Correspondence to a mentor

I enjoyed the article also ("Us against Them" in Foreign Affairs), though I don't entirely agree with its conclusions. Franklin Foer makes a similar argument in "How Soccer Explains the World" when he holds Catalan nationalism up as a model of how it can be a benign force. But then, in general, Catalan region is much wealthier than the Balkans. As I watched the videos on youtube, one of the consistent factors in the "reality" for hooligans was relative poverty, though there are many exceptions.

I finally found the full hooligan video on youtube.com (the one dealing with Frm.
Yugoslavia) and thus was not surprised to read the soccer firms were involved in the
recent violence in Belgrade. According to interviews in the documentary, all sides are
still eager to fight/kill each other. To me this suggests the "solid" borders have done nothing to create stability beyond keeping everyone in their corner.

As soon as there is any interaction, or challenge to this status quo, the violence flairs up (e.g. Kosovo). The fact that much of this violence finds its expression around soccer culture lead me to think, as an peace-making tool, soccer is tainted, at least in this region.

Perhaps going the Laibach venue would be an idea. Can soccer be made in(to) a social mirror? This would something to ponder in the 3 chapter/conclusion, and to think about for the summer...