By IANS,
New Delhi : South Africa’s media spokesperson and journalist Mark Keohane says he feels safer in Delhi than in his home country.
Keohane arrived in Delhi Monday along with the athletes and since then he has fallen in love with the city hosting the Oct 3-14 Games.
“First up, I don’t ever feel threatened in South Africa, my home country. But as South Africans we are accustomed to prejudice and to perception presented as fact by the overseas media. In Delhi I have felt even more comfortable than in my Cape Town home,” Keohane wrote on the website of South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (SASCOC)
He revealed that Team South Africa has nothing to complain about the security and hygiene issues of the athletes so far.
“The athletes have embraced their short-term homes as if they were their own, which means they do their own cleaning up,” Keohane wrote.
“The Village caters for every athlete’s need, from banks, to hair salons, to gift shopping, and the press conference areas are within a five-minute-walk from the apartments.”
Keohane feels that the media coverage does not tell the full story of the Commonwealth Games in which the security and the hygiene of the 7,000-plus athletes is of top-most priority.
The South African is much impressed with the hospitality of the Indians but uses all possible euphemisms to describe the flaws inside the Games Village.
“The workmanship is shoddy and the finishing leaves a lot to be desired when it comes to the Athletes Village apartments, but that was always to be expected with the last minute rush to complete the Village,” he wrote.
“But the rooms are as good as any you would find at a Varsity residence. All that’s missing is the beer and the noise, but once the competition starts the noise will be there, as will the beer.”
“We are in Tower 22 and have Australia as our neighbours. So, even if medals are not flowing for the South Africans it is a given there will be daily celebrations next door from the competition medal favourites.”
Keohane is all praise for the staff and security and said the athletes have settled into daily routines without any hassle.
He is equally curious about what is happening outside the perimeter walls of the Village.
“Well Delhi is a mixture of horns going all day, near crashes and intense traffic. But the dedicated Commonwealth Games Lane, which only allowed accredited Commonwealth vehicles in it, functions.
“There were reports, again as much on Indian television as there has been on the international channels, that the lanes were a disaster, but all I have experienced is a free flow to and from the village.”
The weather has given him a hard time but it gets compensated with the love and the warmth of the Delhiites.
“The heat in Delhi is unrelenting, but then so too is the friendliness of the locals,” he concludes.