We still have a hundred years to get an idea of what’s to come in 2023.
The next year is going to be difficult. Very difficult for the ordinary worker or for the state pensioner. Inflation will remain murderous, the price of energy will continue to rise. The government is going to blame you for spending electricity in your own home and it’s going to take a mortgage to buy a cauliflower.
And no one is going to explain to you that inflation isn’t prices that go up, it’s the value of your money that goes down. Cauliflower is the same cauliflower. It is the piastre which is less good.
So get ready to tear it up. As always, it is the workers who will suffer in the companies. There will be staff cuts and service cuts. It’s inevitable.
HAPPILY, THERE IS THE CANADIAN
It’s happened before. A hundred years ago, the world was recovering from the Great World War and the Spanish Flu. It was during these extremely difficult times that Babe Ruth hit 60 home runs and baseball blossomed into a big industry. At the same time, the cinema became talkative and people, stunned by difficulties, rushed to the stadium and to the cinemas.
In 1929, the world experienced the Great Depression. What did we turn to for mental survival? Baseball, nascent football and boxing. Jack Dempsey made America dream.
After the Second World War, we had to get up again and rebuild Germany and Japan. These were the Rocky Marciano years, of the Super Yankees, Dodgers, Canadiens and Maple Leafs in Canada and the arrival of Pelé in Brazil.
It was the Elvis years that allowed the United States to export rock culture all over the planet.
In 1980, we were driving in California and saw the signs along the highways: Fight Khomeini, Drive 55. At the same time, the USSR was holding the Olympics in Moscow and enduring a terrible war in Afghanistan. But they had lost in Lake Placid a few months earlier with the Miracle On Ice in hockey.
Were people aware that sport was hiding the greatest upheaval of the 20th century with the fall of communism and the Soviet empire?
Pantoute.
SEPTEMBER 11 AND SPORT
Revise your whole story: every time the economy crashed, sport (and entertainment) served as an opium to appease people. The most formidable example is still quite recent in the long march of a society.
Remember September 11, 2001. The twin towers of the World Trade Center. The thousands of deaths and the traumatic shock suffered by America. What did President George Bush say? “Go back shopping and cheer on your favorite teams. »
The Yankees, Giants, Rangers, Islanders, Knicks, Jets and others resumed routine as dust still whitened downtown and Manhattan.
And the Monza Grand Prix took place as planned in Italy.
And there, Russia and Ukraine are spilling blood. The euro undergoes an abominable devaluation, the German and French homes are at 19 degrees, everyone knows that Qatar treats homosexuals badly and sells its gas even more expensive by profiting from the war…
And what were the months of November and December devoted to? Getting excited about the World Cup in Qatar.
So in 2023, when it’s going to rain and the bills are going to crush you, we should be able to count on the Canadian. And on CF Montreal. Maybe the Alouettes if we can sell them. And Arslanbek Makhmudov and Christian MBilli.
With a good drama series on TVA, a Double occupation where everyone will be nice and cute and a win, I hope, from Kim Clavel on January 13th.
We’re all going to need it.
In WBC honors
The WBC may not be the best international boxing federation, but it is certainly the most effective in its communications and marketing.
The way she announced her nominations for the various honors of the year 2022 is enough to make Gemini blush with shame.
And when we go through these lists of nominees, we are impressed to see so many Quebecers who shine on the international scene. In a field where competition is so fierce.
Thus, the fight between Kim Clavel and Yesenia Gomez is nominated for the fight of the year among women. The competition is untouchable as Kim finds herself battling the Katie Taylor-Amanda Serrano clash at Madison Square Garden and the one between Clarissa Shields and Savannah Marshall in London. In both cases, 20,000 people witnessed the fighting.
My pick, the Clarissa Shields-Marshall fight. Stéphane Larouche favors Katie Taylor-Amanda Serrano. He may be right. Me too. But we will agree to point out that the two have taken women’s boxing into the major leagues.
RAMSAY AND BOUCHARD
We find Mary Spencer in the list of knockouts of the year. The one against Cynthia Lozano. Unfortunately, David Lemieux who has already won the prize with his knockout against Curtis Stevens finds himself among the victims for the knockout suffered against David Benavidez.
Among the coaches, grouped into a list for men and women, Marc Ramsay seems to be the favorite. But Danielle Bouchard, Kim Clavel’s coach, is in the group of nominees. In both cases, we are talking about several decades of work and passion.
The WBC has not released the list of goons. But it was Shawn Porter who won the title of best-dressed boxer. Among journalists and bloggers, Laurent Poulin and Manny Montreal are among my nominees. The sweatpants are out of competition.