A world, a cup and a ball.

Taha al-Sayyed Once every four years something comes along that sweeps through continents and infiltrates every household, every corner, changes the rhythm of every living soul on this planet for a whole month, then leaves us only to come back in another four years. This thing isn't a comet, a glacial cycle or a pandemic; it's none other than the World Cup.The World Cup has become the largest event on the planet, placed high up there on a pedestal and way down here lay other dwarf events such as global wars, the Olympics, the Oscars, etc. Absolutely nothing on God's earth, not even a WWIII can summon up that many viewers and glue them to TVs so solemnly. Here's a thought, what else can possibly light up the interest of over three billion people simultaneously? Nothing really apart from the football matches of the WC. Our planet itself from a galactic point of view looks like a ball; did you think it was coincidental? But let's take a much closer look, and things on this planet resemble a ball in almost every aspect of life much more vividly.This time of year every four years everything begins to rotate around the World Cup. Every type of business desperately tries to affiliate itself with it in one way or another. First there used to be official sponsors, now there are official cars, official airline carriers, official restaurants, official gear, official drinks, official software, official batteries, official any other product you can imagine. Even advertisements these days must contain a football theme, whether it's a bank, an insurance company or even a governmental institute; everyone is bringing up football. The World Cup is even one of those things we use as chronological milestones to help set important events in relation to the WC like, "I got married the year the WC was held in so and so country" and of course everybody else would know exactly when that was. Or "I was born a year after this country won the WC". Another pleasant thing about the World Cup is that it gives you an acceptable excuse to stay up late, to arrive late at work (If you arrive at all), to fail final exams, to forget appointments, to reprioritize your spouse's to-do list and all of that can be accomplished with a level of tolerance you would never ever find any other time of year. In my own workplace, our business partners from abroad never visit during the WC playoffs, and if it ever happens that any match coincides with working hours then the management hooks on a TV for the employees and gives them timeout and the whole company stops working, amazingly enough, no phone rings because all our customers are watching themselves.I think it's good enough that certain people may find an ambulance or a fire brigade during the World Cup, but if you see an ambulance driver speeding away this time around know that it isn't because of the dying passenger in the back, it's because he has to be back in front of a TV before the end of the half-match break. Billions and billions are made out of the WC, from selling tickets, to endorsements, to franchise, to broadcasting licenses, to advertisements. The TV business; particularly the large screen TV business thrives during the World Cup. I'm sure if intelligent extraterrestrials had the chance to monitor earthlings they would find the World Cup phenomenon the most peculiar of all human habits. At this day and age, when wars are all about stupidity, ignorance and pointlessness, the WC remains the only arena where national patriotism has any meaning, where real triumphs are made and where national achievements are measured. What countries cannot possibly do in the UN they can settle out on the field. It's the only place where superpowers get humiliatingly defeated, poor countries get recognized, and some Arab countries get to have a say. The WC gives governments and peoples the only means of saying whatever they want to say about another greater nation without being sanctioned or arrested. Now those things are truly worth watching. Actually, football and the WC were the only things strong enough to inwardly penetrate the American cultural weave. In a country that has its own national world cups in other games, in fact, has its own thing in almost everything; the WC was, for a change, the only thing Americans imported rather than exported to the rest of the world. True they're the only people on earth who understand "football" in a different meaning, but calling real football under the name of soccer is still good enough. I never had the chance to experience how it feels like to be able to get your hands on tickets to the final game in a World Cup, I envy those who do. I imagine, to them, it must feel like how poor little Charlie felt like when he won that ticket into the chocolate factory--only ten times more exciting. For all us non-Charlies we have to make do with TVs, which is more than ok, because there are endless options to choose from when it comes to watching the World Cup. Almost every outlet in this country offers you a nice way to enjoy the matches, with large screen TVs, good food and good football atmosphere. This year for a change I'm planning and budgeting everything so I can buy my own large TV in time for the WC playoffs.You see, I'm sure you realized by now it's actually football that makes the world go round, Aristotle was wrong when he said it was love, he was just bitter because Greece didn't make it to the finals! [e-mail] world, a cup and a ball

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