Re: [Sams-Army-Elders] Re: [nas] How do the So. Korean fans do it?

[Casbahman@aol.com]

In a message dated 6/19/2002 7:22:28 AM Pacific Daylight Time, big_dog@fastmail.fm writes:


> Im do not pretend to be a 
> voice of SA, or have all the answers so im interetsed in others views on 
> how we can work towrds this type of home field without bitching  and 
> whining about everything all the time on Big Soccer.  The Korean's did 
> it, can we ?


I tend to think about this issue from a national context.  We are a nation where even the slightest indication of someone muscling in on our independence can send us into convulsions.  This is both good and bad.  

As a supporters club, SA is made up of its members and the opinions of those members.  So while I agree that sometimes the debate gets bogged down in a gripe-fest, it is also part of our national identity.  In other words, we'll just have to deal with it.

On the other hand, many Asian countries (for reasons historically their own) seem to have a more nationalist vibe to them.  There tends to be a laying down of personal individuality to satify the larger nationistic ideal.  This is why Singapore has such little crime, why some Japanese hotels wouldn't let you in if you had tatoos (it indicated you were a gang member), etc.  Therefore, because they are more of one mind there, I think it is easier to bring out in them this idea of singing for their national team.

Ultimately, there needs to be leadership set from the top and well have to all agree to let the tone be set from there.  To some extext, there needs to be a "falling in line" mentality because ultimately we all have the same goal (just different ideas about how to get there).

Darrin