In their own European neck of the woods, no matter what you see or believe, nationalism remains an extraordinarily potent force. That is what the World Cup is all about. People will do anything and spend any money to support their national teams, and that is why FIFA is a multibillion dollar corporation which just gets richer and richer.
The game between Germany and Poland on Wednesday, June 14, represented an encounter loaded with historic and emotional significance. Poland had never beaten Germany on the football field, and this was a matter of 85 years of games. But this was more than just football. World War II began in 1939 when Germany, led by Adolf Hitler, invaded and occupied Poland. The game was even more than that. The Germans are Aryans, considered by white supremacists the master race of planet earth: the Poles are a Slavic people, considered an inferior branch of the Caucasian race.
The two main antagonists of World War I (1914-1918) and World War II (1939-1945) were the British and the Germans. Insofar as the history of the barbarian tribes which gave rise to the British and the Germanic peoples a thousand years and more ago, is concerned, experts consider the British and the Germans to be ?first cousins.? The British and the Germans are both warlike peoples, historically speaking, and they may be the two most successful nation states in the last millennium of world history.
If a man has beaten you 10 times out of 14 (the other four being draws) over a period of 85 years, and if the same man invaded and occupied your country 67 years ago, which means he raped and lived with your woman, then you will fight to the death to defend your honor. That is, if you are a man.
So it was on Wednesday that the Poles fought against the Germans in the stadium at Dortmund, Germany, a place where Germany had never lost an international football match. The Poles gave their all, and proved that they are an honorable people. But the Germans have proved, for a thousand years, that they are conquerors. Big time.
If one knew the history of the wars, both military and football wars, between Germany and Poland, then one felt a sense of foreboding for the Poles as the match entered the last twenty minutes and the Poles went down a man to a red card. German efficiency, German relentlessness and German ruthlessness began to close the trap on the Poles. The Polish goalkeeper was heroic. In one sequence, the Germans hit the crossbar twice in the space of seconds. Immediately after, the Germans scored. It was ruled offsides. The clock ticked down to the very last minute of regulation time, Poland still clinging to a nil-nil tie. But history was not on the side of the Poles. A German substitute from the right side found another German substitute inside the box, and, sliding in an act of terrorism where the Polish nation state was concerned, he struck it home ? the dagger in the heart. Germany 1, Poland 0.
Still, in countries like Belize, the Europeans tell us that we are not supposed to love our country, because nationalism is pass?. What? Someone claims your country? Not to worry. Forget borders, Jack. It?s just an adjacency zone. He says it?s his from the Sibun to the Sarstoon? Oh, come on, primitive natives, join your police and army together. You?re not different countries here. It?s just one gigantic oil field, fool!
White man, white man, your game is so brilliant, so subtle, so slick. It is the velvet glove, covering an iron fist. Belizeans, however, believe that we are a nation state. The implications of such a belief are tremendous, as you know, European. People who believe that they are a people, such people fight for their dignity. This is the lesson of history.
Death to all Belizean traitors. Power to the people.