The first few days of the World Cup were met with plenty of chatter about a constant buzzing sound in the background of television broadcasts. Many compared it to the sound of a swarm of bees. The source was a Vuvuzella , an African horn, which is a traditional instrument at soccer games there. Thousands of fans blow them constantly to create a festive atmosphere. Many people around the world asked for a ban, or at least complained to the television networks to muffle the audio feed.
The problem with that is it takes away from the local traditions and atmosphere. Wanting Vuvuzellas limited or banned would be the equivalent of outlawing the Seventh Inning Stretch, or even tailgating. Could you imagine baseball and football without those age-old traditions? So realize that the South Africans and other soccer fans around the world deserve to have their own customs. We should embrace something new like this, and not quickly look to tailor it to what we’re used to.
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Disagree. From Wikipedia (I know, I know... but I'm too lazy to find a different source for the same facts):
ReplyDelete"The vuvuzela was first used in Mexican stadiums since the 1970s. Originally constructed using tin, the vuvuzela became popular in South Africa in the 1990s. Freddie "Saddam" Maake claims to have invented the vuvuzela by adapting an aluminium version in 1965 from a bicycle horn after removing the black rubber to blow with his mouth. He later found it to be too short and joined a pipe to make it longer. Maake has photographs of himself in the 1970s and 1980s at local South African games and international games in 1992, 1996 and at the 1998 World Cup in France, holding the aluminium vuvuzela. He says the instrument was banned as authorities ruled it as a dangerous weapon that prompted him to find a plastics company that could manufacture it. Plastic trumpets similar to the South African vuvuzelas became popular as early as 1978 in Argentina, during the FIFA World Cup that took place that year in Argentina."
So giving the benefit of the doubt, the vuvuzela has been popular at South African soccer matches for 20 years and only became popular ANYwhere in the 70s. So banning the damned horns would be less like banning tailgating or the seventh-inning stretch and more like banning the designated hitter.