A recent study on rape by the South Africa Medical Research Council came as a strong reminder on the severity of the rape situation in South Africa.

According to the study 1 in 4 men have already forced a women to have sex with him. Rape is generally accepted in wide parts of the society.

The police statistics show 86 women and 64 minor girls being raped each day.

30% of adolescents stated that their first sexual encounter was based on rape.

The reported number of rapes per year is 55,000. The University of South Africa estimates that the real number is around 1 million. If this number is correct one woman in South Africa is forced to have sex every 30 seconds. Read More…

Posted under Gender equality

If you’ve watched the terrific Confederations Cup — and especially its thrilling USA:Brazil ending! — then you can’t have helped hearing the South African fans making noise with their traditional instruments of football mayhem, the vuvuzela.

They look like this:

The Vuvuzela is a noise maker found at South African soccer matches

A half-dozen fans having one of these, or even a lot of fans who blow on them to celebrate a goal or terrific defensively play is one thing, but as those of us that watched the FIFA Confederations Cup learned, the practice in South Africa seems to be to keep a continuous drone of vuvuzela going throughout the match.

And we’re not talking about twenty or thirty people in the stadium, we’re talking about hundreds, if not thousands, of locals keeping a deafening racket during the entire match.

Players have complained, coaches have complained, broadcast personnel have complained, but FIFA, so far, has said that it would allow vuvuzela’s in the World Cup 2010 stadiums and would allow South Africans to use them to mark their enjoyment and appreciation of the game.

I wish they wouldn’t. I found the constant clamor to be most distracting and annoying, and it even got in the way of being able to hear the crowd reaction to terrific plays or bad calls by referees both.

Maybe it’s time for the South African fans to learn some chants?

Posted under 2010 World Cup

The rulers in Iran made one big mistake during the Islamic Revolution. They cut down women’s rights. But they figured that if women cover themselves up they could be allowed into Universities. And so they went. And they got very educated. The rate of educated women climbed from 30% to 70% over the last 30 years.

Yes they still walk around all covered up but there was something brewing underneath all these chadors and head scarfs. And the rulers missed out on that.

The women of Teheran have shown tremendous courage over the last weeks. They were not afraid to take a beating.

Neda Iran was of course the woman whose tragic fate propelled the women standing up into the world headlines. They know that what is happening in this country is not right.

This should serve as a lesson to other countries that still discriminate against women. No matter what your reasoning polical, religious or cultural.

Yes the demonstrations in Iran are about the past elections. But they have turned into something much bigger by now. These women stand up for their rights.

Bottom line: Many of these women are fearless heros. Some of them are dead now or imprisoned. They are still all winners in my book. I hope many other women from around the world will follow suit. This doesn’t always have to be on the level of trying to overturn a government. But gathering and speaking up does make a difference: To the outside world but even more so to yourself. It is very empowering and can chnge someone’s life forever.

How about that famous quote of Victor Frankl: ” Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom. ”

Related articles by Zemanta

• Facebook Turns Iran’s Neda into a Martyr (usnews.com)
• Iranian authorities try to silence Neda’s voice (inquisitr.com)
• A graveside tribute to Neda (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• Video: Neda Iran, one life lost for a greater cause (inquisitr.com)

Posted under Everything Else, Gender equality

It’s not quite the 2010 World Cup, but it’s a great chance for South Africa and FIFA to give us a taste of what it’s going to be like next year when the World Cup kicks off, and so far the stadiums look great, the players are looking smart on field, and the high-def TV camera systems are doing very well.

You haven’t heard of the Confederations Cup?  I hadn’t either until I saw the games being discussed on some South African blogs. This is the eighth Confederations Cup and FIFA considers it the “Festival of Champions”. Here’s how FIFA explains:

“With six Champions from six continents, 2006 FIFA World Cup™ winner Italy, and the host, South Africa, all competing, this football celebration will be the warm-up for the 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa™. The list of participating nations also includes recent European Champions Spain, USA, Iraq, Brazil, Egypt and the winner of the OFC Nations Cup, New Zealand.”

Sounds good, and so far, it looks great!

Posted under 2010 World Cup

South Africa is currently preparing for the World Cup 2010, not only one of the biggest events of the world, but an opportunity for improving lives of the citizens. The South Africa government is committed to improving infrastructure and security to ensure Africa’s first Fifa world cup event.

As South Africa is preparing for this big event, awareness needs to be brought to this potential violence lurking in the shadows. According to an article posted on 3/27/09 on Dispatch Online, World Cup 2010 may be promising more than economic and national growth for South Africa. There is a growing fear of human trafficking emerging ahead of the 2010 Fifa World Cup, much like the organized sex trade that Germany had when they hosted the event in 2006.

The area most likely to be targeted for prostitution is the Eastern Cape, which has recently been named as the worst slave trade province in the country. This is due to the high poverty rate and lack of resources. Tourism and prostitution tend to go together, mainly in poverty stricken areas, where the lure of money is attractive to young girls. But in a country with already astronomical rates of HIV, AIDS and sexual violence, this projection can’t be ignored.

As South Africa develops better sports facilities and transportation system, and improves its roads and telecommunications infrastructure, we hope that the government is not ignoring the needs of the poverty- stricken areas not in the media spotlight.

Posted under 2010 World Cup

The South African government announced today that it will not issue a visa for the Dalai Lama to attend a peace conference meant to deal with Xenophobia and overall violence in hindsight of the 2010 Soccer World Cup.

As a result Desmond Tutu and F.W. de Klerk have already pulled out. The move is seen as a way to avoid conflict with the Chinese government even though South Africa denies it. Why else would you not let the Dalai Lama in.

Other countries have been way more diplomatic in their way to deal with the Tibet problem.

The South African government seem to be fairly dependent from trade with China. The peace conference is doomed to fail as a result. Maybe it is better hosted somewhere else.

The signal sent is that non-violence and peace might not seem to be top priorities. The government will give in to threats by powerful forces. That could have implications in South Africa’s efforts to present itself as a safe place for visitors to attend the World Cup.

Keep in mind that China is not the biggest force in World Soccer. No matter how big their efforts. China has maybe won this battle. On the pitch in 2010 they’ll be a non-factor.

Banning the Dalai Lama from a peace conference feels a little like banner a soccer ball from the game.

Posted under 2010 World Cup, Everything Else

Twenty-three years ago this week, Swedish Prime Minister and longtime leader of the Social Democrats, Olof Palme, was buried at the Adolf Fredriks cemetery in Stockholm, Sweden. As one of the most prominent champions for the abolition of apartheid, Palme had been murded two weeks earlier in front of a Stockholm cinema after viewing a late-night showing with his wife. Although police eventually detained a suspect, Christer Pettersson, and charged him with the the prime minister’s murder, he was later acquitted due to a lack of evidence. When Pettersson died in 2004, most leads into the investigation died along with him. The case is, however, still open.

Palme’s last official speech, given one week before his death, was given to a Swedish group dedicated to the abolition of apartheid. Having begun his political career with South Africa at heart — he collected proceeds from fellow students’ blood donations and put the money towards anti-apartheid efforts — Palme had built much of his international career as a proponent of equal-rights campaigns. Palme demanded that the Nordic countries become accountable for joining together and putting pressure on South Africa to abolish apartheid. The policies Palme proposed became implemented in the Swedish government and in various manners within other Nordic countries. Read More…

Posted under Everything Else

Though this isn’t specifically about South Africa, it’s a great example of how smart organizations are tapping into the extraordinary popularity of soccer and soccer players throughout the world: UN unites with European soccer stars to “red card” global hunger.

In a nutshell, the weekend of 20-22 March all games played in major football leagues throughout Europe will raise money to help the UN Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) fund its TeleFood “micro-project” initiative.

“The money raised from the campaign will finance FAO TeleFood micro-projects designed to provide solutions to poor families and communities by giving them the know-how and means to produce their own food.”

Terrific cause and idea. Very fun. If you’re in England, Spain, Germany or Italy that week, do go to a game and help raise funds for the TeleFood project to help combat hunger, a problem faced by 1 billion people worldwide.

Posted under Everything Else

In a previous article (see Is South Africa Ready for the World Cup?) we talked about the ceremony at Durban’s Moses Mabhida stadium commemorating an important construction milestone. This might quite logically leave you wondering how many stadiums are actually going to be involved with the FIFA World Cup.

The answer? Ten, in nine different South African cities.

Specifically, five of South Africa’s football stadiums will undergo major renovations for the World Cup: Ellis Park and Soccer City in Johannesburg, Loftus Versfeld in Pretoria, the Royal Bafokeng stadium in Mafikeng in North West Province and Vodacom Park in Bloemfontein in the Free State.

New stadiums are also being built at Mbombela in Mpumalanga and in the Nelson Mandela Metro (which encompasses Port Elizabeth) in the Eastern Cape. Peter Mokaba stadium in Polokwane in Limpopo is being completely rebuilt, as is King Senzangakhona Stadium in Durban and Cape Town’s Green Point stadium.

Kings Park and Green Point stadium are being redesigned as part of the project to become multi-sport facilities (cricket? :-), and Green Point will include a retractable dome to protect the field from the Cape’s unpredictable winter weather.

How much will all this construction cost?  You don’t want to know. You do?  The initial budget was set to 9.8 billion rand (1.28 billion dollars), but as with just about all construction projects, it’s already apparently over budget. So it’s a big, big job and we’re certainly hoping to see beautiful world-class sports facilities that include top-notch video equipment compatibility so that those of us that don’t travel to South Africa can enjoy the games at each of the ten new venues.

Posted under 2010 World Cup

Soccer fans world-round are already excited at the upcoming World Cup South Africa 2010. The qualifying games are already happening - to tremendous crowds - and we’re over a year away from the opening kick-off of the actual event. But when we’re talking about the single most popular sporting event in the world, you can bet that there are a lot of people paying attention.

And one of the things that we’re paying attention to this year is the host country, South Africa. A tumultuous country with a remarkable history, South Africa is just as much a beautiful paradise of rabid football fans as it is a troubled country on a continent that’s found the challenge of moving into the 21st century almost insurmountable.

Which leads to the quite reasonable question: is South Africa going to be ready for the World Cup when the first kick-off occurs?

A quick peek at a site like SouthAfrica.info and you’ll see they address it directly, saying “The Rugby World Cup, Cricket World Cup, World Cup of Motorsport, Women’s World Cup of Golf, African Nations Cup … If you think South Africa will have any trouble pulling off the 2010 Fifa World Cup, look at the country’s track record for hosting major sporting events - and think again.”

But are they really getting closer to being ready?

Well, it looks like they are. Earlier this month they had a grand lighting ceremony at Durban’s Moses Mabhida stadium to celebrate the completion of the 105-metre high arch that towers over the 2010 semi-final venue. The last few weeks also marked the beginning of ticket sales for the FIFA World Cup 2010, which is a definite sign of optimism, if nothing else.

We’ll keep a close eye on preparations, of course, but here’s hoping that June 11 will be the beginning of a wonderful series of matches and the simultaneous start of a new chapter for the South African nation and its peoples.

Posted under 2010 World Cup