Rick Reilly Insults the World, One Country at a Time
July 31, 2008
Rick Reilly is paid millions of dollars each year to work for ESPN. That includes a short column once a week for ESPN The Mag. What topic did Rick Reilly pick this week? Mocking the anthems of 17 different countries. What’s worse is that he shows astounding cultural ignorance in doing so. Let’s pick out just three of his entries:
“Ukraine. I love it because it asks so little. The first line: “Ukraine has not perished.” I call that managing national expectations: “We’re not dead, okay? Give us that.”
There was this little ideological movement called “Communism”, Reilly, that killed millions of Ukranian peasants under Stalin, where the peasants were refused food unless they met ridiculously high collective quotas set by the government. Then there was this little known fellow named “Hitler” who invaded the Ukraine, Reilly, killing half a million Jews and about 1.4 million Ukranian soldiers. Finally, there was this small accident called “Chernobyl” in the Ukraine, Reilly, that forced 7 million people to move (all facts via Wikipedia). But other then those three small reasons for the people to have such a line in their anthem, you’re right, they have low expectations!
Thailand. This anthem is played each day at 8 a.m. and 6 p.m. It declares, “Every inch of Thailand belongs to the Thais.” Odd. Was anyone under the impression it belonged to Diddy?
Again Reilly shows his cultural ignorance. Thailand is the only Asian country to avoid being over-run by foreign armies, and its kings worked hard not to let the country and people be exploited as China was in the 19th and 20th centuries. They have every right to be proud of keeping their sovereignty.
Greece and Cyprus have the same anthem, which goes for 158 verses. Olympic officials dread Greeks or Cypriots winning gold. Last time it happened, three trombone players were hospitalized.
The Greek anthem is based on a few lines of an 158 verse poem. That’s the only semblance of truth in Reilly’s attempt to make jokes where there are none. The truth is, the Greek anthem is one minute long. ONE MINUTE! Go here to listen to it if you don’t believe me. There are indeed other potential verses, but only the first eight lines are ever sung. Reilly could have easily checked this via Google, but he decided lying about the country’s anthem for the sake of making a weak joke was more important.
My regular readers know my style by now. I rarely get truly angry about anything in the sports world. But my parents came from another country to the US, and so I try to respect all cultures when they are not being blatantly evil. Disrespecting the anthems that men sang while fighting and dying is so arrogant it leaves me analogy-less, and that’s hard to do! I can smell from here the stench of Reilly’s sense of entitlement and superiority to make such offensive and patronizing jokes.
ESPN should suspend Reilly for two weeks, because apparently he can’t come up with a funny column idea given just one week. Or if that’s not possible, please allow me to take Charles Barkley’s place in the above photo while someone does read all 158 verses of that Greek poem. I think Reilly might have a greater appreciation for the Ukranian anthem after such an experience!
MCBias note: I’m back now that real life calmed down a bit, and will be writing once a week. I’ll write more often once I get some commitments finished.
Comments
14 Responses to “Rick Reilly Insults the World, One Country at a Time”
Got something to say?
-
USA Today Sports- Baseball likely to change, not ban, maple bats
- Sorenstam starts slow, Hull leads at ADT Championship
- Yankees ownership shifts to Steinbrenner's son Hal
- Fire kills 27 horses at Kentucky stable
- Arenas: Last place could be 'for the better' for Wizards
- Phillies' Utley could miss start of season after hip surgery
Firstly, good to have you back MC. Yeah, “cultural ignorance’ is pretty appropo. Reilly is the highest paid sportswriter in the nation if i am not mistaken and has been trading offensive and ignorant statements for laughs for years now.
Reilly is popular for a reason. What bothers me most is that Reilly has it in him to be a great columnist. Every once in a while he will pump out a good column as he did on Darfur, Nothing but Nets”, or some HS underdog… but will then come out with garbage like this or bash some big bad professional athlete who may have told him to “get lost” one time.
Unfortunately, Reilly’s global ignorance AND his popularity is sadly symbolic for just how ignorant this country is. Obama goes abroad and is received warmly and generously around the world, and instead of realizing just how important this factor is, too many who are just as arrogant/ignorant as Reilly are trying to turn a clear negative into a positive.
Riley turns snark into the lowest form of disposable trash
Keep this piece in mind the next time Reilly bitches about an athlete’s salary.
It comes as no surprise that Rick Reilly would write something like this. For a long time, he’s been pumping out columns that resort to insulting rather than anything of substance.
MODI, as far as this country is concerned, I knew that 90% of the folks in the U.S. were puppets when folks got mad because, France, a sovereign nation that has been our ally in every major war, got lambasted because they didn’t want to be a party in the crime of invading a country that hadn’t committed an act of war on the U.S. or any of its allies.
MODI:
I’m going to have to dig up that column on Darfur. I doubt it’s as good as we all hope. I can’t imagine he framed any of those issues correctly.
I found it. It’s not so good bruh. We can discuss privately.
Just a quickie - the total GDP for Sudan is $36.5B. US venture capital firms, alone, contributed $29B to China. Mia Farrow and Rick Reilly need to throw some scuds at Wall Street instead of perpetrating the fraud.
MC - Thanks for this piece which provided some great info - especially about the Ukraine and Thailand. Wow. That’s big stuff.
– kos, I can’t hear what you are saying while I eat my freedom fries.
– Fair enough Temple
MC
Nice work. IMO, RR is the prototype for smarmy moralistic racially myopic so-called sports media. This pathetic piece seems even low for him. His comments on the Ukraine IMO, should be used as an example of putting one’s foot in one’s mouth for centuries
Just went to ESPN to see the article. I literally don’t know how you guys do it, going to these sites and reading the articles. My blood pressure can’t stand it. I admire all of you guys who have such strength.
I would say that he exemplifies Americans who’ve never been anywhere and never seen anything and think this is the best of all possible worlds. Except he’s not. He’s another multi-millionaire journalist who’s playing the “rubes” by pretending he’s one of them by marking comments he assumes they would make. (Some would call it satire, i call it “a**holism”). All the while he’s laughing at the “little people”. Let’s see, where have we seeen this before? Oh, like everywhere. The “mainstream media” is infested with it. That’s why they’re afraid of the web. It’s a great disinfectant.
Seriously, folks - get a sense of humor. Clearly there is a sense of whimsy in Reilly’s article. I’m sure if you asked Reilly, he’d tell you his column is meant to expose the lighter side of something otherwise taken very seriously.
If you can’t laugh about this, what do you laugh about?
“If you can’t laugh about this, what do you laugh about?”
Um… things that are funny?
Sports On My Mind should suspend this writer for two weeks for his ignorance.