But if South Africa can deliver a global mega-event, why can\’t it tackle its inequality with the same energy and efficiency?
Because an economy is rather more complex than hosting 64 football matches.
You can manage the latter with a bit of planning and throwing some money around. The former tends not to be manageable at all.
South Africa didn’t “deliver” the mega-event, it was FIFA, sadly they’ll take most of the profits too.
So, the answer is; hand over your finances to someone else who knows better and has done it loads of times before, but then again, colonialism isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.
I don’t think tunning an economy well is all that difficult. You just enforce contracts, stop serious crime paying & step back. “Tackling poverty” on the other hand, by any means aother than allowing the economy to grow, is ultimately impossible & highly incompatible with running an economy well.
The World Cup and other sporting events are celebrations of inequality.