World soccer and its socio-political implications

Bienvenido Macario calls our attention to this item from U.S. News and World Report (6/10/02): "The United Nations food agencies warn that 10 million people are on the verge of starvation in Malawi, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, and Swaziland because of a drought that has destroyed crops."The problems of Africa baffle. Its misrulers have stashed billions abroad, and there was quite a contingent from Cameroon at the World Soccer Cup games. Indeed, there were large contingents from all of the countries represented. How can ordinary people afford the time and the money to attend these games?

The games had their cultural anthropology aspects. Some Cameroon priest (?) performed a sort of voodoo over one of the players. The Italian coach had a good supply of Holy Water, which he sprinkled in the right places. It was not revealed which team the Pope was rooting for. In Japan, the crowds went soccer-jubilant in the streets, proof that soccer had taken root in that hitherto baseball country. Observers spoke of a generational change. Mexico has overtaken Argentina economically, and now it has in soccer too.

John Heelan supports my statement about the political nature of soccer: "Does a country's team being defeated in World Soccer have a deleterious effect on the morale of that country? In particular, will the surprisingly early demise of the team from Argentina (normally one of the best in the world) exacerbate that poor country's current problems and malaise? From a UK perspective, I know that this country's public morale ebbs and flows with the international performance of the soccer team. TV pundits still boast about England's winning the World Cup even though it was 36 years has elapsed since that time.

Sporting combat is an acceptable replacement for armed conflict, helping defuse the inevitable irritations between nations, by releasing the tension of at least one side. (Thus there is, regrettably, a general malicious satisfaction in the UK about Argentina's defeat-- more to do with Maradona than Las Malvinas; and about the early exit of the French, our nearest neighbours, with whom the Brits have had a love/hate relationship spanning centuries.) If international soccer performance is so important to the well-being of a country, how will Argentinean politics and economy be affected by the early return of their soccer team?

Ronald Hilton - 6/15/02