I am huge football/soccer fan. I love going to matches and watching on television. I am disgusted with the coverage of the World Cup because of the vuvuzela. Why I am disgusted may surprise you.
The beginning of my disgust started last year during the Confederations Cup when Japanese broadcasters complained about the use of the vuvuzela and how it was irritating their listeners. Sepp Blatter, quite correctly, stated that it was not up to the rest of the world to impose their sporting culture and traditions on another country. Fast-forward a year to the 2010 spectacle that is taking place on the shores of the African continent for the first time. What is the focus of the coverage? The vuvuzela.
Come on! The vuvuzela is a tradition of South African football that is derived fr
om the kudu horn, despite what CNN is reporting (since when is CNN an expert on South African culture? All they have to do is ask any South Africa who grew up in a village about the vuvuzela's origins). The kudu horn was used in villages throughout Southern Africa to summon villagers to a meeting. It is loud for a reason. If one looks closely at the pictures emanating from South Africa, iterspersed throughout the plastic vuvuzelas one might see an actual kudu horn. The tradition of blowing a vuvuzela at a football match stems from the desire of the fans of one team to beckon fellow supporters.
I have heard complaints that the vuvuzela drowns out singing. I have two responses to this: First, this singing is part and parcel of football culture mainly in Europe. Like the famous quote in the Wizard of Oz, "We aren
't in Kansas anymore Dorothy." We aren't in Europe, so suck it up. Second, have you heard the "harmonizing"? Personally, I'm glad I can't hear some of this singing! Having experienced the vuvuzela noise at many football matches in South Africa including three in packed stadiums, I know what the noise level is like...and love it. I can feel a bit of ruth for fans in the stadium and understand why they leave with a headache and may complain a bit (though I question whether or not these fans regularly attended football matches before the World Cup.) What I do not understand is the complaints of fans who are watching on television. Turn the sound down or deal with it. This is the World Cup. It will all be over in a month. It will not return to South Africa during our lifetimes. Suck it up and enjoy the spectacle for what it is...an African event and a South(ern) African one in particular. At the next World Cup, the detractors can complain about South Americans setting off flares, but until then, let South(ern) Africans enjoy their time on the global stage and show you how they celebrate their football.
**By the way, as I'm writing this, I am watching a replay of Zimbabwe's recent triangular one-day international series (cricket). Zimbabwe supporters, and this was before the World Cup began, are dancing in the stand to drums and blowing their vuvuzelas.
17 June 2010
Vuvuzela
27 August 2009
Dream Chaser
Dreams were her gift. Every morning, she'd wake up and tell her husband, Al, how she'd dreamed about angels or daughters or catastrophe. Good or bad, she'd always wake up with a story to tell -- until the day she never woke up at all. Al never had that gift. His dreams were vague, or they'd escape him 20 seconds into his day. He had nothing to jot down like she did, nothing to file away for a conversation over dinner. Even after she died some 11 years ago, he never dreamt of her, could never summon her back into his subconscious. This frustrated him to no end, because, once he was awake, all he did was daydream about her. But then, about 10 weeks ago, in the middle of his deepest sleep, Al Joyner finally saw Flo Jo. She had driven up in a car, smiling, and strolled casually toward him. She was stunning, as always, and wore her hair in a bun, just the way he'd always adored it. He asked her, "What are you doing here?" And her response was, "I'm just coming to check on you." He didn't know what to say next. Their daughter, Mary, was about to graduate from high school, and he wanted to ask, "Are you here for graduation?" But before he could speak, his alarm clock went off.
I just read this article and started sobbing. This love story is very moving and deserves to be shared. I have posted the first two paragraphs of the article but in the interest of giving full credit to the author and the site, I have posted the link below. Enjoy!
Nomadic Richard
07 April 2009
Pac-Man
Okay this will show hold old I actually am. I generally hate video games and have not owned a single video game console since the original Nintendo came out. In fact, I still have that game console somewhere in my Mom's attic! It is rare that I get into a game and really enjoy playing it.
Despite this aversion for video games, and my feeling that day spent gaming is an otiose day, I love Pac-Man! Pac-Man is a cult icon. How many other video games have shirts limned with the game frame on it? It defined a generation at the video arcades when I used to play for a quarter a game when my parents were nice enough to give me that quarter. Admittedly, I didn't play that often at the arcade because a quarter could also buy me a pack of baseball cards. I usually choose the baseball cards. But Pac-Man was the one game that could sometimes make me spend some of my quarters and play a video game.
I never got into Centipede, Space Invaders, or many of the othe
r games of that era, but Pac-Man...I loved that game. So when I heard that there is going to be a new 30-Year Anniversary edition of Pac-Man coming out, it had me considering buying a new gaming console if only to relive my childhood. I'll have to debate the merits of this, but I am really considering it.
I wonder if they can develop a version for the Nintendo WII that allows you to actually run from the four ghosts. (That way my friend Henry, who by the way is responsible for designing this website, could actually get some exercise! Alas, I digress!) Think of the possibilities! Even cricket video games haven't made me actually want to buy a gaming console this badly! (See, I got cricket into this blog!)
Just to show what a Pac-Man nerd I am, I will leave you with these statistics and interesting facts that I was able to 
find about Pac-Man:
- The original name for Pac-Man was Puck-Man. It was changed when the game was released in the USA.
- According to Guinness World Records, the first perfect game of Pac-Man was recorded on July 3, 1999 by infamous gamer Billy Mitchell, who was also featured in the critically-acclaimed documentary, The King of Kong. He scored a mind-numbing 3,333,360 in six hours.
- Though it theoretically doesn't end, a bug in the original game's code makes in unplayable past the 255th level, otherwise known as Pac-Man's "kill screen."
- 94 percent of American consumers recognize Pac-Man, giving him the highest brand awareness of any video game character in the country.
If you didn't know before, now you know!
