South Africa’s rhythm

for my first World Cup post (oh yes i might be bloging about it) i decided to ignore what is happening on the pitch so today you won’t read me mock mediocre play like the French team’s spectacular failing yesterday…..let’s put it on the count of the heat yeah the temperature is probably a few degrees higher than in France

what i will talk about is what’s happening in stadiums off the grass, more precisely the rhythm of the ZA football fans. this year ZA is showing the world African hospitality, African rhythm vibrancy and spirit and last but not least its introducing a South African football speciality the Vuvuzela

a popular instrument used by ZA fans in the stadiums during football matches, they naturally carried on playing the instrument during the 2010 World Cup.

This instrument imitates the sound of an elephant’s trumpet (yes yes that’s what you call the sound an elephant makes), and its noise can reach over 130 decibels, just to give you an idea an aircraft taking off is 180 decibels and a chain saw is around 110 decibels. If you are watching the matches and wonder what is that strange buzzing sound no its not packs of honey bees out to kill the losing team its actually happy bubbly excited fans blowing Vuvuzelas.

since this is not a sound most football players are accustomed to, i would actually say probably most of them never even heard it before the 2010 cup. Given the intensity of the sound it might the a case that on top of the heat, humidity and World Cup pressure the Vuvuzela might be an additional factor to players high levels of stress thus making them produce mediocre games (you will never find just one Vuvuzela in a stadium it will most likely be a Vuvuzela for every 3 fans….that’s a lot)

come to think of it this instrument might actually be the reason for some surprising game results…….or really it might just be used as a lame excuse by some to justify a crappy game