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Could The 2010 World Cup Be A Disaster In theMaking?
Jeffrey Hoffman, HuffingtonPost Posted: January 14, 2010 09:15 AM
As you probably know, the World Cup is scheduled for South Africa in June of thisyear. Many present and former residents see this as a potential recipe for disaster,and for good reason. Most would agree that three of the major venues,Johannesburg, Durban, and Capetown are cities where lawless mobs run rampantand threaten both classes on a regular daily basis. If you Google the
Johannesburg Times
, you will be shocked to find numerous stories every day about all differentkinds of good and decent individuals, whose lives have been tragically cut short bycrazed lunatics who never ever know their victims...and sadly, never will.
Consider one of these many tragedies, former Johannesburg businessman
Sheldon "Sheldie" Cohen, shot deadin 2008, while waiting for his 16
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year
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old son, Noah, to finish soccer practice.Cohen, the former chief executive of Amalgamated Appliances and a Harvard Business School graduate, wasmurdered around 8pm outside the Balfour Alexandra Football Club, in Highlands North. He was talking to hisfather, Jack, on his cellphone when fatally shot in the neck. Realizing something was horribly wrong, Jack leaptinto his car and raced to the club. Sheldie's killer was one of three men who seconds before had tried to take thecellphone of another parent, Joss Miller who was waiting outside the clubhouse in her car.Miller told the Times she saw three men loitering around the clubhouse and the parking lot. "They walked past meand stood where Sheldon's car was parked. "One of the guys came to my car, opened my door, slapped me anddemanded my cellphone. That's when I ran screaming to the clubhouse. "Then, I heard a gun shot," she said.Club vice
-
chairman Jorge Patricio was in the clubhouse when the men attacked Miller. "I was in the office andheard her screams in the parking lot," he said. "Five seconds later I heard a 'pop'." Another parent, John Killos,said everyone heard the shot. So, it seems safe to assume that Cohen's son, Noah, had most likely heard hisfather's murder take place...truly pathetic, for sure.
"We went down to the parking lot and, while we were standing there, Jack (Cohen's father) drove in," said Killos.Jack got out of his car and asked where Sheldie was. " We went to his car and saw his body slumped towards the
passenger seat," Killos said. Club coach and director Mark Abro said he pulled Cohen towards the driver's seat
and realized that he had been shot dead. Abro said: "His body was slumped forward and two of the boys hadtried to hold him up so he could breathe." But, tragically, it was all for naught.
Cohen, dead at the scene was described by close friends as a truly special individual...hugely charitable, caring,loving husband and committed to his sons. Devastated, as were many friends all over the globe, Jack Cohenlooked "bewildered" and sobbed uncontrollably at his son's house in Melrose North, where angry friends and
family gathered later that fateful night.
If this anecdote is hard to stomach, imagine the number of potentially explosive situations just waiting tomaterialize when money
-
spending foreigners from all corners of the earth convene in South Africa this summer.While this is but one isolated incident, the probability that naive foreigners will put themselves in harm's way is
fairly high.
Clearly, soccer...or football (as it is known outside of the U.S.) fans worldwide need to know the risks that they runin trying to have a safe trip to the Cup matches. Does this really sound like a place to stage the most watchedsporting event in the world? It wasn't even a safe place for Sheldie Cohen to watch his son's soccer practice.
Jeffrey Hoffman is a web developer and did baseball play
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by
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play and sport talk on radio.
Source:
world
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cup_b_422999.html
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