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'
God
was not on the
side of Serbia
E.
Ablorh-Odjidja
A lone penalty
kick late in the FIFA World Cup 2010 game in South Africa on
Sunday, between Ghana and Serbia, decided the
fate of the loser.
Since some assume that God
will always be on our side, we will declare for the moment
that Ghana would never lose a match in this year's FIFA
games or will become victorious in the end; no matter what
happens.
The
boldness expressed above may reveal our religious faith,
like the wearing of a talisman to ward off the devil.
But why must God be on
the side of Ghana alone in this match of nations? The
reason, as of the time of writing this piece, has remained
indeterminate.
Earlier, some were
tempted to think that, perhaps, having "G" as the
first letter in the name Ghana might turn the trick.
But then, before the Ghana-Serbia match, there was also the
thought of the letter "G" in poor Great Britain's name.
Having "Great" in her
name, which accolade also spells our perception of God, was
not enough. She was held to a draw by the United
States, a soccer upstart with "U" at the front of her name.
Writing about the
English team in the Guardian, a blogger, obviously a
disappointed Brit, had this to say:
"What England get for
their six million quid a year, it seems, is a manager who
brings two and a half years of preparation to a climax by
committing the series of errors that led to a familiar sense
of deflation as their opening match against the USA unwound
to its conclusion. ..."
He was writing about
the draw with the United States. The errors and the
mistakes committed by the English team were never attributed
to God, but to their coach, Fabio Capello.
Coach
Capello must be one heck of a powerful guy to carry the
weight of a whole nation's disappointment. We in
Ghana, as if on cue, have already given our fate to God.
Now the fascinating,
if not the blasphemous: why did God not get the
blame from the Brits for their less than expected performance? Could it be that the Brits, our old
colonial masters, have a different view of God's engagement
in worldly affairs or they are not a nation given to
constant prayers like we do at our all nighters?
Again the role of God
in matters of this kind, like soccer, would be hard to
tell. But, HE would certainly blush at our
presumptuousness if it were ever to be accepted universally that by
HIS
grace Ghanaians now have monopoly of his affection and
dedication to our eventual victory in all matters of sports.
And what
would be the response of the Creator of all nations, people
and all matters between them?
The God of all
nations would laugh, and, perhaps, note that our
presumptuous assignment of His Grace to our eventual victory could
only be made by desperate politicians.
Besides,
God is already on the side of every player in the FIFA 2010
world cup. HE gave them talent, didn't HE? This
is the exact reason why some of us 20 million Ghanaians had
to stay home to watch both national teams play. The
result is up to them.
E.
Ablorh-Odjidja, Publisher
www.ghanadot.com,
Washington, DC, June 14, 2010
Permission to publish: Please feel free to publish or
reproduce, with credits, unedited. If posted at a website,
email a copy of the web page to
publisher@ghanadot.com . Or don't publish at all.
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