Politics and Activists

A lot of crazy things have been happening in the political realm in South Africa since I arrived here in February. There have been various scandals and there was the big strike that I mentioned previously, but perhaps the most controversial and well-known (and incredibly frustrating!!) political craziness that has been going on surrounds Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manto_Tshabalala-Msimang). I first heard about Manto at the International AIDS Conference in Toronto last August. Many other Torontonians would have heard of her too, since she was ridiculed in local papers during the conference. Manto was under heavy fire at the conference for her very public views on HIV/AIDS treatment in South Africa. She publicly did (and does) not support the use of antiretroviral therapy (the only scientifically proven form of AIDS treatment) by South Africans and instead has promoted concoctions of African potatoes, garlic, etc. to treat AIDS. Not only is this absolute nonsense, but it also creates great confusion among South Africans when their own Health Minister is telling them not to use the one thing that actually will give them a chance at living longer and healthier with AIDS. Needless to say, many people have petitioned to get the lady sacked. Many books by top people in the field have been written naming her as an AIDS denialist and discrediting her stance. At the conference in Toronto, Stephen Lewis himself stood up and called her out on her ridiculous AIDS opinions and blamed her for countless avoidable deaths in South Africa. A petition was also written to President Thabo Mbeki by numerous top scientists, researchers, doctors, experts, etc. from around the world, asking him to remove Manto from her position.

Not long after I arrived here, Manto took ill (at the time many people felt perhaps through some twist of irony that she herself had AIDS) and was forced to hand over her duties to her Deputy Health Minister, Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nozizwe_Madlala-Routledge), while she was getting treated and recovering. Nozizwe proved to be a breath of fresh air for frustrated South Africans, speaking openly and honestly about what is happening in this country in regards to the AIDS crisis and drafting plans to get the government to start acting.

In a shocking and angering news broadcast last week, the nation learned that the Deputy Health Minister had been fired from her position by President Mbeki. Mbeki had proclaimed that Nozizwe had used taxpayers' funds to pay for an unauthorized trip to an AIDS conference in Spain (note: she was not told that she was not allowed until she was already in Spain, at which point she returned to South Africa on the first available flight back). At the same time more and more stories have been, and are still being, published in local newspapers and international media, such as The Economist, speaking out about Health Minister Manto's shady past. For example, Manto was granted a liver transplant even though her liver condition is reported by the Sunday Times (and not denied by her doctors) as being caused by alcohol use/abuse. As well, this past weekend's Sunday Times newspaper ran with a story about how Manto was a convicted criminal after being charged for stealing from patients at a hospital in Botswana. The scandal really comes down to the fact that former Deputy Health Minister Nozizwe has had a history of defying the denialist attitudes of the government, completely counter to her boss, the Health Minister, and President Mbeki. She has gotten into hot water in the past and this current reason for her dismissal is seen as Mbeki siding once again with Manto, who was being made to look bad by her Deputy, who the public was incredibly excited about and who they hoped would help turn South Africa's AIDS crisis around. The irony is that Manto doesn't need any help looking bad...she is one of the most ridiculed democratic government officials around the world and Mbeki also loses international credibilty for keeping her around for God only knows what reasons. Apparently general public scorn and public ridicule is not enough to have a person be removed from a leadership position in a democratic system these days.

In other, but related news, I have recently taken an internship at TAC (Treatment Action Campaign, http://www.tac.org.za/). It's a huge national AIDS organization in South Africa and one of the most well-known AIDS organizations internationally. Zackie Achmat (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zackie_Achmat) started the organization in December of 1998 and since then it has become well known as the champion of AIDS in South Africa, fighting numerous lawsuits against the South African government, big pharmaceutical companies, AIDS denialists, etc. Under Zackie's passionate leadership they have fought to get antiretroviral medication provided for HIV positive mothers in the country in order to prevent transmission of the virus to babies. They have also fought to get cheaper medication provided for AIDS patients. For full background on who they are and what they do, check them out at www.tac.org.za because I could go on and on. I will be working at TAC two full days a week, working for Zackie in his national office on various projects that come up. I'm super excited to be involved with something so cool, where I will surely learn a tremendous amount, and hope that I manage to find time to balance my new TAC involvement with two classes and some time to work on my Masters thesis. At the very least, I am sad to give up my lazy days in Hout Bay, walking the beach and contemplating life. I have still given myself some time for that, however I fear that I will no longer be able to come up with all the answers to life that I had intended to ponder. These are the sacrifices that must come with a life of activism I suppose...

It is 16 degrees in my bedroom!!!

I know it has been a VERY long time since I have posted. That is much the South African way of life though, just getting around to things when you get around to them. I do, however, have a bit of an excuse...I went on an impromptu quick visit back to Canada! For those who I was not able to see, I apologize, however there was not enough time to journey far to visit all those who are near and dear to my heart. I assure you however, that I will make time to see you when I am home again in November.

Here is a quick catchup regarding what transpired in the lead up to my trip home: my roommate, Jen, returned home to Canada at the very end of May for just over two months. That left just Ilya and I to entertain ourselves (and cook for ourselves! AHHH!) for awhile. Needless to say, with our resident chef out of the country, there were a lot of dinners that consisted of soup or salad and a great many dinners eaten out at restaurants! Ilya was also planning on going home for awhile and although I had not intended to go home at all until November, I decided that I did not want to stay in Cape Town alone and that the weather was too cold and wet for it to be worthwhile for anyone to come and visit. Thus, I decided to hop on a plane and head back to Canada for a bit. The experience of being home however, was a very unusual experience and one worth sharing...

Reverse culture shock is very difficult to explain to anyone who has not personally experienced it themself. I can really only best describe it as feeling "lost". It is difficult to travel to what one considers "home" and feel that it really doesn't feel like the same old "home" anymore. For the first week I felt sad, unsettled and frustrated and I know that at first I may have disappointed my friends and family who were so excited to see me. The second night I was home I went to a bar to party with all of my friends and by the end of the night I was in tears because it felt so weird to me. You see, South Africa feels like a temporary home and yet my home in Canada didn't feel like a place where I fully fit in anymore and this gave me a terrifying sense of being "ungrounded". It was really scary. I resented the materialistic and robotic routine that I felt when being at home at first and I missed the poverty that quite frankly keeps me humble. I missed the slower pace of life and the emphasis on taking time to really ponder life. I love Canada and I love my family and friends dearly and this bizarre experience was no reflection of changing feelings for my country or my loved ones. But it did however reflect upon the fact that I have changed and that my values and my view on life and myself and the world have drastically changed beyond anything that I could have imagined. The important lesson that I learned from all of this is that it is easy to get caught up in a fast pace of life and not take time to really think about what is important and who one is as a person, but when one is removed from that fast pace of life, things are put into perspective and a person can one day wake up and realize that the routine they lived was really only just day-to-day motions that he/she never questioned. We must therefore always question everything that we do on a day to day basis and weigh out its value. How much do we do because we really want to and because it makes us truly happy or provides us with self growth or self discovery and how much do we do just to fill the time or because it seems to be what everyone else is doing?

Now I am happy to say that with a bit of time, I adapted to life in Canada a bit more, but in a way I almost didn't want to. It's so easy to jump back into routine and I didn't want to forget what it felt to be on the outside of that. I spoke to a past co-worker who visits Kenya every year and she said that she experiences reverse culture shock when she comes back every single time, but it keeps her humble, forcing her to remember what it's like to be outside of that routine. I guess that if I end up living in Canada for the rest of my life, I will make regular trips to South Africa to keep myself humble and to remind myself of what is important in life.

Since arriving back in South Africa I have been balancing touristy activities with a brand new school semester. Ilya's sister is visiting, so we have made trips down to Cape Point, where we saw baboons and penguins again. We also went to the wine regions for some wine tasting. The highlight however, has been driving east up the coast to Hermanus, where we saw whales!! We took the most breathtaking drive along the ocean for about 2 hours and ended up at this sleepy town which has some of the best whale watching in the world. People line the cliffside to watch southern right whales play around in the bay. You don't even have to go out in a boat and you really don't even need binoculars, you just stand or sit there and look out and you can see whales. It's absolutely amazing and something that I was incredibly excited to have seen. We ate lunch in a restaurant that overlooked the bay and while we ate we were able to gaze out at the beautiful mountains and the odd whale popping out of the water. I think we will return to Hermanus at the end of September when there is a big whale festival because at that point there can be up to 70 whales in the bay!! (note: I added a pic of Hermanus and a pic of a whale, but I was always way too slow with the camera to get a good whale pic, so I gave up on the camera and just enjoyed...I will get better whale pics later cuz the one I have posted sucks, sorry.)

As for school, I have two new classes...one is called "Economics of AIDS in Africa" and the other is "International Organizations". The Economics class is taught by a very well-known researcher named Nicoli Nattrass, so I'm very excited to be in her class. There are only 7 of us in the class and the class format is basically just group discussion on various AIDS topics so I absolutely love it!

I apologize again for my very long absence and I promise to blog again very soon...weekly at least!