KEY POINTS:
Any idiot can be a success, but it takes tremendous courage to be a failure.
Well that's how I felt when sitting in the grandstand at Rugby Park, Invercargill, watching the Stags get a good old-fashioned hiding from Hawkes Bay.
The reason our nation is so sports crazy is because it gives us a rest from reality, but also because it's so completely unpredictable.
There will always be favourites but no-one can be 100 per cent certain of the outcome until the final whistle blows.
Then there are the drug tests and slow motion video tapes to contend with.
Sport has all the dramas and passions of real life, but few of the responsibilities.
The Tour de France may be degenerating into the Tour de Woodstock but there's nothing much we can do about it.
It was interesting to observe the reactions of the crowd at Rugby Park.
When it was a close game the crowd got angry with every knock-on and disputed the referee's decision.
But once the thrashing began, the crowd reacted with humour.
"Don't pass it or kick it" yellowed one wit.
"Come on Otago" called out another. The whole game became a joke. With every intercept there were roars of laughter. I felt proud to be an adopted Southlander.
The big news from the south this month is oil exploration and the prices being paid to dairy farmers for milk.
I met a local dairy farmer while travelling to Christchurch, "surely the price of milk solids must be more than the effects of an Australian drought?" I asked him.
"Yes, the Aussie droughts have helped" he responded, "but what we are really witnessing is the world's first food shock. Ten years ago the world always had a year's supply of staple foods in storage. Non-perishables such as rice, wheat and skim milk were always in plentiful supply. Now a huge percentage of America's corn crop is being used for bio fuels and the world only has one month's supply of food in reserve.
"Milk is only the beginning. Soon all our basic foods will skyrocket in price and that is why I consider we will face a food shock on a similar scale to the oil shock of 1973."
A lot of urbanites consider farmers little more than local yokels, but I'm often involved in 'Farmer of the Year' contests and farmers can be intellectual power houses.
