Looks like I’ll have to re-pack my bag. I was getting excited for my visit to the 2010 FIBA World Championships in Turkey and had my vuvuzela packed and everything.
Then came the news…
FIBA has announced that it is to ban the vuvuzela from the forthcoming basketball World Championship in Turkey because of health concerns.
The sport’s international governing body is urging fans not to bring the controversial instruments to games and warned that security staff will confiscate them. Supporters also face expulsion from the tournament’s five venues if they flout the ban.
FIBA is the first international sport federation to officially ban the vuvuzela from all of its events. The ban will also include pressure horns that can produce similar decibel levels and harm people’s health.
And thank goodness for that. I was actually hoping that instead of the vuvuzela being the lasting prevalent memory of Turkey 2010 (as it was for South Africa’s FIFA World Cup), that the humble shisha — a much more Turkish symbol — be the fashion item du jour.
The “shisha” or “hookah” is a device used to blow sweet-smelling smoke — in other words, making love, not war. Can’t you imagine the joy of the stadium filling with smoke as a key basket is made? It would be equivalent to a visual vuvuzela assault, rather than an aural one.
What do you say, FIBA?
