I'm not a bit exited about this south African World Cup. For many
months I have been bombarded by advertisements from the radio,
newspapers/magazines and especially from DSTV. It has long been a fact
of life that no African team has ever won the world cup, why should this
one be any different. You gotta admit in recent years The world cup has
not been getting the attention/publicity it once had back in the day.
It is only convenient that it has to be held in South Africa because (in
my theory) it is a good way of bringing back the much needed
attention/publicity to the FIFA organization. All that hype killed my
once festive mood to even watch the tournament.
Now, I am not really a big fan of football to start with, but I do
understand the passion most of us Africans have for the game. But hey,
my dad is one of those people and as result bought a LG 32in High
Definition flat TV (the other reason is the he could not see too well on
the old TV). It really shames me that most of us Africans prefer to
watch of support football teams that are not even of African descent.
Take the English Premiership League for example. These days we pay so
much money (e.g the DSTV subscription) to watch the games in the premier
league. Of course Multichoice has to pay licensing ladidadida in order
to transit the images of the soccer events to our homes and money goes
into the players pockets. Now because of this all the soccer players in
the league are a bunch of over-payed yobs who (case of point in June
18's match between England and Algeria) failed to progress in this
year's world cup.
If we are willing to pay so much money for the players why don't we pay
the same kind of money to support all of our local African players. Now
this is where the real problem lies. Back in the days before
Multichoice. Most African footballers where in their prime, especially
our national team the Flames. We could all go to the stadiums to support
our national teams with vigor and passion that it gave the players a
great sense of pride and morale to their best to satisfy us the fans. My
dad used to take me and my older brother to see the matches at the Civo
Stadium when we were young lads and it was very exciting for us to
attend the matches. Now that spirit has waned, especially here in Malawi
where people, shops, cars, and billboards are adorned with English
premiership merchandise/images because of this lack of support from us.
The Malawi national teams cannot even afford to purchase promotional
materials such as jerseys, shirts, billboards, etc. Most people are
blaming our national team these days for not playing well enough when
they have themselves to blame for. After all it is people like them (and
us as well) whose money (subscription for Dstv) indirectly creates
monsters such as David Beckham, Ronaldo and Rooney, who are motivated by
money to play football and that's why they are the some of the best
players in the world. And another thing do they really care if we
Africans support them or not. If it were only the other way round then
Africa could see and explosion of talented players whose skills can be
on par or even surpass their European/western counterparts (quite a
vision huh?).
The final point I would like to make, is the venue in which the world
cup tournament is held. I do not want to be racist or anything but these
are the real facts. Now I have lived in South Africa before and the
environment is more European than African. Well.... at least in the
metropolitan areas that is. I know that other countries do not have the
facilities but couldn't they give the bid to Botswana, Kenya or even
Nigeria? I'm sure that FIFA are wealthy enough to provide the funding to
build a couple of Stadiums for a good cause. South African in the last
decade of the century was born into democracy in under the leadership of
Nelson Mandela. I do not understand why people continue worship him as
some sort of a demigod when the real unsung hero at the time was F.W. De
Klerk. De klerk risked his leadership, his balls and even his life from
his peers to release Mandela from prison and ending the Apartheid. All
Mandela did was to protest, get imprisoned for about 30 years and come
out of there with Bologna sandwich, a national hero. Is south Africa now
a country of peace loving people who reconciled their past for the
great good. I'm afraid not! Not at all! And this Rainbow Nation thing
they are trying to promote to the world is all bull. Racism and extreme
poverty is pretty much alive and well and black community do not only
hate white people, they hate other Africans and they even killed a whole
lot of them including Malawians in their xenophobic attacks over 2
years ago over the issue of high unemployment in the country. Rainbow
Nation?! I think not! I am very proud to live in one of the most safest
country's in Africa.
Whatever happens in a last few days of the tournament if a Non-African
team wins then a whole lot of you were just simply wasting your money
for nothing and this world cup will not be a so-called "once in a
lifetime" event it's meant to be. In the end the world cup is not going
to change my life at all.
- B9TRIBECA's blog
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Real Talk
afrodite on Sat, 06/19/2010 - 19:43You never get people to express themselves without creaming things, and when they do, i salute them. Mr.B9, this is awesome, you have made my night. Very valid points and i just have to agree with you on a very rational level. However, as you have stated it is a passion, and i am willing to pay for it. You have some fire there...lol...awesome...afrocentric needs more people like you, you aint never scared!!!! B9 woyeeeeee!!!! mad heat!!! lol! I love....
Just expressing my personal
B9TRIBECA on Sun, 06/20/2010 - 08:34Just expressing my personal opinion of the world cup that's all ^-^.Thank you Afrodite. I appreciate your input very much.