Our tops and flops of 2024

@wwaycorrigan

[For an audio/vlog version of this story, click here.]

It's that time of year again when content creators and publishers can be a little lazy and rehash, under the guise of a review, some of the work from the previous twelve months.

Things can only get better. Actually, they could get much worse all the same!

The Wrong Way Corrigan approach to this is to pick out the hits, or tops if you will— I use those words lightly — and flops — most are just that when one desires viral-esque material — of the content I've published across various platforms.

Good for nothing

Let's start with uploads that, to put it kindly, haven't quite taken off. (In truth, they haven't even started taxiing to the runway.) I'm using the present perfect tense for the simple fact that these pieces still, of course, exist online and thus could, in theory, fly to great heights in time to come. Ever the optimist, here.

Here on Google Blogger, 2024's poorest performing post at the time of writing is Google/Gulag Blogger's faceless, unaccountable, cowardly censors. What are they afraid of?, published in September. It's somewhat surprising that Google Blogger hasn't been keen to vigorously promote a blog with such a heading. You know, to show how fair and balanced the platform is.

I must put on record here that Google Blogger has since lifted the ban on the content it unceremoniously blocked, the subject of that story. Why it was taken down in the first instance still baffles me. Google Blogger and me, a relationship of mystery.

On El Tiempo, the slow burner (it's bound to come good after this) is Round by round we go. Oh no! If only some of my Colombian friends would read a translated version so that they'd know that I prefer to be excluded from cumbersome and expensive rounds of beers. Buy me lunch instead.

'Next to nobody seems interested in my dental musings as Boosting dental health has proven about as popular as a dentist drilling away at your unanaesthetised mouth.'

Cop on Colombia, for biodiversity's sake is the least listened to/viewed on The Corrigan Cast via Spotify and associated platforms. Come on folks, you're missing out on humanity-saving advice.
(*LINK https://spotifycreators-web.app.link/e/e3gm0JGVvPb )

On my YouTube channel, we've got a two-way tie in the Top of the Vlog Flops category. An act of good clearly wasn't seen as such for YouTube viewers while next to nobody seems interested in my dental musings as Boosting dental health has proven about as popular as a dentist drilling away at your unanaesthetised mouth.

For YouTube Shorts, the video titled Ariarí River near Granada in Colombia's Meta department hasn't caught the imagination for some reason. The mind boggles, considering its sexy title.

So, they are our flops, with the caveat that they could become tops in time to come. Really, they could!

The letter writer's raining champion

Now for the hits.

Back to Google Blogger, the October-published Kamala control: Letter to the editor leads the way. Yes, that's right, details of a letter to the Irish Independent has been my most viewed post on Blogger in 2024. Why doesn't the Irish Independent just hire me to be a columnist? Come on, it could be the start of something great!

Now, as already noted, the Spotify version of Cop on Colombia, for biodiversity's sake has largely been ignored. However, the text of this story on El Tiempo found a niche. It's the one with the most engagement of all my 2024 articles on that page. So I won't give up all hope of a cleaner, greener Colombia in the near future.

In top spot on Spotify is Life imitating art of Los 39, minus the bloodshed. A bitchy, telling-tales-from-school yarn does have its fans.

The highest ranking of my YouTube vlogs is Shunning la Selección Colombia. Cheers to those of you who checked it out. Rather than support overpaid, petulant footballers, support an underpaid, underworked curmudgeon — me! Just don't forget to donate generously to the Corrigan cause.

And just in case you think all my pieces on Colombia are somewhat negative — what would give you that impression? — From Guaviare with love: Sending this to rain-deprived Bogotá! is 2024's most-viewed amongst my YouTube Shorts. I could be on to a winner posting about eye-catching weather events. Let's have more magical meteorological moments occur around me, please.

So that's Wrong Way Corrigan and The Corrigan Cast (catchy band name, that) wrapped for 2024. We're now all set to ride the 2025 Trump Tide!
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Listen to The Corrigan Cast podcast here.

Facebook: Wrong Way Corrigan — The Blog & IQuiz "The Bogotá Pub Quiz".

Shunning la Selección Colombia

@wwaycorrigan

[For an audio/vlog version of this story, click here.]

Sports fans — as in those who faithfully support a team — and a balanced, unbiased stance rarely play well together.

Many of la Selección Colombia's supporters are insufferable. (Image from Facebook.)

'My team, good. The team we're playing against, bad.' That's generally how it goes. Facts get discarded or are at least explained away by some intricate, yet utterly ludicrous, verbal gymnastics.

Departing from the faithful

It is fanaticism after all. Displaying doubt or accepting criticism means one is not a true believer. Once one takes that leap of faith, the only way to stay suspended is to fully buy into the creed.

Of course, sport deals predominantly in the physical and the here and now, unlike religious faith, which is very much metaphysical and independent of time, until Judgement Day, that is.

What's more, facts, stats, and delivering something tangible and understandable in the moment play significant roles in sport.

Thus, being a 'see no evil, hear no evil' blind sports fanatic is more difficult to justify. Or at least it should be.

Many, though, enter into what I consider to be Faustian-esque fanaticism, particularly with football, or soccer if you prefer. It certainly has evil elements to it.

Insufferable Selección support

Now, while the uncritical mass support for the Colombian men's national football team, la Selección (or la Sele for short) as it's affectionately called, rarely results in acts of violence against non-believers, it does get rather nauseating all the same.

Rather than being something to be admired, it often comes across as immature. The media not only fans the flames of this football fawning but also engages in it itself.

OK, I've never been a, um, fan of the contrived impartiality some other national media outlets try to implement but refusing to see any faults or shortcomings in one's own team is a worse trait.

Such behaviour ensures many la Selección fanatics are both bad losers and bad winners. There's no sense of perspective.

For sure, this isn't exclusive to Colombia. I've unfortunately been in the presence of some Argentineans when their football team is playing and they're arguably more insufferable. And many of my fellow country folk can be the same, just not usually with soccer.

'I can more readily get behind Bogotá's Millonarios football club because I know not everyone in the vicinity will be backing my side.'

The thing with Colombia and most other South American countries is the intensity of fanaticism. I'd wager that about 95 per cent of Colombians enthusiastically support the national team and of that number, perhaps three out of every five are insufferable fanatics.

In the likes of Ireland, a range of sports vie for the nation's undivided attention, so there tends to be fewer insufferable fanatics of any one pursuit. In addition, in Ireland, cynicism and indifference are commonplace, particularly amongst the older generations.

Blind indifference

Thus, Colombia's all-behind-la-Selección approach is a little too much for me. OK, when the team advances in a competition the giddy excitement is understandable, but even in rather meaningless friendly games the enthusiasm is usually excessive. It's why I find it hard to support them.

Well, also at play is that I'm usually uncomfortable when I find myself siding with the majority. For example, I can more readily get behind Bogotá's Millonarios football club because I know not everyone in the vicinity will be backing my side.

It must also be noted that I can often be more critical of those who I want to see do well than those for whom I care little.

Plus, as I age, I question myself more as to why I waste my energy and time supporting individuals or teams who don't know or care about me, something I touched on in Making the bell toll for us while we still can.

The default mode for many foreigners who make Colombia their home is to mimic the masses and go all in for la Sele. I, too, have played that game. It's one of the quickest ways to win the favour of the locals, ephemeral and shallow as that will most likely be.

These days, however, I'm more comfortable declaring my indifference. This stance is made easier seeing how some of my more respected Colombian acquaintances are also quite indifferent to the team's fortunes.

Bet on Colombia

Now, I shouldn't need to refute here the idea that my indifference to la Selección means I dislike Colombia in general. Some more immature, myopic types will, however, draw that conclusion.

In Loving Colombia, Seventh heaven: Seven benefits of living in Colombia, and many other posts I've given various reasons why I like Colombia. My more than 12 years being based here also shows that I have much time for this country.

Also, I'm not completely immune to all the hype and carnival atmosphere that surrounds a Colombian football match, particularly the kind that comes when the team plays well and progresses in tournaments, as it is at Copa América 2024 as I write these lines. (And no, I'm not trying to jinx them.) One would have to live in solitude in some isolated outpost not to feel the fervour

It's just that I can't get that emotionally involved in the games without a blood connection or something to that effect. And nowadays I'm less inclined to feign fanaticism just to get along. I do, though, still like to watch the games in a public setting. Doing so with less intense, more learned Colombian supporters is a help. Such types do exist.

One way I could force myself to be a more enthusiastic fan is by betting money on the team. Become a fool and a fan in the one go, so to put it.

Although, I think it's best to stick to my intelligent indifference for now.
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Listen to The Corrigan Cast podcast here.

Facebook: Wrong Way Corrigan — The Blog & IQuiz "The Bogotá Pub Quiz".