South Africa the Great!

Lynne Thackeray's "Adderley Street" during the FIFA World Cup in in South Africa, 2010

It has been the wierdest thing being in Sydney while South Africa shows off her true colours. I just love what people have seen - I love what has happened there. Far from the predicted massacres of international tourists, thousands upon thousands of people have been bouyed by the joyousness of a country with a miraculous history and, more importantly, a wonderful future. And the World Cup has been an integral part of the South African story, showing that it is indeed possible for South Africa to take a break from the daily grind of  constant and violent crime. Well, as far as we hear. 

John Carlin, writing in Yes, South Africa can, says:

The society is great, and it is the reason why (never mind the safari parks and the fairest Cape) so many of us foreigners who've spent time here find this country more beguiling than any other on Earth. Ordinary people have so much more wisdom, grit, resilience, invention, courage and generosity than you find in most countries.

Shame on the television stations in Australia prior to the games - shame on their coverage of South Africa. Shame on the journalists who showed us only the back streets of brothel-laden areas, the police who were unable to deal with crime, the drug-dealing on the street. Shame on them for casting fear into the hearts of anyone who would have thought of visiting South Africa. Shame on them for not showing people dancing and singing and living the way South Africans do - with great angst, but with even greater joy. Shame on them for not showing the incredible diversity of life in South Africa - including the incredible highs of being in such a vibrant society - and expressing at least some optimism.

Yes, South African has some deep traumas, not least the poverty and high levels of HIV AIDS. And gender violence. But it is a country with grit and guts and resilience, as John Carlin says. And long may that continue.

Pictures below: 
At the Stadium, by Bev Cohen. 
The Oranje Bus, by Nicky Thompson. Staff at Dementia South Africa, by Lynne Thackeray.  

Jacque Marais' amazing Vuvusela photo, from Facebook. For great World Cup pictures, go to Jacque Marais's photos here

Uber-optimism for South Africa

As Marianne Thamm points out in her article "The feelgood factor need not be confined to soccer", South Africa is in a very proud place - filled with joy, celebration and excitement. I hear it from all my friends over the phone, on twitter, on facebook. I see it on television. And for me, after more than 15 years of working in crime prevention in South Africa, I am absolutely thrilled that it is, indeed, possible to break the chains crime and fear.

Marianne says:

We've learned that with enough political will and police the justice system can, in record time, make life uncomfortable for criminals.

I remember once returning from a trip to Johannesburg and touching down on the Cape Town airstrip with a sense of relief. I remember feeling that Cape Town just didn't have the paranoia I had experienced in Gauteng, particularly in Johannesburg. I remember wondering if there could be some way that we could just choose, from one day to the next, to no longer have the crime scurge eat away at every South African's safety and security. I wondered if large scale community programmes could make crime just, ummm, go away! The poorest of the poor were suffering the most, even though the media was all about the privileged whose lifestyles were affected by crime. I saw, first-hand, how desperate people were in the townships. I saw how desperate young men in prison were. I saw how freaked out victims of crime were. And I wanted it to just stop. Sommer (as we say in South Africa - the word means just so or just because.... it's hard to translate. Sommer is sommer).

At the time I was the national director of fundraising, marketing and media at NICRO (national institute for crime prevention and reintegration of offenders). We were trying to turn the tide of crime - we wanted to stop turning our homes into prisons and prisons in to homes. The organisation was involved with programmes for offenders, ex-offenders, juvenile offenders, victims of crime and also with those who wanted to start economic projects through the economic opportunities programme. There were 100,000 clients and 240 staff. Many, many people's lives were affected by the work of NICRO staff throughout the country. I was coordinating a national campaign called Whistle Week which was to "blow the whistle against crime". I saw how people on the ground wanted to express their need to end crime in their communities. And I believed that there was a lot happening to find solutions to crime.

I understood all the underlying reasons for the crime and violence levels, but that day when I landed in Cape Town I was accessing a kind of uber-optimism. Today, when I read Marianne's article, I had the same kind of optimism. Today I am hoping against hope that South Africa can find a peaceful place to be when the World Cup is over. I am hoping that the last few weeks and the next few days can sprinkle magic dust on the country I still love so dearly, and offer peace and prosperity way into the future.