We walked part of the fan walk on Saturday and were amazed at the masses of people, many of whom, like us didn't have tickets for the Argentina vs Germany game, but just went along with their kids to soak up some gees. More than 300 000 fans were in Cape Town over the weekend, 42 000 attended the Fan Fest and 153 000 supporters used the 2.5 km Fan Walk on Saturday. What a cool sight to see thousands of us mobilised to watch 22 men chase a ball around a little field of grass...

Join 1 Goal
About 70 million children world-wide will the opportunity of education through the FIFA 1Goal campaign, said ambassador Anthony Baffoe of Ghana on Saturday.

One of these children was Ghanaian Stephen Odai, who was given an opportunity to watch Ghana play against Uruguay on Friday.

"My policy has always been combining football with education, 1Goal helps these kids to start their life," said Baffoe, who was at a media briefing at Soccer City in Nasrec.

He said that 18-year-old Odai was the classical example of how education can open doors for young people...

"Twelve million people have signed up to support 1Goal - that makes this the biggest campaign for education in history. Football is helping make something very special happen," said Bafoe

Children are excluded from school for a number of reasons - because of illness, HIV, disability, because they live in an area of conflict, or are discriminated against because of their background. Millions don't make it to school simply because they are too poor. Their families can't afford the school fees that some governments still charge, or they are being put to work to support their family either at home, on the farm or in factories.

1GOAL is being led by the Global Campaign for Education, which has coalitions in over 100 countries. Since the Global Campaign for Education started, some governments have listened, providing more aid, or free schooling, and more than 40 million children previously without an education now have the chance to go to school. The world has the resources and capacity to give every child this chance. But we need every government to make this a reality. [sport24], [1GOAL]

Visit the Green Goal Expo at the Fan Fest
Cape Town’s environmental programme for the World Cup, “Green Goal 2010”, is showcased at the Fan Fest through a structure that is specially designed to demonstrate the use of materials that are either recycled, reusable, reclaimed, or newly purchased but are earmarked for reuse afterwards.

The building takes the idea of reducing waste to a highly sustainable level by sourcing most of the construction materials from within a 2,5km radius of the site, thereby reducing the carbon footprint of the structure. The form of the Green Goal 2010 Expo structure is a cube with the exterior clad with 1,450 multicoloured plastic milk crates containing 17,400 empty milk bottles. Low energy lighting illuminates the crates from behind, turning the structure into a glowing ‘jewel box’ at night.

The Green Goal programme spans 40+ projects that contribute to environmental awareness, waste minimisation, efficient energy use, sustainable water consumption, compensation for the event's carbon footprint, responsible tourism, and green building.

“Some of these innovations can be seen at the Fan Fest”, says Lorraine Gerrans, City of Cape Town Green Goal Manager. “For example, there will be no disposable cups or plates, and fans buying refreshments will be sold commemorative 2010 mugs and food will be served on durable plates. Waste will be avoided and minimised, and if this is not possible, then fans are encouraged to separate wet and dry waste in the two-bin system at the Fan Fest, along the Fan Walk and at the Cape Town Stadium.”

Mike Marsden, Executive Director for Service Delivery Integration and responsible for 2010 in the City said: “The event is placing global environmental issues, such as climate change, under a spotlight, and is an opportunity to promote pro-active approaches to these issues among local and international audiences." [Cape Town Green Map]

Activist Patrick Bond arrested for 'ambush marketing'
Well-known activist and academic Patric Bond was arrested twice and warned that he would be carhed with ambush marketing for handing out anit-xenophobia flyers at Durban's beachfront Fifa fan park at the weekend.

Bond, head of the Centre for Civil Society, based at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, student Samantha Sencer-Muraand and Giuliano Martiniell, who is part of an Italian film crew, were detained by police at South Beach while handing out flyers.

Bond said he was grilled for two hours by police and a member of the National Intelligence Agency, who said they could be charged with incitement and ambush marketing.

"All we were marketing was the constitution", said Bond, who could not understand Fifa's "control-freak mind-set". He said the police were at pains to explain that the fan park was Fifa turf and that "there was no space for constitutional rights". They also told him he could be creating a problem by promoting a rally, said Bond.

After the anti-xenophobia rally on Saturday, he returned to the beachfront to hand out flyers questioning whether Fifa had taken too much out of Saouth Africa - like R25 billion in tax-free profits, and with nothing trickling down to poor people. He was arrested and questioned again before being released.

Bond said his aim was to create awareness of the threat of another contrywide wave of xenophobia, which was likely to occur after the World Cup, and to prevent it.

source:cape times
Read more by Patrick Bond on the World Cup

Twenty solar powered training centres for Africa
Official sponsor of the 2010 FIFA World Cup, Yingli Solar, has teamed up with FIFA on the organisation's $16-million "Football for Hope" corporate social responsibility project, which would see 20 solar-powered training centres set up throughout Africa in 2010.

Construction has already started on some of the centres, five of which were in South Africa, with others located in Namibia, Mali, Rwanda, Ghana, Lesotho and Kenya.

The first centre, which was opened in December 2009, and run in conjunction with local nongovernmental organisation, Grassroots Soccer, was established in Khayelitsha, in the Western Cape. It activities had a strong focus on HIV/Aids education for youth, through football-based programmes.

The Yingli Solar off-grid solar installations would provide solar power for the training centres across Africa, which, in turn, would provide lighting for pitches, as well as electricity for computers or study rooms, or fridges to refrigerate vaccines and medicines, or even to pump water to storage tanks. [engineering news]

Climate change fouls and goals
The first Fifa (International Federation of Association Football) World Cup to take place on the African continent will leave a carbon footprint more than eight times greater than the 2006 World Cup in Germany, according to a study conducted in February 2009 at the request of the South African government and the Norwegian embassy in that country.

Local transportation, the construction of stadiums and the energy use associated with the football matches and accommodations for thousands of fans are predicted to emit nearly 900,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide. Another 1.9m tonnes of this greenhouse-effect gas, the main cause of climate change, will be emitted in the international travel to and from the World Cup. [guardian]

While it's been a great world cup for soccer fans and there have undoubtedly been nation-building and unifying effects and also economic benefits to some, the controversies should still give pause for thought. Perhaps we'll take a closer look again after the euphoria subsides.