uch...tourists and neo-liberalsim

Hi friends!!! So I finally physically went somewhere that might be of interest to all of you. Today I traveled via ferry to Robben Island, which is where Southern African political prisoners of different countries and different liberation organizations such as Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu, Robert Sobukwe, Armhad Kathrada and thousands more were imprisoned as a result of their involvement in the struggle for freedom. Because the population that the tour is aimed at consists of a lot of tourists, which was quite apparent when looking at the camera-carrying, safari-hat-wearing, German-speaking tourists and embarrassingly observing their inquiries to take pictures of even the guy selling the tickets behind the counter, the information that is provided by the guides seems to qualify as common knowledge if you have read or learned about the struggle. Yet, even though I knew most of what was said such as the favorable food rations given to the coloured and Indian prisoners in comparison to the black prisoners to cause internal tension, the restrictive size of the cells, the dehumanizing nature of the purposeless, busy work that was required of the prisoners everyday for thirteen years, being there and feeling consumed by the eeriness, the rawness, the isolation of the island allowed me to see the experience of imprisonment and belittlement through a physical and experiential (since our guide actually served a sentence on the island) lens rather than just draw images in my head based on literature.

The island is only 12 km away from Cape Town (which is the equivalent to a little over seven miles I think for all of those Ameri-centric readers unfamiliar with the metric system used by most worldly inhabitants), so it the beautiful panoramic view of the city and its stunning, mountainous backdrop is quite visible from a lot of places on the island that the prisoners had access to. I would think that most people who spend time in prison are completely cut off from the outside world, but on Robben Island, the normal life they were accustomed to, was being waved in the faces of those who did not have the capacity to touch it, to be a part of it. The prison administration made sure that there was no way for the prisoners to communicate with the outside world and to even know what was going on within it, yet they were constantly reminded that what once was still is, which our guide, who experienced this, described as being emotionally torturous.

The island itself is extremely strange and gray. The few colors that ever existed on different structures on the island have all faded. There are random cemeteries located all around where the bodies of the lepers who were quarantined on the island in the early 1800’s are buried. There is a small village where the prison staff lived with their families that is currently occupied by past prisoners who now work for the prison as a museum. It must be quite difficult to live free in isolation in the same place where all of your freedoms and dignity were denied to you. The complexities of race relations, emotional and physical torture, Apartheid manifest, prisoners rising above their circumstances to forge bonds and knowledge and so many other layers that developed in this place are not reflected in the bareness of the walls and the simplicity of the landscape. What Robben Island once was condenses all of the horror and simultaneous beauty of the relationship between the oppressor and the oppressed, along with all the oppressed that the oppressor tried to turn against one another. As terrible as this restrictive, repressive environment was, it housed thousands of incredible people who sacrificed and fully gave themselves to their cause and to their people. Standing amidst such ugliness, I felt overcome by the greatness that overwhelmed it.

Visiting Robben Island, along with so many other physical and academic experiences, has revealed a remarkable truth about South Africa and its history; what this country is today, in all its fall-backs and triumphs, is built on the backs of a significant amount of individuals who grew up in circumstances that deprived them of so many skills and resources that seem so completely necessary to people who mature into national heroes and revolutionaries. It is inconceivable in Western countries that illiterate adults, people who grew up with limited education and without running water and electricity, who were denied access to crucial ideas and tools of self-empowerment, would ever be revered and beloved leaders. Yet in South Africa, that is what has happened. The government ministers are not Harvard graduates with 46 PhD’s, many of them are guerilla freedom fighters who were once deemed criminals and served decade long prison sentences. They are accessible, they are the hope that any person, from any upbringing can become something…and I do not mean in the way that John Edwards’ father was a mill worker. No disrespect to the Senator, but he lived in a time and place that offered him sufficient education, nutrients and treatment as a human being, Nelson Mandela, Thabo Mbeki (South Africa’s president) and so many others that have built up the new South Africa and will continue to do so did not have access to these luxuries. South Africans today who create organizations in townships that feed, educate and empower their fellow citizens who still live without so many necessary resources are doing so while also lacking access to these things. Though it is a lot harder to get to a place where one can start to think about the well-being of other’s because their’s is not ensured, individuals with nothing have provided so much for those in need.

The necessity for individual and communal engagement in South Africa has also become extremely evident to me through my Poverty, Development and Globalization class at UCT. The state of the South African economy is extremely poor. In 1994, when the African National Congress took office, they inherited an isolated economy that was drowning with no international allies. Having been shunned from the global village that had become so strong and interdependent over the decades in which the Apartheid regime was spending all of their mind-space, time and money on subjugating and oppressing the majority of the country’s population, the new government with limited diplomatic experience had to join the new world order to have any chance of surviving. In order to do so, they had to become involved in international trade. In order to accomplish this, they had to adopt a Western, neo-liberal mentality founded upon an open economy that relied on foreign investment and no direct state intervention (I think that this is a result of the communism-equals-evil phenomenon that has swept the globalized world). Yet at the same time, the new government was redistributing land that was taken away from the black majority that left 4/5 of the South African population with 13% of the country’s property during Apartheid. This new plan of land return led to tribal ownership of a significant amount of the South African landscape. This meant that foreign investment would have to generate without the promise of any actual ownership over the land which became communally owned in the new order. As a result, the private, external investment the world promised to South Africa in adopting a market-led, neo-liberal economy never materialized at the intended scope. Because, as I have learned with my new toolkit of practical ideas that are actually relevant to the reality around me unlike most classes I am used to taking, no self-interested private investor is going to invest in a venture in which they are denied ownership. So to sum up South Africa is in quite a pickle.

Various initiatives have been developed to deal with this problem, a few of which I just wrote a paper on, but for the most part the economy of South Africa is in need of a great deal of help (largely because of elitist, capitalist countries..uch). Two different initiatives relying upon two different ways of thinking that have specifically been implemented in a virgin, untouched, gorgeous region of the country called the Wild Coast reflect why every member of South African society that has the potential to bring about positive change. The first is a mineral mining project that has been implemented by an Australian company that has the potential to bring in 200 million U.S. dollars over a 22 year period. However at the same time the project is extremely detrimental to the natural resources and landscape as well as the native inhabitants of the specific area. This has caused severe unrest among the population since this neo-liberalist project dependent upon outside investors with no concern for the local communities. How can the lives of the poorer sectors of society that these new policies are supposed to benefit improve when the actions taken to do so are against their will? How can this project give these impoverished people the money and empowerment they need when they have no say and involvement in the economic ventures that supposedly help them?

On the other hand, there has been a rise in the development of community-based, eco-tourism that relies upon the community members to develop the programs and activities while partnering with a local NGO to organize the venture. By using local workers and residences to house the tourists, along with horses and hiking trails already within the possession of the community, the inhabitants are able to be involved in the development of their own communities while being provided with jobs and not needing to spend money on external equipment detrimental to the landscape and the community atmosphere. This initiative was extremely successful before the chairmen became corrupt and started investing in the mineral mining project. This has led to the virtual death of this project while also reflecting the choice of neo-liberalism over community-based, sustainable development that not only brought money into the community but provided members with jobs and a sense of internal ownership over their project. These people made a difference for a while, before stupid capitalism destroyed their efforts to continue (he success that hows now faltered reminded me of how the top layer of Rambam's 8 different levels of tzedakah is not related to giving money but to provide a sustainable livelihood and skill set to people who did not once possess these necessities. This allows people to be self-reliant, to be responsible for creating solutions that will imporve their circumstances and those of the people around them).

While it is clear that knowledge, education and experience is needed in leadership, it seems to me that each person can contribute to their abilities and resources to lift South Africa out of the economic hole it is falling deeper and deeper into. Neo-liberalism is not working. What has worked for many other countries (or at least for those who were already well off and became a little richer), cannot be perceived as the saving grace of South Africa, a country in a completely different position than other developing countries, who are also in completely different positions than others that are grouped together. Each country needs to rely on its own resources and needs to be given the freedom to develop in a way conducive to their own realities. One of the resources South Africa, I think (not that my opinion means much), must now rely upon is its citizens.

Another reason why this is relevant to the “every individual matters here” discussion is because my professor in this course is constantly telling the class that we need to pay attention to these realities, because not only do they have a great impact on “us” (I don’t really include myself considering my five months here will sadly not make a significant different in South African society) but also because this generation of UCT students (which by the way is an extremely diverse population consisting of so many people of different ethnicities, classes and races) is the first post-Apartheid population who is now receiving one of the best educations this country has to offer. Students in these classes, learning about these subjects, are the some of the ones who are going to be relied upon to affect change and confront the issues that are plaguing the country. South Africa is in trouble, and it is the responsibility of each person to find a cure to the ailments that are related to internal struggles but also to the arrogance of external forces.

Building a stronger country is not dependent upon credentials, it is dependent upon people committed to their cause who can think of creative solutions to problems. These skills can be developed in so many places and can be augmented and cultivated in many others, but making a difference is not limited to a specific population or experience. While volunteering in Khayelitcha this week I had a really cool experience that somehow, at least in my head, confirms this. Two boys in my class named Akona and Sibogheleni were fighting over a notebook. They each said that it belonged to them and I had no idea who was the true owner. When I asked them whose it was, Akona said that I should just cut it in half so they could split it. I then took the book and gave it to Sibogheleni. This reminded me of the story in the Tanach when two women come to King Shlomo both claiming to be the mother of a child they have brought with them. When trying to determine who the real mother is, one says to the king “why don’t you cut the baby in half and give each of us part of it?” Shlomo then realizes that the other woman must be the mother because she would prefer for the child to be given to the other woman than severed in two. After class, I went over to Akona and said the reason that I knew that the book was not his was because of this story in the bible where king Solomon….and he then smiled and intercepted the story and recited the entire thing. I was amazed at this 10 year old kid’s ability to relate a story he heard in church that most kids probably would forget right after listening to it to real life. I know that this does not confirm that he is going to become the president of the country, but I think it shows genuine intelligence and ability to merge different circumstances together to in a sense solve a problem and rely upon internal resources. While that may be a long shot I also just really wanted to tell you that story because it was the highlight of my week.

South African Ulpan:

Netball - volleyball

I don’t think any sentence is necessary for this one but I feel like it would be so strange to leave those two words in a section all by their lonesome when usually another sentence accompanies them. But I guess this unnecessary tangent accomplishes, at least aesthetically, so I deem this sufficient…

Cheers!