I am somewhat confused about this particular issue. There are three local acts performing at the Fifa 2010 World Cup opening ceremony. There are 4 African stars and 4 international stars performing. OK, so we have 1 less performer than everyone else, that sucks big time right? Wrong.
This is an international show hosted by an international organisation catering to an international audience and I think that out of 11 performers having 7 African is pretty damn good.
Why would local musicians go as far as to propose an event called “Fuck Fifa” (which according the MG Online has been recognised as a bit silly)? I just don’t understand it. Is it egotistical jealousy coming to the fore? I am pretty shocked that Sipho ‘Hotstix’ Mabuse is the stalwart who is driving this rebellious activity.
Let’s take this even further; Hotstix is complaining about the cost of the concert tickets at R450. Has he been to a concert recently and paid? They are not cheap at all and R450 is pretty much inline for what we as South Africans are paying to go and see international acts perform in our country.
Then there is the moaning about the use of an international company to organise and promote the event. Hmmm, how quickly we forget the terrible job done by Big Concerts (SA’s premium concert organise) at The Killers events in JHB and CT recently. If I was an international organisation such as Fifa and I had read any number of the bitching posts online about Big Concerts I’d also use an international company to ensure that the screw ups didn’t happen again.
Don’t get me wrong, I understand that as South Africans we feel that we should benefit as much as possible from something like the Fifa Football World Cup, but can we not maintain a sense of perspective here. This is not an event that is ours alone, it just happens to be hosted on our continent, in our country for the first time in history. The whole world still has to actually watch it, participate and enjoy the event and that involves cultures from around the world and a bit of calm and perspective from our side; it’s not all about us.
7 African actis out of 11 possible slots is not too bad if you ask me. Calm it down a tad and look around while trying to gain some perspective. That’s all really.
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