She Stole My Heart -- Part II

Second question: Detail three comparisons between the US and SA

1) US civil rights movement and SA anti-Apartheid movement: both of these movements occurred around the same time.  The US civil rights movement was a movement led by black Americans fighting for civil liberties and equality under the law and fighting against the segregation regulations across the country.  In SA the anti-Apartheid movement was similar in that black and colored South Africans were fighting for their civil rights, freedoms and equality under the law.  These two movements are different in that the civil rights movement was based on non-violent principles and the anti-Apartheid movements principles turned violent after having no success with non-violent tactics.

2) Colonialism: both the US and SA have experienced colonial rule.  In SA the British colonized the Cape after the Dutch arrived.  The Dutch never officially colonized the Cape.  The British enslaved Africans and brought slaves from Indonesia, India and Malaysia.  The British invaded the inland, taking land away from the indigenous people of South Africa.  In the US, the British, as well, colonized the East Coast, bring slaves over from Africa.  The colonizers also invaded and took the land away from the indigenous people, namely Native Americans.  The settlers eventually fought for their independence from the UK and in a way, black South Africans fought for their independence from the colonizers, only many many years later.

3) Democratic systems: I won't go into the political science analysis of the two countries.  Instead, just an observation.  The US has been a democracy since the constitution, over 200 years.  South Africa has been a democracy for sixteen years.  So the US knows democracy like the back of its hand and South Africa is a transitioning democracy, so it has a lot to learn.  The US is considered a developed country and South Africa is considered a developing country, which I will agree with.  At the same time though, I wonder sometimes is there such a thing as being too developed, and have pockets of low development? Or is the unofficial definition of developed country still having those pockets of underdevelopment, because when is a country ever fully developed? What is interesting is that the US still has problems with poverty, just like South Africa.  Another interesting point is that South Africa has been able to progress quicker with the topic of race and discrimination in its sixteen years as a democracy than the US has been able to do in its lifetime as a democracy.  I feel like there is something wrong with that picture, not to say that South Africa should slow down, though.  They're moving at a pretty good pace.  South Africa still has a long way to go in terms of democratic values, such as equality.  The US as well needs to take a look at its own principles and should maybe take some advice from South Africa and start working through the issues instead of shoving them under the rug.

She Stole My Heart -- Part I

Before going to South Africa, I thought the trip would be like all of my other trips across the pond.  Boy was I wrong.  There have been several experiences that have confirmed for me that South Africa has changed my life.  I'm not just saying that for effects, I really do believe it has changed my life.  The direction I thought I wanted my life to go is definitely not where it is going anymore.  The first experience was standing in Lebo's park.  Just standing there in silence I got a better understanding of the people of South Africa.  They are a people of strong will power and persistence, they are brave, but also forgiving.  It may sound a bit cheesy, but that within the first hour of being in Soweto I seemed to change the outlook on my own life.  The second experience occurred when I felt two small arms wrap around my legs one afternoon.  she was the little girl who clung to me the rest of the afternoon.  This little girl had the face of South Africa, she personified the country for me.  She stole my heart away.  The other experiences come from all of the individuals I've discussed in my blogs, I think in this blog-site, but mainly in my other blog-site www.mesinsa.blogspot.com.  To briefly list those individuals: Lebo, Bilquees (Bo-Kaap), Thabo (DACPM), the women from the SAHPF.  All of these individuals and South Africa, in general, are inspirational and I intend to carry that inspiration with me for as long as I can.  Oh and I loved the scenery. Table Mountain and the beaches were absolutely gorgeous...just thought I would throw that in there.

Moving on to the actual assignment, which will be written in three separate blogs.

First question: two change processes taking place in South Africa.

We can look at the change processes in two ways, at the macro and the micro level.  

1) At the macro level: The government of South Africa and other institutions within South Africa have been building off of the phrase "forgive, but never forget".  These institutions have built monuments to honor lives lost and significant events during the Apartheid and they erected museums to tell the story of the Apartheid, of Mandela's life, of other individuals who fought for freedom and equality.  Good examples of such structures include the Apartheid Museum, the Hector Pieterson Museum, and some of the smaller monuments we saw in the townships.  These structures are meant to remind people of the events that took place, but they should also be a way to make forgiveness and reconciliation a less bumpy road.

2) At the micro level: The micro level seems to be much more effective than the macro level.  Individuals take the initiative.  As stated above, people like Lebo and the women of SAHPF have taken things into their own hands.  The government can only do so much.  These local level grassroots movements are what is changing South Africa, these of the acts that are helping south Africa move forward.  For example, Lebo's does not just benefit the surrounding community, it also benefits the world.  Those that have stayed at Lebo's are entrusted with a duty, or even an obligation.  We must spread the word! Our job is to let people know about Soweto.  We need to tame those fears and let people know that Orlando West welcomes outsiders so that they can see the beauty of the area and the people that live there.  Locally, Lebo employs community members.  The money flow stays within the community.  Just yesterday I was talking to someone and he had said that he didn't want to go to South Africa.  I felt that I was obligated to tell him the what it was really like.  I'm not claiming that crime doesn't exist there.  It does, but crime exists everywhere.  Granted the crime may be more dangerous, because the crime is more violent, but the entire time I was there I didn't witness very much crime.  People shouldn't be discouraged to go there just because of the crime because it is an absolutely beautiful country.  One of Lebo's goals is to encourage more travelers to stay in Soweto to see that the assumptions aren't necessarily true.

Collective Action Problems

I've been back in the US now for about a week and there are some topics I've been meaning to blog about while in South Africa.  I just didn't get around to it.  This blog is mainly based on, yup, you guessed it, collective action problems.  We indirectly discussed this during the lecture by Professor Steyn.  She told us a little bit about herself.  She was born an Afrikaner in the middle of the Apartheid.  The question posed: what does it mean to be Afrikaner in Apartheid? For an Afrikaner born in the middle of Apartheid that was the way of life, a life where segregation was normal.  People outside of the situation cannot claim that those born during Apartheid are racist.  That generation didn't know there was any other option.  It was a way of life.  Looking back on it now, people are being called racist, but in this case it seems that racism is only relative.  If you didn't live during that period in history, it is difficult to understand the situation.  This is an explanation, not an excuse.  The excuse is that there were severe collective action problems.  There were white South Africans who did not support anti-Apartheid, but they were not well known.  The problems seemed to be that those that did know a different option (other than racism) didn't take the initiative to join black South Africans in the fight for freedom.  I can compared this situation to Nazi Germany, likely I almost always do.  Those born into Nazi Germany didn't know any other way of life.  The propaganda tactics Hitler used were extremely well carried out making it difficult for influences from outside of Germany to penetrate the minds of young Germans.

If you are a citizen of the United States today, and are currently living there, there should be absolutely no room for racism.  We are a highly developed society, one that as far as the constitution and the bill of rights claims is equal in every aspect. The problem is that it isn't completely true.  We still have a long way to go until we reach a point where blacks feel as equal in society as whites do, where latinos feel as equal as whites do, and where other minorities can feel as equal as well.  The question is, will we ever reach that point? I'm an optimist, so I'm going to say yes, but there has to be an initiative to get to that point. We need discussion.

Collective action problems are the norm.  They don't only happen at the macro level, but also on the micro level.  During our Peace Circle we discussed the problems we had with buying and cooking food.  Before the trip we had decided we would collaborate and alternate cooking food for the entire group.  When we got to Cape Town, that all kind of fell apart.  Everyone (minus me) went to the grocery store thinking we would buy things collectively and have meals planned out.  Well, it soon turned disastrous and people started reneging on the plan.  For one, we didn't even have a real list.  We didn't sit down before going shopping to discuss what we would eat for dinner.  This situation reminds me of a concept I learned in a class I had last semester: Rousseau's Stag Hunt.  The situation goes as follows.  A group of men gather to go hunt a stag for dinner.  While hunting, one of the hunters' spots a rabbit.  He thinks that if he can catch the rabbit he'll have dinner tonight guaranteed, but that means that the stag will get away and all the other hunters won't have dinner tonight.  Classic collective action problem.  One hunter benefits, while the rest suffer and go home empty handed.  Our grocery shopping situation seemed to fit perfectly in the Stag Hunt Scenario.  We never solved the problem either.  I think had we been there longer we would have eventually figured out a solution to our food problems.  From the beginning, though, we could have discussed the cooking plans before going to the store and even the optimal solution would have been for someone to cook for us every night....but that is getting a little carried away.  Nonetheless it is a solution.

So where do we go from here?

As a group, well, nowhere really.  We won't really all live under the same roof again, so we don't go anywhere.  Hopefully we just all stay friends.

As a country (US), we can only move forward, hopefully.  In order to move forward, though, we need to talk about these issues, instead of ignoring them.  Sidenote: one of our lectures addressed this notion of race and he said that race does not exist.  Race is a social construction.  I believe it 100%.  It has been proven that the origins of humans began in Africa.  We are all the same people, we may just have different color skin, but what does that matter if we are ALL the same?! So Whities, get off your high horses and stand among the real people on this planet.  But for the US that also means that black Americans need to be open to discussing this notion of race.  We need to talk about our past to get over it.

As a country (SA), they can only move forward as well, and they are doing a much better job at it than the US is.  Keep the optimism, the pride, strength and will power to reconcile and resolve the issues at hand.

Anecdotes

I want to start off with another anecdote.  When I lived in Vienna, Austria I went to an American International School (as most of you have heard me say, a lot probably).  I went to school with kids from all over the world, and these kids came from different cultural, ethnic and racial backgrounds.  We are usually referred to as Third Culture Kids (TCK), or children who have spent a significant period of time in one or more cultures other than the one he/she is most familiar with and incorporates that new culture into their own culture at birth.  During my five years in Vienna, I don’t recall ever seeing discrimination because someone was of a different race or religion or ethnicity.  We were all friends and we were all equal.  I didn’t see segregation, in terms of skin color or religion, in the cafeteria, the gym or the classroom.  I think this situation is a perfect example of the Contact Hypothesis.  We all had equal status, the common goal of succeeding in school and cooperation amongst our peers. 

Now for another anecdote.  I moved back to the U.S. for high school and I ended up attending a private school in the affluent suburbs of Philadelphia.  For the first three years of my high school career I was stuck in this perpetual culture shock.  I went from attending a school that had a highly diverse population, to a school that had a mainly a white population of not so diverse people, at least in my view.  I didn’t know how to handle it and I ended up pretty much alone for three years of high school.  However, I did befriend a few people the first few weeks of freshman year, and they were surprisingly not white.  There is a minority population of black students at my high school, most of who commute from inner city Philadelphia.  The first few days of classes, two wonderfully friendly black girls immediately accepted me as a friend.  It seems that I somehow had automatically gravitated towards what I felt was most comfortable for me, and the people I thought to be the most diverse in my class.  I think I had subconsciously sought out the little bit of difference within my high school community.  Even though this happened, I still noticed some natural segregation when eating lunch in the cafeteria or sitting in class.  Going back to the Contact Hypothesis, though, it seems I subconsciously (because I am only realizing it now) created an equal status between us, thus making way for the other factors of the hypothesis.

Now we can take a look at the dynamics of our group.  We are a group of seven people with varying personalities and quirks and differing values and goals and we were put in a situation of having to live with each other in close quarters for about three weeks.  An interesting setting to experiment with the Contact Hypothesis.  I know we all have one common goal for sure, which is completing this course successfully, which will entail working together, collaborating and communicating with each other to ensure that we all make it out alive, so to say.  This puts us on equal status as well, and I think in the end there will be a positive outcome to this trip, even if it isn’t getting the grade you were really hoping for.  Being in such close quarters has also made us reconcile our differences, even if that means just agreeing to disagree.  I know I have definitely learned a lot for each person in the house, and I’ve learned a lot about myself and realized that there are certain things I need to change.  I seem to be adding another identity to the many I’ve established over the years.  This trip has ensured that we go through this experience so that we ourselves can perhaps somewhat understand the obstacles South Africa is going through to accomplish reconciliation, but I don’t think our reconciliation is at all as difficult as theirs.

This Notion of Race

An interesting point was made the other day in relation to how the U.S. is reconciling its past compared to South Africa is reconciling theirs.  It is quite obvious that South Africa has come a long way in a mere 16 years.  I think one of the main reasons for this is the fact that most South Africans are very open when it comes to talking about race.  The U.S., on the other hand, does not seem to be open to talking about race.  A lot of times people in the U.S. will get offended very easily if someone brings up this topic of race.  Now what we see in the U.S. is everyone ignoring the issue.  One could say it is almost taboo to discuss our differences or even just bring up the topic of race.  We as Americans act as if differences in race or ethnicity don’t exist, and yet we say we are open to diversity and pride ourselves on our ability to accept different ethnicities into our society.  I know I have always felt awkward talking about race to people, but I have also realized that I have been desensitized, so to say, to being able to talk about race.  As in, I just haven’t really brought up the topic anymore.  Therefore, I too, am at fault for not taking the initiative to start a discussion on race to be able to at least start reconciling this black-white divide. 

I’ve thought about something that Professor Don Foster said today in a lecture on Reconciliation in South Africa and this concept of racialization.  We had discussed the Contact Hypothesis that basically states that if a group of people has equal status, a common goal and cooperation, a positive outcome and the possibility of a personal level of friendship, then people will be able to reconcile their past and their differences.  The most important aspect of this hypothesis, I think, is the common goal because that seems to bring people together, which facilitates the three other aspects.  We see a disconnect of this hypothesis everywhere in the world.  Using South Africa as an example, there are many obvious places to look to find segregation.  This segregation though is not written in legal form, it seems to be a natural, behavioral aspect of humans.  Universities and beaches in South Africa are obvious spaces of society where people naturally segregate.  There is a social construction of race in these public areas.  Whites will gravitate towards a certain area of the dining hall, or the beach, as will Blacks, Coloreds and Indians.  One of the main reasons for this natural segregation is this concept of security.  Fear of the unknown.  The ridiculous part about this semi-vicious circle is that people don’t want to take the time to learn more about each other.  So the circle goes, for example, whites are afraid to interact with blacks because 1) they have assumptions like associating blacks with crime and violence, 2) therefore they don’t talk to blacks to learn that this is not necessarily the case, 3) they stay away from blacks “for their own safety”, thus there is no contact, no communication, no knowledge sharing, and the continued fear of the unknown. 

This question of danger and security is an interesting one, though.  Months before arriving in South Africa, I will admit that I was definitely scared about coming here because of all the stories I had heard about muggings, robberies and murders.  In a way, I prepared myself very well for this trip in terms of maintaining my safety in South Africa.  By the time April rolled around, though, there was no point in me being scared or nervous about traveling to South Africa anymore because, well, I was already committed to going, so what was I going to do about it? I knew I was taking a risk, but where there is a (reasonable) risk, I will find a way to do it.  Taking risks is part of life, and without them, you are not truly living it.  So I would continue to hear these stories of crimes and violence, but I had to turn a blind eye, in the sense that I couldn’t think about it.  I acknowledged that it happened and moved on.  Since my arrival in South Africa I have not experienced any sort of violence (knock on wood).  This is a completely different experience than the stories people, and the media, had been telling me.  It confuses me a great deal.  While in South Africa I feel like I have experienced the real South Africa, if you will, but the more I think about it, I don’t really think I have.  I’m not saying I want to experience the crime and violence that happens here, but I don’t feel like I am living in reality.  The house my classmates and I are living in is walled in, with barred windows and a lockable gate on the front door.  I feel like I live in a prison.  These protections are everywhere for a reason, but it hinders my ability to gauge what is actually happening in South Africa.  We may walk around the townships and the city, but we still don’t understand the full reality of what really makes South Africa tick.

In terms of reconciliation for South Africa, Don Foster did a good job of telling it how it really is and has reaffirmed what I’ve been saying.  This is a process that will take a long time.  Reconciliation should and cannot be rushed, and I think there are South Africans out there who have been doing there best to work at their own pace to make sure reconciliation works the first time around.

The Error of Developmentalism

I wanted to touch upon this idea.  I learned this in my Political Geography class and I definitely think it applies to South Africa.  Developmentalism is a concept that looks at the reasons developing countries are having trouble developing.  It proposes that developing countries can’t develop efficiently because developed countries have created rules and regulations to keep developing countries from developing.  Countries such as the United States and Britain developed early in history.  Today’s developed countries did not have restrictions or already developed countries above them to be restricted.  They were able to develop freely without others dictating the way those countries had to do things, economically and socially.  Today, though, developing countries do not have the option to develop at their own pace.  These developing countries have to accelerate the process to be able to compete on the same level as developed countries.  Speeding up this development process tends to devastate the social and economic structure of a country.  The error then is this: Developed countries are dictating how developing countries should develop, when the development process is different for each country. 

A simple explanation follows: Looking at the United States during colonialism, there are obvious signs of human rights violations.  During that time period, though, this wasn’t so much considered as violations of human rights.  Things like slavery and child labor were a normal part of civil life.  As the United States evolved its political and social values, human rights became more of an issue.  Today the United States takes this topic pretty seriously and the United States is now one of the leading countries developing the rules and regulations for international human rights advocacy institutions.  Now look at a developing country.  Certain Asian countries have child labor and sometimes even slavery.  These countries began developing at a later time than the already developed United States, so these developing countries are still working through some of these issues.  It may seem strange for me to say this, but institutions currently in place to regulate human rights, or other social problems in developing countries may not be the best thing for that country.  Don’t get me wrong, I am a big supporter of human rights, but what is the point in forcing these regulations on developing countries when they don’t follow them half the time anyway? The United States was able to work through these issues, and I’m (not, but I’m kind of) sure that these developing countries can do the same if they were allowed to developed at their own pace. 

This brings me to South Africa.  It certainly is one of the most developed countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, but socially, it still has a long way to go.  South Africa is a transitional democracy, which means it doesn’t necessarily have all of its ducks in a row.  Segregation is still a major issue.  Today while in the bus we say various landmarks separating white communities from black communities, and you could definitely see the difference in the development of the communities.  For some reason, when I say those concrete walls with barbed wire separating the communities I thought of the Berlin Wall.  The Berlin Wall was erected to keep East Germans on the Eastern side of Germany, and to keep them from becoming westernized.  This is obviously a type of segregation, not necessarily racial, but a separation of West from East, luxurious from simple.  I don’t necessarily believe these divisions in South Africa had to do completely with race, but also with social standing/classes.  Both in the GDR (German Democratic Republic) and South Africa we see this segregation.  For South Africa, though, these walls still stand.  This makes it clear that segregation has not disappeared, whereas in Germany it has, for the most part.  Our guide today also explained that many government officials or elitists do not want foreigners to see the various townships in Cape Town because they don’t want foreigners to now about the affects of Apartheid.  It isn’t about the crime. 

Another aspect of today that I found interesting was this notion of peace.  What is peace? What does peace mean for me? How does my definition of peace compare to someone else’s definition of peace?  Our guide today explained that we cannot have peace in war, but in order to have peace we must forgive.  He explained this notion of peace a bit through an example.  He does not believe that, for the most part, people are racist.  He does believe, however, that there are a select few who still are, and that they are the ones influencing society.  This is a type of social categorization.  He realized that dwelling on the past was useless and wouldn’t help the process of reconciliation or development.  He explained that one cannot be racist if the country was to be united.  Today also reaffirmed an aforementioned comment concerning the value of information.  He believes that the value of participation is important.  We learn more about each others cultures, and we gain knowledge through information to reduce the risk of grievances, conflict, violence, misperceptions and misunderstandings.  One of the most important and interesting comments he made though was that he believed he was not necessarily fighting race, but he was fighting the system.  Now, in order to unite the country, the labeling of people needs to be done away with.  We are all Africans, color is not important.  He wants to build a non-racial South Africa.

Some of the questions I had today: If everyone has a different view of peace, then how can true peace ever be achieved? Where is the consensus?  Lastly, if you do comment on this blog, I would love to see what your definition of peace is.

The Breakfast Club - The Remix

I wanted to use this blog post to comment on the relationship we all have in the house (and outside of the house).  Please note that I do not intend to offend anyone in anyway, so if you feel that I have, please come talk to me in person. 

Since before the trip even began I felt like we had really good group dynamics.  We all seem pretty different, and yet we are similar at the same time.  Since it’s about 11 pm, my brain isn’t functioning to its full capacity, but if it were I would certainly create an adjective for each of us and call us the new and improved Breakfast Club.  I can say that, for the most part, we all come from different social circles back in Boulder, and it is certainly a combination of students that I did not expect to interact with on this trip.  I understood why the International Affairs students would come on this trip, but to be honest, it did shock me to find that I would be spending three weeks with a Frat boy (Jack).  I also questioned why a music major would want to come on this trip as well (Ryan).  Bare in mind, these are first impressions, and I guarantee they have changed, but I feel it is important to detail how I got to where I am right now.  I know we all have our own reasons for coming on this trip and taking this class, but we all seemed to commit for similar reasons, or at least that is how it seems to me.  Mainly I wanted to (1) learn more about South Africa’s history, because it is not really taught in the U.S. and yet we’ve had semi-similar histories, and (2) I also joined the class because I am very passionate about the process of reconciliation and conflict resolution.  I hope to one day build a career in such an area of expertise. 

Everyone has assumptions when they first meet someone, or travel to a new place and I think that is the case for all of us.  But, to tie this into the class, we also seem to be reconciling our differences within our own little community.  One way, I observed, that we are doing this is through the gathering of information.  We may not share that common history, like South Africa, but we are learning more and more about one another.  We are taking the time to understand where each of us comes from, and who we really are.  This, I find, is an important first step to cooperating and getting along with one another.  We cannot reconcile our differences if we don’t understand the other side of the story.  Only when we understand each other, will it be easier to trust and also to forgive. 

We have a commonality within our group, and that is that we all seem to be so incredibly happy to be in South Africa.  We may not all be here for the same reasons, but we are all here nonetheless.  If we can all at least have that in common, we can work towards a communal goal.  We have something to unite us. 

I’ve also observed the dynamics of life in the house.  An interesting observation has to do with the first day we got to the house in CT.  We all chose our rooms, perhaps a bit reluctantly, but it turns out that the boys are separated from the girls.  Both guys took over the two rooms on the top floor, while the rest of us (all girls) received the rooms on the bottom floor.  Right off the bat, I see a subconscious segregation.  I don’t believe that was intentional, but it is as such nonetheless.  I have also noticed that cooperation with one another varies.  On the first day no one seemed to want to give in to sharing a room.  I offered to share a room, but still no one want to come forward to share with me.  I reneged on my offer, and yet I still ended up sharing a room and I’m fine with it.  Even though I am an only child and I absolutely love to have my privacy, that really isn’t an option in this house, no matter if you are sharing a room or not.  My point with this example is that we are/were still not at the point where we have enough information about one another to really trust each other and therefore put more out there than we currently are. 

An experience I was very happy to have had was talking to Jack.  (I did get permission from Jack to post this).  Thus far in my college career I have successfully avoided the Fraternity/Sorority scene, but low and behold I have the opportunity to be face to face with Jack, a member of Phi Psi.  I will certainly admit that I have a lot of assumptions about frat-boys.  They like to party, A LOT, and they aren’t motivated to do well in school at all, nor do they seem to care about their future.  (Note: I am making a short generalization about the frat-boy stereotype and this does not necessarily reflect my opinions of Jack.)  I also seem to be the person on the trip to ask blatant questions and I asked Jack to help me understand what it is he is doing on this trip.  I was able to confront him with some of the problems I was having coming to terms with things (not) occurring during class.  To briefly explain, I am very passionate (as stated above) about the topic of this class and when I observed Jack’s behavior in class, as in not participating and my assumption was that he didn’t really care about the class, I became frustrated and offended.  I was able to have an open discussion with him.  We talked it through and I was actually surprised by some of the things he had to say, which made me change my views and opinions about him as well.  I still may not agree with some of his reasoning’s, but I was, nonetheless, able to come to a consensus with him.  This example I feel is a great example of how two people can reconcile differences.  Not only did we discuss our differences, but we also learned a lot about each other.  Information is one of the most powerful tools out there.  It opens so many doors.  The story I told during my discussion with Jack about my experience with truth and forgiveness also allowed for Jack to learn more about my history as an individual, and I learned about his individual history, furthering this process of reconciliation.

These are just a few of my thoughts, and I’m sure there are more to come.  As of right now I think we have an amazing group dynamic and I hope it stays that way!