the convert

the world cup is also a bookmark of history.

for example, posterity will remember 2006 as the year that serbia-montenegro played as a hyphenated-yet-single entity for the last time. the referendum of 21st may has thrown s-&-m into the league of many nations that have parted ways over a nebulous debate of identity. did they have any premonition of the outcome when the team was being selected?

but the football fiesta also twists the crooked strands of history into a rainbow yarn. the names sported on the backs of jerseys are short-hand for the baggage of a colonial past. baggage isn't always bitter though. one could sentimentally suggest closure and healing when one watched trinidad and tobago face england and draw honorably as equals. and baggage isn't always bad. look at the french - the colonized and the colonizers have found out how to move on and join forces and be one of the most respectable (and oldest) teams this year.

on the other hand, the display of discipline and sportsmanship by the u.s. and italy yesterday was a text-book case. The match was generally injurious to the health of everyone on the field. mid-air collisions, bodies flying everywhere, one bloody nose, a few broken bones, 37 fouls and three red cards. even the rowdies of my village would have doffed their cane hats in awe. thin line between the civilized and the savage, should we say?

p.s: my excessive t.v.-watching has thrown up an interesting observation – football is a dark-haired game. africans, latinos, spaniards, italians. even the anglo-saxons are mostly brunets. except for the koreans and the japanese who are natural blonds, of course.

p.p.s: although the author claims no great erudition of either history or football, she’s flattered that j.n.u. academics are also using football for mapping world history, as suggested by an Indian Express article this morning. both parties have worked this out independently.