Zidane and traffic (highlights of the 2006 World Cup)
Ten minutes after the conclusion of Sunday’s World Cup final, Mauritanians piled into cars could be seen speeding down Nouakchott streets, mulafas in the wind, celebrating the fact that someone had won. Sort of like a contingent of homescoolers getting excited about a homecoming football game in a neighboring state. Where is the connection ? At least pick a side. But honking and yelling has been elevated to an event in itself. It happens after marriages, and after the coup d’etat, footage of Excited People in Cars rolled non-stop on TV Mauritanie. We walked to a restaurant after the match-jumping out of the way at least once as cars veered offroad around stopped traffic. Upstairs, it was still noisy but possible to listen to French commentators giving their take, the whole time replaying the most awesome part of the game-which is, for everyone in America who did not watch the game because they had important things to do, like laundry-this French player Zidane turned around and headbutted the Italian player smack in the sternum, and bam-he was on the ground, and Mr. Zidane was ejected from the game with a carte rouge. (If Americans had known there would be fighting, ratings stateside would have been way higher.) This highlight of the game was reshown approximately 86 times on the big screen TV, and at which point I had finished my cafe au lait and we had to brave the scary street. It had calmed down a little (except for the car with six teenage boys hanging onto the roof) and we started to walk home... In the back of a pickup someone held a big flag, and from a parked car a pair of guys yelled « Italy ! » Then, realizing the third stripe was blue and not green, « France ! »