An interesting story came to light yesterday, in which the police chief of South Africa said that he, “is hoping the US team are knocked out of the football World Cup early on - to avoid a visit by President Barack Obama,” (BBC) . What is this mystery that is so interesting, why doesn’t the police chief want the US president to come to South Africa? This story is very intriguing and when first read doesn’t make too much sense because it sounds a bit weird that the police chief would want President Obama not to come to South Africa.
Delving a little deeper into this story we find that the issue is that there seems to be a problem with the security that is needed to secure the American president. It seems the South African government were worried that the police force in the country would not be able to control the situation if it got out of hand. They don’t seem to really put a lot of faith in their own police force and that is probably why the police chief stated that he wanted the US team to be knocked out of the football World Cup before the second round.
How unsecure is the president of the US anyway, does everyone in the world want to get rid of him? It seems to me that the police chief of South Africa just wants to make his own life easier because if President Obama doesn’t come to South Africa he won’t have to deal with the crazy security that will have be set up to deal with the President’s arrival. It could also be that he is already worried about all the heads of state that he will have to protect already that will show up for the various ceremonies that one less president to deal with the better according to him. And that one president will probably need the most amount of security of any of them.
It seems the football World Cup has become more than a football tournament; it seems to have become an arena where political leaders can meet and have informal meetings. The tournament has always had a huge following with millions of people following it around the world, and now it seems to have become so popular that it has become a political stage for world leaders to meet and interact. Football has the power and mass appeal to transcend boundaries and uplift people so it seems like the perfect vehicle to become more than a tournament and help people to come together and solve their problems and find something better.
The other odd thing about the football tournament is surrounding the trophy of the Cup. The trophy which is a great looking piece of history for whoever wins the World Cup this year is actually made out of solid gold. A solid gold trophy is very strange because at the end of the day it is about winning something for your nation and your people and not about winning a gold trophy that you can’t sell so what is the point of making it out of solid gold? Personally I think it would have just a strong impact if it was made out of anything else like sold metal or even wood. It is what the trophy represents and not what it is made out of. The things surrounding the trophy get even weirder because for some reason only the 43 heads of state that will be attending the World Cup in South Africa will be allowed to touch it. (BBC) .
How strange is that because if it is made of solid gold why would anyone touching it ruin it? Gold does not fade with being touched and so what if people wanted to touch it, what would be the problem in that. It seems like a very elitist thing to do to only allow important people to touch the trophy. Average people want to be able to see the trophy and touch it and tell their friends that they touched the trophy of the World Cup. They will never be able to have it in their wildest dreams unless one of their children grows up to play football and wins the World Cup for their country then maybe they might get to but it is highly unlikely. So at least they can get one chance to touch something that is so precious to them it is worth more than the gold it is made out of.
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