Reflections From The Year 2010

Reflection from 2010

This is a thread that I planned to do towards the end of 2010 or the first few days into 2011, so I hope it is not too late. We are going to use this thread to reflect back on 2010: the major events that happened to us as individuals, as a nation, and as mankind.

I invite readers share their reflections from 2010 in the comment section.  Please have your name under your post. If you want to submit a full article on your reflections from the past year, please feel free to do so and submit to editorial@talkafrique.com.

For me, it can be nothing but the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa.

2010 South African World Cup:

2010 was the year Africa held its first World Cup. Prior the start of the tournament, the world’s media prophesied what would be an African Catastrophe of Biblical proportions. Nay Sayers were certain that the only reports that would be coming out of South Africa would be hotel lootings, gang rape of World Cup tourist, and empty stadiums. How wrong they were.  It turned out to have been the most successful tournament ever held.

For me, the image that comes to mind when I think of South Africa 2010 is the couple of minutes just before and after Asamoah Gyan missed the crucial penalty kick that would have seen the first ever African side in the World Cup semi-final stage. I can still feel how over those few seconds, the hopes, aspirations and pride of one billion people rested on the shoulders of one man. But it was not the Good Friday we were expecting.  Deferred hope, cracked confidence, and broken heart. That exactly how I felt the weekend that followed

Needless to say, that pain cannot diminish the pride and sheer joy that South Africans brought to all of us by their expert organization of the tournament.

2010 will forever be missed