Before the 2010 FIFA World Cup came to town, I used to think of South Africans – myself included – as having a tendency to whine. But right now we are the centre of the universe and, remarkable as it may seem to us South Africans, we’re ok.
Hardly a day goes by in this fair land when you don’t read a letter in a newspaper or hear a fellow South African bemoaning crime and corruption. I’m not saying we should accept crime and corruption as the normal state of affairs but all the complaining and finger-pointing can get one down.
But then I came across this story by The New York Times written in the weeks before the World Cup 2010, about how South Africans have valiantly pushed back against FIFA’s corporate interests – to get easier access to tickets, for instance, and to see more of our musicians in the lineup for world cup concert.
“…this is South Africa, the country that ended a vicious system of racial segregation 16 years ago to create a noisy, fractious, vibrant democracy,” reported The New York Times. “Poking a finger in the eye of authority is part of the national DNA.”
Quite right too, I thought. We’re uppity for a reason – because we know our rights and we demand to have the freedom to exercise them. Which is also why, on the eve of the world cup, the SA media was filled with riveting tales of infidelity in the extended presidential homestead and no hacks were being arrested or newspapers threatened. We are indeed one of the most amazing tales of hard-won democracy on the planet. We’re alright.
This, to me, is one of the most fascinating aspects of hosting an event such as the world cup – that we get to see ourselves through the eyes of foreigners, a highly instructive exercise for a country that is still new to finding its common identity as a nation, rather than defining itself along racial lines. So what has the world’s media being saying about us?…. CLICK HERE TO READ THE REST OF THIS COLUMN, “THE WORD ON GRUBSTREET” AT BIZCOMMUNITY
* And click here to read an update to this column, which I wrote for Bizcommunity, surveying how the foreign press were covering the World Cup and South Africa at the end of the tournament.
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About Gill Moodie
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