Round the world with football - II Using World Cup to teach Geography By Cecil Pinto
My son Desmond, armed with his School Atlas, and me with my half-baked knowledge, continue our tour of the world using FIFA World Cup teams. Younger son Fabian and wife Beatrice provide interruptions. “From Mexico we move to the United States of America.” “Got it Dada – Dollar, English, Washington DC.” “AC/DC!”, chimed in Fabian. “Everyone knows Christopher Columbus discovered America but do you know that it is named after Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci? And that the natives are called Red Indians because Columbus thought he had reached India? Actually that’s not too far off the mark because the indigenous people of USA migrated from Asia via Alsaka and so they are Indians in a way.” “Is that why they’re called indigenous? Because of India?” “Ummmh. Yes. It’s all connected. The USA of course has greatly influenced the world. For example Thomas Edson’s Kinetoscope kicked off the movie revolution that gave us Hollywood, D. W. Griffith, Orson Welles, John Wayne, Marilyn Monroe, Walt Disney…” “And also Toy Story, Shrek, Transformers, Iron Man…” “Yes Desmond, and music gained from jazz, blues, Duke Ellington, Chuck Berry, Elvis Presley, Bob Dylan, Micheal Jackson, Madonna…” “Also Mylie Cyrus, Justin Bieber, David Cook, David Archuleta…” “Whatever. Among writers we have Nathaniel Hawthorne, Edgar Allan Poe, Henry David Thoreau, Mark Twain, Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson, Herman Melville, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Toni Morrison, Ernest Hemingway…” “Stop showing off, Dada!” “In art we have Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, Andy Warhol… Architecture gave us Frank Lloyd Wright, Philip Johnson, Frank Gehry… In Drama we have Irving Berlin, Cole Porter, Eugene O'Neill, Tennessee Williams…” “Arrrrghhh! Why not Undertaker, The Rock, Ray Mysterio…” “Those too, Desmond. We’ve grown up on American propaganda. But yes not everything the USA gave the world was good – for example George Bush, Nuclear Bombs, TV Soap Serials, World Wrestling Federation…Ok we know too much about the USA and precious little about other countries. Let’s cross the Pacific to Asia and Japan.” “Yen, Japanese, Tokyo.” “Japan as you can see is an island country which is also called Nippon or Land of the Rising Sun or…” “How come so many names?” “Why ever not? We have India, Bharat, Hindustan and also Panjim, Ponje, Panaji. No need to change names like those fanatic freedom fighters. Use all the names! During World War II Japan attacked the United States naval base in Pearl Harbour. This brought the USA into the war and culminated in the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. Japan was totally pulverized but recovered to become an economic superpower that is home to Toyota, Nintendo, DoCoMo, Canon, Honda, Panasonic, Toshiba, Sharp and Mitsubishi. Japan is a constitutional monarchy where the Emperor is a ceremonial figurehead.” “Dada, what’s a ceremonial figurehead?” “It’s easy to understand. Now tell me this. Who is the head of our family?” “You are.” “Who decides what we eat, what we watch, when we sleep, when we get up, where we go for holidays, how much money we spend and on what?” “Mama!”, Fabian interrupted, replying to my question. “So there you have it. I am a ceremonial figurehead!” “Ah so!” “The Prime Minster of Japan has the power along with elected members of the Diet.” “Diet?” “Yes their parliament is called the Diet, but speaking of diet the Japanese eat raw fish, sashimi, in a rice preparation called sushi.” “Yuck! Raw fish?” “Yes they have some strange customs. For example a ritual suicide involving cutting open the stomach is called harakiri. Other forms of suicide are kamikaze and banzai which involve…” >From the kitchen Beatrice commanded the ceremonial figurehead to change the topic. “Of course from the Samurai warriors we get martial arts such as judo and karate. But sumo wresting is Japan’s national sport.” “Dada, I thought karaoke was their national sport.” “Ha! You’re probably right. More Japanese participate in karaoke than in traditional cultural activities like flower arranging or tea ceremonies. Other cultural symbols are origami, ikebana, dolls, lacquerware, haiku and manga. And of course the classic female outfit is called a kimono. But enough about Japan let’s move west to North Korea.” “Won, Korean, Pyongyang.” “After World War II Korea was split with North Korea aligning with the Soviet Union and South Korea with the USA. Since then North Korea always had a glorified leader named Kim something-or-the-other. The martial art of taekwondo, ‘the way of the foot and fist’, originated here.” “Dada don’t they have something similar in Goa?” “Well Salcete politicians do have the foot in mouth disease. But let’s move to South Korea. “Won, Korean, Seoul.” “Seoul not only hosted the 1988 Summer Olympics and co-hosted the 2002 FIFA World Cup, it is also home to large business conglomerates like LG, Hyundai and Samsung.” “Turn on tomorrow!”, chirped Fabian who was good at recollecting TV adverts but had difficulty memorising his math tables. “Interestingly, the Koreans have a strange way of calculating one’s age. A person is regarded as one year old when born as they reckon the pregnancy period as one year of life for infants, and age increments increase on New Year's Day rather than on the anniversary of birthdays. Thus, one born immediately before New Year's Day may only be a few days old in western reckoning, but two years old in Korea.” “Dada, that is very confusing, no?” “I find the one year extra stupid but New Year increments sound good. When I buy a used car I buy a 1997 model or a 2002 model. It’s the year that decides the age. No complications. Imagine how easy it would be for humans to state their age without any complex calculations. No, “I will turn 26 in April’, or “I completed 42 in June.’ That is even more confusing.” Beatrice signaled her disagreement by coughing repeatedly. “Of course the system we now use to calculate age does give a lot of opportunity to fudge one’s actual age.” Another fit of coughing emanated from the kitchen. --------- The column above appeared in Gomantak Times dated 15th July 2010 =====