News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on Inventing a Soccer Ball for Poor Countries. Parent comment

Re:Inventing a Soccer Ball for Poor Countries by brudgers on Friday November 09, 2012 @12:36PM (#4763802)
The durable ball potentially changes the economics of building community organizations based upon sports. Organized sport may be used as a less belligerent means of expressing community solidarity and a relatively healthy outlet for rivalries between communities.

While this may be marketed on the basis of "Do it for the children," sport specifically and play in general are important mechanisms of adult social interaction. Futbol is no more a child's game than dominoes.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Inventing a Soccer Ball for Poor Countries by aes256 on Friday November 09, 2012 @12:56PM (#4763902)
> Organized sport may be used as a less belligerent means of expressing community solidarity and a relatively healthy outlet for rivalries between communities.

Tangentially related to this point, I've often wondered if this is simply a zero-sum game, and the unity you gain through supporting a particular team comes at the cost of disunity with supporters of other teams.

Sports team rivalries produce all kinds of stupidity the world over. People are routinely killed or severely injured simply because of the sports team they support.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Inventing a Soccer Ball for Poor Countries by brudgers on Friday November 09, 2012 @03:00PM (#4764491)
Soccer balls are probably a less volatile export than religion.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Inventing a Soccer Ball for Poor Countries by anothermachine on Saturday November 10, 2012 @02:37PM (#4767499)
Supporters of the other team are far away and have discounted relevance to your life.
[ Parent | on HN ]