It was less than 2 weeks ago, come to think of it. Last week most of us still had withdrawal symptoms, holding on to our Vuvuzelas and waiting for the most opportune moment to blow them. 

Brand South Africa is making it possible with the idea of Flying The Flag, which is meant to keep the spirits both South Africans and the world high. I took a moment to go out to Brand South Africa and talk to the CEO, Miller Matola, about what that means. More than anything, he took the moment to speak to me.

Below is a short video between me and Mr. Matola, where he gets into detail about what it means to Fly Your Flag.

Today I can honestly say that I am grateful to the powers that be that I am not a mathemitician, a statistics expert or even a politician.

Today I woke up a fanatical fan of this marvelous, superb, outstanding and inspiring country! As a self-proclaimed expert on the benefits of being a positive South African, I can honestly say that a mere 24 hours post the final 2010 World Cup whistle, I am already reaping the rewards.

Each lifetime is marked by something. I am lucky enough to be living in an era of hope, witnessing extraordinary miracles as they unfold.

During the world cup I watched as the world apologised for their non-belief in this can-do nation. When we said it will be ready, we meant it!

I watched as “the crime capital of the world” took  responsibility for keeping its space crime free and how this impacted on the whole country allowing us all, visitors and residents to feel safe and secure.

I watched as security guards walked off the stadiums exercising their constitutional right to strike, and watched as the once much loathed police force took up to the task of protecting us without missing a beat.

I watched as black fans drove to the “white” capital Pretoria to watch a game and white fans drive to the “black” capital Soweto to watch another.

As I watched mainstream pessimism and racism disappeared before my very eyes; blacks, whites, asian, indian and Europeans united in their love of the game.

I smiled when “white” fans supported Ghana and “black” fans supported the Netherlands.

I cried as I sang my national anthem, on the field and off the field.

I watched as rich and poor, the hopeful and the despondent all came together to proudly play hosts to over one million visitors!

I watched as South Africans kept filling the stadiums long after Bafana Bafana were out of the game, showing support all the way!

I watched as two never-crowned-before nations met for the final round and Spain be crowned the new world champions.

But most of all, I am watching as the magic keeps unfolding. Which other country can boast a 20 year history as rich as ours?

From the moment Mr Mandela was released from prison, this country stood united in its belief that tommorow will be better than today. We repeated that belief in 1994 when we stood united in our first democratic elections, and again in 1995 when we won the Rugby World Cup, a story which inspired the movie Invictus. In 2002 our disbelief was palpable when Germany won the 2006 Fifa World Cup bid. Four years later we won the bid and another four years on, we proved to the world that we are a nation of our word, a can-do nation.

So while the debate and speculation continues around the R40 billion spend on infrastructure, job creation, tourism investment and social cohesion continues, I am going to turn a deaf ear.

I am going to hold on tight to the jubilant feeling in my heart, because I know that as South Africans we do not need a football game or a trophy to show the world that we are top-class.

We have done it before and will do it again!

Our program decided to have a celebration on the 15 June, at the South African Embassy. To my suprise not a lot of the host families or my colleagues knew what the celebration was about and so I decided to use this platform to let people know the importance of June 16th in my lovely country.

34 years ago about 20 000 students marched against the education regulations set out by the apartheid government. In terms of the Bantu Education Act all students were forced to learn in Afrikaans. The students decided to have a peaceful protest against this in the streets of Soweto; however, it turned out to be a bloodbath. Today this tragic event is know to many as the Soweto Uprising and it represents the strength of our youth in 1976.

In 2010 we acknowledge those students who played a large role in making South Africa what it is to day and we remind ourselves of the challenges that lie ahead of us in the development of our current youth.

As a proud member of the youth of South Africa in 2010, I stand and shout to all around the world that I am a ripple in the ocean of hope, I am a young South African and I stand for the development of my generation and those to follow.

Whether you love to hate the vuvuzela or (like me) hate the fact that you love the vuvuzela. One thing is for sure the vuvuzela is as unique to South Africa as South Africans eating ice cream in zero degree tempratures.

Never before, it seems to me,  has such an undemanding instrument so united a nation!

I am talking about the much loved and even more despised blowing of the vuvuzela pre-, during and post games. Everyone, everywhere, from my neighbours next door, or across the street, to fans in the fan parks, to the fans in the stadiums, are raucous in their determined blowing of the vuvuzela.

The vuvuzela is simple and uncomplicated. Not very musical in design but extremely powerful in application. It transcends all barriers, cultural, religious, gender, economic, linguistic.

When we blow the vuvuzela, we all speak the same language. A language which starts in the heart and transcends through the soul to be freely expressed via the lungs. Noisy to some, music to others.

Now in order to truly appreciate the wonder of the vuvuzela, one needs to understand the language in which it speaks.

A short beep, beep, baaarp is a motivational war cry, the blower firmly believing that the harder and faster he blows, the better his team will perform on the field.

Baaarp, baaarp, baaarp clearly indicates that the referee is deaf, dumb, blind or all three.

A protracted  baaa-aaarp to expresses disappointment or heart-rending defeat.

So the next time you hear the vuvuzela, why not listen to the message, it sends?

And who can resist being drawn into the vuvu-dance? Once the crowd starts going. In an adaptation of the traditional Shosholoza gum-boot dance, which sees vuvuzela’s swinging from side to side in a rhytmic motion as the crowd belts out “shosholoza”. A breathtaking spectacle..

So, Mr Paton. If you were here today to witness this,  I hope you might be inspired to say: let us love the earth too deeply, let us laugh too gladly and let usgive too much of our heart to a mountain or a valley, because today our nation stands united.

Viva the v-u-v-u-z-e-l-a!

Proudly,  I explained to her that I would be participating in the South Africa Washington Internship Program (SAWIP) in the American  capital, representing South Africa’s up and coming leaders and proving the stereotypes wrong. After my long speech she asked me about the  other SAWIP interns   and I realized more and more how we represent the new South Africa, the diversity of our new country and the future of our youth.

The most prominent and certain sign of our flag is the Y shape, which represents unity. We will be landing proudly in Washington on the 12th June with our Bafana Bafana shirts one and then spend six weeks in different spheres of work addressing the role of South Africa in the world at large.

Opportunities like this do not come around that often so I’m ready to be a representative of South Africa’s new leaders. The future is yours, the future is mine, the future is ours.

Dear South African bloggers,

We are a team of 20 young journalists from Berlin, Germany, attending the Axel Springer Akademie, a popular German journalism school. As our final project we are about to build up a website about South Africa using only social media but no professional correspondents. We want to ask you if anyone of you is interested in taking part in our project by sending us some texts or photo slideshows. It is important for us to get some voices about how South Africa really is. We do not want to focus on football that much, but more on your country and the people living there. Our website will be online in around 2 weeks from now.From this time on we will need material from you every now and then, so that we can keep the site alive for some weeks. If you have any questions concerning the project, please feel free to contact me anytime. We would like to have you as part of our growing team.

Thanks in advance and greetings from Berlin, Germany,

Ekki

If you’re interested in participating, contact Ekki Kern at kern@axel-springer-akademie.de

Last week I played in the ABSA Premier’s invitational golf day down in Cape Town. It’s always enjoyable to see ex teammates and other sporting greats. However, I would really recommend my roommate at Charlton, Shaun Bartlett, and rugby legend Chester Williams both rather stick to their original sporting code of choice.

Honoured I was to meet Western Cape Premier, Helen Zille. Besides being very friendly she was also very honest about her golfing ability, or rather lack thereof. All in all everyone had a most enjoyable day!

To the team, my team and your team, Bafana Bafana: keep working hard guys and believe in yourself and in each other, no matter what others may think and say. The opening game is nearing and what I can guarantee you, is when the whistle blows we – the nation – will be behind you.

Looking at Parreira’s squad, two players that should find themselves in his final World Cup team are Itumeleng Khune and Bongani Khumalo. I think Itumeleng is our best goalkeeper available and based on his performances during the Confederations Cup, he has to be one of the three goalkeepers. The other player whom I think deserves to be in the squad, maybe even in the starting 11, is Bongani Khumalo. He has been a solid leader for Supersport United the last two years and I have seen him develop as a defender while being involved with Bafana. He is young and thus the world stage is the best possible place to secure a move for him to Europe.

Rock on and do not work too hard!

PS: Well done to FC Cape Town for beating Kaizer Chiefs in the Nedbank Cup, I always love an upset!!!