Friday, June 09, 2006
World Cup Fever? More like the sniffles...
So I've been looking over the schedule for the World Cup this year (which kicks off today. First game this morning!), and I'm actually interested in watching some of the matches.
[I'm talking about soccer here, folks. The rest of the world calls it football, and the rest of the world lives and breathes this stuff. Americans? We consider it a "cute" game. No pads, no contact? Meh. Hard to top the excitement of driving around in a circle 500 times! Yay NASCAR!! (end sarcasm).]
The reason I'm showing the slightest interest is because three African teams qualified for the World Cup for the first time ever: Ghana, Togo, and Ivory Coast.
When I was in the Peace Corps, Burkina Faso hosted the African Nations Cup. With so many African countries taking part (including countries that are normally quite hostile to each other), and many of the countries no bigger than the average U.S. state, country and team pride was overwhelming. The Burkina government loaned TVs and generators to most of the small, isolated villages, so even the areas that have never had electricity (can you believe there are still places like that in the 21st century?) could gather and watch the matches. Since I lived in the capital of Ouagadougou, I watched a good number of the matches live at the stadium. For matches played in the other large town on the other side of the country (Bobo), I watched them at the outdoor bar two blocks from my house. It was a four wood poles holding a thatched roof, a dirt floor, low wood chairs and tables, a big TV, and cold beer and soda. It was easy to get caught up in the excitement. The country basically took two weeks off and concentrated solely on football.
For the past several years, Ivory Coast has been embroiled in a tense standoff between the government in the south and rebels holding territory in the north. It's not a full-fledged civil war yet, but it's not a good scene. And thousands of Burkina Faso citizens who depend on seasonal work in the Ivoirian cocoa fields have been barred from entering the country, so the problem affects neighboring countries as well.
There's hope that national pride will bring talks back to the table, as both sides root for their country's team.
Ivory Coast plays tomorrow against Argentina. It will be broadcast live on ESPN 2 at 3pm, EST (check your local listings). I'll be rooting for the Africans, despite the odds against them.
[I'm talking about soccer here, folks. The rest of the world calls it football, and the rest of the world lives and breathes this stuff. Americans? We consider it a "cute" game. No pads, no contact? Meh. Hard to top the excitement of driving around in a circle 500 times! Yay NASCAR!! (end sarcasm).]
The reason I'm showing the slightest interest is because three African teams qualified for the World Cup for the first time ever: Ghana, Togo, and Ivory Coast.
When I was in the Peace Corps, Burkina Faso hosted the African Nations Cup. With so many African countries taking part (including countries that are normally quite hostile to each other), and many of the countries no bigger than the average U.S. state, country and team pride was overwhelming. The Burkina government loaned TVs and generators to most of the small, isolated villages, so even the areas that have never had electricity (can you believe there are still places like that in the 21st century?) could gather and watch the matches. Since I lived in the capital of Ouagadougou, I watched a good number of the matches live at the stadium. For matches played in the other large town on the other side of the country (Bobo), I watched them at the outdoor bar two blocks from my house. It was a four wood poles holding a thatched roof, a dirt floor, low wood chairs and tables, a big TV, and cold beer and soda. It was easy to get caught up in the excitement. The country basically took two weeks off and concentrated solely on football.
For the past several years, Ivory Coast has been embroiled in a tense standoff between the government in the south and rebels holding territory in the north. It's not a full-fledged civil war yet, but it's not a good scene. And thousands of Burkina Faso citizens who depend on seasonal work in the Ivoirian cocoa fields have been barred from entering the country, so the problem affects neighboring countries as well.
There's hope that national pride will bring talks back to the table, as both sides root for their country's team.
Ivory Coast plays tomorrow against Argentina. It will be broadcast live on ESPN 2 at 3pm, EST (check your local listings). I'll be rooting for the Africans, despite the odds against them.
# posted by smacky @ 7:19 AM 
