‘Win One for the Dictator’ Seems a Tad Uninspiring

From the pardon-me-while-I-choke-back-the-tears department comes this latest bit of nonsense from Nigeria’s dictator of the week:

Abdulsalam Abubakar has told Nigeria’s players, “The hopes of a nation rest on your shoulders in this difficult time” and has ordered them to win so that their countrymen will not feel even more depressed about the death of his predecessor, Sani Abacha.

Abubakar said the players should overcome their sadness at the loss of the former junta leader and defeat Spain today.

Considering that Abacha was the man who, when he wasn’t murdering civil rights activists, was barring Nigeria from competing in the 1996 African Nations Cup in South Africa because of political reasons, the players are not going to be mourning him too seriously.

Most of them have been playing in Europe and have escaped the sort of conditions that Abacha and his cohorts have imposed on their countrymen.

THEY’RE QUITE HAPPY WITH SEOUL FOOD

They’re visiting a nation renowned for its cuisine, but South Korea’s World Cup players are quite content to dine on kimchi (spicy pickled cabbage) and bulgogi (barbecued beef), thank you very much.

And when they tire of that, they can always turn to the samgyetang, a dish made of chicken, ginseng and rice and said to be good for stamina. It’s a specialty of chef Chung Seung Chan.

He was flown from South Korea to Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, the team’s training camp south of Paris, specifically to prepare traditional dishes. It seems they didn’t care too much for the cuisine of France.

And when you learn--a little too late--that the Cou d’Oie you ordered consists of stuffed goose neck skins, or that the Hure du Marcassin you chose as your entree is really the deboned head of a young wild boar, who can blame them?