Back "home"

After spending a week at home, I am back on campus for the final term of my degree. It's a scary thought, but... I'm ready to kick ass!

ATTENTION: History Buffs

If anyone knows about any of the following, please let me know... I will appreciate any help on any of these topics.

I have to 1) Say what it's about 2) Elaborate on it / put it in context 3) How it fits in to the world crisis as we know it today. I have about ten lines to write about under the given headings.

Here are the topics:

• The age of Homo sapiens relative to the age of the earth
• Concepts of time of pre-agricultural humans compared to ours
• The clock
• The nation state
• Imperialism
• Factories and railways
• Three phases of industrial capitalism
• The growth imperative of capitalsim
• Mass education
• The electrical revolution
• The Harber-Bosch process
• Barbed wire
• Osip Mandelstam and the Stalin poem
• The Yezhovschina
• Uranium and Lise Meitner
• The Gernam euthanasia programme and Auschwitz
• "It is my judgement in these things that when you do something that is technically sweet you go ahead and do it and you argue about what to do about it only after you have had your technical success" - Robert Oppenheimer
• Edward Teller and Mike
• The Golden Age
• The contraceptive pill and the liberation of women

Crime - I'm tired of making excuses...

I like to think that I am a positive person. I try my best to find the positive side in any situation. Coming from a semi-political family, I have been raised as a Proudly South African citizen. Being in the Journalism field, I have seen and experienced terrible atrocities in South Africa. But still, the fact that we live in such a beautiful country of natural beauty makes me feel that things aren’t really that bad.

I get very irritated when I hear people complaining about South Africa. Even though our newspapers bleed with headlines of rape, robbery and murder, I still find solace in the fact that we are a country of rich cultures and diversity.

However, my spirit has been dampened by something that happened to me last month. While walking in town around midday with two friends, my purse was stolen out of my handbag by a 15-year old boy. Someone who witnessed this approached me and told me about this. I became frantic and begged this young man to run after the boy. By the time I caught up with the group of teens, my money was already being distributed.

A nearby security guard caught the child who had taken the purse from my bag, but his friend ran away with it. I don’t remember ever being that angry before. As the guard held this 15-year old by his arm, I grabbed the money from his hands (about R180) and yelled at him, demanding him to find his friends who ran away with my purse.

When the police arrived, a case was opened and the juvenile was taken away. I really don’t care about the money that was taken. But I have had to deal with unnecessary admin of canceling and getting new cards. Besides that, I am so frustrated that this happened. I have been told that street children steal out of desperation. But still – it’s the principle of it. How dare he steal?

After this incident I have become paranoid as I walk down the street. I hate being like this – clutching onto my bag if I as much as see someone suspicious walking towards me.

The way I see it is like this – there are so many things already killing us in the world – Cancer, AIDS, tsunamis, forest fires…even floods! I think it’s ridiculous that we have to fear another human being. But, sadly that it the reality of the world.

I have been hearing far too many disheartening stories over the past few weeks. It’s one thing reading about it in the newspaper or watching it on the news, but when crime is committed to people close to you, it’s an entirely different situation. I have family members who have had guns pointed to their heads; they’ve been woken from their sleep and tortured in their bedrooms. This isn’t right. No country is exempt from crime, but we also can’t avoid the fact that we live in one of the most dangerous county’s in the world. When foreigners hear of South Africa, they think one of two things: 1) Wildlife and 2) Crime. Many people will argue that because of our brutal history, people are still healing from deep wounds that will take a long time to heal.

But I am tired of making excuses for the crime in this country. I refuse to live my life in fear. Why should innocent people suffer? If anyone should suffer, it should be the criminals…but we all know that isn’t the case.

As I write this, I don’t wish to solve any world crisis whatsoever. All I am saying is that South Africa needs to beef up its punishment laws. It is ridiculous that criminals are arrested and sometimes within a few hours, they’re released back into society. And so the cycle begins again.

I am still alive (and kicking)

Hello everyone! So Tuesday is over...which means, the week is progressing nicely. I'm going home on Saturday (shrills of joy).

I am so pleased that our 24minute group documentary is complete. I am very proud of our team for producing Searching for Existence.

Just briefly, the story is about Second Creek - a rubbish dump in East London which a community of people actually survive on. They literally eat off society's waste (we have footage of this) and they compete with pigs and dogs trying to get food. It was emotional filming these people. At times I felt guilty shoving a camera in their face. But had we not done that, the severity of the situation would not be taken seriously by viewers.

The dumpsite is being moved 60km out of the city, and part of our documentary deals with the (supposed) plans that local government have for this community.

Here are just a few pics of Second Creek for you to get a vague idea of the place I've been talking about.

aaaaaaah!!!!

Can technology PLEASE just be on my side for a few more hours?!

My laptop is as slow as a snail these days. If I click on something, I have to wait for half a minute before the damn menu gives me options to choose from....and I have been wrecking my brain looking for just the right music to go with my documentary. I never want to have to go through this again - what a bloody pain!

I have finally settled on something - it's a piano piece. It's not wonderful, but at this point I actually just don't care. For all I care, I am willing to put down "Twinkle twinkle little star" while my subject talks about receiving an honourary doctorate.

I'm pulling an all nighter tonight... I'm editing from 8pm right through to Sunday at 4am.

The only thing keeping me sane is knowing I'll be home next week this time.

The countdown begins

It's the first day of Spring here in South Africa. It's such a lovely day in G'town today...the sun is out, the birds are singing...and I woke up thinking, "Shit - it's Friday!" That means we are down to counting the hours till our documentaries are due.

To understand the extent of our insanity at ungodly hours spent in the Journ department, here is my dear friend, Jason on the brink of losing it .

I just can't take it anymore

Hmmmmmm


Sir, could you speak up, please?

Shit, these headphones arn't working

Yep, Jason has lost it now!

Confusing my body

It's 1am and I'm having tea! A few hours ago I had Red Bull. I'm not a big fan of Red Bull, but I needed something to give me "wings". I have four essays due for next week and the hours are closing in on me slowly, but surely...

A few weeks ago, I was normal - I'd wake up in the morning and sleep at night. But because of the crazy hours we have been working, my body has gone into the mode of sleeping when the sun is out and I seem to be wide awake and willing to working when the moon is out. My body is completely confused...my sleeping and eating patterns have totally changed!

Crazy! I was never like this, and I hope this pattern breaks as soon as the work load subsides. Which, by the way - will be OVER next week this time. To say I cannot wait is an understatement! I can't wait to go home...eat mum's home food, go to the hairdresser and feel like a human again!

Having said that, my tea break is over and my essay awaits me...

P.S. Our 24 min documentary, "Searching for Existence" is complete!

I am still working on my individual documentary - due on Tuesday. I am pulling an all-nighter on Saturday/Sunday... I am going to need much more than Red Bull to give me wings! I'm still trying to find decent bedding music to go with my doccie...much harder than I thought!