World Cup Negativity

[Cranck]

I always try look at the positives of football (soccer)

 

[Cranck]

Ratty... there will be tckets available. As of 1st December - only 600 000 had been sold/reserved and there is talk of being able to buy over the counter.

 

I reckon with the lack of sales - prices will also come down towards the fixtures themselves. i do however see your issue with trying to bookl now for the visotors you will be hosting. Good luck!

 

i can't wait for the atmosphere. if its anything to by when the B&I Lions were down - fantastic!

 

[AndreZA]

...I'm half english...

 

 

 

which half, top or bottom or front or rear?

[Cassie]

I agree with leet22 (a couple of pages ago!) on the ripping off in the Hotel industry....

 

A good mate of mine is working for a brittish company that contracts room rentals...

 

One example: there is a hotel being build in Santon somewhere (about just over foundation height right now)...upon heraing of this - this company bought all the rooms for something like R28m....a rival comapny (also in the room sourcing / letting bussiness) then made a counter offer and bought the rooms over for something like R32m!! So company A already made a nice R4m proffit before a hotel was even completed....this same hotel's rooms have subsequently been re-sold for R35m and still needs to be finished!! Now imagaine what the poor tourist is going to be charged for his stay during the WC??? Do you think his "impression" of an affordable holiday in sunny SA will last/ I think not....I really think that most tourists will find SA a bit of a rip off....and perhaps the return visist that we all hope will actually drive our future economy will not materialise.

 

Historically, we were seen as a very favourable holiday destination - one of the reasons being the exchange rate being in favour for tourists...we have wiped out that perception and replaced it with one of being pricey..... why come to SA with all the risks involved (crime / transport etc etc.)  when you can visit any other first world destination at the same price? (with less crime & better transport infrastructure)..

 

Bottom line: we are killing the goose that lays the golden eggs!!

 

[GoLefty!!]

 

My standard response to these a-holes is;

 

"When did ignorance become a point of view"

 

 

that usually shuts them up pretty quickly.

 

This is the second time this week that I have to agree with you. What happened?

 

 

I think that beer has finally chilled you out

 

 

the rest of this post is aimed generally.

 

The Football World Cup will have negatives and positives, as does most things in life.

 

Will it be a white elephant? No I doubt it.

 

The stadiums show the world that we can manage a project of this magnitude within the schedule. The budget well thats another thing. Global credit crunch has hurt that quite a bit but by the same token there was savings when the bottom fell out of the oil price.

 

Skills transfer. The construction program for the stadiums has nearly doubled the number of skilled building contractors. I've heard stories from WSP and M&R that unskilled people were pulled off the street, trained by the few experienced hires and now 4 yrs later those people have a certificate of competency.

This is of huge benefit to RDP housing projects which suffered badly during the housing boom from 2002 till 2006. Yes we can critique the RDP housing projects as a failure but the bottom line of the truth is that there was simply not enough contractors around to build those houses and the lucrative fenced houseing developments. Those developments sucked skills away from RDP projects because there was more moeny in the housing developments.

Post FWC, we should have more skilled people to help deliver the projects.

 

Tourism: What better wa to showcase everything SA has to offer. You will be surprised how few Europeans or americans know anything of substance about SA. All they see is bad news (which we tend to focus on ourselves). If theycome out here they will see the country for what it really is; a magnificent geography with diverse cultures and a hell of a lot to do and see.

 

The negative is that, yes Saffa's will get greedy. Saffa's will bad mouth their country.

An acquaintence was telling me that South Africa has the highest number of dual passport holders in the world. She worked in government so I trust the stat she quoted. Thats pretty alarming because it means that we have many people living here with no real commitment to SA and probably are the biggest culprits when it comes to bad mouthing SA.

Thats pretty sad because right or wrong, good or bad this is our land. Damn we should be proud of it.

Common excuses are; corruption, crime, AIDS.

A little bit of reading reveals that crime and corruption is everywhere, in every country. AIDS is everywhere, in every country. Africa is worst hit of course but Africa is dog poor, less educated and the worst nourished continent on the planet.

Instead of bad mouthing it, why not try to be part of a solution. Now this is where the bad mouthers will use the corruption as an excuse to do nothing.

Damn it people, why don't we just focus on fixing the crap instead of looking for greener grass; there is none

 

[Stretch]

 

An acquaintence was telling me that South Africa has the highest number of dual passport holders in the world. .....probably are the biggest culprits when it comes to bad mouthing SA.

 

oi!!! i'm one of them and am very committed to this country!

 

 

 

apart from that, thats a nice well rounded summary lookibng at the side of job creation and future development etc.

 

 

 

it seems a lot of people are concerned about the over inflated prices, so lets just hope that doesn't come back to bite us - thats my only real negative

[PPWTF]

Everyone who's ever hosted a major sporting event, in what ever country, knows that prices are hyped for such events. It's a fact of life.

 

 

 

I predict the event that is the FWC here in SA will be a massive success.

 

 

 

Yes we will still have crime problems, just as we do every day (Lived in London, had a flat mate mugged at gun point by crack heads just yards from our front door...).

 

 

 

Crime may, or may not be magnified, by press coverage / focus, or by actual events directly related to those traveling to the FWC. However, if it is anything like as exciting as standing in a street in central London, where not a car passes and the place is swamped with (on this occasion) Brazil fans partying like crazy as their team kicked ass, then boy oh boy is it gonna be an amazing few weeks here in South Africa.

 

 

[Cranck]

for some reason - i think something bad will happen during the WC. but lets hope that is not the case.

 

[TCRCARBON]

for some reason - i think something bad will happen during the WC. but lets hope that is not the case.

You mean like Banfana won't make the second round or what......

[GoLefty!!]

 

 

An acquaintence was telling me that South Africa has the highest number of dual passport holders in the world. .....probably are the biggest culprits when it comes to bad mouthing SA.

 

oi!!! i'm one of them and am very committed to this country!

 

 

 

apart from that' date=' thats a nice well rounded summary lookibng at the side of job creation and future development etc.

 

 

 

it seems a lot of people are concerned about the over inflated prices, so lets just hope that doesn't come back to bite us - thats my only real negative [/quote']

 

 

apologies, badly worded. There are a great many dual passport holder who are very commited to SA. That pool include native SA's as well as foreigners.

 

But from that pool also comes I feat the biggest bad mouthers. I don;t know why, maybe its because they feel they have a get out of jail card, I don't really know. i would expect those folk to have a more positive attitude since they have seen the grass on the other side.

 

we have a lot to be proud of down here.

 

[Tumbleweed]

I predict the event that is the FWC here in SA will be a massive success.

let's see:

RWC 1995: huge success - heck they even made a movie about it.

CWC 2003: huge success - ok, the slow draft taps at wanderes were a pain.

mtb WC 2009: huge success - best event i've ever attended.

 

i reckon they can pull it off. 

[Willehond]

....cut' date=' cut...
An acquaintence was telling me that South Africa has the highest number of dual passport holders in the world. She worked in government so I trust the stat she quoted. Thats pretty alarming because it means that we have many people living here with no real commitment to SA and probably are the biggest culprits when it comes to bad mouthing SA.
Thats pretty sad because right or wrong, good or bad this is our land. Damn we should be proud of it.
[/quote']

Lots of good points GL, but the passport one is a bit of a stretch.  A passport is not meant to display your loyalty to a country it is meant to get you into OTHER countries easily!  Having travelled extensively internationally I can assure you that the green mamba passport is the most useless passport out there (barring maybe Afghanistan, some African countries).  The number of times I've had to tell bewildered colleagues that I can't join them on a trip because "I need a visa and it takes weeks to get it" has sucked the will to live out of me.  If I could get another passport I would jump at the opportunity!

 

As for the negativity out there:  stop moaning and look forward to the world's soccer fanatics descending on our little country.  They will make a party of it despite your worst efforts to spoil it.  It is going to be huge (don't even think of comparing it to the cricket/rugby world cups) so enjoy it.  It will never happen again.

[Regard]

I predict the event that is the FWC here in SA will be a massive success.

let's see:

RWC 1995: huge success - heck they even made a movie about it.

CWC 2003: huge success - ok' date=' the slow draft taps at wanderes were a pain.

mtb WC 2009: huge success - best event i've ever attended.

 

i reckon they can pull it off. 

[/quote']

 

You forgot a few!

How about the 1996 African Nations Cup and 2009 Confed Cup

 

Regard2010-01-20 04:07:55

[Danger Dassie]

The World Summit

IPL

BMX World Cup

International Military and Aviation Expo

[Tumbleweed]

I predict the event that is the FWC here in SA will be a massive success.

let's see:

RWC 1995: huge success - heck they even made a movie about it.

CWC 2003: huge success - ok' date=' the slow draft taps at wanderes were a pain.

mtb WC 2009: huge success - best event i've ever attended.

 

i reckon they can pull it off. 

[/quote']

 

You forgot a few!

How about the 1996 African Nations Cup and 2009 Confed Cup

 

 

was sticking to the world cups!

[scotty]

In the history of the world cup, every team hosting it has made it to the second round, i fear we will change history.

 

There will be some financial benefits but in reality only the major cities will see any kind of longer benefit, the outlying stadiums such as Polokwane and Nelspruit will struggle and i fear become white elephants unable to recoup the costs to build, who would want to pay to watch a team like Algeria play Slovenia in Polokewane ?