2010 a Time to make Love?

At the opening of the 2010 National Communication Partnership Conference this week, LOC Chairman Dr Irvin Khoza related a defining moment that he experienced at the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany. On his way to the stadium, the taxi driver remarked, “it is strange, but for the first time since I can remember, the Germans have really started to love each other”.

Dr Khoza shared this incident with the audience, to underline his point that South Africans should start improving their interpersonal relations with each other in the run-up to 2010, and look for the good in each other rather than engage in the continual search for finding fault in others.

So, how can brotherly (and sisterly) love be ignited amongst the people of Mzansi and what are the leverage points for converting the prevailing fear and mistrust into a newfound sense of a close-knit fraternity and a shared destiny?

Following Dr Khoza’s remarks about the need for improved internal relations, many commentators called for a comparison of SA’s psychometrical state of the nation with that of the previous hosts, Germany, around the 300 day countdown mark.

At this point in time in 2005, roughly six weeks after the Confederations Cup, most Germans felt anxious rather than elated at the prospects of hosting the world in the following year. Commented Germany’s leading political magazine, Der Spiegel: “The euphoria that had energized the country during the 2005 Confederations Cup had died without a whimper. Football was once a beacon of hope for Germany. The 2006 World Cup was supposed to boost the gross domestic product; an outstanding performance by the national team would fuel a national liftoff. Klinsmann was the public face of this hope.”

But things started going wrong in early 2006. First came the 4-1 defeat by Italy; then German clubs crashed out of European tournaments, followed by the eruption of a domestic match fixing scandal involving players and managers. A number of xenophobic attacks in East Germany prompted a former Government spokesperson to call for ‘no-go zones’, the Swedish ombudsman for equal opportunities called for a boycott of the World Cup (because he anticipated a rise in forced prostitution), and unemployment peaked at a post war record of 5 million plus.

Concluded the Spiegel: “The country seemed grumpy, timid, ugly. The World Cup, an experiment in mass merrymaking, was in danger of being ripped apart in a savage orgy of self mutilation and bellyaching.”

It was then that Chancellor Angela Merkel, Coach Jürgen Klinsmann and the grandees of German football convened for a sporting summit in mid-March 2006. At the top of their agenda: How to turn the World Cup into a frolicking, fun-filled fest. Looking back at what winning the 1954 World Cup had done for the beaten down German psyche just after the war, and how the ‘Miracle of Berne’ had become a catalyst for renewed self-confidence, they rallied behind Klinsmann’s rebranding program for the national team. Concluded Klinsmann: "Winning the tournament would give us the chance to show the world who we are. We have the opportunity to redefine Germany - to create a national brand." As a result, all of government and the 2006 stakeholders became deliberate and vocal spokespersons for Klinsmann’s previously much maligned reform program and his grand vision.

The result? When Germany beat Poland in their second group game, thereby qualifying for the knock-out stages of the tournament, the entire nation erupted into a state of collective euphoria and what the Spiegel termed ‘Partyotism’ – a new phenomenon of expressing their love for the nation in the most festive manner. On the 14 June 2006, at 22h53 when Oliver Neuville scored the winning 1-0 goal in extra-time, Germany had reached the tipping point.

Even Chancellor Angela Merkel, not known for charisma or outbursts of emotion, was swept up in the football frenzy, cheering, punching the air during matches and hugging coach Klinsmann and the World Cup's chief organiser, Franz Beckenbauer. "Germany's image abroad has definitely changed incredibly. I liked this inner, happy self-confidence a lot," she told RTL television. Merkel said she hoped the last four weeks had given the country the confidence and drive to tackle its problems - mass unemployment and runaway welfare costs. "We're a great country, we can do it, and we're admired by others," she said.

A different kind of boost, albeit not less significant to the national wellbeing, had tongues wagging at Germany’s kindergartens. It appears that the mix of sun, beer and excitement during the World Cup produced a massive hormone rush in German bedrooms. Nine months on, birth clinics across the country reported a much-needed baby boom – and many of the so-called World Cup babies were called after the national football heroes.

To make Dr Khoza’s greatest wish come true and generate the much needed internal love affair of Mzansi, what can you do to rally your troops behind the national team and show the world why Madiba has repeatedly called South Africa a “Nation of Champions”?