Seriously, if any tourists to our beautiful country read this and have any fears, please be at peace. What you hear and see in the media has a lot of hype attached to it. We might have our problems in South Africa, but it is not that bad.

And for those who were wondering. No we also do not have lions, rhinos or giraffe roaming the streets, they are all out in the wild or locked away safely in game reserves!

One thing I must say, please no bad vibes, manners or any mass paranoia allowed, leave those at the airport before boarding.

To put it mildly, it feels like things are on thin ice, as South Africa’s political status as far as race is concerned has never been a very bright one.

But now lets be optimistic and look at the glass half-full instead of half-empty.

We here in South Africa have come a very long way politically. With the release of Nelson Mandela and then him becoming president, there has been a lot of positive change in South Africa. Hey, we’re the “Rainbow Nation” after all. Now with the FIFA World Cup right around the corner, things are really coming to a climax. South Africa is under the looking glass, so to speak.

Is this not our hour of truth. What happens next would determine whether we’ve passed the test and have finally matured as a nation. Someone like Julius Malema who is still clinging to the old racial crap is not a good ambassador for our country, but seeing the reaction from other politicians sure does give a glimmer of hope.

This morning I was invited to a Facebook group called, “Malema, a Love Letter“. This group was started by someone who very clearly looks at the glass half-full. The whole point behind her view is, don’t fight fire with fire, lets douse the fire and educate at the same time. Everyone should write a letter to Julius Malema detailing their hopes and dreams for our nation. It is meant to serve as an eye opener. At the moment everyone is attacking him which clearly is not helping and the only thing it’s good for is to fuel the fire.

The guy is ignorant. He needs to be educated. He is only reacting the way he does due to his ignorance. He does not know better. He is still living in the dark ages of racial divide. It is very clear from his statements and also by a statement made by one of the members of the Facebook group that some black people still go around with the idea in their heads that white people are being brought up to believe they cannot trust black people and that all black people are criminals. This is ridiculous!! And then in the same instance they say that South Africans need to stand together. How can we stand together when this is the crap that are being fed to the ignorant. It’s like the blind leading the blind. It’s a recipe for disaster.

The Facebook group will lead you to this article, Malema, a love letter. There it will give you details on how to publish your letter. Lets show the world that we have stood the test of time and that we have now matured into a true Rainbow Nation.

According to IT news website, ITWeb (article here), the website www.fifaworldcup.durban.gov.za, will have features such as a live webcam of the stadium as well as interactive postcards and galleries.

After scrutinizing the website myself, I am unable to figure out where the high costs come into play. As a web designer, I can’t help but be critical about the site. The design is definitely nothing to write home about and looking at some of the code on the site, it was built using outdated coding standards, such as tables. Even though the site was built using ASP, it is not any different from any open source content management systems I have seen before. In fact, I know of far more advanced CMS’s than what I see on that site.

True, there might be something going on behind the scenes which the public is not aware of, but R6.5 million??

There is a discussion on this at the famous Port Elizabeth website, MyPE.

I would really like to hear people’s opinions on this! If any professional web developers read this, please leave your comments! I would like to believe I am missing something here!