The Rains Down in Africa

Wow, I am soaked.
It started raining pretty heavily as I was getting ready to leave work, so I decided to drop by the internet cafe on the way home.
The Rains Down in Africa are not quite as romantic as Toto makes them sound. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCca5mPMp9A

I have a few photos and comments on some odd and interesting things in South Africa. The first and most pervasive is the coming World Cup.
This sign, which is part of the 'Welcome the World to Africa' campaign.
As you can see, the Republic of South Africa, in association with Engen (Chevron) has found it worthwhile to post the advice to say "Howdy" to Americans. And, underneath the flag is the label 'USA.'
Incredible.
Additionally, I turned on the TV last night, and all three channels were playing World Cup related things. Channel One was a program like one of their primetime news programs. An anchor and an official from Fifa going around to construction sites and giving two tickets to a
game to random construction workers at the stadiums that they had been working on. It would have been great and home-makeoverish, except two funny things. All of their names were 'Justice' and one was 'Lucky Welcome.' The other is that this anchorwoman is apparently the Chris Hansen of South Africa in a program where they confront fathers who had abandoned their families. Whenever they would approach one of the workers, they would be serious and say 'Do you know where all of your children are?' then be like SURPRISE! Tickets! It did not go over well at all; these people were terrified.

Channel two had investigative journalism regarding the fan parks and safety at the world cup. Channel three looked like the OC or a show like that, but one of the bad guys was gambling on soccer.

EVERY SINGLE COMMERCIAL has a World Cup theme.

The other PSA is the 'Unite behind Bafana Bafana' campaign. They show people taking off their Kaiser Chief and rival soccer club stuff and putting on the national team's uniforms. It is really admirable.

Additionally, and most awesome, is that every person was wearing a Bafana Bafana t-shirt, jersey, or jacket. 100%. I think that there will be some team USA plugging on game days, but nothing like this.

The second picture is outside the national art gallery. You can see an African duck of some kind on the gateway, in front of the mountain. What I found interesting, and you can't see it very well, is the scrolling LED sign over the doorway. I find it a bit out of place, as this is near their parliament on their equivalent of the National Mall in D.C. It is effective, I guess.