South Africa - Politics, Society, Culture

Taal debate at Stellenbosch a step backwards

2011-11-14T02:22:00.000-08:00

The new South Africa?

I have been tracking developments among Afrikaners since 2001. With apartheid gone, I wondered where had the strong and powerful ethnic nationalism gone? After all, Afrikaners, as settlers in Africa, not only had brought us apartheid and devastating border wars in Angola and Mozambique, fought the mighty British Empire with its 400’000 troops on South African soil, but they also had created an imagined community and a cohesive nation within a short 20th. century. Where had all this concentrated ethno-nationalist might gone after it was clear that their Europe-in-Africa project was a pipedream that had brought much senseless pain and suffering to the African continent and its indigenous peoples? Nationalist and ethnic fervour - vanished into thin air? Yet, I also felt that Afrikaners, particularly young white Afrikaans speakers, got a bad rap in the media, in South Africa and abroad: they were usually described as somewhat remorseless, somewhat racist and still hankering after the bad old days of racial privilege.

Over the past years, I interviewed young Afrikaners and we talked about their lives, the past, what a possible future could look like, and how they related to black people. The diversity of opinions and life stories was huge; hence, it is difficult to write of ‘the Afrikaners’, as if it was one coherent group. Some were optimistic, some pessimistic, some racist, some anti-racist, some arch conservative, some left-wing progressive, and so on - you get the gist. Overall, there was a sense that things would be better, that a dismal past, with too many conflicts and confrontations could be overcome, and that they and the country would change for the better. Even the rather conservative Afrikaans newspapers carried a sense of possibilities. That was in 2005.

Now, in 2011, it is more than ever time to sober up. A new language war is taking place at Stellenbosch University and the self-anointed defenders of the Afrikaans language mobilise and insult with little compunction, occupying the Afrikaans media. They bemoan that hard earned tax money is not even used for education in their language (as if apartheid injustice did not help accumulate that money in the first place), their opponents are insulted and besmirched, even beaten up; yet, that seems all very normal – so much self-absorbed suffering by the volk seems to justify continued intolerance and self-righteous arrogance. The proven racist Dan Roodt, who claims that black men are somehow genetically prone to violence, now a member of the Freedom Front Plus party, is not censured: his musings get yet again published in the English and Afrikaans media. And the white and Afrikaans public does not see a problem with that. It is as if the political turmoil on the national stage is a licence to bring out the old discourse of the racial insult, a tradition we could do without.

Julius Malema is now the black man that any white person is allowed to hate – no false pretences required. It is as if the abdication of white political power serves as a justification for continued racism and exclusion. White minority status allows for apartheid melancholia and victim status. The spectre of black nationalism legitimizes white racism. Continued racial exclusion as cultural protection is justified by demagogic race baiting. It was and remains tit for tat. Whites who were happy to forgive with Mandela are now eager to fight back against Malema, by all means necessary.

Culture and language have replaced race. The language fighters at Stellenbosch are always fond of claiming that most Afrikaans speakers are black and that they support the defence of Afrikaans. If this is the case, why then are so few of these black Afrikaans speakers at Stellenbosch, enjoying their tertiary education in Afrikaans and why do they prefer to be taught in English?

In place of the necessary soul searching and how the need to understand how apartheid exclusion continues today, Afrikaners as a minority and as the implied victims of the black majority, are legitimized to defend ‘their’ culture (and their race). And so the past continues.

How could any true democrat be against language diversity? But trying to focus on language alone and ignoring how it is related to race is naïve. Believing that you can fight for your language and contribute to racial inclusiveness is plain wrong. Even among Afrikaans speakers, the question remains how inclusive is your white Afrikaans? Unless white Afrikaners start to listen to, to talk to, and to take black people seriously, to see them as people with whom they can empathise, they will continue in their self-absorbed nostalgia that inhibits the creation of a future, the country’s and foremost, their own.

Riding the train to Stellenbosch

2011-10-27T06:47:00.000-07:00

I have been driving up and down the country around Cape Town since I moved here from Egoli in February. And indeed, a divided country it was and still is. It understand now why all the political analysts from the Cape region state that little has changed since democracy. More than ever, the view from Jozi is different. And the lieu commun, that black people in Cape Town need to go back to Jozi from time to time to remind themselves that they are black, also seems to make more sense now.

Usually I drive about three times a week from Cape Town via the University of the Western Cape in Bellville to Stellenbosch - the 60km ride is about a lifetime in social distance, to use the metaphor David Coplan uses to describe how communities are segregated.

The city centre of Cape Town must be about the most surveilled place in the Western Cape. Cameras and special guards are everywhere for 24hrs. And they frisk any black person who does not appear to work in the city. So usually young and black unemployed are their target for harassment and detention. True, beggars on Long Stree can be quite aggressive but turning a city centre into basically a no-go area for young black people who are not hell bent on indulging and spending their money smacks of racism, not to mention that it negates the achievement of a common democracy and any serious effort towards non-racialism. To add insult to injury, the Long Stree area is full of agencies who cater to young and hip Europeans, Northerners, or others, as long as they have the money, to come to South Africa for fun and work. Development work that is and they even pay for having the opportunity to volunteer and improve the lot of South Africans. Instead of giving opportunities to young black South Africans to get educated and earn a living, the city caters to foreigners to come here and work and help the "poor". One of the contradictions of global capitalism and in whose flow of money and people, Cape Town seems to have found its niche.

Cape Town has wonderful suburbs but they remain largely segregated. I wonder how a mixed family would want to live in this city. It seems impossible.

And Stellenbosch is about an island as it can be. The first few days I stayed there I always thought I was in my home country, Switzerland, so cleaned up, tidied up, so middle-class and so overflowing with young, rich white kids it was that I had to get used to it and understand that this is also a part of South Africa, and not another country.

So I was glad to take the opportunity last Friday morning to take a train to Stellenbosch, as I did for the last time about ten years ago when I stayed in Wynberg for 6 months. The train departed Cape Town station only 10 mins late and it took me 2 hrs from my home to my office. Not bad. The car ride usually takes 45 mins. Of course, there was also a sense of danger, as always when you are in public space in South Africa. And public transport also has a reputation of attracting dubious characters. So that was also the perverse thrill of taking the train, the excitement that comes with a feel, albeit limited and controlled, of danger. But what I enjoyed the most was that I could share the space, even for only a train ride, with a diverse crowd of people. An experience that is too seldom these days. On the way back, the train was delayed by about 90 mins. That was really a bummer. And I think it will take quite a while until I tak the train again.

Karl Polanyi and the 'too perfect paraphrase' plagiarism charge

2011-06-03T02:27:00.000-07:00

Prompted by a seminar I attended at the Sociology and Social Anthropology Department at Stellenbosch University, I read Karl Polanyi's historical-anthropological account of the economy of the kingdom of Dahomey, an African state on the Gold Coast in the 17th. and 18th. centuries that was involved in the slave trade.

Polanyi's fame does not rest on this analysis of the "archaic" economy of an African state, but on his book 'The Great Transformation' which tells the story of the profound changes that made the economies of our modern world society. And foremost, it shows clearly that capitalist economies triumphed not against state intervention but because the modern state promoted it, by all means necessary. Totalitarianism emerged out of the failure of (too) free market capitalism.

In his account of Dahomey, Polanyi relies on earlier work by Melville J. Herskovits, a founding father of American Anthropology. Entire chapters appear to be based on the latter's research. Polanyi merely stated at the beginning of the chapter that the ensuing section was based on Herskovits, and that was it. Hardly any further references to Herskovits were made in the text though we can assume that it was all based on his work. The same referencing procedure appeared in 'The Great Transformation'.

His referencing style could have cost him his job a Wits University. Or so it seems after Prof. Abebe Zegeye had been found guilty of plagiarism at an internal disciplinary hearing and dismissed. Now, I do not intend to pronounce on the Wits affair. Rather, I am interested in the charge of 'too perfect a paraphrase' which seems to suggest, according to the Mail and Guardian article, that even though you indicate the source of your text at the beginning of a paragraph or section, yet you fail to indicate at every instance that you are paraphrasing, you commit plagiarism.

This kind of plagiarism may be accidental, based on sloppy and/or insufficient referencing rather than constituting an intentional act to deceive and present someone else's work as your own. Comparing it to how Germany's former Minister of Defense, Karl Theodor zu Guttenberg, cut and pasted entire articles, reports, and other texts fully into his PhD thesis, without acknowledging the source, makes clear that they constitute qualitatively quite different acts of plagiarism.

Yet, based on the Wits disciplinary hearing, Polanyi would be guilty of plagiarism, and would be dismissed.

When I was an undergraduate student at Simon Fraser University, near Vancouver, every humanities and social sciences student had to take the course 'University Writing'. It was one of the toughest courses I ever took, and we were taught that every instance of using someone else's work, be it an idea or a direct quote, had to be marked clearly and we had to make reference to its "owner" at every instance.

Polanyi would not have passed this course, it seems to me.

Far from condoning plagiarism, I am asking the question what is today different from the 1930s to the 1950s, when Polanyi's work was published?

Is it that more writers resort to plagiarism? Are the lines between intentional plagiarism and accidents more blurred because of ever faster writing and reading technologies, and the sheer amount of material that is out there?

Or is it that because of the commercialization of ideas, because of intellectual and property rights, the encroachment of ownership issues and commercialization on any human activity, including thought, writing, and its dissemination, that a much more stringent regime of proper intellectual reading and writing is in effect today?

http://mg.co.za/printformat/single/2011-04-15-plagiarism-case-kept-under-wraps-at-wits/

http://www.spiegel.de/international/topic/karl_theodor_zu_guttenberg/

The new SAFM - on the mend

2011-04-08T03:02:00.000-07:00

Great! I have been listening much to SAFM these days. And indeed, the station has improved. They found the right people to conduct interviews and grill the high and mighty in a sensible way.

However, they still have to improve their cultural programs. Most presenters there just do not match up with what they are talking about. Some have been there for too long; others failed to grow, and their book discussions are so limited as the fashionable poets that are more useful as corporate imbongis. If you want to give credit to artists, you need to have presenters who have the gravitas to talk about art in an illuminating way. However, they seem to be stuck between coffee-table-book-level idle talk or glorifying without qualification a new nation or emerging continent and its genius. Boring.

But then, the ANC does not appear to have any great ideas about arts and culture. Either it serves as propaganda or economic development. A hang-over from ill-digested Marxist theory according to which the arts is only superstructure in the service of capital?

There is already enough idle chit-chat on the airwaves and it would be nice if we had a station that aims to show our lives, with all its facets, joys and contradictions,and with new angles and does not just indulge in banalities.

Impressive with the new SAFM is how they give much airtime to fighting corruption. I hope though that this will continue, before a displeased master intervenes.

The worrisome aspect to this turn around however is the realisation how our public institutions are subjects to the whims of short sighted politicians and their struggles for power. Or, why had things to deteriorate to such a degree that the station had come back from the brink of meaninglessness? On the one hand, it is still not clear if the SABC is now governed properly. Also, what is the outcome of the judicial persecution of those managers who looted the SABC shamelessly? To let them off the hook, is that the price we pay for having a better station now and less overbearing political influence?

Some things you hear on the station is really astonishing. At some point in time, the station's motto was "for the well informed". One critique said that this smacked of racism and showed a pandering to white audiences. Now, for quite a while, the motto is "South Africa's information leader". Is that really an improvement? Is the focus on leadership less racially biased? I would like to know how the station's listenership has changed or not.

Maybe the word 'leader' shows the ambition to be more socially relevant, in tune with a developing state that marshalls all resources for development. But that should not allow for abusing language as they do. While the call for collecting money to help flood victims is sensible, the advert is just stomach turning. "Charity is the noblest of our human sentiments because it cuts across differences", or so goes the jingle. The glib reference to multiracial nation-building is at least as bad as beer commercials showing off black and white labourers and their muscles, or the gruesome steretoypes about happy black families, and the 'nice' white couple that is not afraid to visit 'the locals'....

Charity is a human sentiment that just does that...make us human. But those on the receiving end of charity would be better served by human institutions that reduce the need for charity. A functioning state, officials who do their job and organise emergency relief if needed, an economic system that serves all people equally, now that sounds to me much better than charity.

the poverty of the airwaves

2010-11-09T02:46:00.000-08:00

There is much talk about 5FM deejay Gareth Cliff these days and his rantings about failings of government, a black government that is. Now, judging from my listening to South African radio, deejays are being paid for ranting. Lets face it. Commercialisation was very bad for the airwaves in this country. The intelligence of deejays and what they say is simply appaling. It does not matter which radio station you tune in, the stupidity of them all hits you right in they eye. At least that is what I hear on English language radio, I only hope is that it is better on African language and Afrikaans radio; please let me know about it.

Cliff makes stupid jokes at the expense of others. This is what his listeners like. Just rant on about this ugly man or that stupid woman or whatever - this is what his listeners like, black and white. Another DJ on the same station whose name eludes me talked about girlie men having the same interest as women in a music band. Another jabb at some people, here gays and lesbians, just for fun. Ha, ha, very funny,
5FM....

So in my view, it is not so much about Cliff being racist by ranting on about the government. If all ranting white South Africans were doing it because they were racist, then there would indeed be no hope for the country: all whites would then appear to be racist.

I do think however that many racists will find confirmation of their views about black incompetence and black and African failure in his rantings. But what about the black people who like his stuff - his rantings about the government and his gutter humour? Self-hating blacks?

No, the rampant commercialisation of public life seems to me the better explanation for the poverty of the airwaves. Or perhaps political interference and expediency. When I first came to South Africa, I listened a few hours daily to SAFM - it had high calibre hosts, and broadcast intelligent, challenging and smart shows. Now, there is not one station I am listening to. Radio is no longer a medium for news and information. I tried to switch to 702, but please, if Redi Direko and John Robbie are considered the intellectuls of the airwaves, then you know that radio has ceased to exist as a medium for intelligent conversation.

The end of non-racialism?

2010-11-02T04:22:00.000-07:00

At the ANC’s General National Council in Durban, Secretary General Gwede Mantashe called for a renewed effort to gain the support of minorities for the ruling party. He said that support for the ANC among white communities had been on the increase since 2004, and that an outreach programme “was used to engage communities that have worked against or were not close to the ANC historically.” He particularly mentioned Indian and Coloured communities that required a differentiated approach. Mantashe had made this call for inclusiveness several times over the past year. However, the more he does so, the less credible his claim that the party is still the political home for all South Africans. Listening to older generation anti-apartheid activists talking about non-racialism, one is struck by the sense of nostalgia that it evokes – the once celebrated ideal that aspired to overcome race and that heldped garnering support around the world for the struggle against apartheid seems to have fallen by the wayside.

The dominant tendency within the governing party is away from non-racialism - free reign is given to African nationalism, celebrating and extolling the triumph of the advancement of the black African. The ANC youth, with plenty of nationalist fervour, is leading the way. For the young and dynamic, black, well educated or well connected, the future is promising. Without any direct experience of the perniciousness and divisiveness of racial and ethnic mobilisation, the African nationalist youth seizes the opportunities for personal advancement. In their thirst for power and enrichment, they have no qualms about playing the race or ethnic card. Theirs is a congregation of the ambitious, with little insight in, and even less desire to examine, the promises of a non-racial society. With their political experience confined to post-apartheid student politics, leaders such as Julius Malema and Floyd Shivambu see non-racialism as a mere slogan, perhaps as a tactical tool that uses minorities to gain power.

The ANC is turning into an ordinary political party, devoid of the moral imperative of a liberation movement that wanted to create a better and more just society. As a nationalist party, the ANC is now the party that serves the enrichment of a self-styled patriotic bourgeoisie. Looking northwards, across our borders and back in time, it is déjà-vu all over again. After the wave of anti-colonial liberation that had swept across Africa in the 1960s, kleptocratic elites, under the guise of national mobilisation, ruined their societies. Nationalist rhetoric celebrated the suffering, struggle and triumph of the oppressed, while state and society were being looted for personal enrichment. Then and now, race and ethnicity is mobilized to divide and rule.

The current practices of Black Economic Empowerment and Employment Equity maintain race awareness without contributing enough to empower black people. For instances, to overcome the mental and material legacy that apartheid’s white supremacists had left behind, non-racial employment equity policies, based on class, would have suited South Africa well. It would have allowed for black empowerment without praising the virtues of race, as race and class did, and to a large extent still do, overlap so dramatically. Employment equity policies that support the poor would uplift primarily black people without excluding poor white people, an important symbolic act in a non-racial and caring society that aims to comfort all those left behind. However, employment equity as we encounter it today is arbitrary, legitimizes race thinking and serves as a rallying cry for black nationalists. It is surprising how quickly non-racialism turned into an empty promise. In a diverse and divided society as South Africa is, non-racialism is a symbol for a civic nationalism which establishes the South African nation as a home for all, no matter their race or ethnicity. In contrast, ethnic nationalism privileges one race or ethnicity over others. Last year’s outcry by black nationalists at the appointment of Gill Marcus, a white woman and stalwart of the anti-apartheid struggle, as Governor of the Reserve Bank, is just another indicator how ordinary the bankrupt rhetoric of nationalist mobilisation and race talk has become.
A few years ago, one could remain optimistic that the ruling party was finding a compromise between African nationalism and liberal constitutionalism. After all, such was required if the majority of South Africans was to have a better life. This is no longer the case. Self-enrichment is what defines the ANC today. Just look at the party’s youth, the future of the country?

Afrikaner Afrikaan, a documentary film by Rina Jooste, 2009

2010-09-06T05:32:00.000-07:00

I attended the screening of Afrikaner Afrikaan, a documentary film that dealt with Afrikaner identity at the Encounters Film Festival in Johannesburg. The audience at the Bioscope Theater in the centre of the city, a hip place with an ‘indie’ feel and which will hopefully one day develop into a real Cinémathèque, was dominantly white and Afrikaner which made me wonder whether black South Africans had already given up on their white compatriots and did not expect much from the film and the discussion with the author and two of its protagonists.

In the documentary, two opposing perspectives on Afrikaner identity square off against each other. There are those who want to turn away from Afrikaner exclusive ethnicity and nationalism, and try to find new ways ‘of being’ in a diverse country. They are quarreling with those who believe Afrikaners should be proud of themselves, their culture and history, and did not need anyone’s approval and sympathy. While the former see themselves as opening up to the ‘Other’, embracing Africa and black people, the latter call for the defense of Afrikaners, their language and culture.

The former are represented by Deon Maas, a media personality, and Johrné van Huyssteen, from the pop-rock band Ddisselblom. Both were in attendance. The ‘ethnicists’ or ‘culturalists’ are represented by Sean Else who rose to prominence as the producer behind singer Bork Van Blerk and his hit song De La Rey, a celebration of a South African War General, and the Blut und Boden musical Ons vir jou, a nostalgic tour the force of Afrikaner history and culture; in short, the stuff of which nationalism is made of.

In the film, Else denied that he wanted to indulgence in right-wing nostalgia but argued that Afrikaners should be proud of themselves - in the same way that Zulus were. He said that he was looking a black man in the eye with pride; in contrast, Johrné would try to avoid the black man’s eyes, and turn away in shame and guilt. So ja, it is then all about how Afrikaners are today relating to black people and this sought-after audience was absent.

Another question that came up was whether musicians who celebrated the Afrikaner past and Afrikaner heroes were doing it for the money or if they were truly indulging in historical revisionism and rightwing politics. I suspect that both go together – celebrating the Afrikaner past puts bums on seats and sells CDs. After all, over decades of Afrikaner nationalism and apartheid, Afrikaners indulged this kind of ‘cultural’ national chauvinism, and it surely meets a consumer demand.

For Maas, Van Huyssteen, and author Jooste, the ‘De La Rey’ song was an example of the resurgence of nationalist exclusion and even racism among Afrikaners. That was made clear in the ensuing discussion. The general mood in the audience seemed that Else’s productions were an expression of a rising ethnic mobilization, even racism among Afrikaners. Only one young member of the audience argued that a liking for nostalgic music was not necessarily an endorsement of a right-wing and racist agenda.

In my own research, I came across the same ambivalence: attempts to appreciate, even salvage the past, no matter how tainted it is, go together with feelings of shame, awkwardness over racism and abuse in the name of Afrikaners. So a celebration of Afrikaner culture and ethnicity is not necessarily a yearning for white supremacy and racist apartheid. Nostalgia is an attempt to relate the past to the present. Yet, the question remains. Will nostalgia help Afrikaners to find a new pride in their history to become part of the new South Africa, as Else would have it? Or is the danger real that nostalgia for an honorable, Afrikaner past, one that ignores the abyss of white supremacy and apartheid domination, leads to racism in the present?

The irony of the South African post-colony is that the position of the progressive ones, Maas and Van Huyssteen, had been strongly criticized by black South African intellectuals. In one of his songs, Van Huyssteen sings of the white colonial immigrant who falls in love with a black woman. By doing so, he is claiming black African ancestry for himself and Afrikaners. Such claim of black ancestry, and its socio-political usage in contemporary South Africa has been rejected as an attempt to bury history and unproblematically claim adherence and belonging to an Africa and Africans that until recently were denigrated.

The same irony was at play when Maas was responding to a question that addressed the work of artist Anton Kannemeyer and his recent publication Pappa in Afrika. Maas supported the work and said it was the best contemporary satire in South Africa, even better than what renowned cartoonist Zapiro, had done. In a recent feature article in the Mail and Guardian weekly newspaper, Khwezi Gule, curator at the Hector Peterson Museum in Soweto, had criticized Kannemeyer for perpetuating racism under the guise of art that was supposed to shock and challenge stereotypes and racism. While the celebration of folkloric pride and ethnic identity, if not chauvinism, amongst Afrikaners and Zulus appears to have been endorsed by President Jacob Zuma, debates among progressives how Afrikaners can belong to an African South Africa, are far from achieving a similar consensus.

Despite all the risks associated with it, more discussions on identity, the past, and inclusiveness are desirable - across the colourline.

http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/Writer-fired-after-Satanism-row-20071115

http://jv.news24.com/Rapport/Rubrieke/0,,752-801_2214403,00.html

http://beta.mnet.co.za/carteblanche/Article.aspx?Id=3251

http://www.mg.co.za/article/2010-08-23-just-cause-you-feel-it-doesnt-mean-its-there

Life beyond race – seminar blog

2010-08-12T05:15:00.000-07:00

I have not participated in the last seminar of the series, titled ‘Life beyond Race’ but I have read the three articles; David Theo Goldberg, The Threat of Race - Reflections on Neoliberalism, chapters three and eight; Sarah Nuttall, Entanglement - Literary and Cultural Reflections on Post-Apartheid, chapter one; and Paul Gilroy, On the Moral Economies of Black Atlantic Culture - Darker Than Blue, chapter one. What follows is a summary and a discussion.

All the three articles address the issue of race and its entanglements. In David Theo Goldberg’s case it is the entanglement of race, racisms, and the neo-liberal state; with Sarah Nuttall, it is about re-reading identities, spaces, and histories that had been thought of as separate in order to find “points of intersection”; for Gilroy finally, entanglement is about the complex relationship between capitalism and racial divisions.

David Theo Goldberg makes two major claims. The first is that the emergence of the modern nation-state, largely a western and European construct, went together with race and racisms. State-making went with racism-making. The second is that the current triumphant neo-liberalism, as the dominant political and economic ideology adapted by many nation-states, re-enforces race thinking and racisms. As a global development, Goldberg identities five global areas in which particular forms of racisms, channelled through the state, occur: American (United States of America), Latin American, European, South African, and Palestinian racism. Analysing the leading, American racism, Goldberg argues that the roll-back of state programs which benefited black people is undermining much of the achievement towards racial justice that originated in the Civil Rights era. While the official state prohibits racism, private racism is accepted as the norm. Against this domination of whiteness, of (white) homogeneity Goldberg upholds heterogeneity. While this sociological approach is illuminating in indicating the global forces of capitalism and racism and how they manifest themselves through the state, the juxtaposition of homogeneity and heterogeneity seems to leave out much of what is happening in between; the shifts, leaps and bounds. Also, processes of challenges to this system of separation seem to be neglected. Previous discussions during this seminar on the opening and closing frontier in 17th and 18th century South Africa, for instances, offer insights into the intricacies of racial and power relations. It is then not only a linear expansion of European racism across the globe that is the constituting and determinant factor in where a future beyond race may lie. Rather, frontiers across race and class were and are shifting during struggles and processes, with different actors seizing opportunities, making and breaking alliances in the quest for control, security and resources.

To read closer these spaces that are in-between is the project of Nuttall’s articulation of entanglements across the colour line in reading literary and cultural production in South Africa. She is doing so with the help of creolité and how this concept first introduced elsewhere can be applied to South Africa; its strength is that it originates in the historical experience of slavery and its aftermath, integrates resistance but also accounts for subjection. With the background of a history of apartheid that strove to enforce racial divisions, the neglected or hidden history of the permeability of racial boundaries moves center stage. According to Nuttall, the South African approach to race and class emphasized the working class and neglected peasant culture, middle-class migrant and city cultures. Pointers towards what has the potential of undoing racial formations and hierarchies may emerge in analysing what has been over looked. In contemporary South Africa, more choices are available in terms of racial identification. As we analyse the ‘now’, racial entanglements, past and present, emerge.

In his analysis of the entanglement of American capitalism with African Americans, as former slaves who were reified and sold as commodities, Gilroy points to an uncomfortable observation: contemporary manifestations of African American popular culture do not augur well for emancipatory politics. Rather, an obsession with material culture negates the elevation of the self beyond the status of a mere object, as Gilroy’s reading of recent rap lyrics indicate. In this analysis, he joins Frantz Fanon who had described earlier the “formation of racial ontologies as part of the sociogenesis of deeply alienated human subjects” in which black people appear as objects. Gilroy’s is an analysis of the moral economy of the black Atlantic, with a focus on black people as consumers, and their particular relationship with the automobile. The mobility of the automobile held the promise of freedom which in the absence of full citizenship remained elusive. Furthermore, the automobile as an object of consumption has a larger significance in a globalizing world, with energy and environmental crisis, and deep cleavages between the rich and the poor across the globe.

Where do these readings leave us in our quest to understand contemporary South Africa? While consumer cultures give us choice, even in terms of racial identification, their emancipatory content is far from evident. Gilroy’s piece seems to contain a warning for South Africans who believe consumption and black advancement to middle class status will guarantee racial harmony. Unfettered neo-liberal capitalism, combined with the state abdicating social responsibility, maintains the status quo of racial inequality. Much of what happens at the level of the state is subjected to the ebb and flow of global capitalism, and if South Africa is analysed as a frontier society, this will have to be taken into consideration. The frontier in history has also been a moment of indetermination and flux. To grasp the nature of the current frontier appears more difficult yet necessary to gain better insights into “points of intersection” and future racial formations.

Safeguarding democracy in Germany and South Africa

2010-08-10T04:41:00.000-07:00

Like Germany, South Africa hosted a successful World Cup. Unfortunately, we will not turn overnight into a global powerhouse as Germany is. We are a middle-income, developing, African country. A former colony located in the southern hemisphere. Germany is the world’s fourth largest economy, a dominant European power that possessed African colonies until 1918. But we share a few things. We both receive immigrants. Previously, southern European migrants, Italians, Spaniards, Portuguese, and others, went north in search of work and found a new home in Germany - now it is largely workers from Turkey and their families who do so. South Africa, ever since apartheid ended, has become a promised land for many Africans from across the continent in search of a better life.

We both lived through darkness, but regained respectability. Germany was ruled by a ruthless dictator from 1933 to 1945 who was responsible for the devastation of the whole of Europe in World War II during which Germans conceived and implemented the holocaust, the near annihilation of the European Jewry. In South Africa, the apartheid state held on to white supremacy, exploited black people, made them second class citizens in their own lands and laid waste to neighbouring countries. Both had committed crimes against humanity. After the war, from what Germans call die Stunde Null on, the hour zero, a new state and nation emerged, a democratic republic, with a liberal constitution and provisions to safeguard fundamental human rights. So did South Africa. Apartheid injustice gave way to democracy and liberal constitutionalism – all citizens, independent of their origins, beliefs, and gender, share equal rights and duties.

Despite these commonalities, how the issues of migration and fundamental freedoms are currently played out could not be more different. In Germany, Ms. Aygül Özkan became the first minister of Turkish origins in the region of Niedersachsen. This is unprecedented in a country that still struggles to live harmoniously with its sizable Turkish minority, of which most are Muslim. However, as often is the case with newcomers, the minister, with little experience in politics after a successful career in business, made a major mistake. In a letter to local media, she asked them to support the government’s efforts to integrate foreigners by signing a media charter that prescribed a common practice when reporting on integration. In a swift response, the media, the opposition and eventually her own ruling Christian Democratic Party condemned what was widely seen as an attempt to threaten media freedom. The president of Niedersachsen apologized to the public and reiterated his commitment to media freedom.

In South Africa, our government is at pains to acknowledge that we need to change the way we treat African immigrants. Continued disregard for their human rights is undermining our own social fabric and our standing across the continent and the world. Given the way our government chose to respond until now, it will be by chance, not design, if less xenophobic violence will take place. And the same apparent carelessness is now undermining access to information and media freedom. The information bill and the media tribunal are testimony to how little awareness about the fragility of democracy and the constitutional state there is among the ANC members of parliament. As the common history of Germany and South Africa shows, once democratic values and practices are lost, regaining them comes at a high cost.

The World Cup is on!

2010-06-18T04:02:00.000-07:00

Rightfully does South Africa and the world celebrate this soccer fest. The mood in the country, despite Bafana's defeat against Uruguay, is exhilarating. I can't remember any time since 2002 that people were so friendly, even more than usual, and all the daily strain seems so distant.

This is perhaps what makes this African and South African World Cup: the excitement across the country. There may be glitches with ticket sales, rather a problem of FIFA's greed, and transport, but the happiness factor that comes with soccer is quite unique.

The question remains: is it worthwhile for a developing country to spend obsence sums of money on a soccer fest that benefits Western capitalists and the mafia that is FIFA? It is clearly a problem that we don't know the salaries of the FIFA head honchos and that an organisation with such global importance has not accountability and is a law unto themselves. See the Insititute for Security Studies report at http://www.iss.co.za/pgcontent.php?UID=29940

Can we tally up the expenses for the World Cup with what we could have built in houses, job creation, and other programmes? Or can we say that the gain in happiness for a few weeks across the country was worthwhile the money spent?

I think the answer is yes and no. Remember that South Africa's development problem is not lack of funds - it is the lack of coherence and organisation in delivery, in creating and executing policies that advance the country. Perhaps then, the expenditure is justified and the gain in goodwill and happiness will create a better country which will be able to do things better.

Yet, the FIFA money fest has contributed to more corruption and unjustifiable expenditures. As a mafia organisation, besides the soccer fun, we cannot expect good practice to come from such an organisation. Also, instead of getting light headed through games, should we not focus on what needs to be done to improve the country? Rolling-up the sleeves, not partying should be the order of the day. And then, the World Cup money could have been spent on improving governance and towards sustainable livelihoods.

Perhaps we can say that if we could be assured that the World Cup was a clean business, we would be more understandable of the expenses. Also, if more would go towards supporting poor communities than just celebrating the rich, the fiesta that world soccer is, would gain much.

Tertiary Education - what will the Stakeholder Summit bring?

2010-05-14T04:40:00.000-07:00

It is never good to announce bad news, especially when you are new in a place. Nobody likes a Cassandra - the harbinger of bad news. The best example I can think of, and an object lesson in electoral politics that speaking the truth even, and especially if, it is bad news, is never popular, was the contest, after the unification of East and West Germany, between the Social Democrat Oskar Lafontaine and Christian Democrat Helmut Kohl for the Chancellorship.

To punch drunken Germans, still celebrating the newly united country, Lafontaine warned that it will be a very expensive unification and Germany would better think clearly this one through and find ways to mitigate the problems that may emerge.

Not so Kohl. He celebrated the unification, and promised "flowering landscapes" to an eager electorate. And Kohl won, and Germany is still trying today to digest the unification.

I digress.

But as recent graduate students at the University of the Witwatersrand, we faced so many obstacles and so little support, it was indeed a miracle that students managed to finish their degrees. And when we warned that things were not rosy, we were just ignnored and silenced. I do not intend to pick unfairly on Wits, but this is where I got my degree from and where I made my tertiary experience.

Clearly, the university was under enormous strain and faced capacity problems. But what strikes me even today is that all the people, instiutions, and individuals who 'carry' the university were unable to acknowledge and act upon the problems that threaten the health and contintuation of the academic and intellectual endeavour.

In any forum within the university that issues were raised, a stony silence and passive resistance met the complainants. And of course, nothing changed. So it is with no surprise that we learn of the Declaration that the recent Stakeholders Summit of Higher Education had made, and particularly the focus on improving the conditions of studying and ensuring that universities produce new cohorts of graduates who are smart enough to take up teaching and research positions.

The writing is on the wall. University faculty is aging and we are not producing the graduates who can take up their positions.

http://www.mg.co.za/article/2010-04-30-declaration-embracing-the-opportunity

Just to consider a few examples. Graduate students need support and facilities. At one Faculty Meeting, the library asked for more money. The good librarian was told that Faculty would not use the library as its holdings were poor and Faculty would not divert 'their' money to the library. Now, how are graduate students supposed to do cutting edge research which requires books when Faculty says the holdings were so poor that they were not using it?

Another issue is the low level of throughput. A high percentage of students fail. This reflects the poor education that especially undergraduate students, even at formerly white universities, receive. Too many students walk away with a three year BA degree but they can't read and write properly.

This is a dangerous situation for any developing country. When I studied about the causes of the war in the former Yugoslavia, one contribution to the war was the easy mobilization of young men ready for war and highly gullible, somewhat educated but not quite, yet easily seduced by the facile explanations of populist leaders. The authoritarian university system had produced graduates who had certain skills but were in fact only semi-educated.

Now, if South African universities continue to churn out half-baked graduates, we create cohorts of young men and women with high aspirations but little chances to make it into well-paying jobs and into a better life.

Pseudo-education and resentment create individuals who may easily fall for a populist leader, promising easy solutions to complex problems.

Yet universities, given their limited capacities, ignored the problem. But I still don't understand how come that all the issues that students had raised about 10 years ago, internally, are only now recognized at a high-level university forum as pressing?

If the stakeholder summit reflects a change in thinking, maybe university education can still live up to the needs of a modern and developing society.

Walter Benjamin. The know-how of the author in thirteen theses

2010-05-12T05:20:00.000-07:00

I was away for a week writing, out in the bundus, and Benjamin was helping.

I. Whoever intends to write a considerable work, should enjoy themselves and allow themselves, after having finished their daily work, whatever does not render its continuation impossible.

II. Talk about what you have achieved, if you want to, but do not read [to others] while you are still working on it. The satisfaction that you thereby acquire slows down your speed. If you follow this commandment, your growing wish to communicate will eventually become the engine of accomplishment.

III. In your work setting, try to avoid the mediocrity of your everyday life. Semi-quietness, surrounded by dim noises engenders disrespect. However, the accompaniment of an etude or murmuring voices may become as important for your work as the silence of the night. In case it will fine tune your inner ear, it will turn into a testing ground of a diction that is so thorough that even eccentric noises will be drown out.

IV. Avoid random tools of the trade. Pedantic insistence on certain paper, pens, and ink is useful. Not luxury, but the abundance of these utensils is absolutely required.

V. Do not let pass any thought unnoticed [incognito] and be as serious in keeping track of them as the immigration police is of foreigners.

VI. Guard your pen against a spontaneous idea and it will, with the strength of a magnet, attract even more ideas. The more circumspect you treat an idea, the more mature it will turn out to be. Speech conquers thought but writing is in charge [control] of it.

VII. Never stop writing because you lack inspiration. It is a commandment of literary honor to stop only for keeping an appointment (a lunch or dinner appointment or a meeting) or if your work has been finished.

VIII. The absence of inspiration shall be filled with copying what you have achieved. Through it, your intuition will awaken.

IX. Nulla dies sine linea (Not one day without [writing] a line) – but certainly weeks.

X. Never consider a work as accomplished if you have not even sat over it from evening to morning.

XI. The final lines of a work do not write in you usual work space. You would not find the courage to finish in it.

XII. The steps of writing: thought – style – written word. It is the meaning of the proper copy that that it focuses the attention on the calligraphy. Thought kills inspiration, style attaches thought, the written word remunerates style.

XIII. The opus is the death mask of the concept.

From: One Way Street. (Einbahnstrasse). Bibliothek Suhrkamp, 1991, p. 46 – 49. Translated by Thomas M.Blaser

Running a marathon: experiencing race

2010-04-30T05:16:00.000-07:00

This past weekend, I was running a marathon in the south of Johannesburg, in the Klipriver area, a suburb wedged between Soweto and Kathlegong. It was my first ever and it was my last chance to qualify for the coming Comrades Ultramarathon, from Pietermaritzburg to Durban.

The race went well and I qualified by running the intermediate to difficult parcours in 4 hours and 53 minutes.

One reason for my success was that from mid-way on, I joined the 'bus' led by Tebogo from Kathlegong whose flag that he carried on his back read he would drive his bus over the finishing line in under 5 hours.

The running bus was a piece of black culture in motion. There was about a core group of 10 runners who appeared to know each other well for they run in harmony, even synchronized, in breathing, gesture and rhythm. From time to time, a member of the group would start a chant into which the entire bus joined. "E-zy", "e-zy", one would go. Another went "hayi-bo", 'hayi-bo". There was also "So-ber", "so-ber" and a few others. Members would hurry in front from the back and fire the group on through exhortations. Given the last chant, I could picture the entire group during a church service. Indeed, it felt a bit like being in a black church. But foremost through the running in rhythm, I was taken back 18 years, when I was dancing to the rhythm of the congas at the Othella Dallas Dance School in Basel, Switzerland. It was the same feeling of unity, of captivating rhythm in phyisical exertion that made me feel good and in unity with humanity and the universe.

What struck me also was that this bus was running in formation and with much unity. For those who were a bit tired and struggled, including me, the group carried us forward and over the finishing line in time with ease. Perhaps not with ease, but rather so that the pain no longer mattered.

The race war that wasn't

2010-04-17T05:59:00.000-07:00

Judging from some international media reports, one could have thought that a race war had finally arrived in South Africa. Some local analysts found that racial tension had heigthened. In contrast, a recent survey found that overall race relations were improving (http://westcapenews.com/?p=1389), despite the murder of neo-nazi leader Eugene Terreblanche and the diatribes of Julius Malema, the leader of the African Congress Youth League.

How should we interprete what is currently happening? I think that all of that has only apparently so much to do with race, but South Africa is foremost dealing with political problems that manifest themselves in leaps and bounds.

In my Phd submitted in 2007, I talked to young Afrikaners in order to get their sense of how they feel about the country, politics, black people, the legacy of apartheid, and so on. There was very little sense of taking up arms in order to defend an Afrikaner nation or ward off a black assault.

All manifested displeasure at affirmative action and almost all denied any responsibility for the apartheid past. In fact, there was not even a sense of belonging to a persecuted white group that required minority status protection.

Some scholars claimed that the minorities in South Africa, read, the white minority (for the other minorities, usually referred to as the Indians and Coloureds, are seen to carry much less weight in terms of numerical clout and organisational power), would more and more organise in order to resist the encroachment on their privileges. Yet I fail to see the evidence that this is happening.

The followers of Terreblanche who received so much media attention are hardly representing Afrikaners. Indeed, Afrikaner nationalism is dead and neither the ghost of Terreblanch nor the success of the song 'De la Rey' will galvanize a people into action to take up arms or to mobilize ethnicity.

The intellectual emptiness of the post-colony

2010-04-06T00:38:00.000-07:00

William Gumede and Leslie Dikeni call it 'the poverty of ideas' in the title of their recently published collection of essays. For Peter Vale, it is the think-tanks that should launch new ideas and provoke through launching challenging debates. Yet all they do is rehash old and tired, ideological standpoints.

Professor Achille Mbembe, in his opening two part lecture of the Sawyer Seminar series at Wits University, reviews Frantz Fanon and his relevance for South Africa, and Africa, today. In Fanon's analysis of the newly liberated countries, ruled by the nationalist parties of the liberation movements, a profound lack of intellectual engagement dulls the spirit of the post-colony. Lazyness, especially of the intellectual type, marks the landscape.

Parallels with our present of this observation are all too close. On the left, we have the resurrection of a revolutionary discourse that adds however little insight. It is a mere regurgitation of apparently anti-colonial, anti-racist, and anti-imperial agit-prop as it has been the staple of left-wing, Marxist inspired discourse since the 1960s. Or how does the equalisation of the white liberal with the racist, criminal murderer a la 'prime evil' Eugene de Kock add any new insights to our contemporary society and politics ?

From the right, we read that affirmative action, as it is practiced today, is the precursor of genocide. Current BEE policies are the same as the policies implemented by the Nazis in the 1930s in Germany against Jewish Germans. This is a variant of a theme that compared apartheid oppression to fascism, an existing strand in standard academic discourse on apartheid. Again, little insight about current predicaments is gained from such arguments.

Unfortunately, I could continue with this list.

So where to can we turn for the emergence of an intellectual discoursre that deserves its name and will provide us with new insights on our current politics and society? We may be quite far away from such a new impetus, and perhaps a long spell of a sobering draught is upon us, but I think it will emerge from a push for a renewed affirmation of non-racialism and in defence of the values enshrined in our constitution.

Another taxi blog

2010-03-14T11:03:00.000-07:00

This Sunday eveing I was doing my usual jogging in the Emmerentia area. As I was climbing up Hill Street, reaching Judith Street, I heard an enraged yell. "Move you Kaffer, move!" Had I heard right? A small grey car, trailing a fully loaded minibus taxi, was slowly climbing up the road above me. "Move you Kaffer", the agitated, white head shouted again. I did not trust my ears but the repetition made it clear: 'ordinary' racism taking its course.

As I write this, I think back of two other encounters in which white South Africans gave free vent to their racism. It is in theses moments that I doubt my own, usually held view that many young and white South Africans try to break with their heritage of white supremacy and apartheid racism and strive to live with black Africans as equals, as fellow human beings, and not as a racialized and inferior others.

What the chattering white classes forget is that the racialized populism of a Julius Malema, and the race-card-as-trump-card that Thabo Mbeki used to pull, resonate only because of the persistence of racism, ordinary and everyday.

Who will take on the taxi mafia?

2010-03-12T21:47:00.000-08:00

There is no point in trying to make this look nice. The majority of South Africans travels to work and leisure with transport that is owned and operated by mafia syndicates.

I waited the other day at the gates of a learning institution in Gauteng. There were a few cars around that served as taxis, waiting for students and ferry them to their homes. Parked in front of me were two BMW 325, with rather menacing looking occupants, slim men, physical, cool. One of them went to the taxi drivers, and came back with the money they handed over to him.

Now, I can be mistaken, but it looked like the usual protection racket. In Sicily, it is called the 'pitso' - the daily money collected from small business operators for 'protection'. That I was not too far of the mark was confirmed when my friend told me that the combi operators, the mafia structures that operate the Toyata buses as taxis, had staged earlier a protest at the gates of the institution against the independent taxi drivers from whom they were now collecting money.

While they could not ban the independent taxi drivers, and they probably wanted the institution to do this for them, they went the other route and demanded now protection money from them. The independent drivers were cheaper and more suited to the needs of the students, especially female students who would be dropped right in front of their homes.

The question is what has happened since the end of apartheid to the transport sector? Why are these mafia structures sill in place? At a conference five years ago that evaluated the achievements and short-comings of ten years of democracy, the issue of transport was largely absent. Only a few years later, transport came back on the agenda when it dawned upon government that the delivery of houses, toilets, and jobs, would not be sufficient without infrastructure.

As an apparently efficient public rapid bus system is being introduced in Johannesburg, the taxi mafia is mounting another assault on the commen good by staging strikes and by shooting on buses. In light of the daily revelations of corruption between politicians and business interests, it is not far-flung to think that someone in political offices was benefitting and dragging their feet in taking the mafia on. I am waiting for revelations on why it took so long to take on this mafia. Any ideas?

What the President's view on culture says about his politics

2010-03-03T10:34:00.000-08:00

The honeymoon is over.

South Africans desire a government that gets the basics done: education, health care, effective policing, infrastructure, clean water, affordable eletctricity; support for business, workers, and households. In other words, the things that a modern state is supposed to do.

Continuous street protests indicate that too many, especially poor people, no longer believe that government will deliver.

Already in the dying days of the Mbeki regime, such was the declared focus of the men and women in charge.

As the Zuma presidency takes shape, it remains to be seen whether these goods will be delivered.

Instead, what clearly stands out under the Zuma regime is a decisive tilt towards conservative, cultural politics. It is as if the Marxists had it right. The world of discourse and ideas is a mere reflection of the materal basis. The failure to improve on the material basis, the living conditions of people, is matched with the take over of conservative cultural politics - is this a ploy to throw sand in the eyes of the public and the masses?

Mbeki was applauded for having united two strands within the liberation movement: the Congress tradition, with its non-racialism, and the black consciousness tradition. While the black consciousness tradition was driven by the youth, the Zuma presidency now seems to add the black African nationalists and traditionalists, as represented by an elite group of mostly older men who rule over the countryside.

The Traditional Leaders' Bill, currently with the Appeals Court, made the ouverture to patriarchal, if not authoritarian 'traditional' leadership explicit - from this perspective, the ruling ANC had given up its claim to progressive politics, in the style of European social democrats, as Mbeki claimed was the ideology of his party. The usual political incantations of working for non-racialism, non-sexism, and against any form of discrimination remain just that - incantations, detached from the realities of power and the desire to govern a diverse, unjust, and unequal society.

It is in fact astonishing that the large support of the ANC for conservative 'traditional' leaders has not drawn more attention. It also makes sense to see this trend in Thabo Mbeki's and his health minister's, Manto Tshabala-Msimang, support for traditional healers in the face of an HIV/AIDS crisis. While it would make sense to mobilise and combine all health providers that people use, the benefit of traditional healers, especially for women's health, is not established.

Rather, with a bias towards men, traditional healers, with traditional leadership, can be seen as a conservative-traditional complex that works against women. Women are usually blamed by the traditional healers when things go wrong in the household. The leader of the association of traditinal leaders, Patakile Holomisa, only gave a mealie-mouthed condemnation of the practice, in the name of tradition, that abducts young women and sells them off to old men. Clearly, the interests and practices of traditional healers and leaders do not sit well with the Constitution.

In the buil-up to the ANC Polokwane conference in 2007 and the power contest that Zuma won, his statement that he would beat up a gay man in front of him could be interpreted as an exageration surfacing during heated campaigning for rural and conservative support. Zuma apologized. However, it is increasingly becoming clear that with Zuma in charge, the ANC is veering to the right. Culture is the most visible victim of this new celebration of conservative 'values'.

At the opening of the first Zuma parliament earlier in 2010, the leader of the opposition party, the IFP, Mangosuthu Buthelezi, asked all men to stand up in honour of Madiba. Zuma, including all ANC men, obliged. A lonely Naledi Pandor was ridiculed by laughing men across the party lines for protesting the exclusion of women from parliamentary ritual, even tough it was not routine.

Last week, Lulu Xingwana, the minister of Arts and Culture, reportedly stormed out of the opening of an exhibition that displayed photographs of women who love women and failed to give her speech. She said it was immoral and unsuited for children to see such photographs. A press release made the outburst even worse by declaring the photographs were undermining social cohesion and nation building.

The minister's outburst and her ministry's declaration fly in the face of the country's Constitution that aims to protect people in their diversity. It is even more worrisome in that it supports a mindset that views discrimination against gays and lesbians as normal for their lives and loves are supposedly immoral. Hate crimes against gays and especially lesbians are at an all time high, according to recent reports, and perpetrators must feel affirmed in their intolerance and hate by the minister.

In the same way that the 'war talk' of the Minister of Police supports officers who break the law and use lethal force in an indiscriminate manner, Xingwana's statements support those who believe same-sex relations are wrong and give free reign to their hate.

Zuma's usual defence against criticism has now become the claim that such is 'his culture'. Before taking off to London for a state visit, Zuma responded to his stance on Zimbabwe's new law limiting foreign ownership of companies to 49%, that it was not his culture to criticize the laws of other countries.

While there is much to be said and thought about tradition and culture in the post-colony, the elevation of culture as a catch-all explanation for anything and everything by a President who faces many obstacles, many of which are by his own doing, does not augur well for the realisation of progressive and democratic politics.

Do we really need a new morality initiative?

2010-02-22T01:33:00.000-08:00

The sexual mores of our President have landed him again in hot water, and as any other shrewed politician would do, he deploys diversion tactics to make the issue go away.

All around the world, when there is a big problem that threatens to subsist, what you do is to instigate a Commission. It gives the impression that you do something and by the time the findings are published, no one will be interested in it anymore -other current affairs will have taken over. It is no different with Jacob Zuma's proposal for a Commission to probe South Africa's morals.

Yet, to focus on morals in solving social and political problems is also the typical stuff of the right wing, straight out of the conservative style book. John Kane-Berman of the South African Institute of Race Relations, taking his cue from US and UK conservatives, usually claims that the statistical absence of the proper South African family (mom, dad, and two children living under one roof) explains many social ills. And the restoration of the "family" will somehow solve the problem. Neglected are then the historical, social, and political dimensions of the problem.

While morality matters, the real question is what kind of morals are we talking about? Concern for morality often serves as a smoke screen for promoting conservative, political values. The scourge of rape and violence against women is hardly caused by young women wearing mini-skirts; pregnant school girls are not the ones to be blamed for their early pregnancy, but rather the (usually older) men who trade sex for (material) favours; HIV/AIDS cannot be controlled by ostracizing those who have contracted the virus, as through marking their buttocks, but by treating it as an illness that requires medical and preventive measures, and so on.

Conservative moralists want to suggest that if only people would be follow the right morals, the social, economic, and political conditions would improve. To me, this seems barking up the wrong tree.

If the zeal to enforce conservative family values was as big as the desire to demand fair behaviour by those with power, be it in government or the private sector, be it by those high up or by exerising merely parental authority, we would go a long way addressing the problems that bedevil us.

Acting in morally sound ways involves more than policing sexual and social behaviour - a starting point would be to reflect as to how power and authority are, should and could be, exercised.

Are South Africa's business ethics Wild West?

2010-01-07T04:03:00.000-08:00

On Monday 4 January 2010 I bought Gillette Razor blades with a value of R 185.00 at the Clicks store at Campus Square shopping centre, Johannesburg. I realized that I had bought the wrong blades after I had opened the packet at home. Gillette has two razor shaving systems that look quite similar but that require different and specific razor blades.

I had merely cut the cover paper of the razor blades but I did not take the blades out of their plastic covers.

The next day, 5 January 2010, I was told by the store manager that he would not refund the blades as I had opened the packet. I told him that I had no use for the blades and that I would have to throw them away. He told me that I should have consulted properly with staff in order to buy the right blades. I accepted that I had bought the wrong blades by mistake but since I had no use for these blades, I required a refund. He refused.

I then called the Clicks Customer Centre. The agent repeated the same argument from the store manager: it was my mistake as the packet had been opened and the hygiene of the packet was compromised. The agent even asked me if I would buy blades from an open packet. Then, I was told that they would call the store manager to convince him to refund the blades. I told the agent that I would like to speak to the Regional Manager as it seems to me Clicks has a policy of refusing refunds. I was not called back the same day as I had requested.

On 6 January 2010, I called them again. No progress was reported. One hour after my call, another agent called to tell me that the Regional Manager would call me within the hour. He duly called and repeated the same: how thankful I should be that they refund the blades as they were wasted for them. Clicks would carry a loss from the refund. When I asked if Procter and Gamble, the owner of Gillette, would refund them, he said no. He denied that it was Clicks policy to discourage refunds.

I find this statement, that Procter and Gamble, would not refund Clicks hard to believe. I had contacted their Customer Care Line and they agreed without any questioning to refund me. All I had to do was to send them the purchased blades. If Procter and Gamble refunds an individual consumer, would they not refund a much more powerful retail company?

On 7 January 2010, I went back to the Campus Square Clicks and my purchase was refunded. Which raises the question: why could the store manager issue a refund only once I had contacted the Clicks Customer Centre? Why would he agree to do something three days later which he had previously refused?

Or has Clicks so little confidence in their store managers that they require these safety measures as to avoid internal corruption? Is it then a safety measure in order to avoid abuse? Or is this an administrative system that tries to make it as cumbersome as possible for Clicks clients to receive a refund?

If you look up Clicks on the ‘Hello Peter’ consumer complaints website, you will see that there are a high number of cases that individuals report and in which store managers refuse refunds for all kinds of reasons.

A colleague of mine had purchased in November 2009 prescription glasses with a value of R 400.00 at the Clicks store in Pretoria CBD. When she realized that they had the wrong strength, she brought them back. The store manager refused a refund on the grounds that the security label had been removed and hence she would not refund the glasses. My colleague accepted this and she had to buy another pair without the benefit of a refund.

The Consumer Protection Act of 2009 makes it quite clear that consumers are entitled for refunds under certain conditions. In the case of the razors, since the goods were in a packet, and I could not clearly establish that these were the correct blades I required, I should be legally entitled to a refund. The store may deduct a certain amount of the purchasing price for repackaging, but to claim that since the packet had been opened, no refund could be given, appears to be a contravention of the Act. In the case of the prescription glasses, the contravention of the Act seems to be even more blatant.

I find it quite unacceptable that a national retail chain seems to have instructed store managers to refuse refunds. Only when going through the call centre will a refund be granted. Clearly, this is highly consumer unfriendly, probably illegal and if they would state this refund policy openly, customers would be more careful when making a purchase at Clicks.

I wonder how many people have the means and the stamina to follow up on a mere refund. Most other retail stores accept refunds in the store with a receipt without having to go through a call centre. I wonder how many people have accepted the ‘no’ from the store manager and how much money has been taken out of South African consumers pocket and transferred to Clicks without any merit, any service rendered, and without any benefit to the consumer.

I have contacted The Star newspaper, the Sowetan, and the Speak Out tv program and hope their consumer reporters will pick the story up. Also, I have launched a complaint with the South African Consumer Protector at the local government call centre.

While I did eventually receive a refund, Clicks policy that renders getting a refund very cumbersome reflects poor business ethics. It is about time that South African business steps out of its Wild West attitude and lives up to the high moral values of a Nelson Mandela for which our country reached world-wide fame.

What does 'meddling' say about South African governance?

2009-10-15T23:46:00.001-07:00

Today in the news, it is reported that Joel Netshitenzhe, a senior policy figure in the Presidency, urged the African National Congress (ANC) not to “micro-manage” the state. He said that this would undermine the legitimacy of the state.
http://www.businessday.co.za/articles/Content.aspx?id=84165

This sort of meddling across competencies is a common experience of governance in South Africa. The question is where does it come from and how can it be fixed? For no society can be organised and develop along a steady path without having clear procedures and practices on who and how can meddle in other people's affairs. The flipside of this coin is that without proper channels, people with grievances will have to find other avenues to make themselves heard. If there is no proper channel for the residents of Sakhile Township to air their grievances, how can we expect that they do not use any other means to draw the attention of those in power?

At Wits, students could not use meaningfully the proper channels to have someone pay heed to their grievances. The only way to get things moving, or at least to have the semblance of it, was to protest and seek a meeting with the Vice-Chancellor. The other people in the chain would just ignore the students who were usually considered a nuisance, not individuals who deserve attention and a clear answers to their questions.

To make matters worse, the Council was meddling in the affairs of the University's management. Proper governance sees more of a guidance role for the Council, an advisor but also an authority to correct the path of management if things go wrong. In civil society organsiations and parastals, too many Boards do not exercise proper supervision. Either they are too close to management or they drag their turf and ideological wars into the management of the organisation. The SABC is an example of how the Board failed to steer a struggling organisation onto safer shores. In Business, despte numerous reports and recommendations on good governance, too many dubious practices persist.

So why this? In a nutshell, I can think of two explanations. First, we are still a society in transition. Our institutions and organisations are far from having digested the installation of a new order. We live in the post-colony, with all the problems attached to it. Exclusionary establishments, as in the case of Wits for instance, lack legitimacy. So those in positions feel weak, in that they feel they do not have the support to decide and act, and those with grievances feel they cannot expect to get a fair hearing, and the concomitant action to remedy their situation. At state level, the transition from the Mbeki to the Zuma era highlights a typical problem of a young demoracy, and which many African states have not addressed in a meaningful way: the relationship between the ruling party and the state.

The second explanation deals with trust. The trust levels in our society are very low. While cheating, deception, fraud, and so on, occur in any society, in South Africa they probably thrive at exceptional high levels. Unless we learn to trust and confide with people we deal with on a daily basis, the urge to enforce and control will prevail. However, no working and happy society can be built on such a basis.

The Goldstone Report

2009-10-15T00:28:00.000-07:00

The UN Security Council was recently deliberating what to do with the report. Judge Goldstone received much criticism from all sides for it. Judge for yourself. The human toll in this conflict is unbearable, and clearly, there is no military solution unless full-scale ethnic cleansing is considered. I hope that such fact finding missions contribute to a peaceful setttlement.
http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/hrcouncil/specialsession/9/docs/UNFFMGC_Report.pdf

Executive salaries: when is high too high?

2009-09-22T01:32:00.000-07:00

Since Barack Obama became US President amidst a global economic crisis, how private capitalist enterprise relates to public enterprise and the common good, as assumed in a liberal democracy, is again the focus of much debate across the globe. The bankruptcy of General Motors brought the issue of executive remuneration to the fore: how can you justify millions of salary expenses for executives of a firm that is bankrupt and is being bailed out by the taxpayer?

In a global economy, this is a global debate. In Switzerland, the Chief Executive of the UBS AG, one of the largest Swiss banks that was bailed out by the Swiss government with a more than US $ 42 billion injection, said that salary caps are not feasible as one would not know how high would be high enough. When asked if his million dollar bonus was too high, he said that it was maybe too low. This made the news as UBS announced to fire some 8 700 employees to save costs.

The CEO of Nestle, the largest global food processing company, weighed in the debate by declaring that if salary caps were legislated, he would move the company out of Switzerland.

In South Africa, private enterprise is largely save from such debates. After all, here, no big bailouts were necessary. However, the discussion turns around public enterprises or parastatals, and if their executives should receive similar pay and bonus as those in private industry.

Arguably, a developing state that has to be careful with its expenses and make sure that the money goes to those who need most urgently support. Executive salaries seem to be a good place to save. High salaries, however, are justified with the reasoning that in order to attract the best talent for the job, parastals have to compete with private industry.

Both these cases show a clear conflict between economic reasoning in a world with no boundaries and a sense of ethics and responsible thinking that is tied to place and people.

CEOs operate in a sphere of thinking devoid of boundaries and attachment, physical and ethical. All that counts is an economic logic that subjects any other considerations to the maximization of profits. However, democratic governance, based on the sovereignty of the people, tied to a community and the common good, requires ethical behaviour. It is only through ethics that the meaning of a community is maintained.

It speaks perhaps to the failure of the reproduction and education of a globalized, Westernized economic and political elite, that we are faced with this situation. As, some observers pointed out, was the extreme risk taking of the banks based on the institutional loss of memory about the perils of banking, so is the arrogance of those at the top of our economic system endangering the very foundations of our democracies.

Rethinking economic models alone will not do. Leaders of multinatinals need to rediscover their social responsibility, beyond marketing speak, or there will not much to be left to be lead.

Are European politics turning more African?

2009-06-10T02:29:00.000-07:00

With the recent European elections, and 60% of voter abstinence, we have one more proof that democracy is in crisis world wide. Not that this is news, we have been reading about this for many years now, but clearly, citizens feel that it matters not much for their daily lives what goes on in the palaces of power. Daniel Cohn-Bendit, the leader of the European green party, and the big winner of this election, stated that it was also the irrelevant media coverage, turning politics into a soap opera, that fuelled a diminshed interest in politics.

The Dutch anthropologist, Peter Geschiere, in a little and insightful article 'Le politique "par le bas": les vicissitudes d'une approche' (in Konings, Van Binsbergen, Hesseling, 'Trajectoires de liberation en Afrique contemporaine, Karthala, 2000) suggested that European politics was taking more and more its cue from Africa. It seems now that after the empire had written back, it was now the empire's politics that returned to the metropole.

Under the impact of globalisation, and such far-reaching policies as structural adjustment and the concomitant inequalities, post-colonial states saw a context with few political and policy options to spurn development and few, clearly defined political-ideological choices. Politics did not offer any clear alternatives.

Geschiere argues that it was the restraining influence of a global and transnational constellation on national politics, and the absence of space for alternatives that led to an increasing disentchantment with politics. In Africa, Geschiere writes, this restrained context had created the dominance of personalised politics, and the development of clientelist networks that asphyxiated the body politic.

Is the advent and triumph of Silvio Berlusconi emblematic for this transfiguration of post-colonial realities?

The death of Chris Hani: the more things change, the more they stay the same

2008-12-15T04:58:00.000-08:00

In April, 15 years ago, right-wingers gunned down Chris Hani, the popular ANC leader, outside his home.

A the time, South Africa was at the height of transition negotiations from white minority rule and white rightwing leaders featured much more prominently in public debates than today. Their incendiary talk, depicting Hani as the militant leader of ANC terrorist shock troops, contributed to a climate in which the murder became possible.

15 years later we still have prominent politicians, like the ANC youth league's Julius Malema, Cosatu's Zwelinzima Vavi and others who see no problem in a war talk that wants to kill for the supreme leader, exterminates cockroaches and does other ghastly things to the enemy. And then they feign ignorance, engage in linguistic and non-sensical acrobatics when these things indeed happen.

No such war talk is mere 'figures of speech'. And it was never so.

In 1993, Shaun Johnson observed:

"Before the assassin made up his mind to take Chris Hani's life, Hernus Kriel, from the platform of parliament, described Umkhonto we Sizwe as 'a bunch of criminals'. A powerful newspaper told its readers Hani was mustering a terrifying, vengeful 'Black People's Army'. Before lawless youths went on their stabbing and stealing spree on Wednesday, ANC Youth League leader Peter Mokaba told a gathering of youngsters: 'The young lions must not only bark and roar, but you must bite'. And before this whole sorry saga started, we had Eugene Terreblanche exhorting his followers to revolution, Inkathata members being encouraged to 'bugger up' the ANC, PAC leaders endorsing the slogan 'one settler, one bullet'. The list goes on.
Every one of these people will today swear they didn't mean what you thought they meant. These were euphemisms, metaphors, allegories, parables...they didn't really mean it literally. Well. It is too late to tell that to the people who listened to, and believed, those words. They missed the subtleties. Not nearly enough people in our country can read. Pitifully few will have been familiar with John Locke's wise observation that 'we should have had a great many fewer disputes in the world if words were taken for what they are, the signs of our ideas only, and not for things themselves.' ...Chilling statements are commonplace in South Africa today. It is fair to ask whether we are not now reaping their mean harvest." (Strange Days Indeed, Bantam, 1993)

Words matter. Discourses circulate, from the mundane and everyday life to politics, to academic discourse, and so on. How can we combat crime and violence when the words of our leaders mirror and perpetuate these?

Update for WoWers of 2007!

2008-11-18T05:44:00.000-08:00

It seems to me that Jean's roundabout has sparked a new flurry of activities among the WoWers of 2007 (my apologies to Bruce).

So here's my bit:

After 14 months at the Institute of Race Relations in Braamfontein, I happily eloped to the African Futures Institute in Tshwane which makes good use of my various talents.

After observing South African politics from a liberal perspective, I am now working on development issues on a continental scale.

And it finally it is true: after months of waiting (I handed in my PhD thesis in February 2007), I am scheduled to graduate on 25 November 2008.

In true Wits fashion, enough to entertain all conspiracy fans in the country, I was confronted with last minute, allegedly unpaid fees, putting a red flag on my graduation status, after I was told in June 2008 that I only had to wait for the graduation date to come up.

Thanks to the ever agile Magda Gale from the Politics Department, it was all sorted out. (They gracefully paid the so called fees for 2007: fees for what?, for waiting around to graduate?)

Violence against women

2008-10-21T06:27:00.000-07:00

I read this article in the Sowetan and I was appaled. In response, I sent the letter below to the editor.

Maybe it helps.

Today in Braamfontein, a young woman walks down the street, dressed in high heels and and miniskirt. Five youngsters start whistling at her, jumping up and down as if Jesus was coming back. The daring one walks up to her and says, 'just a hand shake, just a hand shake'. She smiles and they do a high five. As this happens, a metro police car drives by with four officers in it. The car slows down, honks and the officers join the commotions - smiling and whistling.

Am I prudish or is this kind of male excitement in the face of an attractive woman walking down the street amounting to sexual harassment?

If I would not live in a country in which gang rape is common and violence against women is filed under 'things that happen', I would greet this kind of behaviour by just shaking my head.

Unfortunately, this sort of thing is the more placid face of a society wrecked by violence, misogyny and patriarchy.

"Dear Sir,

I find your article very problematic from a gender perspective.

Your paper prides itself of supporting the community, of being involved in nation building and so on. Yet it seems that when it comes to the advancement of women, you no longer see any reason to show your engagement and care.

As journalists, you are hopefully aware that we live in a country in which violence against women is high. Much of the violence is based on stereotypes and mis-perception how ‘real’ women are supposed to behave. Women who do not fit these expectations (how women should act) are sanctioned and punished. The best example is the killings of women who love women.

Hence, to combat violence against women, we have to start questioning stereotypes with regards to how men and women are supposed to behave.

Your article does nothing more than re-enforce stereotypes that confine men and women to act in certain ways.

The woman in your piece, Terry Pheto, has no agency. She is the ‘weak’ woman, the price for the stronger of the two men who fight over her. The two fighting males are the ones who decide how this drama is being played out, they have all the active parts in your little soap story.

The men are full of agency. The woman has no agency and awaits dutifully the outcome of what happens between the two fighting men. She is being ‘bedded’, after all.

So here we go again, the same old.

Have you tried to contact her? Maybe she has some interesting comment to make? Or perhaps it does not matter to your story writing what the woman says and does because all that matters is that the two men are fighting it out? Is she merely a pretty prop that makes up a nice background for your story?

I think it should be possible to write entertaining pieces about celebs that change our stereotypical views of how men and women are supposed to behave.

I think you can do better – is it not time to act?

Regards, Thomas.

John Matshikiza, 1954-2008

2008-09-16T04:28:00.000-07:00

With sadness we learn of the passing away of John Matshikiza, writer and actor. I first learned of him as the columnist in the weekly Mail &Guardian. For many years, his column was the first thing I would read every friday morning. South Africa has lost one of the most insightful observers of society and politics.

His writing is elegant and critical, and I learnt always something new about life and the country I had chosen to live in.

Joshua Polumo Mohapeloa and Paul Hamner

2008-09-08T02:18:00.000-07:00

Another week-end filled with music! Spring is in the air and things are happening. Saturday night was great jazz with Paul Hamner (piano) and McCoy Mrubata (saxophone), and their excellent band. The House of Ntsako was jiving and all was well. Well, a bigger audience and a bigger revenue for the musicians would have been on order.

On sunday it was the Cantus Africana Chamber Choir singing Mohapeloa. It was a unique experience and the voices were beautiful. A truly uplifting and essentially humane exeperience.

Hamner is a true talent. Not only playing his terrific jazz, he also featured in the New Music Indaba's 2009 progragmme, playing Olivier Messiaen. We sure got talent in this country!

T. Musicman is doing it again!

2008-09-01T02:34:00.000-07:00

The Anita Baker concert was a disaster and the promoter, a Mr Tladi, is trying to wiggle out of it by blaming her. Unfortunately, he was not addressing the issue why there were much more tickets sold than seats available and how he could claim the event was at a state-of-the-art venue when it was only in a dull Nasrec hangar, with atrocious accoustics. In all, a rather unconvincing apology. And the promoter is laughing all the way to the bank!

At this weekend's Joy of Jazz festival, T.Musicman was at it again! Unbelievable, that they provided the sound for the entire festival. What is going on here? They must have some good friends in high places. Or is there no competition when it comes to staging art events?

On friday, at the Dinaledi stage, the first show had the usual sound problems. When I say usual, I mean for T. Musicman, not for jazz concerts! When the Original All Stars of Jazz Fusion came on stage, to ensure proper sound was a constant problem - the artists' had to signal all the time and the technicians were spinning around the stage non-stop.

On saturday, at the Bassline, the quiet sounds of Thord Gustafson were overshadowed by a blaring sound system.

Unfortunately, we will not have seen and heard the last of T.Musicman. Given the contracts they had cornered, they seem to have too good connections to be booted out.

In South Africa, what matters first is your connections, delivery and accountability feature much later. While this story was concerned with frivolous entertainment for the well-heeled, this is a recurrent aspect of our society, what a pity!

T.Musicman - the worst concert organiser in southern Africa, greedy and contemptuous?

2008-08-25T01:30:00.000-07:00

Anita Baker, the American singer, made it to South Africa, gracing her world-wide fan base with one unique concert. South Africans love music and the 6 000 or so tickets sold quickly, even though prices were high, ranging from 300 to 500 rand.

The promoter announced a state-of-the-art concert hall, a newly furnished hall at the Nasrec convention centre, south of Johannesburg. I was a bit sceptical when I read this because Nasrec is rather infamous for dull political meetings in airplane hangars and not top notch concert venues.

The concert was set to begin at 7pm on a sunday evening. As we walked into the hall at 6pm, and began looking for our seats, our spirits were a bit dented. Ordinary plastic chairs, hastily arranged in rows, were a far cry from the promised state-of-the-art concert venue. A young woman informed us that our seats were not available because stage equipment took our spot, apparently they did not know about this in advance, and they would add seats on the side for us. We insisted on centre seasts for this is what I bought, not side seats. So we were seated closer to the stage, a bit on the side. Not bad, we thought - we had a good front seats and could not complain.

Many more people streamed in and they could not find seats either. More seats were brought in yet never enough to satisfy all the people with no seats or seats behind pillars from which they could not see much. I mean, who would buy seats behind a pillar for R300?

Tempers flared up as angry fans who had tickets for which there were no seats engaged listless ushers in shouting matches. People scrambled for seats and fist fights broke out.

A clueless Masechaba Moshoeshoe, a normally swift and accurate radio host from Kaya FM, one of the sponsors, besides the Sowetan newspaper, took the microphone by 8pm and appealed to civility and promised seats for everyone. Her admonishment that we show our best side, friendly and non-violent in the face of adversity, did not do much to accomodate disgruntled fans. The mayhem continued as more people streamed in.

Clearly, many more tickets were sold than seats were available.

A stand-up comedian was rolled out to divert attention away from the disaster and placate the fans before Anita Baker eventualy would come on stage.

8.45 and the concert began. Ouf, what a relief. Nevertheless, fans walked around with chairs, looking for better spots and blocking all the aisles and making movement impossible. It was better not to think about safety hazards.

As the diva belt out her beautiful songs of love and passion, she used the time in-between to instruct the technicians to adjust the sound. She had to do so for a full 45 minutes and finally gave up. One could not hear the horns, and her voice was submerged by the crackling of an inadequate sound system.

Realising that people had no seats, she expressed her compassion and encouraged her fans to complain with the promoter. We needed to know that it was not her making!

So went the concert of an international top act, for the first time in South Africa (and probably for the last time) - a greedy and contemptuous promoter cheated the artist and her fans out of a unique experience.

How was that possible? How come Kaya FM and Sowetan, to established media organsiations, teamed up with a shoddy, thuggish promoter with no respect for the artist and the fans?

Was the concert not an example of what goes often wrong in South Africa? People in positions are only interested in making a quick buck, no concern for fairness and delivering service enters their mind. In other words, thuggery is an accepted and tolerated way of doing business. As long as no one takes exception to this state of affairs, and makes their voices heard, Sout Africa will remain mediocre.

What is wrong with these students?

2008-08-20T03:30:00.000-07:00

As a graduate of Wits University and a former member of the University Council, representing graduate students, I take university governance issues and students politics seriously.

With all the pressures that are on South African universities, it is no surprise that expediency, incompetence, lack of will and dedication, and maladministration take its toll. Students are at the bottom of the value chain within the university, and they always pay the price for these problems.

Inadequate resources, unfair treatment by people in authority, and disrespect are just some of the negative experiences that student life entails. Add to that the problems of financing, the lack of academic support, and the low rate of success and the high drop-out rate in universities can be explained. Hence, student representatives take these issues most seriously: they affect the students' life and decide over their success or failure.

In his inauguration as the new Vice-Chancellor at the University of Cape Town, Max Price bemoaned that students are not concerned with other issues. He said:

“It upsets me that we don’t see students protesting about corruption in government, or about attacks on the constitution, or about the way SA treated Zimbabwe.”

Yes, of course, student leaders should make their voices heard about important political and social issues, of local and global reach. But with so many things going wrong for students within their universities and with the very basics of tertiary education not guaranteed, how can Price expect them to focus beyond the university, before they are properly supported to succeed?

The more sinister interpretation of this statement is that he does not want students to be involved in the running of the university and make a contribution towards improving it. My experience with university administrations is that they only want student input in governance when it suits them, but when they point the finger at failures, mistakes and problems, they are dismissed as rabble-rousers and thoughtless imatures who need to be told better. Indeed, a long way to go for South African universities to change the mind-set, away from 'mother-knows-best' to consultation and inclusiveness.

Mahmoud Darwish, 1941-2008

2008-08-11T02:13:00.000-07:00

I sadly acknowledge the passing away of Mahmoud Darwish, poet, writer, intellectual and political activist. I discovered him by coincidence some years ago while watching a French tv programme, one of those about culture and poltics that the French do so well.

His poetry reading and his interview talk were spell-binding. He spoke in simple words, yet profound. Or perhaps it was just the translation in French that brought out his Arabic in such a manner. Even though I could not understand what he said, it was beautiful to listen to the sound of his words in Arabic.

As people like Darwish disappear, I wonder if there are men and women to take up from where he left off. Do we still have people of moral integrity, with sensibilities for the human condition and active in politics, engaged with and part of society? Or is it that today, the issues that we confront, no longer lend themselves to such activism?
Read his obituary in The Guardian.

Chinese in Africa

2008-07-13T22:51:00.000-07:00

Indeed, the Chinese-in-Africa theme cost John Matshikiza his weekly column in the Mail and Guardian or so it seems. And dogged as he is, he continues on the subject. A case of good follow-up journalism, one might say. Yet, in his recent column in The Weekender, he is getting ahead of himself.

http://www.businessday.co.za/weekender/article.aspx?ID=BD4A800380
This piece proves that one should not write with too much passion. Though it is supposed to be satirical, his reference to Indians asking to become black is quite non-sensical and probably hurtful to many Indians who suffered under apartheid. After all, BEE defines Indians, Coloured and Africans all as black. So there is no need to get reclassified, even for purely material reasons. While one should remain critical to China's advances in Africa, one also needs to maintain a historical perspective of Chinese settlement on the continent and in South Africa and the fragile relationships that were established between newcomers and indigenous peoples. Matshikiza is on the subject a true bull in a China shop.

The pleasures of victimhood

2008-07-07T04:37:00.000-07:00

How do you create non-racialism through thinking and policies that consider race? This is the dilemma of any affirmative action policy. In South Africa, we have the additional problem that poisenous race thinking was firmly entrenched in government policy and everyday life. For this reason, some criticized the salvaging of the four racial categories (African, Coloured, Indian and White) of the apartheid era into the democratic order.

A recent court ruling ordered that Chinese South Africans qualified for Black Economic Empowerment (BEE), that is, preferred treatment when it comes to business deals and not just the usual designated groups (black African, Coloured, Indian). The criticism from some black business organisations was that this was unfair since black people suffered the most from apartheid. Some reported historical events that showed how Chinese South Africans had it not so bad. Others said that this devalued the plight of black people. After all, black people suffered under apartheid which was like the holocaust. Some made ironic comments that Jewish people also suffered under apartheid and that they should now also benefit from BEE.

Clearly, to have suffered in the past is a sign of distinction for some. It is, however, not to designate moral superiority but serves as an additional arrow in the armoury of capitalist competition. In a seminal article, Ian Buruma wrote in the New York Review of Books about the joys and perils of victimhood.
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/article-preview?article_id=525. In South Africa, people should reread his article. While there are people who still suffer from the consequences of apartheid, they are hardly those who seem to embrace being a victim so much.

As long as race plays such an instrumental part in making material gains for a selected few, only little progress can be made towards non-racialism. Or, the question remains how to achieve redress based on racial categories and to move away from race-thinking? The case of the Chinese South Africans shows well that we still struggle to come up with genuine policies that overcome this conundrum.

Xenophobia at home

2008-06-17T04:59:00.000-07:00

In the aftermath of the violent attacks on foreigners in Gauteng, a domestic confrontation reminded me how easily the seeds for such violence are sown. And more important perhaps, how this kind of pogrom takes on a life of its own and spreads through imitation beyond control.

On a sunday night, Silas, the security guard who lives on the property next to my cottage, and which he also guards, came to see me and said how upset he was about the domestic worker, Precious, who looks after the main house and also after my cottage.

He said that she was untrustworthy, and that it was now too much, it was either him or her, one had to go. While he was working hard to secure the premises, she was having friends over at the main house, eating and drinking. Further, she was not respecting him, she was rude to him and she was not doing her job properly. And finally, she may be planning to poison him for she let his meat go rotten by deliberately putting it in a fridge that was not working.

I thought that this was quite a tall order and said that I was confident a way could be found to resolve the issue in a satisfactory way for both.

He then said that I could not quite understand for I was white. She was Zimbabwean and she would be capable of killing him, of poisoning him. While he would always be able to sort out an issue with a white man like me, with a black woman from Zimbabwe, it was another story. No middle ground could be found, it was about life and death.

Silas was from the Eastern Cape, leaving two young children behind while seeking a living in Johannesburg. His wife was with him, working as a domestic. He is trying to improve his employment situation by getting a driver's licence and seeking better paid work.

He is, as Deon Du Plessis, the editor of the Daily Sun, writes, the typical blue collar South African worker, trying to improve his lot, through saving and seeking opportunities in a harsh environment and there is not much sympathy for others, from other countries, in similar positions.

Precious had left her children in Bulawayo, and worked in Johannesburg as a domestic to support her three children and her family in Zimbabwe. She is articulate and writes well - she was cooking in the house because she was learning how to cook. Her employer trains her because he wants her also to cook for him.

In the final analysis, what triggered Silas' ire was that an apparent outsider appeared to move ahead and over him, over what he was entitled to: a better life. And, in a climate of fear and hatred of foreigners, it was easy to adopt a xenophobic discourse. Envy and jealousy came into the open.

Precious seemed to enjoy a better relationship with her white employer: she would be trained by him and had access to the entire house. She seemed comfortable in the presence of her white employer(s) while he was struggling to find a way to relate to and confer with them.

In the small space of the setting of my home was the tragedy that had gripped the country over the last few months.

Farewell to Edwin Cameron

2008-05-18T23:54:00.000-07:00

After years of dedicated service to the University of the Witwatersrand, Edwin Cameron retired from the chairmanship of the University Council.

While the laudatio speeches were certainly right in pointing out the stature of the man, I found the snide remarks about students and their representatives un-becoming.

Certainly we can be distressed about the often poor leadership qualities and the lack of insightfullness on behalf of the very same student leadership, but these will only improve if they are treated by the university management and staff as thinking human beings that play their part in the university governance.

Instead, they are constantly belittled and manipulated by the university powers that be. Thankfully, there are the exceptions but the general tone is rather discouraging.

If the university is to be more efficient and excellent, all stakholders have to be taken seriously. A more democratic, just and striving institutions needs to do away with paternalism and top-down governance.

World of Work 2008

2008-03-31T21:41:00.000-07:00

Thanks for having me for lunch - I enjoyed spending time with all of you. And good luck for your journey over the next weeks.

Below is the link to the two openings at the South African Institute of Race Relations:

http://www.sairr.org.za/about-us/vacancies

One year on: four lessons from the World of Work program

2008-03-26T04:47:00.001-07:00

It is one year since I was part of the World of Work program and I try to think hard what I took home from the one month of seminars and workshops that were to equip me with a better understanding of the business world, my place in it and how I can and should relate to it.

While I was in the program, I was offered a permenent position as a researcher with the South African Institute of Race Relations. So things turned out well for me: I landed a job.

Perhaps the most important lesson is that it requires constant work to figure out what it is that I want to do in my professional life. The program fostered in me the understanding that it foremost depends on me what job I want to do. It is much more than getting ready for employment and applying. The crucial question is what do I want to do? Or in the phrase of an advertising campaign: where do you want to go today ?

The second most important lesson is that in order to function in the workplace, and to land a job, is to fit in. This is in a sense a terrible lesson: do we not want to express our individuality and be recognized as such before we fit in? Yet as a member of an organization, we have to fit in. And so we do. I think the trick is do so but also to cultivate one's personal touch to the tasks you do.

Third, network, network, network. Be out there, meet people, leave an impression. New encounters sharpen your sense of what the possibilities are. Don't settle into a passive routine. While you do your work, you already plan your next move.

Finally, look at yourself as an entrepreneur. That is, your attitude is positive, be on the lookout, everyday offers new opportunities to make things happen. You may have to settle with your circumstances, but something better is around the corner. And this, you only reach with the right attitude. So you choose your attitude.

Transformation at South African Universities

2008-03-21T05:03:00.000-07:00

After the shocking events at the University of the Free State in which white male students denigrated black cleaning staff by making them to drink alcohol and serving them urine-laced food, an evaluation of tertiary transformation has been ordered by the Minister of Education. What will this exercise bring?

Given my own experience, I feel this is just another commission, another talk shop in the making. Let's be serious. Universities are already at breaking point. Too little resources, too many demands, low motivation and a pervasive lack of leadership.

Too many in the university believe that transformation is a diversion, is divisive and undermines the academic endeavour. It may be the case that such is the consequences of policies and actions pushed through under the label 'transformation'.

Yet transformation only works if the entire university community is behind it. And that requiers dialogue and coalition building. The university leadership which is not only the VC and the DVCs but also other powerful people within the university community, need to sit together, talk things over honestly and decide on a meaningful way forward.

When I was an active student, the entire university leadership did everything to shut down a student-led initiative on transformation. So anxious were they of only discussing the issue, that they felt threatened by students and torpedoed the whole thing in an unceremonious, if not downright pernicious way.

What is lost when transformation comes up, is that the issue is not only black or white or gender or else, but good governance. Transformation is an excellent opportunity to create accountable and democratic university governance systems. Yet this is never a priority. Rather, the focus is on rewarding compliant lecturers, administrators and students, and pretending that something changes. Like in the corporate world, the number one maxim for employment and promotion is to fit in with the dominant culture. So things remain the same - perhaps here and there some individuals get exchanged for others. Fitting into a culture that prefers compliance and the adulation of authority over excellence and frankness, the will to do better and create something new, is neglected.

As Noam Chomsky observed in the United States, the university is the place where consent is manufactured and enforced. However, if tertiary education is to improve, discussion is needed of all the thorny issues. Otherwise, no coalition to advance the institution can be built.

If something is meant to change, a greater will to speak out, to root out mediocrity and to get open and honest talk going, is needed. In this eminent, intellectual task, the South African university fails.

Violent Valentine

2008-02-15T04:50:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, Februar 14, I went out with a couple of friends to one of the usual bars in Melville's entertainment mile on 7th. street. The bar was full and babylon water flowed freely. We were all in a jolly mood - after all, it was thursday night and Valentine's day!

I noticed two women dancing with ambition in the middle of the bar, but I was soon diverted by the exciting company at my table.

Suddenly, much commotion struck at the entrance of the bar. The two women were engaged in a brutal fist fight with the bouncer and other bar employees. They rolled on the pavement in front of the bar, exchanging blows and tearing each others' shirts apart.

Some at my table intervened but to no avail. A friend inquired as the reason of the fight and one waiter said the boss had told the two women to stop dancing.

The commotion did not entirely die down and one of the women, after they were unceremoniously ejected from the bar, was taunting the bouncer, asking him where he was from, what he was doing here and why he did not understand her language.

My friend was now very angry and she felt that it was typical for a male-dominated, violent and patriarchal society to treat women in such a way. Also, that the two women were apparently a couple turned this into a homophobic incidence as well.

I was struck by the sudden violence, partially fuelled by too much alcohol consumption, but foremost by the indifference with which the violence was greeted by the people around. Some tried to say that the women deserved such treatment since they caused the trouble. Others had smirks on their face, taking the misery of others as entertainment, completely ignoring pain and distress.

This is what made me pause - how casual we have become in our response to violent and socially pathological behaviour.

For Susan and Susan

2007-12-16T08:34:00.000-08:00

I found another interesting article about the world of work in the Sunday Times today.

What better occasion than using the summer break, while lying at the beach, to reflect about your place of work and where you want to go with your career.

Jonathan Cook, from GIBS, suggest contemplating seriously a change of work, based on the following considerations:

1. at work, you are mostly bored or fearful

2. in the new year, everything seems set to continue as in all the previous years

3. to the question, 'why do I work?', all I say is: 'it is a necessity!'

4. thinking about 2008, you immediately want to go back to 2007

5. you don't have any goals for 2008

If thinking about this issues, while slurping a caipirinha and contemplating the ocean, suddenly the coconut drops, Cook suggests to go through the following questions:

A. The first and most important question is what do you want to contribute? Clarify your most important objectives: to write a book, to have more power, to earn tons of money, to sit quietly in an office, to help others, to have a family, to launch a business, to conquer the oil market, to launch a new product or service, and so on.

B. Now, is the moment to ask yourself what you are good at. Review your qualifications, your skills, your knowledge and your experience and write down what gives you the edge. Ask where your intelligence lies: verbal, numerical, perceptual, musical, physical, interpersonal or personal.

C. What is your style? Do you like to have it quiet with as little contact with others as possible? Then you rather opt for a writer/researcher career over being a marketeer or a teacher/trainer.

D. What is your personal capacity? Its not only about making the right choice, getting the right job but also what you are capable of doing given your circumstances, in your position to advance your career and improve your job satisfaction.

E. What are the opportunities you face? This is about what your dream is but also about making realistic choices. Think about who you are and where do you want to go. Before you take on that seductive offer, think if it fits your values and matches what you believe in.

Fo sho, I am using this summer time-out to think harder about where I want to go and what I have to offer. More than ever, satisfaction in life and at work relies on constantly interrogating yourself and your ambitions. What really matters is the question, not the answer.

"I have black friends"

2007-11-30T04:45:00.000-08:00

This week, the owner of a tourist complex at the outskirts of Johannesburg was murdered. He had immigrated in the 1950s from Germany. In reporting about the incident, it was emhpasised that he loved Africa and that he said he wanted to make Africa work, with Africa. Or something similar, I do not recall the exact wording.

In the blog 'Constitutionally speaking', a heated debate ensued over HIV/Aids. http://constitutionallyspeaking.co.za/One black participant wrote that he was tired of white people who felt the need to say that they had black friends, how they liked black people or that they had voted for the ANC.

Why is there such a need to say these things in contemporary South Africa? Because race is still over burdened with history. White people who do not recognize themselves in the history of apartheid, who do not think that a black government is equal to failure, who do not contemplate emigration and who don't see themselves as superior to black people seem to feel the need to distinguish themselves from those who do all these things. (That they are still alive, but not necessarily in the country, tells you Aubrey Matshiqi in his recent BD column.)http://www.businessday.co.za/articles/opinion.aspx?ID=BD4A644543
But it is also because the label 'racist' is easily deployed in order to silence critiques. And "new" white South Africans feel the need to distinguish themselves from "old" ones.

Suspicion and lack of trust looms large in debates straddling the colour line.

Branding the self

2007-11-29T01:16:00.000-08:00

Some might be concerned that marketers now want us to extend branding from products and corporations to countries and individuals. Why should everything be commercialized, they may ask? Yet, have human beings not always worked on their image and tried to fashion themselves according to certain ideals? In Renaissance France, the 'in' man wanted to be a 'gentilhomme', well versed in poetry and literature, with loads of panache and wit, and capable of horse riding and fencing. So the six steps to develop your brand are the following:

1. Purpose. You want to have a higher, guding principle in your life - making money alone will not do. Rather, think where you would like to make a difference: what is your contribution to humanity?

2. Passion. What gets you excited? Whatever you do, your passion (or non-passion) will come out, so identitfy what you like to do and go for it.

3. Planning. Develop your brand does not happen overnight. It requires continuous work. Plan and strategize, and work on developing your own brand.

4. People. Your brand is related to the people around you. A strong individual brand reflects the people network around you.

5. Play. Brand development has to be fun. Whatever you do, make sure you enjoy it. And you and your brand will see much appreciation.

6. Perseverance. There will be fat and meagre years. In meagre years, stay put and continue on the road you embarked. Hard times build character, as some say. A strong brand develops its distinctive characteristics in tough times.

The perpetuation of racial ideology in South Africa today

2007-10-30T07:37:00.000-07:00

Neville Alexander addressed the Wits Democracy Debate on October 30, 2007. A summary of his presentation follows:

Affirmative Action and the Perpetuation of Racial Identities in Post-Apartheid South Africa

While Alexander recognizes that affirmative action may serve a purpose, and that only conservatives are outright against it, there are some serious problems with this policy. He argues that the problem is that affirmative action is based on a racial ideology that perpetuates racial identities; hence, the issue is how to do affirmative action without perpetuating racial identities? He is quick to add that while he may end up in the same camp with white conservatives who want to protect their racial privileges, he believes South Africa is stuck with affirmative action policies because no social revolution was implemented.

The ANC in government applies affirmative action and continues with a racial ideology to show to a majority of black people that the new regime has something to offer to them. Otherwise, the current regime would just be seen by black people as a neo-apartheid regime. However, in order to work towards non-racialism, what is needed is to re-imagine socially constructed identities and communities.

The maintenance of a racial ideology through race classification contradicts the constitution which requires non-racialism. Race thinking is entrenched through racial classification when in fact the real issue is disadvantage, not race.

Under the current regime, broad based poverty reduction is neglected and preference is given to policies that support the advancement of the black middle class. Alexander asks why it is that a white capitalist is seen as a foreigner and not one of ‘us’, but a black capitalist should be belonging to the people? This shows that racial awareness and racial ideology is still very much present and the task is then to problematize racial identities.

Comparative race relations

2007-10-22T07:14:00.001-07:00

I have been writing a piece comparing whiteness and race relations in the United States of America and South Africa. Almost all theoretical writings on whiteness originate in the US. This is the theoretical toolbox we use when writing about whiteness in South Africa. However, I find that there are considerable pitfalls when we try to do so.

Let me just analyze one such pitfall, and arguably the most important one. In South Africa, Africans have always been a majority. The white colonial masters were always a minority who had to rely on the suppression and cooperation of the majority. Even at the height of dominance, control was rather tenuous. Today, as Africans make inroads into many areas of South African life in which they are a minority, they do so from a numerical and political position of strength. In contrast, on the Northamerican continent, the descendants of African slaves are a minority that struggles to be accepted as equal. In this quest, they are very much dependent on the white majority. Inclusion into the mainstream is a slow process and remains arduous.

Dynamics of relations and the politics of race proceed along different avenues. In Northamerica, it seems to me that affirmative action cannot be discussed beyond the two camps, either for or against. What should be serious discussion about how people live together degenerates into political bickering, replete with suspicion and grand-standing.

In contrast, the South African public debate on affirmative action and race shows intriguing levels of maturity. Over the last week, public commentators and newspaper editors discussed the effects of racial politics without the usual labels of reactionary, right wing and so on bandied about but by the most ideological and narrow-minded commentators. The aversion to enforced racial apartheid awareness leaves many with a deep suspicion of racial arguments and politics. Indeed, this is ground for hope that something new will come out of South Africa, despite the continuing legacy of apartheid.

How to do anthropological research?

2007-09-30T09:59:00.000-07:00

On friday we presented our paper about youth identities in Johannesburg. The focus of our in-depth interviews and ethnographies was on the intersection of race, gender, class and sexuality. The results will be compared with Cape Town, Chicago, San Francisco, Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo. A young and ambitious man was very scathing in his critique saying that it lacked depth, was not anthropological and was spending donor money with little results. In sum, it was deemed a fashion and not proper research.

I was trying to understand what his beef was. But I am still not clear. A large part of the presentation was about race and how it evolves and how people of different "races" relate to each other - was he unhappy with what we said about race? I mean he never criticized the substance of what we presented. He only talked about methodology and what proper anthropology was and what was not.

My experience with race-talk in South Africa is that in any public forum, people will rarely express in any direct way what they actually mean. So one is always faced with trying to figure out what they are trying to express. So over the next week I will try to understand better what was actually going on during discussions.

Saturday night I had a great dinner with good friends and dancing and partying in Melville. It was very cathartic. One can bemoan many things in Jozi, but the people here are great to go out and party with.

Deliverig the paper

2007-09-26T05:16:00.000-07:00

During our World of Work program, we were honing our speaking and presentation skills. This coming friday I will present a paper with my colleagues, "Transforming Youth Identities among the Rainbow Nation’s Youth: Interactions across “Races/Colours/Ethnicities”, Gender, Classes and Sexualities in Johannesburg, South Africa" and I am busily putting the slideshow together.

It is quite fun. And I remember to add pictures and to conceive of a good colour scheme with contrasts that make it readable.

When you give the paper, speak slowly, pronounce well and so on.

But I think the most important is the passion that you have for the content that you present. Amongst the speakers that paraded in front of us, it was this sense that ultimatley distinguished an excellent, memorable presentation from a very good one.

Looming graduation...finally

2007-09-21T05:04:00.000-07:00

After months of waiting, I eventually received yesterday the three exeaminers' report. What a great day - after going through the comments with the Prof, he headed straight to the Blind Pig to celebrate in due fashion. I need to make a few changes here and there, some big, some small, and then nothing should prevent me from graduating in November. That feels good!

I am looking forward to meeting the Vice-Chancellor Loyiso Nongxa on stage in the great hall at Wits and getting my head capped.

Of course, as I read through the comments, I thought I should have done this and that, consulted this book as well, spent more time on editing and so on. But in the end, people correctly say that the best thesis is a finished thesis.

White liberals

2007-09-19T20:59:00.000-07:00

When I first came to South Africa, I was struck by the often aggressive derision with which the term 'liberal' was greeted. I mean in Canada and Switzerland, 'liberal' belonged to the political landscape like salt and vinegar to chips and it did not attract much debate beyond the usual. After all, any democracy espoused liberal values, such as freedom of expression.

Yet, in South Africa, 'liberal' has a specific historical meaning. Reading the memoirs of Colin Eglin, long-time leader of the Liberal Party during apartheid, it becomes clear that the liberals often advocated among white people the cause of black people. This was due to the gripping effect of apartheid racial separation. But it also took agency away from black people and handed it over to white brokers.

This sort of speaking for black people still lingers on today in many ways. Often, white people write what black people may think and feel yet they have not checked their assumptions by speaking to black people - an honest dialogue across the colour line is largely absent (In contrast, in my experience, black people seem to be much more clued in how white people think). Or, they pick one black individual that suits them and assume he represents the entire black population - the 'good' black who fits white expectations.

Nevertheless, face-to-face dialogue, as equals, is crucial. It is the only way that bit by bit, through hard work, the legacy of apartheid can be pushed back.

A truly great musician

2007-09-15T01:06:00.000-07:00

Joe Zawinul has died. I true giant of music has left us. Beyond the hype that surrounded the likes of Pavarotti, Zawinul was a phenomenon who kept his feet on the ground. Last year, I failed to go and watch him live when I was in Switzerland. I regret that I missed this last chance to see him live! While he did many recordings, he and the musicians he played with were at their best when on stage. He was a master of improvisation and hence he played with the greats like the Adderley Brothers, Herbie Hancock and Miles Davis.

I saw them in 2003 at Cape Town's North Sea Jazz Festival. It was a marvellous encounter. He was playing with musicians from the four corners of the world - a true world music. Rhythm all over. A master of the piano, he generously shared his knowledge of music with other musicians and poured his money into developing musicians.

http://www.zawinulmusic.com/

Fabio Freire, a Brazilian composer and musician living in Switzerland, told me that like Amadeus Mozart, Zawinul revolutionised how music was played. He made the synthesizer a staple of modern music. I have a tape of a recording when he was the pianist of the Adderley brothers - his playing and composition kept the audience in trance. Before he played with the greats of Jazz in the US, he studied classical music at the Conservatory in Vienna and later developed the synthesizer and his own brand of music, jazz fusion.

http://www.fabiofreire.ch/

In a world struggling to keep genuine leadership afloat, he stands out as a one of those strong and quiet ones.

....and the rest is history

2007-09-14T07:35:00.000-07:00

With the words above, people end their stories after they have told us how they came to be what they are today. I find 'time' a strange concept - how it passes by as we grow older, how things come to an end and new things begin. Often new things, as a new job, is a bit scary. But I find it reassuring that even as we settle into new habits, new organisations and new ways of thinking, we will always move on in one way or another.

Fitting into a work regime (culture)

2007-09-10T06:06:00.000-07:00

I remember how must of the participants were a bit taken aback when speaker after speaker emphasized the importance of fitting into the culture of a work place. After all, we are all individuals and want to be recognized as such.

I can see why indeed this is so important. In order to work well, to show up at work every day in a good mood and motivated in order to be productive, you need to feel in sink with your work environment. If you rub yourself all day against how people think and do things, you will not enjoy yourself, the work you do and it will show. Yet, the questions remains: how far can you go to fit in?

This insistence on fitting into a work-culture is perhaps more of a problem in South Africa than anywhere else around the globe as apartheid has separated people by force into different 'cultures', all deemed incompatible. Rather than fitting in, South Africans would demand respect for cultures and their particularities.

Not dead...yet!

2007-09-06T06:35:00.000-07:00

Ok, some time passed since I wrote for the the last time. I got a bit bogged down by a few other things but foremost I have to wait for another couple of weeks until I can write about the experience that all from the 2007 Wow team would like to share. And like to read about!

The remaining pictures from the Walk are in the pipeline to be posted. I just get tired of the long and complicated downloading. And my home computer got some virus, and so on.

I intend to do a half-marathon at the Soweto Marathon in early November, for those who would like to hook up.

I am still waiting for the Wits examiner, the last one of three, to submit his report. I finished the final version of my thesis end of February 2007.....

Walk the talk

2007-07-22T10:38:00.000-07:00

Finally, we made it! I met with Susan today on the sports ground in Greenside to start the 702 walk. As the driver behind this whole thing, she was already there 7.30 am for the start at 9.30 am. Next, Wanjikou arrived - a bit coy as usual, she wanted to give us moral support only and not participate in the walk. Thank God to peer pressure, she took the spot of a no-show and became a happy walker like the rest of us. Then, Mwangi and Valentin arrived, both of them a bit confused, maybe it was the crowd or the early morning. Just before the start, Lesly and Jean graced us with their presence. And off we went.

It was a jolly walk - the area was like one big park. It was all fun and laughter - all for a good cause and for some a test of endurance. Towards the finish, they all became quieter until they could party at the arrival. And off we went to Melville for a well-deserved breakfast and plotting about the next steps for the book project. We shall be back next year and hopefully, we will have the necessary GPS to find our cars afterwards.

The Walk is upon us!

2007-07-18T01:31:00.000-07:00

This sunday the 2007 World of Work Team will join the 702 Walk. Some will do the 5 km walk while others opted for the 8 km. Thinking of it, I should have signed up for the 21 km run. After all, a bit of sweat is good for the heart and mind. I can't wait to see our t-shirts. I am even more excited about the book. The more I read about South Africa's labor market problems, the skills deficit, the difficulties university graduates have in getting employment, the more I believe this book will make a signficant contribution to alleviate these problems and create more happiness. And this should be a good thing!

Hooked on 'le tour' or team building revisited

2007-07-15T07:13:00.000-07:00

Bruce Arden gave us an introduction to team building during the World of Work seminar. He rounded up his presentation with an excerpt of a behind-the-scenes documentary about the brave cyclists of the Tour de France. At the time, I found his focus on the tour, a heavily gendered environmnent, and its relevance for modern team building problematic, yet the documentary got me hooked on the tour. As the riders roll through the French mountains, I catch myself sitting with excitement in front of the tv and following the daily drama of a gruelling competition. Indeed, this is some gripping television in real time.

Today is also Jean-Bertrand Aristide's birthday. All the best to South Africa's most famous visitor and hopefully he will be able to return soon to his native country.

Much entertainment

2007-07-06T03:26:00.000-07:00

So far, so good. Work is all very jolly and we should not forget the entertainment side. It's been ages I have not been to a proper Jazz concert and last night, I could indulge - the Swiss-South African Jazz Quintet was at the Bassline. It was great. There is nothing as stimulating and relaxing for the mind than music played well. The band was an electrifying mix of old cats such as Stefan Kurman on bass and Makaya Ntshoko on percussion, Feya Faku on Flugelhorn and trumpet and two young Swiss players, Domenic Landolf on sax and Collin Vallon on piano. It was a cold and wet night but the players heated the audience up. Afterwards, I went for a sneak peak to the Horror Cafe. Reaggae night was on, with live contributions from Bongomuffin's Appleseed. The crowd was young, stylish and excited - it was truly time to let it all hang out!

A psychometric test for racists

2007-07-01T12:13:00.000-07:00

Scientist in the UK are developing a test to find out your attitude towards people of other races. They suggest it can be used in the not too far future for screening potential employees and weeding out racists. I am not familiar with the science of psychometrics but I am a bit sceptical of such tools. I mean surely people have prejudice but should the score on some test say if they are hired or not? What about people who have prejudice, given their background and upbringing, and how do we evaluate their potential to change? For instance, for many young students at Wits, being in such a diverse environment, with staff, students and lecturers of all races and origins, they live through a real culture shock. Eventually, they get used to diversity and even appreciate it. With a psychometric race test, would it mean that employees would no longer have the chance for change?

Coherent thinking and diversity

2007-06-20T08:43:00.000-07:00

Some of my academic training is in philosophy. The good teachers I had would always stress one important point: that we should strive for coherence in our thinking. Now, I am always quite flabbergasted when I encounter fuzzy thinking that seems unaware of its implications. For instance, visible minorities can become victims of discrimination, usually based on "racial" appearance. The perpetrators are for the most part "white" people. Yet, some members of these minorities would in turn discriminate against others based on sexual orientation and gender without any awareness that the processes of exclusion, the technologies of discrimination, are pretty much the same in both cases. The discourse of exclusion is identical. You make fun of the outsiders, you say how you appreciate them, you say how you have friends among them and yet you belittle them, and so on. I find it then very ironic when someone is ranting on about the paternalism of "white" people but is doing exactly the same towards women or gays and lesbians. A remedial course in philosophy would be very useful for the people concerned.

You may want to peruse the courses offered by the Wits philosopy department:

http://www.wits.ac.za/Humanities/SocialSciences/philosophy.htm

Viva Wits World of Work 2007 Book Club, Viva!

2007-06-12T10:06:00.000-07:00

We recently launched the Wits World of Work 2007 Book club. But not just confined to reading books, we will also write a book about the experience together. My contribution to the club is Kopano Matlwa's 'Coconut'. Here is my review:

Kopano Matlwa, a 21-year old medical student from the University of Cape Town, has written with ‘Coconut’ a remarkable first novel and scooped with due merit this year’s European Union Literary Award. It is a timely book for it looks at South African society from the perspective of two young black women and is refreshingly without any overbearing ideology. As the author writes in an afterthought, ‘Coconut’ “is our story, told in our own words as we feel it everyday.”

The first main character, Ofilwe, lives in a rich and dysfunctional family. Her father, while preoccupied with amassing fortunes, neglects his wife and children. He rather spends his spare-time in the company of numerous girlfriends. Her mother is whiling time away by making herself beautiful, meeting friends, gossiping about the children and the do’s and dont’s of a life in affluence. Ofilwe’s brother Tshepo has retreated into his own world, pursuing the beauty of the written word. The parents never talk to each other and Ofilwe celebrates a victory when her mother and her father engage in a shouting match. The confrontational bickering is more comforting to her than the nothingness of silence and indifference.

In the pursuit of wealth and status, much has been left behind: mutual respect and honesty, a sense of togetherness and African traditions. Ofilwe, for her part, lives up to the desire of her parents, to be at least equal to if not better than their white neighbors. In fact, she sees no difference between herself and white people. She is brought back to reality through the racism of her white friends and her white environment.

Aspiring to be like them, to be white, is the one thing that Ofilwe has in common with the second main character, Fikile or ‘Fiks’. While Ofilwe is white by virtue of her environment and the aspirations of her parents, Fiks desires to a better life by leaving blackness behind and join the wealth and beauty of white people. After her father run away and her mother killed herself, Fiks is raised by her gogo, a maid and her uncle, a security guard. Fiks is determined to escape poverty. For her, this poverty is tied to blackness and hence her aspiration to be something better, to be with the rich and the happy. To be white.

It is especially in Fiks’ characterization and psychology that Matlwa is at her best. Sexually abused by her uncle, she is running away from what hurts her and holds her back. Matlwa shows well the many layers of the consequences of sexual abuse and how the victim battles with these. After having been robbed of the most precious, the faith to be the master of her own destiny, Fiks struggles to find herself. Perhaps here lies the South African-ness of ‘Coconut’, in the determination of the two main characters to overcome hardship and pain, and to be content and happy.

You may chat with the author on her own blog and learn more about the book.

http://kopanomatlwa.book.co.za/

An equally excellent discussion of the sexual abuse of children I found in Arakis' 'mysterious skin'. For an insightful perspective, see

http://shecomesfirst.typepad.com/ian_kerner/2005/07/films_take_a_mo.html

Graduation

2007-06-07T01:55:00.000-07:00

Last month I attended the graduation of Jean-Bertrand Aristide, former president of Haiti. UNISA awarded him a doctorate in African languages for his investigation into the relationship between isiZulu and Creole, his native tongue from Haiti. Aristide is exiled to South Africa after he was kidnapped and carried out of Haiti by US, French and Canadian forces. President Mbeki and the first lady, Zenele Mbeki, attended. I was seated right behind them and Smuts Ngonyama, head of the Presidency, a very warm and gentle person by the way, was sitting in the same row as myself. Barney Pitanya, Black Consciousness activist and Vice-Chancellor, was the master of ceremony. Given the importance of the relationship between Mbeki and Aristide, to emphasize the ties between the diaspora and the African continent, forging alliances across the global South and showing solidarity with those who advocate pro-poor policies, the theme of Africanization was written all over the ceremony. Speaker after speaker drove the point home about the importance of African languages and the dire legacy of colonialism. At times, I found the ideology of the speeches quite overbearing. While the need for redress is quite evident in South Africa, and there is certainly a steep road ahead to achieve this, one should be careful not to short-circuit history and the complexities of cultures for the sake of ideology. The irony is that this is the same UNISA where some refuse to teach certain important European literary works deemed too subversive, ie. communist! Too much ideology, not matter from which corner, can do no good.

The 'Mbigi' question

2007-06-07T01:48:00.000-07:00

As I wrap up my current projects and get ready for my new employment, I have what I call the 'Mbigi'question in mind. This question basically asks 'what is the value that I can add to the organisation' and closely related, 'what is the problem that I can solve within the organisation'? Of course, your employer knows what she wants you to do, and that is always your priority, but I think you want to put a challenge to yourself while you are on the job. Thereby, you become more valuable to the organisation, but you also have much more fun (and agency) in what you are doing. In other words, you want to retain the initiative in what you are doing.

And now a breather

2007-06-05T22:20:00.000-07:00

I was offered a permanent position. That was quite a relief. After all, all the studies and the extra-curricular activities bore some fruit. There are people who think I do valuable work, give me some recognition and are willing to trust me with employment.

Post-interview

2007-06-04T22:18:00.000-07:00

Usually people write about the post-modern and the post-apartheid period. So let me write about the post-interview. Research and preparation are very important. But your own gut-feeling about what they are looking for is even more crucial. For my recent interview, the research I did about the organisation was not relevant. Our talk was much more about my CV and the specific task they have given me prior to the interview. One has to make trade-offs. While it is certainly important to be honest (who wants a dishonest employee?), perceived honesty can also make you look less good. I had done some legal work for government without any legal training. So they were wondering how I did it? Well, legal work at a basic level comes quite easy to me, so I was trying to explain that this was not such a big deal after all. I wanted to be honest but I rather diminshed my accomplishment. The more rewarding strategy would have been to emphasize the great efforts I had made. The second issue I realized is that after 30 minutes into the interview, my speech tended to be less clear and difficult questions were not dealt with properly (Ok, I was still battling a sore throat and a stuffy nose). The trick here is to be aware of the interview cycle, that we slow down and get tired. The sensible thing to do is to be aware of this weaknesses and then to re-focus and re-energize. The third important issue is to back up all your statements with evidence. The questions people ask are based on their assumptions and assertions and you cannot answer back with an assertion. They want you to give them evidence to prove or disprove their assumptions - they make assertions based on their impression of your CV and your person as they meet you. Hence, the smart preparation involves exploring all the different aspects of your skills and capabilities and how they relate to the employment for which you compete.

Life is beautiful

2007-05-30T09:51:00.001-07:00

While I was sneezing and coughing at home, trying to get through a cold, I got a phone call telling me to come for an interview for a research position. WoW! Great stuff. I cant wait to get there and offer the best I have. I feel my academic work and the World of Work program prepared me well for an inteview situation. I mean it is really a tough exercise, not to be underestimated. I think we are not used to being scrutinized so closely and the nervousness can make you look more inadequate than you actually are! Compensating for the tediousness of the cold, I induldged in buying new books: a prize-winning South African novel titled 'Coconut' from a young writer, a book about African masks from a well-known Swiss collection and Calland's 'Anatomy of Power in South Africa' - I am truly looking forward to 'dig into' these books and I understand better why Lovemore Mbigi was always talking about books and encouraging to read us more. I mean how else do you get pleasure and education at the same time?

But the most amazing thing happened the other day in the gym. I was going through my routine as this tall, well-trained guy walked up to me. "So, you are from Canada ?", he goes, looking at my 'Youth Canada' sweater and I respond in the affirmative. Now, this is all very ordinary but this case is a bit different. He and I are regulars at the gym for the last three years or so and once we had a big fight about some meaningless issue. Brad Arden would probably confirm that it is about territory and defensiveness, one ambitious male not wanting to share the space with another. Anyway, I explained to him my relation with Canada and we chatted about all the rest, like the best of friends. I left the gym much happier than I was before. To turn adversity into comradeship is a beautiful, gratifying thing.

Taking care of my rocks

2007-05-27T07:38:00.000-07:00

While the job search is in full swing and I am keeping myself busy with research and writing, I keep coming back to the following issues from the seminar. What are the rocks in my life that always come first? I am working and thinking hard on making sure I spend enough time on the things that are really important to me. The other issues that are on my mind are what I want to do in life, what is my purpose and finally, what defines me? It is quite a quest but I understand I need to answer these questions for myself in order to direct where I wish to go.

Keeping the energy level

2007-05-21T06:53:00.000-07:00

The four weeks with the World of Work program certainly kept me on my toes. I was juggling the ambitious seminar schedule with my own research and other commitments. Foremost, the constant engagement with the presentations really made me think about my goals in life, but also how going about earning a living by doing what I like doing most and what I am capable of doing best. Now, going through my notes, I try to keep the reflection going. Sometimes I am a bit tired of the thinking - in the end, what counts is what 'is'. In other words, what will be my activities in the next few weeks and months?

Writing a book about the World of Work Program

2007-05-16T05:28:00.000-07:00

Today, we met with the program managers to assess our performances in the program, our writing which included the blog and one assignment as well as our 15 minutes presentation. Jean, Sue and Lesley gave us the hard truth with much courtesy and respect. We were able to benefit tremendously from their constructive criticism. After that, I spoke with Susan Mwangi and we said it would be great to put the content of the program into a book titled '10 steps to a fullfilling job' or something to that efffect. We could write about the individuals in the program, their experiences, South African society, the labour market, how to perform well, how to do CVs, ubuntu, HIV/AIDS and other political and socio-economic issues, and so on. And most importantly, how we all landed in great and fullfilling jobs. I am confident it would easily rise to the top ten on the local business and self-help book market. I am just concerned that the University would give us a hard time with the copy right....or at least they would want to have their share of the royalties!

Quizz of the Day

2007-05-14T07:49:00.000-07:00

Which German thinker said:

"Thinking will atrophy in an environment that lacks the stillness that allows us to concentrate in inner dialogue or in a social environment where distrust among people makes first outer conversation, then inner conversation impossible."

a) Peter Sloterdjik

b) Hannah Arendt

c) Jurgen Habermas

And more important perhaps, is contemporary society such an environment?

Conflict Resolution, part III

2007-05-14T07:10:00.000-07:00

This is probably one of the last 'official' blogs directly related to the World of Work Program. And, no coincidence, it is about Conflict Resolution. After all, I graduated in Politics! In our second session with Berenice De La Croix, we used the CAN model to practice case studies. It was a fruitful exerice as I encountered unexpected difficulties. For instance, how to you start talking with your "enemy", just to break the ice and establish some basic way of talking to each other? Indeed, not easy. We just have to practice and rembember the toolbox at hand that helps us dealing with conflict. Berenice also recommended books such as Nancy Kline's "Time To Think" and Fisher and Urry's "Getting Past No". In my undergraduate studies I encountered the latter's "Getting To Yes" in a course in international relations that dealt with coercive diplomacy and negotiations. It was a very helpful read, brought our theory course very much alive and I will be looking out for their other book as well.

www.lipsa.co.za

Presenting in Style

2007-05-09T12:51:00.000-07:00

Des Patel certainly gave us a great presentation about the tools needed to have some impact while telling your story. But one of the many benefits we got from three weeks of seminar-presentations was the exposure to all these terrifice individuals and their styles of presenting themselves and what they had to say. The passion and committment to what they do to earn a living came out so beautifully.For instance, you could tell how Berenice was concerned with all of us understanding her model to resolve conflicts. Also to see how they appreciate their audience and how they respect the people who listen to them was quite impressive. I noticed that all started off with some personal story to draw in the audience's attention. To be humerous and to laugh is so important. Remember Janet, she came with a laugh, continued laughing while carry home her most important points and she left with a smile. Or Brad, he was joking with us, making funny comments about himself and thereby grabbing our attention. Or Lovemore, did he not leave a lasting impression? How did he do it? Practice seems to be an important aspect: the more you stand at the top of that table and look at the faces in front of you, the better. In the end, what counts is that you are yourself. You need to discover what kind of presentation style works for you. Practice, practice, practice,...I always love to watch people performing their talk or conversation. Years ago, there was Laure Adler presenting a talk show on French tv. I never missed a show. I learnt so much just from waching her, how she presented her arguments and how she interacted with her guests. Needless to say that they and her topics were very interesting and diverse: young French people of foreign origin who are marginalized, a bull breeder from Southern France with a passion for gardening and plants, an art historian who talks so passionately about paintings that you immediatley went out to get her latest book, and so on. Nothing beats an entertaining and instructive presentation that improves your life and satisfies your curiosity.

Say 'Nice Chicks'

2007-05-06T06:52:00.000-07:00

In the course of our seminar series women's rights and gender relations were eagerly discussed (A big thanks to Bruce for his blog posting in this regard!). These discussions came into sharp focus this afternoon as I went shopping at my local mall. As I walked across the parking lot two young women, dressed elegantly in skirts and high heels, went into the opposite direction. At the same time, three young men crossed our path, one holding a two year-old boy in his arms. All three men looked eagerly at the young women and the one holding the child belted out with a loud voice towards his child: "Say nice chicks", while indulging in an oily grin. I had to pause for a minute to verify if I really saw what my eyes seemed to have registered - I found the entire episode quite odd. Why? Perhaps its a good thing to live in a country where the attraction of women is appreciated, but I also find the public and even confrontational display of gender related excitement disturbing, especially if transmitted to a two year-old boy. Where does welcome consideration end and harassment start? How is this related to men punishing women at taxi ranks for wearing trousers or skirts that are deemed too short? How does the young boy's education about how to relate to women look like?

Conflict Resolution Revisited

2007-05-05T11:33:00.000-07:00

If I say that I encounter conflict, large and small, pretty much everyday, I hope I am not outing myself as a quarrelsome troublemaker. There are always things that irk us and make us pause or draw our attention in one way or another.

Let me then summarize our session on conflict resolution.

There are five major styles that we use to deal with conflict.

We compete. Either we win or we lose. Conflict is a zero-sum game with a clear outcome.

We withdraw and avoid conflict. Both parties loose. Potential conflict is deferred.

We accomodate. One party gives in and loses, the other wins.

We compromise. Both parties agree to meet each other half-way. Both claim a small victory.

We collaborate. Both parties win.

While we can easily conclude that the last style is the most desirable, given the cirucumstances, any other style of conflict might be better suited to preserve our interests. And yet, to create a win-win situation remains the objective of most negotiations and conflict resolutions. Important is that we do not pretend to know the other person's intention. Also, we have to avoid to hold the other person responsible for our feelings.

Let's now look at the 7 steps of the CAN model to resolve conflict.

1. We have to take a breather, reflect on the problem and speak only when we are calm.

2. Before we start to engage on the issues, we need to build trust.

3. Now, we need to set the ground rules of engagement. We have to create a safe and respectful container for our dialogue. They may stipulate that we cannot walk away or that we cannot interrupt the other person.

4. We have to tell our story. Important is that we do not attempt to resolve the conflict yet. We need to hear all the necessary information.

5. We need to become aware of the needs and fears of the other party. We want to know what is really going on.

6. Together, we brainstorm for possible solutions how we can meet each others' needs and wants.

7. Once we have certain solutions on the table, we need to find out if they are practical.

The final point I want to make about the seminar is that to resolve conflict in a sustainble way, we need to understand better our prejudices that lead to conflict. For conflict to result in a positive outcome, we need to rethink our way of doing things, how we think and how our organisations and institutions function. I found this a most valuable insight. Often, it is our prejudice and how we do things that leads to conflict. For this reason, personal growth and development are closely linked to conflict resolution.

Quote of the day

2007-04-29T02:15:00.000-07:00

"We are ugly but we have the music."
Canadian singer Leonard Cohen in 'Chelsea Hotel No.2'

A great day!

2007-04-27T12:56:00.000-07:00

I heard back from the organisation with which I applied for a research position. They congratulated me and now I have to write a 1500 word essay and still go to, or rather I hope to be called in for an interview. Indeed, the competition is tough. Anyway, I like the topic and I will write a concise, analytical and critical essay. If all goes well, my conclusion will enthrall the readers. But the day was also great for another reason. I went on a short hike on the Klipriver Nature Reserve, to the South of Jozi, close to Southgate and Mondeor. The place makes you forget that you are close to Africa's metropolis. I walked through high grass, splendid in its shades of gold, brown and green. There was a wind, and a gentle automn sun was shining on my path. As a came down a ridge, the smell of wild herbs enchanted me and a little later, as I sat down on a warm stone, two Steenbocks suddenly appeared on the other side of the valley. They sensed my presence and stood in silence. After a while, they strode up the hill side. I could hear their movements, carried by the wind and the silence of the valley, as they cut their way through the grass. Magical moments. After a busy week, there is nothing better than connecting with the inner self in the solitude of the outdoors. And all this a fifteen minute car ride away from Wits. How can you not love a city that offers such a thing?

Quizz of the Day

2007-04-26T04:53:00.000-07:00

What is transformation?

a) replace all white people with black people

b) create a more just South Africa

c) become more efficient and improve business and governance structure

Send your answer to thblaser@gmail.com

Online CV Thomas Blaser

2007-04-24T21:34:00.000-07:00

Thomas Michael Blaser
Graduate Centre Humanities
University of the Witwatersrand
Republic of South Africa

Personal

Place of Birth: Berne, Switzerland
Marital status: Single

Education
School

1982 – 1989 Gymnasium Baumlihof, Basel
1990 – 1992 Institut Minerva, Basel
Eidgenossische Matura

University

1994 Capilano College, West Vancouver, Canada

1994-1999 Political Science (Comparative Politics, Political Philosophy)
Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, Canada
Bachelor of Arts

1999-2001 Political Science (Comparative Politics)
Thesis: Official Language Policy in Canada
and Switzerland: Language Survival and Political Stability
McGill University, Montreal, Canada
Master of Arts

2002 - 2008 Political Studies
Thesis: Afrikaner Identity after Nationalism
University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Employment
1997-1998 Immigration Canada, Vancouver, internship and employee
Researched and wrote reports in preparation for legal proceedings

2002 -2005 Tutor: Department of Sociology, Wits University, Johannesburg SOCL 320, States, Market and Economic Policy
SOCL 211, Sociological Theories
SOCL 109, Poverty and Society

2004 Course Lecturer (Evening class):
SOCL 320, Culture, Power & Identity

2005 Tutor, School of Accountancy,
Business Communication, course: ACN 226

2006-07 Ford Foundation research project into races, colours, ethnicities,
gender, class, and sexualities in Johannesburg

2007 – 08 South African Institute of Race Relations, Johannesburg, Researcher (Politics, race, and education)

2008 - 2010 African Futures Institute, Tshwane, Researcher (Futures Studies,
scenario building, and African development)

2010 - Post-doctorate Fellow, Graduate Centre Humanities, University of
the Witwatersrand

Other Activities and Skills

1990-1994 Member of the Othella Dallas Jazz Theater, Basel, Switzerland

2002 -03 Executive Member of the Postgraduate Association (PGA),
University of the Witwatersrand

PGA Representative University Council, Wits University

2002-08 Founding member of the Political Studies Forum,
Wits University
The Forum organises, together with the History Workshop,
lectures by PhD Candidates, national and international visitors.
(www.wits.ac.za/politicsforum).

2005 Carnegie Equity Student Leader for Sustainable Dialogue
Student leaders raise awareness about issues of equity and transformation amongst the student population and the faculty through social and academic events.

2005 Consultant with the Wits Writing Centre

2006 Consultant and presenter for an undergraduate short course, Ethics,
Protocols and Practices of International Research, University of
Virginia, USA

2007 World of Work Training Program, Wits University
A one month Business Training Program in the Faculty of
Humanities, involving workshops with business people which address all aspects of doing business in contemporary South Africa.

Computer - Hardware: IBM and Apple personal computers
- Software: Word Processing (Microsoft Word, Powerpoint) and
spreadsheet (Excel), internet and email

Languages Afrikaans, reading ability
French and German, fluent in oral and written expression

Publications

Journal article:

South African Historical Journal, ‘The Afrikaners and Nation Building in Post-apartheid South Africa’, 51, (2005)

The Journal of South African and American Studies (Safundi), ‘Looking at ‘The Heart of
Whiteness’ in South Africa Today’, vol. 9, issue 1, (January 2008), 81-96.

Chapters in a book:

Fragile Freedom, eds. Greg Cuthbertson and Alan Jeeves ‘A New South African Imaginary: the Afrikaners and Nation Building in Post-apartheid South Africa’ (UNISA Press, Pretoria, 2008).

The South Africa Survey 2007/08, South African Institute of Race Relations, chapters on the economy and education

Reviews:

Canadian Association of African Studies (CAAS) newsletter, 2003, ‘Thinking
Blackness and Africa’. Three Lectures by Achille Mbembe

African Studies Review, 2004,‘Whiteness is just not what it used to
Be’. Melissa Steyn (2002).

H-Net SAfrica, 2007, ‘The Populist Dimension to African Political Thought: Essays
In Reconstruction and Retrieval’, P.L.E. Idahosa (2004)

H-Net SAfrica, 2007, ‘The Illusion of Cultural Identity’, Jean-Francois Bayart (2005)

Politikon, 2009, ‘African Intellectuals in the 19th and early 20th Century South Africa’,
Mcebisi Ndletyana (ed.) (2008)

Newspaper:
Beeld (Johannesburg), ‘Skep nuwe geskiedenis, Afrikaners moet ophou om ‘n ’aparte
groep’ te wees’, Sept. 6, 2005, p. 11

Other:
Basler Afrika Bibliographien, Working Paper Series, 2006, no. 4, ‘Afrikaner Identity after Nationalism’

Conference Papers and Presentations
2002 PhD Forum, University of the Witwatersrand, State and Narration:
Afrikaner Identity

2004 Ten Years of Democracy in Southern Africa: Historical Achievement, Present
State, Future Prospects:

- Queen’s University, Kingston, Canada, May 2-5, 2004, The Afrikaners and
Nation Building in Post-apartheid South Africa

- University of South Africa, Pretoria, August 23-25, 2004, Identity after Nationalism: Young Afrikaners and the New Nation

2005 South African Association of Political Studies (SAAPS) Colloquium,
Pietermaritzburg, 22-23 September 2005, Young Afrikaners: new citizens
of the nation?

2006 Discussant for Rehad Desai’s documentary Heart of Whiteness at the
Graduate Conference, Wits School of Literature and Language Studies, March 18 -19

Seminar Leader: Truth, Reconciliation and Transformation in
South Africa, Interdisciplinary Seminar: Paradigms of Community Engagement in South Africa, Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund and Ikageng Itireleng, Soweto; May 28

Basler Afrika Bibliographien and Namib Resource Centre, and Historisches Seminar University of Basel, Switzerland, June 12, Afrikaner Identity after Nationalism

International Sociological Congress and Junior Sociology Workshop, Durban, July 22-29, Afrikaner Identity after Nationalism

2007 Anthropology South Africa Conference, University of Pretoria,
September, 2007, ‘Transforming Identities among the rainbow nations’s
youth: Interactions across “races, colours, ethnicities”, gender, classes and
sexualities in Johannsburg, with Zethu Matebeni and Brigitte Bagnol

Human Resources Africa Conference, Johannesburg, November 2007, ‘Scarce
skills in 2010’, with Marius Roodt

2008 Presentation to undergraduate students at Wits University, 24 May 2008
‘South Africa Mirror: Socio-economic and political indicators’,

Colloquium on Race and Racism in South Africa, 18 June 2008, University of
South Africa, (UNISA) ‘Race, Racism and Liberalism’

2010 Experience and Experiments: Afrikaners after apartheid,
‘Afrikaners after nationalism: young Afrikaners and the new nation’, University of Stellenbosch, 18 February 2010

Awards
2002-2004 Post-graduate Merit Award, University of the Witwatersrand,
Johannesbrg, South Africa

1994 Dean’s Honor Roll, Capilano College, West Vancouver, BC, Canada

References
Prof. Jonathan Hyslop
Deputy Director, Wits Institute of Social and Economic Research (WISER), University of the Witwatersrand, RSA
hyslopj@wiser.wits.ac.za
011 717 4272

Prof. Shela Meintjes
Chair, Department of Political Studies, University of the Witwatersrand, RSA
meintjess@social.wits.ac.za
011 717 4371

Dr. Alioune Sall
Executive Director, African Futures Institute, Tshwane, RSA
asall@africanfutures.org
012 352 4071/4107

Conflict Resolution In Practice

2007-04-21T05:26:00.000-07:00

Let me thank Berenice de la Croix, director of 'Learning in Practice' for an insightful seminar on conflict resolution. The very same day I put her advice into practice. I had an assignment to do background research, mainly web-based, for a seminar series. My colleague expected me to send some results this week. I was unable to do so as I had a hectic week with emergency meetings and all-night work to deliver submissions for another project. So I sent an email saying I would have more time to deliver research findings on friday and on the week-end. As I wrote the email, I received an email, worded quite strongly, that my failure to meet the deadline was unacceptable and so on. I was very annoyed by the tone and the insinuation that I was not serious about the work. One of the problems was also that I was not fully aware of the deadlines. My colleague sends email after email with lots of words on banal and superfluous things to the effect that I read them only quickly. My first reaction was to send a rebuttal but I took the time to chill, looked out of the window, and reconsidered. Finally, I sent an apology and a very conciliatory email. After all, I was supposed to have done the work before and it was expected to be done. Instead of competing, I went for accomodation. After reflection, I felt some of the blame was justified. Let me add here that I usually choose to compete when dealing with conflict. But in this case, to accomodate was the far better strategy. Indeed, not much was at stake and to accomodate did not cost me anything. So ja, a great thank you to our passionate presenter for offering different strategies for dealing with conflict.

Company Culture

2007-04-18T03:29:00.000-07:00

I was struck by ECI's Janet Pringle's recurrent comment about the importance of fitting in with the culture of the company you intend to work with. Does this apply to all companies? This may also mean that you focus less on your skills and more on who you are, your appearance and so on. This also seems in contradiction to what Andrew Hofmeyr suggested. For him, the focus was on your skills and what you have to offer. Perhpas there are different types of employers and they look for different things in a candidate. I guess the trick is to be aware of what type of comany you want to work with and shape your profile and presentation towards that objective. In an article in the weekly magazine 'noiseweek'the talk was about 'fifo' - fit in or fuck off. There are those who require uniformity and adherence to strict rules but no doubt there are others who look form more diversity amongst the workforce.

Inspiration

2007-04-17T03:37:00.001-07:00

I really liked Andrew Hofmeyr's workshop with us. First, he is a great individual, a real 'mensch'. He came across as an honest, human being. Second, his theme, to think what you have to offer to an employer and even to the world suggests a radically different way of looking for employment. It is about evaluating yourself first, who you are, what you have to offer and then identifying what you can do and with whom. This is an empowering way of thinking about life and the world of work.

Quizz of the day

Who is the author of the following quote:

"There is no lower form of life than guru-hood."

a) Amartya Sen, Nobel Prize Laureate in Economics
b) Roy Blumenthal, Artiste-at-Large
c) Idriss Naidoo, Swami for Transcendental Meditation

Email to thblaser@gmail.com for the answer.

The basics about Blogging (Roy's seminar)

2007-04-15T05:54:00.000-07:00

I was the team leader for the seminar by Roy Blumenthal on Blogging. Here are my notes and summary of the session.

Roy started off by saying that you needto stick to a discipline to keep your blog going. He suggested that we all agree to blog at least three times a week. Lesley felt one could even blog everyday. But the main thing is to be consistent and not disappoint your reader. We should seek consistency but not necessarily perfection.

Roy also mentioned that it is not really the content that counts but that we be successful. I am not quite sure what he meant by this. After all, WHAT I put on my blog matters! So please come forward with any explanations.

A blog is an online diary but it is pointed. I think this means that the blog has to be concise. Avoid rambling on.

A blog is a marketing tool. This does not need much explanation. For our World of Work program, we want to use the blog to communicate with potential employers.

The blog reflects a sharing ethos. You share your thoughts and experiences with others. You offer them something from you and you can also expect somehting in return. You want to share generosity and personal growth with others.

In your blog, you can reveal your ideologies and passions. "You need your blog to be you", Roy said. Your blog is then your personal stamp of identity. Don't try to hide yourself but use the blog to express yourself. People want to know about you and with your blog, you can reveal who you are and how you think.

The blog is then about you as a person. Do not confuse 'person' with 'persona'. Try to post matters that truly show who you are rather than pretending to be someone you are not.

Your blog also shows how you grow over time. Instead of deleting blogs, leave them there so people can see how you have developed. Remember, Dan Sonnenberg from Matrix Consulting mentioned that he does not look for people who know it all but who can learn.

Your blog is like a shark: it has to move to remain alive. So you need to post regularly but you also need to post interesting and meaningful things on your blog. So content does matter?!

Try to make regular updates on your blog. Make sure your blog has personality. The more it says about you, the more interesting it is. You also want to have a focus on your blog. Maybe you can show how you work on your blog towards a specific aim; how it evolves, how it takes shape.

Let me end with a personal observation. While I can understand that the blog has to be you, that is, you want to be authentic and truthful, there are always issues that will be left out. I mean, I write here to a global audience, to every Dick, Tom and Harry in the universe, I even use it to market myself. So there are limitations to what I put on my blog. In this sense, you get a glimpse of 'my truth', but probably not the 'whole truth'.

2007-04-14T07:47:00.000-07:00

How to change fonts and colours of your blog

2007-04-14T07:39:00.000-07:00

A big hi! to all bloggers, especially those from the Wits World of Work program!

Let me share with you how to change the colours and fonts of your blog. From your blog site (ie. thblaser.blogspot.com) you click on 'new post' (upper right hand corner), then choose 'template', then 'fonts and colours'. After you have followed these steps, you should now have different colours and fonts in front of you and you can click on them at your pleasure. After all, as Lesley said at the seminar, colours stimulate your brain and creativity. And I remember, we always made fun in high school of those students who illustrated their assignments with many colours. Maybe they were on to something I did not know at the time...

After having posted my first blog, how do I feel?

2007-04-14T07:19:00.000-07:00

I am feeling good. Even relieved, but perhaps for the wrong reasons. It took me a while to sort out the technicalities so there was some annoyance about getting started. Thinking about the process of blogging over the last 48 hours puts me more at ease about the whole thing. I mean, anyone can access my thoughts directly and respond to it - that is intimidating!

How I feel about blogging?

2007-04-10T03:04:00.000-07:00

I have heard a lot about blogging in the past. People talk about it and you encounter some blogs when you surf the net. I hope the audience will enjoy it; I think I will enjoy it as I like to write. So here I go - my own blog! Raise the curtains!