I’ve had some pretty cool adventures of late. A day trip to Port Alfred provided many hilarious moments, solid relaxation, meeting some cool new people, and navigating the taxi system to get there. It’s not like US taxis, but more like crowded, sometimes unmarked vans that do not cost very much. Totally solid experience for traveling. We also had an evening trip to Makwande game reserve where we saw a whole bunch of Kudu, Zebra, Giraffe, and even a Rhino. It was pretty sweet. There was also a party put on by OutRhodes, a student organization promoting the interests of GLBT and allied students on the Rhodes campus. As South Africa is in so many ways a place of extremes and contrasts, it has extremes in terms of how the people regard queer issues. In the country as a whole, same-sex marriage is legal, but in many places cultural acceptance of queer sexual identities is very hard to find. At Rhodes, OutRhodes has the second largest membership of any student group on campus, but there are many students who have much less appreciative attitudes about openness and queer sexual identities. At least there are a good number of people who are down with the movement, ya know.
On a complete change of pace…I was talking with Geoff, our adviser, who is an economics professor at Rhodes. We were talking about the high unemployment rate and lack of economic infrastructure and wages and poverty in Grahamstown and South Africa. I mentioned earlier that the unemployment rate is often quoted at close to 70% in Grahamstown. It’s actually closer to 35 – 40% when a stricter economic definition is applied, but nonetheless, it is still close to 70% who struggle with where their income might come from and getting by day to day financially. Government pensions for elderly folk and some others certainly help a little bit, but they don’t quite do the trick for housing or jobs. I’ve started to think that it might be nice to have a Nike or Polo or Hanes factory in Grahamstown (obviously not a rights-violating sweatshop, but one that at least conformed to wage and work laws of South Africa) to provide more jobs for people in the community. At least it would be a source of income for more people. I know there’s more that goes into that type of thing economically, but it was just a thought. A pretty difficult thought to grapple with, though as I’ve often felt very negative about companies that have manufacturing overseas.
On a complete change of pace…I was talking with Geoff, our adviser, who is an economics professor at Rhodes. We were talking about the high unemployment rate and lack of economic infrastructure and wages and poverty in Grahamstown and South Africa. I mentioned earlier that the unemployment rate is often quoted at close to 70% in Grahamstown. It’s actually closer to 35 – 40% when a stricter economic definition is applied, but nonetheless, it is still close to 70% who struggle with where their income might come from and getting by day to day financially. Government pensions for elderly folk and some others certainly help a little bit, but they don’t quite do the trick for housing or jobs. I’ve started to think that it might be nice to have a Nike or Polo or Hanes factory in Grahamstown (obviously not a rights-violating sweatshop, but one that at least conformed to wage and work laws of South Africa) to provide more jobs for people in the community. At least it would be a source of income for more people. I know there’s more that goes into that type of thing economically, but it was just a thought. A pretty difficult thought to grapple with, though as I’ve often felt very negative about companies that have manufacturing overseas.
On more personal aspects of poverty in Grahamstown, it’s really awful observing and talking with kids who are begging for money and/or food. Kids?! Kids did absolutely nothing to ask for broken homes (not all families or homes that are impoverished are broken, obviously, but the kids that I talked to on the street go to Amasango, which is a school for street children) or other day-to-day struggles. It rings true of something from Liberation Theology that says we are not born into sin necessarily because of biblical original sin, but because we are born into a world where debilitating poverty, racism, sexism, war, violence, and other issues strip away the dignity of so many. I don’t have any idea how to respond to something like that when it hits you in the face in reality. Maybe sometimes giving out some money, maybe sometimes going with a person to get some food, maybe sometimes just a conversation or polite greeting and passing. I hope I never ignore it or avoid it, though, whether consciously or unconsciously. It’s pretty easy to exercise privilege and just avoid it.
