Futbol Around The World
Futbol, as Spanish speaking countries call it, is the national game in Mexico and all Latin American countries and Oaxaca is no exception. Americans call it soccer, I think mostly to distinguish the game played with a round ball from the game played with an oblong pointy one that refuses to roll on the ground in a straight line. Apparently the word “soccer” was the original name for the game in England where it was invented but that’s another story you can find on the web.
My kids played soccer in grade school and my oldest banned me from the games for being too loud and embarrassing the heck out of him. So here in Oaxaca even I have found it difficult to avoid the mania. But the audio of the vuvuzela I downloaded onto my iPhone was pretty sick. I watched Serbia and Ghana…then expecting to see the Americans play (a game they won) SKY TV immediately replayed the Serbians! What was that all about?!! I won’t even attempt to speculate.
The restaurants in the zocalo (plaza) have TV monitors facing the sidewalk cafes where mostly young people huddle together…those who don’t go to the bars to watch anyway or depending on the time of day or night the game occurs…and many of them are European language students. Yesterday Uruguay played Germany. The Europeans were in the minority and rendered pretty mute by the locals urging on Uruguay…the underdog. A table of young French girls were oblivious…tentatively tasting the black mole with barely a drop on the tips of their knives. It was fun watching the looks on their faces. Either they were famished or they loved it because afterward not a bit was left on the plates.
My son, the chef at the American Club in Hong Kong, is napping. Tonight (or rather tomorrow) the final between Spain and Holland will air at 2am. He will open the restaurant…featuring free hot dogs and hamburgers…for those intrepid souls who will stay up. No fun watching by yourself on the couch in front of your home TV…side-line coaching with friends and a little testosterone thrown in adds much to the pleasure.
The adage goes that sports are supposed to bring people together…a leveling out of different cultures and political histories on a grassy neutral field. I wish. This morning there is an article in the <a href=”http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/07/10/AR2010071002033.html?wpisrc=nl_headline”>Washington Post </a> entitled <em>Under threat of violence, Somalis play soccer — or watch — at their peril</em>
<blockquote>MOGADISHU, SOMALIA — On a police base in this war-scarred capital, the players on Somalia’s under-17 national soccer team practice in mismatched attire for a match against Egypt. Their field is a forlorn, uneven patch of earth covered with mud, rocks and rusty cans. There are no goal posts.
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Al-Shabab, a hard-line Islamic militia that is waging a campaign of terror across Somalia, has banned playing soccer in many areas it controls. The al-Qaeda-linked militia, along with Hezb-i-Islam, a rival extremist group, prohibited broadcasts of the World Cup, describing the sport as “a satanic act” that corrupts Muslims.
The militants have brutally targeted politicians, clerics and peacekeepers — anyone who has challenged their extreme views. But in the past month, they have killed at least five people and arrested scores more for watching the World Cup. They have detained and tortured local soccer club owners on charges of misguiding youth.
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Somali soccer federation officials declare their defiance of al-Shabab’s dictates nothing less than a struggle for the nation’s youth.
“If we keep the young generation for football, al-Shabab can’t recruit them to fight,” said Somali soccer federation head Abdulghani Sayeed, who stays at a heavily guarded hotel in the capital, Mogadishu. “This is really why al-Shabab fights with us.”
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Ali’s team has no choice but play on the police base: Al-Shabab has taken over both of Mogadishu’s stadiums to train recruits, most of whom are also younger than 17.
Since the collapse of the Siad Barre regime in 1991, an incessant civil war has suffocated the development of Somalia’s soccer players. The national team has never qualified for the World Cup or the Africa Cup of Nations, the continent’s championships. With the rise of al-Shabab, their world has, more than ever, closed in — geographically and psychologically.
Militants have plucked children from soccer fields and forced them to join their militia. Many players and their families have fled al-Shabab-controlled areas. They have carried along their fear, and a lack of confidence in the weak government’s ability to protect them.
“I don’t go anyplace. I just stay in my apartment,” said Mahad Mohammed, 16, a team member who lives with his parents. “It’s possible al-Shabab will arrest me or make me join them.”</blockquote>
Minnesota has the largest population of Somalis in the U.S. In fact it has the highest percentage of blacks from Africa than any other state in the Union. 15% of the foreign born are from Africa… Nigerians, Eritreans, Somalis, Liberians, Ethiopians… My friend Paula from Minnesota who is staying with me for a few weeks now, says the youth have their own soccer teams…and ironically that that the Somalis especially <em>”would be a world class team if they had a country.”</em> Minnesota, you ask? Well, she says, many NGOs and churches have sponsored these groups as political refugees…and then others follow. Minnesota, cold as it is, is perceived as being less dangerous for blacks than many other states. One more stereotype down.
Encouraging, though, is the article in the <a href=”http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/11/sports/soccer/11soccer.html?th&emc=th”>NY Times</a>.
<blockquote>JOHANNESBURG — Given that the Dutch are former colonial masters and their descendants instigated the harsh racial policies of apartheid, one might think that many South Africans, blacks especially, would not cheer for the Netherlands against Spain on Sunday in the World Cup final.
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In truth, many will not, but mostly for reasons involving the aesthetics of soccer, not a half-century of state-mandated oppression of blacks.
“Loads of us favor Spain, but it is because they have a flair, a quality,” said Lucas Radebe, a black South African who was captain of World Cup teams in 1998 and 2002. “This is all about football. History is history.” </blockquote>
Well, not exactly “history” everywhere.
I will watch the final in a bar in Oaxaca in 4 hours. Where will you be?
Tags: finals, Futbol, Mexico, Oaxaca, soccer, World Watching And Politics
Zoe
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