What’s on this weekend
Events in Sanarkand, Berlin and Melbourne
Two are competitions of skill and endurance, the third is commercial exploitation dressed up as “sport”.
On this weekend the final rounds of the 46th Chess Olympiad will be played on Samarkand, Uzbekistan, and the Berlin Marathon will be run on Sunday.
In Australia, a country burdened by a “cost of living crisis”, people are paying up to $1500 to travel to Melbourne where they are giving even more money to corporate oligarchs to watch electronic banner advertisements for low-quality beer and sports betting while 36 infantilised and overpaid young men dressed in corporate regalia kick a ball from one end of a patch of grass to the other.
Some helpful Brits have made a short video explaining the business model of this commercial activity, including its origin as an actual sport.
Of course the event will create a lot of employment, including for police who will have one of their busiest nights attending to a highly-elevated number of domestic violence assaults. To the oligarchs that’s just a bit of collateral damage, assuming they notice it from their corporate boxes.
