Among the things we didn't hear about over the weekend here in the world's most isolated open society: a sporting event involving athletes from 13 countries on 4 continents, all to continue raising money for victims of the tsunami.

Granted, it was a rugby match, and most Americans don't really care about rugby.  What I'm more struck by is the degree to which the tsunami is "over" here.  It certainly isn't where it actually happened, and apparently a few people are still fairly aware of that.  (I'm guilty, too.  So the Tsunami Relief module is going back up for a while.  Literally the least I can do.)

Also of note: this benefit, which may raise in one blow fully half as much as Bush originally offered from the entire U.S. of A., was considered important enough that several top players missed important games with their professional teams, with no second-guessing I can find.  In American terms, it's a bit like Tom Brady skipping an NFL game or Roger Clemens bailing on a start in a pennant race in order to do the Muscular Dystrophy telethon.  In other words: unimaginable.

Which just shows how backwards the rest of the world must be.