Taken from this month's
Soccer 360
[quote]
Blood, Fire and Football
This summer, South Africa hosts the biggest sporting event in the world. Soccer 360 asks: are they ready?
-Chris Cromie
In the new United Artists hit comedy גHot Tub Time Machine,ג John Cusack and friends find themselves transformed 24 years into the past in search of their once forgotten teenage memories. The year is 1986, Michael Jackson is topping the music charts, Mike Tyson is the heavyweight champion of the world and the NBA is being set ablaze by a young shooting guard from North Carolina called Michael Jordan. Everybody wanted to be like Mike, or at least, one of them. But this is North America, where we all too often iconize our heroes of pop culture, both living and dreaming vicariously through each song, each punch and every jumpshot. Elsewhere in the world, 1986 meant nothing but misery and little in the way of hope. In South Africa, the black population toiled under an aggressive apartheid regime, resisting often in race riots as Nelson Mandela languished in his Robben Island jail cell. Politically, the country was a global pariah. Nor were they welcome in the global arena of football. Since 1966, the South Africa national team had been banned from competing in the World Cup, due to their breaching of FIFAגs anti-discrimination directives. In response, the countryגs ruling Afrikaners simply turned their attentions to Rugby, a sport dominated by colonial powers, a sport where they would not be banished for their domestic policies. Football was thusly relegated to the dusty township streets of Soweto and Cape Flats. A marginalized game for a marginalized people.
If just one of those people were to travel back with us to the future, I wonder what they would make of their homeland in 2010? A freed Nelson Mandela, an end to apartheid and a football World Cup for South Africa ג the first ever to be held on African soil. A far cry from the uprisings and state-engineered bloodshed perhaps. But this isnגt Hollywood. This is Johannesburg. This is Cape Town. This is Durban. And some things never change. South Africa, while the continentגs wealthiest country, still maintains a wildly disproportionate crime rate, even in 2010. Talking head and tabloid speculation however, appears to be focusing more on the possibility of a potential terrorist attack at the event. In no small part this is due to the tragedy that struck the Togo squad during the 2010 African Cup of Nations. As the team bus carried the traveling party en-route to a match, Angolan rebels ambushed the vehicle and opened fire, killing three team personnel and injuring at least two players. Englandגs Daily Mirror called it a גdisaster for the forthcoming first-ever World Cup in Africa.ג Chief tournament organizer Danny Jordaan shot back גWe urge the world not to play double standards. When a terrorist incident happens in any European country, no other European country is linked to it.ג While the comparison may be unfair, it was inevitable. As an informal African warm-up campaign for the World Cup, the Cup of Nations was destined to be under the microscope, nor did it help that the planning and security was simply not sufficient. Cabinda, where the match was taking place, is the heartland of FLEC (Front for the Liberation of the Enclave of Cabinda) and a particularly volatile area as their surge for recognition continues. South Africa has no such separatist problems of that magnitude. The true primary concern for the World Cup revolves around two issues as old as the continent itself ג sex and violence.
During the height of apartheid rule, the most visible divider of the populace was skin colour. White and Black. But beneath that simplified code of discrimination festered another set of segregators ג ethnicity. Pitting poor versus poor, these animosities thrived in the townships and inner-cities. Zulu, Sotho, Xhosa, Pedi, Shangaan... all vying for competitive jobs with uncompetitive wages. Then thereגs the Indians Chinese and Arabs who have flocked to the country to set up new business and enterprise, yet are viewed with mistrust and jealousy by their new neighbours. And lastly, at the bottom of the proverbial food chain - the foreigners. Migrant workers from as far away as Somalia came to South Africa in search of jobs, but in the past five years have found only sectarianism and mob violence as a reaction to their presence. Not exactly the גRainbow Nationג Archbishop Desmond Tutu had hoped for. It remains to be seen exactly how welcoming this myriad of groups will be when 500,000 raucous football fans, most whipped into a patriotic frenzy, descend on their doorstep, especially when you take into consideration how poorly behaved the visitors may be. Hooliganism and alcohol-fueled disobedience in the sunshine may have been handled with kid gloves back in Europe, but every indication suggests that the criminal element of each city, much less their respective metropolitan police forces, will be prepared only for zero tolerance.
Some are simply counting down the days until the tournament begins. "Yeah, this is good! Us people are going to make a lot of money then if you know what you're doing" says Jude during an interview with Time Magazineגs E. Benjamin Skinner. Jude is a gangster. He preys on the weak and is involved in everything from car theft to extortion. His most valuable racket however has a much more lucrative appeal ג the sex trade. The illicit suggestion conjures up images of 70s pimps, hookers and Johns, all engaged in an exotic dance of lust and capitalism. The reality in South Africa is a lot closer to modern day slavery. Children are plucked from desolate towns, such as Indwe, where ninety-five percent of residents fall below the poverty line and a further one-quarter are stricken with HIV. They are trafficked to major cities, such as Johannesburg, drugged and tortured until they are גbrokenג (i.e. they accept their new life and masters), then forced to perform sexual services for no pay outside of basic nutrition and just enough crack cocaine to keep them from running away. With little to no sex education, those who didnגt already have HIV, typically acquire it soon after. For World Cup tourists seeking to indulge in a casual encounter, the term גbuyerגs remorseג will take on a whole new meaning.
For some of South Africaגs current residents, the levels of crime have become unbearable. The Economist magazine recently claimed that as many as 64,000 גhighly skilledג citizens emigrated between 1994 and 2001 with primary destinations including England, Australia and the United States. The number one reason? Crime. Thereגs a cruel irony somewhere in organizing an event that attracts people from all over the world in a country where a good percentage of the skilled workers who can leave, do. Itגs an irony frequently referenced by critics of FIFAגs choice of venue, especially in light of the lengthy list of would-be suitors for the hosting rights, which include England, Australia and... the United States. Each of these countries boasts several cities with existing infrastructures of public transportation, stadia and entertainment districts. For all intents and purposes, South Africa has had to build theirs from the ground up. The allocation of resources to enable the luxury of hosting the tournament rather than spending money on affordable housing and economic investment has been met with violent riposte. Students at the Durban University of Technology clashed with police during their protest against high food prices and poor accommodation earlier this year. In Gauteng, residents blocked off streets and rallied against what they claim are poor housing conditions, and in some cases, a lack of housing period. In each case, the money spent on the World Cup was the villain du jour.
Perhaps South Africa just simply is not ready to host a tournament of this size and maybe the blame should fall not solely on the South African Football Association, but rather FIFAגs bidding process. In an attempt of expansion (or greed, depending on your perspective), FIFA restricted bids for the 2010 World Cup to continental Africa. In doing so, they essentially lumbered South Africa with the sole responsibility and undertaking (bids from Morocco and Egypt were not taken seriously for somewhat unfortunate, yet obvious reasons). A similar situation emerged with the 2014 World Cup bid, this time restricted to only nations from South America. Brazil, as the sole nomination due to Argentina declining and Columbia withdrawing, sheepishly accepted the honour with President Luiz In
's leading in; this is what Brazil is relying on as far as their main attacker:
but just found out Martin Tyler is doing play by play for ABC's coverage. Amazing.