Off Pitch

The global political issues playing out at the World Cup.

BY BRIAN FUNG | JUNE 10, 2010

NORTH KOREA'S FAKEOUT

The issue: Since attending the World Cup is out of the question for most North Koreans, Pyongyang has solved its on-site fan shortage by recruiting a thousand Chinese citizens to fly the old red, white, and blue on its behalf. Among the members of the so-called "volunteer army" are Chinese actors, comedians, and pop stars lucky enough to have snagged a ticket from the North Korean sports ministry.

With North Korea expected to fall early to soccer powerhouses Brazil and Portugal in the aptly named Group of Death, the Chinese cheer team is probably in for a short trip. It also has some pretty big shoes to fill. During a 2005 home match against Iran, an unfavorable call from the referee sparked a revolt among enraged North Koreans and the army had to be called in to restore order.

The North Korean team arrived in Johannesburg to little fanfare on June 1, after the pariah state was rebuffed in several attempts secure a training ground in one of South Africa's neighboring states. Tiny Swaziland earlier balked at Pyongyang's demand that it provide accommodation, meals, transportation and also fork over $250,000 for the privilege of hosting North Korea's heroes. Zimbabwe, a close ally, was the natural second choice, but the team's plans to train there were foiled when protesters highlighted North Korea's involvement in a bloody massacre that took place in the country in the 1980s.

What to watch for: On June 15, North Korea takes the field against Brazil's legendary team. Expect it to get ugly.

 SUBJECTS: WORLD CUP
 

Brian Fung is an editorial researcher at Foreign Policy.

SMARG

6:54 AM ET

June 10, 2010

S.A. Is Highlighted at The Cup

See what 18 years of Black rule has done for the country. It is a rotten basket case. God help them.

 

THOUGHTFORFOOD

10:16 AM ET

June 10, 2010

From your pedestals...

@ Smarg: God help *you* in basic arithmetic; it's been 16 years of DEMOCRATIC rule. Clearly subtraction is beyond your analytical ability, once you have that right, maybe then you can post a legitimate comment on democracies.

@ Allangreen: living in your ivory tower, you never saw how black people lived in SA pre-1994. Had you any common sense, you would not post such right wing drivel!

Whilst "white safety" has certainly decreased, black people on the whole are in a far better position than ever before.

And if you saw the construction in terms of middle class housing, car sales statistics (after accounting for the world wide economic slump) and other "middle class indicators", you would rethink your last paragraph.

 

SMARG

11:05 AM ET

June 10, 2010

From your denial...

While you seem joyful that remaining Whites are victimized in SA, you refuse to admit the obvious: SA is a complete disaster. Soon to be another Zim. Leads in rape in the world:
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1906000,00.html

"South Africans received a horrifying measure of just how bad their country's rape crisis is with the release this week of a study in which more than a quarter of men admitted to having raped, and 46% of those said that they had raped more than once."

"South Africa has one of the highest incidents of reported rape in the world. The most recent statistics show that 36,190 cases of rape were reported to the police between April and December 2007, though experts believe that number only accounts for one out of nine cases. But the number of rape cases that make it to court — let alone result in a conviction — are far fewer."

Questions?

 

THOUGHTFORFOOD

4:45 AM ET

June 11, 2010

A nebulous study...

that was carried out in rural communities in only two provinces amongst men aged between 15 and 26 only; there are *slight* issues in generalising to the population with that study, just maybe?!

Being of the "pale" South African variety, I can speak with a slightly greater position of authority than you, and am therefore not "joyful that [the] remaining Whites are victimized in SA". Crime is an issue, especially violent crime. And we are addressing it, not hiding across the ocean, throwing platitudes at others.

Comparing SA to developed countries in terms of per capita or absolute numbers is a non sequitur, developing states can never match their developed counterparts for a multitude of reasons, inter alia, funding, political will and transparency.

What is fascinating is the developed nations who love throwing stones in their own glass houses. The financial crisis was based in... the West's corrupt financial and governance centres; developing nation's leaders are criticised continuously, yet an EU member, namely Italy who would never meet the Copenhagen criteria now, has a corrupt media mogul of prime minister with a plethora of trials behind his name.

Our basket case is rotten because it is in the open; your basket case is merely covered sweet smelling fragrances

 

RSAFSOZ

3:42 PM ET

June 11, 2010

favorite

my favorite is sikis spain

 

RAYNA CONWAY

1:02 AM ET

July 9, 2010

North Corea

There has been a lot of speculation surrounding the North Korean men's national team following their performance at the 2010 World Cup. More specifically, I have seen comments popping up on blogs and social media sites concerning how the North Korean players will either be executed or sent to a gulag upon their return to Pyongyang. flower delivery While I understand that people can be quick to gossip, I can't help but think that the folks making these claims are completely ignorant about the state of North Korean football. (Probably not a surprise given who we're talking about here.) Similarly, if the players feared for their lives they did have opportunities to defect while in South Africa. Oddly enough, I've heard of several football players defecting from Cuba in the last few years (ten players since 2005), but the most recent news of North Korean defectors involves national team coaches defecting to South Korea in 1999 and 2004. True, there were four players from the North Korean roster listed as 'absent' during the start of the World Cup. Yet they miraculously appeared at training the following day, so there is likely more to the story. local flower shops (For example - left at the hotel due to injury or coach selection. Keep in mind that the players used a public gym for training since their hotel lacked facilities, so there's another opportunity for escape that wasn't utilized. Granted, defection is harder to go through if one has family they're worried about back home so there is that to keep in mind as well.)