United 4 Bafana Bafana bracelet … check

Series of South African flags … check

Car window flags … check

Awesomely cool SWC Adidas shirt … check

Tickets to see a game … chec … wait a minute. No.

That's right – I have absolutely no tickets to see a game. Thus far, all my efforts to secure some people to bring along with me to watch something in PE (which is by far the closest) have been met with more opposition than freeing the internet in China. Not since Herr Blatter tried to introduce a FIFA charge for cheering at games has there been so much resistance.

It's a little dispiriting.

So, I suppose I will watch a couple of the games from the comfort of my own living room. Which I suppose should be fine – I have a pretty decent TV and good sound. And I guess if I get tired of it all I can just switch over to something else.

I just don't think it'll be the same though. I mean when you get right down to it, there's nothing quite like the feeling of being at an actual, live game.

The shouting, the potential for rain and even the Vuvuzelas.

So if you're one of the lucky ones who managed to a) get a ticket b) get time off and c) find people to go with, spare a thought for me as you hopefully watch some foreigner find out that South Africa really can do bloody well.

Following a terribly humanitarian comment by Daxk over on 6000 miles something has come crashing down on me that I really should have cottoned on to some time ago. South Africans as a nation are terribly desensitised.

The lack of gasps around the room show that I’m not exactly shocking anyone with this news. Still, I think it’s important to know that we should never have reached a stage where we no longer care about the horrendous things that are happening around us. Before anyone lumps me with the “South Africa is going to hell” crowd, that’s not what I’m saying. It’s undeniable that terrible things are happening but that doesn’t mean that South Africa is a terrible place.

Sitting with some friends last night, I realized that I feel worse about the way stock animals are treated than I do about some of the things I hear about happening to people. It’s not good but it’s true. Hearing stories from a farmer friend about how chickens, pigs and cows are bred and slaughtered was almost enough to push me to vegetarianism but listening to Tsepiso Makwetla speak about the latest headlines rocking SA leaves me cold.

Today’s news headlines include:

“I saw pangas in the window”

“42 dead in Xenophobic violence”

“Man kills cop’s husband”

Now, these are deliberately all the bad headlines that I could find but the fact that I can scan over them without being particularly upset by them worries me. It means I’ve become more desensitised than I would like. And for me, desensitised means dehumanised.