The skillful but egotistical footbaler, David Ginola was once asked if he minded that being the target of so much ire from opposing fans. "Not at all", the Frenchman replied, "it's better to be booed than ignored". By the standards of footballing answers, Ginola's remark was positively Chomsky-esque in its profundity. Fair play to him, he had a good point. Ginola was jeered not just because opposition fans hated him but also because they feared him. In a way, the boos were a sign of respect. ...

I recently spent a week in Tokyo. Of all the countries I've visited, Japan is the one of which I've had the worst impression before arriving. I've spent the last few years living in two of Japan's former colonies, Taiwan and South Korea, where praise for the Japanese is not exactly abundant. To some extent I understand why Japan's former imperial subjects are not well disposed to the country. The Japanese have not exactly gone out of their way to atone for past wrongs. Japanese school tex...

I've read a few of Michael Moore's books and have managed to take a position on the Rotund Ranter which few other Joeusers seem to share - that of ambivalence. I don't detest the man but neither do I love him. Sometimes, I find his ideas thought-provoking. I remember once reading his anecdotal observation that it seems that there are more girls than boys being born these days. Perhaps, he speculates, Mother Nature is trying to protect her creation by reducing the proportion of the population ...

"Mi guk in" The child's index finger points toward the pointy-nosed, pale-skinned oddity strolling past. "Mi guk in" ("American"), he exclaims excitedly to his parents as if he's just seen some exotic beast, like a rhino or a unicorn. The "American" stops in his tracks, bends down and smiles at the little one "a ni yo, a il lean deu in" ("no, I'm Irish.") I've lost count of the number of times I've been mistaken for a US citizen. Sometimes the person making the assumption is old e...

I've been lucky enough to travel and to live in different countries. Along the way, I've met people from various nations and cultures. But regardless of background, I find there are three characteristics which I look for in a new acquaintance: self-deprecation, intellectual curiosity and joie de vivre . I'm not a fundamentalist about this, it's great if you have all three (the grand slam), but I won't write you off if you only possess one or two. I myself lack joie de vivre , which...

Last year a family friend spent a week here in Seoul on business. The second time we met, just before he was due to leave, he looked at me in a pleasantly bewildered manner and sighed: " This city has beaten me. It's a beast ." For those unaccustomed to epically large Asian cities, this is a common sentiment. The traffic, the noise, the over-crowding, the energy, the sheer size of a city which has twice the population of Ireland, can be a bit much for a newcomer from the west. I live on...

I haven't been looking forward to writing this blog. I've known for some time that my best friend Soupy, known to Joeusers as johnsoup, will be leaving Korea. Knowing his dislike of presents, I promised to write a blog about him in lieu of a going away gift. There is the possibility, as I'm sure John will welcome, that this will lead me to write about my emotions; a very un-Barry thing to do. We first met in September 2000 in my native Belfast. We were in the same Masters class, two of t...

Last weekend I was, as ever, sitting in a bar with Soupy, my erstwhile friend in both the online and offline worlds. At one stage, as we sat there putting the world to rights, an English woman came up to us and started chatting. The woman in question was determined to tell us, over and over and over, just how sexy she found our Ulster brogues to be. Well, who am I to argue with such an assessment? It seeems that for the English these days, the Ulster accent is in. Large English companies ...

At Easter I was drinking in the famous Crown Bar, a popular tourist spot in Belfast city centre. Waiting for my drinks, I got chatting to the guy next to me, who like most of the people in the bar, was not a local. He was from Tralee, in the south-west of Ireland. Despite being the wrong side of forty, it was his first visit to our country's second city. He commented, as most first-timers do, on the freindliness of the people and on how much he was enjoying his visit. I've always been su...

A few years ago I made the acquaintance of a man who seemed to be insufferably arrogant. On the first few occasions that we met, I tried to give him the benefit of the doubt, hoping that his haughtiness was just a front which would dissolve once we got to know each other a little better. I can remember the exact moment when I realised that my first, negative impression had unfortunately been spot-on. A few of us had met up for dinner one night. When it came time for the person in question...

I did alright last time predicting the last sixteen but the quarters are a trickier proposition, given that there is likely to be less between the teams. Germany v Argentina, Friday 16:00 Such a shame that the two teams who have played the most attractive football have to meet so early. This would have made a great final. Argentina have so many match-winners that it's hard to bet against them. If Germany are to triumph, Ballack will have to play out of his skin. Prediction: Germany ...

With eight games still to play, this World Cup has already seen a record number of red cards, with 25 players given their marching orders, compared to 22 in France eight years ago. Much has been made of the poor refereeing which has led to this rash of dismissals. Undoubtedly some officials have performed ineptly - not least Three Yellows Poll and Valentin Ivanov who reduced Potrugal-Holland to a nine-a-side. But to focus entirely on refereeing mistakes misses the point that the players t...

Oh dear. Having set sail under a strong wind in the group stage, the good ship World Cup has been dashed onto the rocks by a combination of player cynicism and referee incompetence. The last sixteen was a rather disappointing round, with too many games decided by the officials. The final game of the lot - Spain versus France - provided the bulk of the good football all by itself. Let's see how my predictions turned out: Germany v Sweden, 16:00 The hosts are hitting form, with both their ...

We’ve reached the halfway point of the 2006 World Cup and half of the 32 teams in this year’s competition are making their way home. So what have we learnt from the group stage of the world’s greatest sporting spectacle? The first thing to say is that, as ever, some groups have been tougher than others. Those who have successfully navigated groups C, E and F can consider themselves well-tested. Those who have come through groups A, B, D, G and H will face considerably sterner tests in the...

We're almost half-way through the group stage of the planet's greatest sporting spectacle so I thought I would offer these thoughts on World Cup 2006 to date: * First off, just how good are Argentina? Serbia and Montenegro have (had?) one of Europe's best defences, but Crespo and co battered them yesterday 6-0. Tevez and Messi can't even get in the starting eleven which tells its own story. The second goal yesterday, consisting of no fewer than 24 pases, must go straight in to the top five...