I hope you enjoy some of my thoughts around goal setting, courage and story-telling.
How the world is seeing South Africa.
The headlines in rsa read the same old dismal news. World
cup too expensive. No way to recoup investment. World cup over capitalised. And
more in that vein
I read this as I prepared for a journey across 5 continents in 5 weeks flying in
and out of jhb and at times being out during parts of the world cup, much to my
disappointment.
I had accepted all of these stories at face value until I started with my first
flight to uganda.
There I discovered that our african brethren we so proud of us for bringing the
world cup here. They were praying for our success in hosting it (if not always
rooting for our great unifying soccer team).
The excitement was palatable and people were clearly seeing us as leading
members of the community of africa. This
fabulous continent with almost a billion people is perhaps more critical to our
future well being in terms of personal perceptions than the rest of the world
It struck me then that the PR on south africa outside the country
was hugely positive and actually, you cannot buy a positive spin like that. In
rsa we complain about the cost of this world cup yet the world now sees us a
positive and happy place to visit and do business with!
Am amazing dichotomy!
Shortly after that I was in india
and was amazed by the extremely great and positive reporting happening on our
country. From airports and highway upgrades to the amazing stadiums that have
become status symbols on our own continent. The Indians were clearly impressed
with our rapid progress as a unified nation and welcomed us as fellow serious
fast growing emerging market players
I flew via dubai and the airport was blazoned
with images of our country and brand "south Africa" had become sexy
and exciting in my mind. A transformation of amazing importance was taking
place in the collective consciousness of the travellers around me. I often
sensed envy in my fellow travellers when they heard were I was from and more
importantly where I was returning to
I was then in brazil where south africa
was emblazoned everywhere from bill boards and airports to newspapers and tv
ads in the soccer crazy nation. Even the domestic airline had this amazing one
hour video which they played on how well we and africa
had done in preparing for this event. Always positive and promoting our country
in the most positive way that I've ever seen. Socially redeeming, nationally
relevant and inspirational was my summary
I flew saa back and was quite moved to hear our pilots try to talk about soccer
over the intercom and in portuguese to a resounding applause from the
braziliansoccer fans on the plane
By now my chest was bursting with pride at my country, my team, my nation and
my continent
The trip to the usa , a country where soccer is not the most publicised sport,
was the most amazing of all. Everywhere that I went I was asked why I was out
of my country at this amazing time, the bbc even interviewed me on this point.
I lost count of the number of times that I saw the words south africa
in the usa from the
east to the west coast. From mobile tv vans at central park to pubs in
san francisco and even in the sports section of USA papers that
grudgingly refered to this event.
Espn coverage was amazing as were the ads and they all painted south africa as
a nation that was now a first world country and hosting one of the best world
cups ever. Praise was heaped on the country from our fans and united population
to the fact that our team had done well given their ranking prior to the event
The dreaded and much cursed vuvuzela was now becoming an american icon as I
noted from fans at the airport returning to the usa at jfk proudly wearing
bafana bafana shirts ( a usa fashion accessory now in its own right - I think
that its now the unoffical world cup shirt world wide). I lost count of the
numbers of those instruments that I saw there. What really knocked me flat was
when I found a group blowing them in union square in san francisco.
The top of the pile belongs to the story of a baseball team handing out 15000
of these items to their hands before a game to totally scare the living
daylights out of their opponents!
The world of sports noise will never be the same again!
I returned humbled by what we have accomplished as a nation.
Now I'm a senior executive who is hard nosed and has been so for 30 years but I
was very moved by all of this. So much so that I thought that I would share
this with as many south africans as possible
South africans: Be proud, stand tall, hold your head high.
You have every reason to be very proud of yourself and we have honoured the
great Madiba in the best way possible.
There are a lot of issues in pur country but when I see this I dare to dream. I
see a nation that has high ambitions and hope and punches outside of its weight
limit. A nation unified to show the world what it can do. A nation!!! Wow, that
alone is enough!
So smile, my beloved country! You have done well. Ke Nako!"
Hemmanth
Singh
CEO: Beyond Payments
In : FIFA World Cup TM
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