I’ll be the last person you’ll ever see at a screening of a regular football (soccer) game, yet, like many, I find the World Cup irresistible. And it’s not just because I’m from South Africa either.

Fine, a large part of me is drawn to the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa for the very reason that it is in South Africa.  The minor parts of me are drawn to it because teams competing against each other on a country-level brings out something very competitive and patriotic in me.

Bafana Bafana – Boys Boys

Of course the team I support first is the South African Football Team, which are known as Bafana Bafana in the same way the South African Rugby Team is known as the Springboks. It’s a term of endearment, which contrary to their Wikipedia page, actually means Boys Boys. From my understanding, at least.

But it seems as if the rumours are true. You know, the rumours that said that the only reason South Africa is in the Football World Cup at all is because we’re the host nation.

Yes, our national soccer team doesn’t have a fully stocked trophy cabinet -  the Africa Cup of Nations it the only trophy in the cabinet – but we do have some skills.  And one or two players in other country’s club leagues.

So Bafana Bafana might not be the smart choice to bet on, but they’re my number 1 priority to support. Even though thus far they’re not doing that great and might soon be out of the 2010 FIFA Football World Cup.  But until they walk off the field for the very last time, I am a South African Football Supporter through and through.

In The Meantime…

While South Africa isn’t playing my allegiance lies with other African teams and Asian teams, and it’s them I root for in games that do not involve South Africans.

I saw the dark side of South African fans in our game against Uruguay.  The vuvuzelas where roaring, the crowds were cheering and then South Africa was 2 down against Uruguay.  Suddenly the vuvuzelas fell silent and the crowds became quiet – shortly after the stadium started to empty.

I know it was a terrible game – South Africa stood around as if they too were spectators.  But for our fellow fans to desert them like that hurt.  If it hurt me as a fellow supporter, imagine how the team on the field must have felt.  If they had the wind taken out of their sails by the goals against them, I can’t even imagine how the silence of their supporters must have been the kick in the ribs while they were down.

South Africa in the Rest of The World Cup

So experts and those who know nothing both agree: South Africa probably won’t advance any further than the pools in the 2010 FIFA World Cup on their home ground.

But France is not exactly in good shape either – in fact, they’re much worse off than Bafana Bafana.  For that reason I think our Boys still have a chance.  A slim chance, but a chance non-the-less.

If we beat France, and we beat them good to get our Goals For up, they might still have a chance.  And if Bafana Bafana wants to take that chance, I will be right behind them cheering to do it with gusto.

I promise that if the team doesn’t let the country down and try their hardest, the country won’t let them down.  You might not win, but at least die trying.

Go Bafana Bafana, go Boys Boys!

Here’s Some Quality World Cup Links for Instant Info

• Google.com’s Most Recent Scores & Upcoming Games
  It defaults to South Africa time (on Google.com), but you can your local time by using your local Google: google.com.my for everything in Malalysia time, for instance.
  
• FIFA 2010 World Cup in South Africa Full Schedule of Games
  Defaults to South Africa time, but you can set the time zone for easy conversion and have the times be for your time zone.
• FIFA 2010 World Cup in South Africa Standings
  A must have chart for following your team and see which other teams pose a threat – or not.
• Twitter.com’s FIFA 2010 Football World Cup in South Africa Coverage
  Not all of it is interesting, but most of it is certainly relevant.  If for some reason you can’t follow the live broadcast of your favourite game, you can always tune in to Twitter and follow the live game there.  Could be exciting… And if you hash the 3 letter code of a country, like in #rsa, or #worldcup – you’ll get a nice little icon next to it on the Twitter website.

Well I’ll be damned! Here’s a South African political controversy that doesn’t involve Julius Malema.

5FM, arguably one of South Africa’s favourite radio stations, was fined R10,000 (a little over US$1,000) for playing a song in which lyrics the word Kaffir occurs.  But get this, the song is by a black artist, was played by a black DJ and the complaints were from white people!

The word ‘kaffir’ is the South African equivalent of the American word ‘nigger’.  As in America, the taboo-for-other-races word is often used by the black youth. During apartheid this derogatory taunt was the proverbial stick with which white people beat black people, and in the new South Africa, black people use the broken stick any way they want.

And, it seems, some white people felt that by playing this song, they were being beaten with their own broken stick.

Sung by Kwaito legend Arthur Mafokate, the song Kaffir was a huge hit in 1995 and sold nearly 150,000 copies, consequently becoming a dance-floor hit in South Africa.  The offending word is often repeated in the lyrics “nee baas, don’t call me a kaffir”. Idiomatically translated it means “no master, don’t call me a kaffir”.

After the song was played on 5FM during DJ Fresh’s drive time show, the Media Watchdog, Broadcasting Complaints Commission of South Africa (BCCSA), apparently received 25 complaints about the song, and reportedly from white people. Hu?  The BCCSA said the song “had no place” in South Africa where “political correctness and sensitivity need to be practised”. The station was fined R10,000.

Here’s Arthur Mafokate’s song Kaffir. It’s a seriously low quality version (I reduced it from 7mb to 1mb) – if you like it, buy the album (or write to 5FM and ask them to play it more often).
[soundbite width="410" height="30" addy="http://www.1earthadventures.com/wp-content/mp3player/xspf_player_slim.swf?playlist_url=/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/play-arthur.xspf&player_title=Click%20Play%20to%20hear%20the%20controversy"]

My question is why would white people be offended when black people chooses to use this word? Does it open painful wounds? Remind them of the time when they were cruel masters? A time long gone, which will never return?

Unfortunately, as with all this planet’s atrocities, we can’t simply pretend that apartheid never happened. To learn the hard lessons it taught us, and more importantly, to never let it happen again, we have to remember and face it. To hear the word kaffir reminds us whities of what we were, not to say we didn’t change, but it’s a milestone – so we can look back and measure how far we’ve come.

Uncomfortable, yes? Hard lesson, that one.

For an indepth article on the discussion and the usual array of colourful comments at the bottom from equally colourful characters, see what TheTimes.co.za had to say.

SA fails again: Jacob Zuma Avoids Prosecution.  I’m confused. How can only 1 half of a corrupt relationship be tried in court for fraud and corruption?  How can the other half avoid going to court at all? Why is it so difficult for African countries to let the Law run its course?

Schabir Shaik was found guilty of fraud and corruption based on a relationship with Jacob Zuma about which the judge said there was overwhelming evidence it was corrupt. So a court of law proved that Schabir Shaik is a criminal fraudster and was guilty of corruption stemming from a corrupt relationship with Jacob Zuma. A relationship. Implying at least 2 people.

After 8 years, the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) finally decide they will not charge Jacob Zuma in court, because his lawyers apparently proved the charges against him were politically motivated.

So lets get this straight. They were not in court, and they didn’t prove that Jacob Zuma was innocent. No, instead his lawyers had lengthy, closed-door discussions with the NPA and convinced them that the charges against Jacob Zuma were politically motivated.

Scabir Shaik was tried, found guilty, and went to jail like the common criminal he is – politics, I think we can agree, wasn’t a real consideration in his case – yet, the other half of that corrupt relationship, Jacob Zuma, can claim the same charges don’t apply to him because those same charges are politically motivated?

Jacob Zuma is basically sticking out his fat middle finger to Scabir Shaik saying ‘sorry mate, you do the crime, you do the time – but I do the crime, I start to whine and I avoid the time.’

Jacob Zuma’s lawyers said that for 8 long years he was tried in the public court of opinion. Boo fucking hoo. I can honestly say I’ve never heard of a man fighting tooth-n-nail not to go to court for 8 years because he’s innocent – usually the fighting goes on inside the court, because there’s stuff like evidence to back up your claims. If you’re innocent you go prove it in court – if you’re not, you avoid going to court and you think people won’t notice? People won’t talk, discuss and wonder why you’re so adamant not to go to court?

Behind those closed doors it was apparently also said that prosecuting Jacob Zuma was not in the best interest of the country.

Jacob Zuma, as the president of the ANC, will more than likely become South Africa’s next president after the April 22 elections.  So, although South African presidents do not enjoy immunity from prosecution, it was apparently decided that having a president with legal proceeding against him won’t do anything for South Africa’s international street cred. Damn Skippy it won’t!

But the right thing to do here is not let him be president in the first place.  Is having a president who somehow wriggled his way out of corruption charges better than having a president actually in the process of fighting corruption charges?  Would you invest your trust in a man who side-stepped being tried for corruption, or would you invest your trust with a man who was tried, but cleared of any wrong doing… assuming the outcome was that he is innocent of course.

I’m pissed off this whole situation. And I’m angry that people still believe what the ANC tell them and will vote for them anyway.  Nkosi Sikela Africa.

First Addition:

So the plot thickens.  It appears that what they were doing behind those closed doors was not explain why the Jacob Zuma case should be dropped, but decide what to write in the press release instead.  This piece of work took some crafting, I can tell you that.

The First

There are two controversies, the one stemming for the other.  Some state apparatus recorded conversations between a menagerie of exes:  ex-President Mbeki, ex-Scorpions Head McCarthy and ex-NPA Head Bulelani Ngcuka.  Conveniently Jacob Zuma and team had copies (or originals perhaps?) of these conversations, which supposedly contains the compelling evidence, not that the charges against him were politically motivated (in fact, from what I’ve read, the conversations affirm that positive evidence supported the charges), but that the timing of laying the charges were manipulated.

The Second

The burning questions of who made those recordings and how did Jacob Zuma get his showered-after-AIDS-sex paws on them aside, the manipulated timing of the charges is why the NPA is dropping this whole hot potato.

As far as I, Joe Soap, John Everyman, Joe the Plumber, can see they a) didn’t change the fact that Jacob Zuma was charged for corruption, b) didn’t address whether or not he is guilty, c) didn’t illustrate that the charges were politically motivated, and d) didn’t finally lay this thing to rest.

Why d)? Because, aparently there’s all sorts of ways that Zuma could potentially still have his day in court.  But first they’re putting on a witch-hunt to prosecute those who apparently messed with Zuma’s charges. But that’s in the hands of the NPA – oh dear.

On the way home for lunch this afternoon I drove along the big open canal that runs parallel to the road. It’s a big storm-water permanently filled with water, not sure if it ever was a river. But I think today it was used for raw sewerage dumping.

On a good day it’s quite disgusting – it forever smells of god-knows-what and is usually a dark, murky black-green. In a demented kind of way this isn’t so bad, because it reflects the blue skies, making it seem less dubious than it is.

Today however, as I glanced down the tributary while driving across it, it was an almost bright brown. And not the kind of light, muddy brown you find in the Padas River either, but a murky, sludgy, brown with stuff floating on it.

If raw sewerage was your first thought, then snap, because it was mine too.  And this stuff eventually flows into the ocean near the city and 5-star resorts, so it immediately concerned me.

As I approached my turn-off, I saw the part of the canal near my house was still black-green, but it had loads of bits floating on it, something I’ve never seen before. I realised somebody must have dumped something at a specific point. I got out for a closer look.

As I took these pics I nearly wretched. It smelled like raw sewage and, without going into too much detail, it looked it too. These bits had obviously floated to this part while the bright brown volume had diluted.

This shit, whether it is shit or not, will eventually make it to the sea and, if enough of it was or is dumped, it could go as far as the Tunku Abdul Rahman Marine Park and onto the beaches of the islands and Kota Kinabalu’s 5-star hotels.

At best, it will stink up several housing estates as it flows along wide open sections of the draining system for everyone to see and smell, past the Museum where tourist regularly walk and this shit will be damed up right next to the hospital. Then it will meander along some of KK’s busy office areas and behind a few hotels, certainly stinking up the air and view of the Beverly Hotel (which looks directly onto this ‘river’), past Kota Kinabalu’s UMNO building (will they notice?) and into the sea right next to Sutera Harbour Resort’s Golf Course, where their high paying guests can play the Shit Hole.

It will also likely wash up on the rocks of the  new waterfront development they’re constructing there, which will extend from the mouth of this open sewer. If this kind of thing continues, tourists will be repulsed off the Waterfront and away from KK and Sabah.

So, who monitors this kind of thing and how are they held accountable? Is KK’s waterways just a dumping ground? We see a lot of rubbish being dumped in here. Has it now just gone a step further to where KK dumps it raw sewage for the sea to take care of?

When will the authorities realise that KK’s rubbish pollution, and if this is raw sewerage, will not only make Kota Kinabalu’s residents sick, but their tourism industry too?

This crossed my inbox today – it’s about a Microsoft case study on OpenOffice.org.

It certainly tickled me, so I thought I’d share…

From: <it doesn’t matter>
To: 1Earth
Sent: Wednesday, March 25, 2009 3:56:01 PM
Subject: Questions – Microsoft Casestudy

…

I need to reply to a case study from Microsoft on Open Office. Apparently they want to know why you chose to use Open Office vs Powerpoint to create Channel 18 or something (I’m not sure, but MIS mentioned you were the only one using Open Office in SHR). Can you provide me with some answers to the questions below:

• Were they just trialing or were they former Open Office users?
• How many PCs?
• When did this happen?
• What impression did they have on Open Office that made them decide to try?
• What are the customer pain points?
• What are the reasons why they’ve switched from Open Office to Microsoft
• What were the end results and supported by statistics

I would appreciate your feedback before the end of the week.

Wow, if only I could reply to them directly so that I know it wouldn’t get edited. But what the hell, I replied to the person asking anyway….

From: 1Earth
Sent: Wednesday, March 25, 2009 5:08 PM
To: <it really doesn’t matter>
Subject: Re: Questions – Microsoft Casestudy

…  I love an opportunity to tell Microsoft why they suck – it would be great if you didn’t edit this. Go on, blame me

- Were they trailing or were they former Open Office users?
I’m a looooooooong time Open Office user.

- How many PCs?
2 – the one I created it on and the one it ran on. Given half a chance I would install it on every PC I encounter.

- When did this happen?
In 2007 already – November, December? I can’t remember exactly.

- What impression did they have on Open Office that decided them to try?
The main motivation was that it was free and quick.
I didn’t have to beg somebody in MIS for weeks, who had to beg somebody in Finance for months, who had to shell out lots of RM to Microsoft for another license.
Secondly, but almost as important, was that I knew it would run unattended for extensive periods without crashing.
Thirdly, it was easy to quickly show the Concierge how to work the basics they needed, as the interface is intuitive.

- What are the customer pain points?
Haha, as in what pains me about Powerpoint? Where to start… but for the sake of brevity, the reverse of the points above will do.
I would have had to get another expensive license to run another copy on another machine.
I can’t trust PowerPoint with all sorts of slides to run for long periods without mysteriously crashing.
I would have needed several hours to teach the Concierge how to do the basic stuff in case of trouble.

- What are the reasons they switched from Open Office to Microsoft?
Oh, I didn’t switch back to Microsoft, I left SH. I’m still happily using the ever improving Open Office.

- What were the end results supported by statistics?
The end results is that often free, open source software are more reliable and increasingly easier to use than Microsoft’s propriety, expensive, closed source software. Microsoft’s declining share in many of their software markets are statistics, I’m sure, they’re well aware of and don’t need me to supply to them.

It’s a fat pleasure

The sarcasm was largely unintended, but Microsoft doesn’t bring out the best in me.