Today is the day that millions of South Africans have been eagerly waiting for – today is the day that the 2010 FIFA World Cup kicks off. Bafana Bafana face Mexico at 4pm in the opening game.
Today is the day that millions of South Africans have been eagerly waiting for – today is the day that the 2010 FIFA World Cup kicks off. Bafana Bafana face Mexico at 4pm in the opening game.
On Wednesday at 12pm all over South Africa hundreds of thousands of people lined the streets and blew their vuvuzelas celebrating South Africa and showing their support for Bafana Bafana. And in Germany, at exactly the same time, a small group of people were doing the same.
One of the people to start the Facebook group ‘Blow your vuvuzela at 12pm‘ was Kieran Peacock, an intern at a consultant company in Cape Town. “There was no World Cup vibe in Cape Town so I started the group to try encourage people to get excited. I think about nothing else.”
Tim Röhn, a journalist for Bild, the biggest newspaper in Germany, got in contact with Peacock and the first global blow your vuvuzela group began. Röhn said “I love the sound of the vuvuzela. For many Europeans it’s annoying but I really love it. I want to share the experience with everybody in the world."
"On Wednesday at 12pm we even made a flashmob in the office,” he said. You can view this video here. And on the Facebook group pictures have been posted of people in Denmark and Sweden joining in for their own vuvuzela moments. On a website Röhn created, This is South Africa, he is calling for a worldwide flashmob.
“On Friday, 11 June the World Cup 2010 in South Africa will be kicked off. Only a few hours before the World Cup kicks off, all soccer fans in Europe, Asia, Africa, and America unite and blow the vuvuzela together – to feel the soccer fever everywhere. In the office, on the street or at home – it doesn’t matter where you are. Just blow it!” he encouraged.
The website’s purpose is to report on news in South Africa, not via foreign correspondents, but directly from the people through social online media such as Twitter, Facebook and blogs. He describes it as: “Before the foreign correspondents reach the locations of interest, a flood of information, videos and pictures circulates through the social media platforms. Twitter, Facebook, Youtube or Flickr transport emotions authentically and in real time. It is our belief that the really interesting stories can be found online. Our eyes will be locals and our sources are the social media platforms they are registered in.”
