2010 world cup fifa blues
brand your own sperm
brand your own bad
breath brand your
own shit jobbies
brand your
death
brand
your
birth
brand
your mother’s
cremation brand
your father’s autopsy
brand hitler’s moustache
brand churchill’s cigar brand
marilyn monroe’s mouth brand
jesus’ side wound brand mohammed
brand moses brand krishna brand vishnu
brand the fucking moon brand the sun brand
your wife’s ovaries brand your son’s tonsils brand
your acne brand your dandruff brand your piles brand
the phlegm that you cough up from your branded lungs
brand the slaves
brand the masters
too brand the germans
brand the jews brand the footballs
mostly brand the fucking footballs
brand fifa fuck fifa fuck football
fuck a world that has become
so stupid that soccer is more
important than any other
human activity shove
your brands up your
fucking arses you
all deserve what
you fucking get
brand this
poem
brand
me too
yes brand
me “fuck you”
by Kgafela oa Magogodi
kaganof blog entry may 11 2010 21:37
16 comments:
Hahaha love this! I'm posting this on Facebok. Momo and I were talking about corporate colonisation and the World Cup the other day on Facebook, only Kgafela puts it better. Fifa is another Babylon institution, burn dat!
ST
That's a tight poem.
So what's the deal with the World Cup? You feel like giving a brother some knowledge, or do I need to look it up myself?
ST
Fanks m8, please by all means share.
BigMan and ST
I will try and speak to both of you in this response. There's alot of excitement about the Games, when I went to Zimbabwe this holiday there was this sense of pride and unity; the Games were coming to Africa. Football is BIG in Africa - iCan't say that enuff.
The Africa Cup of Nations had a 1xtra buzz bec of the World Cup in January. I watched as many of the matches as I could. Whilst on the Continent it seems that people are excited, there is a degree of skepticism rife in borders beyond Mother A.
The shooting of the Togolese bus by rebels in Cabinda, Angola during AfCon did not help matters much and confirmed the fears of British media esp. that Africa is an unsafe place - nevermind that SA and Angola are two very, very different countries.
But onto this poem, iThink it accurately captures some of the issues that are missed in everyday conversation about the Games.
Beyond the enthusiasm and celebration that the Games 'have come' it feels more like its construction of an aparthied state for 30 days. FIFA has requested that there are 5km exclusion zones around the stadiums that prevent informal traders from entering, whatever money they hope will be scraps but the real cash will go to the Big Playas. The is liquor license fees for bars with TVs is ridiculously high. internationally tilted line-up for the official kick off event.
The SA govt has moved off squatters as part of some 'World Cup cleanup' and taken extreme security measures to ensure the 'World' does not feel threatened in SA.
All of this is to please Corporate Massas and send the message that SA is civilised and open for business with the 'Developed World'...but these millions could go into closing the economic gap btwn the poor and the rich and helping South Africa develop itself.
Cont'd...
...FIFA, Pepsi, Coca Cola and Puma have tapped into the 'African Spirit' to profit from the Games, but have done so very strategically. They market Africa as this mythical Continent of oneness, unity and rhythm but have excluded South African's voices.
The official World Cup Song is some trash by Shakira - a Columbian singing a re-make of a song by an 80s band from Surinam, which is also an adaptation of a Cameroonian protest song called Zangalewa. (Logik ???) The SA band, Freshlyground appearing in the background were an afterthought - they were in the rite place at the rite time. Their inclusion was by chance not by invitation. The video sucks.
The official World Cup Anthem is by R Kelly *backed* by the Soweto Gospel Choir - although iDig it, the Choir only shines at the end, proving once again that FIFA is incapable/willfully ignorant of the fact that this is a World Tournament hosted by South Africa.
The Pepsi song is Africa by Akon and Keri Hilson - the music and the video are filled with all the awful classic stereotypes of Africa and feels like a mashup of Disney's Lion King meets The Gods Must Be Crazy.
Dunno how Akon agreed to do that mess, worse still I'm amazed by friends who actually think its cool till I have to point out the levels of coonery.
Coca Cola's song is Waving Flag by K'naan - its a remake of his original song abt growing up in war-torn Somalia. Its a good effort, I wish it had been the World Cup Song, but K'naan is Somali not South African.
The SA govt playing along with the game of exclusion, overlooked local artists to perform at the opening ceremony - a list of pre-dominantly American artists was drawn up and only after public disapproval was it re-thought.
Although I'm happy the Games are in SA and want SA to silence the crickets plus profit from this, other things signal to me that FIFA has no real interest in South Africans and Africans as people, but as objects for exploitation which masquerades as some warm fuzzy global consciousness.
iHope that sums up my feelings and you're more enlightened rather than confused. What's the buzz like in the US, BigMan?
R Kelly - Sign of A Victory. For some reason there's an official anthem and then there is the official song.
There's a big TV rights fight @ the moment with FIFA limiting coverage 2 cellphones. Read M&G 2day.
Waka Waka is pure BS, sis. So many successful artists and producers in Mzansi, I blame Sony for producing it.
There is also the political dimension to the profiteering of FIFA, Puma, Nike etc. The ads on tv sell Mzansi as a changed country, Mandela as this hero (that cover of Esquire you have is a tip of the iceberg) and SA is the Rainbow Nation - but the natives are kept at arm's length.
Leaving next week for Durban, bracing myself for the corporates OTT marketing and OTT hype my second country has mastered.
ST
dopamine hegemony.
international, worldwide....,
Aint that the truth!
Y'need to own that term CNu. Make a Wiki entry or sumthin, before somebody else jumps on it.
...but I'd locate it within the framework of capitalism no race. Its not exclusive to a particular race, race in itself is already such a contested identity it makes it hard to pin down what constitutes White. But more than that, IMO dopaminergic tendencies aren't ltd to one group...But I s'pose you knw this already, oh wells that was my 0.02 cents.
K-Dub,
I've never located it within the framework of race other than to note its genesis within the early 20th century anglosphere, coincident with mass media.
Matter fact, it was my primary counterargument to the GSWS - and - I found the historical catalyst of New World sugar plantations coinciding with the nascent corporation (Dutch and British East and West Indies) arising in the 15th century to be the foundation of all of what has followed thereafter.
*dopamine hegemony* = corporate agency/power + human addictive tendencies
Capital Idea K-Dub!!!!!
From there I'll start a wiki (as soon as I figure out how to create a new entry or a stub)
That's tight! Nice. Be interesting to see how it develops, posts, discussions and all that but also beyond the blog too. In time, maybe y'could develop your entries for a journal paper or Chapter contribution.
Wiki's easy, all you need to do is register then create your profile and link it to your blog or create a page on Dopamine Hegemony with refs and all.
Just created a link for my blog - very different point of view which i had never explored, thanks Konwomyn
Thanks for the info KW.
Seems like the same story, just with a different setting.
As for the World Cup here, well in the circles I travel in, we really don't get down with soccer (as we call it.) Now the hipsters and bipsters are all moist about it, but most of the cats in the hood are talking about who is going to win that Boston/LA matchup and waiting for the NFL training camps to open and Madden 11 to drop. Sorry.
I haven't heard the mainstream media raising all the issues you've raised, which would have been a huge shock, but I can't honestly say I've been looking for too much info either.
Hey Alldaythoughts
Thanks for checking out my blog and the link-up - thank youuu!
What's the World Cup vibe like among Africans in UAE?
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