Speak Truth to Power

Most of our time at U.C.T. so far has been spent in class or wading through bureaucratic quagmires.  Today we got to experience one of the advantages of being part of an academic community – a round-table discussion of human rights issues in Africa featuring one of our personal heroes, Archbishop Desmond Tutu.

 

Archbishop Tutu was really the reason we attended, but some of the other speakers were quite striking as well.  We were not familiar with any of them, but they are some of the most prominent figures in struggles against oppression all across the continent.  Here are brief introductions, with links if you are interested in more details.

Guillaume Ngefa documented and reported on human rights abuses in the Democratic Republic of the Congo under several leaders, and was treated brutally for his work.  He is currently in exile and continues to speak out on the situation in his home country.

Freedom Neruda was a leading journalist in the Ivory Coast who was attacked and jailed several times for writing in opposition to several governments.

Koigi Wa Wamwere has been a political activist in Kenya for over 30 years.  During that time he has been a political prisoner at least five times, often being held without charge for long periods, and was even kidnapped by Kenyan forces who crossed the border into Uganda to get him.

Samuel Kofi Woods founded the Catholic Peace and Justice Commission in Liberia, an organization that reported on human rights abuses during the country's civil war.  His investigative work, in the face of government threat, led to the release of several political prisoners who were being held without charge.

Denis Goldberg was an anti-apartheid activist in South Africa.  A white leader in the largely black ANC, he was a political prisoner for 22 years and then exiled for about 10 as a result of his work.

 

The final speaker was Kerry Kennedy, daughter of Robert F. Kennedy (who visited South Africa in 1966 and spoke out against the apartheid regime of the day).  Ms. Kennedy recently completed a book called Speak Truth to Power, profiling individuals who have paid a high price to defend human rights around the world. 

 

This forum was especially meaningful to us because we don't always feel like we're in Africa.   Part of the reason for this is that Cape Town is so developed, relatively wealthy in many areas (including where we live), and has strong European influence of many kinds (British, Dutch, French, German).  Events like this are a good reminder of what goes on around us.  Political situations are shaky in many places, including here to some extent.  The ruling party in South Africa, the ANC, is experiencing an ethnic split between those who back the current president (Thabo Mbeki, a Xhosa) and the new ANC president poised to replace him (Jacob Zuma, a Zulu).  There is also a controversy involving the ANC's decision to disband a special corruption investigation unit known informally as the Scorpions.  At the end of the forum, Kerry Kennedy made a simple but profound statement: if Western governments do not voice their disapproval, it will be assumed that they are okay with a situation.  Putting aside any discussion of intervention, failure to speak  is complicity with the oppressors.  

Headlines

Newspapers here in South Africa have an interesting marketing strategy. In addition to having people sell the newspapers on street corners (they walk up and down the rows of traffic waiting at a red light), they have cardboard signs on telephone poles and lamp posts.  These signs change daily, showing a new headline from that day's newspaper.  So even if you don't subscribe to a newspaper or get news from the radio, television or internet, simply by driving around the neighborhood you can get an idea of what's going on.  Here's one example:

Of course, the headlines don't give away much (or sometimes they're in Afrikaans...).  Often they are only a bizarre or confusing teaser, meant to entice you to buy the paper.  Whether this works or not from a business standpoint I couldn't say, but the entertainment value is tremendous either way. 

 

For instance, Cape Town has been experiencing an unusually rainy winter this year.  Although many days are beautifully sunny and mild (nothing like a Massachusetts or Vermont winter!), the downpours can be terrible and sometimes last for several days.  Apparently the situation has become somewhat dire, and thus we get today's headline:

 

“We Live in Wet Hell”

Imports

In preparation for moving into our new flat, we have been buying things.  Some fun things, like food, kitchen supplies and curtains, but also a lot of mundane necessities like trash bins and cleaning supplies – the kind of stuff that adds up in cost at a rather frightening pace, but doesn't give you much satisfaction in return.

 

We did have an interesting experience in the process of finding all of these things.  Tucked into a commercial block just a few doors down from the place with sketchy used refrigerators (we looked...) is a little store called “The Happy 5 Rand.”  The name is entertaining, but it closely resembles any dollar store in the States – lots of cheaply made and cheaply priced goods ranging from toys to toiletries* to tupperware. 

 *I believe this is where you find things like the “Crest” toothpaste not actually made by Crest that was recalled for having anti-freeze in it...

 

There is one significant difference between this store and its counterparts back home.  Take a look at the store's sign:

 

This store freely admits, and even advertises, that its goods are made in China, where a similar U.S. store would probably sell dish towels with American flags stitched on them.  There is no deception here, and for good reason – the proprietors and employees are of Chinese descent.  There is even a small television in the store that plays Chinese horror movies.

 

We have been in South Africa for less than three weeks, so we don't want to pretend to be experts on the country's economic complexities, but this store was an interesting piece of the picture we've been getting from talking to people here and reading the news.  As in the States, Chinese imports have decimated South African manufacturing, especially the textile industry.  Working conditions are much better here than in China, but labor is still quite inexpensive.  The factor that tips the balance in favor of China seems to be productivity.  Some people point to the recent history of apartheid and say that under that system of forced labor, employees were unproductive as a form of resistance, and that “work-ethic” has been passed down.  Whatever the reason, South African industries have a hard time competing.

 

Here's the irony: about a month ago, South Africans of Chinese descent petitioned and were granted their request to be legally considered “Black”.  This decision has nothing to do with race persay – it has strictly economic implications.  South Africa has recently implemented an affirmative action system called Black Economic Empowerment, or BEE.  The codes that govern BEE mandate percentages of black ownership, and participation in upper levels of management, and other measures of economic advancement and equality.  Chinese South Africans succeeded in arguing that they had been the victims of similar oppression under apartheid and that they deserved similar economic reparations.

 

We are still trying to figure out how this works.  Would a Chinese person (or for that matter a black person) have to prove that they or their parents were actually affected by apartheid (i.e. were in the country at the time) in order to benefit, or could someone from China or an African-American from New York move to South Africa and receive the same treatment?  It seems a little scary that the South African government might be mandating special benefits on the inside to those from a country that is destroying their economy from the outside.

One of These Things Is Not Like the Other...

When we are asked about the differences between South Africa and the United States, one of the first things that comes to mind is attitudes towards race and ethnicity.  Coming from an environment of political correctness, and in some cases an attempt to ignore race by pretending that we are “beyond” it, the frankness with which South Africans discuss this issue can be startling.  We heard someone describe a friend as “of French-Hugenot extraction” as matter-of-factly as one might say that he works in finance or enjoys fishing.

 

Why this difference?  Very simply, the wounds of a racist regime are still fresh – apartheid only ended 14 years ago, so not even a generation has passed.  The transformation this country has undergone in that short period of time is astounding, but attitudes and actions do not change quickly.  Another reason is that racial divisions in this country are reinforced by language.  In addition to English, Afrikaans, Xhosa, Zulu and several others are widely spoken.  Many signs in this area of the country are in English, Afrikaans and Xhosa.  Most people that we encounter speak at least two of these, but the difficulty of communicating across cultures is something we understand well!

During class this week, I was the only white student out of about 12.  In the United States, this would be an unusual occurrence, but nothing more.  Here, I was possibly the only one for whom English was a first language.  All of the lectures and course materials are in English, but group work and informal conversations on the side are often in Afrikaans or Xhosa, or switch very quickly between these and English.  I feel awkward, trying not to interfere with the status quo, but also wanting to connect to my colleagues and not be more conspicuously different than I already am as a young, white, American female in that group.

These issues add an extra layer to my experience at U.C.T. so far, which has been a good one.  Transportation is affected so strongly by the legal and political structure that supports and funds it; learning about it in such a different context gives me a much richer knowledge base than simply studying or working in the field in the U.S. would.  A major part of the work I will complete for this class will consist of evaluating the design for a new train station in a poor township south of Cape Town (this picture was taken from the station, looking out on part of the township).  I will have to rely on my classmates for background knowledge of the area (and they will have to speak to me in English to do that!), but in the end I should have a deeper understanding of at least a small portion of this wonderfully crazy country we now live in.

 

 

Unhappy Customers

After struggling for a few posts to write in the plural for both of us, I'll just be Anne for today.

Today was the first day of lectures for my Rail Planning and Operations course, the first of about six courses I will take in the Transport Studies program at the University of Cape Town (see left: walking up the hill from middle campus to upper campus, you pass through this tunnel under a highway and come out in the middle of the rugby fields with a beautiful view up the mountain).  I came into this course fairly knowledgeable about urban and suburban rail systems in the United States on the operational level, but with very little technical background.  Not only am I learning a lot about the mechanics of rail systems, but I get to apply what I already know in a very different context.  For example, here are some of the differences between rail in South Africa and rail in the United States:

1) Rail in South Africa runs on a different gauge than rail everywhere else in the world.  In other words, the distance between rails is shorter here.  This fact has some implications in terms of the operational speed and radius of curves that trains can safely travel, but the main reason I mention it here is because in every conversation I have had so far about the differences between rail in South Africa and the U.S., the first thing I get asked is “Did you know that South Africa has a different gauge?”  

2) Urban rail systems  in South Africa were originally built as a cheap way to transport poor (black) workers from the townships to factories and mines.  They were a tool of economic control for the apartheid government.  (In many cases the rail lines were also used as a physical barrier between white and black neighborhoods.)  As a result, they still carry the legacy of that past in many ways – the areas served by rail are still in many cases the poorer areas, the system is heavily subsidized to keep fares extremely low, the trains are overcrowded and somewhat unsafe, and the ridership is about 86% black, 13% colored (mixed-race, South-Asian) and 1% white, compared to about 80%, 11%, and 9%, respectively, in the country as a whole.

In contrast, many urban rail systems in the United States were built to transport middle- and upper-class whites from expensive suburban neighborhoods to jobs in the inner city.  These rail lines might have stations every few miles in the suburbs, but then bypass city neighborhoods and only stop in the central business district.  Passengers today are mostly white, well-educated, and middle- to upper-class, and fares are correspondingly higher.  Trains are becoming more crowded now as gas prices increase, but for the past few decades ridership has been moderate since most potential passengers can drive a private car instead.

3)  When rail passengers in the United States are unhappy with the service they are receiving, they might write an op-ed piece in the local newspaper or call their state representative to complain.  When rail passengers in South Africa are unhappy with the service they are receiving, they burn train cars.  

"Why South Africa?"

People are often shocked that I would want to come to South Africa to study.  Isn't America supposed to have all the answers?  Unfortunately, I have experienced this reaction in both countries.  There are several unique reasons to study prisons in South Africa.  Even more importantly, there are lessons to be learned in South African prisons that are desperately needed in the States.  Ultimately this stuff will be the focus of my Masters thesis, but here are a few highlight:  Sorry if there are no clever anecdotes about surfing, but it's my blog so I can inflict socio-political ramblings at will!   

 

n  Post-Apartheid Transition:  Prisons are always the last thing to change in a society.  One reason is that prison doesn't tend to attract the progressive, “change the world” sort of employee.  Another is, “why bother?”  If society has a very narrow view of prisons as a warehouse for undesirables, the basic technique for this type of social control has been in place forever.  Guards have been hitting prisoners with sticks since the beginning of time.  Why change a winning formula? 

In all seriousness, however, there is no country that has seen its prison system undergo such a dynamic, rapid transition as in South Africa.  Practically overnight they saw an institution stripped of its purpose (political control by a white minority) and most of it's administration (white bureaucrats).  The whole designation of a “Maximum Security Prison” was now moot, because these had been reserved for political prisoners.  Such a radical transition creates quite a strain on the system, but it makes for a fascinating place to study!

 

n  Willingness to Question:  One of the many advantages to flow from this transition is a willingness to question what prisons are for.  Prisons are designed to fly below the public radar, so this is a rare thing.  Especially in the States, politicians keep funneling money into the prison system without ever assessing what it is good for.  This is incredible, considering 80% of the prisoners who get out of jail are reincarcerated.  If any other aspect of society failed 80% of the time, we would at least have a conversation about it.  In South Africa, this conversation is actually happening.  It might even restore my faith in government. 

 

n  Innovation:  Many prison systems throw together the occasional committee to study various challenges in the penal system, but this is half-hearted at best.  In South Africa, innovation is happening at breakneck speed.  It's a matter of survival!  Granted, some of this innovation takes the form of corruption, but the Department of Correctional Services has been forced to think creatively by nature of the extreme over-crowding and lack of resources.  Western prisons with lush operating budgets just don't have the same incentive!

 

n  Community Involvement:  Many of South Africa's current leaders spent a significant amount of time in prison.  Contrast this with the States, where many of our leaders won office by frightening the middle class with the spectre of black crime!  This has led some South Africans to be less quick to buy into the stigma of prison.  As a result, there is a stronger bond between community organizations and the prison system.  The involvement of NGO's and charities in prison is by no means unique.  What sets South Africa apart is that the government is excited about this!  In the States, volunteers—and rehabilitation programs in general—are viewed as a nuisance.