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.

Mandela and King

From the very beginning, both Nelson Mandela and Martin Luther King Jr. emerged into paths of leadership. King's father, the baptist minister, and his mother, the schoolteacher, passed on to their son the qualities of a natural public speaker capable of expressing ideas fluidly. It is no surprise that he went on to become a minister himself-however briefly. Mandela was born into royalty and later transferred into the hands of a tribal government official who groomed the young boy for leadership. During their campaigns, the two leaders faced similar challenges against differing foes. While King fought to bring about legislation through nonviolent resistance and dramatic example, Mandela and his followers squared off against an oppressive and brutal government. "It was only when all else had failed, when all channels of peaceful protest had been barred to us, that the decision was made to embark on violent forms of political struggle." This quote from Nelson Mandela embodies the practical approach towards segregation by Martin Luther King Jr. but also suggests traces of Malcolm X's ideology. "Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into a friend." Here King's steadfast belief in his approach shines as well as his less radical nature than Mandela. This may be why King maintained a peaceful approach while Mandela was forced to exert more force on his end. At the core of either movement, both men did understand that their struggle would be difficult and would force them to tread carefully through example and public support. While there is heavier air of strategy to Jr's campaign, Nelson's path seems more desperate. Ultimately, King and Mandela displayed incredible perseverance and composure in their mutual quest for social justice. The contexts in which they attained and maintained leadership are interestingly similar but all the same distinctive in their individual methods and consequences. They leave behind a legacy too great to sum up in one blog post.

The New South Africa

Not much really stood out to me in pouring over the history of South Africa. This was mostly because-as everyone else has already noticed-of the clear similarities to US history: the ultimate oppression of the native population, difference of opinions on race between the colonizing white population and eventual civil war, the settler's expansion into otherwise claimed territory, and, of course, the violent and shameful history of racism and oppression. It is particularly interesting to notice that, until recently, apartheid, the counterpart to our era of Civil Rights Issues, was officially done away with. I imagine that as we see much of post-apartheid South Africa we will be able to draw parallels to our own society in the years following the long fought battle to grant blacks and other minorities full civil rights. I am especially interested to see how South Africa regards the late Nelson Mandela. It would seem that as an idol that delivers the hope of a better future, he is a strong asset to the nation's morale. However the country seems to have a weakness in the form of another of its leaders, Vice-President Jacob Zuma-if the charges against him prove to be true. I was really interested to read about Cape Town's decision to launch an Open Data Portal, which will grant free public sector data to the public. It looks promising as a milestone for public access and citizen involvement in the area. 

My question for Mr. Gilmour is: "What are some of the challenges you have faced in working with African countries?"  

"Race and Freedom Were Born Together"

While its never pleasant to retrace the many shameful episodes of this country's carefully organized past, it is difficult to ignore the irony in this fact. At the same time this system of equality was introduced to justify freedom so was another system of inequality created to justify slavery. I doubt many people know this fact and doubt even more that I could find it in your standard middle school textbook. One pattern I always thought existed was the tendency for civilizations to focus on, or even create, new issues of separation or categorization once the previous issues had either been resolved or reached a climax. For example, in the years leading up to the Revolutionary War, Britain operated under a class system. People were separated by wealth and status from birth. Colonists then migrated to the Americas to escape this socio-economic inequality in mother England but immediately introduced blacks as a race and put them to work in the fields. Post-Civil War US took over 100 years to finally grant citizen rights to minorities and another 40 or so years to even begin honoring these rights. At around the same time, the Women's Rights Movement rose up and also fought for equality. While certainly not resolved, these conflicts have ebbed down from their utmost intensities and seem to be slowly, steadily improving-though with notable setbacks. With that progression of race and gender inequality, discrimination against the LGBT community is a recent phenomenon. It's also interesting to note that homosexuality was actually a fairly common and (although hotly debated) acceptable practice among the Ancient Greeks, one of the more civilized societies from the ancient world. Admittedly, they did separate citizens from foreigners and women were also denied certain rights. India has a caste system. Apartheid recently ended in South Africa. And so on. It seems like some people need or just invent forms of inequality to either allow categorization or justify certain actions. I'm not exactly sure, but it's an idea worth exploring.

"The Complexity of Identity: 'Who am I?'"

I don't really have many initial thoughts on this article. In some ways, the idea is kind of similar to the McIntosh article. Perception and assumptions kind of play a similar role. For some reason, while reading this article I was reminded of a scene from the AMC series Mad Men (its an adult period drama about ad executives in 1960s New York City). In it, Don Draper, the series protagonist monologues to his business associate, Rachel. He presents his cynical perception of love as a fictitious, manufactured notion-or slogan-created by people like him to sell nylons. Rachel, in turn, responds that until that moment she had never realized that "it must be hard being a man too." I never completely understood the deeper meaning behind Don's little speech or the implications of it but I think I understand Rachel's words. Whether or not Don believes his own words, it is apparent that they have been influenced in some part by the standards of his society, or rather, his community. Whatever traits are associated with the ideal man of the time, his character is responding to and being shaped by them, whether by exuding a cold persona immune to romanticism or allowing self-deception to shape his feelings on love. Just like Rachel earlier on expected men to scoff at the idea of a woman owning a business and displayed a high level of confidence and assertiveness to combat her prejudices, Don is adapting to his social environment. He is a product of it. In Tatum's class exercises, her students identify more with the physical traits that have been pointed out to them. The same occurs with surveys of other age groups. "Woman usually mention being female while men don't usually mention their maleness" because maleness is the dominant normality. "The parts of our identity that do capture our identity are those that other people notice, and that reflect back to us." How others view us, or how we believe others view us, seems to be very important to shaping our identity. I think this article does a good job of supporting some overlooked arguments about race and prejudice. We do respond strongly to the most subtle remarks of our appearance and this response has a significant hand in shaping our personality. I feel like I have a deeper understanding of race and culture and how it relates to our identity. It was always a tricky subject for me and much easier to avoid. I'm convinced that race and racism is a fairly complex issue and does deserve a lot of study and interpretation. I'm now also convinced that Mad Men is pretty awesome as a character study and feel like I should start binging the entire series (I only ever watched the first episode).

Sorry again for the long post.

Unpacking the Knapsack of Privilege Reaction

I remember one day while I was eating at the dining hall, the television above was airing Fox News. A blonde, middle aged reporter and a man whose face I don't remember seemed to be in a debate on split screen over some issue concerning race. The man seemed to be building up to an effective closing statement when the reporter suddenly cut him off. "No, I don't want to hear it. There is no more racism in this country," she said. Initially, her comment made me feel angry at her arrogance and frustrated at her ignorance. But after reading McIntosh, I thought back to those feelings and realized how abrupt they may have been. After all, this reporter, most likely enjoying a more financially comfortable lifestyle would have much less exposure and interaction with the major issues plaguing those who had to work just a little bit harder and had less systematic advantages to making a living in this country. Living a life of ease does make one inexperienced with hardship. Or maybe she just was that ignorant. I'm not sure. But that may not matter. What does matter is that I didn't know her background-whether she was born into privilege or worked hard to climb up that ladder-so making assumptions about her remark was pretty premature. In turn, she may not have been well-informed about racism (either building up this idea of racism as all about slavery and lynchings but ignoring more subtle aspects such as unspoken prejudices and stereotypes) or maybe her awareness of modern race issues in the US was very limited. Either way, her response to the idea of racism and my response to her comment both relied on assumptions based on perception. And I think this may be the point of McIntosh's article. With the knapsack metaphor, she is merely circling back to the central issue of racism: it's a matter of perception. Because the idea of white normality has been subtly embedded into the social conscious, she had not been aware of these privileges to being white because white is not thought of in racial terms as other minorities are. The idea that whites are a normality is so because history was written that way after having followed that pattern.

Anyways this is what I thought after reading the article. Sorry if its a little confusing in some places but I do a lot of 'stream of thought' writing. Thanks for reading!

Week 1

Hey everyone!

My name is Gerardo Gonzalez and I am a first-year Economics student from Abilene, TX. I am so happy to get the chance to travel to Cape Town and build marketing experience with projects that help to build awareness!