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The Greatest Show on Earth

It's the 90 minutes of adrenaline rush that culminates in the hearts and cheers of the fans and crash lands on the football pitch. A nervous teammate prepares to take the corner and looks to his supporters for the courage to proceed.

The goalkeeper understands the importance of his job and takes his stance against the ultimate goal. The language barrier is present, but the cheers all speak volumes to the desire and hunger for victory. These snapshots are at the core of the FIFA World Cup. Mark Rice-Oxley, correspondent for the Christian Science Monitor, describes it as "the quadrennial sporting extravaganza (which) brings the world together for weeks on end, transcending war, poverty, class, and culture, and culminating in the most watched television event ever".

After the traditional four-year rotation, the World Cup has once again returned to thrill and unite people all across the world through the common interest of football. This year the venue is of paramount importance, since it is the first time that the greatest show on earth has been performed on the continent of Africa and the implications for such a sporting event find their bearings in the rich history of South Africa.

For many years South Africa was plagued by a history of segregation, which found its roots in the political landscape of the nation and manifested itself in the sporting arena. The main source of this segregation was the doctrine of apartheid, which promoted the ideals of white supremacy and was designed to classify individuals by race and prohibit racial groups from mixing geographically, socially, and professionally. Multi-racial participation in sports, as a result of these policies, were forbidden.

Apartheid lent itself to exclusive sports teams that were reserved for whites only. Anyone who did not fit this criteria was forced to play in the 'coloured leagues'. Domestic political policy was such that overseas teams, by virtue of their having players of diverse races, were prevented from touring the country.

This morally conflicting doctrine had a strong hold on South Africa for 40 years. It wasn't until 1990, the lifting of the Government ban on anti-apartheid organisations, and the release of Nelson Mandela from 27 years of imprisonment, that one could really see an end to the grip of apartheid.

Yet it was through sport, the plight of a handful of individuals and a string of momentous events which found international spotlight and afforded South Africa a rather successful platform. Sporting bans were revoked in 1993, when conciliations for a democratic South Africa were well under way.

From this history of segregation and racial stratification who would have thought that in 2010 South Africa would be the host of the biggest melting pot of cultures wrapped in competition and the drive to succeed, dubbed the FIFA World Cup, let alone score the first goal in the competition?

This World Cup serves as a symbol of the success of a revolution to change the world from the narrow-minded view of black and white to the wider view of the human race. The social effects all speak volumes to the creation of unity as people come together for friendly rivalry in support of their favourite teams, while taking a break from the dire pictures that flood society on a day-to-day basis.

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