Maradona: chaotic scenes as thousands pay respects in Buenos Aires - BBC News

[BeyondGeography]

[Thomas Hurt]

1. This, people who are losing it entirely on Beatles concert film clips,

girls screaming and crying on film clips of Elvis appearances, or as far as that goes, getting signatures or pics with someone famous....don't understand it. Makes no sense to me that you give up your individuality and reason over someone famous dying.

[BainsBane]

2. This is about national pride

Americans don't understand soccer, and they don't understand what it's like to live in a developing country. This isn't at all the Beatles or Elvis. It's bigger than any death in this country could capture. I'd wager it's the most important passing since Juan Peron.

[Escurumbele]

3. Sorry but this is insane, Maradona was not an example for anyone, the fact that he could play

Soccer doesn't make him a hero.

It is very sad that he led his life the way he did, he could have done so much good, but he was a drug addict, a horrible parent, he could not even recognize his daughters, he cuddled to dictators for money, such as Fidel Castro, Hugo Chavez, and Nicolas Maduro taking millions from the Venezuelan people. He beat women, constantly enjoyed orgies.

He was a very disgusting person. Four good chapters of his life do not make him a hero when the other sixteen are horrendous.

It is insane that people who have done more for Argentina are ignored and this man is celebrated like a saint. He was not even the best player ever, Messi and Pele are better at their sport and fantastic human beings.

So what pride? This is shameful that a drug addict. woman beater is the hero of a country.

I am not minimizing his ability to play football, he was very good, better than most, but let us not forget that the last years of his athletic career he did it while drugged. He was spelled from World Cup in the USA because he was found to be on drugs.

The last few years he could not even speak. That is not a hero, that is not what kids should admire.

Americans DO understand Soccer, but we also understand that people must be celebrated when they deserve the celebration, this is not about soccer but about what kind of a man Maradona was, not a very good one.

And if this is bigger than those you mentioned, then how sad for Argentina and for those who celebrate him, they need to reconsider their values.

[BainsBane]

4. Americans think soccer is a sport

like any other. It is far more than that in developing countries.

I'm not defending Maradona. I'm just saying I understand what's happening. And Argentinians will never recognize Pele as a better player. They hate Brazilians and vice versa.

[Escurumbele]

5. That is sad as well that Argentinians would not recognize a better player than their own, and

vice-versa.

Soccer (Football) IS A SPORT. What else do you think it is? That our society is deranged in idolizing people for doing what they spent a lifetime preparing to do while enjoying it as well is one thing that can be admired because of their dedication, discipline, etc. but it is their job, to play Soccer, or Tennis, or Golf, or whatever sport you enjoy and have become a professional at, one that is most of the time making you very rich. It is one thing to admire their dedication and discipline, but from there to a God status? Please...

We do have a problem with our societies idolizing some people for doing their jobs well, the idolizing is so skewed, so out of place that it is scary. People idolize athletes, rock&roll artists, movie stars, politicians (even the very corrupt ones like trump), etc. But they don't idolize scientists who have made great discoveries, inventions, who have made the World a better place, painters, poets, writers, academics, in short, people don't idolize intelligence, and instead idolize someone like Maradona or trump who as human beings do not deserve any of it.

And that is why "developing countries" are still "developing countries" and have been for years. Politicians with totalitarian or dictatorial tendencies need people to be ignorant, they need uneducated people (trump: "I love my uneducated" ) because they believe anything they are told, they are very easily manipulated, and that is why dictators like to use people like Maradona, because the gullible will see past Maradona's faults and excesses while idolizing the few years he gave to football.

It is up to us to make sure that we teach our children to idolize the right people, those who contribute in a positive way to our society and the World. Pele is an example, a great player who continues to contribute to the World in many different ways, granted that he is not perfect, but he is good.

[BainsBane]

6. They are not "developing" because of soccer

Or idolizing players. They are developing because of the global exploitation of the Global South by the Global North, an exploitation that brought this nation great wealth, to the benefit of you and me. They are exploited because of a history in which the US promoted brutal dictatorships that benefited its own economic interests and resulted in the murder of tens of thousands in Argentina and millions around the globe.

This isn't a discussion about "our society." It's a discussion about a society you know nothing about yet manage to look down on it with imperialistic disdain.

Soccer is about nation. It's an expression of the pride people have for their nation. It's the great equalizer. The poorest child can grow up to be a great soccer player because it requires only a ball and lots of practice. How is it that you think countries like Argentina and Brazil have, historically, been able to defeat the richest countries in the world? Pretending this is like the 49ers vs the Patriots is a willful misunderstanding.

And Christina Kirshner is not a dictator. She's far less so than what our own ignorant population put in place for the past four years.

[sandensea]

7. +1

In Argentina's case, development was derailed by foreign debt crisis in the early 1980s - most of which was taken on to cover a wave of offshoring by local elites and foreign investors alike.

As you know, these elites - and their media mouthpieces - are mostly hard-right in outlook.

The same thing happened under a conservative administration in the early 2000s - and again under Mauricio Macri's neo-con sponsored 2015-19 tenure.

These are dollars that have to be repaid by borrowing fresh dollars, and (mainly) by depressing the economy to the point that it generates large trade surpluses.

This makes development all but impossible.

Indeed, in 2019 their trade surplus reached $16 billion - but foreign interest outlays alone reached $17 billion (three times what they were when Mrs. Kirchner left office just 4 years earlier - and they were hard enough to meet as it was).

The centrist Raúl Alfonsín (who succeeded the last dictatorship in '83) faced the same situation: $4 billion in trade surpluses - eclipsed by $5 billion in foreign interest payments.

Other Latin American nations have had similar foreign debt bottlenecks - though few as severe as Argentina's.

Maradona's colorful life and career - such as they were - weren't nearly as interesting as the economic history of some of these countries. Least of all Argentina's!

It's very good of you to see that, BainsBane. People are so often distracted by what are basically tabloid news - something the likes of Trump always count on.

[BeyondGeography]

8. That poster seems unacquainted with human desperation

and the unconditional love and gratitude one can feel toward anyone who would alleviate it with joy and beauty. You’ve handled this well.