fever pitch

Let's see if I can share a photo, sent to me today from Cape Town:



Thanks Janice!

And speaking of getting into the spirit of the World Cup, let's hear it for the Honduran government, which has announced that 200,000 public employees will have time off in order to watch the national team play. (As far as I know this is one of the only reasons which we can pleased with the Honduran government, which took power following a coup last year.) According to The Associated Press, "The government has urged private enterprise to do the same."

As I mentioned yesterday, I've been provoked by Fifa's assertion that qualifying for the World Cup is a matter of 1) GEOGRAPHY and 2) RANK. I find both of these terms suspicious, especially when used to determine something so important as participation in the world's biggest event. The absurdity of the 'pots' illustrates the lack of geographical coherence. Given that geographical coherence is absent, and is indeed always absent and in need of being produced, what is at the root of the social-construction of these geographical fictions?

Tomorrow is World Cup Eve! I'll discuss times, schedules, teams, nationalism(s) and local/global dialectics.