My thanks, in my Daily Maverick column this week, goes to the Treatmen Action Campaign, Cosatu and Doctors Without Borders, for embarrassing South Africa during the World Cup, while US vice president Joseph Biden was in town, under a balloon that said “the world is watching”. Read it here: Have some self-respect.
While South Africa has passed its World Cup tests with flying colours, FIFA has proved to be rather less competent at staging such a big, global event. For some reason, this led me to promise to wear an orange miniskirt should Holland make it to the final: I ordered an orange skirt
Meanwhile, in more macho territory, a couple of Dutch fans arrived at my local in Knysna last night, on their way to Cape Town. They had with them a load of donated shirts and other goodies, and asked if we could arrange an early morning match in a local township. Of course we could. South Africans can arrange any match, anywhere, anytime. Click on the image for more pictures of this morning’s impromptu football in White Location.
A conversation involving a Match employee recently crossed my desk. In it’s rude dismissal of South Africans who feel short-changed, it shows our new overlords have nothing but contempt for us.
The Daily Maverick: Secretly, Match blames South Africa
It is also archived on the Boycott FIFA website, which links to all my columns about FIFA, along with other news and resources on the World Cup exploitation of South Africa.
This ruffled a few feathers. It appears to be tactless to dare criticise aspects or question details of a project when it’s supposed to prop up “national pride”.
Well, though I think the Gautrain is pretty cool as big engineering projects go, it still doesn’t mean public works projects are a good idea, or that this one is free of its questionable aspects. Besides, I find organised “national pride” a repellent idea, which reminds me of the fascist indoctrination we suffered at school under the old National Party.
I prefer critical thinking to mass hysteria. I prefer to celebrate the achievements of individuals, not nations.
So, my take on the Gautrain, over at The Daily Maverick: The stupendous Gautrain, a rare marvel!
Here’s a fairly comprehensive summary of why we should support our country and our team, but have nothing to do with the exploitation of FIFA: The Fifa conquistadors are coming!
My other columns on FIFA have been collected in a previous post: Boycott FIFA
I will have more to write concerning FIFA and Match, some of it in their own damning words.
PS. Here’s a #boycottFIFA ribbon for your Twitter avatar or Facebook profile picture.
