The best way to snap out of a World Cup hangover is to take a good look at the financial ruins visited upon the so-called advanced economies and then take a look at our solid grounding, which has helped us survive the worst of the global financial crisis.
There is much to be happy with beyond the shining success of the World Cup. Though President Blatter and his team are smiling all the way to the Swiss bank, counting their mega-loot, there is sufficient ground for us all across Africa to lay the foundation for a major change in how we regard ourselves, each other and to reshape how the world sees and regards us.
The World Cup flags might still be waving away in the wind along the freeways, bidding our visitors goodbye, but their bright colours are slowly fading away. This is clearly signalling a shift in attention away from the soccer tournament to matters closer home. For major positive changes to stick and for us to see lasting tangible change we must start with taking a good look at who we regard ourselves to be.
A deep and profound sense of self-acceptance and self-love as Africans of all shades is needed before we can move away from the xenophobia and self-loathing that characterises how we view ourselves and our neighbours. Many worldviews about Africa, Africans, and South Africa have long run their course and need and immediate overhaul. They will not change if we continue to prop them up with how we relate to each other.
If the World Cup is to have a lasting impact beyond infrastructure improvements and beautiful stadia, it must result in the eradication of that long-held view that anything which is African is less than … because it certainly isn’t. The tide is turning. Or is it? Did you hear about the latest economic shift? There was another invitation from the Greeks to Libya for investment? I am not an economist, but did any of you smart Thought Leaders ever think that you would see a European country, and a proud one at that, practically begging an African country for foreign direct investment? Now there is a paradigm shift. And who says that that cannot be the norm down the road? I can hear noises about Libya not being an African country … ja, nee. Sure.
And finally, I am collecting World Cup memorabilia for my grandchildren. There were stories about stab-proof vests. Anyone who has come across one please let me know. I’ll pay a good price for it. I know, I know, I must stop flogging a dead horse. The dead horse here is the Afro-pessimism that had dominated (mainly Western) the British, German and some Aussie media. There was a great cartoon by Zapiro in the M&G showing a bunch of English journos eating humble pie.
Not a big enough helping, I would say.
Good read. The tide has turned, but it could recede as well. Hence we must invest in doing all we can in maintaining and sustaining our changing fortunes as a continent.
Yesterday, I spoke on the phone to a CEO in the USA. At one point in our conversation he was quoting a report on African economic prospects over the next 10 years. They sounded good and more than interesting enough for investors to take a serious look. Afro-pessimism hopefully will dilute rapidly and the continent benefit soon from its rich resources.
A country with around 60% youth unemployment and around 50% of the population living below the poverty level, cannot rightfully claim to have an economy with a solid grounding.
Goody for you Ekhaya, an attempt at sunshine blogging. But Libya is not a ‘sub-saharan’ African country and is as african as Morocco. And no one want Liberia’s culture or Africanness, they want Liberia’s badly managed oil wealth. And any good gun shop can sell you a stab proof vest, just ask. Finally, world views about Africa have not run their course, they are just starting to take effect, but we are not allowed to discuss these on M&G fora, so maybe another day.
What you don’t seem to understand is that we’ve had our fun and now must pay for it. The longer you carry on bragging about the WC, the longer you put off acknowledging the hard facts: that a lot of people are paying a lot of money to pay off this country’s debt. Not all the result of the WC, it’s true; some for Eskom’s frivolity and government’s corruption, etc. But I’d suggest you write a few columns explaining that we need higher employment levels so that more people can be bled dry paying that debt. The people who have poor services are no longer celebrating the WC; the people who are facing bankruptcy are no longer celebrating and the people without jobs are no longer celebrating. Sorry to rain on your parade, but you must be extraordinarily wealthy (perhaps you have a full-time job) to be still wallowing over the WC.
I must be having a bad day!
What “solid grounding”? There isn’t any.
Debt is spiralling, growth is tiny and jobless, entire industrial sectors are now globally uncompetitive and in shut-down, SA has now become a net food importer, the currency is weakening …
Nothing solid there.
The good economic grounding bit was with reference to potential, not that we have capitalised fully on the natural resource wealth.
Ja, you’re quite right on the unemployment figures stats Oldfox, and MHL, I cannot argue with the point you make on the impact of the WC on the rich, employed, and the poor. In fact, I have seen some of the devastation of un-met expectations from WC expectations that did not materialise… devastating debt etc.
BUT, we still have to do whatever we can to ride every positive or benefit from this great event… while staying fully aware of the dire poverty and challenges of the majority of our people.
I hear you loud and clear Atlas Reader, but if the WC makes me dream a brighter future while living in abject poverty or in middle-class debt, I’ll take it. There is enough doomsday news going around to feed all Afropessimists the world over.
For a better understanding of the ‘grounding’ SA really has, go read the latest OECD report on the country. SA is in deep trouble, and if GDP growth doesn’t lift to above the 6% mark and unemployment doesn’t drop sharply (especially among the youth) things will rapidly spiral out of control. The highly respected OECD is not Afropessimistic – they state cold fact it as it is and without bias. Problem is SA and especially its government is so busy with post-WC mutual admiration that they can’t see how bad things really are. The spend on the WC just helped us closer to a possible brink.