What an amazing vibe. My city, Johannesburg, festooned in a blaze of colour; flags on cars, around cars, on people’s heads, flag sellers painted as African masks.
South Africa is full of national pride.
It's an unusual sensation for this country of mine that is consumed with rampant crime, spiraling corruption, Jacob Zuma’s seemingly endless brood of children, potholes and electricity blackouts suddenly obsessing with placing flags on their cars like diplomats, debating the pros and cons of the noisy vavuzela trumpet, (as I write this I can hear one blaring, tunelessly in the background) unrealistically positive about the home-team Bafana Bafana’s success, hooting their horns, laughing, everyone smiling!
Even verkrampte tannies (conservative ladies) are seen wearing football shirts of the mainly black national team. It’s the World Cup - the very first one on African soil.
And the mood is contagious.
![[QODLink]](http://english.aljazeera.net/mritems/Images/2012/5/24/2012524105149565734_16.jpg "The Brotherhood and Mubarak")
