BRAZIL
After achieving a general sense of economic stability and emotional well being during the Lula years, the Brazilians start learning the value of balanced life styles, although they take a break in the 1st quarter of the year to celebrate the making of carnaval, carnaval itself and the recovery period. They also stop all Apollonian activities for the World Cup of Futebol. But slowly some players get the swing of things and start scoring the Golden Move. In one such occasion, the 5dx5a Golden players immediately rush together to celebrate in one of those dancey celebratory moves and unite in the middle of the field to start digging a hole! WTF!!! The referee scratches his head as he’s never seen that before, and as he decides to run over to break off the party with a red card in hand, KABOOM! ...a great big bang of black shoots out into the sky. It’s petroleum! hotddam!!! More oil!!!! The U.S. who is not part of BRICs and had just come to watch the game rushes to the field! The Arabs who also don’t play BRIC-Ball take a quick look but they’re not too bothered, they go on unfazed eating their delicious legs of lamb.
RUSSIA
Russia, who’s been playing 5 Dionysians down, is threatened with another collective red card as they’ve been sitting around all day waiting for Godot. Nietzsche tells them he’s probably not coming and they should just start without him. But the Russians believe he could save their game and ask to wait just a little while longer.
INDIA
Zeus decided to mingle in the after-party following the Indian singing and dancing to discover one of the 7 Wonders of the Universe: the Kama Sutra. Dionysians always cheer when they hear the word “liberation” not realizing that they come in various shapes and sizes and sometimes it means tightening the belt in order to enjoy its pleasures, at least according to economists. The Kama Sutra is geared towards men to develop their “social skills” and perhaps even acquire a wife; the Dionysian frivolities in the text being just a small reward in this true Apollonian pursuit. But reader beware that in order to fully appreciate the teachings, you must have the patience to read it in prose form, and no, you can’t just cut to the end. And you might ask: “How can a book about sex have no pictures? How can one learn without visual aid?” Yes, a picture is worth a thousand words, and the gullible reader expecting a book showcasing a Dionysian den of sex winds up being given a lesson on social caste system. Talk about “bait and switch” sales strategy! But remember the Indian motto: Thrills and Control. And with this much control over their sexual desires it will take the Indians a full 15 to 20 years to surpass the population of China. Thankfully, India’s pharmaceutical industry is among the top economic sectors in the country and thus has an optimistic outlook for the Viagra-equivalent production and the positive impact on the longevity and consequent productivity of men of a certain age. So the Indians go on firmly and steadily growing in their game.
The Chinese show a slight attempt at progress by involving more Dionysian players in the game such as allowing Ai Weiwei in the field. After all he’s highly respected and well loved internationally and can help in the Chinese marketing campaign to show good face. However, Weiwei’s good face is sporting a black-eye. In order to draw attention away from it, the 9 Apollonians dressed him with an “I Heart BJ” T-Shirt. But Nietzsche misinterprets the “Beijing” abbreviation as a sex innuendo and although humorous finds it potentially distracting to the game as a case of preemptively stalling it. Big yellow! Nietzsche screams. The Chinese players accuse him of racism. Nietzsche apologizes saying he meant the card he was giving them and not the color of their skin and to go on with the game.
