South Africa is the real winner in the World Cup

Go ahead, South Africa, blow those vuvuzelas loud and proud. You deserve to toot your colorful plastic horns on the last day of this monthlong global party.

Pour yourself a glass of your fabulous Stellenbosch wine and toast yourself, for no matter who wins Sunday's World Cup final between Spain and the Netherlands, the biggest winner is this beautiful, fascinating and, yes, still very troubled country.

The first African nation entrusted to host an event of this magnitude proved that it not only could deliver a well-organized, relatively crime-free, festive tournament, but also it could play host to nearly a half million guests with a rare brand of hospitality that surely will send visitors home with a much more positive perception than they had when they were packing to come here.

This historic World Cup also will leave an often fractured, still-healing nation with a cohesion and patriotism not felt since the rugby championship in 1995. The Rainbow Nation flag has been flying proudly from house windows, car antennas and South Africans' backs.

Count this sportswriter among the skeptics who had serious doubts whether a country with 25 percent unemployment, abject poverty, a high crime rate, an AIDS epidemic, government corruption and racial tension could pull off this assignment.

It turns out, this city is like many in the United States. There are areas you don't walk around at night and, yes, you might be approached at an ATM by someone trying to pull a fast one, but there also are many lovely neighborhoods and modern shopping malls and fabulous African art markets and exquisite restaurants and, most of all, delightful people who go out of their way to explain that their beloved country is so much more than the depressing images we see on TV.

When I got to Cape Town, I could not believe my eyes. The vibrant V&A Waterfront, at the foot of Table Mountain, is exactly what I always wished Miami's downtown waterfront would be. The dramatic landscape around the Cape Peninsula is a combination of Hawaii, the Greek Islands and the Northern California coast. The vistas are breathtaking, and you get to mingle with penguins, baboons, ostriches and seals along the way. The wine country rivals Napa's.

And the people, like those in Johannesburg, have such a wonderful spirit. Black and white and everything in between, they share a common pride in their complicated country, even though they are quick to point out its flaws. Every taxi driver and tour operator I rode with -- Gift, Fuad, Veetek, Bobby and Brian -- gave me an education in South African history that I couldn't have gotten in any book.

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