South Africa 2010: Soccer Fever
South Africa will be hosting the FIFA World Cup in June 2010, and all over Cape Town, preparations are being made. A new stadium is under construction, and I can see it from my 30th floor hotel room window. Much infrastructure (streets, sidewalks, etc.) is being repaved and repaired in order to make the city ready for an event which seems to be as big as the Olympics.
http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/index.html
http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/destination/stadiums/stadium=5011924/index.html

It is hard from North Americans to understand the passion for soccer in this part of the world (and in most of Europe as well). Our enthusiasm for our own national sport, hockey, does not even begin to come close. Even the American game of baseball does not generate the same level of obsession. There are several TV channels which show nothing but soccer (last night we saw part of the match between the Faroe Islands and France), as well as cricket and rugby, two other sports which people here follow with intensity. In fact, while I waited on line at the bank to change dollars, I watched part of a match on a TV screen mounted on the bank's wall.
A South African explained to me that soccer is the world's most accessible game – no special equipment is needed, just a ball and some empty space on which to play. This was brought home to me in dramatic fashion yesterday evening as we drove alone the motorway on the outskirts of Cape Town on our way to Stellenbosch, in the wine region. There, along the grassy medians worn thin by the passing foot traffic, and on the access areas leading to the expressway on-ramps, groups of young boys from the townships were playing soccer in the sandy dried mud, kicking the ragged ball around with abandon. Later on in the trip, I learned about the poverty and misery of these children close up,on my visits to Langa and Nyanga townships on the outskirts of Cape Town.
More later.