The Global Game

A recent Time Magazine article about the World Cup, written by Michael Elliott and Simon Robinson and entitled The Global Game, addresses the question, "How did a game that was once just a passion of Europe’s industrial working class spread around the world until its most sublime moments became the closest thing to an expression of a true global community there has ever been?"

Among the thought-provoking assertions in the article is the following:

On July 9, around one person in five on the planet—more than 1 billion people—will be watching the same images on TV, as the final of the 2006 football World Cup is played in Berlin. That will mark a new moment in world history. Never before has there been a single event which so united the interest and affection of so many—rich and poor, African and Asian, Islamic and Christian, black and white and every other hue in which humankind comes.

The article also points to the unifying effect that rallying to support the national team has had on traditionally antagonistic factions within countries, and even cites small steps in the advancement of women in Tunisia as one outcome of this process:

Subtly, football is changing Tunisian society—especially because more women now attend games. "Once women are in the match they feel they are like their counterparts anywhere in the world," says Mezouar. "If women are now going to the stadium, this means that society is changing, and that these small steps will eventually lead to more changes."

One of the most interesting facets of the article is the assertion that around one in five people on the planet will watch the World Cup finals on July 9. Assuming this statistic is accurate, it is noteworthy that the vast majority of the 1 billion strong global audience for the World Cup finals will be watching it despite having no national allegiance to either of the teams playing. An intriguing symptom of the integrative process taking place in the world, reminiscent of the following quotation from 'Abdu'l-Bahá:

In this day. . . means of communication have multiplied, and the five continents of the earth have virtually merged into one. And for everyone it is now easy to travel to any land, to associate and exchange views with its peoples, and to become familiar, through publications, with the conditions, the religious beliefs and the thoughts of all men. In like manner all the members of the human family, whether peoples or governments, cities or villages, have become increasingly interdependent. For none is self-sufficiency any longer possible, inasmuch as political ties unite all peoples and nations, and the bonds of trade and industry, of agriculture and education, are being strengthened every day. Hence the unity of all mankind can in this day be achieved.