This and that

Remember a few years ago, when every possible racial issue under the sun seemed to bubble to the surface at once? The Freestate video, Jansen's response, that white kid from a farm somewhere up north who randomly went and killed someone in a nearby township... were there other incidences too? I think so. Anyway these things were all over the news and everyone was talking about them... wasn't it also around the time Mbeki was kicked out and the whole JZ trial / persecution / who knows was in full swing?

Fun times :) You know us South Africans, we love a good controversy. Anyway, it seems ET's death brought us back to a bit of that. Only now it is centred around the AWB and farm murders and the like. And Julius Malema... well, kindof.

Anyway, these are serious matters of course but in true South African style we deal with the serious (in part) by having a good laugh about the silly parts of it. With Andre Visagie and Chris Maroleng giving us some fantastic opportunities to laugh (Don't touch my Studio!), and Malema doing his but too (rubbish is what you have in your pants!). The funnies for me was reading a New York Times article about the Malema incident with the journalist, which diplomatically wrote that "He insulted Fisher's manhood." Ah you have to laugh!

Anyway so several good things have came out of the present heated situation in SA:

• Some truly winning comic moments on TV
  
• The full exploitation of the comic moments on twitter... #touchmystudio
• Twitter increasingly becoming my news feed of choice. We heard about ET's death on twitter hours before it was even on the formal online news sites (though twitter is very prone to spread wild rumours too!)
• Zuma actually decided to tell Malema off
  
• The African National Congress facebook page was wonderfully entertaining for a few days**
• People spoke about things they usually don't, and to people they often don't. We all need to be concerned about farm murders, they are scary. We all need to be concerned about the living conditions of farm labourers. It really is a blight on our nation that a 15 year old is happy for the comfort of living in jail. And we need to talk about things across the boundaries of our own circles of similar political opinion.
• There seems to be a growing feeling that Malema should not be given so much airtime, that we should not allow ourselves to be so aggrived by his silliness.
• .... I'm sure I will think of more...
  

Shame, I do feel a bit sorry for Afrikaans people though. Its tough being them at the moment I think.

On an entirely different note, I read this article by Prof Jansen yesterday, and I think its wak. Which is saying something, because I really like him and I usually love to hear what has to say about things. Sure, there is a place where nationalism can get self indulgent. Or xenophobic. Or superior. But being proundly South African is none of those things. I'm proudly South African because I think we're pretty awesome. We have a lot of flaws too... but thats why its also important to recognise our awesomeness :)


** It times of upheaval like we have seen over the past couple of weeks, white people (like me) rush to the ANC FB page to see what is going on, whether black people are really plotting to kill us all, to moan about Julius Malema and so on. Which leads to some of the most fantastic conversations.

One of my favourites was when a girl wrote on the wall of the ANC page, saying she had got lots of emails saying that after Mandela dies all of the white people will be killed. She wanted to know if this is true - reading other people's responses to her, and hers to them, was just delightful.

My other favourite was when one ANC pesron put up some info about a black hunter being killed somewhere on a farm in KZN I think. The ANC had mentioned it in a statement as a way of raising the point that farm workers and other people in rural areas are as subject to violence as white farmers. But what was really hysterically funny was that one white guy saw this and completely misunderstood it, and started commenting about how there is no place for black hunting in the new South Africa (he though black hunters = people who hunt black people!).

Too much silliness!!

Bloggers 4 Free Press

Sipho Hlongwane issued a call for bloggers to join a Bloggers 4 Free Press campaign. (#speakZA on twitter)

The ANCYL has been up to all sorts of nonsense of late, and one of it's most sinister moves has been against the press. Details can be found here and here.

We are all free to criticise the press, in the same way we are free to criticise anyone (including our civil society and political leaders). I often complain about our press, and I do think they sometimes display serious biases and blind spots. I think the ANCYL's gripes with the press are sometimes legitimate.

BUT freedom of speech and the free press are cornerstones of democracy. We may disagree with someone, but that doesn't remove the right they have to speak. And a free press is a vital component of democracy, a tool that allows citizen's to keep their governments in check.

It is time to be concerned when political organisations victimise journalists(*) and try to limit their freedoms. In this case the ANCYL crossed way over ethical boundaries.

So today we stand for freedom of the press.


(*) I can hear someone respond to this: "But what about when journalists victimise Malema and company? Don't they have the right to respond?"
Of course they do. If the press have published untrue things about them, then they can and should take action against the newspapers. There are formal avenues for them to do this.
But Malema is also a public figure, who purposefully puts himself in the public eye. He must expect the press to follow him. And for the ANCYL to resort to this present sort of underhanded bullying of the press - it is not only unacceptable behaviour, but it is a very negative reflection of the ANCYL, that they apparently don't value the freedom of the press.
It is easy to support some ideal, like a free press, when it is a abstract idea that doesn't affect ourselves or our organisations. The test of our commitment comes when submission to the ideal will cost us something. Then you can see how strongly the ideal was held in the first place. The ANCYL appear to be failing this test.

More thoughts on free education

A question for the floor:

Many people (individuals and organisations) are strongly pro free education. Is this because people are desperate to be educated? They want to read Foucault and Marx and discuss philosophy into the wee hours of the mornings? They want to maser today's science, the present knowledge of the human body, the nature of the cosmos? To debate economic theory and the impact of enocomic schools of thought on various areas of the world today? To interrogate the way we govern our nations and our cities? To master the skills required to understand our natural world - to conserve our coastlines, maintain safe water supplies, to uncover the fascinating worlds of animals.

If the answer to this question was yes, I would say that a three year university or college qualification is a truly terrible way to do this. Real education of this sort is a life long endeavor that everyone can, and should participate in. It is a matter of reading and observing and listening and seeking out knowledge throughout our entire lives. Part of that may be times spent in a formal learning context, in a classroom or a lab or in the field. But much of it (most of it, even) won't be. Much of it will be reading books, alone, or learning from people. Going to open lectures, reading the newspapers, participating in events where people learn and discuss. Going to museums and science centres and joining clubs and societies of people with similar interests.

I think that is an exciting thing. I wish we lived in a society that encouraged this more. I go to the Dispatch Dialogues in East London sometimes, and they are such a good example of this. School kids and professionals and pensioners and academics and civil servants and the unemployed. All listening, engaging with a speaker, engaging with one another. I once sat next to a girl at one of these talks who must have been around 17 or 18, and afterwards she asked me for a lift to the town library. She told me that she had never been a library member before, but she was so excited after the talk that she went straight there to join. Her eyes had just been opened to this world of knowledge out there, and she wanted to participate in it.

Another wonderful recent example of this is the VC's Forum held at Rhodes University about two weeks ago. Grahamstown has chronic water problems so the VC hosted a forum to discuss the water. Various academics and water experts spoke, the municipality spoke, there was discussion around it. It wasn't simply a public lecture: many of the speakers, even the scientists, had different takes on the issue. And there was engagement with the floor and the speakers. what a good example of positive interaction between an educational institution and a community. Out of the limited context of a degree or diploma or certificate programme.

But to return to my original question: The desire for free education, is this because people are desperate to be educated? I strongly suspect you answered no. I would certainly have answered no.

No doubt there are students who do have this motivation, to one degree or another. The desire for knowledge and understanding.

But for most students, lets be honest, the primary desire is not for an education is the broad sense. The desire is for a job. Which is a very reasonable desire - we all want to work, we all want a salary.

And education is seen to be the golden key that will open the door of employment.

So when people cry for open education and free education, the main thing they are wanting is to get the skills they (and others) need to be employed, and to have opportunities to be employed in good jobs when their studies are finished. And for these opportunities to be available to everyone.

Now is that something best done through a three year degree programme? And through giving more people access to such programmes?

That is a topic for another post!

The Shrieking Man

I just discovered a very interesting blog:
The Shrieking Man, a monologue about South African politics.

A thought on JM

I don't really understand all of this current fuss about Julius Malema's income. Admittedly I have only read the online articles about it. But every time I read his comments on the matter (which the online papers seem to be using to condemn him), I think he makes a lot of sense.

• Malema does not work for government. Why can he not own a business?
• If his business has been given tenders preferentially because it is owned by Julius Malema, then that is definitely wrong. But the wrong would be primarily with those awarding tenders. If the government officials awarding tenders do so to curry political favour, then they should be brought to book. The same goes if they award tenders to enrich themselves, their families, their friends, or to get kick backs from companies.
• Malema has also not been the ANCYL president forever... is it only the president that the papers say should not benefit from private businesses? What about the second in command? What about local municipal ANCYL leaders? Of course they can have their own businesses. So why can't Malema?
• Malema makes the point that he and his circle of friends and age-mates in the ANC are young with minimal financial responsibilities, and earn good salaries. So they legitimately have more money than they need, and can afford up market lifestyles. I think this is a very reasonable comment. Even if he is earning around R20000 per month, that is a good salary if you don't have big expenses. And if he is receiving an income from business ownership, all the more. And if his friends are doing even better than this in the private sector or in government positions, I think it is likely that they can honestly afford nice cars, nice clothes, and fancy parties.
  

It seems to me that the root of all of this is two beliefs. The first is an accusation that there is some illegality in Malema's finances. Possibly that he is not paying taxes appropriate to his income. But the more serious veiled accusation is that he purposefully uses his political power to get tenders for his companies. Maybe I am too naive, but I think this is unlikely. And at any rate, there is no evidence for it.

The second is a general disapproval of his lavish lifestyle.

A sad fact about human nature is that we tend to resent people who do well for themselves. And justify this by assuming that their success must be due to some sort of illegal or immoral means. The same way people accuse successful foreigners of all sorts of things.

People also tell themselves that he is selling out his own struggle, that he is hypocritical to stand for the poor when he lives this opulent lifestyle. But if you have money, you have money. As long as you don't forget where you come from, to use Malema's own words.

On a personal note, I find excessive displays of wealth a bit distasteful. I recently had to work hard to retain my high opinion of a man I know after seeing his car - it was absurdly lavish. And am not a fan of the hard partying big money spending materialistic thing these ANCYL guys have got going.

So on a personal level I can see Malema's lifestyle and think that it reflects badly on his character (I do). And if I am ever in a position to vote for or against him I can vote against him on that basis.

But as things stand, he is not accountable to me. His money is his own, and he can spend it however he chooses.

Zuma Zuma Zuma

Zuma Zuma Zuma!
(Or perhaps it should be #Zuma #Zuma #Zuma ?)

I haven't blogged in ages so I figured I may as well add my 3 cents to the present furore.

I had a facebook discussion with a friend recently, about what he eloquently called the current "obligation towards political silence." Basically the idea is that one of the most profound and important responsibilities white South Africans have is to shut up.

Which of course is difficult for us, because we are an opinionated lot.

Now I've been watching the Zuma saga unfold, in the wake of the "political silence" conversation.

One interesting thing about how the scandal has gone down this time is that there is not too much vocal white outrage. If you are not white and you want to understand this, this is pretty much what has happened(*):

When Zuma first barged into our white collective consciousness, he seemed to be a lecherous rapist up to his eyeballs in all sorts of fraud and sinister political maneuvering. And what was worse, he was inspiring crowds of black people to get very very angry and sing songs about wanting their machine guns. White South Africans have been raised from birth into a fear that black people want to kill them. So if you get a big enough crowd of them angry enough, all hell is going to break loose. The "swart gevaar," and all of that. And of course on top of all this is his standard two education (or whatever it is), his seeming support of the rabid Malema, his buddies the communists...

So in the white mind, the end was nigh, soon they are going to start burning tires and taking the farms, those crowds Zuma has been whipping into a frenzy, then nationalising everything in sight, then who will be safe... better make sure our passports are in order. We knew we were on the way to becoming the next Zimbabwe, etc etc.

Which is all completely absurd, of course, but there you go, white people were pretty scared. Irrationally scared, but scared nonetheless.

Then he came into power. And nothing much changed. And he suited up and went on international tours like Mbeki. And he seemed to be a pretty jovial fellow at least, at least he seemed to be getting on with people. And putting those commies in their place a bit, ha! (We are still worries about this, but so far so good). And this whole wives thing, well, it is a bit disturbing to us... but it is culture, we suppose. We probably shouldn't mess with that too much. Still, we disapprove. But he's looking pretty snappy in his suit. And at least we have moved past that AIDS denialism debacle. And he has made some good noises about getting serious about fighting crime... so, okay.

Then there is the love child scandal. Shocking. But... we already knew him to be lecherous. A one night stand with a lady young enough to be his daughter. Rape or not, this labelled him as the kind of man who was into one night stands with ladies young enough to be his daughter. And them he got married again TWICE. Good grief. So by the time the love child came along, it was just more of what we had become used to from our president, in this area of his life. Not that we approve, we just weren't shocked anymore.

What happened? Something surely unprecedented in recent South African history - an event white people didn't have much to say about. Sure, we disapproved. Then we lost interest.

So something happened that *never* happens - there was almost no outraged public white voice on this issue!

Which opened the door for something else quite exciting - an outraged public black voice.

Normally in South Africa the outraged black voice is predominantly private. The media and other public spaces are reserved for defense against the loud white voice.

But this time, things changed. Which is rather fantastic, I think.

I would explain further, but I expect that you know what I mean. :)

This was all illustrated beautifully in an M&G article today, where an anonymous ANC NEC has this to say:

"Said the NEC source: "We first thought it was a private matter. But we were surprised that the outcry did not come from white people or foreign media, but from our African constituency. They must vote for us to stay in power and we must listen to them.

"We realised that we need to change our approach or it will cost us in the 2011 local elections and beyond.

"We really want the president to zip up and make sure this doesn't happen again. If it does, it's over. We have nothing left to defend his conduct."






(*) Not my personal opinion!

On Pardoning de Kock

I've been a lazy blogger recently (Facebook seems to have stolen all of my internet effort, sadly). But Andile Mngxitama's M&G article "Let Prime Evil Go" just shook me out of my laziness.

My first response to this article is just "wut?"

I understand how people who committed apartheid related crimes have been let off by the TRC. In this massive unjust system, they had a job to do, they did their jobs, they were following orders and doing so on the mandate of the government. In many ways then their actions were the responsibility of the government, of the apartheid system. So if they came clean at the TRC, they could be let off.

It doesn't sit so very well, but I can understand it. If I was a young man in the SADF in the 1980s, maybe I would have done some unimaginable things. Because I was ordered to, maybe, or because I was in some situation where I was (rightly or wrongly) afraid for my life, or because I had some skewed picture of the world where "the blacks were out to get us", and all that was standing between us and anarchy and war was my brothers and I in our cassipers.

I get that.

And I get that Joe Nobody soldier on the ground should not have to take the blame for carrying orders that were given from the top. The people at the top, with the appearance of clean hands, should take the primary blame. I get that.

I also get that the apartheid system benefited not only the guys with the guns, and the guys at the top giving the orders to shoot, but the average white South African, in his house in the suburbs. And in one sense, while there were politicians and generals and police commanders giving orders, the order to maintain apartheid was given by highest authority in the land - the voting populace. All of white South Africa who enjoyed the fruit of apartheid and turned a blind eye to the atrocities committed to maintain their way of life, bear some responsibility for those atrocities.

Down with all of that.

So we had the TRC and absolved lots of people.

Judging anything like this isn't clear cut, of course, but it seems to me that there are pretty clear guiding principals for letting people off for apartheid era crimes.

It can be argued that de Kock should be let off because he was acting on orders, just carrying out the will of the state. A soldier doing the bidding of his commander. But I just don't think that holds water in his case.

I stand to be corrected, because I have a limited knowledge of what went on with de Kock and Vlakplass. But from what I know it was a place of wanton murder and torture and cruelty. The little I have read about it turns my stomach.

If you are a soldier and your commander tells you to kill someone, then you do, fair enough. But you don't mutilate him them, then douse them in paraffin and burn them alive. And if you do, you are no longer a soldier acting on orders, protected from personal responsibility.

And even if we are just speaking about killing people, without torture and so forth... how can you be a soldier fighting for a nation that would be appalled at you if it knew about your existence? Do you still have their authority behind you, protecting you? Surely not. I know that white South Africa turned a blind eye on a lot, and maybe it is naive of me to think so, but Vlakplaas and the kind of assassinations and so on the de Kock was involved in were kept from the public eye, and would not have been approved of by the public. Which means he was less a soldier for an army, as a hit man of the acting regime. The powerful of the time. Surely he knew that.

Apparently the lawyer prosecuting de Kock said that "this is a pure crime. This is not a political crime."

I am open to have my mind changed on this, because I could do with knowing more about Eugene de Kock. Maybe he was a scapegoat. But with what I know now, no, he was not just a soldier doing his duty. And he should not be indemnified as if he was one.

Holiday Read #2: Ways of Dying, Zakes Mda

My second holiday read was Zakes Mda's Ways of Dying. I enjoyed my first holiday read, Bitches' Brew, but this one was just a cut above. Shame for Fred Khumalo, he was great until he faced such competition!

I've actually avoided Zakes Mda books before, because they just sounded so macabre. A proessional mourner? Weird and macabre. So I thought before I read it.

I took it out of the library because I thought I should just give him a try to enlarge my South African literary education. But wow, this book blew me away.

It was a bit macabre actually. Lots of death. And a story that would be altogether too harrowing if i wasn't also altogether too beautiful.

Five stars, I totally recommend it.

Holiday Read #1: Bitches' Brew, Fred Khumalo

The first book on my pile of Holiday reads was Bitches' Brew, by Fred Khumalo.

It is written as a series of letters between Lettie and Zakes. The story begins with Lettie, from Lesotho, leaving her rural home for Durban after realising she is pregnant. On the bus to Durban she meets Zakes, the Jazz musician. Zakes grew up in a devout family. But when he discovered Myles Davis and Steve Biko at university, he dropped out of university, dropped out of his family, and made his own way in the world.

After their meeting in the bus, they part ways. But eventually end up coming in and out of one another's lives. The letters between them reminisce about the parts of their lives spent together, and fill each other in on the times spent apart. The other men and women in their lives, the shebeens they ran, the enterprises they were involved in and Zakes' eventual descent into hardened criminal.

It is a beautiful book. About love and about stumbling your way through life.

It is a bit explicit sometimes (so many local books are! I know I am prudish but I wish this wasn't such a characteristic of local literature.) But I recommend it. It is well worth reading. For the poignant love story and for the array of characters he paints so well. And for an intense picture of the era the book was set in: the 60s, 70s.

Ask people questions

One of the life lessons I learned from reading about Robert Sobukwe:
Ask people questions.

Particularly, people from other African countries. But actually, this applies to everyone really. The people you meet have this great wealth of experience you can learn from.

Know a doctor? Ask them about the strike... what conditions are like in hospitals... what their day to day experience of work in life... how things are different in different areas in SA...
Know a teacher? Ask them about their salaries... ask them about the Department of Education... ask them about the state of schools... ask them about the capabilities of learners... ask them about OBE...
Know a Kenyan? Ask them about their elections... their government... ask them how their nation is managing to get education right...
Know an Afrikaans person? Ask then about how they feel about their place in the new SA... ask them how they feel about Wikus... ask them what their take on home language eduation is...

We all have such different experiences of life, especially in South Africa. You can stand in the queue at the ATM with people whose life experience is SO different from yours, speaking to them could open your eyes. Give you insight into things you really have no other way of understanding. Speak to them. Ask then questions.

I got this from Robert Sobukwe's biography How Can Man Die Better. He spoke about how, in his day, information about what was going on in other places was really inaccessible. Particularly in other African countries. Because of the censorship and propaganda of the South African government I suppose. So what they used to do was just talk to people, make the most of opportunities to ask people questions. When you met someone from Ghana, say - drill them will questions about what is going on there.

And I think the principle easlity extends to day to day life - we can learn so much about the world from the people around us. Speak to them, ask them questions!





(I also learned this lesson from one of my pastors - he always used to tell us to take the opportunities presented to us to ask people questions!)

Lesotho

This last weekend I went on a holiday to Lesotho with some friends. What an adventure!!! The highlight was a completely death defying pony trail in a place called Malealea in the mountains. Beautiful, remote. But the paths were TINY and we were high high up. Sometimes I just had to cling to my pony and not look down!

Lesotho was beautifu. The thing that struck me most about it was how they have this urban-rural thing going. Maseru is *enormous.* But it seemed to me that most of Maseru was what we would call the rurals. Or at least, certainly more rural than city. Lots of big big plots. People herding cattle, vegetable gardens and fruit trees everywhere. Guys wearing the archetypal blanket-over-one shoulder :)


I'm reading an autobiography of a Chinese lady at the moment. Something that struck me in the book was when she was writing about how China was going through a huge famine, some time after the Great Leap Forward. Her family lived on quite a large plot of land so when food became scarce they started growing a lot of their own food. And her family taught some of their neighbors to do the same. So they rode out the national famine and they were fine. But the people living in city centre apartments, high density accommodation, they were literally starving. Because food was not available in the shops, and when it was they did not have enough money to buy it.

It seems to me that that is the best method to protect people from ecomomic crises: ensure that people have enough land that they can grow their own food. Or at least grow some of their own food.

So seeing the setup in Lesotho, I was reminded of that. Then I thought of our RDP housing - some of them are so close to each other you could barely hang washing between them. And it seems to me that Lesotho is getting something right that we are getting wrong.

There is such a stark contrast as you cross the border back into South Africa. In and around Maseru the landscape is just dotted with houses and small fields of crops, little shops, cattle. On the South African side of the border, it is just fences. Commercial farms. No people to be seen. Again, it seems to me that Lesotho is getting something right that we are getting wrong.

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.

.

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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