A light wind threatened to disrupt all the information on the World Cup and South Africa that Raymond Kessel placed neatly on a table on a sidewalk on Monroe Street Friday morning.It was part of a World Cup party thrown by Kessel and his wife, Leah, just outside Calabash Gifts, an African arts store on Monroe Street that they own. The Kessels, both natives of South Africa, were hoping to draw plenty of children who could watch Mexico play South Africa in the World Cupâ??s opening match on television. â??Itâ??s unfortunate that itâ??s the last day of school because the whole thing was geared around having lots of kids, so that kids could watch without having to go to a sports bar and still have a festivity,â? said Raymond Kessel, who is a retiring professor of genetics at UW-Madison. Although the tournament is a boost for South Africa, itâ??s doubtful that the entire African continent will see a similar boost, says Michael Schatzberg, a political science professor at UW-Madison who is an expert on African politics and has researched the politics, economics and culture of soccer in Africa. â??What we know about other such mega-events â?? World Cups, Olympic Games â?? is that by and large the host country usually ends up in the red. Somehow the promise of economic benefits never materializes one way or another.”
Office of Strategic Communication