When you drive for half an hour and listen to a talk show focus on a routine league soccer match in a country that is just over 9000km away, you know the world is truly globalised. The match in question pits Manchester United, the team the world loves to hate a la JR Ewing, and Manchester City dubbed the noisy neighbours. Why is it important? Because television has brought Manchester United success in to our living rooms and pubs for far too long and every neutral wants to see them lose. It is the human condition. A little thing called jealousy or if you want to be mild, envy. I am a Liverpool fan, so there is neither envy nor jealousy at all, just fierce hatred in a good way. You can hate someone in a good way. Like the Devil, everyone hates the devil right? Manchester United are called the Red Devils so why not red hot hatred for them? We hate the way they grind out results, do not stop running until the referee has blown the final whistle and we hate what is known as Fergie time. It is added time that we like to pretend is reserved only for Alex Ferguson and his charges. So tonight, millions of people will be generating enough hatred to rival the power of that thingamagic that everyone was fighting over in the Avengers. Global warming will accelerate a wee bit tonight. All for a soccer match.

So let's cool things a bit. I would like to see Manchester City win tonight and their remaining matches, just to break Manchester United's hold on the title until Liverpool has time to get back up to speed in the next couple of seasons and win eleven in a row. "Anyone but United" is not an exaggeration. Get off our perch! Let me state this, however: I admire Alex Ferguson for what he has achieved. I admire the never say die attitude of his charges. I admire the fact that he can win the premiership even when his charges are not at their best. This Scot does not give up and that is why we hate him!

I have never met a Manchester City fan in my entire life but I bet tonight the pub will be split right down the middle. In fact, I bet the pub will be 80% blue and the balance red. The only person I know  who is not watching soccer tonight is the missus hence my self imposed delightful exile to the local.

More people in the world tonight will be fretting over this match than the risk of another war in Sudan. Its life.

Two events have prompted me to blog. The first is the spectacular fall of Bo Xilai in China and the second, the war drums beating between Sudan and South Sudan. Is this really the human condition, I ask. The fall of Bo Xilai could have come out of a History channel episode of Rome, The Tudors or Shaka. Since the beginning of time individual human beings have tussled for power and it is understandable that not every individual learns from the fall of others. When entire groups, societies and nations engage in the same drama, however, it is difficult to accept in 2012. The news on Sudan is depressing because South Sudan is meant to represent hope out of conflict and yet all we hear are war drums. You could probably fill the instigators of so much misery in to a small conference hall. How does such a small number of people wield so much power over so many with the ability and destructive instincts to destroy the lives of entire generations? What then are we, are you, am I to do? For the remaining years of your life, stand on principle, speak out for equal rights and justice and give back to society. Use what you have to make a positive difference, no matter how small, than complain about what you do not have.