Had supper with a friend who told me she'd opposed South Africa hosting the World Cup because of the money that would be diverted from meeting needs of the poor of the country; she similarly opposed the building of the Gautrain (airport-link) - surely improving transport for workers was a vastly greater priority. Now she confessed with great embarrassment, having had no interest in soccer, she's watching every match and loving them AND she came back from the aiport on the Gautrain and enjoyed both the view and the efficiency. She feels hypocritical.

Why be embarrassed I asked? Seems to me we have to learn to live with contradiction, and with the reality that few things in life are perfectly clear from an ethical point of view - if one refuses to take the Gautrain because one would have preferred it not to be built, one just contributes to nightmare traffic and pollution....
Similarly while the hosting of the World Cup was highly questionable in terms of costs of stadiums, it's hard to measure the impact of the sense of nationhood and joy its bringing large numbers of locals across class and race divides, and the impact on potential foreign tourists and businesses in terms of debunking notions that SA is a horror state....

Viva complexity!!