Over at MSNBC, there's a neat article up about an upcoming trip to the US - Salt Lake City, no less - by the 2007 FIBA Asia Champion, Iran. I'm sure that wingnuts and other paranoid ninnies will view this as the opening phase of the long awaited 'Islamo-fascist' invasion of the 'Homeland', but I think this is great news and I hope that someone (Hello, NBA?) either broadcasts the games or films them and posts them somewhere.
We need more of this citizen diplomacy, not less. As a two time exchange student to Japan & the Philippines (thank you Rotary!), I can attest to the effectiveness of citizen diplomacy at improving relations between people, even if their respective governments suck.
What I found even more heartening were the comments posted in response to the story (go over and check them out!) There are probably 40 comments at the time I'm writing this and they are overwhelmingly positive. I counted 1 negative (some dumbass compared it to playing against the Nazis before WWII), 1 incoherent response, 1 cautious response and 1 asshole. Among the positive comments, there were even some comments from Iranians, one of whom pointed out there are at least 12 Americans who play professionally in Iran.
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