Human Rights Day - 21March

This is a three-day weekend here in South Africa. The national holiday, Human Rights Day, commemorates the killing of apartheid pass law protesters on 21 March 1960 in Sharpeville (famously) but also here in Cape Town in Langa. Here is a short video of President Zuma's visit to last year's event in Langa.

In more recent Zuma news, the South African president met this past week with the leaders of the power-sharing government in Zimbabwe in an effort to move forward their contentious negotiations. I was pleased to see Zuma address this long-standing issue, and I was also both pleased and amused that he came under criticism for all the plastic bottles of water seen on the table in the pictures of the meeting leaders.

In far more sobering news, reports this week offered grim tales of the devastating effects of poaching on South Africa's precious rhino population (link has news story and video clips). My encounters with these creatures (both species) in the HluhluweUmfolozi Park back in 2008 were the most memorable of the trip.

On the topic of news, I've just discovered the World News (WN) Network's website. According to its website, WN "was founded in 1995 and launched online in 1998, with the primary objective of being the most comprehensive, one-stop news resource on the Internet. Today, World News has over 20,000 global thematic and regional news sites - enhanced by the web’s most comprehensive multilingual search engine." Seems cool at first glance.

A few vignettes

vignette

Pronunciation: vin-ˈyet, vēn- yet

Function: noun

Etymology: French, from Middle French vignete, from diminutive of vigne (vine)

Date: 1611

1 : a running ornament (as of vine leaves, tendrils, and grapes) put on or just before a title page or at the beginning or end of a chapter

2 a: a picture (as an engraving or photograph) that shades off gradually into the surrounding paper b: the pictorial part of a postage stamp design as distinguished from the frame and lettering

3 a: a short descriptive literary sketch b: a brief incident or scene (as in a play or movie)

Although I'm using the term to describe a blend of 3a and b, I'm not anticipating achieving anything "literary" here. I just like the word - and it sounds better than "miscellany" or "observations."

So, in South Africa, movie theatre seats are assigned - or, in some cases, selected - when purchasing tickets. I forgot about this when I took myself to see "An Education" a few weeks ago. It wasn't very crowded, so I settled into a comfortable seat smack in the middle of the house, American-style, with a nice buffer of empty seats around me. After the previews had started and more viewers had arrived, I realized my mistake. Fortunately, the four young women who arrived and found me in their row were just as happy to sit a few more rows forward. I've had a lot of these moments where relatively familiar and routine transactions (such as paying for groceries or getting a train ticket) have been just different enough for me to feel disoriented or at least clumsy.

A reader of this blog recently pointed out to me that my blog's name is not original. In picking it, I made an Internet 101 error. As it turns out, "blair abouts" are a model of slip-on shoe long available from (though perhaps now discontinued?) from the Blair corporation in Pennsylvania. (Read the company story here or go to Blair.com to shop). The lesson: check out a name before you use it by running a basic Google search - although I think I still would have gone with the name...

It was hard to sleep last week as the temperatures neared 40°C (that's over 100°F!). Actually, even when the nights have been cooler, the stories of fatal muggings, home invasions, and other violent crimes that are always in mind have often been enough to stave off any truly restful sleep. Then there are the mosquitoes. Even though Cape Town is malaria free, it only takes one buzzing invader to get me to bolt up, turn on the light, and seek to exact a mortal toll. Since the windows in my cottage have ventilation holes cut into the pediment above them, the mosquitoes can easily get in. To deter them, I use a plug-in repellent dispenser. Nonetheless, every few nights I am tormented by a few pesky blood-suckers that seem immune to the poisonous fog in the room (perhaps another obstacle to a good night's sleep?). At least it's been easier to go to bed early now that it's getting dark so early.

Even though the days are getting shorter, and so the bright sun is rising ever later, my days start early. Three days a week it's to get to 6:45 soccer training sessions. I set an alarm, although I don't need one on Monday mornings. Since this is trash day, my wake-up call each Monday is sounds of the "trolley people." Starting as early as 5 a.m., competitive waves of resourceful scavengers descend on the neighborhood, pushing shopping carts (trolleys) to see what of use or value can be recovered from the garbage bins lined up on the streets for collection. I was caught off guard by this at first (how would I react to this at home?), but now I greet them as I pass by on my way out to start my day in a Cape Town that, I imagine, is largely unknown and certainly inaccessible to them.

That sentiment reminds me of an Adrienne Rich quotation that I came across in a teaching textbook yesterday:

Invisibility is a dangerous and painful condition... When those who have power to name and to socially construct reality choose not to see you or hear you, whether you are dark-skinned, old, disabled, female, or speak with a different accent or dialect than theirs, when someone with the authority of a teacher, say, describes the world and you are not in it, there is a moment of psychic disequilibrium, as if you looked into a mirror and saw nothing. Yet you know you exist and others like you, that this is a game with mirrors. It takes some strength of soul and not just individual strength, but collective understanding- to resist this void, this non-being, into which you are thrust, and to stand up, demanding to be seen and heard.

"Invisibility in Academe"

An overwhelming news day

So, it's been a bit of an off day, and I attribute that, in part, to the news I heard during breakfast this morning. The broadcast included a horrific story of four boys killed in Soweto on their way home from school Monday when a drag-racing car plowed into them. The story is attracting more attention than it might otherwise (sadly, as road fatalities involving school kids are tragically common) because one of the drivers is a well-known hip hop star, and drugs and alcohol were reportedly involved. There was also a report of protesters blocking streets with bricks and debris as they made their demands for such basic services as toilets! Plus, there were updates on the two most prominent and controversial public figures in South Africa these days: President Zuma, who did not meet a public disclosure deadline and, by some accounts, is claiming exemption from that law, and Julius Malema, the ANC Youth League president, who is defiantly challenging his critics to arrest him if anyone can prove any wrongdoing against him. (He is accused of profiting from his post and of not having paid taxes). In both cases, the obfuscation is so convoluted and the rhetoric so heated that any "truth" or resolution feels quite elusive and unlikely.

And now, at the end of the day, besides a picture of Lance Armstrong preparing for Cape Town's big bike race this weekend, the newspaper has a shocking story about controversial remarks by Nelson Mandela's ex-wife Winnie Madikizela-Mandela (no stranger to controversy). A headline in one paper (above) attributes the comment "Madiba [Nelson Mandela's nickname] let us down" to her, and an article in another paper quotes her as saying that "He agreed to a bad deal for the blacks" (a legitimate claim, although it seems unfair to saddle Mandela with all the blame), that "Mandela is now a corporate foundation... [who] is wheeled out globally to collect the money and he is content doing that," and that she "cannot forgive him for going to receive the Nobel [Peace Prize in 1993] with his jailer De Klerk." She also apparently denounced the Truth and Reconciliation Commission as a "charade" and called Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu a "cretin." This will certainly give all of us here plenty to talk about for the rest of the week!

Meanwhile, editorial cartoonist Jonathan Shapiro, aka Zapiro, continues to wield his editorial pen with his characteristic incisiveness. I can't believe I've gone this long without posting - or at least linking to - any of his stuff! Click here more of his work.

100 days to the World Cup - and the mid-point of my stay

With the World Cup now a mere 3 months away, soccer is everywhere (of course, cricket and rugby still get plenty of coverage too). The South African Premiership (the top national league) is wrapping up play this week, and European and UEFA Champions league results are followed closely. The big question in the media is whether or not South Africa is - or will be - "ready" for June 11th, (according to the papers yesterday, "we're 80% there!"), and many comparisons, favorable and not, are being made with past host countries of both World Cups and African and European tournaments. The most interesting soccer-related items in the weekend paper were a piece about South Africa's homeless soccer team, about which a movie, "Streetball," has been made (perhaps it will make it to SIFF?). Check out this great trailer! There was also an article with an attention grabbing headline: "Stars to wear old plastic bottles at World Cup." Yea, recycling!


My own soccer life has quite active these past two weeks, although not with playing. I am, for the moment, the assistant coach of the UCT men's first team. We took four try-out days to whittle almost 120 guys down to around 25. We're training at 6:45 three mornings each week, and we've already played two practice matches (a loss and then a win). It's fun so far, and the field has a quite dramatic backdrop!



I am continuing to visit more high schools - and to return to some as well. Besides my inquiries into the degree to which they offer a global, or international, curriculum and program (my general research topic), I am also working to support environmental, or "green," clubs in the schools. These clubs are, in most cases, just starting up. I am sharing ideas from how such clubs work at NWS and through YESC, and I am also helping connect clubs and advisors both to each other and to the "Green Campus Initiative" at UCT, a relatively new venture itself but also a potential resource for the high schools.

Regarding my project, here's an expanded excerpt from an email response I sent this past week when asked about it:

My project... well, I've spent at least part of 15 of the last 20 days visiting schools, and in each school I am looking for effects of globalization on curriculum, mission, teacher training, and other programs. I've found a wide range. The private schools and the wealthy (fee charging, so basically also private) state schools are well connected to international learning and teaching networks (Internet lessons, exchange programs, etc.). In contrast, I've met teachers at some of less-resourced schools who don't have email and are not even versed in web surfing; the other day, for example, I introduced a teacher to both Explorer and Google (and mouse clicking!) so that I could show her a resource for South African teachers hosted by an in-country organization and designed to support the national curriculum. It's comparing apples and... not even oranges, let's say ducks. This digital literacy and access divide occurs at the teacher, student, and school levels, and it is a big problem, not just as an obstacle to global information and connections.

Another problem is that, even though there is a unit on "globalisation" in the grade 12 national curriculum (and it is an assessed competency at grades 10, 11, and 12), the topic is not tested in the history section of the matriculation (high school graduation) exams. As a result, the topic is not generally taught, as teachers are under considerable pressure to prepare their learners for the exam, and it has even been dropped in the latest revision of the national teaching guidelines for grade 12. When you add to all this that neither history nor geography is compulsory after grade 9, the prospects are dim for widely attaining a high level of global literacy among South Africa's students.

So, I'm not sure what form my final project will take, but at least it's all been very stimulating - and I feel like my small contributions are at least helping the teachers and schools that I'm working with. Overall, everything is going well here. It is simultaneously a stressful and rewarding environment.

In the news...

I've been caught off guard a few times now by stories in the papers here about events in the US: the snowstorm on the East Coast, a plane crashing into a Texas tax office, etc. [Update on Thursday 25 February: the cover of today's paper was an aerial shot of the orca tanks at Sea World; it was a shock to read about that tragic event.]

In general, besides the occasional sensational snippet, North American happenings just don't make the news here unless they have some relevance to South Africa, or at least to the African continent. This means events that I normally would have followed closely at home, such as Obama's State of the Union address and the Winter Olympics, are barely in the media or on the public's radar here. Instead, I've been getting caught up in the coverage of South African President Jacob Zuma's State of the Nation address, widely considered tepid and unremarkable, and the more closely followed announcement of the national budget a week later. The latter included some bold - and controversial - proposals: including the raising of so-called "sin" taxes on cigarettes and alcohol and getting a carbon tax in the works. The carbon tax is preferred here to the, less effective (in my opinion), carbon-credit trading scheme favored back in the US. Energy prices are also in the news, as Eskom (South Africa's public power supply company) has requested rate hikes of 35% for each of the next 3 years. The company argues that they need to increase capacity and, plans to do so have been delayed for the past ten years, but there has been much public opposition to this request. [Thursday update: with much public outcry, the National Energy Regulator announced yesterday that it has granted Eskom rate increases of 24.8%, 25.8%, and 25.9% over the next three years.]

Another issue fomenting debate here is an increasing demand for public officials to be subjected to "lifestyle audits." Accusations of corrupt profiteering and abuse of office, which are supported by conspicuous purchases of luxury items (fancy cars and homes, for example) that get publicized in the media, have been simmering for a few years now, and a number of prominent party officials and other public figures have been subjected to awkward grillings over their lavish lifestyles. The latest to be asked to explain the origin of his wealth is the already-controversial Julius Malema, the ANC Youth League president. The result has been an exchange of partisan and increasingly vitriolic accusations. The mudslinging is a bit entertaining, but at its core it's all more discouraging than anything else. It will be interesting to see if these "audits," whether they get formalized or not, start making any difference. ANC unity does seem at some risk, and their hold on power may be eroded as public opinion, at least in some quarters, sours on the ruling party.