A little while back I wrote a piece on the South African psyche of not having faith in our ourselves that we will get things right (see Greg’s View on Fun). We always look forward and assume that we will mess it up, which the media then laps up and spews out there.

The pendulum has now swung to the other extreme. Now no negative press is tolerated by South Africans regarding the Soccer World Cup. We are now in a panacea of perfection and efficiency, despite actual experience. My experience is an example. I am aware that my comments may be seen by some as “afro-pessimism” or negative but it is a factual account of what happened. I also must point out a feature of my personality where I get frustrated when I see that things designed to achieve something are not being utilised properly.

Here is my experience of the opening game. We arrived at the park and ride facility more than two hours before the start of the ceremony to join a very long queue of people waiting to board the buses to the stadium. There was an amazing vibe and so we joined the queue with the same spirit. An hour later we finally boarded a bus, excited that we had more than an hour to travel the 15 minute route and find our seats. That excitement was short-lived as the bus ground to a halt in heavy traffic. I was puzzled, as I believed that there were dedicated bus lanes all the way to the stadium. These lanes were now occupied by taxis travelling in the wrong direction. The traffic mayhem (which the metro police proved ineffective against) slowly killed the mood in the bus as we began to realise that we would miss the opening ceremony.

We arrived late at the stadium and the one advantage was that we got a better view of the fly-over than if we had been in the stadium. We passed through security where, interestingly enough, nobody checked our tickets and we quickly headed for our seats. The block printed on our tickets had been omitted from the stadium signage but we followed logic and found where we were supposed to be sitting only to find that someone else was in our seats. The marshals seemed to have less knowledge of the stadium than us so we eventually resolved the problem despite them and settled down to watch the end of the ceremony…which was now over.

Our ride home was equally interesting with no signage indicating which of two gates to use to board the bus. Eventually on the right bus we were treated to a thorough tour of the city centre, stopping at every stop, despite no one needing to get on or off the bus. So, after three hours either side of the game we collapsed on the couch and decided to skip the next game for which we have tickets.

The newspaper the next day had nothing but glowing reports of how successful the organisation of the first game had been. There was brief mention of the fact that there appeared to be many empty seats during the opening ceremony. On Facebook many people glowed with pride.

Maybe soccer is just not important enough to me? Perhaps there is not enough passion to put myself through all the trouble to get to the games? In fact, I now know this about me. However, I am upset that I paid a fortune for two tickets to a ceremony that I missed for reasons outside of my control that should not have happened. I have seen others who missed it shrug their shoulders and say “this is Africa”. I don’t believe that is an excuse. Why should this sort of event be acceptable in Africa? Why does it have to be that the taxis are allowed by the metro police to block buses filled with paying people (including tourists) heading for the stadium?

If you went to this game and also had my experience, tell yourself the truth. I have had to admit that it was a diabolical experience. I saw how it could have been handled so much better by the authorities. Yet, I had fun. Jodene and I laughed our way through it. We even made up a storyline for a horror film on the bus back home about a bunch of unsuspecting soccer fans who get stuck on a bus for eternity and end up having to eat each other. We had fun but everything was not perfect. We’re willing to say that.

Blind patriotism does not benefit a country or its people. When New Yorkers started to face the truth of the state of their city in the ‘80’s only then did they start to turn things around. First they had to tell themselves the truth that their city was over-ridden by crime and filth in order to start cleaning it up. This is one of the world’s success stories in the fight to stop urban decay. Let South Africa be the success story against the destructive African psyche of “second best will do”.

Let’s face the truth, do something with it and then have fun in it.

Be Sociable, Share!

• 

Related posts:

1. Greg’s View on Fun 2010 can be fun – it’s our choice. Sometimes one...
2. Greg’s View on just being friends “Let’s just be friends”…the four words that many people dread...
3. Show them what you’re worth As we stand on the threshold of 2011… Be prepared...