South Africa celebrated in 1994 at the birth of our new nation, witnessed like all miracle births with awe and wonder by an unbelieving world. The country celebrated again in 1995 as Mandela wore the Springbok shirt and South Africa won the Rugby World Cup. But maybe that was a bit like a Baptism celebration – slightly staged, a bit constructed. We could all see what was happening but perhaps not everyone felt it.
But now in 2010 the adolescent South Africa is celebrating its coming of age. This is Confirmation and Dvija and Bar/Bat Mitzvah all rolled into one. And the celebration is spontaneous. And it is infectious!
Johannasburg street vendors might debate Perrier that the celebration was not spontaneous in that corporate solicitations were advanced and secured for the vendors' locations, which knocked the locals out of business. Neither is the celebration infectious for anyone without the wherewithall to enjoy or profit from the partying of an overindulged adolescent as described by the holy-type padre Perrier:
You cannot tell a teenager how and when to celebrate. All you can do is give them permission and leave them to get on with it. The World Cup has given South Africa permission and, under God’s benign smile, we are making full use of it. And if a teenage celebration involves a lot of noise and mess and hangovers and a few things being damaged....well, that is teenagers for you!
As a rule of law, adults are forbidden to permit underage offspring to drink, disturb the peace or to engage in acts of vandalism. There are no exceptions for Confirmation, Dvija and Bar or Bat Mitzvah celebrations. One would assume this holds true everywhere in the world where the cross, crown or democracy reigns. But of course Perrier is of a social strata where the same rules do not apply as those law-enforced upon others. His are the folks partying down in South Africa. They are the logos that brought to life the World Cup. And the logos do nothing out of the goodness of their own hearts, nor do they spend a dime of their own money.
Dave Zirin of The Nation quotes The Anti-Privatization Forum of South Africa:
Our government has managed, in a fairly short period of time, to deliver "world class" facilities and infrastructure that the majority of South Africans will never benefit from or be able to enjoy. The APF feels that those who have been so denied, need to show all South Africans as well as the rest of the world who will be tuning into the World Cup, that all is not well in this country, that a month long sporting event cannot and will not be the panacea for our problems. This World Cup is not for the poor -- it is the soccer elites of FIFA, the elites of domestic and international corporate capital and the political elites who are making billions and who will be benefiting at the expense of the poor.
Along with his own non-neoliberal opinion, Zurin offers the estimated tax burden before damages:
In the hands of FIFA and the ruling African National Congress, the World Cup has been a neoliberal Trojan Horse, enacting a series of policies that the citizens of this proud nation would never have accepted if not wrapped in the honor of hosting the cup. This includes $9.5 billion in state deficit spending ($4.3 billion in direct subsidies and another $5.2 billion in luxury transport infrastructure). This works out to about $200 per citizen.
Green cleanup logos are expected to add a respectable amount to the total bill, after which a new reality emerges but not before the sound and call of the meantime. Perrier explains:
Of course, after the party we will have to face the reality of our new responsibilities as a mature member of the family of nations. And we might continue to make some mistakes. And will hopefully learn from those mistakes. But in the meantime, the trumpets are sounding. And they are calling us to party!
Perrier's party report:
Many Mass-goers in Johannesburg this coming Sunday will be clad in the vibrant yellow and green of Bafana, Bafana, the national football team. This is not some change in the liturgical calendar; but instead an invitation by the bishops to celebrate Soccer Sunday. And whether the national team win, lose or draw on the opening day of the tournament, the city will be celebrating the fact that for the next four weeks they are the centre of the known universe.
It may be easy to dismiss all this as an attempt by dull Church people to leap on the trendy bandwagon. But I would ask you not to dismiss so quickly. Celebration is key to our lives as people, and as people of God. Our Mass is a celebration. Our baptisms and weddings are celebrations. As Christians, even our funerals are celebrations.
God is logos; Confirmation is Dvija and Bar/Bat Mitzvah; and neoliberals are the enemy. Roger that.
