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Matters of Opinion
Jun. 15th, 2010 05:21 pmYet another one where really, POV matters.
( Day 09 - Best scene ever
 )
In other news, the vuvuzela thing. For those not necessarily following the World Cup and otherwise are not giving a toss, a vuvuzela is a big (I assume plastic) one-note horn that fans blow at football matches in South Africa. Since they're playing the World Cup in South Africa at the moment, one tends to hear it a lot if one's following the Cup at all. I am, by proxy. I find the vuvuzela annoying. Now, I don't mind noise at sports matches. Admittedly, my favourite sport is hockey and there's not a lot of continuous noise through a hockey game - just music played between plays and a lot of cheering or booing dependent on what's happening in the rink - but I can deal with the constant singing from the audience at football matches because it's mostly low-toned, it changes key now and then, and frankly, at least when something interesting is happening on the pitch, it disintegrates into cheering in such a way that anyone even half-watching knows something is going on. The vuvuzela ... just drones and drones and drones and drones and it never seems to stop. I get blowing the things when something interesting has happened on pitch, but I've seen a few games where frankly, nothing interesting has happened on pitch.
Some players are complaining that they can't concentrate with the constant hum of the vuvuzela. The commentators are saying how their audiences watching on telly aren't hearing all the commentary because of the noise. I get that the vuvuzela is a South African tradition, but just because people from other nations have complaints about a tradition that originates in a non-caucasian country ... it doesn't mean that the people complaining are racist. The game is for everyone; you know, World Cup? It just happens to be being played in South Africa. And one imagines that the souvenir vendors are hawking vuvuzelas and people are buying them because think it's the Done Thing no matter what their own country's traditions are in the matter of noise made at football matches. People who want to express their own love of the game or admiration or exasperation with what the players are doing in the style of their own country? They can't, because they can't be heard over the vuvuzela. It's the World Cup, not a month of South African football matches.
I get not banning them. However, I also get the request that a ban be considered, particularly if it's bothering the foreign players. I don't consider it racist; I consider it trying to make sure that everyone's having the best time possible at a sporting event. You know, because they are supposed to be fun? Complaining about an annoying noise does not make someone racist, even if that noise happens to be a tradition in a foreign country. Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar, or a vuvuzela just a horn. One day I'm going to have The Rant about how political correctness has gone out of control and turned into just one more way of feeling superior ... but today is not that day.
( Day 09 - Best scene ever
 )
In other news, the vuvuzela thing. For those not necessarily following the World Cup and otherwise are not giving a toss, a vuvuzela is a big (I assume plastic) one-note horn that fans blow at football matches in South Africa. Since they're playing the World Cup in South Africa at the moment, one tends to hear it a lot if one's following the Cup at all. I am, by proxy. I find the vuvuzela annoying. Now, I don't mind noise at sports matches. Admittedly, my favourite sport is hockey and there's not a lot of continuous noise through a hockey game - just music played between plays and a lot of cheering or booing dependent on what's happening in the rink - but I can deal with the constant singing from the audience at football matches because it's mostly low-toned, it changes key now and then, and frankly, at least when something interesting is happening on the pitch, it disintegrates into cheering in such a way that anyone even half-watching knows something is going on. The vuvuzela ... just drones and drones and drones and drones and it never seems to stop. I get blowing the things when something interesting has happened on pitch, but I've seen a few games where frankly, nothing interesting has happened on pitch.
Some players are complaining that they can't concentrate with the constant hum of the vuvuzela. The commentators are saying how their audiences watching on telly aren't hearing all the commentary because of the noise. I get that the vuvuzela is a South African tradition, but just because people from other nations have complaints about a tradition that originates in a non-caucasian country ... it doesn't mean that the people complaining are racist. The game is for everyone; you know, World Cup? It just happens to be being played in South Africa. And one imagines that the souvenir vendors are hawking vuvuzelas and people are buying them because think it's the Done Thing no matter what their own country's traditions are in the matter of noise made at football matches. People who want to express their own love of the game or admiration or exasperation with what the players are doing in the style of their own country? They can't, because they can't be heard over the vuvuzela. It's the World Cup, not a month of South African football matches.
I get not banning them. However, I also get the request that a ban be considered, particularly if it's bothering the foreign players. I don't consider it racist; I consider it trying to make sure that everyone's having the best time possible at a sporting event. You know, because they are supposed to be fun? Complaining about an annoying noise does not make someone racist, even if that noise happens to be a tradition in a foreign country. Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar, or a vuvuzela just a horn. One day I'm going to have The Rant about how political correctness has gone out of control and turned into just one more way of feeling superior ... but today is not that day.