The World Cup is underway. This year holds a little less interest since Cameroon didn't qualify, but Brazil did, as always. I remember watching my first World Cup match, Cameroon v. Chile, with PapaLanga in some ratty off license (bar) in Bamenda, Cameroon in 1998. Cameroon lost. The questionable referee decisions really pissed off the Cameroonians, to the point where there was rioting and random violence in Douala and Yaoundé. Bamenda was quiet apart from the nationwide seething of "white man bi cheat we," or that the white man had won once again. Nevermind that the Indominatable Lions lost to Chile, a South American nation whose people are sort of white but still have a colonial legacy. Details.
Thankfully for Cameroon's national pride, the Indominatable Lions went on to win the Africa Cup of Nations in 2000, which resulted in two days of national celebration followed by a national day of hang over. And they won the gold medal at the Sydney olympics in 2000 and another Africa Cup of Nations in 2002. And then someone chopped all the soccer money and the Lions haven't been heard from since.
I watched the 2002 World Cup in Baltimore, Maryland. Brazil crushed Germany. Afterwards, the Brazilian Embassy gave me a free pair of special edition commemorative flip-flops. And then Tom DeLay had to mess everything up by taking a $50,000 golf trip to Scotland with Jack Abramoff.
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