As we approach the end of our six-year pregnancy as a country, it’s difficult to avoid the staccato moments of pride, nerves and nationalism that come with the imminent birth. But motherhood is not easy, especially when you’re a teenager.
Our beautiful country is but one of those, about to wake up to the fact that she’s been dribbled and played by the rich, older, foreign man — and she asked for it.
Every four years, this Casanova chooses one out of the many women who will bleed to have him come to their house for a month.
And this time, he chose the pubescent and fertile loin of Africa for his exploits. And we, the naively welcoming Africans, thought that this older man would deal with our adolescent skin, our emotional turmoil, our shallow pockets and other deep-seated psychological issues. Those are the ones one would expect to find in a child that’s been born into a broken home.
What I’m saying is nothing new. There have been nay-sayers and truth-sayers from day one but the majority of us have ignored them or called them tsjatsjarag racists, bloody agents and drinkers of hater-aid. The truth is, as much as I hate to admit it because I am a proud South African, we may do the world justice during the World Cup, but we have failed ourselves.
I’m not saying the World Cup will be a failure (although I’m sure Ze Germans are ready to be Fifa’s plan B), but the people who were so happy that it’s coming here, ordinary South Africans, should not hold their breath.
To me, this whole crazy thing is a masala of daylight robbery, assisted colonialism, voluntary statutory rape and bamboozling of a hopeful people, desperate to convince themselves “Yes we can” get drunk together and truly get along, create jobs, improve the transport system and reduce crime. Most people here appear to genuinely love this country, and they want to see it prosper — that’s evident in the increasing number of people with South African flags all over their cars.
But what’s going to happen once we don’t have to display our best selves, after the world has played and left? The flags being sold by the guys on the street really are a cheap form of instant nationalism — it’s R30 worth of national pride.
My question is: Are we going to be able to handle it on July 12 when we wake up and realise that this was all a little too much too early for us?
The fact that the SABC, etv and M-Net don’t want to screen Fahrenheit 2010, a film that dares to address issues we’ve been collectively eschewing as a nation regarding this World Cup, is a perfect reflection of how we are as South Africans: young and naive as a nation, with beauty and hope in our eyes, but swimming in denial.
We have justified spending billions on playgrounds when poverty tourism is still our speciality. WTF?