According to Nike football doesn't exist in Africa
For some reason today I visited kickoff.com. Nike has a massive banner advert across the top of the site.I found myself intrigued for some reason with this advert so I clicked on it. It took me to the nikefootball.com website.
The strangest thing happened. I think the website broke as soon as I landed on the page because there is no Africa option on the site. They ask you to select a region and a language but sadly there is no way to choose Africa.
Does Nike think that we don't have Internet down here in deep dark Africa? Do they think that we don't know what football is (or soccer) in Africa, can't afford an actual ball or did they not notice that little thing called the World Cup in 2010?This sort of junk really gets under my skin because it's not like we are some obscure little country in the world, THEY LEFT OUT AFRICA. In case you were wondering and didn't know this, Africa is actually an entire continent that is bigger than freakin' Europe (I think). How do you leave out an entire continent that is hosting it's first FOOTBALL WORLD CUP in 2010?Ridiculous and it pisses me off.
Do you feel alienated by the Internet?
I don't. I feel connected, empowered and engaged.A common misconception for people who don't use the Internet as a matter of course is that it is alienating. I know people in my life who don't use or know what Google is. These people must surely feel as if the Internet will alienate them if they make us of it "too much".I feel the opposite these days. After three long years of full integration with Internet and its tools as a resource and part of my life I am happy to report that I feel alive when I use "cyberspace".What kind of a word is that anyways? Cyberspace? Who coined that term?This is what Wikipedia has to say:
Origins of the termThe word "cyberspace" (from cybernetics and space) was coined by science fiction novelist and seminal cyberpunk author William Gibson in his 1982 story "Burning Chrome" and popularized by his 1984 novel Neuromancer.[1] The portion of Neuromancer cited in this respect is usually the following: Cyberspace. A consensual hallucination experienced daily by billions of legitimate operators, in every nation, by children being taught mathematical concepts... A graphic representation of data abstracted from banks of every computer in the human system. Unthinkable complexity. Lines of light ranged in the nonspace of the mind, clusters and constellations of data. Like city lights, receding, (69).Gibson later commented on the origin of the term in the 1996 documentary No Maps for These Territories: All I knew about the word "cyberspace" when I coined it, was that it seemed like an effective buzzword. It seemed evocative and essentially meaningless. It was suggestive of something, but had no real semantic meaning, even for me, as I saw it emerge on the page.
"A consensual hallucination experienced daily by billions" - that is definitely not the Internet that I make use of. I am involved in a real world that assumes the parameters of what is socially accepted as the "real world". In fact, I find it hard to differentiate between waking up, driving to work, sitting at my desk and writing a story and waking up, switching on my Mac and writing a blog post. There is inherently no difference and thus I do not feel isolated.Sure I do both of the above, work at a desk and blog, but the two are both a part of my real existence.The Internet is not filled with fake relationships and sexual predators posing as young men to get in to bed with a young girl. Yes, there are those cases, but that is not what the Internet is anymore. The Internet is more, is everything and nothing to some.As you can see, I don't feel isolated or alienated but thrilled and revived by the Internet. Do you feel alienated?
One Day of Silence For The USA, How Many For Africa?
I just read on Tylers' blog about a call for one day of silence on April 30th for those who dies in Virginia.Forget it. I outright refuse to observe this. I am saddened by the event as I have stated already but refuse to acknowledge this American rubbish. Why should I in Africa observe a day of non-blogging or "silence" for 30 Americans who died at the hands of one of their own? It is shameful what that freaking psychopath did but I am in South Africa, I am trying to make sense of the thousands, hundreds of thousands that die everyday in Africa and other countries because of trade restraints, Western Capitalists exploiting the people of Africa and others who have tried to take over countries around the world such as Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan and Vietnam.What about those people? What about the millions of innocents that America has trudge on to get what they want, to gain political, economical and geographical strength? Please. Keep your silence of one day and try taking it on for all of those innocent people that have been massacred by Westerners over the years.I am sorry that I am ranting but it really pisses me off when ignorance meets tragedy and more ignorance ensues. Get a grip on the world America, learn where Africa is, figure out your history and feel the pain of the millions that have suffered at the hands of your apparent "fight for freedom".