Don’t let the title fool you, I’m being controversial for the sake of attention. This isn’t about politics or racism. In fact, I daresay its not about anything that the humans in positions of power on this planet find important at all.
I’m just a white Afrikaans male in South Africa and this is a little of my story. It’s about the paradoxes that come with being African. The love we have of this place and how negative we are about it in word and deed. The glory of the jungles, savannahs, deserts, wetlands and the creatures that inhabit them, torn apart by wars. The genuine friendliness of the people and the greed that drives them.
The title of this post is a term coined at the MyBroadband forums.
Unlike most of the broadband-deprived masses of South Africa I’m not a Telkom basher. Allow me to qualify that, lest I be misunderstood. I’ve received bad service from them before and complained. But I haven’t ever delivered statements like “Telkom is crippling the small business and hampering economic growth.”
Up until recently I argued that the cost and restrictions on broadband in South Africa were necessary due to the limited market and infrastructure. In a country where everyone doesn’t even have a landline and the minority use the Internet at home how can you expect broadband to be cheap? That said, I never quite understood why the cost of normal telecommunications (fixed-line and mobile) is so expensive. Another nagging thought was that even though not everyone had access to a fixed-line service, nearly everyone in the country (including beggars) have a cell phone.
So I found myself sitting next to an American on the train the other day. Just to refresh your memories: I’m in Sweden where the use of trains is a practical thing.
Upon discovering that I’m South African the American expresses a desire to learn more of South Africa as he will be visiting the place soon on business. Unfortunately I only had about 2 minutes to this guy’s next stop. All I got to talk about was the crime and where not to go and when not to go there. I had to field questions such as “Is it really that bad?” I tried to reassure him that his contact person(s) in South Africa would know all these things, take good care of him, and that he should listen to their advice about in and around Johannesburg. And then we were at his stop.
Which brings me to our first interactive session. A challenge! You have 2 minutes to tell a foreigner travelling to South Africa about it. You know where he’s going and for the purposes of this challenge you may choose any city/province/region. Go!
“(we have not seen our brother
In the place where he is
In the place where he died)”
To those who lived through pain, but got to see the fruits of their toil:
Nelson Mandela, our icon.
Oom Bey, the Afrikaner who stood against his own people. The minister that stood against his own religious order and remained faithful to Christ.
OR Tambo, Joe Slovo.
“O Siyeza, o siyeza , sizofika webaba noma
O siyeza, o siyeza, siyagudle lomhlaba
Siyawela lapheshaya lulezontaba ezimnyama
Lapha sobheka phansi konke ukhulupheka.”
— The Crossing (Osiyeza) Johnny Clegg —
“(we are coming, we are coming, we will arrive soon
we are coming, we are coming, we are moving across this earth
we are crossing over those dark mountains
where we will lay down our troubles)”
Mbeki slammed town planners for “applying apartheid policies” when demarcating land for residential use, placing the poor on the outskirts far away from jobs. Read all about it here (but then you have to promise to remember to click back and read further ).
Some days Mbeki can really make me proud to have him as president. Why can’t he take on his staff (I suppose it’s fair to refer to the local governments as part of his staff) more often?
The problem is a bit more complicated in already settled areas, however.
I work with someone who obtained his degree in town planning from the illustrious University of Pretoria. Illustrious, because that’s where I got my degree in engineering. Of course, he’s now working as a business analyst. Makes sense? No? Well evidently the business of town planning is quite a political one and you can’t have white Afrikaner males involved there. Make a bit more sense?
Anyway, this qualified but inexperienced townplanner told a story of urban density, a theory put into good practice in Sweden. The reason I know is because I’m in Sweden, and we spoke to a Swede about it last night.
Basically what you need is a lot of people living close to their jobs and other necessary facilities (schools, shops, public transport hubs) in urban centres. What Mbeki says is true, and a definite problem, but not one so easily solved by moving poorer folks ino ‘richer’ areas and/or closer to ‘employment.’
Firstly there’s the natural South African tendency towards the suburbs. There are probably many factors that influence this tendency but I know one of the greatest is the amount of crime in the city centres. Businesses and people have been vacating the CBDs of our cities for quite some time.
Next let’s examine the concept of ‘employment.’ While I am no expert on the topic, I understand we have a bit of a joblessness crisis on our hands in the good old R of SA. And once again while I’m no expert on the topic I have a theory as to the nature of the crisis. From what I’ve seen there’s no shortage of work, especially in the professional fields. Especially if you’re black (whoops, was that out loud). Oh well it’s fair enough, I believe. I also believe that if things continue to develop as they are now (and I see no reason why they should not) there will be no need for so-called affirmative action when there are enough black professionals to fill the quota of positions because there’ll be enough work and they’ll be of equal competence and training by then. Right now, however, it (affirmative action in its current shape and form) serves no purpose other than removing employment opportunities from whites, fueling racism, and propagating self-doubt in blacks that are awarded positions when there are whites applying for the same position. Anyway, this is a debate and rant for another time, but relevant background to the job situation in South Africa.
So there’s a joblessness crisis, but more than enough work, and sometimes blacks who are not qualified for a job get the post over obviously qualified whites. (I’m not talking about ‘better qualified’ or ‘more experienced’ because in those cases it is more than fair to give an opportunity to someone who had been denied such opportunities because of his skin colour. I’m talking about cases when a candidate is awarded a job that he has no qualification or experience for.) Now why is that? Education, simply. And there’s another rant for another day — the state of education.
Moving poorer black people closer to the centres of towns does not necessarily bring them closer to employment because most of them have, quite frankly, been disqualified from performing the functions a modern job requires thanks to the colourful past of the country. This does not mean that those who truly want to can’t uplift themselves… The contrary has been proven countless times by brave souls. But it takes amazing effort on their part and great humility to put themselves through school or great dedication to learn how to work something as foreign as a computer. I have not heard stories of those that don’t have a command of English. If you have an uplifting story, please share it, it would make a wonderful example.
In the end the problem is complex and vast, ranging from our depleted urban centres, to the (now denied and racialised) crime problems, to a legacy of poor education. It’s a difficult juggling act, so many issues that need to be dealt with, yet surely it must be becoming clearer that you can’t eliminate the country’s problems by tackling them from one end. Certain issues must naturally receive priority but for the most part trying to resolve one problem and not the other will result in nothing being achieved at all.
One thing the government’s affirmative action policies have resulted in is more scholarships and other funding for black students (this doesn’t mean that everyone has equal access to education yet but it’s a start). This means that in time the education problem will be dealt with. I can’t see why a higher level in education will not result in reduced crime and why reduced crime will not result in our CBDs flourishing once more.
I just fear that the government gets more impatient in feeling the pressure to show results and succeeds only in perpetuating the problems rather than resolving them. Here’s an interesting but scary video that should illustrate what happens when change is rushed (or the president is a madman, whichever comes first ). South Africans be warned that this is a 9.77MB clip.
I can only hope that more patience is shown than has been in the past because the truth is that the damage done by decades of apartheid can not be undone in 10 years.
If you’re South African it is more than likely that you’ve heard of Sheldean Human, a girl that went missing a month or so ago and “De la Rey”, a song by suddenly popular Bok van Blerk.
People’s propensity for jumping on the so-called bandwagon irritates me.
I only really have something to say about Sheldean Human’s kidnapping and murder and the South African populace’s reaction to it. If you really have no idea what I’m on about and would like some background, just hit Google.
My first reaction to stories such as those of the kidnapped and recently found dead Sheldean Human is “Why her?”. I would’ve loved to quote a statistic here about how many children go missing every year but I couldn’t find a reliable resource on the Internet. It is a little known fact however that not every child reported missing makes it onto the front page in South Africa. One might even go so far as to say that the minority of missing children do. So why Sheldean? Why the two or three other missing children that get the attention they need in order to be found, their cases getting the attention they deserve to bring their kidnappers and murderers to justice?
This picture by Mynderd Vosloo that appeared in the Beeld (an Afrikaans newspaper) last week Friday (9 March 2007) said it all for me.
I caught myself getting angry at everyone who climbed on the Sheldean bandwagon. Some pushing their own (however noble) agendas.
Yet why should I be angry at those who choose what news to tell for having to choose the news? Would anger not be better directed at those who kidnap and kill children in enough numbers that there are not enough front pages in a week to do them all justice?
So while I wrote the post below a gunshot was fired right outside my house. It sounded as if the gunman were standing in the street right outside my gate when the shot went off.
I did something I wouldn’t normally do. I called the cops. I suppose if I heard someone coming through the gate or breaking into the house or multiple shots I’d definitely call the police but not for one random gunshot.
I dialled 112 on my cell phone and pushed ’1′ for life-threatening emergency. They put me through 10111, the “Flying Squad” who contacted the local police station. The police officers were outside my gate in 2-3 minutes. And they didn’t just send one car, there were 3 or 4 cars outside my house with 2 or 3 officers per car making sure that the streets were safe again.
Their response was incredibly impressive and even with all the crime recently affecting people close to me (I’ll try and post the next story tomorrow) they managed to restore a feeling a security with their presence.
Nevermind Blood Diamond. If I wait until I’ve got a fitting review written to publish here I’ll never get to what I really want to say. This is a blog about being in Africa. In particular South Africa, so let’s get to it.
On 6 February 2007 my girlfriend was smash-and-grabbed. For those unfamiliar with the term it is the word we South Africans use to describe when a criminal breaks a window of your car and attempts to steal valuables inside. These valuables are typically notebook computers and ladies’ handbags. This particular criminal was after a PBMR bag (or more specifically the contents thereof) that was a gift to her.
Allow me to return to the beginning of the story. It was a wonderful evening out. We had gone to see a movie (The Departed, I think) and afterward, on a whim, decided to go to Capeesh, one of our favourite restaurants. For the first time in awhile we had travelled seperately as we both had to rush to make it to the movie on time. She went to her home in the East and I went to mine in the South. At a traffic light on the way home a man in black came up to the car and smashed the passenger-side window. It took him two tries, but he smashed it quickly enough. As he went for the bag, she grabbed it too. It was left zipped open when she paid the parking attendant the R6 we had to shell out to park in the lot outside the restaurant. The result was that the bag tore in half and its contents spilled onto the floor off the car when they faught for it.
When I got home I got a call from her mother who then put my girlfriend on the line when she indicated that she was able to speak to me. Initially we thought that the guy only got away with the empty front half of the bag. Only later did my girlfriend realise that she couldn’t find her flashdisk with pretty valuable information on it or the MP3 player I bought her for Christmas. I must say that I am very impressed with her — that her first reaction was to fight rather than just let the guy take it.
I hate how insecure this makes you feel. I know that we are well looked after, that no harm will come to us. I also know that there is much worse that could have happened and yet I feel that we should not have to be thankful for what did not happen. Instead I feel justified in my anger at the invasion of her space.
My intuition says that more women are targetted by criminals. Women are the ones who get smash-and-grabbed, more women are mugged, much more women are raped. I’d even extend that hypothesis and say that men are more often robbed when they’re around they’re families, significant others or female friends because then they have something to lose. I have no stats to back it up, but I’ll do my utmost to follow this up. Right now however, I am most definitely angry that women are suffering in Africa because they are physically weaker, making them more likely targets. I call such targetting cowardice.
This post is my tribute to those who died, may it not be in vain:
).
