Football (a.k.a. Soccer) Made in Africa

We have a great deal to learn from Africa, about celebrations, about recycling, about living with little, about the generosity of spirit. One of my favorite resources is a site called Afrigadget where I recently learned about a project called: Football Made in Africa.

By focusing on the game of Soccer (which everyone in the world except here calls "football"), Football Made in Africa gives us a window into the joy of sport and the irrepressibility of the need to play. Under development by a talents group of artists called Take Five, the goal is to create 50, 90-second videos, like this one showing how to make a soccer ball out of a condom and some string, documenting the spirit of Africa through the game of soccer. They explain:

With the 2010 World Cup in South Africa just a year away, it seems only natural to talk about Africa. Not the Africa of poverty, conflicts and capable Africa of Football Made in Africa, or the grassroot portrait of a continent that lives, thrives and enthuses on football!

Every episode offers an original angle on a story, a slice of everyday life, where football is present everywhere. From the production of goals in the outskirts of Maputo to the atmosphere in bars where matches are aired on tiny TV screens, the harvesting of rubber tree waste to make balls or the beaches of Cameroon where fishermen use their nets to play. The films are funny and poetic snapshots that reflect the unique imagination and energy of the African continent.

Football Made in Africa demonstrates all the creativity and dynamism of the peoples obliged to deploy a fair amount of cleverness and resourcefulness on a daily basis to be able to indulge in their passion: football.

Football Made in Africa is a canvas on which African society is painted. The different episodes are the colours, applied one by one, that produce a diversified picture of today's Africa.

And, of course, the insights go way beyond Africa, far further than country or continent, exploring the geography of the human soul.


from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith

BagBall - how to make a ball out of plastic shopping bags

One of the sad truths of being in Israel, especially in Jerusalem, is the amount of, well, pollution. It's just not something you'd expect to see in the capitol, for heaven's sake, of the Holy actual Land!

One form of pollution comes from the proliferation of plastic shopping bags. They're everywhere. You can't go shopping without coming away with a half-dozen or so of these colorfully indestructible, everlasting wonders of modern technology. There are these large cages where you can recycle them. And the cages are often full. But there's the other part of the problem - most people ignore any attempt to keep the city clean. And there are attempts, believe me.

So, as a parting gift, this video, on how to make a ball out of plastic shopping bags.

from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith