Nick Baker is a new intern here at Scene. He wanted to write about the World Cup. Here's what he came up with.
The World Cup has finally arrived and has done so in such bombastic fashion that it's hard to believe anyone could perceive this event as anything less than a global phenomenon.
These events, when plopped down in countries known 'round the world for human rights atrocities, are seen as ways to put the bright Western spotlight on our favorite parts of formerly unfavorable parts of the globe.
It's the whole, "We gave 'em Coca-Cola, let's show everybody how they've made them their own!" mentality, the one that shows kids dribbling soccer balls around shanty towns then stopping to take cool drinks of Coke. And if you take to believing general media hype and all the showy pomp and circumstance that surrounds these tournaments, it's pretty easy to forget that South Africa, host nation to this year's Cup, is rife with violence against women, poverty, disease, a life expectancy that tops out around 50 and the lasting sting of that less-than-desirable apartheid thing.
