A tragic situation

I live just around the corner from a small shopping complex. So I often walk to the complex, or walk through the complex on my way to and from work.

For years there have been a group of ladies informally selling arum lillies outside the shopping complex. Lately a few of the street kids have taken to selling them too. I often walk past them and they try to convince me to buy their flowers, but I haven't ever brought from the kids. I've bought from the ladies who were first selling flowers though, quite often, over the years.

Yesterday as I was driving somewhere I passed two of the street kids with their bundles of flowers. I stopped at a stop street and they came up to my car and asked me to buy their flowers. And I thought, why not, I haven't supported them so far, let me support them now. So I said, sure, how much are they? Then scrambled around for R10.

So I bought the flowers. Then came the next request - ah please sisi, can we have some small change? Shame, its horrible to say no to kids, but giving money to street kids is just not helping them. (Paying for flowers might not be helping either - tough one!)

So I said no. I don't give money, as a general rule. And especially not to kids. I've thought about it quite a bit over the years, because there are lots of people begging in my town. And that is just a principle I have decided for myself. So saying no to requests for money is okay.

Then they said, but sisi, we need money to go home, its getting late.

It was getting late, it was nearly 6pm.

But no, no money for your taxi fare. Sorry.

Then that said, okay, could you give us a lift?

And in that moment I thought, well, what a reasonable request. How could I possibly say no to that? Two kids who want a lift home?

So I said sure, hop in. And unlocked the doors. They scrambled in and (to be hounest) I hoped I hadn't left anything valuable lying around in my car!

But you know, after thay got in, I started getting pretty nervous. Very nervous. They must have been around 10 years old or so. But a ten year old with a knife can be as merciless as a 19 year old with a knife. I actually have a friend who was mugged by a posse of kids with knives. In Grahamstown.

I drive them. And it was all fine. Shame they were actually quite sweet.

But when I told my flatmate what I had done, she gave me an earful. And I had to admit, it was a bit of a reckless thing to do.

What a tragic thing it is that I am afraid of a couple of ten year olds. And more tragic, that being afraid of them is probably a sensible position!

Percentage based salary increases

A visual reflection on why percentage based salary/wage increases will only ever widen the gap between rich and poor:


Over the twenty years from 1995 to 2025, with 5% yearly salary increments,

• The person who started with a salary of R2000 per month ends up with a salary of about R8600 per month.
• The person who started with a salary of R12000 per month ends up with a salary of about R51000 per month.

So the difference in their salaries went from R10000 in 1995 to about R43000 in 2025.

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The problem with Cape Town

I spent the last week in Cape Town work work/studies related stuff. Cape Town is always lots of fun, lots of things to do. And I have a friend there who has the two most lovely little girls, so I get to do things like go to the beach with kids - it's so much more fun with kids!

But one of my worst things about going to Cape Town is that I'm never allowed to pay for my own meals. Yup, I go out for lunches, dinners, with friends... and they always pay. I have quite a few friends who have moved to Cape Town. And now they all have jobs and all the trappings of having jobs in the big city. So they think, I suppose, that it will be generous of them to pay for their student-friend's meal.

And it is generous. Only after person after person after person insists on paying for your meal, it becomes quite humiliating!!!

Of pretense and protest

A wonderful article by Professor Njabulo Ndebele:

Of Pretense and Protest

At the end of his recent Mail & Guardian article, "In the rainbow nation, colour and class still count", David Smith recalls "a cynic whispering" in his ear that's not easy to forget: "The whites are pretending it didn't happen; the blacks are pretending to forgive." As I thought further about this, I concluded that, in the light of the interracial events Smith recalls in his article, there may in fact be a positive value to pretence.

...

The rest here.

Kennedy Road petition

If anyone wants to sign an online petition, asking for President Zuma to intervene in the wake of the Kennedy Road attack, here is the place to go:

Petition

The letter to Zuma is a bit sensational. And I'm unsure of all of the facts of the situation myself. But for me, calling on government to act is at least one form of action we can take against this.

We are often admonished to keep our government to account, that democracy requires active citizens working with government, insisting that government meets its responsibilities to us.

Sometimes when I hear important people saying things like that I get inspired. But sometimes it just irritates me because I feel like I am being commisioned to do something I have no power to do. And there this important influential person is exhorting me to use my non-existent influence.

So I signed the petition, bacause at least it is one small thing I can do.

Kennedy Road Attacks

"Kennedy Road Development Committee (KRDC)

Emergency Press Release, Sunday 27 September 2009

Kennedy Road Development Committee Attacked – People Have Been Killed

Last night at about 11:30 a group of about 40 men heavily armed with guns, bush knives and even a sword attacked a meeting of the Kennedy Road Development Committee (KRDC) in the Kennedy Road community hall. There was no warning and the attack was a complete surprise. The Abahlali baseMjondolo Youth League was holding an all night camp for the Youth League nearby. The camp was not attacked but the people at the camp were intimidated and threatened. An international film crew at the camp witnessed the attack.

The men who attacked were shouting: 'The AmaMpondo are taking over Kennedy. Kennedy is for the AmaZulu.” The KRDC and other community members who rushed to their aid were unarmed but tried to defend themselves as best they could. Some people were killed. We can't yet say exactly how many.

The attackers broke everything that they could including the windows in the hall. It was later discovered that they had destroyed 15 houses belonging to people on or connected to the KRDC before launching their attack. They were knocking on each door shouting 'All the amaZulu must come out' and then destroying the shacks. Some are saying that three people are dead. Some are saying that five people are dead. Many people are also very seriously injured. As far as we know two of the attackers were killed when people managed to take their bush knives off them. This was self defense.

The Sydenham police were called but they did not come."

Read more here.

And more info on the Abahili site and the Western Cape Anti-eviction campaign site.

An interview with two young women living in Kennedy Road:

"Rushed (and Rough) Transcript of an Interview (anonymous of course) with Two Young Women Still Living in Kennedy Road

It’s not just demolishing shacks now, it’s moved to full-scale looting. They takes fridges, TV’s etc, and put them in their shacks.
- when people try to ask about who has taken their stuff, the answer is just ‘the community’ took it
- everyone who has been working at the community hall is associated with ‘the forum’. even people who are working at the drop in center.
- no one can enter the hall without being escorted by Jackson Gumede, senior official in the ward and active ANC members
- Another shack was demolished last night because the mob found out that the shack owner was part of the KRDC. they destroyed the shack, are taking people’s possessions.
- We are so angry about attacks on S’bu, S’bu has done so much for this community, the hall was like a bush before, he erected the drop in center. community is going to miss him. for the past fifteen years, ANC has done nothing, he organized so much, send children to school. we are lost without S’bu. we need those leaders like him. i wish he was the councillor. i don’t konw what we’re going to do without him. there’s now no creche to take the children, the mothers are now staying at home to take care of the kids, can’t work. the people to take care of the people with HIV and AIDS, they are after them now, they don’t care what contribution you made to the community but because you’re not ANC, you’re not amongst them…
- Baig is happy that Sbu is gone, he’s not going to expose that Baig is not doing his job properly.
- they promise to bring SAPS, last night the poeple’s shacks were destroyed but the police were parked at the community hall, they don’t even go down to see what’s happening in the informal settlements. they promised to take care of it but right now they are not there. they said they will be there. we are on our own. it’s risky even for them too. i think it’s better if they brought the soldiers.
- the councillor is the one who is working the situation, in other places ANC is doing a good job, here Baig doens’t know how it is to live in informal settleents, he doesn’t know how hard it is to sleep without food in your stomach, he never felt that pain, that’s why he’s acting like this. Our sufferings is his victory. Baig is happy when we suffering. he’s getting paid to oppress us. our government is paying baig to oppress us.
- they are opposing everything that is good about south africa – the constitution, the freedom charter.
- People can’t openly say they are Abahlali in Kennedy.
- She had left a bag with a friend, her friend was asked by other community members to ‘choose sides’ – Cope or ANC. people from the community hall/drop in center are called Cope. Why are you supporting her, they asked. She feels bad for her friend because she’s going to suffer for being her friend. they have been friends for a long time."

from here.

My big dilemma

I have a BIG BIG dilemma at the moment. I am going to finish my PhD soonish (good grief, I must, I am already a year late!!). So I need to decide what to do next around nowish. Because if I want to do a postdoc, especially an overseas postdoc, I need to organise it soon.

I am finishing a PhD in astronomy. I like what I do. I love numbers, I love data analysis, I like lecturing. And now is exactly the right time to be in astronomy in South Africa - astronomy is really booming. We have lots of big astronomy projects going on (SALT, MeerKAT, SKA), there are lots of opportunities in astronomy. The South African government, almost inexplicably, is enthusiastically backing astronomy projects.

So it almost seems like a "for such a time as this" thing.

So if I want to launch myself into a career as an astronomer, what I should probably do now is a postdoc overseas somewhere. Spend a year or two getting some international exposure, making some contacts, learning some skills, getting some experience. Then I could either carry on working overseas. Or come back home and bring my experience back, join the astronomy community here.

I really don't want to settle overseas. I suppose that could change, but for the moment I really really want to settle in South Africa. So doesn't the second option above just sound ideal? Go overseas, work in some interesting research group, bring the skills back home and join one of the astronomy teams here!

But here is the thing. Whenever I talk about doing a postdoc overseas, I cry. This is not an exaggeration, I really cry. Its by force of will that I surf the web looking for info on overseas postdocs. I just desperately desperately don't want to leave SA.

Its not about leaving family or friends, although I will be sad to leave family and friends. It is hard to understand even for myself exactly what it is about. But somehow the thought of leaving SA just makes my heart break.

I have travelled overseas before, to Australia for about a week and to the US for a month or two at a time a few times for work. I'm not afraid of being lonely. I like to travel. I like experiencing different parts of the world.

Maybe I'm just being a diva, I don't know. I went to a panel discussion about "The state of our constitutional democracy" this evening, which was pretty good. And as one of the panelists was ending off an answer to a question I thought about leaving SA and I got all tearful all over again.

I really don't know why I am being so weird about this. I could grit my teeth and survive two years somewhere far away for the sake of learning. And I'm pretty easy going, I'd probably be happy pretty much anywhere.

So why am I making such a fuss?

I don't know really. Sometimes I battle to figure out what is going on in my own heart. I think it may be because I am so conflicted on what I want to do with my life. There is this part of me that loves loves loves numbers, maths, thinking through complex things, mastering a problem, computer coding, data analysis.
But there is this other part of me that worries very very very much about the state of our schools. And Home Affairs. A part of me that things TEACH South Africa is the coolest project ever. And the Equal Education campaign - wonderful. And there is a part of me that feels very strongly that we need as a nation to unearth and study our own literature. And that we need more mobile libraries. And and and... :)

Gah, it sounds like I am saying "I want to make a difference in the world." How utterly cheesy. I suppose that is sort of what I am saying though.

If I live my life, do my science, get some great exposure overseas, do some cool research, come back home and get a nice post somewhere and write papers and maybe get a "Prof" before my name. Well, for what?

I want the story about my life to be about more than me, you know?

So I suppose I'm saying that the path of career advancement, it just feels a bit empty.

But I don't know where that leaves me really.
Because... I actually do like what I do. And I want to be good at what I do. And its not as if I have a burning passion to do anything else.

Then there is the other factor, which could be an entire other post on its own. What I do is really difficult. Intellectually difficult, and also difficult because the way to move forward in my field is really to put yourself out there. Meet people, make contacts. Science research is all about collaberation. It is completely telling, for example, that when my supervisor and I made an arrangement to meet at a workshop next week, we made it to meet at the workshop cocktail party. Being a sucessful scientist is all about speaking to the right people at cocktail parties.

I'm sure there are lots of fields like that, actually. But I'm just not sure that I myself am cut out for that sort of thing. It makes my stomach hurt just thinking about that sort of thing.

Oh dear!!

Advice??

Something to think about

One of these is a paraphrase of a statement that I heard Dr Oz make on Oprah tonight:

People of far-Eastern descent are missing the enzyme in their liver that breaks down alcohol. This is why in their cultures they mostly drink drinks that have been boiled (like teas) rather than fermented (alcohol).

People of far-Eastern descent are missing the enzyme in their liver that breaks down alcohol. This is because in their cultures they mostly drink drinks that have been boiled (like teas) rather than fermented (alcohol).

Two fundamentally different statements! Want to guess which statement he made? Which one would you say is true?


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You get what you measure

"Too much and too long, we seem to have surrendered community excellence and community values in the mere accumulation of material things. ... The gross national product does not [measure] the health of our children, the quality of their education, or the joy of their play. It does not include the beauty of our poetry or the strength of our marriages; the intelligence of our public debate or the integrity of our public officials.
It measures neither our wit nor our courage; neither our wisdom nor our learning; neither our compassion nor our devotion to our country; it measures everything, in short, except that which makes life worthwhile."

Spoken by Robert Kennedy in the US in 1968. True in SA in 2009.

Stolen from Roger's blog.

What an incredibly insightful quote! We measure RDP houses built, but not families in homes. We measure unemployment statistics, but not the ability of young people to enter the job market. Or the excitement of your first pay check. We measure pass rates, not the pride of parents watching their children excel. We measure crime stats, but not the feeling of safety in your home. Or relationships with our next door neighbours. We measure death rates, but not grandparents loving their grandchildren.


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Ben Trovato's application to the Canadian Review board

Because it made me smile:

"Application to William Davis, Grand Wizard of the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada"
by Ben Trovato.


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1 school 1 library 1 librarian

Last night I went to a talk by Zackie Achmadt about access to education in the New South Africa. It was very good, I left really inspired! The work they are doing is so great. He has moved away from TAC, handing it over to the next generation of leaders. He is now involved in an organisation called Equal Education, which seems to be an activist organisation that fights for education in a similar way that TAC fought for HIV/AIDS related issues.

One of the Equal Education projects is called "1 school 1 library 1 librarian" - they are campaigning for school libraries. IOL reports that "There are functional libraries at only four of Khayelitsha's 53 public schools serving 57 000 pupils" (here).

I have mixed feelings about the need for school libraries myself. I don't think they are a bad thing, I just think that community libraries are perhaps a better use of resources. I suppose there is something to be said on either side. Myself, I never really used the school library. But I went to our local suburb library probably at least once a week for much of my childhood.

I remember graduating from having a children's library card to having an adult's library card. Children's cards only let you take books from the children's section, but adult cards cold take out any books. It felt like quite a big transition in my life!

I think the benefit of community libraries is that they can serve a wider group of people, so they can be bigger, they can have more specialised library staff, they can run fun reading events for kids, they can have a wider range of reading material, etc. I think putting specialised libraries in schools just limits access of those books to kids at one particular school, and duplicates the effort of running a library.

That said though, I grew up in a reading family with a librarian mother. So using the library has been the norm since as far back as I can remember. Perhaps for kids who grow up in families that don't use libraries, perhaps having a school library that they are encouraged to use will help form the habit of reading. Where maybe they would not have been exposed to larger community libraries.

But still, I favour community libraries. If they are running well, if they advertise. If they have good staff. They can even run projects in conjuction with local schools.

What do other people think?

What I really REALLY am in favour of though, is mobile libraries! Our local library was being rebuilt at one stage, so every Wednesday the mobile library used to come park in the parking lot of the shops a few block away from us. So on Wednesday afternoons we used to go get books from the bibliobus!

It was really just a minibus, with the walls lines with shelves of books. The books would rotate from a central library, so their used to be a different selection every week.

I think mobile libraries are brilliant because they give *everyone* access to books - they can rotate through different areas of a city, and also go to small towns and rural areas.

I googled to look for mobile libraries running in SA at the moment and I found some projects:
* The Mobile Library Education Project in Khayalitsha.
* A mobile library project in the Free State (followup info here).
* Mobile libraries in Limpopo.
* Donkey drawn mobile libraries?
* Even the ANC commends the use of mobile libraries!
* And I know I shouldn't laugh, but this is kindof funny: Please help us find our stolen mobile libraries.
* Finally, some general info on SA libraries.

The Bua article above says that "About 21 mobile libraries are currently visiting 380 schools in four provinces, Free State, Western Cape, Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal on a daily basis."
21 doesn't sound like a lot! Better than nothing though, I suppose. Perhaps the mobile libraries need a "5 schools 1 mobile library 1 librarian" project!


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Home Affairs

Apologies, I know I haven't blogged in ages. Mainly because blogger.com has been giving me hassles. But also because I have been powering on with work - I have quite a serious amount of work to do at the moment!!

Now blogger.com seems to be working again, so I resolved to blog. But I keep starting posts and then losing focus.

There is just one thing I do want to comment on though. I stumbled across this article on iol. It is about a young guy who managed to get a job, he just needed to produce his ID book to start working. But Home Affairs messed him around, told him he couldn't get it for whatever reason. And he ended up committing suicide.

My flat mate said she saw Minister Dlamini-Zuma speaking about it on TV. The minister was broken about it, tearful.

And you know, I am sure that she is a caring lady. And of course, of course, she isn't personally responsible for this tragedy.

But to be honest (and a bit brutal) I think it is about time that these kinds of high up officials realise what their departments are doing. When things aren't working, when ID books are getting lost or sold, taking months and years to process, when work permits are withheld for no reason other than the belligerence of Home Affairs staff who want a few hundred bucks for the effort of giving you the correct forms. When these government departments are messing up, people's lives are being messed up. People rely on the services of these departments. When they are not working, it causes people real problems.

It is not a small problem. It is a huge problem that impacts on many people's lives.

A kid I know has spent close to four years (FOUR YEARS!!! FOUR YEARS!!!) trying to get his ID document sorted out. He must be about 20ish. Somehow his name and ID number have been duplicated by someone in Joburg. Does this mean that some Home Affairs official in Joburg sold his ID so someone? I have no idea. But what it does mean for him is that Home Affairs still won't give him an actual ID book. Which means that his NSFAS student loan keeps refusing to pay his fees. Which means his results get withheld. It means he nearly lots his pace in residence at the beginning of this year, and very nearly lost it again this term. I've been helping him shout at people about this for the past 7 months. To no avail. Still no ID book, still empty promises by Home Affairs.

Come back after two weeks, he is told. How many months or years do you keep that up?

So I say, yes, Mrs Minister, stand in front of the TV and cry. Go home and lie in your bed and cry. Not because this is your personal fault, of course not. But because there are people crying all over our country because of your department. There are people who queue over and over again, only to be told to go away. There are people who travel long distances to get to their nearest Home Affairs office, only to be met with unyielding bureaucracy, with closed doors, with inefficient systems and disinterested people. There are people who eventually resort to buying IDs, work permits, residency papers. Not because they are corrupt people, but because the only way to get things done is to grease people's palms. And if you have no money to buy them... well, sorry for you.

We know you just stepped into your job. We appreciate that you really seem committed to it. We really hope you do well. We really hope you manage to turn things around.

But for the moment, we want you to cry. Every day we want you to go into the office under the weight of the helplessness and hopelessness of thousands of South Africans who contend with your department. And then we want you to fix it.

And then we will rejoice with you.




* I just found a more detailed story about the Minster's response here. "She said the department was a "difficult" one, which had never had a proper culture of service." - indeed!

A question on blank spoiled votes

Question for the floor:

I heard today that there were a surprisingly high number of blank spoiled votes in the April election in the GHT region.

Was this because:

a) These were people who did not want to vote (for whatever reason) but felt they needed to be seen to vote, because of real or perceived intimidation.

b) These were people who had supported the ANC in the past and perhaps still support the ANC, and who believe in the importance of voting, but felt they could not vote for the ANC in this particular election (for whatever reason). But out of loyalty to the ANC they also could not vote for another party.

c) These were people who believe in the importance of voting but felt that their views and concerns were not represented by any of the parties on the ballot.

d) Other reasons (please expand!)


I'm curious because at the talk where I heard this fact, people proposed a couple of reasons for the blank votes. And I had my own thoughts. And I'd be interested to hear what other people think...

Whats happening to our server?

My brother John is a geek. He finished his Computer Science Masters earlier in the year, on artificial intelligence and it's application to internet worms (or some such thing). Now he works in Jobug spending half his life writing perl scripts and the other half driving to and from his job. He blogs about his semigration** to Joburg here.

The other day he sent me a transcript of an internet conversation he had with a friend. South African current affairs in geek speak...

(11:40:06) Alex: maybe if we had competent governement... oh wait, thats a pipe dream
(11:40:22) John: Dude, a lot of the current government is competent.
(11:40:26) John: Some parts aren't great.
(11:40:38) John: But quite a lot of it is, at least, substantially improved.
(11:40:49) Alex: well.. i guessd their not entirely incompitent.. but i think they should be the best
(11:41:05) John: Think about this for a second:
(11:41:10) John: If you were running a server.
(11:41:17) John: And it permanently ran at 10% load.
(11:41:30) John: And that's all you'd ever had, so you'd never been able to test it.
(11:41:40) John: And suddenly it hits 98% load.
(11:41:43) John: What is the server going to do?
(11:41:51) John: What's gonna happen?
(11:41:56) Alex: very likely fall over
(11:42:00) John: No.
(11:42:07) John: The term you're looking for is "undefined behaviour"
(11:42:11) John: It might handle it.
(11:42:12) Alex: ah
(11:42:14) John: It might fall over.
(11:42:15) John: Now.
(11:42:39) John: Our government, 15 years ago, catered for 10% of the populace. Then, in the course of about two years, began to cater for more like 98%.
(11:42:51) John: You wonder why home affairs queues are so long?
(11:43:00) Alex: yeh true


** John tells me that semigrating is moving withing your own country, but to an area that is so different that it feels like you have moved to a new country. Semigrating, like emigrating, only semi-emigrating... The jump from East London to Joburg is apparently big enough to feel like you have moved to a whole new country - semigrating!

Some thoughts

I haven't blogged for a while so this will just be a random Aquilogy style list of my thoughts:

* I am becoming more and more pro mob justice by the day. A guy I know was shot a couple of weeks ago for his CELL PHONE. For his cell phone!!! And the guy who shot him is from a family of thugs who have been in and out of jail, killed people, raped people. The justice system is just useless. Apparently when some ladies went to speak to the police about getting this guy, they said their hands were pretty much tied. And the community should do what they need to do. Gah.
You know, he wasn't a guy I knew well but I really admired him. It makes me sad, then angry, then sad all over again. Then angrier.

* Whats going on with all of these service delivery strikes? Someone care to enlighten me?
Are people burning things down because of sewage system etc issues? Problems with their municipalities not delivering? Or is it anger at seeing corruption in local government? The failing justice system? Crime? Lack of opportunities? Joblessness? Is it opportunistic agitating prior to local elections next year? Is it criminal, or instigated by criminal elements? Is it people at their wits end after grappling with useless local government for so long and just getting nowhere? Or is it people who have become more and more angry, feeling trapped in poverty? Why is it happening all now?? Are people disappointed that after all the ho-ha about electing Jacob man of the people Zuma into power, nothing much has actually changed?

* My continuos ponderance is this: What is Blade Nzimande up to nowadays? I would totally like to work for that man, just for curiosity's sake.

* Aaaand... nationalisation??

* Finally... my friends saw Vavi at the airport the other day but didn't have the guts to speak to them. Brushes with fame!

* Oh wait, one last thing... I was standing in the queue at KFC the other day and the guy in front of me hovered around and finally greeted me with something like "aight?" - now really, I am not cool enough to know what an appropriate response to that is. Anyone care to enlighten me?
I figure "aight" is "alright?" which is pretty much "how are you?" so I responded with "fine thanks, and you? Hehe, I'm such a dork, really!

**

Quick Reviews: Ndumiso Ngcobo

Some of my best friends are white (Ndumiso Ngcobo)
Inexplicably, my mother gave this book to me for Christmas a year or two ago. And what a great surprise it was! It is incredibly funny, I recommend it to anyone. Full of anecdotes and reflections on life and race in contemporary South Africa. Fantastic. After reading his book I became a Ndumiso Ngcobo fan and started following his blog, which I think is one of the funniest things on the internet.

It is coz I'm black? (Ndumiso Ngcobo)
This is Ngcobo's second book, it only arrived on shelves a few months ago. I bought it enthusiastically and read it on a long bus trip to Cape Town. I'm sad to say that I was diasppointed. His first book was incredilbly funny and insightful and a little bit crass. And the funnyness totally made up for the crassness. His second book is very crass, reasonably funny, and rather try-hard. Unfortunately the funnyness just doesnt make up for the crassness this time. Not to my eyes anyway. Try-hard is a term I coined from my brothers high school days and means just what it sounds like it means. You felt like he was told to write another funny book and was trying very hard to write another funny book. Which ended up trying to be funny more than it actually was funny. Which is a pity, because he really does have a natural flair for being hysterical (his blog and first book testify to that.) I later read on his blog that "The racist publishers have reared their ugly heads again and dangled money in his face to pen yet another collection of hallucinations entitled 'Is It Coz 'm Black'." So there you go! Not his best unfortunately. Hoping for better next time. I've hear that second book pressure is intense, so maybe he will be on form again for his third.

J in JhB

Woot!

My brother capitulated and started blogging about his adventures in Joburg.

Why I support the Doctor's Strike

I support the Doctor's strike.

Today I chatted to a friend who is a doctor, and now I support it all the more.

So let me explain why, drawing from my conversation with my friend. She is not on strike herself actually, she says she has too much work to go on strike. At her hospital all of the sections have been organised to run on a skeleton staff, and the rest of the doctors are striking.

Why I Support the Doctor's Strike

Firstly, it needs to be pointed out, the strike is not only about salary increases. The strike is also about conditions in hospitals. Watching the striking doctors on TV, I saw one carrying a placard reading something along the lines of: "fighting for a better health care system." That's is what this is about.

Problems with our health care system? Many. Equipment shortages, medicine shortages. Management. Administration. And as my friend says, "there are roaches, rats, cats!"

But one of the biggest problems: staff shortages (just a quick search leads to examples here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here). Because of the staff shortages, doctors are having to work longer hours. Twenty-four, thirty, thirty-six hour shifts are not uncommon, my friend tells me. Working till you are so exhausted you literally are collapsing, unable to work. That is a dangerous state for a doctor to work in.

And staff shortages lead to young inexperienced doctors and interns having to cope with work that is way beyond them. One of the articles above says that "interns are manning the emergency ward part of the time" (here). Out of their depth, and patients suffer.

Staff shortages lead to long queues, sick people who may have travelled hours and hours sitting for hours and hours more in waiting rooms. Some eventually being turned away and having to come back later. Especially in places like East London, people travelling from the far reaches of the rural Eastern Cape to get to the hospital. Very sick people. Then there are just not people to help them.

And as doctors get more and more tired, frustrated, more and more demotivated, unable to work in a crumbling system, burned out, they leave. A friend of mine who wants to work in a public hospital, and did work in a public hospital for several years, eventually went to private practice because he just couldn't take the frustration anymore. Another friend of mine emigrated. Not because he wanted to leave South Africa, but he just couldn't take it anymore.
As one of the articles above puts it: "It's about the push factor now, rather than the pull factor when it comes to emigration. Medical personnel aren't going overseas for better money any more. Many are accepting similar salaries for lesser positions just to get out of this madness and practise ethical, responsible medicine" (here).

The friend I spoke to today told me that of her graduating class, 33-50% admit to having to be on anti-depressants, they just couldn't take the heartache that came along with their jobs. She herself had to go onto anti-depressants, after working in rural KZN. She was in charge of a paediatrics ward, and months of caring for dying babies broke her heart.

And ironically, in the face of these huge staff shortages, when doctors leave their posts are frozen. So no one can be hired to replace them. Instead, more HR staff are being hired. Which would perhaps make sense if the HR/admin staff were fixing the system. But they aren't. My friend tells me that at her hospital complex every time a doctor leaves the doctor's position is frozen and the money is allocated to a HR position, which is then opened.

My friend worked in Baragwanath Hospital in Joburg for a while. There were 120 positions for interns there, she said. Only 60 positions were filled. Because nobody wants to work there - conditions are just too horrible. In her own words: "Its... its basically like hell on earth."

We are in the middle of a global recession, yes. But this problem with doctors salaries is a problem of the employer's (the government) own making. Doctors were promised a wage increase last year which wasn't followed through with. It wasn't even budgeted for - indicating that the state had no intention of making good on it's promise.

Doctor's have not been getting routine yearly increases for years and years. As for the increases the government have proposed now, because of the strike, they do increase doctor's basic salaries. But they take away overtime pay and they take away scare skills benefits. Which means the increase they are offering only amounts to about 2%.

Our public health service has many challenges. All of which need to be addressed. One of the primary problems is these chronic staff shortages. We need to treat our doctors properly if we are going to keep them. Part of treating them properly is paying them properly. It also means government must stick to their word and honour wage increases that they have promised.

I am not a believer in big government. I am not a believer in a carer state that dolls out free health care and education and social grants. I am not a believer in the state as a solution to all our problems: the government must fix this, the government must fix that, the government must provide. And I know that this is the worst possible time for doctors be asking for more money.

But as my friend says, the stick bends and bends and bends, but eventually it will break. And now it is breaking.

Our public health health system is in a major major crisis. And it needs to be fixed. It needs to be fixed yesterday actually, but today will have to do.

ANC spokesperson Jesse Duarte has said, "that while the party empathised with the striking doctors, public health care and patients suffered as a result of the strike" (here). The ANC and COSATU have also accused the doctor's strike of killing patients (here).

The public have suffered for a week or two as a result of this strike, yes. But the public have suffered for years and years as a result of the ever decaying state of the public health care system. Which is not the fault of doctors. It is the fault of their employers, the state. And the public suffering will continue, and will become more extreme, if the system isn't fixed.

Legalising prostitution

South Africa is presently toying with the idea of legalising adult
prostitution. The discussion document is available on the South African Law Reform Commission website (SALRC), for those who are interested.

The discussion document presents four options for the law concerning prostitution:

1. Prostitution is completely illegal (as it is presently)
2. Prostitution is partially illegal (where it will be a criminal act for men to use prostitutes and running brothels will be criminal, pimping women will be criminal, but the prostitutes themselves will not be criminals)
3. Prostitution is completely legal
4. Prostitution will be regulated by government

I am not legally trained so I am probably not getting as much out of the document as I could be. And perhaps readers of this will have insight I don't have.

But for me, the thought of legalising prostitution is completely alarming. For moral reasons, including the fact that prostitution is primarily the brazen exploitation of poor women. People sometimes try to sell this as being about freedom of choice for women, being able to choose how to use their bodies. I might take that seriously if prostitutes were middle class women who decided to have a go at prostitution because it allows them to make some extra money to spoil themselves with, and still be at home with their children during the day. But thats a ludicrous thought, isn't it? Because women don't WANT to be prostitutes. No little girl grows up wanting to be a prostitute (unless she has watched Pretty Women, and then she actually wants to be a prostitute so that Richard Gere will come and save her from prostitution.)

Prostitutes end up being prostitutes primarily because they don't see any other options for providing for themselves or their families.

A friend of mine grew up in what I suppose is a semi-red-light district in my home town. She says that she was befriended by the son of a nearby brothel owner. Looking back at it now, she says she suspects it was a strategic move on the part of the brother owner, trying to draw her in. Thankfully she moved out of that neibourhood when she was still quite young. Now she is doing a postgraduate degree at university, loving what she is doing, and is one of my heros. Is very involved in education, she works with learner representative councils in township schools. It wouldn't suprise me at all if she ends up being the next minister of education :)

But she could have ended up as a prostitute, had things turned out differently. Isn't that a horrible thought? But if we make prostitution legal, we are saying that it is a legitimate choice. Imagine career counselors in poor schools recommending girls become prostitutes? Imagine them recommending *your* little girl becomes a prostitute? "Well, academics isn't your strong point and you aren't really gifted with people either. You don't have obvious leadership qualities... you aren't gifted with your hands. You aren't sporty. Have you considered prostitution?"
No no no!!!

One argument for legalising prostitution is that because prostitution is illegal, prostitutes are vulnerable to abuse and brutality by policeman. But that is a red herring, to my mind. Corruption in the police force should definitely be dealt with, but that is an issue on its own.

And this issue of legalising prostitution before 2010 - are we inviting foreign men to take advantage of poor South African women?

My first preference would be for the second option above (partially illegal), followed by the first option of prostitution remaining fully illegal.

But the more I read about it, the more angry I get. That we are seriously considering decriminalising prostitution entirely. Even setting up government bodies to regulate prostitution - it is like something out of Terry Pratchett.

I could write more, but let me just leave you with some choice quotes from the discussion document.

The SALRC is inviting comments on the discussion document, closing 30 June. So I encourage you to send in comments. There is an interesting article entitled "Myths and Facts about Decriminalization of Prostitution" on the Family Policy Institute website (here) if you want more information.

Quotes from the Discussion Document:

"Research shows that irrespective of the legal option [options 1,2,3 or 4 above] followed, women and girls in prostitution have a mortality rate 40 times higher than the national average."

"The latter study also found that it is not a job that the prostitutes like doing, or would choose to do should their range of options have been wider."

"Many are school drop-outs from abusive families, often bearing children from
adolescent relationships. Many have kids and grandparents to take care of. They face real financial pressures. But given their backgrounds, their options are limited. They can work as check-out girls at supermarkets; hang up clothing at retail stores; work as domestics; do waitressing; dress hair; sit at home; etc. or they can sell sex."

"The female prostitute has been the social outcast, the male patron has been accepted or ignored. She is visible and denounced, her existence tainted by her activity. He is faceless, a mere ingredient in her offence rather than a criminal in his own right, who returns to respectability after the encounter. In terms of the sexual double standards prevalent in our society, he has often been regarded either as having given in to temptation, or as having done the sort of thing that men do."

"According to this research, men [believe that they] have the absolute right to have their sexual needs met whenever and wherever they want."

"Some responded that all women would have to function as prostitutes in order to stop the institution of prostitution."

"Prostitutes do not view prostitution as a long-term career choice and at some point most prostitutes wish to leave prostitution."

And a quote that made me very sad:
"Nearly 40% of all black prostitutes interviewed had migrated to the major cities from the Eastern Cape."

Hope - a question

A question for anyone who reads this:

I'm pretty optimistic about the future of our country, I think we've done pretty well recently. So I'm hopeful about the future. And I like being a South African. Sure we have problems, but on this earth there will always be problems. And I rather like being alive in the problem-fixing stage :)

So bottom line: I am hopeful.

But from reading friend's facebook notes and listening to people speak about SA, it seems that there are also lots of people who have almost lost hope entirely. People who are angry and afraid and feel they have no stake in the future of the country.

Which I sortof battle to get. I know Joburg is a scary world to live in, so sometimes people from there are perpetually freaked out. Which obviously takes its toll.

But outside of that?

Are you hopeful? Or not?
Any thoughts on the matter?