Do it our way

Who would have thought a horn would be bring out the worst in so many people? Specifically: The vuvuzela!

I am watching the rest of the world debate this instrument with horror. Not all South Africans love it, admittedly. But that isn't really the issue.

The issue tends to go like this:

Hi!

We're here.

We don't like how your fans celebrate football /soccer so you must change. Sure, there is this saying that goes "When in Rome..." but we like everything to be the same. This is not the same. This is very different. We like our singing, we like our songs, we like how WE celebrate the beautiful games so YOU, yes YOU AFRICANS (because it so hard to understand that Africa is not a country - we'll just wrap you all into the same category then...) YOU AFRICANS MUST STOP BLOWING YOUR OWN HORN.

How dare you toot your own horn.

Very rude.

Now please, just be quiet, dance for us, sing for us (we heard you are wonderful singers) and quit disturbing us...we're spending money in your country - be grateful. In fact, be grateful we even let you host this event.

Yours,

The rest of the world. 

Obviously, I'm generalizing here. I am sure there are many people with a good sense of humour, even reaching into their bags, pulling out  air horns, and tooting right back. I am even going to go out on a limb and proclaim that the "quiet majority" don't give a toss about the debate either way.

But there are many who are not laughing. Instead, the internet is full of polls showing how outnumbered the lovers of the vuvuzela are. Overlooking, of course, that these all require people to be online, and a very large portion of South Africa doesn't have such a luxury as internet access - thus, it is rather hard for many people's voices to be heard - until they blow that horn...

It isn't pretty. In fact, it is ugly. It is also highly revealing - here, read a direct reply  to one man's passionate defence of the vuvuzela:

The vuvuzela is an irritant, an annoyance, loud, obnoxious and without any practical use. It’s largely manufactured in China for a tuppence a-piece but sold at a premium to Africans. No Westerner in his right mind chooses to sit cheek-by-jowl next to some vuvuzela abusing NuSAns (New unimproved South Africans). NuSAns by name and nature, it appears. The irony here is that Africans didn’t know of their untapped wealth until those bible armed whites arrived and found the minerals for them. And in much the same way the colonialists slowly exited the continent, the foreign fans are keeping away from the tournament, and turning down the sound of their TV’s thanks to your cultural instrument of choice. So once again, no one will get to hear or see what your nation is made of, and your massive ‘investment’ into this showcase will be nothing more than an overblown (pun intended) waste of resources. Ironically, this was largely funded by white tax payers, those pesky colonialists. The vuvuzela is part of it’s undoing, and will continue to contribute to this financial disaster in the name of cultural respect and appreciation. If you wish to hold this as an instrument worthy of African culture, then who am I to question you? My guess is your Edinburgh audience was appalled at your primitive attempt to impress. 

Getting so annoyed with the whining it's actually making me consider buying one.

Comments

[Po]

Yeah I happened to find an online forum discussing the vuvu and read hundreds of replies, all of them furious, all of them ugly beyond comprehension, wishing to kill the people playing them, wishing the third world **@$**%s would be bombed, people threatening to come to Africa (um they may need more explicit directions than "Africa") to personally destroy them... I'm thinking soccer fans either aren't very nice people, or need anger management or just have no sense of humour.