October 15, 2009

Schoolchildren protest relocation for stadium

Protesters angry that two schools were displaced for a new stadium — and that a new school they were promised in return has not appeared — have blockaded the stadium construction site, forcing work to stop. Why haven't you heard about this? Probably because it's happening in Mpumalanga Province, South Africa, the site of one of the stadiums being built for the 2010 World Cup. The Sowetan newspaper reports that police fired rubber bullets into a crowd of students, some as young as six years old, who were protesting at the site.

A local government official promised the schools would be built in the next couple of years, saying: "Their problems will soon be over and we request them to concentrate on learning rather than strikes." I can't be the only one who sees the irony here.