(another daily blog in the soul spinning series to celebrate the World Cup in South Africa sees the the beauty of Cape Town hit back)
One of the biggest fears that the world had with the World Cup going to South Africa was the crime. It has a high crime rate and every time I go I read the first few newspapers and then ask myself why I brought my family to somewhere as scary as this. Many of my friends who live there have never experienced any crime but many have and some live behind gated communities that we know nothing about in Northern Ireland, where we have had our own violent recent history.
In truth most times that we have taken teams to Cape Town we have had little incidents of theft. The first time it happened I was angry and looking for vengeance. We had come here to bring help to the people and some of the same people had broken into our hostel and stolen some of our stuff. As we were trying to deal with the consequences of that robbery, one of our local colleagues was robbed too and therefore could not be of any help to us.
In the midst of all this another friend of mine was in Cape Town at the same time, playing in Ronan Keating’s band! There are not a lot of bands who tour South Africa and so it was agreed that we would take the entire team to the gig. Keating was as I expected a good entertaining pop act that wore thin after a time but he did do Van Morrison’s Brown Eyed Girl which as a Belfast boy in Africa I had to sing along to! The other moment that hit me deep in my soul was his version of Elvis Presley’s In The Ghetto. Presley wasn’t known for his prophetic songs or singing anything to do with social justice but this one is a gem. The story of a baby born in poverty whose mother worries that that poverty might lead him to crime and that in turn might endanger his life poignantly fulfilled. I heard something whispering to me, even in the voice of Ronan Keating, which changed my feelings for the street kids whose own environment of poverty caused our inconvenience.
From underneath the beauty of the mountain
The underbelly of the ugly struck
Curse can pull a knife and stab you
No matter what your treasure trove of luck
The innocence of my trust was violated
And my soul left battered and broken
I came to this city all wide eyed
Now they’re bloodshot and ripped wide open
In the heat of my cold blooded anger
I want to catch them and never let go
Then an angel with the voice of Elvis
Sang a song called In The Ghetto.
Comments