Sit and rotate, South Africa

 1.

Apparently it’s your fault, my fault and the fault of everyone else who ever considered the word “choke” part of polite conversation.

Says our coach that, because of that tormented label, they had failed to put a rather average New Zealand team to the sword.


I wonder, coach, where’s that “up yours” attitude that has made civilisation what it is today? When they told Amelia Earhart that flying across the Atlantic was not a woman’s place did she apologise for having a dream, retiring quietly to the kitchen for a future of apple pie and mom’s best biscuits? Did she swap her aviation ambitions for domestic bliss? Did she trade her leathers for an apron and a friggen floral skirt?

Hell no boss man, she raised 1 x middle finger to her pubic naysayers and went on to become a legend of her time.

When the Springboks faced an All Black team that was twice as good and three times as polished in the 1995 World Cup final did they attempt to just “stay in touch”, save face, hold on for dear life, emerge from the battle with their honour intact, or did they raise one times gigantic finger of stubborn resilience – getting in the face of the opposition and grinding out a famous win that united this land? Eh?

Hell even Julius Malema, a perennial underachiever and guaranteed imbecile has managed to carve a profitable existence out for himself.

Just because someone calls you an empty vessel of political rhetoric with little or no value to add to a modern democracy, a forgotten child of a revolution long dead, a power-hungry mongrel and perfect example of everything that is wrong with African politics, it does not mean you cannot rise to the top of the steaming pile of corruption and lawlessness that is the ANC.

Whatever we may think of the kid, he’s got some balls.

So I ask you this Corrie, “Why do you guys allow yourselves to be intimidated by a word?”

The fact of the matter is a simple one sir. Most South Africans will not begrudge their team for losing a game against opposition that played better on the day, as long as their team played a reasonable game themselves...and as long as the loss is not against the international equivalent of the Upington under 19C team.

When you fold in a messed heap chasing a score most provincial teams would have managed at a canter it says little about your ability and skill chief - but everything about your attitude, your lack of self belief and good old fashioned “**** you” spirit of resilience that has enabled humanity to conquer the highest mountains, discover new lands and reach for the stars.

When you say “it’s your fault” for using a frivolous word to describe the team’s psyche it sends out the message that this group of talented sportsmen are soft of mind and meek of heart. When you point to the shackles of the past as the ball and chain that stops our boys from achieving the success we all dream of, it says that we are a people who live in the past, who fear the future, who dare not take one giant leap...

I don’t buy that.

Here’s to that wondrous day when this team asks us to sit and rotate. I know I’d be more than happy to oblige.

By

NEHA JAIN

      

   

     

International Airlines Training Expo