Pele is a soccer god and was going to travel to Nigeria to play a game. The country was involved in a civil war at the time. Both sides called a cease fire for three days while Pele was in the country to play the game and the fighting continued afterward. However, for those three days a single person and an international favorite game brought together the two opposing sides of a conflict.
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Ishmael Beah's Speech
Listening Ishmael speak was quite interesting. From the beginning I almost felt like I could connect to him. Two things stood out to me about his speaking though. He could take almost anything and make people laugh about it, and he used soccer as a connection to people. He told us about winning soccer games and how this kept them happy. The sport of soccer was used to rehabilitate and in essence subdue the soldier children. When they were happy they did not want to fight, but when they lost they would attack the opponents. This reminded me of another fable that is told throughout the soccer community about how soccer is used to bring people together.
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Hey this is really interesting how you made the connection of his speech containing a lot of soccer and an actual situation where soccer was involved in Africa. I would never have thought to use that example but that is possibly because I don't follow soccer information on a regular basis. This is a really neat connection though, I like it. :)
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