At one level the World Cup has been a short-term boon. Tourists emptied out of the tour buses, made purchases from street merchants and visited the Hector Pieterson Museum situated across the street from Holy Cross. They got back on the buses to return to their hotels in suburbs with high walls, confident that they saw the real Soweto.
“I live on the other side of Soweto and I haven’t seen a tour bus yet,” [Anglican priest Stepehn] Morero said.
But now that the monthlong circus has left town, the hard questions that were raised by community activists before the World Cup are back: Who won? Who lost?
The event has generally been hailed as a great success, with talk now turning to a South African Olympics as a possibility. New stadiums were constructed along with new roads leading to the stadiums, construction that helped create thousands of jobs. But is South Africa ”” and a majority of South Africans ”” better off than before the World Cup came to town?
“How much of the profit FIFA makes will be left to develop the poor communities?” Morero said. “I do not think it is going to move the ball forward. There has been a concern from the community over who profits from the World Cup.”
Who Really Won in South Africa?
The makers of vuvuzelas, anathema sint.
[blockquote]“Politically I think the power is now in the hands of the ANC,†he said. “But you can’t have the political power without all other power, and the first is economic power. I think it’s still in the hands of the white people, and let me add, in the hands of the Afrikaners.†[/blockquote]
So go the route of your neighbors, Robert Mugabe and ZANU-PF, and seize the “economic power” from those who are selfishly keeping it from you. See where that will leave South Africa.
Luke 12:12-15
[blockquote] Someone in the crowd said to Him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me.”
But He said to him, “Man, who appointed Me a judge or arbitrator over you?”
Then He said to them, “Beware, and be on your guard against every form of greed; for not even when one has an abundance does his life consist of his possessions.” [/blockquote]