Botanical Gardens

I realised over the weekend that I needed to get some 'green' time. I find that although I never intend to live outside of a major urban area again (except perhaps in England) - Sorry Mum and Dad - I do need to be surrounded by or at least get a decent dose of 'greenness' every couple of weeks. In Australia that just meant wandering through Victoria Gardens 100m from my flat. Here, it's a little more of a challenge. So I went to Emmarentia Botanical Gardens on Sunday and walked around for an hour. It was lovely!


I also took some pictures of the two towers - Brixton (on the left) and Hilbrow (on the right). Both towers are in areas you wouldn't want to frequent after dark (or at any time in Hilbrow) if you look like me!








I have a tshirt that was made as part of a visual literacy programme. It has Hilbrow Tower on it.

Both were used by the Apartheid regime. They controlled all media and were more than a little paranoid about what got on the air. They never introduced tv until 1976! Afeared as they were that it would lead to the "destruction of a white South Africa". I guess they were right about one thing, even if nothing else! Although, the role played by tv in the struggle movement is higly problematic and deeply questionable. Still, it makes an interesting case study! I'm working on some research examining the introduction of tv to SA at the moment. If I find some particularly delightful (and by delightful I mean abhorrent and unashamedly racist and patronising) material in the Hansard, I'll try and share!

Teaching and Learning

We've just about finished week 3, because of the many and varied issues most of our students have with visas means that we don't start tutorials until this week. It's been strange waiting this long to get to know my classes. Tutes began and so now I have 50 or so new faces to get to know. I realised last semester that I recognise people regularly by their hairstyles, which doesn't work so well in a population that about once a fortnight changes the hair extensions, corn rows or other designs of their hair. But I'm slowly learning - the names are getting a little easier.
Some of my students have awesome names - Mwazvita, Naa-Odaaley, Lwamainsa, Bonang, Zwakele and Ditso. I, of course, absolutely mis-pronounce and otherwise do violence to their given names, which usually have lovely meanings. Still, I'm trying. I have managed to get my head around Thokozani and Sibongiseni, so things do get easier. And now Nthabiseng and Sibusiwe are walks in the park!
The strangest part about my life here, which I'm slowly coming to recognise, is that I'm actually not exposed to much of 'Africa' as it is sold in the tourist books or novels. I was told about the Shona hierarchies and kinship regimes the other night and it struck me that I really am having a very urban and western experience here. I don't know of or hear of or experience life outside of a very middle class, urbanised, Westernised worldview and framework. Obviously, living in Jozi means that going along to traditional ceremonies is not really on the cards, but it feels like my communication here is one way, and that is less than satisfying. Of course, that's not entirely a bad thing, but I really need to make an effort to experience something other than that which I could have anywhere else. I'm going to Zandspruit this weekend to do our community engagement programme at Masakhani Primary, so I'll at least see some of what 'real life' is like in the informal settlements.

PS. My internet is still "intermittent" which at the moment means not working at all, but as soon as it's up and running I'll post some pictures!

In praise of pavement

Unlike my other friends who have been doing this for a really long time, I'm not very good at consistently updating my blog.
So what's been going on in the last few months? I've been to Australia, to Malaysia and am now back in Jozi.
It's a strange feeling returning to the place where your life is taking place, even if you emotions around that place are ambiguous. I love it here and I hate it. There are things about this city, and my life in it, that I like very much. There are also things that make me angry, really angry on a daily basis.
I always though tPerth drivers were awful, the ones here are many, many times worse. Most people complain of the Taxi drivers, they drive Toyota mini-buses and are the main method for most people who can't afford a car (which is most people) to get from a to b, to work and home again. The taxis are often overcrowded and the drivers can and do stop basically anywhere - freeway, highway, busy street. Part of the problem behind this is the lack of regulation that goes on, or at least that is how it seems to me. Plus the lack of infrastructure and the explicit denial by developers to include taxis in their civic planning. There are almost no taxi ranks, that is safe places off of the street where commuters can wait for their ride. The most common way of catching a cab is to hail it with a hand signal (which deserve a study in and of themselves!) on the side of the road. And we're not talking about suburban streets here, but dual carriageways or worse. The congestion that comes with taxis randomly stopping, and the danger it puts other road users in is insane. But that's only one part of the problem, the fact that the drivers have to do a set number of runs means that they literally take their (and their passengers and anyone else on the road) lives into their hands. They do things with a mini-bus I didn't think were possible without a turbo charger! I admire them their dexterity and tenacity. I dislike the carnage that occurs on an almost daily basis.
Before I left Joburg, in the weeks leading up to my flying to Perth, I saw three dead bodies on the roadside. I don't own a car. I borrow one from my very kind and generous boss's wife on occasion. So I drive to and from work with another incredibly generous colleague, and that's about it. I don't spend hours on the road each day, so to see three dead people is, well, saying something.
Pedestrians regularly get run over, and not only by taxis. I have seen the most discourteous and downright dangerous driving here, more so than the streets of Naples, more so than the hoons in country WA. Here, to take a corner blind, which turns directly onto a dirt road, at 80 km an hour seems the norm, the driver got annoyed when we beeped at her for nearly taking us out. In fact, by comparison, the taxi drivers are safer, at least you know they're going to be crazy!
That said, and the rantings are much easier to express than the things that make me smile, things here are not so bad. In fact, that I am so upset by the occasional driver who is rude, dangerous or simply shouldn't be behind the wheel of a car, says to me that by and large, things aren't so bad. They are the exceptions rather than the rule.
I just wish they'd put in pavement for pedestrians. So much could be fixed with 1.2 metres of concrete slabs on one side of the road.
Anyway, I promise nothing, but I'll try to update more, and with pictures. Next time.

Update

Wow, sorry, it's been a month. I was waiting for internet at home, and then that died. Sigh. So I don't have pictures to put up for you! I have my stuff! It arrived a couple of weeks ago, which is just fantastic! I now have a wardrobe that consists of more than variations on the same three outfits. YAY!
We're at the end of semester, and things are more than a little crazy. I have a little bit more marking - the examiners' meeting on Monday and then its on to how quickly I can write the three papers I've promised to do.
Anyway, my rental car for the weekend just arrived, so I'd best go and get it! Yay! Swaziland! I'm going there for the weekend!

Week 13

I'm not very good at updating this thing, am I?
My stuff has still not arrived. I am in the last week of semester - thank goodness. My last class is tomorrow and then nothing but marking from here on out. oh joy. But at least I won't have to prepare classes too.
It's been an interesting semester. With over a fifth of my class resubmitting because they plagiarised, it's a little different to Clayton. Still, I have some good students too. And my honours students are great.
Anyway, I must now prepare for my last class of the honours unit. We're doing revision! Hurrah!

the frustrating wait

My things are now somewhere between Durban and Jo'burg. The guy thinks I should, all things going well, get them by late next week. sigh. I really would like my knives. And my pots and plates.
Oh well.
I've been talking with one of my colleagues about exciting possibilities in terms of what next to write. I have a couple of projects waiting for me to stick my pen (or my typing fingers) into them. It will actually be exciting to have the time to write. At the moment I'm just marking - lots and lots of marking. Here again, a couch would be advantageous. A desk at home too. Anyway, so I'm planning finally to write a book. It won't be the book I thought I was going to write, I think it's going to be far more wide ranging. But that's cool. The book I want to write requires time in archives in England and the US and that simply isn't possible at the moment. Although if the markets crash there and not here, it might be more possible! Not that I'm wishing that on anyone.
Anyway, I am frustrated, if for no other reason than I have no summer clothes and the temperatures are beginning to resemble February in Perth. ie. hot. damn hot.
But, to count my blessings; I have a beautiful niece who turned one today! Yay! I have a lovely apartment, albeit very empty. I have great colleagues who are willing to pick me up and drop me home. I have an awesome temporary housemate (aren't they the best kind!) who is organising Indian for dinner tonight! I have a couple of good students and the rest can only improve (particularly after I give them a bullocksing on Monday). Tomorrow is cultural day and I'm making salad. Plus I'm meeting with the University of Botswana tomorrow. So there are all sorts of things happening. And we're going to try to go to an elephant sanctuary this weekend! Awesome! So many kinds of good things are happening. Plus it's only two months and a couple of weeks until I'm back in Oz and I can see all you good people! Hurrah!

Mbeki

The President of South Africa was forced to resign over the weekend. I didn't hear Mbeki's speech, but I did hear the Secretary General of the ANC make the announcement. He wasn't very convincing. It seemed like he was dodging questions and giving the typical bland responses one expects from a politician. It also seemed like the press corp were not exactly well known within the press conference. Perhaps I've been watching too much West Wing. Perhaps the people involved were simply not used to calling on the press. But surely asking 'the guy in the orange t-shirt after the lady over there' is not the most professional manner in which to address the press. Moreover it shows that hte moderator was really not sure over who she was giving the microphone too - actually the sound quality was so appalling I don't think there were microphones. I didn't hear any foreign press either, but that could be due to the lack of microphones. Surely it is sensible for government to be aware of who they are giving voice to - not in order to control it necessarily, although that certainly happens, but because being aware of who is speaking because they represent, or claim to in any case, the public sphere and the people in all their diversity within that sphere.
The press here, it seems, tend to speak in the same direction - they don't all say the same thing - but diversity of opinion and a good old fashioned dust-up between different perspectives within the fourth estate doesn't seem to occur regularly.
Anyway, the President has been recalled and so now we can expect a new one to be appointed over the next few days. Interesting times - a Chinese curse.
On a happier note, it's Heritage Day tomorrow - no one seems to know what that's all about but it scores me a day off so yay! Then the Brotherus Minimus' birthday on the 25th! Hurrah!