Madam, - On our local news here in South Africa, I heard an item about 300 Irish people who had each raised 35,000 South African rand to come to Cape Town to build houses for the poor. This is a very laudable effort but I would question the wisdom of such charity.
I say this because the South African government, which should be housing its own people, has embarked on a four-year project to host the 2010 World Soccer Cup. Enormous sums are being spent on stadiums that will be used for only a few weeks.
Both Cape Town and Durban, to name only two cities, will spend nearly 2 billion rand on stadiums. In addition, vast amounts will be spent on infrastructure and on a huge headquarters for the event in Johannesburg.
There are hundreds of thousands of poor people in South Africa. Less than a mile from where I live people live in tin or cardboard shacks and most of them go to bed hungry every night. Hundreds of destitute jobless people live rough on the streets in the city centre with little or no cover.
To assist the poor is a wonderful Christian gesture. However, the South African government could house all its people if it gave up its grandiose ideas about world events. - Yours, etc,
BRIAN P. Ó CINNÉIDE, Durban, South Africa.