Navigate to News section

Israelis Corner the Vuvuzela Market

Yes, those horrific soccer horns

by
Marc Tracy
June 16, 2010
Man blowing a vuvuzela.(Flickr)
Man blowing a vuvuzela.(Flickr)

I do not believe that if one of Israel’s policies is angering the rest of the world, that is reason in and of itself for Israel to halt that policy. The Gaza blockade, for example: The effect it has on the world’s view of Israel is not unimportant, and ought to be factored in to any decision over whether or not to keep it; but ultimately, it is at least arguable that Israeli policymakers could legitimately determine that the pros outweigh the cons and that the blockade should stay.

But today I’m making an exception. Apparently several Israeli Internet entrepreneurs figured out last year that they could make a lot of money acting as middlemen for the buying and selling of vuvuzelas—those horrible, noxious, bzzzzzzz-sounding cheap plastic horns that South African “fans”* have been playing incessantly during World Cup matches—and, so yeah, www.buy-vuvuzelas.com (please don’t) is Israeli-owned.

This may not be why some hate Israel. But it sure ain’t helping.

*Any notion that the horns have anything to do with rooting for one team, or rooting for good play, is B.S., because the noise doesn’t change no matter what is happening on the pitch, or no matter which team is doing what. I don’t even see how you can pay attention to what’s happening on the pitch if you spend the whole game blowing on your damn horn. It’s not like football, where the home crowd makes more noise when the other team has the ball to try to force a false start. It’s just horrible and stupid and wrong and it’s probably partly responsible for how few goals there have been and FIFA is going to regret not having banned them. End rant.

Marc Tracy is a staff writer at The New Republic, and was previously a staff writer at Tablet. He tweets @marcatracy.