Here’s a weird bit of news that’s sure to affect people’s experience at the 2010 FIFA World Cup in a few months: A company called the Kelp Environmental Learning Project (K.E.L.P) has introduced an environmentally friendly vuvuzela.  Here’s a video about it:

Apparently the group, based in Kommetjie, South Africa, use dried kelp horns to create vuvuzelas which are painted and branded.

I’m still not entirely convinced that vuvuzelas should be allowed at the World Cup matches, but if you insist on bringing one, now you have a cool “green” option. And heck, I bet you can make a nice bowl of soup out of it when your done too!

Posted under 2010 World Cup

We’ve recently launched a “Wall of Supporters” on the website for our 2010 FIFA World Cup-centric initiative, South Africa Project.

A minimum of ten dollars buys you a spot on the wall. In exchange for your donation, your personal avatar is posted and provides some visibility for your online presence including a searchable URL. Via use of rollovers, other wall viewers are able to access your customizable profile, personal website, Facebook page,Twitter feed, etc.

One of the reasons Ubuntu Now launched South Africa Project is our conviction that in addition to enjoying the World Cup,  fans and non-fans alike should use this time of celebration to make a contribution and show their support for the people of South Africa– after all, it would be a travesty to gloss over the country’s issues at this crucial time.

Even the minimum $10 donation to the South Africa Project goes a long way. A $70 contribution provides a community with a rape prevention education and promotion kit, $400 can put a community mobilizer to work, and $1,000 sponsors a comprehensive community workshop on the subject. More information can be found at the website for One Man Can, the initiative spearheaded by sister organization in South Africa, Sonke Gender Justice. Read More…

Posted under 2010 World Cup, Everything Else

It’s far more important than you may think, and teams spend a lot of time trying to think through exactly how their jersey should appear, what colors, designs, logos, and even what fabrics to use: modern sportswear have quite a few different fabric options, a lot more than cotton or polyester.

That’s why it’s pretty cool to see the new Bafana Bafana jersey for the 2010 FIFA World Cup:

The jersey is yellow with green trim, as you can see, and includes 11 threads to symbolize diversity in unity (there are 11 national languages in South Africa too, by no coincidence). The South African flag appears on the front and there are modern interpretations of traditional South African art on the collar.

There are two versions of the Bafana Bafana jersey, known as “Formotion” and “Techfit skin-tight”, both including climacool technology which helps control sweating and keep the player cool.

Want a replica to wear so you can start feeling that Bafana Bafana magic?  Adidas (the jersey sponsor) says that an official replica is already on sale throughout South Africa and it’s retailing for R599 ($80.22), while a T-Shirt that’s quite similar in appearance is R345 ($46.20).

Posted under 2010 World Cup

News sources are reporting that a 50-person delegation from FIFA toured the various facilities under construction in South Africa late last month and found everything going very well and all major venue construction projects on schedule to be done by the end of 2009.

That’s five stadiums: Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium (Port Elizabeth), Moses Mabhida Stadium (Durban), Mbombela Stadium (Nelspruit), Peter Mokaba Stadium (Polokwane), and Soccer City Stadium (Johannesburg).

In addition, the FIFA team inspected team hotels and training sites and, as Ron DelMont, head of FIFA’s South Africa Office, said: “overall, we are very impressed with the achievements made. In addition to the stadiums coming together, we were equally pleased that the teams of the organizing committee, host cities and FIFA are working on a common vision.”

Wondering if the tour was just about buildings, gates and seats?  The team included experts on broadcasting, media operations, logistics, safety, security, medical and hospitality.

All we can say is Go, South Africa, Go!

Posted under 2010 World Cup

The countdown for the World Cup has long begun and many South Africans are looking forward to the day finally arriving. The recent Confederations Cup was a taste of the 2010 World Cup and things to come.

The media hype has increased over the last couple of months and all programmes and stations continue announcing how many days are left until the World Cup. Different television, radio and newspapers compete for coverage of the World Cup to gain a larger audience.

Ordinary South Africans are also looking forward to the World Cup but for many reasons such as the enjoyment and the fact that the world’s eyes will be upon us, as well as for monetary benefits.

I love soccer and I am very happy that South Africa was chosen to host the 2010 World Cup. It is great that South Africa is getting international exposure that has not been given yet. During apartheid sanctions were placed on South Africa including the sporting sections, so having the World Cup in South Africa shows how far South Africa has come and that we are moving forward. Read More…

Posted under 2010 World Cup

I’ll be the first to admit that if you haven’t seen one before a “tag cloud” can be a bit confusing, but the concept is actually pretty cool: statistically analyze all the words in a book, on a Web site, or similar, then pick the dozen most common important words (e.g., skip “the” and “and”) and display them, with the words that appear more frequently larger than those that are more uncommon.  You’ve probably seen them as you’ve surfed the Web, perhaps without really thinking about how quickly and efficiently they can convey a lot of information about that given site.

When we wanted to come up with a way to convey our set of values with both the South Africa Project and Ubuntu Now, a tag cloud seemed a natural, and they’ve come out really well. Here’s the one for the South Africa Project:

South Africa Project Tag Cloud

Immediately and without any complications it shows that while we’re still engaged and interested in the 2010 FIFA World Cup, rape prevention is a much more core goal of our project, and that empowerment and gender equality are critical parts of what we are trying to accomplish.  Nice, isn’t it?

What’s better is that we’ve made it easy for you to support our project by buying some gear with this tag cloud featured by going to our South Africa Project Store. Just click and check it out, I know you’ll like it.

And our overarching organization, Ubuntu Now?  We created a different tag cloud for that:

Ubuntu Now Tag Cloud

Since we’re big fans of this one too, which offers up the values that helped guide the creation of Ubuntu Now and South Africa Project, we’ve also made these available with its own online store: Ubuntu Now Online Store.

I invite you to browse both stores and I’ll remind you that it’s one of the easiest ways to help us raise money to support these worthy goals for South Africa and our troubled world.

Posted under 2010 World Cup, 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

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

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

This is the beginning of a series of interviews with bloggers from South Africa. SA Rocks covers a wide range of interests and serves as a great way to learn more about “New South Africa” .

The name SA Rocks serves as its mantra. Nicholas Haralambous makes sure his readers catch the many positive stories from South Africa. He represents what South Africa needs: People that believe in themselves and in their country, guys that will not take the easy route and pack it up.

SA Rocks became a leading blog in his home country in less than 2 years. You can also find Nic on Twitter at @nicharry or check out his personal blog at nicharalambous.com.

Nic has agreed to answer a few questions to fill us in about his intensions and to give us his local perspective. He has also agreed to serve as a guest blogger for South Africa Project when his busy schedule allows for it.

If you’re a South African blogger and would like to participate, please drop me a note via the contact form on this site!

Q1. What inspired you to start SA Rocks and what are you trying to accomplish?
SA Rocks was a kind of knee-jerk reaction to a very racist, negative and ignorant website that expat South Africans started. I read it, argued with the cowardly creators and then decided that I had to do something to counter their blatant lies. And SA Rocks was born.

I am trying to show the world and more importantly, South Africans that South Africa is a country to be incredibly proud of and passionate towards.

Q2. What was your initial reaction to South Africa Project – Time for Ubuntu?
I think it’s a fantastic idea. Ubuntu is one of the most precious, incredible and sacred African concepts. The idea that everyone is linked or connected is astounding. The concept that everyone’s humanity is only visible through the humanity of others blows me away. It’s about time the world learned what it truly means to be African and South African.

Q3. What are the biggest misconceptions about South Africa in your eyes?
One of the biggest misconceptions is that South Africa is a country on it’s newly found last legs. In fact South Africa is a proud, passionate and successful nation that is in its infancy. The world needs to know that only bigger and better things are coming out of SA! Read More…

Posted under Meeting South Africa