Football and Goats

I just got back to Socotra, after having spent some most deserved holidays in Barcelona. It was most theurapeutic to see my people, taste my food, wine and vices. Of course, some anectdotes dropped between a drink and another, and from the face of the “audience” you could measure the eccentricity of some situations I went through…

It is not always easy to realize how funny and crazy some situations can life can be. Sometimes, a certain distance in time and space are necessary to put things in context and have a clear idea of the absolute madness and surrealism that often decorate the landscape of our walks of life!

Let me just give you an example, which a very dear person encouraged me to talk about in this blog. During the first weeks of my stay in Socotra I was regularly going to the house of a local guy, F.C. Barcelona fan like me, who had the right card to decript the Spanish league on TV. Of course, all young men of Hadibo, who split up between supporters of Barcelona and Real Madrid, used to join in the big patio of the pirate card owner to watch the “Liga” every “Christian” weekend, or during the week for the “Champions League”. Until something happened.

Few days before Aid, the supporters of Real Madrid kidnapped the goat the owner of the place was keeping for the celebration and killed it. They cooked it and kindly offered some meet to the man, who of course was expressing his deep gratitutde to be invited to such a nice meal by his “sworn enemies” and absolutely unaware of where the meat was from. At the end of the dinner, the Real Madrid supporters could not keep it anymore and told the poor guy about the destiny of his goat.

I am sorry not to have been there that night, for it must had been a tremendous show, a story to pass on to many future generations. I was told that the guy became real angry; quite expectably I would say, bearing in mind that he could not buy another goat in time for Aid. Well, the result is that, since that unfortunate day, nobody could follow the “Liga” anymore: we were all banned from his house, regardless of what team we support or our actual participation in the crime. Even worse, Real Madrid has won the “Liga” and Barcelona played very bad for the rest of the season.

There is no justice. Not even for the innocent goats, the only ones who never have fun for Aid.