Margin Notes: World Cup, Perks, Blog, Media

A car was decorated with many Spanish flags on Dundas Street West near the Humber River on 7-July-2010

TORONTO, ONTARIO - Not that there weren't many Dutch fans and plenty of red, white, and blue striped flags on cars, but I have to say that the Spanish fans here really came out for their team, long before the final match yesterday. The most flags I saw on a single car before yesterday is pictured above, and I will not soon forget the Spanish flag draped across the hood of a red pizza delivery vehicle waiting for its next call at the local Pizzaiolo outlet as two Spanish-speaking individuals waxed its sides.

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Now that the World Cup is over, it would be nice if I could finally get K'naan's "Wavin' Flag" out of my head, particularly the World Cup duet version with Spaniard David Bisbal. Somehow, I suspect it's still going to take awhile.

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The World Cup helped Toronto get over its recent memories of violence during the G20 summit. Whatever one thinks about his politics, I have to give Ward 14 city councillor Gord Perks a lot of credit for the most thoughtful and surprisingly balanced views he presented on the event, in particular this essay presented in his weekly newsletter, and a subsequent follow-up. The world needs more politicians with communication skills like Perks, regardless of ideology.

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One might wonder if humans are even a thinking species considering what one did to this traffic cone on Dundas Street West in Toronto, Ontario observed on 1-July-2010

I suspect a G20 protester may have had something to do with the message on this traffic cone seen above near Dundas and Dufferin in Toronto, Ontario: "We are not the only species that can think." My question is whether the message was written by a human or a raccoon.

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The previous item seems like something that might be reported on CBC Radio One's evening news magazine As It Happens. Sometimes in the summer, the fill-in hosts really impact the quality of the show, but I have to say this week's team of Peter Armstrong and Chris Howden was absolutely first-rate. I've criticized Armstrong's work as an anchor of World Report, but he's great in an interviewing role. Perhaps when Michael Enright retires we can get him on the Sunday Edition?

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Speaking of radio people, it was quite nostalgic to have Lynn Neary fill in this weekend as host of Weekend All Things Considered on NPR (which, by the way, no longer stands for National Public Radio, but has become another acronym-turned-non-acronym that stands for nothing). I still consider Neary the quintessential host of the program, a role she held from 1984 to 1992.

Culture: Rap Gets Bad Rap

TORONTO, ONTARIO - The World Cup visited Toronto today as part of its 83-nation tour leading up to the next football (that's soccer on this continent) championship in South Africa later this year. Probably most significant to local culture, the World Cup tour also brought the artist K'naan back to his second home of Toronto.

K'naan has achieved worldwide fame after the selection of his song "Wavin' Flag" as the anthem for the World Cup. Undoubtedly, the song was chosen for its own merits--the catchy melody and lyrics quite appropriate to a worldwide tournament--but quite possibly the more important selection was of K'naan the artist, K'naan the human being. Could a life story of growing up through the civil war in Somalia and then immigrating to Canada and using the spoken word and music to tell the story not be a more potent symbol for the hope of international sport, indeed the hope of the world?

Far from the gangsterism and misogyny that normally dominates rap, K'naan's lyrics can be amazingly poignant and mature. Take the chorus from the song "Take a Minute":

And any man who knows a thing knows
He knows not a damn, damn thing at all
And every time I felt the hurt
And I felt the givin' gettin' me up off the wall

His life story permeates his work; the lyrics to "Fatima" might seem a bit strange until it is realized that he is telling the story of his girlfriend murdered in Mogadishu, and then they become bone-chilling:

Fatima,
What did the Young Man say
Before he stole you away
On that fateful day Fatima
Fatima,
Did he know your name
Or the plans we made,
To go to New York City, Fatima

Some artists have talent and showmanship that contribute to the world, but have private lives that fall far short of their public image. K'naan is not one of those artists. When looking back to their coverage of ethnic tension in schools of Toronto's Rexdale neighbourhood, the CBC found footage of a younger K'naan trying to mediate between groups. This guy is the genuine article, and it shows in almost every interview. He'll admit to not being fully comfortable with the dance interpretation of "Wavin' Flag" used in Latin America, or that he will need to reflect when the World Cup tour is over. (Could a World Cup tour be any more appropriate for a man whose given name, Keinan, means "traveler"?)

K'naan himself may have unsurprisingly best summarized what he does, in "Take a Minute":

And that's the reason why, I could never play for me
Tell 'em the truth is what my dead homies told me
Ooh yeah, I take inspiration from the most heinous of situations
Creating medication out of my own tribulations

If all rap were like that done by K'naan, the genre would have a completely different reputation. Hopefully, it doesn't take the chaos of Somalia to create an artist like K'naan, because the world could use more of them.