This World Cup gave every American a chance to get excited about something good happening in Africa. With no focus on economic deterioration, gender issues, or war, this World Cup gave the media something positive to cover in Africa. It is frustrating when I have friends in Africa to see it through the dark mirror of the Western media. It’s been briefly better.
And that is good for the U.S.–even if we didn’t win.
Inspirational Quote:
“Some people think football is a matter of life and death. I assure you, it’s much more serious than that.”– Bill Shankly
i’ll refrain from being rude, but when you mention the ‘dark mirrod of western media’… i mean, no offense, and hail to your friends in africa, but be honest:
– is this the colonial opressors’ fault if they cut each others’ limbs with machetes, as a widespread practice in some tribal conflicts?
– is it anyone else’s fault if, though a mosquito net is cheaper than a father’s daily booze in some regions, they still expose their children to malaria?
– is it the colonial opressors that use systematic rape in interethnic conflicts?
– is it my personal fault they have been opressed, so that i deserve a revenge? the world cup is once every 4 years, so in a normal life span you can’t hope to watch more than a couple of dozens of them. well, they ruined this one with those g**damn vuvuzelas.
Hmm, while the root cause for many conflicts and crisis in Africa is a fascinating and complex debate (can one blame colonialism when it was only in place for 80 years? What about the current world economic system seems to encourage disastrous leadership in Africa?), what I was commenting on was the Western media’s disinclination to cover *anything* coming out of Africa. Every region in the world has a plot which most news about it follows. What I like is that the World Cup allowed a different meta-narrative to reach the eyes and ears of those of us in the Western world.
well, the ears – that’s fo’ shizzle :))