“Hey Mister!” I ignored him. I have learnt it is best to ignore the police, usually.
“Hey Mister, is this your car?” as I opened the door. Busted.
“Yes.”
“These, these flags, you must change them,” he pointed to the little South African flags ‘gloves’ adorning the wing mirrors.
I stared blankly at him, were they obscuring my vision… guess they were.
“The red of the flag has to be on top, so if you swap them from left side to right mirror, they will be right.
I could feel the colour of shame climb my cheeks as I fumbled with the suddenly, obviously, upside-down flags.
Okay, after watching Bafana play perhaps we should all fly the flag upsidedown. Flying the flag upsidedown is the international signal for distress, a call for help.
The soccer world cup had finally arrived, and just days before the kick-off in Africa’s first world football fiesta, dozens of journalists from all over Africa were arriving in Johannesburg for the rather amazing TwentyTen project (www.roadto2010.com). Not counting the thousands of world media types.
The project is pegged to Africa’s first soccer world cup, run by the tarnished but shameless FIFA. Trouble is, despite the otherwise irrefutable Pele’s prediction in 1997 that an African team would win the world cup before 2000, it seems as if we will need powerful gri-gri and imuti to get into even the second round.
Obviously, I exclude Ghana from that sad prediction, as they seem to have the quarterfinals within their grasp.
The African team I had the most hope for, Cote d’Ivoire – The Elephants, crashed and burned quite spectacularly. I feel for you, my brothers, that despite the great Drogba you are winging it home far too early.
I was in that fine country just a few weeks ago, to mourn the long march back north, here are a few iphone pix.