For most of us, March Madness means basketball. Typically, this time of year, the only thing we pay attention to is our team – nothing else – with our radar screens focused on Houston, Indianapolis and the Final Four.

In our March Madness, we cheer from the stands and our living rooms, while the players run and shoot on hardwood under bright lights. In our “March Madness,” we celebrate winning and lament losing. In our version, if outcomes are unfavorable, there is always next season.

Meanwhile, a very different type of March Madness is also underway.

Unlike basketball, the other is not played on hardwood or in accordance with creator James Naismith’s rules; nor is it officiated by NCAA referees and the clock does not expire after 40 minutes.

The other March Madness is much more violent and almost always deadly.

In the other March Madness, street players are throwing rocks, not confetti; firing guns with bullets, not blanks; setting fires, not picks; and running not a fast break but running fast, seeking freedom’s break.

In that version, there are no referees in the streets of the Middle East, no one who can simply blow a whistle that would stop what they were doing.

In their lethal version of March Madness, street players do not wear visible uniforms that proclaim their allegiance. So we must wonder.

Are the players homegrown, that is, part of the home team? Are they truly fighting for individual freedom? Are they willing to risk everything in search of representative democracy?

Or is outside coordination part of the play?

If that’s the case, we must wonder:

Are the street players in their version of March Madness homegrown and mercenary insurgents who are acting on external direction? If it is, the questions to be raised seem unlimited.

Here’s a few:

Who is pulling the strings? What countries, groups, international organizations, or combination thereof might be involved?

And, who might be jumping into the fray to seize an opportunity?

This month also saw nature delivering its version of “madness” with the March 13 earthquake and tsunami in Japan. Thousands of lives were lost. Hundreds of thousands of people are homeless.

Within days, the initial concern and empathy for what the Japanese people were and continue enduring abruptly changed as the worldwide media shifted focus to damaged nuclear power plants to conjecture about a possible meltdown.

Seismologists now report that “there have been more than 30 major aftershocks since March 13” and that the earthquake “moved Japan’s main island about 8 feet.”

They also say the quake “shifted the Earth’s figure axis by about 6 and a half inches.”

What does the shift in the Earth’s figure axis mean?

Experts say the shift causes the Earth to “wobble a bit differently as it rotates.”

I’m not one of those experts. Thus, I do not know and can only take their word.

Nor, do I know for sure who – or what – is motivating the street players in the Middle East.

But, this I do know: The “madness” now underway in the Middle East will cause more than a “wobble” as it spreads like a tsunami around the world with what clearly seems to be 9.0-magnitude impact on nations and freedom-loving people everywhere.

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Richard Olivastro is president of Olivastro Communications and founder of Citizens for Change. A professional member of the National Speakers Association, he is available pro bono for charitable fundraisers and public forums and can be reached via e-mail at RichOlivastro@gmail.com or by phone at 1-877-RichSpeaks.