Alexandra neighborhood is famous, but unfortunately for the wrong reasons; it was the heartbeat for xenophobic attacks and the soaring crime rate has not helped the image either.

I have been longing to go to Alex, as its commonly known, because every time I tell my South African friends that Soweto suburbs is probably better than most Kenyan middle class estates, they always advise me to go to Alex, apparently because its worse.

Many friends have said how they have never or can not step in Alex because of the way the place is infested with criminals and every time I passed by young men and women, I could imagine that they are probably honing their skills by mugging people or doing drugs, which is not exactly alien.

The idea I had about Alex was something else; maybe rivaled by the American drug and gangster movies and the idea of a crime infested neighborhood, that has been over dramatized in Hollywood.

I got a chance to visit by accompanying a friend who was going there on official duties; the fact tat I look South African worked in my favor although there was no significant threat that is out of the norm.

The visit was timely, I know understood the reason why foreigners like the place; and maybe the problem of xenophobia lies somewhere else but demonstrated through killing the hapless neighbors, just because you cant get to the real culprits.

First, Alex is not a slum by Kenyan standards (because thats what am familiar with) ; they have tarmac roads and if there was a fire, at least the fire engine would access the place; Alex is more like the upper lower class or lower middle class in many countries, if that makes sense.

So, what people think is appalling, is probably what foreigners are used to and maybe the rent is far cheaper. Plus for some people, they are used to places with no order or no authority e.g if you escaped war or poverty, then you don't mind so much the place and besides for some of the criminal activities to thrive, chaos is vital.

Am only using the argument to understand why foreigners like the place; although that may not necessarily be the issue.

The bone of contention is the rising crime rate and the fact that some people dealing drugs are so rich, they are untouchable.

On my way back, I had a conversation with an old man, who made the issue clearer; he argued that there are some nationalities that are known for dealing drugs, perpetrating criminal activities and getting away with it, just because they have money or power to influence.

Just like in many communities where people feel frustrated by people or the system they can't reach, they start fighting or killing with whoever is the representation of that figure.

So, in the old man's opinion, the xenophobic attacks were more to do with frustrations with the system, rather than nationalities. He argued that previously, South Africa was very comfortable with other nationalities but that has since changed.

That is not to say that its guaranteed that if the issue of crime was sorted, then the animosity will stop; there are no such guarantees but that would be a start.

Then there is the argument that the animosity is all about jobs that are taken by foreigners. Who is to blame, the employer or employee? None. but the debate is far more complex than that.

There is not much you can understand by taking to people in an afternoon, but it helps!

There is something about sports and booze; we see it more in football and rugby but am sure it happens in other sports too.

But during the world cup, the beer consumption goes up; indeed just before the world cup, i remember pub owners in the match cities saying that they were stocking on beer big time.

German and British fans top the list; you can imagine how the fans celebrate the team win or loss. At the world cup stadium, fans just get beers, you don't see many holding cans of soda, I guess its not cool.

You can imagine the beer that will be consumed on sunday when Germany meets Britain. It will be great for the local pubs.

The funniest was these South Korean fans, a man and woman, who were sharing some booze, which had straws and was carefully packed on the head.

I think beer is one of the indicators that the fans are spending as they should; that is why the big footballing countries should stay in the draw; the economy will be much better am sure.

Just when I thought the world was done with the Vuvuzela debate, I receive this press release.

But it teaches be that companies know how to take advantage of events, I think this company went out its way to manufacture or upgrade one of its products or better still, its just the same only that they have gotten a new marketing tag.

Either way, its a chance to market, only that it has been overtaken by time because people have moved on. I guess the company execs are not even in South Africa but they sound like they are forever in the thick of things.

Here it goes...

Not all TV broadcasters mute irritating vuvuzela shrieks when showing World Cup 2010 matches. New AVS Audio Editor effectively bans the annoying noise with specially developed Vuvuzela Remover filters.

Online Media Technologies Ltd., the owner of AVS4YOU Project releases today a special edition of AVS Audio Editor with the extra Vuvuzela Remover feature.

The Vuvuzela Remover feature contains 6 filters adjusted to reject frequencies typical of this African horn. Software engineers designed the algorithm in such a way that it effectively reduces irritating noises up to 99 percent without damaging audio quality.

The Vuvuzela Remover can be applied in combination with the intelligent Noise Removal filter. You indicate the noise type and save it as a sample. Basing on this sample, AVS Audio Editor 6.1 will automatically search, detect and remove similar disturbances such as horn roars, whistles, hisses, etc. from other audio- and video files.

“One feels real adrenaline rush while yelling and blaring in the stadium. In a room, where there's not so much space, vuvuzela wheezes become hard to endure. AVS Audio Editor 6.1 deletes excess noises without mercy,” said Tatyana Danilova, PR Manager, Online Media Technologies Ltd.

It is the first World Cup in the African continent; was well organized by all standards and most of all, FIFA website broke the record for the most unique hits. On Friday June 25th, another record is set to tumble as Johannesburg resident Thulani Ngcobo, completes his feat of attending the most World Cup matches.

The current record is 20 matches and Ngcobo is attempting to watch 38, entering the Guinness World Record for the most matches watched at a FIFA World Cup.

MTN organized a competition last year for the last fan standing and Ngcobo was the lucky winner, to break the record, he will travel more than 17,000 kilometers and watch more than 3420 minutes of football within the month long tournament.

But how does he make it?

Well, Ngcobo enjoys helicopter ride and Friday will not be any different, he will watch the first match at Nelspruit then take a chopper to Pretoria, where he will watch the late game.

“I must be the luckiest football fan at this World Cup and I am so grateful that I am experiencing all of this, because I am absolutely crazy about football. I kept looking around me, to see my girlfriend next to me and the organizers of my prize, to make sure it was real” said Ngcobo.

After the match tomorrow night, Ngcobo will join officials from MTN and Guinness Book of Records for a press conference and celebrations; its a dream come true for him.

For Ngcobo, its Ayoba time!

This is the latest info from the Communications Commission of Kenya.

..... its now official, Zain was sharp to wait for the row between Orange and GoK to settle, nice things have come their way....

The information communication technology sector has experienced tremendous growth in the recent years. With the maturity of the Kenyan communications market, consumers are increasingly demanding access to broadband services. As a result the move to 3G is inevitable particularly for the telecommunication sub-sector.

3G offers higher data speeds, more security, and more variety of services than the current 2G services. The bandwidth available to 3G devices gives rise to applications not previously available to mobile phone users.

In view of this, CCK will on Friday 25th June 2010 present Zain Kenya with its 3G License making it the second company in Kenya to offer the service.

Present at the cheque presentation will be CCK Director General, Charles J.K. Njoroge and Zain Kenya CEO, Rene Meza.

There has been many theories advanced on why football attracts fanatical support; for some, its the game of the poor and middle class, who have all the time to play in open field while the rich are locked in gated communities and high flats playing video games and watching TV. I think the case of Brazil and the rise of most footballers from humble beginnings can reinforce this theory.

For some, football is the game that unites all religions, its a universal language that people play the best way they know how. Just look at the support on the field and TV audiences.

For some, football is the game of men and not for sissies although I think rugby players would contents this, given that football players are known to fall down and complain at the slightest touch. The other day somebody commented on twitter that he was surprised Ronaldo did not fall down when he was given a high five after the Portugal game with Ivory Coast.

For some, football is the game that surpasses all ages, both young and old; it is a time when you can celebrate in a stupid way and your kids, workmates and other folks will not think you are acting immature.

For some, football transcends gender, both men and women get emotional although Africa is yet to accept that women can be true football supporters and contribute to intelligent football discussions.

The gender aspect is still an issue; ever wondered why parents take their boys to the stadium and not girls, yet you see youthful women and older ones on the stadium; is it that we are jumping a gap in the support or girls are not interested in football at an early age?

Anyway, what is football to you?

Of all the people who get nice seats, I envy the photo journalists and their huge lenses

Its always fascinating when you hear the amount of money companies sponsoring the world cup are spending just to be part of it.

One can be forgiven for asking whether they recoup their investments. In some cases, you don't have to know the figures; just look at the amount of advertising MTN has paid for in the last six months, look at their fan park, look at the advertising material produced; look at Sony's advertising stands at the Sandton- its big money.

I had a chance to go to the Sony 3D experience dome and its a worth while experience; Forget that they promise to show game highlights and they end up showing the game for less than two minutes. Its a 15-minute commercial and 13-minutes showcase Sony products in 3D.

I think Sony is going to recoup its money because it has an audience from several countries, who can then buy the products back in their countries. Even if they will not buy the expensive 3D cameras, am imagining, the other products will be taken up.

Sony's strategy was very targeted, one stand for the youth, showing the games and other products for the age group, another for the basic who do not know where they belong and the 3D experience for the hi-tech or those who have nowhere to go and are out to kill time.

MTN has managed to keep the buzz up with its "Ayoba" advertising; which means cool; when I was for the Argentina game, I remember fans shouting Ayoba. They would sing in Spanish then shout Ayoba, making it so catchy.

Am imagining that for most world cup folks, MTN is the only network and probably the network has sold lots of sim cards and airtime. If not that, even solidifying its continental position is still something.

That may be a big win for big corporations, but even the smaller businesses have won, hotels, restaurants, shops, and other businesses have all adjusted their prices to be "world Cup prices", the cabs are even worse, its so expensive to travel.

The shopping malls have these signs that say discounts but when you look at the prices, there is no change if anything the prices are up, but you know there are people who cant buy unless they see the item labelled "on sale".

Even the hawkers near the stadium, they have hiked prices and when the Vuvuzela complaints were on a high, they were stocking ear plugs and I wondered, who would wear ear plugs in the stadium?

So, big or small, international or local, businesses are winning big with the World Cup because its Ayoba time!

The other day I was at Mandela square late in the evening, it was cold and chilly but for the football fans who have braved worse winter weather, I guess it was nothing.

There were groups of fans, chanting slogans and working hard to outdo each other.

One corner, Argentina fans were singing their voices hoarse, Brazil was in another corner, Mexico was somewhere in between and Mexico was just there, then there were these two Swiss fans, who had painted themselves red and were only in shorts.

I guess the fans have different ways of expressing themselves and believe it or not, the stripping helped attract more women to their side; works well huh? In all these chaos, I happened to be standing next to a cute guy, from one of the South American countries; he did not speak much of English but he had a lisp and I made sure he talked and talked, forget that I was not getting half of what he was saying.

It was a pleasant atmosphere that allowed people to do things they would normally do, talk to strangers and just jump up and down. Vuvuzela or no Vuvuzela, the place can get noisy.

So, in all the mayhem, I got to know who are the noisiest fans of the day- Argentina- I think they can out-shout the vuvuzela.

Tonight Nigeria is taking on South Korea but there is no celebration because Nigeria is fading fast from its past... but that doesn't mean that Nigerians will not enjoy and take advantage of the World Cup; if there is no win on the field, then business should win.

Nigeria is one of Africa's footballing power houses; even when they don't have the best team, they are always expected to perform well, after all, they are one of the richest nations.

It was fair for us to have legitimate expectations that Nigeria would at least go into the second round. Do better than countries like Slovenia and New zealand. But this has not been the case.

Forget that Kaita, seen as a rising star, decided to make a fool of himself in a way that he ruled himself out of future games, the team never looked like a shadow of its glorious past, forget represent the likes of Okocha and Oliseh.

After the red card, Nigerians declared that he was not welcome home; that he should go straight to Belgium where he plies his trade. Some argued that African players do not take their teams seriously, especially those based in Europe.

While all that was going on, it did not mean that Nigerians living in South Africa and those visiting were in mourning; they are busy talking business. This ensures that even if they lost in the pitch, they don't lose off it.

By default, I happened to be at the right place when someone was invited for the party before the party and I joined in. Its not bad crashing parties especially when there are no many options.

So I went to the party, there were mainly Nigerians and Cameroonians and on that day, Cameroon was playing and the people did not look very happy. They were not even impressed when I suggested that Cameroon players were aging; but my defense was that I may not know much because Kenya is good at Marathon; eventually we were friends and talked a lot about African football.

Back to the party, I was told that it was to showcase Nigerian and Cameroonian businesses and there was a giant stand to show the array of opportunities as well as music to make sure the day was crowned.

There was so much, I didn't even know that there were Yoruba descendants of Southern Africa. It maybe an avenue for someone to make money but the info was impressive.

I got chatting with one of the guys preparing barbecue or nyama choma about business prospects in South Africa and he was more optimistic that its better and is improving with time.

All the eating and drinking was good but I must admit that Nigeria seized the opportunity to market itself as a business destination. We have adverts about tourism in Brazil but I wonder why other African countries did not think of the opportunity to market themselves.

Imagine if the Kenya Tourism board had even a small table at one of the joints where fan who have tickets and those who don't are gathering; you never know about the prospects.

You may think Nigeria did not do well on the field but in terms of generating business, I think they beat other countries by using the World Cup to attract some positive attention.