There are thousands of websites and blogs to choose between for following the World Cup and the cultural hoopla surrounding it. For stuff you won’t see anywhere else I recommend Davy Lane’s one-man South African show. It’s full of smart, funny, non-touristy, interviews with locals. Davy also sports a not-so-mild obsession with Uruguay and its colors. Also, check out my colleague Jeb Sharp’s latest podcast on soccer and French colonialism.

Next in the podcast, a story on the race to rename streets in South African cities. The old names — usually in Afrikaans or English — are often associated with the apartheid era. As noted in previous podcast/blog posts here and here, naming and renaming places is a way of shaping history, of controlling how it is told.

Next, we focus on a few words rooted in South Africa’s eleven official languages that may go global after this tournament. One already has: vuvuzela, even if most non-South Africans aren’t crazy about the sound this plastic horn makes. One other word from the African continent that’s gone global, at least in the francophone world: Drogbacité. This means a spirit of reconciliation and humility, named after Ivory Coast superstar –and Africa’s finest player Didier Drogba. Three years ago, Drogba used his celebratory status to help jump-start peace talks between warring factions in Ivory Coast. Quite how central a role Drogba played is up for discussion, but suffice to say, the expression Drogbacité stuck.

Finally, a meditation on a US-English confrontation off the soccer field (or football pitch: take your pick). It is the linguistic battle over soccer/football terminology. It speaks to the nature of the often awkward, not-so-special relationship between England and the United States. England is represented here by New York-based writer Luke Dempsey; the US by broadcaster and former national team goalkeeper Shep Messing.
Download MP3

Read the Transcript
This text below is a phonetic transcript of a radio story broadcast by PRI’s THE WORLD. It has been created on deadline by a contractor for PRI. The transcript is included here to facilitate internet searches for audio content. Please report any transcribing errors to theworld@pri.org. This transcript may not be in its final form, and it may be updated. Please be aware that the authoritative record of material distributed by PRI’s THE WORLD is the program audio.

JEB SHARP:  I’m Jeb Sharp, this is The World.  Celebrity weddings are big news anywhere.  It’s no different in India and Pakistan.  Those two nations may be nuclear rivals, but today they are gripped with the news of a high profile cross-border engagement.  The families of Pakistani cricketer, Shoaib Malik, and Indian tennis star, Sania Mirza, says the two sports stars will marry next month.  The BBC’s Rahul Tandon is covering the story from Kolkata.  Rahul, just how big a deal is this?  Tell us about this. Why are people so fascinated?

RAHUL TANDON:  Jeb this is a huge story here in India at the moment.  If you came here and you turned on your TV channels, you’d probably think there was no other news in this country of more than one billion people.  These are two very high profile sports stars as you said there.  I think if you look at the backdrop of the relations between India and Pakistan, people I’m sure recall very vividly the events of what’s known as 2611 here, the attacks on Mumbai.  The relations between these two countries, which have never been very good, deteriorated even further.  In the sporting sense, they hardly play each other in cricket, which is the national obsession now since the attacks in Mumbai.  So when people in India woke up this morning to the news that Sania Mirza who may not be the greatest tennis player in the world, but she is the biggest female sports star here in India have decided to get married to a man who used to captain the archrivals, the Pakistan cricket team, there really was a state of shock here.  There is very little physical contact between Indians and Pakistanis at the moment, so the fact that one of this country’s biggest sporting stars decided to marry somebody from across the border has certainly sent shock waves across the country.

SHARP: And in fact they will have to have two separate weddings, one in each country, is that right?

TANDON: Yeah they will too.  And to give you an extent of the news coverage at the moment, the TV trucks that are outside Sania Mirza’s house in – - India.  Every movement is being followed very, very closely.  She’s just been to the Pakistan high commission in Delhi to pick up her visa.  And they will have these joint ceremonies and it will be a big media event and I think there will be people in both countries who are probably critical of that fact.  But as I say again, there was a huge Bollywood film here a few years ago called Veer Zara, which focused on an Indian boy falling in love with a Pakistani girl and his struggle to capture the woman that he loved.  It’s something that captured the imagination of Indians and now they can see it in real life with Sania Mirza, the heart throb here, popping across the border to get married.

SHARP: So you’ve got these two great personalities.  You’ve got geopolitics.  You’ve got a whiff of scandal and intrigue, what else?

TANDON: I think that’s enough.  But I also think that until this wedding actually takes place, there will be a lot of people in both countries who probably aren’t going to believe that it will happen.  What is their future life going to be like?  Are we going to see the former captain of a Pakistan cricket team turning up at the Olympics cheering on an Indian?  Come on, that’s got to be unheard of.  So I think this story has got a long, long way to run at the moment.  But believe me here Jeb, in India and Pakistan for the next few weeks there are going to be millions, probably billions of people with their eyes glued onto what’s happening with Shoaib Malik and Sania Mirza.

SHARP: Well thank you very much Rahul Tandon in Kolkata for the BBC.  Thanks again.

TANDON: Thank you very much.

Copyright ©2009 PRI’s THE WORLD. All rights reserved. No quotes from the materials contained herein may be used in any media without attribution to PRI’s THE WORLD. This transcript may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, without prior written permission. For further information, please email The World’s Permissions Coordinator at theworld@pri.org.

Photo: Handout/Getty Images

Now, a little physics for you. According to chaos theory, the wings a butterfly flapping over the Amazon can trigger a tornado in Texas. By the same token, a car accident involving the world’s wealthiest and best-known golfer can trigger a massive uptick in global sales of an obscure book. That’s Tiger Woods’ SUV at right, photographed in the aftermath of the crash near his Florida home. The book on the floor of the car is the nearly out-of-print Get a Grip on Physics, written by British professor John Gribbin, who is currently a Visiting Fellow in Astronomy at the University of Sussex. Anchor Marco Werman speaks with Professor Gribbin about the book.

• Get a Grip on Physics on Amazon
• John Gribbin’s homepage
• Article on sales of the book in The Guardian newspaper

Read the Transcript
This text below is a phonetic transcript of a radio story broadcast by PRI’s THE WORLD. It has been created on deadline by a contractor for PRI. The transcript is included here to facilitate internet searches for audio content. Please report any transcribing errors to theworld@pri.org. This transcript may not be in its final form, and it may be updated. Please be aware that the authoritative record of material distributed by PRI’s THE WORLD is the program audio.

MARCO WERMAN:  Now, a little physics for you.  According to Chaos Theory, the wings of a butterfly flapping over the Amazon can end up triggering a tornado in Texas.  By the same token, Tiger Woods’ SUV accident in Florida can trigger worldwide sales of an obscure book.  Let me explain.  The book is called, “Get a Grip on Physics,” and news crews caught a glimpse of it in Tiger Woods’ car.  The author is British professor, John Gribbin.  He’s a Visiting Fellow in Astronomy at the University of Sussex in Southern England.  And he’s with us now, taking a break from marking exam papers.  So professor, a bit of schadenfreude perhaps, over Tiger Woods’ having this fender-bender?  You must be pleased.

JOHN GRIBBIN:  Ah, yes.  I’m delighted to have had some publicity.  It’s always good to get attention.  I just wish it had been a current book that was actually in the shops and available.  This one was completely sold-out within a day or two of the accident.

WERMAN:  Oh my gosh!  So does that mean it’s out of print?

GRIBBIN:  It is, yeah.  I’ve just done …  Before I came on to talk to you, I had a look on Amazon, and it says, “This book is now unavailable, and we don’t know if it will ever be available again.”  So there you go.  But it’s still good to have a bit of attention, and a bit of fun out of it.

WERMAN:  Ha, ha.  Were you surprised to see the copy of your book in Tiger Woods’ car?

GRIBBIN:  Initially, very surprised.  I mean, you think, “What’s a golfer doing reading a book on physics;” and then, of course, “Why shouldn’t he?”  And to some extent, he is my target audience.  I write books not for scientists, but for people who are interested in Science, but haven’t got a science background.  And I guess he’s probably, like many of us, heard stories about what’s happening in Geneva with the Large Hadron Collider experiments, and thought he’d like to find out a bit more about the physics behind it all, and that’s just what my book is for.

WERMAN:  So why do you think that Tiger Woods had it in his possession to learn about the Hadron Collider in Switzerland as opposed to [OVERLAPPING] maybe …

GRIBBIN:  I think that [OVERLAPPING] …

WERMAN:  … giving him some help with his golf stroke?

GRIBBIN:  Yeah, I think so.  I think we’ve had a lot fun with puns about grits and stuff, and drivers and the laws of physics; Newton’s laws of light; golf balls, and what happens when you hit a car window with a golf club.  But I suspect that the truth is, that it was genuinely an interest in physics, and also a good …  Of course, we’re assuming it’s his book.  It may be his wife’s book, that she had left in the back of the car.

WERMAN:  You’re something of a master at writing popular science books, but also a talented biographer.  I understand you’ve written a biography of Buddy Holly?  How did that come about?

GRIBBIN:  Ah yes.  Well I’ve been a long-time fan of Buddy Holly—I mean, since I was a teenager.  And with his anniversary [INAUDIBLE] the right word of his death coming up earlier this year, I just was having lunch with my publisher, and I said just casually, “You know, of course, I like writing science books, but what I’d really like is to write about Buddy Holly,” and he went, “Hummm …, better get back to you on that.”  And next day he got back to me said, “How quickly can you do it?”  So I did it.  Now, that’s very-much a labor of love.  I really enjoyed doing that one.

WERMAN:  And John Gribbin, do you like golf?

GRIBBIN:  No.  I’ve never played it seriously.  I sometimes sort-of hacked around with my son—he’s quite keen—but it’s not a game that appeals to me at all.  So, it’s a total mystery why my book should appeal to him.

WERMAN:  Ha, ha.  Maybe you could get up at least enough to write a quick biography of Tiger Woods, perhaps?

GRIBBIN:  It’s always a possibility.  I suspect someone else may be on the case already, but I’ll bear that in mind.

WERMAN:  Well, to riff on the unforgettable words of Buddy Holly, “Well alright, we’ll leave it there.”  Thanks a lot.  John Gribbin, scientist and author, speaking to us from Sussex, England.

GRIBBIN:  It’s a pleasure.  Thank you.

Copyright ©2009 PRI’s THE WORLD. All rights reserved. No quotes from the materials contained herein may be used in any media without attribution to PRI’s THE WORLD. This transcript may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, without prior written permission. For further information, please email The World’s Permissions Coordinator at theworld@pri.org.

Watch the Snow Leopard in action:

• Ghana Ski Team

Read the Transcript
This text below is a phonetic transcript of a radio story broadcast by PRI’s THE WORLD. It has been created on deadline by a contractor for PRI. The transcript is included here to facilitate internet searches for audio content. Please report any transcribing errors to theworld@pri.org. This transcript may not be in its final form, and it may be updated. Please be aware that the authoritative record of material distributed by PRI’s THE WORLD is the program audio.

MARCO WERMAN: This is The World. I’m Marco Werman. Every time the Olympic Games roll around there’s usually one or two competitors who are just a bit surprising – fish out of water. Take the famous Jamaican bobsled team who took part in the 1988 winter Olympics in Calgary. Well the next winter games get underway 101 days from now in Vancouver and there will be another unusual participant but he won’t be there just to make up the numbers as The World’s Alex Gallafent reports.

ALEX GALLAFENT: Kwame Nkrumah-Acheampong is a slalom skier. He happens to be from Ghana. Not a lot of snow there. But he happens to love throwing himself down snow-covered mountains at high speed.

KWAME NKRUMAH-ACHEAMPONG: Unless you’ve been at the top of a giant slalom or super [PH] G course looking down and looking at the slick slope, all the gates, and everybody looking in your face, waiting to see what you can do, it’s really hard to understand why people go into ski races when they know they can break their legs, their necks, their back. It’s just a wonderful sport.

GALLAFENT: And Acheampong is good at it. He’s just qualified to represent Ghana at next year’s Olympics – the country’s first representative at the winter games. Oh and he only started skiing six years ago.

ACHEAMPONG: I got a job at the indoor ski center, picked up a pair of snowblades and had a go.

GALLAFENT: That indoor ski center was in the UK, the country where Kwame Nkrumah-Acheampong lives today. He’d left Ghana to pursue a master’s degree in tourism management but school was expensive. He had to get a job. Working as a receptionist at a sport’s center seemed a good fit. Free indoor skiing was a bonus.

ACHEAMPONG: I just did it for the fun of doing it. [INDISCERNIBLE] every staff member who worked there. So I just had a go. And it’s kind of snowballed and I find myself heading to Vancouver.

EDDIE EDWARDS: I just think he should go there and enjoy every minute of it.

GALLAFENT: That’s Eddie Edwards also in the UK. Over two decades ago he captured the world’s attention at the Calgary games. Eddie Edwards was known as the Eagle. In regular life Edwards worked as a plasterer. He still does in fact. But at the Olympics his quixotic mission was to excel at the ski jump. He didn’t. Eddie the Eagle Edwards was depending on your perspective a hero of amateurs everywhere of simply the worst ski jumper ever to appear at the Olympics.

EDWARDS: There were those who thought this is great and that was exemplifying the whole Olympic spirit. And there were those who felt I wasn’t an athlete and shouldn’t have been there.

GALLAFENT: Eddie Edwards expects Kwame Nkrumah Acheampong will get the same kinds of reaction in Vancouver.

EDWARDS: I think he knows and everybody else knows that I don’t think he’s going to win a medal or go even close. But he should go out there and enjoy the whole experience of being in the Olympics and do the best he can. That’s all everybody can expect of him and just enjoy it really.

GALLAFENT: But hold on says the Ghanaian skier who has a nickname of his own – the snow leopard.

ACHEAMPONG: I think Eddie the Eagle let the whole fun side of what he was doing take over you know what he was trying to achieve and instead of being looked upon as a professional sports person he became a joke.

GALLAFENT: Ouch. The snow leopard isn’t messing around here. When he has the funding he trains in the Italian Alps and he’s far from the worst Olympic level skier around. Still Kwame Nkrumah Acheampong is realistic about his Olympic chances.

ACHEAMPONG: I can’t win the races I go into. [INDISCERNIBLE] tough. So skiing is a sport which just has an endless challenge for me. And I don’t want to look at the final table of athletes and see myself at the bottom. I’d want at least five other athletes to be behind me.

GALLAFENT: You wouldn’t bet against him. For The World I’m Alex Gallafent.

Copyright ©2009 PRI’s THE WORLD. All rights reserved. No quotes from the materials contained herein may be used in any media without attribution to PRI’s THE WORLD. This transcript may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, without prior written permission. For further information, please email The World’s Permissions Coordinator at theworld@pri.org.

Is there a sporting man, woman (or animal) who you think hasn’t gotten the recognition they deserve? Leave a comment below.

• More information on the book
• Listen to Tim Harris on BBC Radio 4′s ‘Today’ program

Read the Transcript
This text below is a phonetic transcript of a radio story broadcast by PRI’s THE WORLD. It has been created on deadline by a contractor for PRI. The transcript is included here to facilitate internet searches for audio content. Please report any transcribing errors to theworld@pri.org. This transcript may not be in its final form, and it may be updated. Please be aware that the authoritative record of material distributed by PRI’s THE WORLD is the program audio.

LISA MULLINS: Defeat is never easy, but for followers of US national soccer team, yesterday was an especially tough day. That’s when teams from the United States and Brazil played each other in the final of a big tournament in South Africa. It was the Confederations Cup. The Confederations Cup is a sort of dry run for the soccer World Cup, which is gonna be played in South Africa next year. Now, a few are surprised that Brazil won. Nevertheless, it’s a result that The World’s William Troop is taking personally.

WILLIAM TROOP: Lisa, I know you’re not a soccer fan, but I need you to know how I feel today. It’s a funny combination of dejected and proud, excited and hung over. Here’s why. In yesterdays final, the US team started off like a fireworks display on the 4th of July, scoring two quick goals, against Brazil.

[SOUND CLIP OF THE GAME]

WILLIAM TROOP: This was huge. The US team was not supposed to be there at all. They dropped their first two games in this competition, including a loss to Brazil by three goals to zero. Then they turned it around, with some skill and lots of luck. And now they were in the final, against Brazil and winning. Then came the second half and everything changed as the Brazilians rolled on, scoring one.

[SOUND CLIP OF THE GAME]

WILLIAM TROOP: Two,…

[SOUND CLIP OF THE GAME]

WILLIAM TROOP…and finally, just six minutes from the end, three goals.

[SOUND CLIP OF THE GAME]

WILLIAM TROOP: Yeah, they won it alright, it was gut wrenching. US captain Carlos Bocanegra described his feelings this way.

CARLOS BOCANEGRA: It’s a little bit of an emotional roller coaster, you know?

WILLIAM TROOP: I felt like I fell off the roller coaster, and I was just watching at home. I can’t imagine what it was like for the players. Still, I feel like something’s changed, though I’m still trying to figure out exactly what. US player Landon Donovan thinks it’s the team’s attitude.

LANDON DONOVAN: It’s not good enough just to show up and get beat the way we did last week against Brazil. And so, from that standpoint we did an incredible job getting the first two goals.

WILLIAM TROOP: Yeah, though everyone agrees holding on to the lead would have been better. Of course, the US women’s team has been to the finals of major international tournaments before, but the men, uh-uh. So, you might say, they lost, get over it.

Well, I normally would, I’ve been known to be a fair weather fan of the men’s national soccer team. Pleased when they do well, but otherwise not really expecting too much from them. So it goes in the one country on earth where soccer is not king, where nobody seems to expect much of their national team if they even know about it. But this time it was different. This time I actually believed they could win. That may mean I’m now more than just a fair weather fan, and that’s probably what US soccer needs, fans who believe, despite the odds.

LISA MULLINS: Ever hopeful, the world’s William Troop.

Copyright ©2009 PRI’s THE WORLD. All rights reserved. No quotes from the materials contained herein may be used in any media without attribution to PRI’s THE WORLD. This transcript may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, without prior written permission. For further information, please email The World’s Permissions Coordinator at theworld@pri.org.