muhammed ali

i just finished watching "when we were kings" for the second time in two days. i love it!
it s about the rumble in the jungle aka muhammed ali vs george forman in zaire . the documentary is absolutely brilliant giving the audience an insight into muhammed ali and forman's personalities as well as the showlife in the 70s as james brown and bb king are also celebrities performing in the heart of africa.

the character don king who is di promota of the whole event in zaire is a big character in the movie as well. he is such a talker.. he wants to please everybody because it is he whose career is at stake the most . if something goes as not planned, it s automatically his fault .. he was sweating when forman got a cut in his face in training and the fight had to be cancelled 6 weeks. he s such a businessman that he started wearing african dashikie etc as soon as he arrived in zaire in order to please the africans. also he apparently went to jail because of money laundering in america before the zaire expedition .

muhammed ali was the real king of the movie . from his mouth : "i am articulate, i am fast, i am handsome and i whoop ass!" and it does not even sound obnoxious because it is the truth . his love for african people as well as the "american negro" shows in most of his lines. his wisdom, self-coincidence, motivation and goal-oriented attitude is fascinating and impressive to observe. i also loved to learn about his lack of fear of authority and his absolute willingness to say what is on his mind. he s so noble that he never throws an extra punch as forman is going down on knockout although he easily could. he does not need to act like an orangutan. i am glad i had a chance to get to know this true hero so that he became one of my role models. world's children need to know more about muhammed ali and what he stood for.

i am curious to find out what he is doing these days. all i know is he is always receiving awards, honorary degrees etc. i wish i heard him talk about today's world and issues. he s a gem of the human kind.