After the dreadful attack on the Togolese national football team, questions have been raised about the World Cup tournament in South Africa later this year. But why?
After all, France 1998 went ahead despite the Kosovo conflict, which was occuring on the same continent.
As Danny Jordaan has pointed out, South Africa 2010 has nothing to do with the African Cup of Nations save for being held in the same year. What happened on Friday, 3,000 kilometres away from SAFA headquarters is tragic, but it has no bearing on the World Cup.
This situation has merely highlighted the West’s blinkered view of Africa as a single troubled entity. But Angola is just one of fifty-two countries here and is as different from South Africa as Hungary is from the UK and Honduras is from the US.
So can we drop the hysteria and get a little perspective, please?
EDIT: See also here.