World Cup 2010 a disappointment but new hope for South Africa...

On the outward journey, we wondered if South Africa would be worthy of the World Cup. We left for home today with the uneasy feeling that the World Cup had not lived up to the welcome and the facilities provided by its hosts.

They gave us their vast and spectacular new stadiums, their best shot at building an integrated transport system from scratch and their kindness and consideration at just about every turn. We gave them a rubbish final from which only the winners could take genuine pleasure.

(...)

So many doubts were cast on their ability to bring it off that the sense of relief has been enormous. And now, South Africans are saying, if we can do that at the behest of Fifa, a body that does nothing more than run a ball game, perhaps we can take on important projects for the benefit of our own people. Not exercises in triumphalist architecture, but perhaps creating a system to train better teachers, or finding a way of re-establishing the supply of skills – such as civil engineering – that went abroad or dried up. Full story...

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