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The Goalkeeper

By IndiPublicOdds & Ends
Imagine yourself a goalkeeper in a soccer team. One of the best in the world. You are paid a huge sum of money to make sure that the opponents do not score by kicking the ball in between your posts where you stand. To add to the drama, the club owner and the specatotors have long expected you to do your job, or else… you get fired immediately. Your failure in 2002 has put you under league’s highest scrutiny. Now it is the year 2005.

In a final match, the opponent kicked the ball in between the goal posts and into the net behind you. Some spectators cheered some did not. Your manager shook his head and turned angry at you.

As the goalkeeper, can you explain what happened?

I can.

Here are my explanations:

Based on my assumptions, there are two possibilities:

1. You were not guarding the posts as a goal keeper. You were not there.
2. You let the opponent’s ball go through you, between the posts and into the net.

If you are honest, your selection should only be limited one of the two above.

PS: Remember what happened in Bali in Oct 2002? Now it is Oct 2005. Evidently, the Goalkeeper needs to choose between the two possible answers. If he/she cannot answer honestly, his head had better be chopped off.

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Comments

5 responses to “The Goalkeeper”

  1. Eric Avatar
    Eric

    And for once I thought you were talking about the World Cup 🙂 Never mind. This is an interesting analogy.

  2. exolon Avatar
    exolon

    Indi,

    Have you ever heard a story about the good samaritan who refuses to kill satan when he had the chance to?

    If satan doesn’t exist, people won’t be afraid to commit a sin…

  3. nona cyan Avatar
    nona cyan

    PSSI sama ABRI sama2 memble.

  4. thalia Avatar
    thalia

    well, obviously, he/she is not one of the best goalkeeper in the world…

  5. Gede Antara Avatar
    Gede Antara

    Indi

    Your analogy is overly simplistic. I believe it is also wrong to cast the blame solely on the goalkeeper.
    In order for us to understand what went wrong in Bali we must first understand the development of economic and social fundamentals of the island.
    Since 1970 tourism in Bali has been championed to provide much needed dollar revenue to Indonesia. Succesful implementation of tourism in Bali gradually being duplicated throughout the island. Fancy hotels and world class facilities were constructed on top of arable land with little or no consent from the locals. The Balinese economy then became narrowly focused to attract maximum inflow of western tourists.
    Clusters of heavily populated westerner can be found throughout the island as a result. Kuta and Jimbaran, the spots of last weekend’s bombing, were favorite tourists destinations in Bali. As long as western tourists flock in large numbers in these clusters, the terrorist will have relatively easy targets to wreak havoc and to cast ever lasting economic disruption to the island. To prevent from this brand of terrorism to take place again in Bali it wil require more than intelligence efforts in part of the goalkeeper. It requires a dramatic shift away from tourism to make the island’s economy more resilient and to piece back together the social fabrics which has been torn apart.
    A heavy reliance on tourism has created unsustainable economic growth as well as forcing a shift from “Pariwisata Budaya” to “Budaya Pariwisata” which everyday erodes the Balinese values, culture and its way of life. These are the other “goalposts” which are far more important to defend.

    I hope all is well.
    Your Balinese Uncle.

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