The middle of the line

It started with the World Cup, and has become incessant and annoying as time goes by. I thought that after the opening match that the protagonists would get it out of their systems and it would die down, but if anything it’s growing worse and worse with each game it seems to. People simply don’t seem to be able to stop themselves from making this awful noise and reducing the fun for everyone else. It’s time a stop was put to it!

I’m not talking about the vuvuzelas, I’m talking about the moaning about the vuvuzelas. Yes, it’s a buzzing sound all the way through the games. Yes, it’s not what we are used to when watching football. And yes, it may be dulling the atmosphere a bit. But on the other hand it is how South Africans watch their games, it is certainly unique to this World Cup, and after a short while you get used to it.

I’ve seen claims that it drowns out other crowd noises. Not for me it doesn’t. I could hear the England fans’ band, I’ve heard cheers and jeers in other games, and on the radio you get used to it as a background, similar to the hiss of a bad reception. In fact, I seem to recall most of Mexico ’86 tv coverage being accompanied by buzzing due to poor transmission, and the picture quality then was awful when you see the old footage.

Like Anton of Enemies of Reason, I also noticed that there are a lot of people angrily calling for a ban on vuvuzelas from England. The same place where many people were angrily denouncing a (largely fictitious) ban on England flags or shirts on the basis that people in their own country should not be stopped from supporting football as they wish, even if it may offend others (not that I think the flag or the shirts do, it’s the behaviour that sometimes comes along with it that’s offensive). Well, just as it would be wrong for a blanket ban on English people flying their flags or wearing their shirts, I think it’s equally arrogant to call for a ban on South Africans in South Africa doing what they do for football.