SSR Vol5 FIFA- WC-SA

SSR Magazine

Some times a picture is worth a thousand words and hence was the reason we reenacted the World Cup opening ceremony. Soccer City stadium will take anyone's breath away at the sight of it. Its calabash shape makes it unique and pertinent to the region, where the calabash plant was used as a container for several chores depending on its size. Its uses range from a teacup to a soup bowl, to what people in the Caribbean call a ‘dipper”. Soccer City is therefore relevant not only to the region of Arica, but the Caribbean and places with African roots or which grows the calabash plant. Pictures can be taken from any point outside of Soccer City with the same effectiveness, since it is cylindrical and looks basically the same from any angle. What I found to be astounding about Johannesburg Soccer City (JSC) is the inside view. It is an amazing state of the art structure of cement and steel, which is totally different from what you envisioned from the outside. That is providing you could recall walking up spacious circular hallways through the different levels only to be astonishment that you missed your assigned level because you continued to survey the beauty of the internal structure until you reached the end and very exhausted. It is huge. In the daytime, Soccer City is a magnificent stone-like structure, that seems to come alive at nights. In the dark of night the reflections of the inside lights appear between the open groves of the tile like structure causing most visitors to take pictures of it's beauty. I would have to support the opinion of the much traveled FIFA President Sepp Blatter, that Soccer City is one of the world’s best. The ten hosting cities of the tournament were established during the next part of the ceremony with musicians and artists from (the other African finalists) Algeria, Cameroon, Ghana, Ivory Coast and Nigeria performing. According to reports there were over 1500 South Africans participated in the opening ceremony. Participants included dancers, musicians and performers between the ages of six and sixty.

June, 11, 2010

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