in Cameroon, grew up in Montreal, plays in Denmark.

Kevin Harmse - born in South Africa, plays for MLS Galaxy.

Ante Jazic - grew up in Halifax, both parents are from Croatia.

Iain Hume - born in Scotland, grew up in Brampton. Plays in England.

These are just a few names. If you look at the roster of any of Canada's national teams, be it men's, women's, Olympic, Under 20 or Under 17 squads, you will see names representing numerous ethnic backgrounds.

And if you like cheering for local boys, the team included Greg Sutton, who was born in Hamilton, and Josh Wagenaar (Dutch descent) who was born in Grimsby.

I spoke with Daniel Michelucci, National Teams administrative coordinator for the Canadian Soccer Association, and asked him how our Canadian players feel about support they receive from their own country.

"We are taking baby steps," he said in regards to the public's interest in Canadian soccer. "The introduction of Toronto FC into the MLS was a great accomplishment. It helps bridge the gap for youth who aspire to play soccer at a higher level. They see the phenomenal talent that we have and it gives them something to shoot for."

Starting this weekend, Canada will host the FIFA Under 20 world cup. The women's national team will compete in the World Cup in China in 2007. The men's team will also try to earn a berth in the 2008 Olympics, and commence qualifying for the 2010 World Cup to be played in South Africa.

The diversity represented by our national soccer teams is a source of great pride. This alone makes the Maple Leaf the greatest flag on earth.

[croatia dalmatia]

Stephane Warwick has embarked on a mission to climb Mount Kenya in a sponsored challenge. The climb will take place from the 5th to 15th September. The trip entails climbing 49895mts to the top, to Point Leana and back down again in five days.

This is not Stephane’s first climb but it will certainly be her highest and most challenging climb. In June, she began her training by hiking for three days on the mountains in Sierre Nevada, hiking around 3500mts. The climb in September nears 5000mts so there is a big jump from her previous hikes. Stephane really enjoys hiking and climbing and looks forward to her upcoming climb in particular because it is for a very good cause. At the moment, Stephane is continuing her training up the rock. She can’t train for the altitude of course, but she is training with heavy backpacks.

This will be the first time Stephane will have worked with the charity she is sponsoring, having only met them last month for a briefing. The charity Stephane is climbing for is a Christian charity, called the Church Mission Society (CMS), which supports 800 people across 66 countries all over the world. Drawn to this charity, Stephane likes the idea of people learning to help themselves and using their education to help hundreds of people in their own community. CMS works with local partners to identify people with leadership potential. All their education is done as near to where they live as possible, keeping costs down and making sure that what they are studying is culturally relevant to where they will be living and working. In 2006-2007, CMS scholarships supported training for 228 Christian leaders worldwide. These people will become pastors, bible teachers, HIV/AIDS workers, trauma counsellors, youth workers and much more.

Stephane has already paid for travel, accommodation and the climb herself so all the donations will go directly to CMS. With all the training and hard work she would like to raise no less than £3000 with help from the public.

[croatia dalmatia]

Michael Reardon, an internationally renowned rock climber who climbed without a rope or safety equipment, is presumed dead after he was swept away by a wave Friday off the coast of Ireland.

Reardon, 42, was on Valentia Island off the southwest coast of Ireland for a climbing photo shoot and was standing on a ledge when a large wave knocked him into the ocean.

Veronica Scanlan, a spokeswoman for the Irish Coast Guard, said yesterday that the search-and-rescue operation for Reardon, which was initiated shortly after the accident, had been changed to a search-and-recovery operation. She added that there was no guarantee his body would be found.

Reardon was among a small number of top-level rock climbers who climbed unroped, called free soloing, despite the dangers.

“Everyone who knew Michael knew in the back of their minds that something like this might happen because of the way he climbed,” said Jonathan Thesenga, the former editor in chief of Climbing Magazine. But, Thesenga noted, the accident was not a fall while climbing.

Reardon made hundreds of free-solo ascents of challenging climbing routes done onsight, meaning without rehearsal or practice. He said he was able to climb 16,000 vertical feet of rock in a single day because he could move quickly without a rope and without stopping to place protection against falls.

Reardon had his detractors. Some did not believe he had free soloed the difficult routes he claimed. His response was to invite photographers to document his exploits. Bob Gaines, a climbing guide and author, told The New York Times last November: “Reardon has a lot of doubters, but I’ve seen him and I’m a believer. He’s the real deal.”

A famous climbing route called Romantic Warrior in the Needles, a remote area of Southern California in Sequoia National Forest, was one of Reardon’s most noted free-solo climbs. Climbers who use ropes and safety gear usually take a full day to ascend the 800 feet of sheer granite. But Reardon, equipped with only climbing shoes and a chalk bag, completed the climb in less than two hours. National Geographic Adventure magazine recognized the feat and Reardon in its Adventurers of the Year edition for 2005.

Reardon often climbed at Joshua Tree National Park, Malibu Creek State Park near his home in Southern California, and Idyllwild, Calif., as well as in England and Ireland.

Reardon, who made his home in Oak Park, Calif., had several careers during his 25 years as a rock climber. He was a child actor, a member of a rock band in the late 1980s and a filmmaker. He received a law degree from Pepperdine and worked in the film business for several years.

He wrote and directed a video about John Bachar, another famous free-solo rock climber, and produced a series of climbing videos. Reardon was working on a documentary for theatrical release called “No Strings Attached.”

Reardon’s wife, Marci, and daughter, Nicki, 13, arrived in Ireland on Sunday.

[Croatia flight]

plit, Croatia: On the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of space travel, space travelers with a combined 415 days of space experience gathered in Croatia this past weekend to discuss the future of human spaceflight.

Chaired by National Space Society Executive Director George Whitesides, the summit brought together private space traveler Greg Olsen, veteran astronaut Ed Lu, active cosmonaut Valery Tokarev, and prospective space traveler Per Wimmer. Olsen, Lu and Tokarev all have substantial time on the International Space Station, while Wimmer has tickets on future suborbital flights. It was the first time that all types of space travelers had come together in Europe.

Summit organizer Dr. Bojan Pecnik remarked, "This is the first time that space travelers have visited this region since Yuri Gagarin in the early sixties."

The conference, "Human Presence in Space," was organized by the Croatian organization Znanost.org, a non-profit dedicated to science education and outreach. The aim of the event was to inspire the next generation of scientists in Europe and Croatia, and to chart the future role of smaller countries in human spaceflight.

Vladimir Ivkovic, a co-organizer of the summit who is now working with NASA's Johnson Space Center on space physiology, stated, "We hope these space pioneers will inspire children to pursue studies in science, math and technology."

Croatia in Space

Croatia, like many smaller countries, has never had one of its own citizens go into space. The country gained its independence from the former Yugoslavia in 1991. While the Soviet Union had a program to launch representatives of Eastern Bloc countries, Yugoslavia was a non-aligned country and so did not participate in the program.

But when the investigation finished, our duty is to carry on the work of those heroes, to redouble our efforts to scale the peaks that they were climbing. That is what we learned from Apollo 1. That is what they would want.

Despite this, or perhaps because of this, there is substantial interest in spaceflight in Croatia. Croatia is a prospective member of the European Union, and one of the topics of discussion was whether Croatia might join the European Space Agency in the future.

Another hot topic was the lack of spaceflight regulation in Croatia, which could open up commercial opportunities for future space tourism companies operating in Europe, including zero gravity flights.

Tonka Buric, a Croatian student, presented a case study that showed that it was possible under existing Croatian laws and airspace regulations to fly parabolic flights. "Starting parabolic flight in Croatia would expand Croatia's international reputation for tourism. The market is there. All that is required now is the will."

Ed Lu - The Role of Coastal Countries in Asteroid Defense

Astronaut Ed Lu has accumulated over 205 days in space on two space shuttle flights and one long-term mission to the International Space Station. Lu was on the first space launch to fly after the Columbia accident, and he described how he had had to prepare to co-pilot the Soyuz TMA vehicle in only nine weeks due to the accident. On that flight, he became the first American to co-pilot a Russian launch vehicle.

Lu recently left the astronaut corps for private industry. His recent research focus has been the threat of asteroids to Earth, and how global space agencies might defend against the threat. Coastal countries like Croatia have a strong interest in such work, since they are at a greater risk due to the possibility of an impact-created tsunami.

Lu underscored how countries like Croatia must be part of the decision-making process to decide how Earth governments choose which method of asteroid defense to use.

Greg Olsen - Don't Give up Your Spaceflight Dreams

Olsen, the third private space traveler to the International Space Station (ISS), is a successful entrepreneur who now devotes much of his time to promoting science and mathematics education among students.

He described how he had had the idea of going into space while at a Starbucks coffee reading an article about the first private spaceflight participant, Dennis Tito. The article sparked him to call Space Adventures, the company which has brokered private trips to ISS.

Olsen emphasized the importance of perseverance in pursuit of his spaceflight goals. After beginning his training in 2004, Olsen was medically disqualified by Russian doctors after discovery of a minor medical issue. Olsen did not give up and was eventually re-accepted into spaceflight training, launching in the fall of 2005.

Valery Tokarev - International Cooperation in Space

Tokarev is an active cosmonaut and the commander of the Soyuz flight that launched Olsen to orbit. His first flight was on the US space shuttle in 1999, which he trained for in five months. In 2005, Tokarev launched to ISS for what would become a 189-day mission as part of the Expedition 12 crew. An accomplished test pilot, Tokarev was also selected to test fly the Buran vehicle, a Russian space shuttle which made only one unmanned flight before being cancelled due to budget constraints.

Tokarev discussed how space technology is now widely available for many nations, and how this trend has broadened global participation in space flight. As more nations build space capabilities, international cooperation will become increasingly important.

Per Wimmer - Private Space Travel an Opportunity for Small Countries

Per Wimmer has bought tickets to fly to space with two of the leading space tourism companies, Virgin Galactic and Space Adventures. The Danish adventurer and financier described the training activities he has pursued to prepare for his spaceflight, including high altitude MIG flights to 80,000 feet and centrifuge training at the Gagarin cosmonaut training facility outside of Moscow.

Wimmer emphasized that the coming revolution in personal spaceflight will open opportunities for countries like Croatia to fly citizens in space. As the price of space travel decreases over time, more and more people will be able to experience spaceflight. This in turn will inspire other people to pursue their dreams, which is a main goal of his project, Wimmer Space.

Wimmer, a lawyer with four masters degrees, also described the international legal framework of space activities. He argued that the patchwork of treaties and agreements, including the 1963 Outer Space treaty ratified only a few years after the launch of Sputnik, must be expanded and that mechanisms for enforcement must be re-thought.

The Future of Croatia in Space

Sited in the coastal city of Split, the three-day conference drew attendees from across Croatia. The conference was opened by the Croatian Minister of Science, Education and Sport, Dragan Primorac, and underscored how important space is to the future development of the country. The event also included a series of lectures to over 200 local schoolchildren.

Znanost.org, the producer of the event, is led by a group of dynamic young scientists, many of whom have trained abroad but have returned to their home country to help develop the next generation of scientists.

Dr. Dejan Vinkovic, president of Znanost.org, said, "For a small country like Croatia without a space program, this event has opened the minds of children to the possibilities in space and science, and showed the general public the value of investment in science and technology."

The summit capped several years of space and astronomy outreach organized by the group, including the development of a national network of astronomy education, higher education and scientific research. The name of this broader program is Astrophysics Initiative in Dalmatia.

[Croatia flight]

They treated hundreds of wounded soldiers during the Second Lebanon War and saved numerous lives. Trained as doctors and not as combat soldiers, the Nahal Brigade's medical personnel fought courageously, not with guns but with a scalpel and an intravenous drip.

Under Brigade Commander Col. Miki Edelstein, the Nahal was sent to Lebanon at the beginning of the war and took part in some of the most difficult battles against Hizbullah, most notably the Battle of the Saluki, the last push to strike the guerrilla group before implementation of the UN-backed cease-fire.

Many Nahal soldiers wounded during the war were officers, often squad and company commanders. Officers did not hesitate to put their lives on the line alongside their soldiers, Edelstein told The Jerusalem Post this week. While some brigade commanders remained in Israel as their troops fought in Lebanon, Edelstein went with his brigade everywhere and into some of the most difficult battles.

"It is not easy to choose who should get a medal or a citation," Edelstein said. "But this is important for the brigade since it becomes part of our heritage and we are still teaching [about] these acts of heroism to our new recruits, for them to learn from and model themselves after."

Here are some of Nahal's heroes:

When the war broke out on July 12, 2006, Dr. Yehuda David, 53, was on a family vacation in Greece, with plans to continue on to Croatia and France. A surgical orthopedist and a major in the reserves, David immediately returned to Israel, contacted the IDF and was assigned to the Nahal Brigade's Battalion 932.

He spent the entire war inside Lebanon and treated more than 50 wounded soldiers. Next month, he will receive a Citation of Excellence from OC Central Command Maj.-Gen. Gadi Shamni. He is being honored not for a particular act of bravery but rather for consistent dedication and self-sacrifice over close to 30 years in the IDF reserves. Most recently, David saved the life of a Nahal company commander in Nablus several months ago.

"I sign on for volunteer service since if the soldiers are willing to give everything they can, then I am also willing to give everything I can," he says. "After 2000 years in exile it is an honor to serve in the IDF and I don't miss a single opportunity."

David carried his 60-kilogram pack filled with medical supplies on his back throughout the entire war, even when some of his younger colleagues caved in to exhaustion. One of the most memorable moments for him was the Friday night before the IDF's push across the Saluki, when he assembled the battalion and suggested lighting candles and singing Shema Yisrael before heading into battle.
Lt. Erez Ramati is another doctor receiving a citation. He served the duration of the campaign with Battalion 931, which suffered heavy casualties in the Battle of the Saluki.

On August 12, 2006, Battalion 931 began climbing a hill up to the Lebanese village of Randuriya. Ramati's company engaged dozens of Hizbullah guerrillas who were holed up inside village homes. The company continued up the road until it encountered a reinforced Hizbullah position and came under heavy fire from antitank missiles and machine guns. An entire Nahal squad was either killed or wounded.

"My medics and I began treating the wounded when suddenly another company's commander ran over and said there were soldiers who needed help on the other side of the intersection," Ramati says. "The only problem was that to get there we had to run through the intersection, which was totally exposed to Hizbullah fire."

With bullets passing him in all directions, Ramati sprinted across the intersection to a wall. When he stopped he noticed that cables from two antitank missiles that had been fired at him were hanging from his helmet.

"I had one second to decide what to do, and without much thought I got up and ran after the company commander," he said. "There was no time for hesitating since there were people who were wounded and they needed me. This was not about heroism or bravery but about doing what you need to do."
Then there is St.-Sgt. Michael Hibner, a point sharpshooter in Nahal's Battalion 931. Hibner, 22, will receive the Medal of Distinguished Service for rescuing a comrade during heavy clashes with Hizbullah in Randuriya.

Hibner and his squad had taken shelter in a building in the village when a grenade landed nearby and exploded, flinging one of his comrades out into the open, several meters away. Under heavy fire, Hibner ran from the shelter, grabbed his comrade's vest and dragged him back to cover, saving his friend's life.

Hibner was reluctant to talk to the press, saying he did not merit a medal. Every soldier who fought in Lebanon, he said, was a hero, and each deserved a medal as much as he did.

"I don't deserve the medal," he said. "I did what I was trained to do, as did everyone else. You had to be there to understand."

[Croatia flight]

Tim Henman will quit tennis in September.

Britain's best post-war men's player Henman, who will be 33 on September 6 and is due to become a father for the third time this month, will retire after the Davis Cup tie against Croatia on Wimbledon's No.1 Court from September 21-23.

He will compete at his 13th successive US Open which begins in Flushing Meadows a week today and then he hopes to help Andy Murray get Britain back into the Davis Cup World Group for the first time since they were relegated in February 2003.

Henman is about to fall out of the world's top 100 after climbing to a high of No.4 in July 2002.

A semi-finalist at Wimbledon and the French Open, he has won just three tour matches this season and yesterday pulled out of next week's Pilot Pen event in New Haven because of persistent back trouble.

Henman said at the time: "It's frustrating because I haven't had that many problems with it all year; in the summer it was fine.

"But playing on hard courts is a lot tougher on the body and my back hasn't reacted as well as I would have wanted.

"My goal now is to try to get as much treatment on it as possible before the start of the US Open."