People are walking with a spring in their steps. They tread as though the ground is bouncing them to higher goals, higher dreams, higher hopes. People crowd the streets, mingling their colours, their genders, their sexualities all united towards a single goal — to be South Africa. Stony stalwarts of anti-South Africanism have had to knock down their poorly crafted guises and admit that it is Ayoba to be one of us. The vuvuzelas chant our pride, and it has so little to do with a game of soccer.
There is much to complain about in South Africa. But there is much that we must not forget. That we survived a harrowing and brutal past. That we continue to grow every day. That there are reasons to smile every day. That you can get directions from anyone in a street even if neither you nor they know where you are going. That people will blow a vuvuzela to the point where their cheeks hurt before they give up, out of breath and spent, glowing with the warmth that comes from camaraderie even when they don’t know a single soccer player’s name.
Let us remember this bliss, this happiness, this hope. Let us not grumble that it will all be over soon. Let us not scorn those who only recently bought into being a South African. Let us welcome the world and each other with open arms and shout from the rooftops “I am proudly South African”.
Enjoy your flush of patriotism, the feel-good emotion where it has become racist to object to the vuvuzela.
Forget the daily robberies and murders and rapes and immerse yourself in this moment, a moment that will end much too soon as the hopeless expectations are unrealised and reality sets in again.
Don’t forget that WE will have to pay the bill whilst the con-men of FIFA will walk off, cash in hand; having fooled another nation to in-debt itself far beyond what is possible.
When people will demand service delivery and houses and schools and jobs will we say “but you had the 2010 SWC” or will we say that it should not have been done, not in the form of creating stadiums that are [colour deleted] elephants, not in the form of raising expectations to unreasonable levels to be cruelly dashed.
Oh, don’t get me wrong, I’m also caught up in this madness, I also hope against hope that we do well, I also dream of the impossible – want us to succeed against all the odds – but – and it is a big but – I can already see the reality again, visitors gone and there we are, back in our little prison, hating and despising each other…
Maybe I’m wrong; I hope so, for I also want to live out the rest of my days in a successful nation.
That’s it, no more words left; it won’t be published anyway.
true, true, unbelievable atmosphere. Even a hardened immigrant white woman of 55 is in the Bafana mood. Sheeh, dont tell anyone. Viva SA !!! Let us keep this united feeling of togetherness way beyond 2010.
Jennifer
I wish you the very best. However, even the nicest people can’t make a bad system work. Your visitors are going to show this up big time. Already there have been four nationalities robbed – two violently – and their countries are reading this as I write. That is only the beginning, there is still the hazards while travelling and partying.
The best thing SA can hope for is that the visitors will expose, once and for all, the “brokeness” of the system to such an extent that the government will have to fix it. The king will have to admit, that, despite the lovely singing and dancing and smiles, he has no clothes.
And then, of course, there are the vuvulelas which will drive the visitors to utter distraction.
Love it! I can feel it all the way in London! Keep the spirit and the pride South Africa – with that, we can only go forwards!
VIVA BAFANA VIVA
YAY! Ke Nako.
I couldn’t be more chuffed.
Well said Jennifer. As always!
and we are 2010!!!!
Yeah, gimme some of that! My heart ached when I left SA 4 years ago: too many bad feelings, not enough to believe in. Then for a brief moment in 2007, when SA won the rugby world cup, I ached to be back. However Polokwane soon arrived and brought with it a pandora’s box with Satan’s very seal on it, and I knew I had done the right thing to leave. Today, my heart aches a little again (a lot!) The “gees” is back with a vengeance and I envy you all in ZA having this party. I wish I could join you. I hope that what comes after the soccer world cup is better than what Polokwane brought you after the rugby world cup. You deserve so much more!
I loathe my further vindication, prove me wrong…
Unity!!Big ups Jeniffer!
Amen to that, Jennifer. It is here and I’m feeling it too: This expat all the way over on the West Coast of the US got up at 6 a.m. yesterday to watch the opening match, which I thoroughly enjoyed, with a lump in my throat! I’m so proud to be South African right now and so wish I could be there, right in the midst of all the excitement. God bless Africa!
you said better Jennifer
viva BAFANA BAFANA viva
we are all one and we should always remember that South African’s
Methinks this world cup thing has proved a theory of mine in that if you do away with the politicians and their power-hungry propagandist (is that a word?) strategies, everyone will get on just fine. So let’s ride this wave to the end because I know that as sure as there’s a puddle of spit your vuvuzela, a politician or two will once again set the cat among the pigeons. I vote our president should be a football…at least in that way we can kick it around a bit.
And noted the speed at which the preps of crime have been arrested and convicted!
Nice one Jennifer. I love the mood that everyone is in. I was at the Innesfree FAN Park for the opening games and all I can say is everyone was happy. I spent most of my time there not watching the Bafana games but teaching some Argentines how to blow the VUVU, it was awesome.
@John Kalala on June 11th, 2010 at 10:04 am
Dude, get a life. Seriously, go back to the hole that you came from and chill there till such time that you are ready to be a part of the new SA.
“Phillip it’s here” That’s what we say when we tease a certain Siyabonga Nomvete in the townships.
@Tlanch Tau
I have a great life, thank you. The most joyous and safest places to be are the stadiums. The atmosphere has been utterly brilliant, even where the soccer has been tedious.
However, like in Zen and Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, it’s what happens in between that matters, i.e. travel, shopping, partying and visitors rooms/apartments when attending the matches. That’s the threat to the feelgood factor.
So, let’s see, shall we?
So, all this World Cup fever is now behind us….
The first question is “Was it worth it?”
The second question, after 220 000 more people have just lost their jobs is “How will we afford it?” or more accurately “How will our grandchildren afford it?”
All the SWC initiatives are unsustainable. We have opulent infrastructure where we don’t need it and almost all of it is useless anyway.
Lets now devote a minutes silence to remembering the 151 babies who died in just one hospital over the 4 months leading up to the world cup and ask ourselves again “was the world cup really worth it?”