Bythemail
Bythemail...I appreciate your reply, that makes total sense and I do realize that the funds could be spent in a million different ways that could benefit the South African people but the wheels have been set into motion and I think all this negativity around will not help matters. I realize this is not an ideal situation but we should try to make the best of it.
As for me, Im only 20, and have only lived four years of my life in Africa, Malawi in particular as my info reads; but I am there enough to know what is happening. |
Some advice for anyone daft enough to be going to SA for this non-event.
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/7593647/Crash_course.pdf |
It is amusing - yes?- to read of all the tourists who will be coming to SA and eating themselves silly at vast prices at the restaurants etc while they are there. I wonder though how many of the tables the tourists will be filling would usually be taken by South Africans who will not be eating at restaurants in SA venues over the WC month but will instead be enjoying warm Europe weather and eating outside in the safe and balmy atmospheres found (usually) there in summer time.
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I do know that many of my friends are, like myself, staying well away from South Africa until it is over. Some of them tried to rent out their homes and had no takers. It was interesting to see how all the hyped-up nonsense about 'shortage of accommodation' led all the greedy sods to rack up the prices, and now they have been left with a massive over supply. The airlines also got caught out in the same way.
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Five days to go, this is just the build up:
Fans hurt in SWC stampede: Sport: Sport: 2010 World Cup: National News Cop killed near soccer base camp: News24: South Africa: News |
Chile's national football team arrived today to Nelspruit, the flight was a Charter flight direct From Santiago (SCEL) to Nelspruit (FAKN). The flight was chartered by LAN on board a B767.
4 days left ! |
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From the B.B.C.
The incidents have provided the wrong sort of build-up to the World Cup that the South African authorities would have wanted BBC Sport's Piers Edwards |
For anyone interested in this thing ... this is a really fantastic planner ....
Mundial 2010 en MARCA.com |
Keep 'em coming
This time it's the Chinese journalist's turn, a couple of hours after arriving in South Africa, in broad daylight, at gun point.
Chinese robbed, arrests made in separate robbery | Reuters |
Lets put politics aside,let the games begin................Good luck Africa,All the best RSA,so far so good!!!!!!!!
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Once again seper is missing the point.
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Once again seper is missing the point. |
BYAIRMAIL
I Assure you i haven't missed the point,i have just moved on.Dwelling on what the funds could have better be used for wont serve any purpose now. Football is strong world politics,not cricket,not ever rugby now and in the infinite future,not tennis,not swimming,only football draws that crowd,and it rules the whole world,more poor than rich,it is the only sport that binds all poor and impoverished people in the world,of whom, most football stars had their beginnings. |
Now Robert Mugabe is a guest of honor at the soccer world Cup. Sorry seper I can't move on. I saw in the 1980's what he and his 5 Brigade did to the opposition. So we should forget this and his recent killing of his own people in the name of Soccer. We are still hunting down 95 year old Nazi's, but Mugabe is welcome??
FIFA and the select few i.e. Danny Jordaan, Julius Malama ( yes his construction company's are involved) and side kick's is the only winners. With attitudes like yours I am not surprised Nigeria, a very wealthy country is in the state it is and the the world don't trust it's citizens. Japan today openly admit hosting the World Cup in 2002 was a big mistake. 8 out of the 10 stadiums are losing between $2 to $6 Mil a year, and this is the 2nd largest economy in the world, hosting it during the boom time. And who is picking up the tab??? ... yip the taxpayer!! This big party you embrace will have a hangover for a looooong time, with the taxpayer suffering it, in a country where 5% pay over 90% of the tax. So move on to what, more suffering and non service delivery?? |
They played a lot better than i expected,but still a bit rough on the edges,however the other teams have not been impressive in that group,ie france/Uruguay,so barring any mistakes they should make it to round two.
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Uruguay team robbed at hotel.
Uruguay team robbed at hotel.
Now for a soccer question: Is it normal to say "well done" when the team draw? In rugby you will never hear a supporter say "well done" to a draw. Well done is for a win, if you draw you only get half the points and that could cost you later in the pool games. If I say 'well done" to my team for a draw it mean I had no confidence in them, and that just surviving is good enough. I don't know much about he game but the South African goal looked like a cracker, now that was "well done." |
Letter from Zimbabwe
Dear Family and Friends,
While the eyes of the world are on South Africa as it hosts the 2010 World Cup Football games, we are sitting here next door shivering in the dark and the cold. For the past four months we've been experiencing 16 hour a day power cuts, only having electricity in the middle of the night. All our protestations have been met with assurances that these cuts were to enable vital maintenance which in turn would allow for uninterrupted power during the World Cup Football Games. That has turned out to be a myth. In my home area first we missed the excitement prior to the concert at the Soweto stadium, then we missed the official opening of the World Cup games, then, to top it all off, we missed the first match between South Africa and Mexico. When the electricity did finally come on, after everything was over, we were more concerned about the essentials of life than about football. Essentials like a hot meal - the first for days, washing and ironing, charging telephones and batteries and catching up on the news. With the world's cameras just a few hundred kilomteres away over the border, and the great spectacle of extravagance being unfolded in South Africa, its hard to believe the dark ages events taking place in Zimbabwe. Behind the football smokescreen an MDC MP was arrested and spent days in police custody for giving out donated vitamins, dietary supplements and common aspirin tablets. This comes shortly before the long awaited and very overdue constitutional outreach programme begins, a programme in which this MP has been heavily involved. Also lost in the football smoke is Farai Maguwa, a researcher into human rights violations at the Marange diamond fields who was arrested, denied bail and has remained in custody for the second week. This comes days before Zimbabwe again tries to get Kimberley Process approval to sell diamonds. We wonder if any of the international camera crews might cross the border and report on the new wave of farm seizures in many parts of the country. In the past week 16 commercial farmers who had court orders protecting them have come under renewed eviction attempts. This is happening at a time when the Commercial Farmers Union have said that Zimbabwe is set to record its lowest ever wheat output of about 10 000 tonnes. To put this into context, Zimbabwe used to produce between 250 and 300 thousand tonnes of wheat prior to land invasions. Zimbabwe will will need to import up to 400 thousand tonnes of wheat in the coming year in order to meet national requirements. Finally, the last puff in the smoke cloud obscuring Zimbabwe from international attention, comes the news that our leaders are again to call for mediation to settle outstanding issues in their power sharing agreement. Still no governors, no deputy minister of agriculture, no resolution on unilateral appointments of Reserve Bank Governor and Attorney General. Most people agree that this is all now a waste of time and that we should proceed with a new constitution and elections and stop all this stalling. Until next week, thanks for reading, love cathy. A poke in the eye for the fat smug complacent smirking hypocrites like Peter Hain who helped Zimbabwe achieve 'democracy' and 'freedom'. Well done guys! |
BYAIRMAIL, you have lost all credibility since you started to just make up things.
1) Robert Mugabe was not a "guest of honor" at the opening ceremony. The head of state of all FIFA members are invited to attend. So I don't see how you think people did their utmost to make him welcome. Many heads of state did attend, and will continue to attend the tournament. 2) When did Japan openly admit to making a mistake hosting the World Cup? If it were such a mistake why are they bidding to host it again? They are bidding to host both the 2018 and 2022 event, as are South Korea who they jointly hosted it with in 2002. The big difference between the Japanese/Korean World Cup and our own is that we are using far fewer venues, 20 versus 10. Of those 10, only 5 (call it 6 with Soccer City) are new builds and most will do just fine after the World Cup. The only stadium's with serious concerns going forward are Nelspruit, Polokwane and Port Elizabeth. Cape Town was a concern but will do okay. The 2010 World Cup is already immendly profitable, and has cost less (in real terms) than any recent World Cups. You don't like the World Cup - we all get that. But there is no need to just continuously trash it - it serves no purpose but to make YOU feel better about it all. The large majority of South Africans are loving this World Cup and they think its money well spent. Your statistic about 5% of people paying 90% of tax is blatantly false, but that said, remember that 10% of South Africans earn more than 60% of all income! |
evanb,
so you watch CNN Asia? that's where they had the piece on Japan and the world cup. As far as bidding again, it was not mentioned in the piece, but it might be that the big expenses and infrastructure is already in place, why not try and recover some of the money. I don't know how easy it will be to find the link as it was a 5 minute piece. As far as the tax structure go, it's accurate within +- 3% and that's straight from the S.A. news papers, by south African economists. If I get bored enough soon and try to find both links, might just be a bit embarrassing for you then? I see the spin doctors for FIFA is very busy. The Sunday paper reporting that the hotels reimburse and compensate tourists that report crime, as to keep it out of the stat's. ?Moenie polisie roep,? sê hotel glo: Rapport: Suid-Afrika: Nuus The cases that do get reported by tourists get high priority and is solved in record time according to the article. Yet my friend that was murdered 4 years ago, his case file has not been touched. Head out the sand evan. |
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