The Event Pics

Photos from the Workshops

Durban Workshops

The Durban stint has whizzed by and I find myself back in Jo'burg and the workshops up in the Valley of a Thousand Hills are over.

The whole process was intense and exhausting - 3 weeks of solid working 14 hour days - but I learned a lot. And a big plus was working and being with Karen and NN. Workshops, training, creating an exhibition and organising an event. Here are some photos from the job.

Workshops and Exhibition

Workshop weekends with the Camp Bambanani groups now done, gearing up for their exhibition and event on Thursday. Will post photos and thoughts at the end of the week when things get back to normal.

The Valley of A Thousand Hills

Working in an inspiring setting. Just completed two days of training trainers and got the first set of workshops this weekend with young people coming from around Durban.

The Boxer Story

Jacob Zuma pulled out of dining with Mike Tyson in the end, called away by an emergency engagement but it doesn't seem like people believe that. Winnie Mandela sat next to him though.....

Durban

Off to Durban today for the next few weeks for workshops and training. And humidity and hills.

The Boxer story

So the Mike Tyson story has now hit the media, the evening news opened with 'Jacob Zuma is having dinner with a rapist tonight'. 45,000 rapes are reported a year in South Africa and domestic violence and violence generally is a reality for many women and men here. So there's protest in response to the ANC president seeking out the company of a convicted rapist.....

The Boxer

I'm told that Jacob Zuma the President of the ANC is planning to honour Mike Tyson the boxer sometime in the next couple of days. The most comic but worrying pair the country will see for a while. One man's record of assault and rape may be well known, whilst the other is facing allegations of corruption and was recently up (but cleared) for rape charges.

Good Day

I'd forgotten the storms here at this time of year. Loud thunder long flashes of lightening and a deluge of rain and then a short while later only the drips remain.

Good day today with a meeting at Wits University who will be hosting the exhibition at the end of the month. It was orientation day on campus - so lots of youth wandering around in shades and shorts, music blaring from somewhere. A positive vibe.

Unlike the car hire man Tony who sighs his way through his reason for being late. Traffic. It's not the usual kind of morning traffic, its a the-country's-gone-to-the-dogs kind of traffic. He obviously cant bear it here but he thinks he has nowhere else to go.

And a drink and chicken and chips with Matt who has been working on the project, in between freelancing for one of the big papers. Doing very well for himself.

Back again

Starting as I mean to go on by blogging earnestly in the first 24 hours! Back in Jo'burg early this morning with a quiet Sunday drive from the airport. Same set up as last year which is a little disorientating - 12 months have really passed I'm sure of it.

Here for a week doing some follow up work for the project I worked on last year and then to Durban for workshops and training with a new group up in a very hilly beautiful area where I used to live.

Apparently it's been raining every day for ages but the past couple of days have seen sunnier days and maybe a change of season. No sign of the electricity cuts that's been reported on on the BBC. It's so hard to get over the Jo'burg reputation but some things welcomed me back. The taxi driver saying he felt things were improving with the police really working hard to cut crime in the city. A waiter called Acid complaining to another waiter behind the bar. And the sales are on...

Year's End

Over a year since I started the blog and over a month since I last posted an entry...I've been very inconsistent with this. Seems to work better when I'm living in a hotel room in the middle of a scary city, rather than being rushed off my feet on my home turf as I have been recently. So that means lots of blogging soon then.

The end of 2007 is fast approaching. So many people say this I know but, really, I can't believe how fast this year has whizzed by, how much has changed.

Some of it has been sad and uncertain and then out through to the other side with everything feeling like it's falling into place.

Fantastic.

Friday Pics

Friday Photo

Goree trip

Dakar

Just back from a week in Dakar for work.

But now....

it looks like this......

New flat

This was how life looked for the past few weeks....exhausting.

Recently

A recent visit to catch up with Karen and Nathan at Castle Rising.

Great Yarmouth

I was invited on a day trip to Great Yarmouth with a bunch of artistic types. probably the most kitsch sugar fuelled day I've had in a long time.

Residency Work

Here is the work I produced from the residency.

Residency in Norwich

Some of the photos I took during the residency that I was doing in Norwich. Two weeks of photography and audio everyday. I've just finished producing the final product which they'll be screening - a slideshow with sound I suppose.

Deepest Darkest Hampshire

Don't venture this way much. But graffiti is a problem here too. And Chinese imports.

Panning in the Park

Bank holiday weekend in Hyde Park and the National Steel Pan Championships. Lovely sunny day, pity the sound system wasn't cranked up.

July

July already...not sure how that happened.

I've been updating my website myself these days - plans afoot to add pages but at the moment there are pics from South Africa, Zim and Senegal. Have a look.

South Africa Project

Watch the digital stories and work the Orange Farm group produced by clicking here

A meeting in hospital

I read a great article a few weeks ago in the Independent by Basildon Peta who I really rate as a journalist.

He was giving an update on the medical conditions of the opposition members beaten up by police and what Tsvangirai was saying about it all.

Apparently some of the injured were being looked after in the same hospital as Mugabe's sister. Mugabe had to literally walk past the bed of the seriously injured secretary general of the MDC to get to see his sister. What an image. Apparently neither men said anything.

Rant

The diatribe on Zim seems to have quietened down a bit in the past couple of weeks. Except for mine.

I'm wondering why the media haven't explored the reason for the failing of the two day strike called recently in the country. Beatings, arrests, court appearances continue - the situation hasn't improved or changed - so why no reporting?

It's easy to become cynical and (more than) irritated by how Africa is reported. Many people talk of the laziness journalists exhibit in reporting on an event/ civil war/ election in Africa or the personalities themselves. There's little context - historical or political - and a sort of despairing shaking of the head and the tinge of 'Look how badly the children are behaving.'

Newspaper commentary is amongst the worst.
One recent example: "This is a story of war and bunfights. Start with the party thrown by Robert Mugabe to mark his 83rd birthday. Herds of cattle were slaughtered and drums of beer imported for a banquet that filled a football stadium. Outside, the people starved and the morgues filled up....In Zimbabwe, the hangover of excess and brutality goes on."

None of this is untrue and it's supposed to be a dramatic opening but we've heard all this sooooo many times. Where's the sense of the complexity of Zim these days? Yes the bald facts are that Zim is in meltdown, Mugabe has lost touch with many of the wants and needs of his voters. His hold on to power has become a thing of ego and repression.
But surely there are other ways to comment and discuss this huge issue. Surely the journalist needs to ask - What or who enabled him to reach 83 and still be president? Why this show of power by Mugabe on the day to mark this grand old age? Who is he trying to impress - Zimbabweans or the region, China even? Who is he trying to provoke? He knows the economy is in serious trouble and he's hated by many. Anyone wondered who's having the last laugh?

The same journalist goes on. Apparently beefing up existing sanctions with travel bans and freezing assets will stop "dignitaries from buying their shoes at Gucci and having their varicose veins fixed in Harley Street". The height of outrageous behaviour obviously.

But British Airways can continue to run direct flights to Zimbabwe, British companies can continue to operate in the country (however unstable it may be). That's OK.

Rant over.

Lectures

Jeffrey Sachs is giving a series of lectures on the BBC giving his take on the world. The audience was mostly non-plussed, including Sir Christopher Mayer and a woman from GlaxoSmithKlein but Geri Halliwell and another young woman who said she was an 'optimist' are obviously devoted.

He says it's all about Choice. I like the idea that there are people who are powerful or friends with people who are powerful who think with gusto and make new connections between people and between people and places, rather than just shrug their shoulders because of corruption, donor fatigue and the way it's always been. People in the audience asked again and again 'But how...?' and although they're right, where's the passion?

The next lecture will be broadcast from China but today's lecture is from the Royal Society

The UK's The Independent featured a reaction which also makes interesting reading.

Absence

It's now two months since I last posted anything on here - I don't understand how that happened. I'm now back in England and obviously I seem to have been struggling to find thoughts to post.

Zim has been kicking off since I was there just before I came back and when the first of the demonstrations happened. Driving into one suburb and seeing riot police and water canons was a surprise and came out of nowhere.

A few streets away people didn't even know what had happened. The demo had been given the go-ahead but then apparently the police didnt think they had the manpower to cope so instead the shields, dogs and canons were called in and beat people up. A ban on all demos - government and opposition - followed. Opposition members were arrested.

And since then articles, new pieces and commentary on Zim and Mugabe haven't been far off the lead story.

Jingles

Two jingles sung on TV at the moment:

'Reliable Music Warehouse' and 'Pharmacists who care'

Who are the people responsible?

Sugar Packet

Rather an apt saying on the back of my sugar packet

Happiness is a direction...not a place

Not sure I agree at the moment.

Its very hot here and I'm insisting on coffee after lunch.

Crime & a poll

This is always the big topic of conversation in South Africa - it was when I lived here in 1998 and even more so now. The concern is that with the 2010 World Cup the country's reputation is being tarnished. But really whether the football comes here or not it's a major problem.
Mbeki and other top dogs including the police chief say crime isn't out of control and crime figures are down. But talk to any South African anywhere and they'll say the opposite.

A recent poll printed in today's paper has the following findings:
What South Africans think:
Crime going up: 81%
Crime dropping: 15%

and then
What S Africans feel:
Proud South African: 96%
Happy: 59%
Well: 61%
Unsafe: 75%
A failure: 6%
Depressed: 10%
Anxious: 6%

What S Africans have:
Work: 48%
Indoor water: 55%
No clean water: 6%
Flush toilet: 57%
Electricity: 88%

How S Africans live:
Households: 12.4 million
Houses: 9.4 million
Shacks: 1.3 million
Huts: 1.7 million

Education:
None: 12.5%
Primary: 10%
Matric: 27%
Diploma: 8%
Degree: 3%

It's believed that Mbeki doesn't want to open the can of worms labelled Crime because he's stepping down soon and it could be problematic for his successor and could lose precious votes. So instead people grumble and worry.

Dakar Impressions

The Paris Dakar race came to town - lots of men in lycra or khaki outfits, bikes and trucks revving their way through the streets. In the Cafe de Roma which is supposed to be a pretentious Dakar hangout, they had invaded. I asked the waitress why there were so many men there, forgetting. She reminded me and then suggested I sit with my back to them which is apparently a Wolof phrase translated, I thought it a good idea but it looked like I thought I was better than them with my dusty clothes and sandals. Which I did.

It's funny how this belief in being superior to others kicks in so easily in Africa...

I spend a lot of time in taxis and the street life passes by slowly. Flashes of gold jewellery, the indigo stained hands of a tailor sitting at his sewing machine, piles of pots and pans, wheel hubs for sale hung on walls, men selling ear buds and lights and cashew nuts to drivers in traffic jams.

Oprah

The big story here recently was that Oprah opened a school for girls near Jo'burg. She'd invited lots of her friends to donate a book to the school's library and some were even there to see the opening.

She was interviewed at the event and explained she'd been involved in the whole process from building to hand-picking the girls herself. She knew them all by name.

I wondered why people only talk about African dictators.

Will she sue me for saying that?

Dakar

After a week of meetings, meetings, meetings with Anna in Jo'burg I sneaked in a trip to Senegal. It's about as far from South Africa as from Europe it seems. But I felt I deserved it.

Dakar is hectic and almost a 24 hour city. I was treated to seeing lots of Senegalese musicians, sight-seeing in the traditional way and hanging out with Katharina and her family and then Damian coming down from the desert.

Here are some pics from the trip....