Congratulations Ghana!

It was a very enjoyable game to watch and if the USA had not scored that late goal that put them at the top of the group we would have been the team to play Ghana and we would have had to have played far better then we have so far if we were not going to be the team heading for the airport.

It was also good to see as Merse has said how the Africans are uniting behind whoever they have left in the competition, something that does not happen in the UNITED KINGDOM.

On the J.Vine show a few weeks a go the question was asked if people in Scotland, Wales and Ireland would be getting behind England in the world cup and the only support England might have got seemed to have come from Ireland and certainly not Scotland.

I was very surprised to hear it mentioned that there are 54 countries in Africa, I found myself asking did I bother to learn anything at Highweek school for boys, but to be honest back then I found geography very boring and took little interest in it.

As I have got older I have wanted to learn more and so I looked at maps of Africa last night and what has really surprised me is how small South Africa looks on a map as I aways thought it took up half of Africa.

My part of England was not ablaze with horns, vezuvelas and Ghanian flags last night and I do feel we have missed out a bit down here as I would have loved to have seen and heard such celebrations taking place in the street where I live.

All the African countries have their rivalries, various specific issues remain between certain neighbours and many of them are riven by internal strife, tribalism and still suffer from the imposition of meaningless (to them) frontiers drawn up by the Imperial powers of Europe who had no comprehension of the nomadic and transitory ways of millions of people in that continent.

Some countries like Egypt and Ghana are now half a century into full independence regained from those imperial rulers, some are newly free; and South Africa in particular will have a legacy of the terrible damage of Apartheid for many generations to come.

Congo has the terrible legacy of rape and pillage from the Belgians, Angola from the Portuguese and Mozambique too................they were certainly not patrician or caring colonial masters. They took all they could, gave little in return and left in a hurry caring not for the future of those countries they had bled dry.

The reason they are uniting like this is because for once they can stand as a free continent and take on the world on level terms. If their own particular country can't remain in the cup then they will naturally support "one of their own" and why not? It is a legacy of issues far beyond football, whereas the football rivalries of the old world are just that ~ football rivalries and far better that we retain those whilst maintaining a peaceful co-existence between all of us.

There are regrettably those who will seize on today's England v Germany match to re-ignite old divisions that no longer exist...................but in life generally now, German can participate with Russian, English with German, Italian and Japanese to the mutual benefit of all concerned.

The nasty taste left by the imposition of European ways has come back to bite the modern day Europeans as many of the African nations have looked to the east and China as their present day and future trading partner, and who can blame them? The European doesn't have a lot to be proud of from his history in Africa, but we live in hope and put that hope in humanity and the willingness of mankind to co-exist and work side by side and in a climate of fairness and trust. Difficult to achieve when there are the temptations of profiteering and exploitation forever lurking around the corner, but a great sporting event like The World Cup is a great example of peaceful co-existence and a common interest enriching the lives of all who take part.