Week 12: Light to Egoli Relevant Research

I thought it would be great to get more insight into how the JuzBox works. The JuzBox, a mobile, rechargeable power pack that is able to charge small devices, was designed by Billy Hadlow, a South African entrepreneur, and integrated into a business venture called Khaya Power. This business works with budding entrepreneurs in shantytowns, or informal settlements, to rent out the JuzBox as a charging station to paying customers. More information below.

African Innovator of the Month
This entry explains how Khaya Power came to be, how the JuzBox works, and sheds light on its creator, Billy Hadlow.

Going Beyond Batteries to Solve Energy Poverty in South Africa
An interview with Billy Hadlow.

Week 11: Egoli Service Project

For our project we will be working with Egoli Electricity to provide affordable, basic electricity to the rest of the township-approximately 3/4. I am eager to work on this project which I understand addresses a pressing issue for citizens of the townships and the rest of the country as a whole. Providing electricity for those who have little to no access to other amenities within South Africa is a crucial step to bridging the gap in living conditions  and wealth in the country. I found two articles in my research that address just how serious this issue is.

Unplugged

This sums up just how the problem of insufficient electricity is affecting the country. Eskom, South Africa's leading provider of electricity, cannot keep up with the needs of the country and is restricted from making improvements because of power stations in dire need of maintenance and production of other power centers halted. The company has been forced to a system of "load shedding," which consists of inconsistently rolling blackouts across the country. Efforts to make the business model more efficient are predicted to be met with opposition and news from the leadership had the president declaring blame on apartheid-which funneled power to one race rather than the majority and left the country's electrical outlets severely unbalanced.

South Africa's Electricity Supply Infrastructure Crumbles
Apparently the few blacks that actually receive electricity don't even pay for it. According to this article, only 16% of blacks in Soweto actually pay for electricity contributed to a national buildup of debt to South Africa's power supply company, Eskom. The condition of their power stations is an even worse matter. Due to negligence, lack of maintenance and the simple, crass mistakes of ignoring employee warnings, the company's major power stations have been severely covered in ash, which is a very real problem for production. The state of these power plants leads to many electrical issues across the country, and the company uses "load shedding" to minimize on the risks of these issues. According to one source, " The fact that more incidents haven’t taken place is a miracle." 

Week 9: Top Ten Must Review

Our collective list of top articles to review is a fitting highlight to the past nine weeks as part of this seminar. We've explored the social-cultural complexities of the non-privileged demographic (pretty anyone but a white, upper-class male) experience in South Africa without having stepped a foot in the country and have much more to scratch at when we depart later this May. With all this information on the conditions of education, culture, and living in post-apartheid South Africa we have prepared ourselves for the challenge of promoting social development in a developing nation much different from ours. Essential terms concerning race and discrimination, a detailed timeline of the country's central defining history, a look into modern social and political issues, a critique of the media's portrayal of significant historical figures such as Nelson and Winnie Mandela, and a fun bucket list to top the experience off ensure that we can make the most of our pre-departure preparations.

Week 8: My "Top Ten Recommended" References For Our Trip

• YouTube Video: Gangs, Race, and Poverty 20 Years After Apartheid - Details the lives of township residents still coping with inequality, racism, and underdevelopment in post-apartheid Cape Town.  shared by Denice Carpenter 
• World Affairs Article: Realizing Women's Human Rights in South Africa - Dr. Erin Tuney, a professor of Women's Studies and Sociology details the inequality-ridden life of the South African woman and requests specific solutions to combat this injustice.  shared by Denice Carpenter 
• PBS Webpage: Apartheid Timeline - Online timeline of major and significant events during  the history of this oppressive system of rule.    shared by Joshua Alvarez 
• News Website Article: Why is crime and violence so high in South Africa? - Dr. Chadre Gold, a senior researcher for security studies, provides an inside look into the South African legal system in relation to violent crimes in the country and posits possible explanations for its current condition.   shared by Tiasha Ullah 
• Travel Writing Article: 20+ Words You Should Learn Before Visiting South Africa - Though English is a major language spoken in the country, it will still be likely that we will encounter these words and our travels and it can only benefit us to understand their meaning.    shared by Ignacio Cuz
• Article: South Africa's 'Unfinished' Revolution - This article from Slate magazine describes the continued issues plaguing South Africa despite the victory of abolishing apartheid. Unemployment, corruption, and repression now thrive on the poverty-ridden slums of the country and the revolution, it seems, is yet to be over.    shared by Nestor Castro
• Public Radio International Article: Here's How South African Students Talk About Race and Gender - Students just like us! Except in South Africa.       shared by Maria Mendez
• Short Film via YouTube: South Africa's Post Apartheid Generation - A really interesting video that portrays the spirit and experienced hardship of the children living in the time after their previous generation fought to end the system.      shared by Connie Garza 
• The Root Article: Say It Loud, I'm Colored and I'm Proud - This article feels vitally important in recognizing the cultural, racial diversity awaiting us in South Africa. Its author, Lindsey Johns, proudly proclaims his designation as a colored citizen in South Africa, a mixture of multiple cultural traits, and asserts the deserved recognition of South Africa being home to not just whites and blacks but other colored Afrikaners as well.     shared by Lorena Rodriguez
• Movie: Invictus - A recent film from actively skilled director Clint Eastwood, this movie should highlight the continued cultural, racial divides present within South Africa and serve as an example of achieving unity through a common goal-a them the country desperately needs to embody right now. Seeing Morgan Freeman in what may be the most accurate Mandela impersonation ever is just a plus.      suggested by Hashm Shokravi

Week 7: Articles I Read This Week

Bianca Alcorta gave insight into the U.S's involvment in ending the apartheid movement with the article US Anti-Apartheid Movement Helped Bring Change to South Africa. The article goes over several actions taken by U.S. leaders, such as Congressmen Ron Dellums, to protest, boycott, and pressure the South African government during their oppressive rule in the 1980s. A line in the article did catch my attention. "Television news images of the violent struggles to end apartheid in South Africa captured the attention of Americans in the 1980s." I found this a little ironic because not two decades before, a similar movement had taken center stage on television in the U.S. It was interesting to discover that, while some Americans were still resenting the Civil Rights Act that many blacks fought to procure, other leaders like Ron Dellums were already at work fighting for equality in a region an ocean away.

I read Realizing Women's Human Rights in South Africa by Dr. Erin Tunney, a professor of Women's Studies and Sociology, and gained insight into the further level of inequality faced by women in the country. This link was suggested by Denise Carpenter. The article describes the injustices endured by women in South Africa, especially black women who must also contend with racial inequalities, and brings up possible solutions to these problems. Its a good read and provides useful information to take with you to Cape Town in preparing to combat racial and gender inequalities.

Lastly, I was most interested in Hashm Shokravi's posting of the trailer for Invictus (2009), a film about Nelson Mandela's effort to unite post-apartheid South Africa by enlisting the help of national rugby team to win the 1995 World Cup. It's always interesting to find out what goes on during the production of big-budget, critically successful films and Invictus is no exception. During the planning and filming stages of this project, the filmmakers an actors payed great respect to the stories they were telling. I have not personally seen the movie but it is certainly on my list.

Before signing off, I'd like to add an afterthought. For this spring break, I attended a panel during the Interactive SXSW conference called Bladerunner: South Africa's Trial By Social Media. The presenters, Amanda Whitehouse, the head of social media for one of South Africa's leading digital agencies, and Emma Sadlier, a social media lawyer working in Johannesburg, discussed how the Oscar Pistorius trial generated so much online activity from followers of the court proceedings in South Africa to the point that bets were placed on online chat rooms and hundreds of Facebook pages were started up dedicated to posting updates on the trial. In their introduction of the topic, Amanda and Emma mentioned how in the past few years this has been the global association of for South Africa: that country with the Olympic amputee who killed his girlfriend. And before that, South Africa was associated solely with apartheid. Recently, the country hosted the first successful penile transplant and pretty soon that association may catch on as well. I thought it might be helpful to bring this up not only too highlight the power of an international image but also to present a South Africa that is in tune with our own country in terms of digital age. According to the speakers, online behavior in the country has remained floating since the trial and I cannot wait to see to what extent.

Week 6: Independent Research

While we were discussing the topic of Winnie Mandela's own film I suddenly remembered another movie set to open in theaters this weekend called Chappie. The movie itself isn't very important to my discussion but the director, South African native Neil Blomkamp, is. In 2009, he directed an amazing documentary-style feature titled District 9 that I am just now beginning to see has parallels to the working history of South Africa. The film follows a government agent as he is tasked with evicting the resident aliens of District 9, a slum in Johannesburg, South Africa. I won't divulge more of the plot but it does take a thrilling turn. There are some interesting details involving the development of this film. Apparently, it was inspired by Blomkamp's childhood in South Africa during apartheid (many parallels to apartheid can be seen throughout the film). Even the movie's title refers to more real events. District 6 was a mixed neighborhood in Cape Town during apartheid that was eventually demolished to make room for white suburbs. The shacks used to film in District 9 were actual shacks existing in a section of Johannesburg that were due to be evacuated and torn down. This is not entirely relevant to our current discussion of race and discrimination in South Africa but I definitely recommend watching District 9 if you want to get an artistic perspective from a South African citizen who witnessed apartheid. If you want more information about the movie I posted two links below. Click Watch Trailer through the first link to view a preview.
District 9 - IMDB Page
Critics Consensus
From a Global Media studies class I took last semester we took a look at the phrase Simunye! in South Africa and how this contributed to a cultural identity within the country. According to a peer-reviewed paper we read, sometime in 1996 the South African Broadcasting Corporation promoted the image of South Africa as a rainbow nation and national unity through a marketing campaign centering on Simunye!. The article never clearly states whether the campaign was effective but it does consider the implication of shifting public opinion through the media. I couldn't really find the article on the internet but feel free to research the term yourself and find what you can about it.

Selma and the Long Walk to Freedom

"Uncomfortable, yet necessary viewing." This is the distinction being handed to period pieces lately. Last year's 12 Years a Slave was praised not only for its authenticity and performances but also for the raw power of its brutality. This past year, we were presented with civil rights struggles of blacks in Selma and Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom (though released in late December I will include this film as a 2014 release), both of which made sure to depict unsettling scenes of violence and injustice. If you've seen Steven Spielberg's Lincoln then Ava Duvernay's Selma might have been a similar viewing experience. Like Lincoln, Selma focused heavily on the political strategy and media leveraging undertaken to bring about structural changes and devoted special care to the main character depicted. I was not able to view the last hour of Mandela but feel I have enough to work off of from several reviews and the context already established within the first 90 minutes. I have read that Mandela was adapted from the departed president's 600 page autobiography which would explain the film's running time and speedy plot. As a whole, the film was not completely impressive. Idris Elba as Mandela and Naomi Harris as Winnie delivered great performances but the dramatization was still week. This is also a point brought up in a review I happened to read but I would like to expand on it. With Selma and Lincoln the films' close examinations of their characters unveiled the men behind the legacies and fleshed out their complexities. David Oyelowo as Dr. King was able to convey the preacher's forceful, charismatic speech and the pragmatic approach to his moral campaign while also handing audiences the allegations of his affairs and trusting on viewer interpretation to judge. Mandela was too idolized a protagonist for Elba to add more dimension to a character the filmmakers could only view as a towering statue of inspiration and legend. His womanizing affairs were approached as supplements to establishing Mandela's back story rather than as opportunities to explore his infidelity. Scenes meant to establish his motivation and elicit audience emotion did not feel as potent as the beating of marchers in Selma. But this is just me and I prefer my films as more gritty and authentic. Selma is a superior film to Mandela within its performances and the startling humanity of its historical characters. Mandela works as an informative biopic but the film maintained a distance in awe from the character and was at a disadvantage with adapting so much material into one enjoyable feature length film.