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i2-year-old-michaelWhen I was 13 I was a huge Michael Jackson fan. I won’t go into too many embarrassing details but I had loads of rare vinyl, went to see him perform at Wembley in 1992 and knew more of his dance moves than was healthy. Pride of my collection was an ultra-rare pack of red vinyl singles from Bad which would surely be worth quite a mint now. I even had the white glove.

Then, in 1993, the horrendous pictures of the “hole” in his nose hit the front page of the Daily Mirror. Worse was soon to follow in the form of the shocking child abuse allegations that rapidly made Michael Jackson probably the “uncoolest” pop star in the world. Suddenly it became very embarrassing to be a Jacko fan and before long, I’d sold all of my collection back to the second hand record shop I’d bought them from in the first place for about a third of the value – much to the amusement of the owner. A year or so later, I discovered Oasis and then rock-and-roll and never looked back.

Until his recent death, I’d barely listened to any of his music in almost 20 years. However, I’ve been revisiting all those old albums and tracks I still know off by heart and it’s been like traveling back in time. To my surprise, I can see exactly why I was such a fan too. Put aside all of his eccentricities and controversies his music was absolutely brilliant pop. From the early 70’s right up until the mid 90’s, surely no one in the history of music has produced such consistently great pop music. And he wasn’t a product like many of today’s pop “stars” – he was writing, choreographing and singing all of his material. The man lived and breathed music and dance and believed in what he created. Jackson was an all round singer, songwriter, dancer and pop phenomenon. A unique product of the 80’s MTV generation and as with Elvis, the likes of we’ll never see again.

Listening to old interviews with him has also made me feel a bit guilty. When all the child abuse allegations came out and he paid-off Jordan Chandler to prevent it going to court, I was inclined to believe that the out-of-court settlement was an admission of guilt. I think it would have been much better, if very painful and embarrassing for him, to have let it go to court and cleared his name. However, from the way he says the police treated him during the investigations and the publicity surrounding the trial, I think there was also probably a vendetta to get “the weirdo superstar pedophile” prosecuted. In the eyes of most adults – especially those in a police uniform – Jackson was an effeminate immature millionaire superstar oddball who needed bringing down a peg or too. I’m sure Jackson was terrified that he would be prosecuted whether he was guilty or not and I can now understand why such a shy and private person paid off Chandler. Since the case, Chandler has admitted that Jackson didn’t abuse him anyway.

Having re-watched several old interviews with him including the infamous Bashir one, I think it’s clear that Jackson never grew up and he honestly thought there was nothing wrong with sometimes sleeping with kids in his bed. But I don’t believe he did anything sexual with them and his heart was most definitely in the right place. If you think about the number of kids that must have passed through Neverland over the 20 years he lived there and only 2 made allegations, why aren’t all the other kids lining-up to claim their millions? It seems more likely a case of opportunism by cynical and greedy parents who wanted a slice of the richest and most naive entertainer in the world at that time. But while Jackson may have been naive, he wasn’t stupid. Would he really be stupid enough to admit he saw nothing wrong sharing his bed with children and holding hands with a child on camera as he did in Bashir’s documentary if he was a genuine pedophile considering everything that had gone before him? He admitted it because in his innocent eyes, he had nothing to hide. In the eyes of the cynical adult world however, it looked dodgy as hell.

As regards his skin changes, I also believe his claim that he had Vitligo and was something that he couldn’t help. There’s no “skin bleaching” process that can make someone that white. There are pictures of him in the 1980’s too that show his skin displaying the blotchy effects of the illness in it’s early stages which his makeup artist says she regularly tried to cover-up. His claim in Bashir’s documentary that he’d only had 2 nose jobs I find harder to believe but who knows, and really, who cares? What’s clear is that his understandable hatred of his vicious (and clearly still money grubbing) father compelled him to change his look as much as possible to avoid looking anything like him.

Jackson had many faults. Like many superstars, he sang songs about “healing the world” and taking a look at “the man in the mirror” while at the same time, living an extravagant lifestyle that hardly practiced what he preached. To his credit however, he did at least set up his own Heal The World foundation, give a lot of money to charity (including in his will) and did a lot for sick kids. Like many pop phenomenons however, I don’t think he could ever face that he was past it though by the mid 1990’s and it was probably a combination of his ego, debts and drugs that finally killed him.

But I think he was an extremely big hearted person at heart. Yes, he sounded effeminate, made you cringe at times (such as when he hung his baby off the balcony in Berlin) and like Diana, often courted publicity as much as he hated it (it’s said that he himself put out the stories of him sleeping in a oxygen chamber and buying the elephant man’s bones). But at the end of the day, Jackson was an extremely kind hearted and innocent man who due to the circumstances of his “stolen” childhood, had enough wealth to decide to remain a child for the rest of his life. It’s called Peter Pan syndrome and if he was guilty of anything, that was it.

I don’t think that he killed himself either. For an unbelievably sensitive guy, Jackson must have been very resilient to deal with the scrutiny, criticism, legal trials and accusations that were thrown at him. Even though he had pretty much hit rock bottom financially in the run-up to his upcoming tour, it sounds most likely that he over medicated himself. If anyone is to blame, it is the doctor – possibly Arnold Klein – that prescribed him the anesthetic Propofol to help him sleep. However, Jackson was a determined guy used to getting what he wanted and I wouldn’t be surprised if it emerges he was also dangerously addicted to a cocktail of drugs. Probably a result of all the trials and tribulations he had been through and both the physical and emotional fear of having to do a world tour of 50 dates at the age of 50 when he thought he’d only signed up for 10. It also sounds like The Nation of Islam had gotten their greedy hands on him in his later years and were bleeding him dry financially while taking an increasingly influential role in his life. By the time he died, the once most powerful entertainer in the world had virtually no control over his own life.

RIP Michael Jackson and thank you for the music and fond childhood memories.

Jacko

Jacko

This is breaking news from LA but the news is that Michael Jackson is dead at age 50. TMZ and the LA Times are reporting him as dead after having a heart attack while CNN are only reporting he is in a coma. No details have emerged but I bet this was suicide not least because he couldn’t face the 50 date tour ahead of him to pay his $400m dollar of debts.

It seems almost certain that he has died and my immediate hunch is that it was suicide. Jackson did not want to go through the hassle of a final world tour at his age to remedy his financial problems and I think coupled with all his well publicized problems over the past 15 years, he probably decided it just wasn’t worth it anymore and took an overdose. He was suffering physically during rehearsals for the tour and he probably took an overdose of the painkillers that he was surely already on.

All those people that have paid through the nose for a ticket to his final concerts in London this summer will be absolutely gutted. I heard something about Jackson couldn’t be bothered to do more than 5 songs per show or something so they would have been lucky to see him for more than an hour on stage. I actually saw him in concert during his “Dangerous” tour at Wembley stadium about 20 years ago. For all the plaudits he will receive for his early music, he always struck me as cringe worthy and very false in TV interviews. He seemed terribly immature illustrated by the time he “hilariously” hung his baby off a balcony which said a lot about his state of mind.

No doubt this will dominate the news headlines until at least Sunday because it is Elvis-esque big as far as celebrity deaths go. As I write, live footage shows people slowly gathering at the hospital awaiting confirmation of his death. Like Elvis, in the end Jackson has become a victim of the money machine and circus that he both encouraged and surrounded him.

A summary of the main reasons Jackson has killed himself can be deduced from this report in the LA Times:

His backers envisioned the London shows as an audition for a career rebirth that could ultimately encompass a three-year world tour, a new album, movies, a Graceland-like museum, musical revues in Las Vegas and Macau, and even a Thriller casino.

Such a rebound could wipe out Jackson’s massive debt, estimated at $400 million.

Jackson needed a comeback to reverse the damage done by years of excessive spending and little work. He has not toured since 1997 or released a new album since 2001, but he has continued to live like a megastar.

To finance his opulent lifestyle, he borrowed heavily against his three main assets: his Neverland Ranch, his music catalog and a second catalog that includes the music of the Beatles that he co-owns with Sony Corp. By the time of his 2005 criminal trial, he was nearly $300 million in debt and, according to testimony, spending $30 million more annually than he was taking in.

Compounding his money difficulties were a revolving door of litigious advisors and hangers-on. Jackson has run through 11 managers since 1990, according to Frank DiLeo, his manager and friend of three decades.

You can follow live coverage on the BBC here.

Michael Jackson highs and lows here.

A look back on his life here.

26/6/09 8am UPDATE: The Sun newspaper confirms it was suicide. Jackson took a massive overdose of Demerol which caused the heart attack.

106 years old today

Eric Blair

Eric Blair

Thought I’d take the opportunity to commemorate this day as I’ve been reading Homage To Catalonia again. George Orwell would have been 106 today and his account of his experience in the Spanish Civil War is one of the best and most honest accounts you’ll find on the subject. There are obviously many different books on the subject now analyzing what happened but it’s amazing how lucid Orwell’s book was. Unlike many others caught up in the ideologies of the war at the time, he saw that both Franco’s fascists, the Communists and Western powers eventually conspired to crush any kind of popular revolt.

He would surely have been delighted by the Spanish Government’s recent decision to award citizenship to those remaining few that like Orwell, fought in the International Brigades.

"El Niño"

"El Niño"

Currently watching the Confederations Cup where Spain are playing New Zealand. Fernando Torres has just scored an 11 minute hatrick to take Spain 3-0 up within 16 minutes and they were all beauties. Oh to have him and Villa link up together at Barça – they would be absolutely unstoppable.

I know it’s only New Zealand and the Confederation Cup but just watching the way Spain play, it’s hard to see anyone but them lifting the World Cup next year. You can tell that the Spanish team all love playing together too and there’s a great team spirit to the squad.

Considering the fact that Argentina may only just qualify for the World Cup and that they have serious defensive doubts, is there anyone that can seriously rival Spain?

International Brigades

International Brigades

I’ve always had huge admiration for the International Brigade volunteers – 2,500 of which were from the UK – who left their comfortable lives behind to go to Spain and fight against Franco during the Spanish Civil War. It’s lovely to see the few that are still alive were honoured yesterday by the Spanish government who have granted them Spanish passports at the Spanish embassy in London. Why it’s taken 70 years for such a gesture I’m not sure but it’s probably down to the same old political wranglings about whether to “dig up the past”.

We could learn a lot from these brave men who, as one of them says, “didn’t care about politics”. Rather they were motivated simply by fighting for a good cause.

More on the story can be found here.

The Generalitat will teach English to children as young as six-years-old as well as have some non-language classes taught in English for the first time.

Catalan Education Minister Ernest Maragall looks on as 6 year olds learn English in a state school

After decades of neglect, in 2007 the Catalan government decided to take English teaching seriously with an ambitious €221.3 million project for its schools. The “Pla d’Anglès” aim is to ensure that by 2014, 16 year-olds will be leaving Catalan schools with at least a basic grasp of the English language with those studying beyond reaching an upper-intermediate level. Two years on, and the Generalitat has announced plans to take things a step further by teaching English to children as young as three-years-old as well as have some non-language classes taught in English for the first time.

The Generalitat’s grand plans to promote what it calls “The Third Language” have been introduced slowly but this year sees a significant expansion on last. 800 schools – double the number of last year – have been especially selected to promote English involving around 261,000 pupils across both primary and secondary schools. At the launch of the program, Catalan Minister of Education Ernest Maragall (brother of former Generalitat president Pasqual Maragall) spelled out the plan’s lofty targets saying,”The objective is for pupils to finish secondary school with a basic level and to finish baccalaureate or professional training at a level equivalent to fourth level (upper intermediate) in a language school, which is considerably high.”

Ernest Maragall

Ernest Maragall

The obvious question this presents is where will the teachers come from? The Generalitat estimates it needs around 15,000 teachers able to teach English in Catalan schools by 2010 to reach it’s target. At least a third of these will also be expected to teach several non-language subjects in English. The answer, it says, is to get it’s current teaching staff up to speed by sending 9,000 of them on intensive English training courses. These are currently being split between the Escola Oficial d’Idiomes, summer courses abroad and European exchanges. In addition, about 500 native English speaking classroom assistants will be recruited to primary and secondary schools. In addition, native teachers from private language schools and even Erasmus students will be employed to give conversation classes in state schools.

Such an ambitious plan has raised considerable skepticism from within the English teaching industry and teaching associations in general. Rosa Cañadell of the Public Education Union (USTEC) believes the new plan is important but finds it hard to see how it can achieve it’s objects in such a short period of time, especially in view of other pressures. She told Spanish media, “The current level of most Spanish teachers’ English is far below the level it would require to meet the Generalitat’s high objectives. But there are many other problems that the public education system must deal with such as declining grades, students leaving school at 16 and integration of new students that are equally pressing. It’s difficult to see how all these challenges can be met at the same time.”

Rosa Cañadell

Rosa Cañadell

Meanwhile, some say that the added pressures that teaching in “The Third Language” will put on teachers and the teaching industry as a whole have not been fully considered. Steve Rumbol, Language Coordinator at the Federació de Ensenyment (CCOO), expresses concerns that teachers themselves have not been consulted enough over the plans. He says, “Since there has been no consultation with the unions about this plan, we fear that the resource implications haven’t been properly considered to ensure quality training and working conditions for the staff involved. Recruiting 500 native speaking ‘conversation assistants’ also raises the question of under what conditions, pay and contracts will these staff be employed? The same goes for the private sector – the Generalitat must ensure that minimum standards for teaching and working conditions are met to stop employers using fraudulent contracts and other abuses.”

If other smaller scale projects are a good barometer for the success of the Pla d’Anglès however, the signs are encouraging. The British Council has been involved in promoting English learning in Spanish schools for more than a decade and has already yielded some impressive results. Teresa Reilly, Bilingual Projects Manager at the British Council says, “The Spanish Ministry of Education in partnership with the British Council have been teaching a bilingual schools project in 110 state schools in 11 regions in Spain since 1996. There are now 26,000 pupils in the project. The children start at the age of 3 and literacy, language, science, geography and art are all taught in English by Spanish teachers from the ages of 3 to 16. Approximately 40% of the curriculum is taught in English and the first group of pupils piloted IGCSE exams in English last summer with a 90% pass rate.”

The British Council have been teaching a bilingual schools project across Spain since 1996

The British Council have been teaching a bilingual schools project in Spain starting with children as young as 3 since 1996

Reilly points out that this initiative by the British Council has been the inspiration, not only for the Generalitat’s own plan, but those of other regional governments. “Since then, various autonomous authorities have become involved in developing their own bilingual programmes. The Comunidad of Madrid has one which started in 2003 with pupils in primary 1. There are now 40,000 pupils in this project, which has reached primary 5. Andalucia have a similar project as does Galicia, Castilla y León, Castilla La Mancha etc. In Catalonia there are already a number of state schools where the teaching of English through the curriculum is well established and teachers have been regularly upskilling their language competence for several years as well as learning more about teaching English.”

Nevertheless, teaching associations such as Associació de Mestres Rosa Sensat maintain that while the plan’s aims are noble, the targets will remain out of reach. John Mackay of the Association told El Punt, “The level C of English that the Generalitat is hoping school leavers will achieve seems very ambitious for Spanish teachers to teach properly. In addition, the majority of new resources such as classroom aides will be assigned mainly to primary schools. To get 15,000 teachers that can teach English into the system in such a short time is also very difficult – it’s a nice idea but seems unrealistic.”

Walter García

Walter García

Meanwhile The Federation of Parents in Catalonia (FAPAC) has welcomed the fact that children will now start learning English from level P3 acknowledging that the earlier children start learning a language, the easier it is for them later on. President of the association Walter García warned however that the project must be implemented uniformly to prevent some schools receiving preferential treatment over others. He says, “It must be ensured that all schools receive equal funding and support in expanding English teaching to prevent inequality and guarantee equality of opportunity for all. The English curriculum must also be implemented with full consideration with schools and not just imposed from above. While parents have long acknowledged that a good level of English language skills can open doors in the job market, they’re not looking for perfection because it’s more important to have an excellent level of both Catalan and Spanish.”

It seems that the real success of the Pla d’Anglès will only be measured at it’s completion date in 2014. Maybe then we’ll finally see The Simpsons on Spanish TV in English. Now there’s an incentive for students everywhere.

PRO_122966_ZlatanIbrahimovicInter2

Zlatan Ibrahimovich

In the wake of their Champions League triumph, Barcelona are being linked with a host of players including David Villa, Zlatan Ibrahimovich, Javier Mascherano and god forbid, even Ashley Cole.

The big two that everyone are talking about however are Villa and Ibrahimovich. At the moment, it seems more likely that when Inter eventually accept an offer,  it will be “unbelievable feet for a big man” Ibrahimovich who replaces Samuel Eto’o next season. However, I’m not sure that he’s the man Barça should be gunning for. Ibrahimovich is a sublimely talented player but as the saying goes, too many cooks can spoil the broth. Barça have enough talent in their team. What they need is a pure centre forward who’s going to get on the end of all those delicious balls from their midfield. I think David Villa would be the best man for that job judging by his impressive performances for both Valencia (30 goals this season) and Spain.

Granted, Zlatan has scored an impressive 25 goals on his way to winning the title with Inter but would he be able to handle the step-up to the Spanish league? His tepid international performances for Sweden don’t inspire much confidence that he could although then again, any striker playing for Barcelona is bound to get chances to score. Even Andy Booth. Villa is also a player who doesn’t mind taking the creative back-seat in a team which I’m not sure a player as gifted as Zlatan would. However, this debate could all be academic anyway. Unfortunately for Barça, the latest signs are that Villa is in the midst of a €40-60 million tug of war between Madrid and Chelsea. Cash strapped Valencia will want top dollar for their man and that’s one arena where Barcelona definitely can’t compete. Since Villa has expressed his desire to stay in Spain, Real Madrid currently looks like his most likely destination.

The other issue at stake here is which striker should leave Barça. I’m not so sure that Eto’o should be the striker who’s forced out of the door in favor of whoever comes in. Although I’m sure Thierry Henry has the longer contract having joined the club more recently, I think there’s a better argument that it should be he that stands aside. Eto’0 has not only scored more goals than Henry and performed more consistently this season but he’s almost 4 years younger and surely has more juice left in the tank. It was his goal that probably changed the game for Barcelona in the first 10 minutes of the Champions League final and Henry was relatively anonymous, spurning the only real chance he has to make it 2-0 and effectively kill off the game. I’m sure no player was more relieved than he when Messi finally finished-off the job himself. Although Henry’s performances improved towards the latter half of this season, he was pretty disappointing at the beginning. Besides, I’ve never really forgiven him for saying Barcelona were a bunch of “diving women” the summer before he joined the club!

It will be interesting to see how Zlatan performs for Sweden tonight against Denmark in their World Cup qualifier. At such a sensitive stage during transfer negotiations, a quiet or uninspiring performance may hold some sway over whether he definitely signs for Barça.

Finally, here is the footage from the bar where I watched the Champions League final in Bar HDP, Gracia. It wasn’t our usual haunt for watching Barça matches but it was the only place big enough and willing to take a reservation for 30 people. It’s also one of the few pool halls in Barcelona. The atmosphere was pretty good courtesy of Paulo’s drum:

And these were the scenes when the final whistle went and we took the drum to Plaça Catalunya:

The celebrations over Barcelona’s success this season weren’t just down to the fact that they won three major trophies. Part of the euphoria was the way that Barça won them, especially the Champions League final. I think there’s a lot of hope that this style signals a new era for football. After decades of valuing physical strength, aggression, speed and of course financial clout over style, the diminutive (and homegrown) nucleus of Messi, Xavi and Iniesta proved that intelligence, movement, passing and vision are what make for both attractive and successful football. Zlatan Ibrahimovic got it spot on today when he said of Barça in Swedish paper Aftonbladet:

They play fantastic football, the football of the future. In Rome during the Champions League it was as if we saw a team from 2015.

Writing in The Guardian, David Lacey makes a good point about this and how Burnley have used it to their advantage in their stunning promotion to the Premier League this season.

During the European Cup street procession on Thursday, a lot of Estrella beer was drank on the Barça bus which is not surprising considering another bus sponsored by Estrella was following behind them. By the end of the route, the players were obviously a bit sloshed and probably most sloshed was superstar Leo Messi. In this clip, during the end of the route celebrations in Camp Nou, Messi is seen staggering around in the bus like a drunk Krankie before launching himself at the microphone. I’m not sure why the sound goes towards the end of the clip but what he basically says is “Visca Barça y Visca Catalunya!” and “Next season we’ll win the lot!” Although what more they can win than this season I’m not sure:

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