Chaos

I drove across Pretoria today. One of the robots was out and traffic was nightmarish. When I finally arrived at my destination there were throngs of people standing in a queue that snaked through two shopping malls - twisting, turning, suffocating any empty space in a two-block radius. There were police everywhere, strapped with guns on both thighs, carrying semi-automatic weapons and wearing bullet proof vests. They were there for crowd-control, I suppose. I couldn't figure out what was going on, so I asked someone. The occasion: World Cup tickets were available for public sale. The crowd was so thick I couldn't leave or go anywhere, so I sat in a cafe for three hours.

On my way home, two more robots were out, which affected traffic the entire way home. It took me 2 hours to make a 20-minute trip. All in all, I was "stuck" for five hours.

When I got home, I looked at the news online to see if there was anything regarding the ticket sales. There were two articles. The headlines? "Pensioner dies standing in queue for World Cup tickets" and "Police Use Pepper Spray to Control Crowd." As it turns out, there were only 11 venues across the country where tickets were being sold. I happened to pick the one place in all of Pretoria where tickets were being sold to do a little birthday shopping for my daughter.

I came up with my own headline: "Birthday shopping mommy meets South African Police Tactical Response Team, who was called in to deal with the angry, would-be ticket buyers in the crowd and asks them to explain to hubby why she won't be home for dinner." ("Hey, can I pose for a picture holding your AK-47?")

You'd think there would be an easier way to sell tickets.