when a government takes on the role as a “nanny state” – that is, when the state tries to coordinate, with too much of a heavy hand, the matters of its citizens – then that government fails to recognize the value of human individuality and the indissoluble ability of individuals to work out matters on their own, sans state intervention. indeed, individuals throughout history have illustrated the incorrigible spirit that exists within everyone, and thus allows individuals to solve their own conflicts and discover their own resolutions.
the notion of voluntary association and exchange is certainly not a farfetched one, and thus should not be treated as such. delving into contemporary policy issues, this concept could prove as an invaluable tool in determining how jurisdictions worldwide function; in the example of the debate over same-sex marriage, the prominent issue in that case is that of rights. why must the government automatically presume that a couple – gay or straight – is incompetent in regard to the issue of drafting its own contract? why can’t these two individuals decide the tenets of their union on their own – and leave the notion of marriage to their house of worship (or lack of which, as the case may be)?
another issue is that of education. currently, the government has a virtual monopoly on how the nation’s children receive their education. how is it feasible to believe that the government is better equipped to assess how children are educated than the children’s parents? schools nationwide are underfunded, inadequate, and unable to cater aptly to students’ needs. optimizing school choice is the most ideal option for how education ought to be facilitated; in this way, the government can minimize its role as a nanny state while certifying the individual right to choose one’s own fate.
by preserving the concept of the nanny state, the government fails to recognize individuals’ abilities in discovering their own resolutions to conflicts and other issues. when applied to contemporary policy issues, such as marriage rights and education, the ideal solution lies in trusting individuals to make their own decisions.
01 April 2010
11 March 2010
africa: 4 months later
next week marks 4 months since i've moved back from africa, and in that time, i've told every incredulous aids joke i could think of, i've bored each and every one of my friends with my stories about ocean view, and i've stalked all of my african friends on facebook. and yet, i still hold this strong desire to drop everything and fly back to cape town today.
i know that sounds ridiculous, especially after i declared the prudence behind my decision not to spend an extra semester at uct. and, it is. but, that doesn't mean i don't wake up every morning with an inkling of disappointment.
it's not that i don't love my life right now, but – was i too rash in saying i'd accomplished all there was to accomplish by the time i left on november 20? i mean, my internship and volunteer positions were just beginning to take off, my friendships were just beginning to blossom, and i'd finally just begun to understand how life is lived, south africa style. (for instance, that gumtree is south africa's answer to craigslist, that mtn is a better mobile carrier than vodacom, and that even though the taxis are great, you're better off owning a car, too.)
oh well. perhaps it's for the best, after all, that i'm back in america: i ran out of money, and there's no way i could get a job in south africa.
i'm not quite sure what i'm trying to say here, other than that my experience in south africa influenced me more strongly than i'd expected. even while i was there, i didn't realize how much i loved it. then again, perhaps hindsight is 20/20 – i realized how wonderful of a place the united states is to live as a result of my experiences in africa, too.
conclusion: i can't wait to go back. it won't be soon, but it will happen someday. indeed, i think i should.
i know that sounds ridiculous, especially after i declared the prudence behind my decision not to spend an extra semester at uct. and, it is. but, that doesn't mean i don't wake up every morning with an inkling of disappointment.
it's not that i don't love my life right now, but – was i too rash in saying i'd accomplished all there was to accomplish by the time i left on november 20? i mean, my internship and volunteer positions were just beginning to take off, my friendships were just beginning to blossom, and i'd finally just begun to understand how life is lived, south africa style. (for instance, that gumtree is south africa's answer to craigslist, that mtn is a better mobile carrier than vodacom, and that even though the taxis are great, you're better off owning a car, too.)
oh well. perhaps it's for the best, after all, that i'm back in america: i ran out of money, and there's no way i could get a job in south africa.
i'm not quite sure what i'm trying to say here, other than that my experience in south africa influenced me more strongly than i'd expected. even while i was there, i didn't realize how much i loved it. then again, perhaps hindsight is 20/20 – i realized how wonderful of a place the united states is to live as a result of my experiences in africa, too.
conclusion: i can't wait to go back. it won't be soon, but it will happen someday. indeed, i think i should.
04 March 2010
2010!
o hai thar. yeah, apparently i really don't update this anymore. i really ought to, though. i've got a lot to say.
school has been good this semester, if not really weird. i'm taking environmental policy, atomic energy policy, gentrification, and methods of policy analysis. i'm also taking, on a pass/fail basis, media in a free society, and i'm receiving pass/fail credit for my internship in the development department at the tax foundation, too. i'm really enjoying my internship so far – i've done a lot and i'm constantly learning. i've even written a blog post for them, too, which you can read here.
classes are good, although much more difficult than what i got used to at the university of cape town. the academic calendar has also been thrown off due to the monstrosity known as the snowpocalypse. as a result of it, i now have to attend class on a saturday (may 1st). lame.
i've also been busy with my positions on the e-boards of liberty society and ΣAΛ, as well as working as a peer adviser at the study abroad office and as a wage slave at dsw.
right now, i'm pretty happy with my life, although i find myself missing south africa. a lot. it's a beautiful country with a rich culture, and i left some phenomenal friends behind there. money is pretty tight for me right now, though (i'm still paying off bills from last semester), so it looks like i won't be back in that neck of the woods any time soon.
spring break begins on the 12th for me. i'll be here, working.
i'll try to be better about updating this thing. in the mean time, i'll think of something more interesting to say.
school has been good this semester, if not really weird. i'm taking environmental policy, atomic energy policy, gentrification, and methods of policy analysis. i'm also taking, on a pass/fail basis, media in a free society, and i'm receiving pass/fail credit for my internship in the development department at the tax foundation, too. i'm really enjoying my internship so far – i've done a lot and i'm constantly learning. i've even written a blog post for them, too, which you can read here.
classes are good, although much more difficult than what i got used to at the university of cape town. the academic calendar has also been thrown off due to the monstrosity known as the snowpocalypse. as a result of it, i now have to attend class on a saturday (may 1st). lame.
i've also been busy with my positions on the e-boards of liberty society and ΣAΛ, as well as working as a peer adviser at the study abroad office and as a wage slave at dsw.
right now, i'm pretty happy with my life, although i find myself missing south africa. a lot. it's a beautiful country with a rich culture, and i left some phenomenal friends behind there. money is pretty tight for me right now, though (i'm still paying off bills from last semester), so it looks like i won't be back in that neck of the woods any time soon.
spring break begins on the 12th for me. i'll be here, working.
i'll try to be better about updating this thing. in the mean time, i'll think of something more interesting to say.
22 December 2009
i live in virginia now
it’s been a while since i last wrote, so let me see if i can’t catch you up before i forget it all.
my last week in cape town was definitely a strange one. it’s hard to put into words the emotions involved in saying goodbye to somebody who you don’t know if you’ll ever see again – and, even if you do, you know that it will be a very, very long time from now. it’s not like at the end of last semester, when we were all preparing to leave for our respective semester abroad programs and we had to say goodbye to each other then – we knew we’d all be back together again come january. even my best friend brittney, who i never see enough of save for the infrequent trips i made to north carolina to see her – i know that it’ll never be too terribly long before i see her again.
but in regard to individuals like kwadwo, adrian, nwabisa, adam, sakhile, neema, tendai, and so many more – it’s hard for me to say when, if ever, i’ll see them again. i was able to have a goodbye lunch and/or drink with most of them, but each of those occasions were nevertheless solemn – i mean, these individuals opened their lives and their hearts to me, and i don’t know how i’ll ever be able to repay the favor.
as i said goodbye to each of them, i told them, “this isn’t goodbye forever,” but i just have to wonder – is it? even if i do make it back to south africa, it won’t quite be the same. i won’t be living there – i’ll just be another one of those tourists whose antics we used to mock, knowing we were so much more engrained into south african society than they’d ever be.
to be fair, i could have feasibly opted to spend this upcoming semester at the university of cape town, and honestly, i’d considered it, but in the end, i decided against it. not only was i running out of money (there’s no way i could get a south african work permit), but i have requirements for my baccalaureate that i need to fulfill back at gwu. besides, at any rate, i went to south africa to learn about the country, its politics, its culture, its people, et cetera. i succeeded in that. mission accomplished. not to say that there isn’t always something to learn, especially living in a city like cape town, but in the end, i determined that it was best simply to return to the united states.
so, now i’m back. but before that, brigid and i opted to spend our last day as capetonians together. in truth, brigid proved to be my rock throughout my semester abroad. i knew it would be hard not to have her as a constant character in my life anymore, and lo and behold that’s proven true. at any rate, after checking out from our not-so-lovely abode at liesbeeck gardens (my least favorite part about living in south africa!), we enjoyed a lunch together at one of our favorite restaurants downtown. i definitely miss their milkshakes. ;)
then, we took the cable car up table mountain. i think that that was a great activity for us to do on our last day in cape town. the view, in a nutshell, was outstanding. it was phenomenal, being able to identify the various parts of the cape peninsula, where we’d gone, what we’d done there, et cetera. we ran into an older couple there, incidentally from arlington (at the corner of carlin springs and leesburg pike – so close to where i live now!), and i definitely took pride in pointing out which was the indian ocean and which was the atlantic, where we’d gone to school, et cetera. indeed, it was such a change from last july, when we went to a club on the top of the absa building (the tallest building in cape town) and gazed at the unfamiliar (yet nevertheless beautiful) city. the city still came across as beautiful to me, but i had come to understand its intricacies.
after that, we met up with sara in company’s gardens, and from there we went to the airport for our respective evening flights home (via heathrow).
i spent the first week of mine back in the united states in california. it was nice to be able to spend my initial period of “reverse culture shock” in a relatively placid environment such as thousand oaks. plus, of course, it was nice to be with friends and family. then, after that (on november 28), i flew back to dc. i’m happy to report that i’ve done pretty much everything that i’d set out to do in my pre-spring semester period back in dc. after what felt like an undeservedly arduous housing search, i found a great apartment in the crystal city neighborhood of arlington. i love my apartment. i live with kasandra, a classmate of mine at gw. it’s a 1 bedroom + den + 1 bathroom unit (in an extremely large apartment building), and i use the den as my bedroom. it’s actually a very nice room, even though it’s relatively small (8 by 9 ½ feet). i have a great big window, which i enjoy. :) the apartment itself is very nice, and kasandra already had a lot of furniture for it – the only problem (if you can call it one) is that the walls are a little barren, so i need to get posters and other wall coverings for them. :)
i’m also back at my old job at dsw, which is a 10-15 minute walk from my apartment (no need to metro!). it’s been great to be back at dsw, not just because of its proximity to my house or the fact that i’m earning a lot of money because of all the hours i’m picking up (about 30 a week), but the fact that it’s so familiar to me: reverse culture shock hit me like a ton of bricks – specifically, how there’s so much that has changed – and it’s nice to have a stable entity in my life to come back to. there’s a new manager, sure, and some new employees as well, but retail is constant.
i’m also getting back into doing extracurricular activities at gw. i went to a couple of meetings for a newly formed organization gw liberty society, which i enjoyed. i’ve also been getting increasingly involved in my honors fraternity, sigma alpha lambda, and to that end i helped out a lot with the holiday fundraiser and clothing drive that we did. i’ve also gone to a few socials by dc’s various think tanks, non-profits, etc., and it’s been great to have met like-minded individuals in that capacity. finally, i’ve gone on a few internship interviews; still waiting to see what comes of those.
despite the pride i take in all i’ve accomplished in the short time i’ve had since getting back to the united states, i nevertheless miss south africa immensely. despite the myriad hardships that studying abroad in such an environment befell me, there’s something about the easygoing nature of south africans that i find myself missing on a daily basis. as i was checking in for my flight at cape town international airport, i was able to joke with and to laugh with the security officials. indeed, that would never exist in the united states. washington is an extremely high-strung town, and i have to admit that i myself am also extremely high-strung, but it was nice to have – just for a while, at least – been around a less tense populace. as washingtonians (not to mention americans in general), we are so lucky to have what we have. meanwhile, in cape town, there is so much poverty and sadness – so much to lament – and nonetheless, the people are, on average, so much more uplifting than anyone i’ve ever encountered in dc.
today, i flew to california for christmas. i’ll be back on the east coast on the 29th to go back to work, to (hopefully) start an internship, and to enjoy my life there even more.
my last week in cape town was definitely a strange one. it’s hard to put into words the emotions involved in saying goodbye to somebody who you don’t know if you’ll ever see again – and, even if you do, you know that it will be a very, very long time from now. it’s not like at the end of last semester, when we were all preparing to leave for our respective semester abroad programs and we had to say goodbye to each other then – we knew we’d all be back together again come january. even my best friend brittney, who i never see enough of save for the infrequent trips i made to north carolina to see her – i know that it’ll never be too terribly long before i see her again.
but in regard to individuals like kwadwo, adrian, nwabisa, adam, sakhile, neema, tendai, and so many more – it’s hard for me to say when, if ever, i’ll see them again. i was able to have a goodbye lunch and/or drink with most of them, but each of those occasions were nevertheless solemn – i mean, these individuals opened their lives and their hearts to me, and i don’t know how i’ll ever be able to repay the favor.
as i said goodbye to each of them, i told them, “this isn’t goodbye forever,” but i just have to wonder – is it? even if i do make it back to south africa, it won’t quite be the same. i won’t be living there – i’ll just be another one of those tourists whose antics we used to mock, knowing we were so much more engrained into south african society than they’d ever be.
to be fair, i could have feasibly opted to spend this upcoming semester at the university of cape town, and honestly, i’d considered it, but in the end, i decided against it. not only was i running out of money (there’s no way i could get a south african work permit), but i have requirements for my baccalaureate that i need to fulfill back at gwu. besides, at any rate, i went to south africa to learn about the country, its politics, its culture, its people, et cetera. i succeeded in that. mission accomplished. not to say that there isn’t always something to learn, especially living in a city like cape town, but in the end, i determined that it was best simply to return to the united states.
so, now i’m back. but before that, brigid and i opted to spend our last day as capetonians together. in truth, brigid proved to be my rock throughout my semester abroad. i knew it would be hard not to have her as a constant character in my life anymore, and lo and behold that’s proven true. at any rate, after checking out from our not-so-lovely abode at liesbeeck gardens (my least favorite part about living in south africa!), we enjoyed a lunch together at one of our favorite restaurants downtown. i definitely miss their milkshakes. ;)
then, we took the cable car up table mountain. i think that that was a great activity for us to do on our last day in cape town. the view, in a nutshell, was outstanding. it was phenomenal, being able to identify the various parts of the cape peninsula, where we’d gone, what we’d done there, et cetera. we ran into an older couple there, incidentally from arlington (at the corner of carlin springs and leesburg pike – so close to where i live now!), and i definitely took pride in pointing out which was the indian ocean and which was the atlantic, where we’d gone to school, et cetera. indeed, it was such a change from last july, when we went to a club on the top of the absa building (the tallest building in cape town) and gazed at the unfamiliar (yet nevertheless beautiful) city. the city still came across as beautiful to me, but i had come to understand its intricacies.
after that, we met up with sara in company’s gardens, and from there we went to the airport for our respective evening flights home (via heathrow).
i spent the first week of mine back in the united states in california. it was nice to be able to spend my initial period of “reverse culture shock” in a relatively placid environment such as thousand oaks. plus, of course, it was nice to be with friends and family. then, after that (on november 28), i flew back to dc. i’m happy to report that i’ve done pretty much everything that i’d set out to do in my pre-spring semester period back in dc. after what felt like an undeservedly arduous housing search, i found a great apartment in the crystal city neighborhood of arlington. i love my apartment. i live with kasandra, a classmate of mine at gw. it’s a 1 bedroom + den + 1 bathroom unit (in an extremely large apartment building), and i use the den as my bedroom. it’s actually a very nice room, even though it’s relatively small (8 by 9 ½ feet). i have a great big window, which i enjoy. :) the apartment itself is very nice, and kasandra already had a lot of furniture for it – the only problem (if you can call it one) is that the walls are a little barren, so i need to get posters and other wall coverings for them. :)
i’m also back at my old job at dsw, which is a 10-15 minute walk from my apartment (no need to metro!). it’s been great to be back at dsw, not just because of its proximity to my house or the fact that i’m earning a lot of money because of all the hours i’m picking up (about 30 a week), but the fact that it’s so familiar to me: reverse culture shock hit me like a ton of bricks – specifically, how there’s so much that has changed – and it’s nice to have a stable entity in my life to come back to. there’s a new manager, sure, and some new employees as well, but retail is constant.
i’m also getting back into doing extracurricular activities at gw. i went to a couple of meetings for a newly formed organization gw liberty society, which i enjoyed. i’ve also been getting increasingly involved in my honors fraternity, sigma alpha lambda, and to that end i helped out a lot with the holiday fundraiser and clothing drive that we did. i’ve also gone to a few socials by dc’s various think tanks, non-profits, etc., and it’s been great to have met like-minded individuals in that capacity. finally, i’ve gone on a few internship interviews; still waiting to see what comes of those.
despite the pride i take in all i’ve accomplished in the short time i’ve had since getting back to the united states, i nevertheless miss south africa immensely. despite the myriad hardships that studying abroad in such an environment befell me, there’s something about the easygoing nature of south africans that i find myself missing on a daily basis. as i was checking in for my flight at cape town international airport, i was able to joke with and to laugh with the security officials. indeed, that would never exist in the united states. washington is an extremely high-strung town, and i have to admit that i myself am also extremely high-strung, but it was nice to have – just for a while, at least – been around a less tense populace. as washingtonians (not to mention americans in general), we are so lucky to have what we have. meanwhile, in cape town, there is so much poverty and sadness – so much to lament – and nonetheless, the people are, on average, so much more uplifting than anyone i’ve ever encountered in dc.
today, i flew to california for christmas. i’ll be back on the east coast on the 29th to go back to work, to (hopefully) start an internship, and to enjoy my life there even more.
07 December 2009
being back in dc is an extraordinary feeling
it's hard to remember how it felt before
now i found the love of my life...
passes things get more comfortable,
everything is going right
and after all the obstacles,
it's good to see you now with someone else...
and it's such a miracle that you and me are still good friends
after all that we've been through...
i know we're cool
i know we're cool...
we used to think it was impossible,
now you call me by my new last name...
memories seem like so long ago
time always kills the pain
remember harbor boulevard,
the dreaming days where the mess was made...
look how all the kids have grown,
we have changed but we're still the same
after all that we've been through,
i know we're cool
and i'll be happy for you,
if you can be happy for me
circles and triangles, and now we're hangin' out with your new girlfriend,
so far from where we've been...
i know we're cool
i know we're cool...
i know we're cool...
i know we're cool...
now i found the love of my life...
passes things get more comfortable,
everything is going right
and after all the obstacles,
it's good to see you now with someone else...
and it's such a miracle that you and me are still good friends
after all that we've been through...
i know we're cool
i know we're cool...
we used to think it was impossible,
now you call me by my new last name...
memories seem like so long ago
time always kills the pain
remember harbor boulevard,
the dreaming days where the mess was made...
look how all the kids have grown,
we have changed but we're still the same
after all that we've been through,
i know we're cool
and i'll be happy for you,
if you can be happy for me
circles and triangles, and now we're hangin' out with your new girlfriend,
so far from where we've been...
i know we're cool
i know we're cool...
i know we're cool...
i know we're cool...
21 November 2009
musings from heathrow
i sit here in heathrow airport, dumbfounded.
did that all really just happen? did i really just spend the past 18 weeks, 2 days, 12 hours, and 30 minutes living in south africa?
i'm not quite sure what i feel right now. i guess it hasn't hit me in its entirety quite yet. i mean, i cried as we took off from cape town airport, and i've cried thinking about all the amazing souls to whom i had to say goodbye, but i can't help but feeling like i haven't left cape town for good quite yet. it hasn't hit me that i'll no longer be crammed into a 15-seater minibus taxi with 30 other passengers. it hasn't hit me that i'll no longer be served entrées consisting of no fewer than 2 varieties of meat. it hasn't hit me that i'll no longer look to the west and see table mountain towering over the city.
it's been quite an adventure, and as such, it's had no shortage of its ups and downs. i'll try and remember to post a 10 to 1 list for this past semester, but the point is that being in south africa proved itself to be quite an invaluable learning experience for me. and it's hard for me to wrap my head around the fact that this stage of my life has, already and so suddenly, come to a close.
ciee's goal for this semester is to transform us into "global citizens", and while i'm still not 100% sure of what that means, i think i'm well on my way to becoming one. i've had to become accustomed to a multitude of seemingly bizaare (and, dare i say, foreign) customs held by south africans, from overlooking personal space, to not saying "bless you" after a sneeze, to clipping one's nails in public (i still think this one is gross, though). i've learned how to successfully dial an international call, and that we're the only ones who pronounce the letter Z as "zee". even the metric system has begun to make sense to me.
but, i think that another integral part of becoming a global citizen involves learning how to take on unique challenges, ones seldom found in the first world. it's no secret that south africa is lacking in sufficient infrastructure (albeit better than those within most african countries), and as such, i've found myself repeatedly challenged by occurrences within everyday life. once i figured out to overcome those, however, i became able to appreciate south africa, its landscape, its culture, and its people for the wonderful things they truly are. :)
that all being said, it was certainly sad for me to leave south africa. even though i'm excited to see my friends and family, i found it tough for me to say goodbye to cape town, making it a very bittersweet circumstance for me. unlike when i visit home after a semester at gw, i can't pop over to south africa whenever i'd like to say hi to my new friends or to be reminded to all the nuances of south african life that i've grown to love. indeed, it'll be a long time before i can return to the mother city.
more on all of this later. my flight to los angeles is about to board.
did that all really just happen? did i really just spend the past 18 weeks, 2 days, 12 hours, and 30 minutes living in south africa?
i'm not quite sure what i feel right now. i guess it hasn't hit me in its entirety quite yet. i mean, i cried as we took off from cape town airport, and i've cried thinking about all the amazing souls to whom i had to say goodbye, but i can't help but feeling like i haven't left cape town for good quite yet. it hasn't hit me that i'll no longer be crammed into a 15-seater minibus taxi with 30 other passengers. it hasn't hit me that i'll no longer be served entrées consisting of no fewer than 2 varieties of meat. it hasn't hit me that i'll no longer look to the west and see table mountain towering over the city.
it's been quite an adventure, and as such, it's had no shortage of its ups and downs. i'll try and remember to post a 10 to 1 list for this past semester, but the point is that being in south africa proved itself to be quite an invaluable learning experience for me. and it's hard for me to wrap my head around the fact that this stage of my life has, already and so suddenly, come to a close.
ciee's goal for this semester is to transform us into "global citizens", and while i'm still not 100% sure of what that means, i think i'm well on my way to becoming one. i've had to become accustomed to a multitude of seemingly bizaare (and, dare i say, foreign) customs held by south africans, from overlooking personal space, to not saying "bless you" after a sneeze, to clipping one's nails in public (i still think this one is gross, though). i've learned how to successfully dial an international call, and that we're the only ones who pronounce the letter Z as "zee". even the metric system has begun to make sense to me.
but, i think that another integral part of becoming a global citizen involves learning how to take on unique challenges, ones seldom found in the first world. it's no secret that south africa is lacking in sufficient infrastructure (albeit better than those within most african countries), and as such, i've found myself repeatedly challenged by occurrences within everyday life. once i figured out to overcome those, however, i became able to appreciate south africa, its landscape, its culture, and its people for the wonderful things they truly are. :)
that all being said, it was certainly sad for me to leave south africa. even though i'm excited to see my friends and family, i found it tough for me to say goodbye to cape town, making it a very bittersweet circumstance for me. unlike when i visit home after a semester at gw, i can't pop over to south africa whenever i'd like to say hi to my new friends or to be reminded to all the nuances of south african life that i've grown to love. indeed, it'll be a long time before i can return to the mother city.
more on all of this later. my flight to los angeles is about to board.
11 November 2009
bloemfontein
i’ve been really bad about updating this blog, but i’m gonna go ahead and blame africa for this one because i haven’t really had time to sit down and hash out an entry detailing on what i’ve been up to. either that, or i’ve been too lazy. or the internet here’s too damn slow. either way, let me see if i can’t rehash the events of my trip to bloemfontein (i’ll cover more recent stuff in a later entry).
given how crazy everything is here, it shouldn’t have been a surprise that the trip that april, brigid, and i took to bloemfontein on october 8 (yikes, it’s been a while) turned out to be more hectic than what i’d bargained for. the three of us took an overnight bus from cape town to bloemfontein, and along the way we learned that the bus line on which we’d booked our return tickets was horribly dangerous and not recommended whatsoever, so upon arriving in bloemfontein we had to purchase new tickets through a more reliable company (which turned out not to be terribly expensive, but still, it’s hard to see money fly away like that). i’m a little surprised that nobody in cape town had said anything about it, even after we’d submitted our itinerary to the study abroad office, but anyway. we got to bloemfontein and the owner of the b & b we stayed at picked us up from the bus terminal. he drove us to the establishment (located in the upper-middle class neighbourhood of dan pienaar) and it was absolutely gorgeous! the owners (a husband and wife) couldn’t have been a nicer couple of people, and the property itself was beautiful. they couldn’t have been more accommodating and even said they’d let us take an extra single room so we wouldn’t all be “crammed” into the same room together (which we graciously declined, partly because we wanted to stay together, but mostly because our room was already plenty spacious). the husband was a white man from zimbabwe (which, interestingly enough, he continually called “rhodesia”) and the wife a white woman from swaziland.
after checking in, we set off for the main part of town by foot (2 kilometres away, downhill). it was pretty much immediately that we realised we weren’t in cape town anymore. first and foremost, there are no minibus taxis whatsoever. we found it odd not to have anybody yelling “wynberg!” or “kaapstad!” at us, trying to get us to board their vehicle; in fact, the drivers passing us by seemed bewildered that there were pedestrians within their town at all. to that effect, secondly, bloemfontein isn’t as much of a walking town as cape town is. not that i consider cape town terribly pedestrian-friendly, especially after dusk, but bloemfontein was definitely lacking in sidewalks. third, afrikaans is definitely, by far the principal language spoken in bloemfontein. even though south african law dictates that all public signage must be written in at least afrikaans and english, that law doesn’t extend to signage by private companies, and to this end, while most private signage in cape town is written in english, most of bloemfontein’s was written in afrikaans.
anyway, we got to the central part of town, and the first thing we did was stop by a lord of the rings-themed inn. j.r.r. tolkein was born in bloemfontein, and apparently the town tried to capitalise on the popularity of the movies with tourist attractions, but it’d largely failed in that regard. anyway, the inn wasn’t much to see (it was basically a regular-looking inn with some ivy and a sign that said “hobbit hole” or something dumb like that), so we proceeded over to the big mall in town, known as the waterfront (bloemfontein is entirely landlocked, but the city has an artificial lake beside which the complex sits). it was there that we had some pretty amazing pizza, although in retrospect i think we were really just hungry. then we walked around that area for a bit before going back to the b & b to rest for macufe, the cultural festival that had brought us to bloemfontein (a town otherwise deprived of tourism) in the first place.
so, anyway, we went back to the waterfront a little bit later and went to some café for dinner where we enjoyed amazingly delicious lemonade for 5 rand (although i got mine with vodka, so for me it was technically 14 rand). anyway. then we headed over to macufe, which was in the park right beside the waterfront. hmm, how do i begin to describe macufe? well, out of the tens of thousands of other attendees we saw, i think we saw only about 3 or 4 other white people there. also, the event was sponsored by jack daniel’s, and to that end they had a trailer set up there for “the jack daniel’s experience”. you go in, they give you a little tour where they tell you about the history of jack daniel’s as well as how the concoction is made, and then they give you a novelty plastic cup with a sample shot of it inside. it was gross, but whatever, there were a couple of bars set up throughout the venue so we weren’t terribly despondent. anyway, there were several random music groups performing, none of whom we knew but all of whom had female dressers who were dressed notoriously inappropriately (i could tell that women’s studies major brigid was dying a little inside, hah). somewhere in there, we went to use the portapotties (which were surprisingly clean!) and a random drunk guy decided to talk to me, give me a hug, and have a picture taken of the two of us using april’s disposable camera. it was magical.
and then… t-pain. that’s right… macufe, south africa’s cultural festival, was headlined by none other than the floridian rapper, in the flesh. i have to say, though, that i think we were all relatively disappointed in his performance. he was only on stage for an hour, and for a good chunk of that we was sitting down. i think he must have been sick or something. at any rate, he was lipsyncing the entire time, which i found disappointing, but then again, i shouldn’t have been surprised, either. interestingly enough, however, his back-up dancers were the least skankily dressed of any of the groups’ that night. we left the venue just a couple of minutes before t-pain’s stagetime ended, which was fine with each of us because we wanted to avoid the drunken crowds. that didn’t really seem to work out terribly well for us, though, because the cabs we’d theoretically believed to be sitting outside the venue waiting for us were nonexistent. we eventually managed to find one, but that’s not before some drunk guy decided to grab my crotch. it was magical, and by that, i mean it was not magical.
we woke up on saturday, which we’d planned to spend in maseru (mainly so we could say we’d been to lesotho as well as to have that extra stamp in our passports); our study abroad programme director had told us that we could easily find a minibus to transport us to maseru, we had no such luck, so we decided to spend the day attempting to partake in tourist activities throughout bloemfontein. unfortunately, like i said, bloemfontein really doesn’t cater to tourists, so we didn’t have much in that regard (heck, there was hardly anything open as it was), although we did see the capitol building of free state province as well as the supreme court building (which, incidentally, was an unmarked and rather disappointing edifice). we also saw the national library for afrikaans literature, because apparently, the afrikaans language has enough literature to fill an entire building. oh! and we also almost got locked into a mall. we’d been looking for a restroom and so we went into a mall downtown (anchored by shoprite, which says it all) but apparently 3:00 in the afternoon is when malls in downtown bloemfontein close on saturdays we we narrowly escaped what would’ve been an interesting story in its own right. i think we made our way back to the waterfront at some point for more 5 rand lemonade as well.
somewhere in there, we found the crafts market associated with macufe, and we bought some cool african-looking accessories made by local sotho and zulu women. i got a bracelet.
we went back to the b & b and hung out on the poolside for a little bit before going back into town. our plan was to eat dinner at the waterfront, then go barhopping on 2nd avenue, which, according to our hostess, was where all the anglophone bars are located. so, we got to the waterfront, and everything was closed. all the restaurants, all the cafés, everything. and it was only 8:00! apparently bloemfontein isn’t too keen on staying open after dusk (although april and brigid think it has to do with the macufe events, which we’d opted not to buy tickets for, going on that evening). we wandered the streets of bloemfontein looking for food. my eye caught sight of a seemingly hopeful mcdonald’s, but luckily, it didn’t come to that: we went to the 2nd avenue café instead and had pizza. april didn’t really care for it, but brigid and i thought it was all right. that was, however, when we learned that 2nd avenue is, actually, where afrikaans speakers go out (i think we were the only english speakers there). all of the afikaaner guys had repulsive mullets and kept on high five-ing each other in a heinously suggestive top gun-esque style. gag.
after we finished dinner (well after 10:00), we ascended to the dance floor, where we saw plenty more afrikaaners drunkenly dancing, but given the bar’s 10 rand special on rum & coke we decided to join the fun for a little bit. after a while, though, we realised that the scene wasn’t really happening, so we went down the street to a bar called stone’s (which is actually a chain of bars throughout south africa). the demography was the same but the scene was a little better, except for the fact that for some random reason it was prohibited to bring drinks onto the dance floor. anyway. the dj kept on playing covers (and not very good ones at that) of american songs from the 1950s, but we had fun nonetheless (i started dancing with this chick who kept on talking to me in afrikaans, and i tried to explain to her that i don’t speak afrikaans, but that was a failure and eventually her boyfriend got jealous and dragged her away anyway). then, april met a boy! now that, that was magical. he was 19 and attends the university of the free state, and apparently he decided to make a point of telling april of his heinously racist views (e.g., that black people shouldn’t be allowed to own land, blah blah blah). he seemed cool with the fact that i was gay though (he wasn’t sure if i was her boyfriend or not, so i told him i’m gay, a fact that apparently isn’t obvious to afrikaaners). we danced for a little while but then that guy’s creeper status became apparent so we bounced.
brigid and i wanted to go home at that point, but april was still insistent on having some more fun, so she dragged us on over to another bar that was having a form party (yuck) and paid our covers. we refused to interact with the form, the jacuzzis it was coming out of, or the individuals within the jacuzzis in any way, shape, or form, so we went inside to the dance floor, which was too crowded as it was. we also couldn’t help but notice that all of the foam-goers were 20-year-old fake blonds and creepy 40-year-old guys, so we didn’t stay long at that place and by then we all decided to go home.
it was raining when we exited that establishment, but it wasn’t a torrential downpour as we’re used to in cape town, so it felt very nice. we called our favourite cab driver to come pick us up (not the quickest of ways to get a ride home, but at least we knew we could rely on him), but guess who should make a special appearance on the corner we were waiting on? creepy afrikaaner guy from stone’s! he offered to give us a lift back to our b & b, which april blatantly declined due to the fact that he was wasted (oh, and creepy). after what felt like forever (but was really only 15 minutes), our cab arrived, and we left the puzzling afrikaans-speaking nightlife scene behind (the guy decided to give april a call after we got back to the b & b, but that turned out to be more of a source of amusement to us than anything else).
we woke up the next day (sunday), and it was right then and there that i knew i was getting sick. still, i wanted to complete our weekend, so we went into town to attend a soccer game at vodacom park. we thought it would be really packed, but i guess everybody was planning on attending the match later on in the day so the stands were fairly sparse for the noon match (plus, it was raining). the game was a lot of fun to watch, but they seemed to ignore all legitimate rules of professional soccer. mainly, the timing of the match was rather unconventional. “halftime” was about 20 minutes in, and the match ended like 80 minutes in, too. also, the players kept on slipping on the puddles throughout the field and falling down, which was actually more hilarious than anything else. haha.
after that, we walked back over to the waterfront, where we caught a showing of the “district 9” movie. it as pretty atrocious, as i was expecting it to serve as a social critique but it was basically just 2 hours of violent shit. it wasn’t a terribly realistic depiction of south africa either, but whatever, johannesburg is different from cape town so what can i say. we grabbed some ice cream after the showing, which i of course enjoyed. :)
soon after that, we went back to the b & b to relax for a little bit, then we packed our bags and went to the bus terminal, which was largely a fruitless endeavour given the weather had transformed into a particularly heinous rainstorm and our bus was some 2 hours delayed coming in from pretoria. our bus finally arrived, and soaking wet, we boarded it. the bus wasn’t as comfortable as the one we’d taken to bloemfontein, but i was able to sleep nonetheless.
we arrived in cape town the next morning -- late, of course, and because of that i missed my urban politics tutorial (which, as i later found out, got cancelled anyway). i was definitely sick by that point, much to my chagrin, but nevertheless i can say that i definitely enjoyed the weekend -- even though there was no shortage of strange characters or random events! still, it was nice to get out of cape town and see another part of the county. sure, it wasn’t durban or port elizabeth, but like when we went to northern cape, i’d like to think it gave us a more “authentic”, locals’ perspective on what south africa is really like. that being said, i still hold that bloemfontein is certainly not for the tourists. ;)
more to come.
given how crazy everything is here, it shouldn’t have been a surprise that the trip that april, brigid, and i took to bloemfontein on october 8 (yikes, it’s been a while) turned out to be more hectic than what i’d bargained for. the three of us took an overnight bus from cape town to bloemfontein, and along the way we learned that the bus line on which we’d booked our return tickets was horribly dangerous and not recommended whatsoever, so upon arriving in bloemfontein we had to purchase new tickets through a more reliable company (which turned out not to be terribly expensive, but still, it’s hard to see money fly away like that). i’m a little surprised that nobody in cape town had said anything about it, even after we’d submitted our itinerary to the study abroad office, but anyway. we got to bloemfontein and the owner of the b & b we stayed at picked us up from the bus terminal. he drove us to the establishment (located in the upper-middle class neighbourhood of dan pienaar) and it was absolutely gorgeous! the owners (a husband and wife) couldn’t have been a nicer couple of people, and the property itself was beautiful. they couldn’t have been more accommodating and even said they’d let us take an extra single room so we wouldn’t all be “crammed” into the same room together (which we graciously declined, partly because we wanted to stay together, but mostly because our room was already plenty spacious). the husband was a white man from zimbabwe (which, interestingly enough, he continually called “rhodesia”) and the wife a white woman from swaziland.
after checking in, we set off for the main part of town by foot (2 kilometres away, downhill). it was pretty much immediately that we realised we weren’t in cape town anymore. first and foremost, there are no minibus taxis whatsoever. we found it odd not to have anybody yelling “wynberg!” or “kaapstad!” at us, trying to get us to board their vehicle; in fact, the drivers passing us by seemed bewildered that there were pedestrians within their town at all. to that effect, secondly, bloemfontein isn’t as much of a walking town as cape town is. not that i consider cape town terribly pedestrian-friendly, especially after dusk, but bloemfontein was definitely lacking in sidewalks. third, afrikaans is definitely, by far the principal language spoken in bloemfontein. even though south african law dictates that all public signage must be written in at least afrikaans and english, that law doesn’t extend to signage by private companies, and to this end, while most private signage in cape town is written in english, most of bloemfontein’s was written in afrikaans.
anyway, we got to the central part of town, and the first thing we did was stop by a lord of the rings-themed inn. j.r.r. tolkein was born in bloemfontein, and apparently the town tried to capitalise on the popularity of the movies with tourist attractions, but it’d largely failed in that regard. anyway, the inn wasn’t much to see (it was basically a regular-looking inn with some ivy and a sign that said “hobbit hole” or something dumb like that), so we proceeded over to the big mall in town, known as the waterfront (bloemfontein is entirely landlocked, but the city has an artificial lake beside which the complex sits). it was there that we had some pretty amazing pizza, although in retrospect i think we were really just hungry. then we walked around that area for a bit before going back to the b & b to rest for macufe, the cultural festival that had brought us to bloemfontein (a town otherwise deprived of tourism) in the first place.
so, anyway, we went back to the waterfront a little bit later and went to some café for dinner where we enjoyed amazingly delicious lemonade for 5 rand (although i got mine with vodka, so for me it was technically 14 rand). anyway. then we headed over to macufe, which was in the park right beside the waterfront. hmm, how do i begin to describe macufe? well, out of the tens of thousands of other attendees we saw, i think we saw only about 3 or 4 other white people there. also, the event was sponsored by jack daniel’s, and to that end they had a trailer set up there for “the jack daniel’s experience”. you go in, they give you a little tour where they tell you about the history of jack daniel’s as well as how the concoction is made, and then they give you a novelty plastic cup with a sample shot of it inside. it was gross, but whatever, there were a couple of bars set up throughout the venue so we weren’t terribly despondent. anyway, there were several random music groups performing, none of whom we knew but all of whom had female dressers who were dressed notoriously inappropriately (i could tell that women’s studies major brigid was dying a little inside, hah). somewhere in there, we went to use the portapotties (which were surprisingly clean!) and a random drunk guy decided to talk to me, give me a hug, and have a picture taken of the two of us using april’s disposable camera. it was magical.
and then… t-pain. that’s right… macufe, south africa’s cultural festival, was headlined by none other than the floridian rapper, in the flesh. i have to say, though, that i think we were all relatively disappointed in his performance. he was only on stage for an hour, and for a good chunk of that we was sitting down. i think he must have been sick or something. at any rate, he was lipsyncing the entire time, which i found disappointing, but then again, i shouldn’t have been surprised, either. interestingly enough, however, his back-up dancers were the least skankily dressed of any of the groups’ that night. we left the venue just a couple of minutes before t-pain’s stagetime ended, which was fine with each of us because we wanted to avoid the drunken crowds. that didn’t really seem to work out terribly well for us, though, because the cabs we’d theoretically believed to be sitting outside the venue waiting for us were nonexistent. we eventually managed to find one, but that’s not before some drunk guy decided to grab my crotch. it was magical, and by that, i mean it was not magical.
we woke up on saturday, which we’d planned to spend in maseru (mainly so we could say we’d been to lesotho as well as to have that extra stamp in our passports); our study abroad programme director had told us that we could easily find a minibus to transport us to maseru, we had no such luck, so we decided to spend the day attempting to partake in tourist activities throughout bloemfontein. unfortunately, like i said, bloemfontein really doesn’t cater to tourists, so we didn’t have much in that regard (heck, there was hardly anything open as it was), although we did see the capitol building of free state province as well as the supreme court building (which, incidentally, was an unmarked and rather disappointing edifice). we also saw the national library for afrikaans literature, because apparently, the afrikaans language has enough literature to fill an entire building. oh! and we also almost got locked into a mall. we’d been looking for a restroom and so we went into a mall downtown (anchored by shoprite, which says it all) but apparently 3:00 in the afternoon is when malls in downtown bloemfontein close on saturdays we we narrowly escaped what would’ve been an interesting story in its own right. i think we made our way back to the waterfront at some point for more 5 rand lemonade as well.
somewhere in there, we found the crafts market associated with macufe, and we bought some cool african-looking accessories made by local sotho and zulu women. i got a bracelet.
we went back to the b & b and hung out on the poolside for a little bit before going back into town. our plan was to eat dinner at the waterfront, then go barhopping on 2nd avenue, which, according to our hostess, was where all the anglophone bars are located. so, we got to the waterfront, and everything was closed. all the restaurants, all the cafés, everything. and it was only 8:00! apparently bloemfontein isn’t too keen on staying open after dusk (although april and brigid think it has to do with the macufe events, which we’d opted not to buy tickets for, going on that evening). we wandered the streets of bloemfontein looking for food. my eye caught sight of a seemingly hopeful mcdonald’s, but luckily, it didn’t come to that: we went to the 2nd avenue café instead and had pizza. april didn’t really care for it, but brigid and i thought it was all right. that was, however, when we learned that 2nd avenue is, actually, where afrikaans speakers go out (i think we were the only english speakers there). all of the afikaaner guys had repulsive mullets and kept on high five-ing each other in a heinously suggestive top gun-esque style. gag.
after we finished dinner (well after 10:00), we ascended to the dance floor, where we saw plenty more afrikaaners drunkenly dancing, but given the bar’s 10 rand special on rum & coke we decided to join the fun for a little bit. after a while, though, we realised that the scene wasn’t really happening, so we went down the street to a bar called stone’s (which is actually a chain of bars throughout south africa). the demography was the same but the scene was a little better, except for the fact that for some random reason it was prohibited to bring drinks onto the dance floor. anyway. the dj kept on playing covers (and not very good ones at that) of american songs from the 1950s, but we had fun nonetheless (i started dancing with this chick who kept on talking to me in afrikaans, and i tried to explain to her that i don’t speak afrikaans, but that was a failure and eventually her boyfriend got jealous and dragged her away anyway). then, april met a boy! now that, that was magical. he was 19 and attends the university of the free state, and apparently he decided to make a point of telling april of his heinously racist views (e.g., that black people shouldn’t be allowed to own land, blah blah blah). he seemed cool with the fact that i was gay though (he wasn’t sure if i was her boyfriend or not, so i told him i’m gay, a fact that apparently isn’t obvious to afrikaaners). we danced for a little while but then that guy’s creeper status became apparent so we bounced.
brigid and i wanted to go home at that point, but april was still insistent on having some more fun, so she dragged us on over to another bar that was having a form party (yuck) and paid our covers. we refused to interact with the form, the jacuzzis it was coming out of, or the individuals within the jacuzzis in any way, shape, or form, so we went inside to the dance floor, which was too crowded as it was. we also couldn’t help but notice that all of the foam-goers were 20-year-old fake blonds and creepy 40-year-old guys, so we didn’t stay long at that place and by then we all decided to go home.
it was raining when we exited that establishment, but it wasn’t a torrential downpour as we’re used to in cape town, so it felt very nice. we called our favourite cab driver to come pick us up (not the quickest of ways to get a ride home, but at least we knew we could rely on him), but guess who should make a special appearance on the corner we were waiting on? creepy afrikaaner guy from stone’s! he offered to give us a lift back to our b & b, which april blatantly declined due to the fact that he was wasted (oh, and creepy). after what felt like forever (but was really only 15 minutes), our cab arrived, and we left the puzzling afrikaans-speaking nightlife scene behind (the guy decided to give april a call after we got back to the b & b, but that turned out to be more of a source of amusement to us than anything else).
we woke up the next day (sunday), and it was right then and there that i knew i was getting sick. still, i wanted to complete our weekend, so we went into town to attend a soccer game at vodacom park. we thought it would be really packed, but i guess everybody was planning on attending the match later on in the day so the stands were fairly sparse for the noon match (plus, it was raining). the game was a lot of fun to watch, but they seemed to ignore all legitimate rules of professional soccer. mainly, the timing of the match was rather unconventional. “halftime” was about 20 minutes in, and the match ended like 80 minutes in, too. also, the players kept on slipping on the puddles throughout the field and falling down, which was actually more hilarious than anything else. haha.
after that, we walked back over to the waterfront, where we caught a showing of the “district 9” movie. it as pretty atrocious, as i was expecting it to serve as a social critique but it was basically just 2 hours of violent shit. it wasn’t a terribly realistic depiction of south africa either, but whatever, johannesburg is different from cape town so what can i say. we grabbed some ice cream after the showing, which i of course enjoyed. :)
soon after that, we went back to the b & b to relax for a little bit, then we packed our bags and went to the bus terminal, which was largely a fruitless endeavour given the weather had transformed into a particularly heinous rainstorm and our bus was some 2 hours delayed coming in from pretoria. our bus finally arrived, and soaking wet, we boarded it. the bus wasn’t as comfortable as the one we’d taken to bloemfontein, but i was able to sleep nonetheless.
we arrived in cape town the next morning -- late, of course, and because of that i missed my urban politics tutorial (which, as i later found out, got cancelled anyway). i was definitely sick by that point, much to my chagrin, but nevertheless i can say that i definitely enjoyed the weekend -- even though there was no shortage of strange characters or random events! still, it was nice to get out of cape town and see another part of the county. sure, it wasn’t durban or port elizabeth, but like when we went to northern cape, i’d like to think it gave us a more “authentic”, locals’ perspective on what south africa is really like. that being said, i still hold that bloemfontein is certainly not for the tourists. ;)
more to come.
22 October 2009
musings on healthcare
lately in my sociology of industrialisation class, we’ve been discussing the issue of national healthcare, and as if this weren’t already such a contentious issue in the united states, it truly rises to the forefront of individuals’ attentions, minds, and hearts here in south africa. in 2007, the expenditure for public sector healthcare totalled 59 billion rand, serving 40 million denizens. on the other hand, the expenditure for private sector healthcare totalled 67 billion rand, serving 7 million of the country’s wealthier residents. put another way, in 2007, the 8.5% of south africa’s gdp spent on healthcare; 3.5% of it went to public sector healthcare, whereas 5% went to private sector healthcare. the annual amount spent per person within public sector healthcare is 1,400 rand, whereas the annual amount spent per person within private sector healthcare is 9,500 rand.
the extreme disparity in the amount of money allotted toward healthcare in the public versus the private sector has resulted in a remarkable gap in the standards of health between south africans – and understandably so. after all, medicine has undergone a process of commodification – the result of this being that, if you can afford it, you can obtain the best healthcare possible. if you can’t, then you’re screwed.
this issue certainly sparked a debate amongst the students in my sociology class, and quite frankly, i wasn’t too enthused about the solutions they proposed for remedying the situation. one of the more outlandish (in my opinion, at least) solutions proposed was a reassignment of white medical staff to facilities in majority-black neighbourhoods, and vice versa. i wasn’t terribly keen on this pitch, namely because it works under the presumption that all white people are rich and all black people are poor (a supposition that’s becoming less and less true in post-apartheid south africa), but also because it presumes that whites inherently provide better healthcare than blacks (it should be noted that the author of this suggestion, in fact, is black).
another suggestion that i was equally nonplussed about, but seemed to be met with a greater level of amenability by my classmates, was that of eradicating private healthcare altogether. under this proposal, all of south africa’s medical staff, facilities, and programmes would be state-owned and state-operated. the 7 million denizens currently subscribing to private sector healthcare would be reassigned to public sector healthcare (against their respective wills, but that’s another issue).
it is indisputable that private sector healthcare triumphs over that of the public sector, and the 7 million south africans presently subscribing to private sector healthcare receive a far superior quality of medical care than the 40 million utilising public sector healthcare. if this is the case, then why should south africa bring an end to private healthcare altogether? while it’s lamentable that optimal healthcare isn’t readily available to the entire south african populace, realistically speaking, it’s better that this higher standard of healthcare be available to at least some of the population, rather than none at all.
eliminating private sector healthcare in south africa altogether is a very dangerous concept. while decent healthcare is at least somewhat attainable in south africa, a complete transition to nationalised, public sector healthcare would eradicate any semblance of this. if private sector healthcare is allowed to remain, then it will eventually make its way throughout south african society – private firms, advertising a dramatically higher standard for healthcare, will entice consumers of all socioeconomic statues, and eventually the private sector will become the de facto option for medical services. if private sector healthcare ceases to exist in south africa, however, then there will be no chance of this, and the standard of living in this country will significantly suffer.
as the united states finds itself in the midst of this litigious issue in the context of its own population, it is important to remember that countries like south africa, despite a smaller population, have far less capital to spend on medical services as well. the discrepancy in healthcare amongst americans seems small in comparison to that amongst south africans. the existence of private healthcare, even in a minimal capacity, within south africa not only provides a greater quality of healthcare for denizens than would otherwise be possible, but also serves as a promise for a greater standard of medical care for all south africans in the future. by nationalising healthcare in its entirety and eliminating private sector healthcare, this possibility will be exterminated.
the extreme disparity in the amount of money allotted toward healthcare in the public versus the private sector has resulted in a remarkable gap in the standards of health between south africans – and understandably so. after all, medicine has undergone a process of commodification – the result of this being that, if you can afford it, you can obtain the best healthcare possible. if you can’t, then you’re screwed.
this issue certainly sparked a debate amongst the students in my sociology class, and quite frankly, i wasn’t too enthused about the solutions they proposed for remedying the situation. one of the more outlandish (in my opinion, at least) solutions proposed was a reassignment of white medical staff to facilities in majority-black neighbourhoods, and vice versa. i wasn’t terribly keen on this pitch, namely because it works under the presumption that all white people are rich and all black people are poor (a supposition that’s becoming less and less true in post-apartheid south africa), but also because it presumes that whites inherently provide better healthcare than blacks (it should be noted that the author of this suggestion, in fact, is black).
another suggestion that i was equally nonplussed about, but seemed to be met with a greater level of amenability by my classmates, was that of eradicating private healthcare altogether. under this proposal, all of south africa’s medical staff, facilities, and programmes would be state-owned and state-operated. the 7 million denizens currently subscribing to private sector healthcare would be reassigned to public sector healthcare (against their respective wills, but that’s another issue).
it is indisputable that private sector healthcare triumphs over that of the public sector, and the 7 million south africans presently subscribing to private sector healthcare receive a far superior quality of medical care than the 40 million utilising public sector healthcare. if this is the case, then why should south africa bring an end to private healthcare altogether? while it’s lamentable that optimal healthcare isn’t readily available to the entire south african populace, realistically speaking, it’s better that this higher standard of healthcare be available to at least some of the population, rather than none at all.
eliminating private sector healthcare in south africa altogether is a very dangerous concept. while decent healthcare is at least somewhat attainable in south africa, a complete transition to nationalised, public sector healthcare would eradicate any semblance of this. if private sector healthcare is allowed to remain, then it will eventually make its way throughout south african society – private firms, advertising a dramatically higher standard for healthcare, will entice consumers of all socioeconomic statues, and eventually the private sector will become the de facto option for medical services. if private sector healthcare ceases to exist in south africa, however, then there will be no chance of this, and the standard of living in this country will significantly suffer.
as the united states finds itself in the midst of this litigious issue in the context of its own population, it is important to remember that countries like south africa, despite a smaller population, have far less capital to spend on medical services as well. the discrepancy in healthcare amongst americans seems small in comparison to that amongst south africans. the existence of private healthcare, even in a minimal capacity, within south africa not only provides a greater quality of healthcare for denizens than would otherwise be possible, but also serves as a promise for a greater standard of medical care for all south africans in the future. by nationalising healthcare in its entirety and eliminating private sector healthcare, this possibility will be exterminated.
18 October 2009
if you see her, say hello
i know you all were expecting a post on bloemfontein. and i'll get there, i promise. but i just wanted to share some of my recent musings.
so, i've got this problem. i'm always thinking ahead. which doesn't sound like such a dilemma, unless you factor in the fact that its consequence is that i'm never content with the here and now. like, last semester, i was fixated on the prospect of going to cape town, and this one, all i can think about is everything i've got going on next semester. i mean, i'm gonna get involved in chad's new liberty society club at gw; i'm gonna be doing stuff with ΣAΛ, my honours fraternity; i'll likely be back at my fab job at dsw, at least over christmas; i'm gonna find a great internship, which shouldn't be too difficult considering employers like hiring interns with at least junior standing, which i've got now; i'll be taking classes at gw again, which will be such a breath of fresh air since uct's coursework doesn't challenge me whatsoever; and, most crucially, i'll be back with all my amazing friends. right now, it all sounds pretty sweet.
and yet, even though i'm sure this semester will be over before i know it, i've still got a ways to go (33 days, to be precise) before i leave cape town. i've carved out a niche here and established a modus operandi for myself here: indeed, i volunteer, i intern, i go to class, i go to on-campus clubs, i explore the city. and yet, i can't help but feel listless toward my being in the present day.
were my expectations far too unrealistically high for cape town, and ergo i'm not suffering the consequences of such thinking? or, am i merely fated to live in a state of being in which i am perpetually excited for what lies ahead whilst remaining nonplussed toward my present status?
there's arguments for both, i guess. one element that's certainly served to the detriment of this current semester is the lack of genuine friendships that i feel i have here. the truth is that i really don't have any south african friends, and the overwhelming majority of my friendships with americans feel trite and contrived; those that might have a little more meaning, well, they simply haven't been able to replace the ones i left behind. the last time i felt this way was in 2nd grade.... i had no friends then, either, and the prospect of moving to thousand oaks made me feel extremely hopeful. now, 13 years later, i find myself in the same dilemma.
on the other hand, what if i am not so lucky as to be chugging toward a blissful dénouement? indeed, what if i am doomed to wander the earth, cursed by my own today, never truly able to reach that golden tomorrow? it's entirely possible: reflecting on my previous blog entries, i find myself constantly discussing my then-seemingly exciting future plans whilst lamenting past decisions leading to my then-present. will this pattern lead to an eternal listlessness on my end?
in truth, i imagine that the answer lies somewhere between the two. as quinton has said, studying abroad in cape town is not solely about learning about south african culture, customs, politics, society, etc.; it's about becoming an increasingly global citizen, and to that end, becoming more aware of my own identity as an american. indeed, it'd be impossible to say that this semester is just like any other semester during my undergrad. the lessons i'm learning are far more momentous than ones i've learned in semesters past.
so, let's take a look at what i've figured out.
first and foremost, i am utterly, indisputably, and irrevocably proud to be an american. south africans wishing to travel to the united kingdom must obtain a visa, through their local british consulate, before departing south africa. when i went to the united kingdom, all i did was click a few buttons on orbitz, take a sleeping pill, and off went the plane. (brangelina were crazy to deny their swakopmund-born daughter an american passport in favour of a namibian one.)
when my greatgrandparents left german-occupied austria in 1941, their voyage took them sprinting through the fields of western europe, carrying my grandfather in their arms as they ran, for fear that the nazi soldiers chasing them would catch up to them. i'm an american thanks to their willpower.
second, as much as i complain about it and ridicule it, the truth is that i absolutely love attending george washington university. not to sound terribly conceited, but people tell me left and right that i could've gotten into georgetown with my sat scores. it's a great school, but egad, why would i want to go there? i get to go to school in the same neighbourhood as the naval hospital, the state department, and the world bank. my freshman dorm was 4 blocks from the white house. i could see the washington monument from my sophomore dorm. the tv sets in my student union play cnn and msnbc, not espn. there are busts of our nation's first president scattered throughout campus. classes are tough, but i always walk away from any given semester having enjoyed at least a couple of them. and most importantly, even though i chastise gw for not playing an active role in my pursuits, it's still helped me nonetheless in obtaining employment (via the very pleasing line it adds to my résumé), exploring dc (thanks to its conveniently placed metro stop, proximity to the mall, etc.), and making friends.
that brings me to my final point. when i left california in 2007, i couldn't believe what i was doing... how could i say good-bye to the 10 years i'd spent formulating friendships in thousand oaks? then, i got to dc, and i find myself in a world in which i could walk down any given sidewalk and assuredly run into someone i know for a quick hello. i certainly see a lot of faces to which i'm averse, too, but nevertheless, i've been very blessed to have encountered a wide and warm social circle over my 2 years in dc.
if there's one lesson i'd like to take away from my semester abroad, it's to never, ever take the individuals in my life for granted. they're all too important and too precious to be overlooked or dismissed. being 12,000 miles away from them all certainly has stressed the importance of this credence for me.
on the one hand, i'm sure that, in the future, i'll succumb to my natural process of longing for the future whilst listless toward the present. on the other, i feel as if my experience studying here in south africa has somehow been too monumental to regard as "just any other semester", and consequently, i hope to be able to cherish these elements (my country, my school, and my life) of my life, as well as many more (my family, my job, my travels, god, etc.), with much more fervor than ever before.
i know that, as i sit here, alone in my room on a saturday night, i certainly do right now.
so, i've got this problem. i'm always thinking ahead. which doesn't sound like such a dilemma, unless you factor in the fact that its consequence is that i'm never content with the here and now. like, last semester, i was fixated on the prospect of going to cape town, and this one, all i can think about is everything i've got going on next semester. i mean, i'm gonna get involved in chad's new liberty society club at gw; i'm gonna be doing stuff with ΣAΛ, my honours fraternity; i'll likely be back at my fab job at dsw, at least over christmas; i'm gonna find a great internship, which shouldn't be too difficult considering employers like hiring interns with at least junior standing, which i've got now; i'll be taking classes at gw again, which will be such a breath of fresh air since uct's coursework doesn't challenge me whatsoever; and, most crucially, i'll be back with all my amazing friends. right now, it all sounds pretty sweet.
and yet, even though i'm sure this semester will be over before i know it, i've still got a ways to go (33 days, to be precise) before i leave cape town. i've carved out a niche here and established a modus operandi for myself here: indeed, i volunteer, i intern, i go to class, i go to on-campus clubs, i explore the city. and yet, i can't help but feel listless toward my being in the present day.
were my expectations far too unrealistically high for cape town, and ergo i'm not suffering the consequences of such thinking? or, am i merely fated to live in a state of being in which i am perpetually excited for what lies ahead whilst remaining nonplussed toward my present status?
there's arguments for both, i guess. one element that's certainly served to the detriment of this current semester is the lack of genuine friendships that i feel i have here. the truth is that i really don't have any south african friends, and the overwhelming majority of my friendships with americans feel trite and contrived; those that might have a little more meaning, well, they simply haven't been able to replace the ones i left behind. the last time i felt this way was in 2nd grade.... i had no friends then, either, and the prospect of moving to thousand oaks made me feel extremely hopeful. now, 13 years later, i find myself in the same dilemma.
on the other hand, what if i am not so lucky as to be chugging toward a blissful dénouement? indeed, what if i am doomed to wander the earth, cursed by my own today, never truly able to reach that golden tomorrow? it's entirely possible: reflecting on my previous blog entries, i find myself constantly discussing my then-seemingly exciting future plans whilst lamenting past decisions leading to my then-present. will this pattern lead to an eternal listlessness on my end?
in truth, i imagine that the answer lies somewhere between the two. as quinton has said, studying abroad in cape town is not solely about learning about south african culture, customs, politics, society, etc.; it's about becoming an increasingly global citizen, and to that end, becoming more aware of my own identity as an american. indeed, it'd be impossible to say that this semester is just like any other semester during my undergrad. the lessons i'm learning are far more momentous than ones i've learned in semesters past.
so, let's take a look at what i've figured out.
first and foremost, i am utterly, indisputably, and irrevocably proud to be an american. south africans wishing to travel to the united kingdom must obtain a visa, through their local british consulate, before departing south africa. when i went to the united kingdom, all i did was click a few buttons on orbitz, take a sleeping pill, and off went the plane. (brangelina were crazy to deny their swakopmund-born daughter an american passport in favour of a namibian one.)
when my greatgrandparents left german-occupied austria in 1941, their voyage took them sprinting through the fields of western europe, carrying my grandfather in their arms as they ran, for fear that the nazi soldiers chasing them would catch up to them. i'm an american thanks to their willpower.
second, as much as i complain about it and ridicule it, the truth is that i absolutely love attending george washington university. not to sound terribly conceited, but people tell me left and right that i could've gotten into georgetown with my sat scores. it's a great school, but egad, why would i want to go there? i get to go to school in the same neighbourhood as the naval hospital, the state department, and the world bank. my freshman dorm was 4 blocks from the white house. i could see the washington monument from my sophomore dorm. the tv sets in my student union play cnn and msnbc, not espn. there are busts of our nation's first president scattered throughout campus. classes are tough, but i always walk away from any given semester having enjoyed at least a couple of them. and most importantly, even though i chastise gw for not playing an active role in my pursuits, it's still helped me nonetheless in obtaining employment (via the very pleasing line it adds to my résumé), exploring dc (thanks to its conveniently placed metro stop, proximity to the mall, etc.), and making friends.
that brings me to my final point. when i left california in 2007, i couldn't believe what i was doing... how could i say good-bye to the 10 years i'd spent formulating friendships in thousand oaks? then, i got to dc, and i find myself in a world in which i could walk down any given sidewalk and assuredly run into someone i know for a quick hello. i certainly see a lot of faces to which i'm averse, too, but nevertheless, i've been very blessed to have encountered a wide and warm social circle over my 2 years in dc.
if there's one lesson i'd like to take away from my semester abroad, it's to never, ever take the individuals in my life for granted. they're all too important and too precious to be overlooked or dismissed. being 12,000 miles away from them all certainly has stressed the importance of this credence for me.
on the one hand, i'm sure that, in the future, i'll succumb to my natural process of longing for the future whilst listless toward the present. on the other, i feel as if my experience studying here in south africa has somehow been too monumental to regard as "just any other semester", and consequently, i hope to be able to cherish these elements (my country, my school, and my life) of my life, as well as many more (my family, my job, my travels, god, etc.), with much more fervor than ever before.
i know that, as i sit here, alone in my room on a saturday night, i certainly do right now.
05 October 2009
your mother should know
remember back in sixth grade, when it was all the rage to let your pants sag and have your boxers exposed? i did that once, and my mom saw me and man oh man was she pissed. in retrospect, what in god's name were we thinking?
so, apparently, my e-mail address is circling its merry way around nigeria.
∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙
from: yourcareer@shilty.com
to: Michael Ross
date: Mon, Oct 5, 2009 at 2:17 AM
subject: Michael Ross, a vacancy of Part time position for a student may be interesting to you
Hello, Michael Ross! I found your resume interesting. Our company needs Part time position for a student. Salary - 14.000 USD. Our site address - http://www.shilty.com/?cs=qkme8xf1b4.
Sincerely yours, HR-director.
Cilicia Miller
Shilty Company
http://www.shilty.com/?cs=qkme8xf1b4
∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙
umm, first of all: SHITTY company!?!!!?? that should be anybody's first clue. i shan't dwell on the myriad grammatical, uhh, points of interest, but note "cilicia"'s usage of the decimal comma, as is common in anglophone african countries such as nigeria, as opposed to the decimal point as used in the united states.
in other news, i went to the beach at fish hoek yesterday afternoon. i took metrorail, which offers beautiful views of false bay since the track hugs the shoreline, but unfortunately, i had a stomachache whilst there. :( also, it got cloudy. meh.
so, apparently, my e-mail address is circling its merry way around nigeria.
∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙
from: yourcareer@shilty.com
to: Michael Ross
date: Mon, Oct 5, 2009 at 2:17 AM
subject: Michael Ross, a vacancy of Part time position for a student may be interesting to you
Hello, Michael Ross! I found your resume interesting. Our company needs Part time position for a student. Salary - 14.000 USD. Our site address - http://www.shilty.com/?cs=qkme8xf1b4.
Sincerely yours, HR-director.
Cilicia Miller
Shilty Company
http://www.shilty.com/?cs=qkme8xf1b4
∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙
umm, first of all: SHITTY company!?!!!?? that should be anybody's first clue. i shan't dwell on the myriad grammatical, uhh, points of interest, but note "cilicia"'s usage of the decimal comma, as is common in anglophone african countries such as nigeria, as opposed to the decimal point as used in the united states.
in other news, i went to the beach at fish hoek yesterday afternoon. i took metrorail, which offers beautiful views of false bay since the track hugs the shoreline, but unfortunately, i had a stomachache whilst there. :( also, it got cloudy. meh.
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