Even though the noise is irritating but it is Africa's World Cup.Let them enjoy it.To ban it or not to ban it,we should look for the bad sides and good sides.

The noise is awful~But still acceptable~

I'm not sure if the vuvuzela's sound is less now (than at the start of the games) or I'm just getting use to them... but I "almost" like it now. At least now I don't feel like my ears are going to bleed.

Culture!!! Perhaps refer to a dictionary.

My arse has more culture than any plastic horn and is capable of more than one note!

The vuvuzela is being utilized by the CIA to test mind control on a massive scale. The messages being transmitted are subliminal and coded deep within the ubiquitous drone. I was watching Brazil v. North Korea when I discovered the key to unlocking the code. First: turn up the volume on your TV until the the hairs on the back of your arm stand up. Next: close your eyes to block out any exterior distractions and focus your complete attention on the buzzing cacophony until all other noise is excluded (including the commentators). Tap your foot to a slow but steady 4 count and gradually speed up. If done correctly the secret instructions will form an identifiable prosodic contour - in this case four simple syllables. The test message being broadcast throughout every match in the tournament (thus far) is: watch/ more/ base/ ball.

I believe that the government is exploiting this opportunity to test the vuvuzela as a possible masking agent in concert with more advanced mind control technology. Proof of the experiment's efficacy may lie in the fact that after 10 minutes I experienced an irresistible compulsion to switch channels and watch baseball - interleague baseball!

NEXT: Is FIFA the unwitting dupe of the CIA/MLB/ESPN triad and how much does Obama know?

No one, especially me, wants to offend South African culture. I'm thrilled they were chosen to host the World Cup, but I feel that FIFA has let them down in many ways.

I think there was guidance needed regarding the vuvuzelas. Maybe FIFA didn't realize how thousands of the horns would sound inside a stadium, and rightfully defended the cultural right to use them. The horns have been especially awful on American television as ESPN does not seem to have filtered them any. European and the BBC stations have done this fairly successfully. In essence, the horns have had a much larger impact on viewers everywhere than FIFA ever thought.

Of course, it is too late to ban them in the stadiums. Backtracking on the decision would be demeaning to the people who feel the horns are their football culture. If FIFA and Sepp Blatter care as much about the overall culture of football as they do about making money, some type of diplomatic solution would have worked for everyone.

South Africans are some of the most graceful people I've ever met. Their elegance in the face of the Uruguay match red card was symbolic of that grace to me, and while there is still a cry to be heard in South Africa, I honestly don't think they want the vuvuzela to be what people around the world remember.

The vuvuzelas and those choosing to play them could have been a perfectly fine part of the world cup crowd. This is if certain conditions were met.
A)They were played only during KEY parts of the game. Goals, great near goals, great saves by the keeper. Give their use meaning.
B) Try to be musical with them. Unless "Constant buzzing noise in the key of B" is some award winning song, try to make it a musical experience. Or at least try to stick with A.

It's a great musical culture. Dancing, singing, chanting, so why are the people of SA downplaying that for these plastic horns that seem to be annoying most of the world cup watching world? Show us your tradition and culture and in turn enjoy the rest of the worlds. Its why they're in your stadiums.

All I'm hearing is a bunch of sore losers prattling on.

South African tradition, really? We had them in the American midwest in the early 1970s. I call B.S. on this "tradition" claim.

The there is a time and place for everything. The constant buzzing is so annoying I have not be able to enjoy a single game for more than a few moments. It's a shame this sort of firestorm has started over what should be a matter of common courtesy. Why not start and end the game with the blowing of the horns? Why the need to shove the constant barrage of noise on all of us all during the game?

I like Vuvuzelas http://audioblog.arteradio.com//esprit-des-lieux/frontUser.do?method=getPost&postId=3042373&blogName=esprit-des-lieux

Vuvuzelas are not 'REALLY' a South African tradition or part of their culture. This is not something that has passed down from the elders or through the generations... it is only about 15 years old.

It is as much of their culture as swinging a rally towel is in the United States. As much of a tradition as having a foam #1 finger or blowing an air horn. Boo-hoo.

FIFA and South Africa are trying to make this a successful World's Cup. This has to be done through experience for the people in the stands and, as important, a HUGE world viewing audience.

Unfortunately, you cannot turn off the horns and still listen to what the announcers are saying on TV. Maybe the broadcasters could do that, but it still negatively affects the teams, refs and other NON-vuvuzela fans in the stands.

Banning the horns would allow for normal fan participation... yelling, cheering, booing, chanting, singing, stomping... but no, it is the constant drone of waaaahhhhhhh...

I am watching less games than I had planned because I cannot stand that constant drone.

Ole, ole, ole, ole...

Empty cans make the most noise.

African music, dance and beautiful bright clothing are wonderful. And I am all for the cultural aspects of the vuvuzela. Unfortunately, I find the buzzing sound so irritating that I don't like to watch the games. And soccer is so cool. I've never been fond of the sounds of an American football game either.

Frankly does anyone really care what the commentators think? After all it’s the fans sitting at the park that give the game its zeal and spark and to sequester the fans into quiet bear cubs as if they were watching a civilized rendition of opera is to miss the point that soccer has always been a working class man’s game

http://scallywagandvagabond.com/2010/06/world-cup-soccer-dont-forget-to-blow-your-vuvuzelas-too/

I am good with the tradition and all that but with todays tech world you would think we could filter that buzzing out enough that wew can hear the game announcers.

KEEP THE MICROPHONES THAT ARE PICKING UP THAT SOUND TURNED OFF.

I'm now just sitting down to my third 2010 world cup game, and traditional or not I think the descriptif is "Racket". It's taking the pleasure out of watching the match, sounds like a hornet in a tin and is weary to the ears....I wonder if the television people will manage to filter it out?

Sorry for moaning but it will need masochisme to watch the rest of the matches...

:(

@Philiani Nongogo : I understand that the VUVUZELA is part of your tradition and culure, but you guys should understand that it is not part of ours. It has been proved that the sound of the VUVUZELAS can reach 140 decibels, and that is very dangerous for the human hearing. Me as many many others don't see the sound of the vuvuzelas as a sound of support for your own team because you guys are blowing it on each game, even when your team is not playing. It is very annoying have that noise on the background even when you watch the TV or listening to the radio. I THINK VUVUZELAS should be banned from inside the stadium.

I hear and see mostly soccer fans complaining about the irritating 'vuvuzela drone', but I really think it's fantastic. All the time while watching yesterday's opening match on French tv I kept hoping that the commenters would shut up for a while, so I could listen :-) ... How I wish that, like the FIFA, I could come up with the means to realize a piece for a stadium filled with tens of thousands of vuvuzela players!

HS, Paris - http://soundblog.net

Now it has started and it's a bug, there are a couple of petitions online to ban the vuvuzela from the World Cup. Here's one:
http://www.petitiononline.com/2010WC/petition.html

We all respect local traditions and solitary horn, even a few of them clustered together, from place to place does no harm. But tens of thousands of people blowing them endlessly throughout every single game all World Cup long has nothing to do with "South African tradition" or with "urging their team on to attack," as the typically bubble-headed liberal media types insist on putting it. Citizens of the region have the rest of the year, and the rest of the years when there's no World Cup in South Africa, to "respect tradition" in this manner. No, at this point it is really just about, "We're going to blow these horns endlessly and there's not a thing you can do about it."

A more intelligent approach might be, "We want the World Cup to continue being held here because the spectacle brings a ton of desperately-needed money into our economy. We're not going to allow some fans to create a deafening distraction that ruins the event not only for others in the stands who are subjected to the equivalent of a jet engine, but for the billions who would like to enjoy the event on TV worldwide. We're banning the stupid horns in the stadium and if anyone is violently opposed, they can stay out."

Can you hear me now? (I mean, over the horns?)

i will be watching very few games the noise of the horns is too much it distracts from the game.

Today, 12h00, the whole country was mobilized to blow VUVUZELA's like mad, and in Gauteng, koTshwane/Pretoria, where I am right now and was in that hour, we just did that and more!!! I did it and we went on way past the five minutes we were requested to take time for, KBLOWING OUR THING, OUR NUVUZELA's, we dance and sang, I even drove my track with one hand and blowing with the other! Yes Vuvuzela is loud very loud, but if you have been in the stadium to watch a football match in South Africa, spare all the skeptics: Academics and Audiologists, you will learn a thing or two about Vuvuzela!!! They are fun and enjoyable, just join in and you will never be the same again, not in terms of the nonsense deafness the Audiologists are talking about, but fun, fun, and fun!!!

Well the players who might want to put in earplugs, should be encouraged to go on and put them on, I wish them good luck! But I wonder how are they going to communicate to each other and their benches, not to mention with the match official and the whistle, with the latter, this critical in the game??? One thing I know is that, THERE IS NO MATCH THAT WAS ABUNDONED BECAUSE OF THE NOISE OF THE VUVUZELA, AND THE PLAYERS AND THE OFFICIALS HAVE ALWAYS COMMUNICATED TO EACH OTHER WITH EASE, I HAVE SEEN IT, I WAS THERE!!!