The Beautiful Game , but...

The curtains, ready to fly up,as the much awaited Football World Cup, kicks off.

But this time, the world stage being South Africa, treated as an impotent third world country, by the so called (less human ) first world countries,WC is going to be an ugly but impalpable display of contradictions.

A country depicted as

"Much of the reporting on South Africa, particularly in the western media, paints a country at war with itself. If you have never been to South Africa, you probably have a picture of a country where widows are gunned down in broad daylight, robbed of their groceries and hung on lampposts. Or a country overrun by illegal immigrants and whose existence is threatened by disease – HIV to be precise."

turning itself into a World stage would be cutting something that has been folded twice.
And so it is.

The Hindu said:

"Here first and third world conditions exist side by side. An average African man earns about R2,400 ($320) per month, while an average white man earns R19,000 ($2,600). White South Africans enjoy, on average, 23 more years of life than their black compatriots. "

And WC 10 is another offer for them to suffer.
Their homes(barely so), were bulldozed flat and was soon replaced by International stadiums.


20000 residents were evicted from their lands.Local traders were ousted.Not much people wanting to go behind the cameras and peep onto what happens down there., the media(The Hindu stays apart form media, its The Hindu) comfortably ignores them.


Until 1994, there was an apartheid rule in the country.Then the world(not exactly),saw the transformation of a starving nation into a nation of global importance(again, not exactly) and now the country turns itself into a World Cup stage.But know it or not, South Africa was banned form participating in the football WC(Olympics too) from 1964 to 1992.So hosting world cup is a major face shift for the nation, which apparently is on the prow of whole African continent.
The government earlier assured the people of more job opportunities, more development and so ad so.And sadly it had to witness a protest by thousands of construction workers at the International stadiums, against the govt for the "famine level payments" (~$100 per month).

All those optimism and pride now is wearing some new dress , one of guilt and shock.Sometimes unexpressed.It is in some manner a desperate attempt earn world acceptance, to erase the smudge of the ban that prevailed for more than two decades.But despite thinking, how SA could affect this world cup, the first world brains never gave a thought of how the world cup could impact the country.And we see a bitter picture here.

We 'll not see those HIV infected, malnourished kids or the grief-stricken widows of SA who were swept off their homes( or lesser huts) on our screens.The beer, the transport facilities,the jersey,s and clothing , all are imported , even when the clothing industry in Africa is namesake. This disbands all the offers and dreams served to them a few months back.Judging the nation's capacity by this WC would be more of a stupid act than peripheral.The govt have raised their funds which would end up elsewhere as the expectations of RSA winning he cup is hazy.This makes the matters worse for the people there in the future.As we enjoy the game in our living rooms(really...) there would be some 20000 racked up in the rehabilitation camps(temporary) , where six to seven families (as per The Hindu) occupies a floor space of 3X6.Hoping that this WC would be the a fire in the hole of their sufferings,they wait.


Now come on..



I am one of those football freaks who jumps off my ass, when the ball hits the net.
An avid Brazil fan, I am going to stick my eyes on their boots this WC.
But the underbelly of the Beautiful game isn't that beautiful.
Its ugly indeed.
Its more of inhuman affairs than super human skills.

And now ,whenever my mom makes those "Guest-special" dishes , I would be using the phrase "...like the South African govt...." relentlessly.


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