Vuvuzela
"How long can you blow me?" site you can test out the vuvuzela for yourself.
Around a metre long and able to produce a bellowing and enduring screech, the plastic horn that can be heard at every football match in South Africa is facing extinction after the emergence of a movement to ban it at the 2010 World Cup.
The vuvuleza debate is causing quite a storm both in and outside the football world. FIFA President Sepp Blater has publicly attempted to blow the instrument as a way of showing his support for South Africa's favourite noise-maker. British daily The Guardian however denounced it in publishing Spanish player Xabi Alonso's description of the "trumpet noise" as "unbearable".
The dispute is hotting up online too with both pro and anti groups already on Facebook, one of the latter calling for members to write to FIFA and demand that the horns be banned.
A site has been set up to keep an eye on the developing teams. When the Observers went to press, those voting not to ban the instrument outnumbered their foes by four to one.
This is not a new debate - I created the Facebook group three years ago. I hate the instrument simply because it's too noisy, too loud. I'd never buy one, even if it's a traditional instrument. It's only worth drinking a beer through. Myself, I was born and raised in South Africa and I can tell you that it's not only non-South Africans who are anti-vuvuzela. I'd say that it's 50-50 in the country. This is not a racial issue either. Some people say it's only white Europeans who hate the South African vuvuzela. That's not true. Just take a look at the members of my anti-vuvuzela group, it's very mixed. Some of my black friends can't stand the vuvuzela either.
I'm going to four games at the World Cup. I'm pretty certain that people are going to play the vuvuzela. I'll try not to complain, as long as nobody blows it in my ear..."
Posted via email from Dogmeat