VUVUZELA : A SAFARI PICKLE

This year’s World Cup football has a special Safari treatment with Vuvuzela. Specially designed to create nuisance and instrument of masti . Also known as Lepatata (its Tswana name) and stadium horn, is a typical 65 cm plastic blowing horn that produces a loud, distinctive monotone note.
Several VUVUS are there and can create varying intensity and frequency outputs.
With the tide of soccer is up and up people are for and against of it. The Daily Telegraph's chief sports reporter Paul Kelso described critics of the vuvuzela as "killjoys" and said they should "stop moaning".
The intensity output depends on the blowing technique and pressure exerted. This is thrilling and can take its own toll .

Earlier prominent South African columnist and former sportswriter, Jon Qwelane, described the vuvuzela as "an instrument from hell" that had caused him to abandon watching live games, and urged that it be banned before the 2010 World Cup.

It has become a symbol of South African football as the stadiums are filled with its loud and raucous sound that reflects that exhilaration of supporters.


In response to criticism of the horn's use, President of FIFA Sepp Blatter commented, "I have always said that Africa has a different rhythm, a different sound. I don't see banning the music traditions of fans in their own country. Would you want to see a ban on the fan traditions in your country?"

The intensity of the sound caught the attention of the global football community during the 2009 Confederation Cup in anticipation of South Africa hosting the 2010 World Cup, though its frequent usage during sporting events raised health and safety concerns.

The vuvuzela has been the subject of controversy. Its high sound pressure levels at close range can lead to permanent hearing loss for unprotected ears after extensive exposure. A test, shows the maximum sound output varied between 113 and 131 dBA.

The vuvuzela became popular in South Africa in the 1990s. Well-known Kaizer Chiefs F.C. fan Freddie "Saddam" Maake claims to have invented the vuvuzela by adapting an aluminium version as early as 1965 from a bicycle horn after removing the black rubber to blow with his mouth. He later found it to be too short and joined a pipe to make it longer. Maake has photos of himself in the 1970s and 1980s at local South African games and international games in 1992 and 1996 and at the 1998 World Cup in France, holding the aluminium vuvuzela.

The origin of the name vuvuzela is disputed. It may have originated from Zulu for "making a vuvu noise," directly translated "vuvu-ing" because of the "vuvu" sound it makes, or from township slang related to the word for "shower".
The world football governing body, FIFA, expressed concerns that hooligans could use the instrument as a weapon and that businesses could place advertisements on vuvuzelas, in violation of FIFA regulations.

In July 2008, FIFA ruled that vuvuzelas would be allowed at the Confederations Cup, after the South African Football Association (SAFA) made the case that vuvuzelas were essential to an authentic South African football experience. FIFA President Sepp Blatter was opposed to banning the instrument, saying, "we should not try to Europeanise an African World Cup."
FIFA received complaints from multiple European broadcasters who wanted it banned for the 2010 FIFA World Cup because the sound drowned out the voices of the commentators. Despite the protests, FIFA decided that the instrument would be allowed at the World Cup the following year,albeit only instruments shorter than one metre in length.

2010 FIFA World Cup

A user blowing a vuvuzela at a football tournament.As part of its marketing campaign for the World Cup, Korean automaker Hyundai and a local South African advertising agency called Jupiter Drawing Room created the largest working vuvuzela in the world—114 feet (35 m) long—on an unfinished flyover road in Cape Town.
Lionel Messi who complained that the sound of the vuvuzelas hampered communication among players on the pitch, and broadcasting companies, who complained that commentators' voices were being drowned out by the sound. Portugal's Cristiano Ronaldo went on record to state that the sound of the vuvuzelas disturbed the teams' concentration.

Others watching on television have complained that the ambient audio feed from the stadium only contains the sounds of the vuvuzelas and the natural sounds of people in the stands are drowned out.