Notes From The Week #3

What’s good everyone. Hope you’ve had a good week and happy new month! Spent a lot of this week thinking about international relations; particularly after Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan. International Relations has always been fascinating to me and I think we’re living through such a fragile moment in history. There are so many moving parts in international relations and diplomacy that are intricately linked to each other which have varying knock-on effects. It’s such a delicate time. Hopefully we’re able to engage in effective diplomacy and avoid large-scale conflict. On a brighter note, the Premier League is back and that’s where we’ll begin.

The Premier League Returns (We Need A Pivot!)

A glorious time is among us ladies and gentlemen. The beginning of the Premier League season. I hope the handover of the remote has already taken place in your households. Long may Peter Drury’s poetry sound off from our televisions.

I was actually going to begin this week’s notes with a discussion as to why my beloved Manchester United are a sure lock for Top 4 this season but they’ve already embarrassed me so I’m not going to do that. What I will say is that until we find a single pivot centre midfielder that is able to both beat the press and provide progressive passing we won’t have much luck going forward—figuratively and literally.

Modern football has largely shifted away from the 4-4-2 formation to the more preferred 4-3-3. As 4-3-3 provides more flexibility and options to a coach who is able to effectively use their players. With such a formation the role of the single pivot midfielder becomes vital. Jorginho provides a perfect example of this. He is able to direct and dictate play whilst having a good number of interceptions, tackles and ball recoveries. His range of short and long passes also allow him to not just control possession but advance the ball into the final third.

If Manchester United are going to insist on 4-3-3 then we will need to consider a more dynamic double pivot and manage our attacking options or go after a quality single pivot (which we’ve been woefully trying to do with Frenkie De Jong) to allow both Eriksen and Fernandes to play alongside each other. I can say quite strongly that we will not be able to compete if our pivot consists of Scott McTominay or McTominay/Fred.

China’s Venture Into Film & Soft Power

Power is an interesting concept. From what I remember of my first year studies at university according to Lukes there are three faces of power. The second face of power was the most interesting to me. The second face of power is agenda setting. This involves controlling the parameters of a discussion. What becomes particularly interesting about this is that the parameters of a discussion can be maintained and enforced across a variety of mediums and arenas that at first glance have no connection to the actual discussion.

Joseph Nye then further bolsters the definition of the second face of power in coining the term ‘soft power’. He describes soft power as “the ability to get what you want through attraction rather than coercion or payments.”1 Nye references three primary sources of soft power: culture, political values and foreign policy. I’ll do a quick deep dive into culture as a source of soft power.

American Soft Power through film is particularly well documented. The Captain America trilogy demonstrates American ideals through the life of its’ protagonist Steve Rogers. As Lalita Suwankaewmanee cites in her discussion of the Captain America Trilogy: "from the blatant display of American cultures to American values to the artistic imitation of American policies, the Captain America trilogy incorporates all mentioned elements and presents the world the compelling stories where heroes are created, sacrifices are made, damages are done—all for the protection of humanity.”2 This succinctly describes the Pax Americana that has characterised much of international relations since the end of the Second World War.

China’s use of film to begin agenda setting has been quite interesting to see progress in prominence. ‘Zou Chu Qu’, China’s ‘Going-Out Policy’ has amongst other things been mandated with improving the image of China abroad and building up its soft power; presenting and disseminating Chinese culture around the globe.

Last year, the second highest grossing film in the world was “The Battle at Lake Changjin,” a film that tells the story of how People’s Volunteer Army (PVA) troops entered North Korea and defeated the US mid-last century.3 It has become China’s biggest film ever. Relations between China and the U.S. have intensified in recent years as a result of protracted trade negotiations, the Covid-19 outbreak and concerns about Taiwan. While this film clearly depicts a conflict between the U.S. and China. Future films might be more subtle in their display of the power tussle taking place between this century’s two world powers. As Joseph Nye rightfully asserts ‘the best propaganda is not propaganda’.

Kings Disease II turns 1

One of my favourite tapes to have come out recently. If Aliens ever came to the earth and asked: “what is Hip Hop?” you would be hard pressed to find another tape that clearly depicts the sound, culture and essence of Hip-Hop than Jones’ debut project; Illmatic. With Kings Disease II the 30 year old vet shows that he’s far from done as he floats majestically across a set Hit-Boy produced beats. He sure wasn’t lying when he says that his photo is the Jordan logo for rap!

Nas is a seasoned investor through his venture capital firm QueensBridge Ventures and has some impressive names in his investment portfolio including Dropbox, Ring, SeatGeek, General Assembly, Pillpack, PlutoTV, Robinhood and Coinbase. It was pretty cool to see earlier in the year Nas exploring the opportunities blockchain can provide by releasing royalties of two of his most recent singles (Rare and Ultra-Black) as NFTs.

Favourite songs from the tape:

• Rare

• Store Run

• Nobody

• Composure

• My Bible

If you want to get a further breakdown on my thoughts from the tape then you can check out my post Face to Face. Would be great to hear your thoughts on both the piece and the record.

Be More Fearless

Caught up with a friend this weekend and he reminded me that the goals we usually set for ourselves—we find a way to achieve. The issue then isn’t that we are not setting goals and achieving them—rather the issue could be that we’re not fearless and audacious in our goal setting. We’re not setting big enough goals. We’re not being fearless.

I’ll let Nip run you through the rest of the play:

Put bigger goals on your wall.

Until next week. Peace.