The World’s Sport
Four years ago, I was in a small Peruvian town preparing to embark on an 8-day whitewater kayaking expedition when I had the chance to see the last game of the World Cup. Watching Brazil triumph over their opponent on a small black and white TV alongside a group of ecstatic Peruvians in a rather unique setting forever changed my view of the “world’s sport.” Here was a game that was not simply between college teams or American associations, but a sport with the power to change social and political landscapes, introduce lessor known countries to the world stage, and bring all nations together if not in peace, in organized competition.
Prior to that moment, I had never really paid much attention to soccer. It is typical for Americans to be far more interested in games like football, basketball and baseball. They are rooted in our culture, and the space they command in major media channels further indicates their importance. In fact, ever since the US was knocked out this year’s World Cup I have had to dig even deeper for news pertaining to the games between other countries.
One of the ways that I have managed to stay abreast of World Cup news is through the blogs like www.worldcupblog.org, Flickr and YouTube. There is some fantastic consumer generated media out there, and it is being produced by people from Ecuador to Iran. In true World Cup fashion, people are connecting and communicating across the globe with a little help from emerging technologies.
Every time I read a great blog post, enjoy a captivating photo, or watch a creative viral video I celebrate the beauty of self expression and the power technology has given us to achieve greater reach and effect. I trust that as time goes on more people will adopt these technologies to interact with the world, build better relationships between countries, and expand our understanding of one another. For there is no reason why we should wait every four years.
Technorati : World Cup, blog, self expression, soccer, technology
July 5th, 2006 at 10:57 am
Don’t tell anyone but a whittled away a few hours last Friday watching soccer related videos on video.google.com.
July 5th, 2006 at 3:01 pm
Imagine an American sporting event in which a professional coach sharing the nationality of his/her team decides to coach for free, only for the love of the sport and for their country. Sound unimaginable? You are correct, because the ideal of World Cup for the participating nations is much different outside of our own nation.
I choose to embrace World Cup, not because soccer is my favorite sport, but because nothing better epitomizes what truly can happen in a world without borders (especially if you watch the embrace and exchange of blood/sweat soaked jerseys between team captains of opposing coutries at game’s end).
In whole-hearted agreement, let’s not wait 4 years for the exchange of culture, brotherhood of man and higher level understanding of one another. Let’s send Canada in our place and spend our time putting together a world network of collaboration and information. Everybody knows that the U.S. can’t field a solid World Cup squad anyhow;)