Comments on: One hundred days to being screwed over

By: 100 days to being screwed over | Azad Essa

100 days to being screwed over | Azad Essa — Sat, 23 Oct 2010 18:51:01 +0000

[...] the full article and watch the comment mayhem unfold on Thought Leader. Posted by azad @ 22 March 2010 0 comments Tags : Fifa world cup azad [...]

By: 100 days to being screwed over | Azad Essa

100 days to being screwed over | Azad Essa — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 07:05:55 +0000

[...] (original post) [...]

By: Ant K

Ant K — Wed, 12 May 2010 09:03:23 +0000

Yes there may be argument justifying the expense on the WC but perhaps in the rich EU it may be justified spending R30 million on a new stadium in Durban holding 70,000 next to an old one holding 60,000 and then only playing 7 WC games in it, but in Africa this is dire waste of money that could have provided homes and long term jobs for many more people rather than benefiting very few and crippling ratepayers for many years to come. Cape Town with its rainy winters should have spent the money putting a opening/closing roof on the stadium, allowing for use in pop concerts in all weathers. We should have used our existing infrastructure better and the WC would be just as good and enjoyable.

By: ian shaw

ian shaw — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 18:26:15 +0000

WE went begging to FIFA for the privilege of becoming the host for the WC, with the purpose of advertising African capabilities. So they think they did us a favour and this gave them the idea to insist that virtually all the financial gains benefit them, not us. It is an expensive advertising campaign for which we will be paying for a long time.

By: little_bit_dof

little_bit_dof — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 21:35:54 +0000

@Dave:

Ok, so lets think long term right. 20 years from today and the WC has hugely improved our international image. We have massess of chinese and indians coming for holiday (by your next superpower assertion) and spending tourism bucks. The tourism bosses and select bee counterparts get richer, and then take that same wealth and purchase Indian and Chinese products. Net effect money leaves SA anayway.

Consider also, a poor homeless child who could have been educated and nurtured using the (squandered) WC funds. Twenty years on he is now 18, desperate, jobless, hungry, wandering the streets and on the look out for a means to survive. He resorts to crime. Hijacking at gunpoint. One night you (Dave) pull up at a red light…

Now do you understand part of the reason for worrying about the poor, uneducated and homeless? Think big picture..

By: Desire, Uganda

Desire, Uganda — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 04:45:03 +0000

Azad, thanks for that analysis. Africa has alot to prove to the world, but the way we go about it is amazing. A few years ago Uganda held the Common Wealth meting in which all economic promises were laid on the table. It is now that we realise how much the people were taken for a ride. The poor were kept from the visitors’ eyes; roads to posh resorts were built; govt gave out tax payer’s to private businesses with ‘connections’ etc. You will only sincerely know what went down when the World cup is concluded, if SA gets near to breaking even, send me mail. My guess is that as you count your losses after the WC, you will be trailing in the footsteps of other African countries that have suffered the same fate! Like I always say, SA proudly African like the rest of us, the sooner it sinks in and people act on it, the better.

By: Johan Meyer

Johan Meyer — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 18:16:28 +0000

(Off-topic) @Hugh Robinson I've read War Junkie, so here's my review...

By: Dave Harris

Dave Harris — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 08:21:52 +0000

@Michael Liermann
“one could killfile your contributions”
I didn’t realize the truth hurt that much.
Anyway, your views of China are typical of indoctrinated white SAns who cannot understand how civilizations like China and India can survive for thousands of years in relative peace and are now poised to become economic and military superpowers. But I suppose all those years of apartheid indoctrination has the ironic effect of self-inflicting ones own extinction. Its just a matter of time I suppose…

By: Michael Liermann

Michael Liermann — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 12:29:56 +0000

To Dave Harris:
“I don’t consider being allowed into the same club as China to be an accomplishment…”
China is an ancient civilization THOUSANDS of years old, thats is now on the rebound. For all its faults its a GREAT civilization.

And some of its faults include holding public executions and then selling the organs on the black market, massively polluting the areas its people live in through unregulated industrialisation, suppressing free speech and political activity, suppressing trade union activity, and generally pissing all over the idea of a democratic society. If you consider that a negligible fault, then that says a whole lot about you and your convictions.

Anyway, as I am not a proctologist, I will devote no further attention to you and your arguments; there is nothing to be gained thereby. Be nice if this site added a proper forum for these discussions, so that one could killfile your contributions – the signal-to-noise ration would be immeasurably improved thereby.

By: Panchetta

Panchetta — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 07:15:04 +0000

Dave, your arguments are immature. This makes it very difficult to debate because there is no matching of our logic with your fragmented reasoning.

May I suggest that you run along to The Times Live site and you will be the big fish with an audience that wil adore you.