Naturally, sports stadiums in the United States are big. Very big. And very expensive too, partly because they keep seeming to try and one-up each other when it comes to newness and features.
Of course, everyone knows that there is very big money in American sports, one just has to look at the salaries earned by top NFL football players, NBA basketball players and MBA baseball players to see that. But what is surprising however is a lot of their mega stadiums aren’t actually self-funded – instead, the trend is very much to get the hosting cities to pay for everything!
Obviously here in South Africa we have our own stadium problems thanks to the 2010 FIFA World Cup (which was, admittedly, AWESOME!), but that said, it is rather nice having such a beautiful stadium like Cape Town Stadium around.
I just wish it hadn’t cost quite as much, and somehow become a little more self-sufficient and a little less reliant on my tax money!
Each and every year before a FIFA World Cup event, we get reminded by media outlets about the various scandals and controversies surrounding world soccer’s overseeing body FIFA.
Now of course scandal for FIFA is back again, with the surprise move of the USA arresting a dozen of the highest ranking FIFA officials in Switzerland on corruption charges – instantly opening up a massive can of worms and headaches for the football organisation.
(Particularly funny, because as noted, it’s taken the country with seemingly the least amount of interest in soccer to actually do something about this group that holds itself above countries’ laws!)
Needless to say, comedian John Oliver and his team immediately weighed in on the story:
The reality of all of this is of course that it seems long overdue, but at least it has forced the hand of Sepp Blatter and he has stepped down (at last).
Though of course, this could just be an attempt to jump ship before it completely sinks…
Sadly though, South Africa has now been drawn into the thick of it, and no matter how sports minister Fikile Mbalula and his team try to spin it, it is looking pretty much like we paid bribes in order to get the World Cup in 2010.
Sigh, can this beautiful country of ours not get a break or two sometime?
Of course, FIFA and the World Cup has been an inspiration for Zapiro on more than just a few occasions before, but this particular scandal seems to have brought out the best from one of South Africa’s most recognised political cartoonists:
My favourite editorial cartoon coming out of this debacle however has to be the one drawn up by the Dr. Jack and Curtis team for EWN (Eyewitness News):
It has been well documented over the years, this weird acceptance of Hitler and Nazi imagery in Thailand. In fact, it is quite often seen as cool, a fashion trend that I guess could only be labelled as Nazi chic.
I don’t quite get it, but in the same breath it kind of makes sense – if you’re not exposed to a story then you tend to borrow just the bits and pieces that you see of it that seems cool: you know, like adoring beautiful WW2 bomber planes without giving a thought to the fact that they actually indiscriminately rained down death wherever they were tasked to fly over.
Needless to say, World War II, Hitler and his Nazis are pretty much glossed over when it comes to Thai history books – which makes sense because they’ve got more than enough history of their own to get through without having to worry about all the other countries’ problems!
I first encountered comedian John Oliver on Community (which I only picked up on criminally late). What I didn’t know at the time was that very soon I would become an avid fan of his entry into the world of American late-night talk and news satire: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver.
Although sometimes they take it a step too far with some of their antics, overall, the writers of this show put forward a lot of big, pertinent topics that are well researched and will often cause your jaw to drop with disbelief once delivered, making it a firm favourite of mine to pick up via Youtube on a weekly basis.
A particularly hard hitting segment from this week’s show deals with the problem of sweatshops still being well and truly alive in this day and age – something that cheap clothing is probably the best indicator of:
South Africa deals with exactly the same problem mind you. So much of our homegrown textiles industry has been completely decimated by the impossibly cheap imports that no one can fairly compete against – unless they themselves ran a sweatshop environment of course.
As always, cheaper is always great for the buyer, but almost always never a great thing for the producer.
