You don’t get more touristy than the big red bus
Hi everyone,
Hope you’re doing well. Life is good. We’re all settled into our new life in Cape Town. Our apartment looks very well lived in. We’re even going out at night. On the weekend we had to go to an internet café to send Jean’s report to Canada. In all the commotion of trying to get it into the right audio format to send it, we lost track of time and didn’t leave the mall till almost 11. Having submitted to an 8pm curfew, we were quite amazed at how lively things were at that time of the night. Most of the City was dead but Long Street (the clubs and backpackers’ district) was full of action. We even wound down to listen to the music from the clubs. So much for locking ourselves in after dark! I guess there comes a point when you just have to accept that crime happens everywhere and you hope for the best and just go on living.
Since the last blog, we’ve been on tourism over-drive. We even swallowed our pride and got on the cheesy double-decker tour bus. Yep, the buses with the giddy, pointing, snapping tourists. That was us, heads held high, cameras around neck. Jean was deliriously happy to have someone else driving us (she's stuck doing all the driving again cause I can't drive standard - yippee for me) so she could OD on picture taking without me screaming “put the darn camera away. Are you trying to get us mugged?” We made notes of all the places we wanted to re-visit and have visited a few since.
Last week we visited the Jewish Museum. It’s a lovely museum with mixed media documentation of the rich Jewish history in Cape Town and South Africa. Who knew that so many South African Jews came from Lithuania? The first Jews arrived around 1869 and most arrived in Cape Town and moved inland with the discovery of diamonds and gold. There is a video re-enactment of the establishment of the first synagogue. There is also a picture of the old hostel that housed poor Jews. The hostel kept great records of the comings and goings and those records are available for Jews who wish to trace their family’s history. We would highly recommend the audio tour. One can hear the story of how the Jewish Council advocated against anti-immigration laws and condemned apartheid. The museum also profiles many of the Jews who were active in the anti-aparthieid movement. Helen Suzman is the most famous one of many. There were many others who provided legal assistance to those who were charged by the nationalist government and many others still who were very active and vocal in the movement and were arrested. However, it also acknowledged that Jews were treated as whites under apartheid and many did nothing. It’s a definite must for anyone visiting Cape Town. And, you can’t leave without trying the yummy sandwiches at the café.
A week before that we drove down to Houts Bay for fish and chips. We weren’t going to have the fish and chips but our friends advised that it is required of all visitors and that it would be an embarrassment to our countries to not partake. They even sell “I Had Fish and Ships at Hout’s Bay” shirts. Once we heard that, we decided we just had to do our country proud and dig in. Patriotism (and grease) have never tasted so good…yum. Hout’s Bay is simply spectacular. The beach is lovely and surrounded by mountains. We drove up the mountain and had a little hike. We even saw a whale sunbathing in the water. What a view! I’m thinking I’m going to have to buy a thesaurus so we can vary our adjectives for describing this place. One can only use the word ‘spectacular’ so much in six months.
We went to see the play “You Strike a Woman You Strike A Rock” at the lovely Baxter Theatre in Rondebosch. The play itself left much to be desired. It’s about the plight of women under apartheid told through the life of three women selling their wares at a bus station. For a three woman show, there was just tooooooo much going on. They tried to cover way too much in an hour and a half (without intermission) and it felt a bit tedious. That said, the three actresses were excellent. They were engaging and funny. They did the best with an overly ambitious script. However, it was worth seeing for its history if not for the script. The play was a collaborative effort between a white playwright, a black playwright and the actresses. It was written and first mounted during apartheid. Rehearsals took place in a bathroom in a township church. It was closed under the threat of the apartheid government. It was again mounted for the ANC leadership in exile in London. It has now come full circle starring the original three actresses. Interestingly enough, the play has been heavily criticised by the current ANC cabinet. I believe it was the Minister of Culture who said it was vulgar and a bad influence on the South African people. It was shown in the smallest and most uncomfortable room at the Baxter, which is actually a lovely, grand theatre (with a restaurant that serves a yummy buffet of South African fare). We’re planning on returning to see some of their amazing line up of small fringelike plays (they also have their share of mainstream acts).
Work is well. Last week we had a conference on inter-governmental relations. The participants were mayors, municipal managers, senior officials and MPP’s from the provinces and the National Minister for Local Government. It was really interesting to hear them talk about the challenges that they face building an emerging democracy. I won’t bore you with all the details but it really helped me acknowledge that twelve years really isn’t that long a time in the life of a nation. There is a lot of capacity building work that needs to happen in order to bring about monumental change in the lives of the people. It was remarkable to see that the politicians are still feeling their way around and trying to understand their role in this new dispensation. For instance, there is an ongoing debate about whether provinces are necessary. The Constitution recognizes all three spheres of government (levels is a four letter word here as it suggests there might be a hierarchy and everyone is very quick to point out that all three spheres are equal) and all three have delineated powers and functions. However, local government is under the supervision of both the national and provincial government. The local government is responsible for service delivery and generates its own funds. In contrast, the provinces, have few sources of their own funds – mostly lottery and casinos and most of their services are delivered through the municipalities. The municipalities get transfers from the national government and the primary legislation regulating municipal action is national. So, whenever one gets to discuss the challenges that municipalities face in delivering services to the people, the argument about whether provinces are necessary is always raised. Many feel that the existence of provinces unnecessarily complicates intergovernmental relations and hinders local governments in service delivery. They essentially have to answer to a sphere of government that can offer them little. In fact, the budget and revenue of metropolitan cities such as Cape Town far exceeds that of the province. Anyway, I say all this to say that everything is still up for grabs here. Nothing is set in stone. The current system of government reflects the constitutional negotiations that took place post-apartheid. The system is still being tested and over the years some major tweaking is likely to happen. It is, however, heartening to see that the discussion around what needs to change is focussed on what facilitates service delivery. However, whatever changes will also have a lot to do with politicking. The ANC runs the show across the board (national, provincial and in about 90% of municipalities – Cape Town being one exception) so, they’ll be sure to make the changes that also entrench their hold on power.
Did anyone hear Jean’s report about the black communities' response to PW Botha’s death? It was on the air on Sunday evening. What a flipping lunatic he was!!! I’m sure there’s a special place in hell for unrepentant bigots and murderers like him and Hitler. Someone sent me a copy of a speech he gave in Parliament. It made my blood boil. It’s hard to imagine that someone actually said those things. In the speech he spoke of how they have their scientists working on ways to control black fertility and how it was pretty clear from history that blacks were inferior and made to serve whites… He also spoke of how the worldly tacitly approved of their actions by doing the same to their black populations and by continuing to support their economy. I can’t even repeat it. I’m sure you can find some of his speeches online. It’s been an interesting time to be here and see how some media outlets, in keeping with the “don’t speak evil of the dead” rule, struggle to find something positive to say about him. The best they can come up with is that he was a historical symbol. Most don’t even try. From all indications, he went to his grave cocky as ever and totally unrepentant. People have been upset at the government’s decision to fly flags at half mast. Until I read the speeches yesterday, I was thinking it made sense in the spirit of reconciliation and protocol. Now, I think it is totally inappropriate. He refused to appear before the truth and reconciliation committee and took most of the secrets of that oppressive regime to the grave. He made no attempt to reconcile in life, why should the country, still burdened by his hateful legacy, pay him any respect. It’s simply ludicrous. No wonder there is still such distrust of the Afrikaner whites here. It’s hard to trust a community that allowed such people to lead them and fell into line. The speeches also speak to some of the challenges HIV/AIDS activists are having with getting the message out. Many people view the HIV message as another attempt by whites to control black fertility. I saw a documentary about how young people had dubbed AIDS the “American Initiative to Discourage Sex” in Africa. Anyway, that’s my rant about that.
So, where is Jean? She’s in Namibia. She’s gotten an amazing training gig and will be touching down in several southern African communities with her journalist training road show. Sadly, it also means she’ll be gone every weekday for the next month. She left for Namibia on Sunday. She returns on Friday and is off again on Sunday etc. She absolutely loves it and I’m so happy for her. You should hear her talk about it. She’s positively giddy. I’m sure she’ll blog about it when she gets back. She has also loved working with and mentoring the college students at Bush Radio. You’ll hear all about it in future blogs.
I’m off to Johannesburg on Sunday for a conference on public participation. I’m really looking forward to doing some travelling. Two weeks after Jean gets back from her road show, we’re off on our 24 day southern africa tour. We’ll drive through the Namibian dessert to Windhoek, visit the dunes, see the wildlife, eat game (yikes), over to Botswana, Zambia and end in Vic Falls in Zimbabwe. We’ll stay for a couple of days and then fly to Jo’burg for five days to see Soweto, find the women’s community and visit Pretoria before heading back to CT on January 15th. We’re so looking forward to it. We’re having to delay the countdown until when Jean gets back (I’m not the queen of countdowns for nothing).
I hope this long blog has made up for the long silence. Hope y’all are well. We love to hear from you. Drop us a line when you get a chance. We miss you.
Omo
p.s. Happy 40th to you know who. See, I’m a good friend. I’m trying to protect your identity. Want to make sure you can still pretend to be youthful. Enjoy it!
Hope you’re doing well. Life is good. We’re all settled into our new life in Cape Town. Our apartment looks very well lived in. We’re even going out at night. On the weekend we had to go to an internet café to send Jean’s report to Canada. In all the commotion of trying to get it into the right audio format to send it, we lost track of time and didn’t leave the mall till almost 11. Having submitted to an 8pm curfew, we were quite amazed at how lively things were at that time of the night. Most of the City was dead but Long Street (the clubs and backpackers’ district) was full of action. We even wound down to listen to the music from the clubs. So much for locking ourselves in after dark! I guess there comes a point when you just have to accept that crime happens everywhere and you hope for the best and just go on living.
Since the last blog, we’ve been on tourism over-drive. We even swallowed our pride and got on the cheesy double-decker tour bus. Yep, the buses with the giddy, pointing, snapping tourists. That was us, heads held high, cameras around neck. Jean was deliriously happy to have someone else driving us (she's stuck doing all the driving again cause I can't drive standard - yippee for me) so she could OD on picture taking without me screaming “put the darn camera away. Are you trying to get us mugged?” We made notes of all the places we wanted to re-visit and have visited a few since.
Last week we visited the Jewish Museum. It’s a lovely museum with mixed media documentation of the rich Jewish history in Cape Town and South Africa. Who knew that so many South African Jews came from Lithuania? The first Jews arrived around 1869 and most arrived in Cape Town and moved inland with the discovery of diamonds and gold. There is a video re-enactment of the establishment of the first synagogue. There is also a picture of the old hostel that housed poor Jews. The hostel kept great records of the comings and goings and those records are available for Jews who wish to trace their family’s history. We would highly recommend the audio tour. One can hear the story of how the Jewish Council advocated against anti-immigration laws and condemned apartheid. The museum also profiles many of the Jews who were active in the anti-aparthieid movement. Helen Suzman is the most famous one of many. There were many others who provided legal assistance to those who were charged by the nationalist government and many others still who were very active and vocal in the movement and were arrested. However, it also acknowledged that Jews were treated as whites under apartheid and many did nothing. It’s a definite must for anyone visiting Cape Town. And, you can’t leave without trying the yummy sandwiches at the café.
A week before that we drove down to Houts Bay for fish and chips. We weren’t going to have the fish and chips but our friends advised that it is required of all visitors and that it would be an embarrassment to our countries to not partake. They even sell “I Had Fish and Ships at Hout’s Bay” shirts. Once we heard that, we decided we just had to do our country proud and dig in. Patriotism (and grease) have never tasted so good…yum. Hout’s Bay is simply spectacular. The beach is lovely and surrounded by mountains. We drove up the mountain and had a little hike. We even saw a whale sunbathing in the water. What a view! I’m thinking I’m going to have to buy a thesaurus so we can vary our adjectives for describing this place. One can only use the word ‘spectacular’ so much in six months.
We went to see the play “You Strike a Woman You Strike A Rock” at the lovely Baxter Theatre in Rondebosch. The play itself left much to be desired. It’s about the plight of women under apartheid told through the life of three women selling their wares at a bus station. For a three woman show, there was just tooooooo much going on. They tried to cover way too much in an hour and a half (without intermission) and it felt a bit tedious. That said, the three actresses were excellent. They were engaging and funny. They did the best with an overly ambitious script. However, it was worth seeing for its history if not for the script. The play was a collaborative effort between a white playwright, a black playwright and the actresses. It was written and first mounted during apartheid. Rehearsals took place in a bathroom in a township church. It was closed under the threat of the apartheid government. It was again mounted for the ANC leadership in exile in London. It has now come full circle starring the original three actresses. Interestingly enough, the play has been heavily criticised by the current ANC cabinet. I believe it was the Minister of Culture who said it was vulgar and a bad influence on the South African people. It was shown in the smallest and most uncomfortable room at the Baxter, which is actually a lovely, grand theatre (with a restaurant that serves a yummy buffet of South African fare). We’re planning on returning to see some of their amazing line up of small fringelike plays (they also have their share of mainstream acts).
Work is well. Last week we had a conference on inter-governmental relations. The participants were mayors, municipal managers, senior officials and MPP’s from the provinces and the National Minister for Local Government. It was really interesting to hear them talk about the challenges that they face building an emerging democracy. I won’t bore you with all the details but it really helped me acknowledge that twelve years really isn’t that long a time in the life of a nation. There is a lot of capacity building work that needs to happen in order to bring about monumental change in the lives of the people. It was remarkable to see that the politicians are still feeling their way around and trying to understand their role in this new dispensation. For instance, there is an ongoing debate about whether provinces are necessary. The Constitution recognizes all three spheres of government (levels is a four letter word here as it suggests there might be a hierarchy and everyone is very quick to point out that all three spheres are equal) and all three have delineated powers and functions. However, local government is under the supervision of both the national and provincial government. The local government is responsible for service delivery and generates its own funds. In contrast, the provinces, have few sources of their own funds – mostly lottery and casinos and most of their services are delivered through the municipalities. The municipalities get transfers from the national government and the primary legislation regulating municipal action is national. So, whenever one gets to discuss the challenges that municipalities face in delivering services to the people, the argument about whether provinces are necessary is always raised. Many feel that the existence of provinces unnecessarily complicates intergovernmental relations and hinders local governments in service delivery. They essentially have to answer to a sphere of government that can offer them little. In fact, the budget and revenue of metropolitan cities such as Cape Town far exceeds that of the province. Anyway, I say all this to say that everything is still up for grabs here. Nothing is set in stone. The current system of government reflects the constitutional negotiations that took place post-apartheid. The system is still being tested and over the years some major tweaking is likely to happen. It is, however, heartening to see that the discussion around what needs to change is focussed on what facilitates service delivery. However, whatever changes will also have a lot to do with politicking. The ANC runs the show across the board (national, provincial and in about 90% of municipalities – Cape Town being one exception) so, they’ll be sure to make the changes that also entrench their hold on power.
Did anyone hear Jean’s report about the black communities' response to PW Botha’s death? It was on the air on Sunday evening. What a flipping lunatic he was!!! I’m sure there’s a special place in hell for unrepentant bigots and murderers like him and Hitler. Someone sent me a copy of a speech he gave in Parliament. It made my blood boil. It’s hard to imagine that someone actually said those things. In the speech he spoke of how they have their scientists working on ways to control black fertility and how it was pretty clear from history that blacks were inferior and made to serve whites… He also spoke of how the worldly tacitly approved of their actions by doing the same to their black populations and by continuing to support their economy. I can’t even repeat it. I’m sure you can find some of his speeches online. It’s been an interesting time to be here and see how some media outlets, in keeping with the “don’t speak evil of the dead” rule, struggle to find something positive to say about him. The best they can come up with is that he was a historical symbol. Most don’t even try. From all indications, he went to his grave cocky as ever and totally unrepentant. People have been upset at the government’s decision to fly flags at half mast. Until I read the speeches yesterday, I was thinking it made sense in the spirit of reconciliation and protocol. Now, I think it is totally inappropriate. He refused to appear before the truth and reconciliation committee and took most of the secrets of that oppressive regime to the grave. He made no attempt to reconcile in life, why should the country, still burdened by his hateful legacy, pay him any respect. It’s simply ludicrous. No wonder there is still such distrust of the Afrikaner whites here. It’s hard to trust a community that allowed such people to lead them and fell into line. The speeches also speak to some of the challenges HIV/AIDS activists are having with getting the message out. Many people view the HIV message as another attempt by whites to control black fertility. I saw a documentary about how young people had dubbed AIDS the “American Initiative to Discourage Sex” in Africa. Anyway, that’s my rant about that.
So, where is Jean? She’s in Namibia. She’s gotten an amazing training gig and will be touching down in several southern African communities with her journalist training road show. Sadly, it also means she’ll be gone every weekday for the next month. She left for Namibia on Sunday. She returns on Friday and is off again on Sunday etc. She absolutely loves it and I’m so happy for her. You should hear her talk about it. She’s positively giddy. I’m sure she’ll blog about it when she gets back. She has also loved working with and mentoring the college students at Bush Radio. You’ll hear all about it in future blogs.
I’m off to Johannesburg on Sunday for a conference on public participation. I’m really looking forward to doing some travelling. Two weeks after Jean gets back from her road show, we’re off on our 24 day southern africa tour. We’ll drive through the Namibian dessert to Windhoek, visit the dunes, see the wildlife, eat game (yikes), over to Botswana, Zambia and end in Vic Falls in Zimbabwe. We’ll stay for a couple of days and then fly to Jo’burg for five days to see Soweto, find the women’s community and visit Pretoria before heading back to CT on January 15th. We’re so looking forward to it. We’re having to delay the countdown until when Jean gets back (I’m not the queen of countdowns for nothing).
I hope this long blog has made up for the long silence. Hope y’all are well. We love to hear from you. Drop us a line when you get a chance. We miss you.
Omo
p.s. Happy 40th to you know who. See, I’m a good friend. I’m trying to protect your identity. Want to make sure you can still pretend to be youthful. Enjoy it!
posted by omoplusjean at 5:52 AM
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