Football and Minorities
What do the above two things have in common?
Two Sundays ago I joined a couple of friends at a football (soccer to the America-phones among you) game of the Bulgarian league. Sofia's 2 biggest teams were playing. It was my first time watching a football game live in Bulgaria. Of course, I expected lots of offensive cheers and cursing against the opposing team (and the referee :-)). What caught me a little bit by surprise (probably just due to the sheer fact that I haven't lived here for 9 years) was the chanting that the fans of the team I support (Levski) started singing against the other team (CSKA): "All of CSKA back to Turkey; CSKA are Turks." From the other side I was later informed, our team were called gypsies.
So, I guess we offend on the basis of minorities. Given Bulgaria's history, I guess that's not surprising, and I know it is so in other parts of the world as well. What is sad is that I am probably one of very few people that actually notices something wrong with this. What will be sadder is if after a while even I stopped caring...
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