WOZA 2010

If you’re not a constant dreamer and your focus is on something like human rights, global health, or complex emergencies, then from time to time, you’ll need something that cheers you up or at least keeps you sane. After months of trying to make sense of complex emergencies but really only seeing seemingly insolvable problems of the world and the evil in the human heart winning over the good in the crucial cases, world cup fever did it for me.

WOZA 2010 (WHOA-zah; Zulu imperative:= 'come on/here')

What are the odds that the Netherlands are joined by Cameroon, Japan, and Denmark to form Group E? Really, Cameroon! Sadly, I left my orange girly wig in Europe. I can picture people here laughing their asses off as I put that on and join them to watch Netherlands versus Cameroon, the two teams’ last and maybe decisive match in the group stages. Japan’s Nakamura and Morimoto will be interesting to watch, but unfortunately, that’ll be early June, so I won’t arrive in Asia in time to comfort our Japanese friends, should the other teams shatter them completely. And last but not least, Denmark, with former Ajax coach Morten Olsen knowing my Netherlands inside out, the memory of the Laudrup brothers, and my anxiously following the news on the climate conference in Copenhagen these couple of days all somehow lending it some extra relevance.

Well, for the sake of being nerdy, the odds were 1:(8x8x8-1) = 1 : 255
Or.. 1:(256x7-1) = 1 : 1791, if you include 'Group E', with Group A having been reserved for hosts South Africa.

Trivia:
- South Africans also eat chicken feet.* What Wikipedia says we spectacularly call 'phoenix talons', they call “walkie talkie” or “chicken dust”. Explains how funny image search engines can be, if you find a picture of chicken feet when searching for walkie talkies.
- Fan favourite Matthew Booth, defender of the Bafana Bafana (nickname of the South Africa national football team), is cheered by the entire stadium of fans with a booing voice whenever he makes a clearance or touches the ball. They go, 'Boooooooooooooth...'


More football and World Cup related posts these upcoming months, one of which will be decisively anti-American but ends in a conciliation. Hopefully.


_____________________
* West 3 - 4 East