HERITAGE LETTER
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D.C.

Letters to Editor - Hout Bay Chronicle

The recent outcome of our World Cup Soccer bid plunged Cape Town into gloom and even the JHB Stock Exchange did not escaped impact. It is, however, a sad reflection on us that we as a nation should have acquired a mindset which places sport at the top of our list of values when so many other priorities should take precedence.

It is a fact that a culture of sport is more easily acquired than a culture of entrepreneurial development, but it is irresponsible to believe that sporting events, however large, can stimulate the growth that is needed if  our economy is to survive even until 2006 let alone beyond!

In a land where our bus drivers wear bullet proof vests, in a passenger transport war over limited passenger revenue, with streets full of informal parking attendants, it does not need a Social Science Professor to deduce that our main priority should be employment and not sport. However, we continue to pour more and more money and sponsorship into the national placebo which will not and cannot solve our economic woes now or in the future.

What do we need to do to get the Cape's economy moving ? Its easy - the Cape has an enormous tourism potential which extends way beyond football fans, which our Government keeps telling us but fails to do much about.

We are one of few accessible destinations on earth with a unique natural environment minutes from our mother city - but we don't seem to see it. In fact, some people who live alongside our Peninsula's glorious mountain chain choose to visit the Cederberg or even the Drakensberg for their recreation, but have not fully explored our own back yard.

Why is it that our Overseas Visitors, without exception, are amazed at the natural beauty of the Cape but our own population is generally oblivious as to its potential? Because neither our children nor their parents have been taught in school about the value of our environment ; whereas, cricket, football and rugby are classified as hight priority "development" activities which is why the Ali Bachers and Sepp Blatters of this world clap their hands all the way to the bank.

It is time that Government, sporting sponsors, the media and the public started to get their priorities right. I am convinced that if 10% of all the money that went into sport was directed into education and the conservation of our environment, and a further 10% into the development of eco tourism, our economy would take off possibly to the point where we may have a surplus of passengers for both buses and taxis.

Sport has been discredited in so many ways recently that we ought to get the message. When it gets to the point that a past president of our country has to confer the Order of Good Hope on the chairman of the World Cup Committee the day before the decision - something stinks! Conservation of our environment is an investment in our children's future lets not waste the opportunity to make our first down payment which will reap benefits long before and after 2006, if we wake up in time that is.

Dave Cowley