15 / 48
Page 15
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
SSR Magazine