Jump to content

Hockey Night in Liberia


devilsfan26

Recommended Posts

Article

Photo Gallery

Under the shade of a lush green palm tree, a hefty Liberian man sells pineapples and tries to escape the muggy tropical heat. All the while, he proudly sports a long-sleeved heavy-knit Toronto Maple Leafs hockey sweater.

"We don't know the game," Joe Peters admits, wiping sweat off his cheek. "But the jerseys are very fine. Very high quality."

Read more: http://www.nationalpost.com/story.html?id=2785079#ixzz0l0K7z8im

Pretty interesting read, figured I might as well share it here.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yeh I read about this on PuckDaddy. Great article and pics. I don't know if I should feel left out that my favorite team wasn't in any of the pics.

Here's a quote from the article:

"It is tough, tough material," street vendor Evelyn Togbah raves. "If you buy it, you can wear it for 20 years."

I wonder if they'll feel the same way when they start getting shipments of used RBK Edge and Nike Swift jerseys. :lol:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

That's a cool little article. Too bad I'm not a fan of the National Post haha but thanks for posting it!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

That's a cool little article. Too bad I'm not a fan of the National Post haha but thanks for posting it!

I never even heard of the National Post lol I just saw on facebook one of my buddies posted the link to the article on another friend's page. I feel like if they had access to ebay some of those guys might get some good money for their jerseys, like the Oilers one maybe.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

haha I just don't like it because it happens to have a more of right wing slant opposed to a balanced coverage like the Globe and Mail which is the other Canadian national paper but this is a hockey forum so I won't get into it but the article was quite good. Its interesting how they get their hands on the jerseys and know nothing about the team and use it for survival opposed to people like us who buy it for the sake of just having it you know? Kind of puts things into perspective although its interesting what they said about the authentic jerseys and its status symbol which we have here too.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

In a sense I am glad I didn't see any authentics in there. You guys are right that they likely don't know a thing about hockey, so maybe this will bring some initiative to those kids for them to research hockey and the NHL someday. At least the NHL is getting some promotion in the lesser parts of the world.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

In a sense I am glad I didn't see any authentics in there. You guys are right that they likely don't know a thing about hockey, so maybe this will bring some initiative to those kids for them to research hockey and the NHL someday. At least the NHL is getting some promotion in the lesser parts of the world.

I kind of doubt they will research about hockey and I'm pretty sure they couldn't give a ###### about hockey or the NHL. Many of them probably don't have the means to research about hockey if a $4 jersey is considered premium class and they most live on a dollar a day. If anything, I would rather the children take the initiative to learn and research about more important things than hockey if they have the means. I just think the article is more interesting in the fact that they wear the jerseys as a means where we own ours as wants. We're willing to pay hundreds of dollars while they struggle to pay a small percentage of what we do for something that needs to last them for many wears for many years. It puts things into perspective I think.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I didn't check out the article, but I agree with you about their needs. Obviously third world countries don't have a lot of money and the people have even less. And I think it's a good thing that African countries are making good use of jerseys as clothes because they have nothing else to wear. They also do something similar to this with NFL merchandise. Usually the Super Bowl Champs gear for the losing team is sent to third world countries to be used for clothes.

This also hits home and can make us appreciate how good we have it. We may think we don't have a ton of money, but there are people all over the world who have next to nothing. I feel very fortunate to be able to collect NHL jerseys and when I am buying, (sometimes) afford the ones I want.

But no, those kids will never know or understand the value of the jerseys they have. I was trying to be optimistic about them getting involved in hockey. For them and in any matter, as long as one has clothes on their back, they are happy, be it an actual shirt or a jersey.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You make a good point about the Super Bowl Champs gear and actually any gear from the defeated championship team get sent to third world countries. Funny that ##### was used for the word dam n. My apologies if the last post sounded harsh, it wasn't supposed to. Its exam time and I'm a political science major... study about Africa a lot when talking about globalization, rich and poor, etc...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I didn't take it as harshness, so no sweat. :thumbsup: I'm a student too and speaking of exams, mine are coming up too. -_- Yeah unfortunately Africa is one of those continents that I feel will always be poor. But I am curious though, if people donate jerseys to charity, do they go to people in that similar case - third world countries where people need clothes, or just poor people without clothes in general?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I would just assume it depends on which agency you donate too and they will spread them out appropriately.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
×
×
  • Create New...