With 2010 World Cup just 99 days away, ESPN has reopened an old topic about Joe Gaetjens the hero during the US victory over England in the 1950 World Cup. The article tries into kill all the misconceptions that were portrayed about Joe Gaetjens and show him as he truly was. In the movie “Game of Their Lives”, he was portrayed as a voodoo fanatic when he was actually Catholic. There are mangled facts about Gaetjens family origins and the English media trying to call his goal a fluke as well as his mysterious demise.
Joe Gaetjens was not Belgian. And his father wasn’t, either.
His name sounded Flemish. The Flemings are the Dutch-speaking half of Belgium. Considering the tidal wave of Flemish immigrants that washed over North America in the 19th century, the assumption that Gaetjens was of Belgian descent held credence. But Gaetjens, in spite of the ‘-jens’ suffix, is not a common name in Flanders.
Genealogic research shows that Joe’s great-grandfather, Thomas, migrated to Haiti from Bremen, in northern Germany, where the Gaetjens name is rather common. (A close variation on Gaetjens — Gätjens — is also oft-heard just north of there, over the Danish border.) Thomas arrived in Haiti shortly after 1825 (when France officially recognized Haiti’s independence) and married Leonie Dejoie, whose father was a general and had played a part in Haiti’s self-determination. That connection opened a path to prosperity for the Gaetjens family…
Joe Gaetjens did not practice voodoo.
“Absolutely not!” shouts his indignant younger sister, Mireille, reached in Puerto Rico.
“The Game of Their Lives,” the 2005 movie about the historic upset, had been ludicrously inaccurate. The film made light-skinned Gaetjens, played by dark-skinned Jimmy Jean-Louis, out to be some sort of voodoo nut.
The Gaetjens family was appalled. In real life, Gaetjens was Catholic, like most Haitians, and went to church every Sunday…
After the U.S.-England game, a barrage of excuses was blasted from the England camp. It had been too hot. Travel had been strenuous. But this one would stick: Gaetjens’ goal had been a lucky one.
All Americans and most English present on the scene dispute that.
A while back Omar posted some photos of skateboarding crews that were emerging in Jamaica, I was searching around to see if there was an more info or video on them to show, just the other day I stumbled on an interview from Large Up about this.
From the video you can see how the kids are being diversified with new hobbies and putting their own spin on things by merging it back into the dancehall scene.
We’ve talked about people bleaching their skin on the blog before, but recent events have brought the subject back to the forefront, with Sammy Sosa, of all people, looking like a totally different person at a recent event in Miami. His explanation? He’s been bleaching. Check out quote from Sammy below…
…Speaking publicly for the first time since photos of him from a recent musical award ceremony were published on the Internet, Sosa said that the skin lightening is the result of the use of a facial cosmetic cream.
“It’s a bleaching cream that I apply before going to bed and whitens my skin some,” said the former slugger during the “Primer Impacto” program at the Univision Spanish network.
“It’s a cream that I have, that I use to soften [my skin], but has bleached me some. I’m not a racist, I live my life happily,” said a smiling Sosa during the interview….
My question is, what’s explanation for the light contacts? The slickbacked Jheri Curl? It’s all a bit much to take in, from my end, at least.
The racial dynamic in the Dominican Republic, Sosa’s home, is complicated, to say the least. There’s plenty of reading material out there on the subject, so I won’t try to get into it too much here, at very least because I’m far from an authority on the subject. I just wanted to float this story out to those who may not be aware of it, and get the conversation going.
Theirry Henry and Allen Iverson, now sadly carrying on his basketball career with the Memphis Grizzlies, were brought together in Barcelona by their shared sponsor Reebok for…I don’t know — some kind of cross-promotional brand synergy thing (or maybe corporate hypnosis and introduction to cannibalism?).
Facts we can gather from this clip:
-AI likes distinctly baggier clothing than Titi.
-Iverson can’t spin a football on his finger, but thinks Henry is capable of doing so with his foot.
-Nothing can remind of the pointless monotony of life quicker than the piano music in a department store.
-Uncomfortable laughter always immediately precedes two celebrities saying goodbye to each other.
-Seriously, is Iverson wearing some kind of dress with individual leg holes?
The 2008 Reebok commercial where Thierry talks about how much his brand-mate just happens to be someone he hugely admires…
Usain Bolt’s feats in Berlin are now cemented in history. A segment of the old Berlin wall has been graced with Bolt’s image, commemorating the world records he set this past week. Check out the details below…
Jamaican sprint sensation Usain Bolt has been honoured by the city of Berlin which has given him an original segment of the Berlin Wall - nearly three tons of it.
Bolt, who broke world records in winning gold medals in the 100 and 200 metres, was presented with the piece of wall at a small ceremony yesterday, the final day of the World Championships.
The section is 3.6 metres (12 feet) high and weighs 2.7 metric tons. It will be delivered to Bolt’s training camp in Jamaica by a special company….
Jozy Altidore is on a season long loan to Hull City in the English Premier Football League from Villa Real in Spain. Check out the impact he made on the game when he debuted for Hull City against Bolton Wanderers, the kid is trying to earn that number 9 shirt.
BBCCaribbean.com has put together a nice summary of the dominance of Caribbean teams at this year’s Track & Field championships. Check out an excerpt below…
…The peerless Bolt, who turned 23 years old on Friday, broke both his individual world records - in the 100 and 200 metres - and left the world grasping and gasping for superlatives as attention turned rightly to Jamaican performances on the track and field.
But this was no one man-show as, after six days of this nine-day event, Jamaica led the gold-medal count with five.
That was one more than the United States, two of whose winners have come from Caribbean-born athletes…
After Bolt destroyed his previous world record in Berlin Vybz Kartel soon after created a tribute for him. I don’t know what’s faster Jamaican runners or Jamaican Dancehall artists.
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