Hello again.
Sorry for the lack of posts of late, I've been on dipsaluscious vacation with the patriarch (who should be guest blogging shortly) and have been away from the Internets. Mind you, there is much to discuss regarding the last two weeks of post-UCT South African experiences, and those will come along in due time. However, I may be writing those from the other side of the Atlantic. Tomorrow, at 2pm SAST, I'll begin my 30-hour journey (ughh...) home. By Friday at 1pm EST, I'll have a Destino's Cheese Steak in my hand as I make my glorious return to the shores of America, and the "g."
It's honestly quite hard to believe this experience is all coming to an end. It seems like only yesterday I was stepping off the plane here in Cape Town, wide-eyed, agog at the fact that I had made it all the way to Africa. It further occurs to me that I have done more in these 4 months than most people do in a lifetime, and I have only barely scratched the surface of the new South Africa. As Al says, that just means I have to come back.
For now, I am throwing myself into the events surrounding my departure, endless packing, driving back and forth to Tableview and hopefully later heading off to one last stop at the Kirstenbosch Gardens. I am, in essence, avoiding the harsh reality that the people and places I have developed a closeness with over these last months are about to scatter across the world. I wonder when the next time will come around that Caitlin and I will go for a lunch date at the Waterfront, or Christine and I will wander through a bookshop, or my little sisters, Dannie, Ali and Dubs will go for sundowners or off to the cricket at Newlands, or when Kevin and I will braai under the hot sun, burning to bronze as we munch on a boerewors. The truth is these and all the other wonderful people and places that I have encountered over these last months will live on, burned into my memory and helping to change my life for the better, and, unfortunately, never to be repeated in this way again. So, I live these last 28 hours in hopes of creating one more last set of new memories, when so many have already earned a special place in my heart.
So, with that, I'm off. Next time you hear from me, I'll be on the other side of the world.
29 November 2006
07 November 2006
In CONGRESS, November 7, 2006
"We hold these Truths to be self-evident: that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed, by their Creator, with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.
That to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed, that whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these Ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its Foundation on such Principles, and organizing its Powers in such Form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness."
-Thomas Jefferson
Vote today.
That to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed, that whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these Ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its Foundation on such Principles, and organizing its Powers in such Form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness."
-Thomas Jefferson
Vote today.
05 November 2006
Election Picks '06: Getting Ready to Govern!
It’s the most wonderful time of (every two) years! Yes, it’s the midterm elections. This year, we have an extra added benefit: NOT LOSING. The Democratic Party, which in my lifetime has done just about everything it possibly can to lose elections, finally can’t screw one up. As we look forward to governing for the first time in 12 years, this cycle has been quite revolutionary. By my own count, no fewer than 11 seats in the Senate and 76 seats in the House were what I consider “in play” – that is to say that the recent polling is such that they are either toss up races or leaning ever so slightly to one side or the other. Having 30 House seats up for grabs is generally considered a lot. 76 is earth shattering. And, barring a major news event in the next 24 hours, the GOP is going to down one of its worst defeats since Watergate. Also, I have tagged some races as "Firewall Races." These are seats that a generally solid GOP strongholds but that have attracted media attention and extra money because of Democratic gains. These are races I consider bellwether districts which could tell the story of the Democratic landslide in 2006. So, as I sit here salivating over polling data, here is a write-up on races of particular interest.
SENATE
Massachusetts – D
Teddy Kennedy is gonna be pushing 50 years in the Senate soon. I like that thought.
Montana – D
Jon Tester makes every Democrat’s dream come true: winning a moderate seat back from the Republicans at the expense of one of their most powerful influence-peddlers.
Arizona – R
Firewall race. Hayworth (as I will talk about later) is in trouble which means every Republican except John McCain in Arizona is in trouble. Jon Kyl has managed to stay above the fray of the divisive immigration issue and I just have a really hard time imagining a man of his stature in Arizona politics and his influence in Washington losing even with the tide rising. However, if it looks like a landslide early in the evening across the country, Conservatives may desert him and he could be in trouble. Nonetheless, I still have this race in the GOP column.
Missouri – D
The Michael J. Fox ad had a huge effect nationwide and in Missouri in particular. You could not helped but be moved by this man, whom Americans have embraced as one of our best loved celebrities, clearly suffering at the ravages of a scary, largely misunderstood disease for which there may finally be hope of a cure. And you could not help but feel sick when the opposition trotted out those great men of science, Jeff Suppan and Kurt Warner, to speak for the anti-science, anti-progress Christian Conservative community and bash Mr. Fox for pleading with voters to not cut off avenues to an eventual cure for Parkinson’s. (Note: I am leaving Rush Limbaugh out of this discussion on purpose. His words were not even political discourse, just a sleazy smear attack, something he specializes in of course, but one which sank to even new depths.) In the furor that erupted after the ad, Jim Talent was left to scramble and consolidate support while not looking like a complete anti-progress buffoon, and Claire McCaskill will reap the benefit of his inability to do so.
Ohio – D
Mike DeWine, welcome to electoral oblivion. The NRSC pulled your funding almost two months ago. TWO MONTHS! You barely got out there after Labor Day, and the rug got pulled out from under you. Ohio isn’t just trending Blue this time around, it’s hemorrhaging GOP votes.
Pennsylvania – D
Rick Santorum is the biggest joke in American politics. His campaign was a punchline from the word go. I think Mark Foley could have moved to Altoona two months ago and gotten more votes than Santorum will. Bye Rick, don’t let the door hit you on the way out.
Tennessee – R
Harold Ford needed to shut his mouth on the New Jersey gay marriage decision. I’m not angry about it because I disagree with him – and Lord knows I do – but because he looked like a political opportunist who tried to leverage an unpopular issue. And then he dropped 5 points in a poll taken two days later and he’s still sliding. That race has been over for a week, Bob Corker wins easily, might even get to 55% in a race that was deadlocked, or he was trailing in, depending on how you read the numbers, 96 hours ago.
Virginia – D
Mark Warner’s Presidential campaign won’t be the only one to end in Virginia this month. The Warner/Kaine GOTV machine is going to put Jim Webb over the top and end George “I am not now, nor have I ever been a racist…except for that time I used a slur at a campaign event and was basically in the Klan in college” Allen’s run at the presidency.
Rhode Island – D
Lincoln Chafee had to survive attacks from the left and right for the last year while trying to cobble together the center in Rhode Island. These are people who voted for Buddy Cianci. Twice. Including after he served time in prison. Chafee was always an outlier, a moderate Republican in one of the most staunchly, working class democratic states in the Union. Anger at President Bush and Chafee’s links to his administration will put Sheldon Whitehouse in the U.S. Senate.
Connecticut – I
The thought of Joe Lieberman returning to the U.S. Senate makes me almost violently ill. He claims to be a member of the Democratic Party, but he has become bosom buddies with the President just six years after he and Al Gore defeated him for the Presidency. Ned Lamont has run an awesome campaign, coming from nowhere to shock the Democratic establishment and Joementum out of the nomination for the first time in 18 years. But Lieberman has consistently shown himself to be a political chameleon, changing his colors from red to blue as the situation warrants. Unfortunately, this means Bush and Company’s favorite “Democrat” gets another six years in the Senate. You will notice I have not included Lieberman as a Democrat in the final tally. He has to prove he still believes in the fundamental values of my party before I put a D next to his name again. If he wants to be a Republican, fine. But he better prove himself if he wants to be a full-fledged member of my party again.
New Jersey – D
Menendez over Tom Kean, Jr. Race shouldn’t even really be in play, but Tom Kean is running on the goodwill of his father and his solid work with the 9/11 Commission.
Maryland – D
Cardin. Easy.
Final Tally:
D – 50
R – 49
I – 1
HOUSE
Massachusetts ALL – D
The Massachusetts Congressional Delegation thanks you once again for sending them back to Congress. Even Steve Lynch.
California 11 – D
Firewall Race. This district was redrawn after the Gary Condit fiasco some years back to include more Democratic areas around Stockton. Even though the area is fairly consistently Republican, bad internals forced the NRCC to drop money into the Sacramento media market a week ago to try and hold this seat. It’s starting to look like the ads backfired and the growing landslide coming from the east coast may keep conservatives at home and turn central California blue for the first time in a long time.
Arizona 05 – D
Firewall Race. J.D. Hayworth, until about a week ago, was one of the most recognizable, telegenic, and well-liked Conservative members of Congress. All of a sudden, he is within the margin of error to a relatively unknown Democratic candidate who is making hay off the now-marginalized illegal immigration issue and Hayworth’s inability to lead on the issue despite his vitriol and rhetoric on the issue. Instead of moving on legislation on the divisive issue, Hayworth and others used it for political gain and are now pushing it off the legislative agenda. Conservatives are deserting Hayworth in droves in response. This is another race in which the Democrats should benefit from GOTV and early gains, as even more Conservatives may decide to stay home. Don’t weep for Hayworth though, he will no doubt return to a very lucrative career in talk radio railing against the bleeding heart liberals. Only problem, we’ll be governing now…
Idaho 01 – D
Firewall Race. This race is a testament to how revolutionary this cycle truly is. The Idaho 1st is in play? Really? Yeah, really. People everywhere are looking for change, and good candidates like Larry Grant are stepping up to the plate and talking to people in plain English, about issues they really do care about, like Health Care, education, rural development, jobs, and the War in Iraq. Issues that can unite Americans, not divide them. (You know, I seem to remember hearing a phrase like that before somewhere…) The GOP strategy of division just isn’t going to cut it in the Mountain West anymore, or pretty much anywhere else in the country. People are tired of fending for themselves, they like their neighbors. Why not prosper together?
Wyoming AL – D
Barbara Cubin will lose this race because Gary Trauner, like Larry Grant, believes in fair government and a return to community values. Trauner also has a great campaign manager in Linda Stoval, a woman I worked with when I was Wyoming state director on the Dean campaign, and who was a great grassroots organizer, one of the best I worked with in fact. Also, CUBIN THREATENED TO SLAP A MAN IN A WHEELCHAIR. I just can’t make this stuff up.
Texas 22 – D
Tom DeLay’s old district goes blue as Delay gets ready to put on his orange jumpsuit. The voters here, while some of the most Conservative in the nation, will send a democrat to Congress thanks to DeLay’s reckless disregard for the American legal system and ethics in general.
Illinois 06 – D
The fact that anyone had the unmitigated gall to take potshots at Tammy Duckworth during this campaign was appalling. Of course, they did it to Max Cleland too, but this time it won’t stick and Henry Hyde’s old seat will be filled by a Democrat.
West Virginia 01 – D
Here’s an interesting one, a race with a Democrat facing ethical questions. Mollohan still wins this race, that’s how bad it is for the Republicans this year. Also, I don’t care what Jason Reifer says, no way Shelley Moore Capito loses WV-02.
North Carolina 11 – D
Heath Shuler does at the ballot box what he could never do in the NFL, win.
Florida 16 – D
Not even in the close comfort and total privacy of the voting booth will Floridians check off Mark Foley’s name on a ballot. I almost feel sorry for the Republican candidate in this race, who has to tell people to vote for an avowed child predator for Congress. But then I remember, they’re trying to govern.
Pennsylvania 07 – D
Curt Weldon, join Tom DeLay at the back of the line. Joe Sestak can thank the FBI and Weldon’s daughter’s dirty dealings for an electoral victory.
New York 03 – R
Firewall Race. If Peter King loses his seat early in the night (which is eminently possible with the hordes of voters coming out for both Hillary and Eliot Spitzer) it is going to be an even worse night for the GOP than we all could imagine. I still can’t bring myself to say he will lose, but it is a distinct possibility.
New York 19 – D
*SHAMELESS PLUG ALERT* Trippi and Associates fine advertising support of John Hall has helped him cobble together a slim lead going into the voting. Hall’s outspoken distaste for the Iraq debacle has garnered him a lot of support and should push him over the top and into Congress.
New York 26 – D
If there’s one thing worse than being Mark Foley this cycle, it’s being the guy who hid the child predator’s disgraceful and disgusting penchant for little boys from the American public. Tom Reynolds was that man. He was also the titular head of the National Republican Congressional Committee. It’s gonna be a bad night for him.
Connecticut 04 – R
Firewall Race. Chris Shays is in the same boat as Peter King. Moderate Republican, long-serving, well-liked. But we’ll see just how high the tide is rising early in the night.
Final Tally:
D – 244
R – 191
(D +41, 53 seat advantage)
GOVERNOR
Massachusetts – D
Deval Patrick FINALLY returns the Corner Office to the control of the Democratic Party. Patrick will make an outstanding governor for the Commonwealth and help right the ship in Massachusetts and return us to glory as the best state in the Union and a shining beacon of hope to the rest of the nation. Deval Patrick will also show his skills of walking on water, then turning that water into wine. But in all seriousness, he’s run a smart, principled campaign that connected with people on a fundamental level and he will make an excellent leader for the Commonwealth.
California – R
The people of the State of California are going to re-elect Arnold Schwarzeneggar governor of their state. Because once wasn’t embarrassing enough.
New York – D
Obama/Spitzer ’08? Is it too early to say that? … Please?
SENATE
Massachusetts – D
Teddy Kennedy is gonna be pushing 50 years in the Senate soon. I like that thought.
Montana – D
Jon Tester makes every Democrat’s dream come true: winning a moderate seat back from the Republicans at the expense of one of their most powerful influence-peddlers.
Arizona – R
Firewall race. Hayworth (as I will talk about later) is in trouble which means every Republican except John McCain in Arizona is in trouble. Jon Kyl has managed to stay above the fray of the divisive immigration issue and I just have a really hard time imagining a man of his stature in Arizona politics and his influence in Washington losing even with the tide rising. However, if it looks like a landslide early in the evening across the country, Conservatives may desert him and he could be in trouble. Nonetheless, I still have this race in the GOP column.
Missouri – D
The Michael J. Fox ad had a huge effect nationwide and in Missouri in particular. You could not helped but be moved by this man, whom Americans have embraced as one of our best loved celebrities, clearly suffering at the ravages of a scary, largely misunderstood disease for which there may finally be hope of a cure. And you could not help but feel sick when the opposition trotted out those great men of science, Jeff Suppan and Kurt Warner, to speak for the anti-science, anti-progress Christian Conservative community and bash Mr. Fox for pleading with voters to not cut off avenues to an eventual cure for Parkinson’s. (Note: I am leaving Rush Limbaugh out of this discussion on purpose. His words were not even political discourse, just a sleazy smear attack, something he specializes in of course, but one which sank to even new depths.) In the furor that erupted after the ad, Jim Talent was left to scramble and consolidate support while not looking like a complete anti-progress buffoon, and Claire McCaskill will reap the benefit of his inability to do so.
Ohio – D
Mike DeWine, welcome to electoral oblivion. The NRSC pulled your funding almost two months ago. TWO MONTHS! You barely got out there after Labor Day, and the rug got pulled out from under you. Ohio isn’t just trending Blue this time around, it’s hemorrhaging GOP votes.
Pennsylvania – D
Rick Santorum is the biggest joke in American politics. His campaign was a punchline from the word go. I think Mark Foley could have moved to Altoona two months ago and gotten more votes than Santorum will. Bye Rick, don’t let the door hit you on the way out.
Tennessee – R
Harold Ford needed to shut his mouth on the New Jersey gay marriage decision. I’m not angry about it because I disagree with him – and Lord knows I do – but because he looked like a political opportunist who tried to leverage an unpopular issue. And then he dropped 5 points in a poll taken two days later and he’s still sliding. That race has been over for a week, Bob Corker wins easily, might even get to 55% in a race that was deadlocked, or he was trailing in, depending on how you read the numbers, 96 hours ago.
Virginia – D
Mark Warner’s Presidential campaign won’t be the only one to end in Virginia this month. The Warner/Kaine GOTV machine is going to put Jim Webb over the top and end George “I am not now, nor have I ever been a racist…except for that time I used a slur at a campaign event and was basically in the Klan in college” Allen’s run at the presidency.
Rhode Island – D
Lincoln Chafee had to survive attacks from the left and right for the last year while trying to cobble together the center in Rhode Island. These are people who voted for Buddy Cianci. Twice. Including after he served time in prison. Chafee was always an outlier, a moderate Republican in one of the most staunchly, working class democratic states in the Union. Anger at President Bush and Chafee’s links to his administration will put Sheldon Whitehouse in the U.S. Senate.
Connecticut – I
The thought of Joe Lieberman returning to the U.S. Senate makes me almost violently ill. He claims to be a member of the Democratic Party, but he has become bosom buddies with the President just six years after he and Al Gore defeated him for the Presidency. Ned Lamont has run an awesome campaign, coming from nowhere to shock the Democratic establishment and Joementum out of the nomination for the first time in 18 years. But Lieberman has consistently shown himself to be a political chameleon, changing his colors from red to blue as the situation warrants. Unfortunately, this means Bush and Company’s favorite “Democrat” gets another six years in the Senate. You will notice I have not included Lieberman as a Democrat in the final tally. He has to prove he still believes in the fundamental values of my party before I put a D next to his name again. If he wants to be a Republican, fine. But he better prove himself if he wants to be a full-fledged member of my party again.
New Jersey – D
Menendez over Tom Kean, Jr. Race shouldn’t even really be in play, but Tom Kean is running on the goodwill of his father and his solid work with the 9/11 Commission.
Maryland – D
Cardin. Easy.
Final Tally:
D – 50
R – 49
I – 1
HOUSE
Massachusetts ALL – D
The Massachusetts Congressional Delegation thanks you once again for sending them back to Congress. Even Steve Lynch.
California 11 – D
Firewall Race. This district was redrawn after the Gary Condit fiasco some years back to include more Democratic areas around Stockton. Even though the area is fairly consistently Republican, bad internals forced the NRCC to drop money into the Sacramento media market a week ago to try and hold this seat. It’s starting to look like the ads backfired and the growing landslide coming from the east coast may keep conservatives at home and turn central California blue for the first time in a long time.
Arizona 05 – D
Firewall Race. J.D. Hayworth, until about a week ago, was one of the most recognizable, telegenic, and well-liked Conservative members of Congress. All of a sudden, he is within the margin of error to a relatively unknown Democratic candidate who is making hay off the now-marginalized illegal immigration issue and Hayworth’s inability to lead on the issue despite his vitriol and rhetoric on the issue. Instead of moving on legislation on the divisive issue, Hayworth and others used it for political gain and are now pushing it off the legislative agenda. Conservatives are deserting Hayworth in droves in response. This is another race in which the Democrats should benefit from GOTV and early gains, as even more Conservatives may decide to stay home. Don’t weep for Hayworth though, he will no doubt return to a very lucrative career in talk radio railing against the bleeding heart liberals. Only problem, we’ll be governing now…
Idaho 01 – D
Firewall Race. This race is a testament to how revolutionary this cycle truly is. The Idaho 1st is in play? Really? Yeah, really. People everywhere are looking for change, and good candidates like Larry Grant are stepping up to the plate and talking to people in plain English, about issues they really do care about, like Health Care, education, rural development, jobs, and the War in Iraq. Issues that can unite Americans, not divide them. (You know, I seem to remember hearing a phrase like that before somewhere…) The GOP strategy of division just isn’t going to cut it in the Mountain West anymore, or pretty much anywhere else in the country. People are tired of fending for themselves, they like their neighbors. Why not prosper together?
Wyoming AL – D
Barbara Cubin will lose this race because Gary Trauner, like Larry Grant, believes in fair government and a return to community values. Trauner also has a great campaign manager in Linda Stoval, a woman I worked with when I was Wyoming state director on the Dean campaign, and who was a great grassroots organizer, one of the best I worked with in fact. Also, CUBIN THREATENED TO SLAP A MAN IN A WHEELCHAIR. I just can’t make this stuff up.
Texas 22 – D
Tom DeLay’s old district goes blue as Delay gets ready to put on his orange jumpsuit. The voters here, while some of the most Conservative in the nation, will send a democrat to Congress thanks to DeLay’s reckless disregard for the American legal system and ethics in general.
Illinois 06 – D
The fact that anyone had the unmitigated gall to take potshots at Tammy Duckworth during this campaign was appalling. Of course, they did it to Max Cleland too, but this time it won’t stick and Henry Hyde’s old seat will be filled by a Democrat.
West Virginia 01 – D
Here’s an interesting one, a race with a Democrat facing ethical questions. Mollohan still wins this race, that’s how bad it is for the Republicans this year. Also, I don’t care what Jason Reifer says, no way Shelley Moore Capito loses WV-02.
North Carolina 11 – D
Heath Shuler does at the ballot box what he could never do in the NFL, win.
Florida 16 – D
Not even in the close comfort and total privacy of the voting booth will Floridians check off Mark Foley’s name on a ballot. I almost feel sorry for the Republican candidate in this race, who has to tell people to vote for an avowed child predator for Congress. But then I remember, they’re trying to govern.
Pennsylvania 07 – D
Curt Weldon, join Tom DeLay at the back of the line. Joe Sestak can thank the FBI and Weldon’s daughter’s dirty dealings for an electoral victory.
New York 03 – R
Firewall Race. If Peter King loses his seat early in the night (which is eminently possible with the hordes of voters coming out for both Hillary and Eliot Spitzer) it is going to be an even worse night for the GOP than we all could imagine. I still can’t bring myself to say he will lose, but it is a distinct possibility.
New York 19 – D
*SHAMELESS PLUG ALERT* Trippi and Associates fine advertising support of John Hall has helped him cobble together a slim lead going into the voting. Hall’s outspoken distaste for the Iraq debacle has garnered him a lot of support and should push him over the top and into Congress.
New York 26 – D
If there’s one thing worse than being Mark Foley this cycle, it’s being the guy who hid the child predator’s disgraceful and disgusting penchant for little boys from the American public. Tom Reynolds was that man. He was also the titular head of the National Republican Congressional Committee. It’s gonna be a bad night for him.
Connecticut 04 – R
Firewall Race. Chris Shays is in the same boat as Peter King. Moderate Republican, long-serving, well-liked. But we’ll see just how high the tide is rising early in the night.
Final Tally:
D – 244
R – 191
(D +41, 53 seat advantage)
GOVERNOR
Massachusetts – D
Deval Patrick FINALLY returns the Corner Office to the control of the Democratic Party. Patrick will make an outstanding governor for the Commonwealth and help right the ship in Massachusetts and return us to glory as the best state in the Union and a shining beacon of hope to the rest of the nation. Deval Patrick will also show his skills of walking on water, then turning that water into wine. But in all seriousness, he’s run a smart, principled campaign that connected with people on a fundamental level and he will make an excellent leader for the Commonwealth.
California – R
The people of the State of California are going to re-elect Arnold Schwarzeneggar governor of their state. Because once wasn’t embarrassing enough.
New York – D
Obama/Spitzer ’08? Is it too early to say that? … Please?
03 November 2006
Ubuntu
I have just returned from a short trip to Port Elizabeth to visit the headquarters of the Ubuntu Education Fund, a non-governmental non-profit organization devoted to enriching the lives of the citizens of townships in PE. As you will soon read, it was easily the most wonderful, humanizing and deeply moving experience I have had in South Africa.
But what is ubuntu, you ask? Ubuntu is a not a concept, or a catchphrase, or even a way of life. It is, simply, life. It is an abiding belief in the idea the communities are strongest when they are united in helping each other. But words do not fully explain ubuntu. They cannot. One must experience it for oneself. You cannot know ubuntu until you know traditional life in South Africa. I encourage all of you to experience it at some point in our life. Here is a slice of that life, some stories from my journey yesterday, which I hope will deepen your understanding of ubuntu.
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As the plane lands, I am met by Qonongile (the Q is a click, by the way), a project manager is the case management department at Ubuntu. On the ride in from the airport, through the interwoven neighbourhoods of PE, "Q" (for the sake of both pronunciation and spelling) explains what Ubuntu does, which are various programs ranging from educational development to HIV/AIDS prevention, treatment and counseling as well as dealing with the growing problems of orphans and victims of child rape in the townships. As we get closer to the Ubuntu office and enter the townships, I start seeing funeral parlors. Everywhere. Q explains that "business is booming." The death trade is growing because the HIV infection rate is above 40%. He further explains that it is the only business which is booming, as PE employment rates are 10%. That's EMPLOYMENT rates. In Port Elizabeth, they are experiencing 90% unemployment. No one has a job. No one can get a job. Political apartheid is over, but economic apartheid is real and it is having serious and damaging consequences to the community.
We arrive at the office and I meet Jana, an American who has worked at Ubuntu for 3 years now. She is one of the project managers, working across portfolio but mainly focused on education initiatives and working to provide resources to the 21 Ubuntu partner schools. She introduces me to Thembagazi and Phezi who are heading up the new Orphan and Vulnerable Children initiative, working both in schools and the community to counteract the destructive effects of children left without support systems, usually related to HIV/AIDS. They have five targeted schools, in which each has a main counselor who mentors classes on life skills and HIV prevention, while also acting in a rehabilitative and case management capacity, working with victims of orphanage, child rape and other similarly vulnerable problems. When we arrive at the B.J. Mnyanda school, the school day is over, at 12:30 in the afternoon, one of the many half days which are a growing problem in the South African school system, as teachers lack the funding, resources or will power necessary to teach primary school classes of 60 for an entire day. The children are still hanging around school, they have just received lunch, but they still stay. Many of them have no parents, live alone or with other children in the informal settlements and squatter camps near the school. For them, school is a refuge, a place where they can be safe, where they will be fed and cared for, not raped or brutalized or alone. These children want to be in school. We then move on to the Jarvis school, where another Ubuntu program has taken root. Here I meet the principal of the school who is so fiercely proud of what he has to offer the children. Literally brimming, he pulls me into the library, half-full with books, which Ubuntu has worked hard to secure for the children. He explains how he and other members of the community built the school by themselves after the original school and library was destroyed by the National Police during the 1976 Uprising, and how the library laid dormant, bereft of books until Ubuntu came along. He then whisks me into a computer lab where they have 20 working computers that children can learn computer skills on, and also integrate classroom learning into the information age. A class of 1st or 2nd graders was currently inside working on math problems and isiXhosa grammar and vocabulary. But this is not the proudest achievement for the principal. He then takes me to the small kitchen where lunch is being wrapped up. He says "I can feed all my students now." Until August of this year, the school only had enough funding from the federal government to feed grades Kindergarten through 4th grade every day of the week, with 5th through 8th grades being fed on alternate days. Ubuntu helped him and his students plant and cultivate a garden, and now all children are fed with a hot meal every day. For many of them, it is the only meal they will eat all day. Our final stop on the tour was an Ubuntu mentoring session, for which today's topic was gender identity. The words 'SEXUAL HEALTH" were writ large on the blackboard, and I watched as a class of 7th graders engaged with rapt attention their mentor who was asking them question about what they liked about being a boy or girl. The lecture was in Xhosa, so I only picked up a few things. Then suddenly, the entire class jumped up and broke into a song and dance that had something to do with loving their bodies, themselves and respecting each other. I leaned over to Jana and said, "If I go back and tell people that I witnessed 7th graders spontaneously dancing and singing in the middle of Sex Ed class, much less simply engaging so well with the topic, I am going to be laughed out of the room." Nevertheless, it happened. As the busy principal waves goodbye and we get in the car to leave, young children see me and surround the car shouting "Lungu! Lungu!" with bright smiles on all their faces. Lungu is Xhosa for white person. I give them all a smile and wave and they smile back, as Jana explains that not only am I a rarity in their lives, they are always so happy just to get a smile from someone, because so few adults care for these children. As we leave, they scurry back into the schoolhouse to learn and play and stave off the desperation around them for a few more hours.
After eating lunch provided by the Ubuntu garden (which grows some pretty tasty tomatoes, I must say), Chris and Tsepo, who were outreach coordinators, informed me that they were taking me to a workshop in the township. I envisioned a small community centre, with people seated in chairs around someone talking about empowerment opportunities or life skills. Not exactly. I found myself about 10 minutes later, after rather a harrowing minibus ride on the Uitenhage (WEE-ten-haig) line, sitting with 15 women and 5 men in the 8 x 10 living room of a tin-roof shack in the Chris Hani informal settlement, Sira removed a, shall we say, "anatomically correct" sex toy from a plastic bag and proceeded to make a demonstration on how to use a condom, then pointing to a chart made by Ubuntu volunteers with graphic depictions of different sexually transmitted infections. Again, the session was given in Xhosa, so I understood very little, but what I did understand was the reactions of the people. They were all interested, Sira and his female companion (whose name I unfortunately do not remember) were connecting with them on an individual level. Even the men, who I am told are usually very standoffish during such discussions were engaging and asking questions and taking note of the important nature of the discussion. This presentation is indicative of the mood of the community. They all know the danger that this fragile community is experiencing and they all know that the only way to start stemming the tide of these societal ills is to engage with the problems and work together, in the spirit of Ubuntu, to solve them.
From there, Tclabane, one of the directors, took me on a formal township tour. We started on Mendi Road, where he grew up, and moved toward Njoli, the centre of township life in PE. It was there that I ate a Smiley. That's shaved, boiled sheep's head by the way. I mostly ate the tasty part, the tongue. Tony Bourdain would be proud. From there we visited a monument to fallen activists in the struggle against Apartheid, and as we approached another major square near Mendi Road, Tclabane relayed his story of resistance. When he was 14, he attended an anti-apartheid rally there, as he arrived the Police came with their armored personnel carriers and machine guns and helicopter gunships and gave the crowd, literally armed with their voices, sticks and stones, 5 minutes to disperse. They started shooting in three minutes. Tclabane, luckily, escaped with his life, though many others were not so lucky. Everywhere you go, you hear stories like that. Of Steve Biko, the architect of black consciousness, who was brutally beaten to death in the Police Room 619 in PE in 1977. Of the Craddock Four (one of whom was Tclabane's brother-in-law), all political activists who were captured by the police and braaied alive on the beach while the police had a picnic. The senselessness, the brutality, the desperation of a policy designed to exterminate an entire race of people becomes very real and very pronounced when you walk through the streets of Njoli.
From there, Tclabane took me to where Ubuntu was born, a small shebeen (township bar) where Jacob Lief met "Banks" his co-founder. I sat and drank a cold beer in the small shack, sitting with men from the township and groaned along with them as the Proteas (the South African national cricket team) went down to defeat at the hands of the West Indies. I couldn't help but think, sitting in the same seat that Jacob did when he first came up with the idea of Ubuntu, that I was here for a reason, that I need to contribute something, that I want to be a part of something for more than just being able to say "I was there then." That I can make a difference in the lives of a community like Jana and Tclabane and "Q" and Chris and Tsepo and Sira and everyone else who makes Ubuntu what it is, who have built it from the grassroots and made it a beacon of hope for people who live in a place that hope left generations ago.
So, how was your Thursday?
But what is ubuntu, you ask? Ubuntu is a not a concept, or a catchphrase, or even a way of life. It is, simply, life. It is an abiding belief in the idea the communities are strongest when they are united in helping each other. But words do not fully explain ubuntu. They cannot. One must experience it for oneself. You cannot know ubuntu until you know traditional life in South Africa. I encourage all of you to experience it at some point in our life. Here is a slice of that life, some stories from my journey yesterday, which I hope will deepen your understanding of ubuntu.
---
As the plane lands, I am met by Qonongile (the Q is a click, by the way), a project manager is the case management department at Ubuntu. On the ride in from the airport, through the interwoven neighbourhoods of PE, "Q" (for the sake of both pronunciation and spelling) explains what Ubuntu does, which are various programs ranging from educational development to HIV/AIDS prevention, treatment and counseling as well as dealing with the growing problems of orphans and victims of child rape in the townships. As we get closer to the Ubuntu office and enter the townships, I start seeing funeral parlors. Everywhere. Q explains that "business is booming." The death trade is growing because the HIV infection rate is above 40%. He further explains that it is the only business which is booming, as PE employment rates are 10%. That's EMPLOYMENT rates. In Port Elizabeth, they are experiencing 90% unemployment. No one has a job. No one can get a job. Political apartheid is over, but economic apartheid is real and it is having serious and damaging consequences to the community.
We arrive at the office and I meet Jana, an American who has worked at Ubuntu for 3 years now. She is one of the project managers, working across portfolio but mainly focused on education initiatives and working to provide resources to the 21 Ubuntu partner schools. She introduces me to Thembagazi and Phezi who are heading up the new Orphan and Vulnerable Children initiative, working both in schools and the community to counteract the destructive effects of children left without support systems, usually related to HIV/AIDS. They have five targeted schools, in which each has a main counselor who mentors classes on life skills and HIV prevention, while also acting in a rehabilitative and case management capacity, working with victims of orphanage, child rape and other similarly vulnerable problems. When we arrive at the B.J. Mnyanda school, the school day is over, at 12:30 in the afternoon, one of the many half days which are a growing problem in the South African school system, as teachers lack the funding, resources or will power necessary to teach primary school classes of 60 for an entire day. The children are still hanging around school, they have just received lunch, but they still stay. Many of them have no parents, live alone or with other children in the informal settlements and squatter camps near the school. For them, school is a refuge, a place where they can be safe, where they will be fed and cared for, not raped or brutalized or alone. These children want to be in school. We then move on to the Jarvis school, where another Ubuntu program has taken root. Here I meet the principal of the school who is so fiercely proud of what he has to offer the children. Literally brimming, he pulls me into the library, half-full with books, which Ubuntu has worked hard to secure for the children. He explains how he and other members of the community built the school by themselves after the original school and library was destroyed by the National Police during the 1976 Uprising, and how the library laid dormant, bereft of books until Ubuntu came along. He then whisks me into a computer lab where they have 20 working computers that children can learn computer skills on, and also integrate classroom learning into the information age. A class of 1st or 2nd graders was currently inside working on math problems and isiXhosa grammar and vocabulary. But this is not the proudest achievement for the principal. He then takes me to the small kitchen where lunch is being wrapped up. He says "I can feed all my students now." Until August of this year, the school only had enough funding from the federal government to feed grades Kindergarten through 4th grade every day of the week, with 5th through 8th grades being fed on alternate days. Ubuntu helped him and his students plant and cultivate a garden, and now all children are fed with a hot meal every day. For many of them, it is the only meal they will eat all day. Our final stop on the tour was an Ubuntu mentoring session, for which today's topic was gender identity. The words 'SEXUAL HEALTH" were writ large on the blackboard, and I watched as a class of 7th graders engaged with rapt attention their mentor who was asking them question about what they liked about being a boy or girl. The lecture was in Xhosa, so I only picked up a few things. Then suddenly, the entire class jumped up and broke into a song and dance that had something to do with loving their bodies, themselves and respecting each other. I leaned over to Jana and said, "If I go back and tell people that I witnessed 7th graders spontaneously dancing and singing in the middle of Sex Ed class, much less simply engaging so well with the topic, I am going to be laughed out of the room." Nevertheless, it happened. As the busy principal waves goodbye and we get in the car to leave, young children see me and surround the car shouting "Lungu! Lungu!" with bright smiles on all their faces. Lungu is Xhosa for white person. I give them all a smile and wave and they smile back, as Jana explains that not only am I a rarity in their lives, they are always so happy just to get a smile from someone, because so few adults care for these children. As we leave, they scurry back into the schoolhouse to learn and play and stave off the desperation around them for a few more hours.
After eating lunch provided by the Ubuntu garden (which grows some pretty tasty tomatoes, I must say), Chris and Tsepo, who were outreach coordinators, informed me that they were taking me to a workshop in the township. I envisioned a small community centre, with people seated in chairs around someone talking about empowerment opportunities or life skills. Not exactly. I found myself about 10 minutes later, after rather a harrowing minibus ride on the Uitenhage (WEE-ten-haig) line, sitting with 15 women and 5 men in the 8 x 10 living room of a tin-roof shack in the Chris Hani informal settlement, Sira removed a, shall we say, "anatomically correct" sex toy from a plastic bag and proceeded to make a demonstration on how to use a condom, then pointing to a chart made by Ubuntu volunteers with graphic depictions of different sexually transmitted infections. Again, the session was given in Xhosa, so I understood very little, but what I did understand was the reactions of the people. They were all interested, Sira and his female companion (whose name I unfortunately do not remember) were connecting with them on an individual level. Even the men, who I am told are usually very standoffish during such discussions were engaging and asking questions and taking note of the important nature of the discussion. This presentation is indicative of the mood of the community. They all know the danger that this fragile community is experiencing and they all know that the only way to start stemming the tide of these societal ills is to engage with the problems and work together, in the spirit of Ubuntu, to solve them.
From there, Tclabane, one of the directors, took me on a formal township tour. We started on Mendi Road, where he grew up, and moved toward Njoli, the centre of township life in PE. It was there that I ate a Smiley. That's shaved, boiled sheep's head by the way. I mostly ate the tasty part, the tongue. Tony Bourdain would be proud. From there we visited a monument to fallen activists in the struggle against Apartheid, and as we approached another major square near Mendi Road, Tclabane relayed his story of resistance. When he was 14, he attended an anti-apartheid rally there, as he arrived the Police came with their armored personnel carriers and machine guns and helicopter gunships and gave the crowd, literally armed with their voices, sticks and stones, 5 minutes to disperse. They started shooting in three minutes. Tclabane, luckily, escaped with his life, though many others were not so lucky. Everywhere you go, you hear stories like that. Of Steve Biko, the architect of black consciousness, who was brutally beaten to death in the Police Room 619 in PE in 1977. Of the Craddock Four (one of whom was Tclabane's brother-in-law), all political activists who were captured by the police and braaied alive on the beach while the police had a picnic. The senselessness, the brutality, the desperation of a policy designed to exterminate an entire race of people becomes very real and very pronounced when you walk through the streets of Njoli.
From there, Tclabane took me to where Ubuntu was born, a small shebeen (township bar) where Jacob Lief met "Banks" his co-founder. I sat and drank a cold beer in the small shack, sitting with men from the township and groaned along with them as the Proteas (the South African national cricket team) went down to defeat at the hands of the West Indies. I couldn't help but think, sitting in the same seat that Jacob did when he first came up with the idea of Ubuntu, that I was here for a reason, that I need to contribute something, that I want to be a part of something for more than just being able to say "I was there then." That I can make a difference in the lives of a community like Jana and Tclabane and "Q" and Chris and Tsepo and Sira and everyone else who makes Ubuntu what it is, who have built it from the grassroots and made it a beacon of hope for people who live in a place that hope left generations ago.
So, how was your Thursday?
01 November 2006
Home
November has come in Cape Town, and as I sit staring at Devil's Peak out my bedroom window on a delightfully mild late spring morning, I am instantly aware that countdown has begun. I have only 30 days left here in Africa. 30 days. When I was packing up for a semester, I honestly never thought the finality would set in this quickly. I have started to feel at home here, that happened one day about a month ago, right after coming back from Namibia. I realized, as I was walking to 7-11 down the street that I wasn't just a visitor here, that I have become part of this place and it had become part of me. It was not about doing the tourist stuff anymore, or feeling like I was drifting breezily through a foreign environment. It seems sort of silly, but I feel like if someone stopped and asked me for directions in my neighborhood, or asked for a recommendation on dinner or some fun place to go, I could give a genuine perspective not parroted from a guidebook or similar hearsay. I am by no means a Capetonian, yet, but I am also not a tourist. I am more a transplant, much as I have been my entire life. Growing up in Gloucester with what locals consider a funny last name (i.e. not Italian, Portuguese or Finnish) I have always been sort of an outsider, for better or worse. Here it's not my name, more my accent, that sets me apart. The difference here is that though I am immediately identified as an outsider, the people here make that distinction for the purposes of inclusion, not exclusion. The new South Africa, as I have said earlier, is a society on the brink; it could go either way, towards inclusion and prosperity or exclusion and chaos. If the people are any indication, the winds of change are blowing in the right direction, in my opinion. To have experienced them, and experienced this place at this moment in time and become a small part of it has been so enriching to my soul. I have made so many memories in my time here, most of which I have relayed to you. Now, in these last 30 days, I am excited to have even more new encounters in this place which I have come to call home.
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