Leaves caution behind

Archbishop Thabo Mokgatho addresses a protest meeting in Cape Town’s St Georges Cathedral. His plea for an end to the furious finger-pointing that surrounds us has so far gone unheeded.

I’d prefer to be doing something more ‘useful’ but I’m sitting in St. Georges Cathedral, waiting to play into a microphone, a sound clip of refugees speaking of their experiences. It’s one item on the programme at a public meeting protesting xenophobia. I’m wearing a t-shirt that says ‘foreigner on the front’, as are many. Archbishop Mokgatho’s wearing it over his long purple robes. I haven’t had a chance to read the back yet.

Themba Baleni, my soundman from Beat It days, greets me – we haven’t seen each other for over two years. He tells me that Peter, the cameraman we used to work with, is now living on the streets in Muizenberg. This I had heard already; but had hoped might have changed.

The cathedral is filling up with people from all Cape Town’s communities, archbishops, imams and chief justices will speak alongside the activists. Read the rest of this entry »

The central government buildings in Windhoek, which remain almost entirely the same as during the time of South African overrule.

I’ve just visited Namibia, and really enjoyed the experience, despite mild official harassment for being a journalist. I had a very strong sense of it being a smoothly functioning nation, which is particularly notable for its being lodged in Africa, and having recently been prone to serious attempts at plunder and depredation by Germany and South Africa.

The capital, Windhoek, is neat and clean, far cleaner than many European cities.

Then I stumbled on this article in the New York Times, which tells us San Marino (pop. 30 000) has only one prisoner, giving it the world’s lowest incarceration rate.

The Guardian publishes a wonderful article on Iceland, which in turn sounds like a remarkable place: happy people, well-developed health system, successful movement away from oil-based energy to renewable energy over the last 50 years, no standing army for the last seven hundred years.

What about Costa Rica, which has, like Iceland, abandoned a standing army, and resolutely resists exploitation of its oil resources, avoiding the dismal fate of other petrocracies?

Clearly, small states work very well. When society is so closely knit that citizens and politicians work practically alongside each other, it’s difficult for the former to feel too awed, or the latter to feel too self-important. Namibian politicians were, in my brief experience, remarkably self-deprecating, commenting on the tedium of their own speeches, and addressing (with merciful brevity), a conference dinner gathering with words along the lines of, “Ladies and gentlemen, ambassadors, and everyone who’s been elected.”

The same proximity makes for administrative efficiency. Walking into Namibian Home Affairs, one discovers that the minister’s office is in the same drab corridor as the clerks who issue visas. No South African minister would deign to share such modest accommodation. (Though, it must be admitted, the Namibian government has recently constructed a large new official residence for the president, State House, a vulgar monstrosity on a Windhoek hilltop – which the president is rumoured to be reluctant to actually occupy.)

That’s what we need, a world of small, happy states, flying under the radar. Let’s tear down the borders and throw up thin fences, and celebrate the micro-state. After all, small states are what democracy was “designed” for.

I’ve been a little out of touch for a while.

On sticking my head back out into the world, I discover that the latest winner of Big Brother Africa won AFTER apparently raping a woman on-air. And either few in the media have noticed, or they just don’t give a damn. The Human Rights Commission has “condemned the incident” but is apparently not taking any other action.

I’ve spoken to Victor Mavhidula, a senior complaints officer at the Commission for Gender Equality. Mavhidula was aware of the incident. The CGE, however, has not yet even released a statement on the matter. Mavhidula has, following my call, said he will raise the matter internally. A brief glance at the CGE Act confirms that an investigation would be within their mandate, if they’ve the stomach for it.
Read the rest of this entry »

So just who do you or I, typical South African drivers, give several hundred rands to each month? Well, Engen and Total are linked to human rights abuses in Burma, likewise Caltex/Chevron with additional interests in dodging climate change issues. In 1990, while it was placing ads in the then Weekly Mail & Guardian extolling the virtues of human rights and democracy, Shell had its very own, apparently forgotten Sharpeville, in Nigeria; there it continues to do huge environmental damage. BP (which may be the least of all evils) has been linked to military repression in Colombia. Overall, it’s really not a very pretty picture. I wonder how many of us give as much money to worthy causes as we do these companies? (I know I haven’t.)

Shell oil flare in Nigeria. Pic: Creative Commons, Flickr user we-make-money-not-art