Government sponsored dependency

First, Deputy President of South Africa Jakob Zuma has been fired by President Thabo Mbeki for his role in a corruption scandal. This is great news for the country I believe. It shows that the government is serious about fixing the corruption problem here and the “get rich quick” mentality that plagues this nation from top to bottom. It remains to be seen what will happen to Zuma and Mbeki though. Hopefully this does not backfire on Mbeki politically or cause a schism in the ANC.

Second, the G8 has recently decided to forgive the debt of 14 goverments in Africa. However, this to me sends the wrong message to corrupt governments and from the top-down continues the cycle of dependency.

I think the fundamental problem with government and the services it offers is that they create dependency. For example, in the HIV clinic here in the Cape Flats, pregnant unemployed HIV positive mothers often come in for testing and treatment because they receive free drugs counseling and also get free food parcels for 3 months. When the food parcels run out, they leave often discontinuing treatment. Both parties lose: The government pays out this subsidy without the desired effect and the mother’s poverty and disease are not alleviated.

What is needed instead is something like microfinance which allows THE POOR THEMSELVES to take responsibility for generating their own income, build their credit, save and invest and stabilize their own lives. Unfortunately, this kind of grass roots effort has only been able to have a positive effect in the absence of these “FREE” government services. When a loan is put alongside a grant, the loan does not work.

This seems very related to the short term (corruption) mentality I have observed here where people think it better to scheme others to get money instead of making money legitimately.

I read an article the other day describing the Disability Grant policy which allows late stage AIDS patients to receive a subsidy of 620 Rand (about $100 USD) from the government. The diagnosis of what defines late stage HIV/AIDS is in the hands of doctors. However, often people will try to abuse the system, coming to the doctor only for the money but not for real treatment. This kind of attitude is short term, unsustainable and ultimately very damaging to the patient and his/her community. It also is incompatible with Microfinance.

Emergency Medicine in SA

Been a pretty chill week so far. Did have one day of riding around in an ambulance on a 12 hour Emergency Medicine shift. As with every other gov service here, too few ambulances for too many people. The ambulance station (about 20 vehicles) in Mitchell’s Plain serves Kayelitsha and MP (total about 2 million people). In addition, they are plagued with inefficiency. Ambulance techs are underpaid and overworked, take much longer than usual to respond because 1) they cannot tell what is an urgent call and what isn’t – as a result they take a lot of bogus call by people who just want a ride to the hospital for routine stuff 2) Often they cannot even find the locations they are going to because roads and signs are crappy.

What this all results in is a painfully slow and quite inadequate public service. It further results in motivating people that can make a little money to buy private insurance, take private ambulances, to private hospitals and furthering the inequality gap.

Tuesday and Wednesday so far have been just as chill. Lots of hanging out with the host family, sleeping and just chilling out. I will go to the Langa clinic (in a formerly black township where HIV prevalances is 80 percent).

More Pics from SA!

Went on the Garden Route tour this weekend, here are some fresh pics

Me getting ON an ostrich at the Ostrich farm in Kango

Me getting ON the ostrich (all limbs intact) at the Ostrich farm in Kango . . . crazy ride man . . .

Rip-cording through the forest on a canopy tree tour . . . This must be what an Ewok feels like

The June CFHI students and me at the Kynsner Heads (at the cross section of the Indian and Atlantic Oceans).

My humble attempt at artsy photography . . . the pink sunset in the Kynsner bay

The Lion pride at the Botlierskaap Nature Reserve (we got up a little too close for comfort!)

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A GATSBY! Arguably, the biggest sandwich I have ever seen (feeds 4 normal people)! Steak, eggs, spicy french fries, salad, anything you could want! Gonna try to take down a whole one by the end of the trip . . . muhwahwahwa

SA PICTURES!!!

By popular request here are some pictures from the first week of Capetown!

Here’s the room I am staying in – notice I have already made it homey (ie messy).

My homestay family – from the right Mrs Arnold, Waleed and his wife Zainab, Mr. Arnold and Nafeesah

Our program coordinator Marion (read: Meeeeerrrrion) and I on lookout point overlooking the city

Table Mountain from the Waterfront

The sunset from Table Bay

Shack housing typical of that found in Langa one of the formerly black African townships

Taking a deep breath

Finally, I have a down day after some craziness. The weather here is really just like San Fran. It can be sunny and perfect one day and cold and wet the next. The people respond accordingly. Nice and cheery one day, sullen and cross the next. Tomorrow we have our first weekly meeting with the students and so far I think things are going great. There are really no problem kids in this group of twenty students this month. Even the quiet and reserved ones are starting to come around. I like to think that this has something to do with me being here and being available to them to help with problems, miscommunications, etc. For example, one student wanted to do an extra Emergency Med shift yesterday and although Marion had already spoken with her, I was able to supplement some background about the politics of the hospital we were dealing with and how we would try to get her the extra shift, but if it didn’t happen she shouldn’t be too disappointed.

Apparently, something as simple as setting and resetting expectations for people can be a really useful thing. Translation: I like my job here

Oppression sucks man

I finally finished reading the history section of my tour book last night. It seems that much of the roots of what happened here with Apartheid can be traced back to the Anglo-boer war (boer is the word they use here to refer to Europeans) when the British used scorched earth tactics and concentration camps to subjugate the colonials in SA and reassert their dominance in the country. This shock led to the Afrikaner broederbond (brotherhood) movement in which Afrikaners (originally poor white working class) began to imagine an independent, all Afrikaner country. This sort of paranoid nationalism emerges and later becomes fully devoloped in part due to the influence fascist ideas from Germany during the 1940s. Perhaps in some way, the paranoia of the white governing class during apartheid can be traced back to this struggle?

Its interesting that the same cycle of colonial history repeats itself everywhere. Group A by force of arms subjugates Group B and divides it into Group B and C by class/race. Group B is allowed to become better off both to create a buffer between A and C as well as to justify that Group A’s colonial policies are “helping the people”. Eventually, it becomes economically and militarily possible for Group B to replace Group A at the top and they buy Group C’s allegiance with the promise of a better life. Group B replaces Group A under a banner of independence. Meanwhile Group C finds out that their new leaders are no better than the old leaders but they are unable to do anything about it.

“Democratic” South Africa – some observations

In spite of the democratic ideals by which the current government, the ANC or African National Congress, won the 1994 election is awash with corruption at all levels. From talking to former taxi drivers, the various homestay families, residents in the community and from reading the press, corruption here extends all the way from the bottom to the top. At the top, the ANC leaders are definitely not setting a good example for the rest of the country. Recently, the news has been all about a story in which the Deputy President Zuma accepted bribes to help a local businessman secure a government arms contract. Both the businessman and Zuma’s roles in this shady deal have been uncovered and Zuma and other government officials are now under pressure to resign.

From the bottom, we took a tour of the African (Black) townships on Sunday. Many of these shanty towns are constructed from corrugated iron and lack basic services like food and water. We also saw a series of tents in place of one square block of these shanty towns. Apparently, a fire had destroyed this area of townships and the government had used emergency monies to provide tents and food to the people here and then transition them to public housing. However, upon further inquiry it seems that residents of other townships often will set up a shack in the shanty towns and then burn it all down so that they can get a new house from the government plus food and services then sell it for a profit. My host dad tells me of other schemes in which people acting as local government promise the poor a subsidized house, take their deposits and disappear, fake doctors sell prescriptions to people, people steal electricity from street lights on homemade wires and sell it to the poor. I have been to a local pub in Langha where I talked to someone who passed himself off as a government official by giving me some false information about the poverty and lack of housing in the area and suggesting that we should “arrange a meeting” if I wanted to help the local residents.

In short, corruption is rampant here and goes from the top to the bottom. Many of the elected representatives use their political privilege as a cash card and young adults and teenagers roam the streets of the poor townships working up schemes to trick the rich and the poor out of their money. The attitude really is one of “why work when I can just take money from people with a clever scheme?”

Helping people

I sat in an HIV positive support group today for pregnant mothers with HIV. The six women who were there lived in the African townships of Langa, Kayelitsha etc and were unemployed, unmarried and often could not disclose to anyone about their disease for fear of social stigma. They are yet probably the lucky ones who have the courage and access to treatment. Despite the fact that access to care is free for these mothers, they are all unemployed and have no other income generating income. This seems to me the prime target market for microfinance borrowers. The conversation was in Xhosa (an African language involving clicks), the people were real, the Xhosa/English social worker was truly trustworthy and capable, and somehow I really felt that I have finally met today those who I am intended to help.

Simultaneously, I received an intro email from someone at DMS who is introducing me to someone doing microfinance here. Hopefully, I can actually help some people start income generating activities while I am here.

Mini bus taxi rides

Day 5 in SA and I am starting to get the hang of it. Just took my first ride on a minibus taxi. To give you an idea, just try to imagine 20 people jammed into a ghetto VW van that is supposed to seat 11, careening around corners, with one guy with his head out the side window hawking for more passengers.

Anyway, apparently its not safe for tourists to use because there have been some problems with gangs going on the taxis with the target and once the bus is on the road, robbing them. Luckily for me, my host dad Waleed comes with me and carries his piece with him. Somehow, when you forget about the safety concerns, it becomes kind of fun.

Capetown Geography 101

The geography of this city says a lot about its history and character. Right next to the airport in the eastern part of the city, there are several formerly “coloured townships” which are segmented into square residential communities by four uncrossable highways. Vanguard Estates is where I am staying. Vanguard is just one of the townships that makes up the Capetown Flats. These townships are the result of Apartheid policies which resettled people by ethnicity and discouraged interaction between communities. Just to our east are the wine estates. Can’t wait to go wine tasting!

To our northwest is the Table Mountain which is like a flat topped mountain (it really does look like a table). Lately the clouds have covered the top but I am told it is beautiful during the summer time (December, January is summer here). Past Table Mountain is the waterfront and city centre which looks, feels and is exactly like a modern European city. The waterfront area has several posh malls and touristy things like sidewalk cafes movie theaters, etc.

Transportation is going to be the key issue here. Between the townships and the City centre, it is about 20km of highway. Since the minibus taxis are not safe, the only means of transport is really private cars . . . I think I am going to try to learn how to drive stick shift and on the other side of the road so I can have some more freedom to move around.