Tuesday July 14, 2009

So we had a braai (Afrikkaans for barbeque) on Sunday. It was an absolute disaster. We knew it was going to rain on Sunday but my feeling about rain is that it really should not inhibit our plans but I was so wrong. Janine insisted on doing all the cooking so I didn’t really help with that. It was supposed to be a really South African experience. She invited all her Afrikaans friends and I invited people from work and some people from Stanford. It was raining really bad outside and people had a difficult time getting in the house because of the rain. Evidently the rain was reaching people’s thighs. I was somewhat oblivious because I was inside just enjoying conversation, food and drinks, while Liese was shuttling people back and forth from the front gate with umbrellas to the house because she was the only one that brought rain boots. We had to supply everyone towels and clothes. I still do not know where my two Stanford sweaters are. Anyways once everyone was there, Janine started panicking because she couldn’t find her cat and the house looked like it was going to flood. The garage was also getting flooded and she was worried about her car. We evidently live in the lowest point in Rondebosch, so our house is very vulnerable to floods. The last time the house flooded, the water reached the attic. Finally I realized the extent of the storm when Janine told us to grab our passports pack our bags, and grab all of our cash. Everyone had to evacuate the house. No one had any food yet. Everyone was just getting there but she was worried that we would get trapped in the house. Liese and I were contemplating checking into a hotel for the night. At this point the house was chaotic. Everyone was rushing up and down the stairs moving all Sarah’s clothes out of her room up to the attic. When I think back on this it is very comical. Once we had everyone out of the house Sarah, Liese, and I went to Janine’s, niece’s house to try and wait it out. We had some interesting conversation with Nu (her niece) and her roommate Laura. They are both from Zimbabwe, which they refer to as Zim. They told us about how they were violently pushed off their farms by the government. Nu and Laura shared that men with machetes, guns, and other weapons showed up to their farm and forced them to leave or die if they stayed. They had no choice but to leave. Currently most people that can leave Zimbabwe have left already because these forced removals have caused the entire economic system to collapse. Now there are Africans living on these farms that do not know how to farm so Zimbabwe is no longer exporting any food. She also explained that though there was clearly large inequality the economic system, in some ways having the whites continue to own the farm was to Zim’s advantage. The system that was put in place would have helped the African people to assimilate into the farming business. These white farms employed up to 400 workers and a school was also in place to educate the people. The forced removal of these white farmers totally damaged this system and now everything is falling apart. People who owned farms were required to hire so many African workers and were also required to have a school on the farm to teach the workers. We also talked about the African prospective of American. You can probably guess what that was, a strong disdain for American attitudes. It was great getting together with people our age; we also mocked each others accents and talked about the differences in our upbringing. It was really cool getting to know them.

Monday I went to the International film festival in the city. I saw the most amazing movie. It was called the “The Age of Stupid” which referenced the ignorance that plagues the world. It basically argues that the world is knowingly committing suicide because we are not doing enough to combat global warming. I went with my friend from work, Ellie. The movie made her really sad but it made me really mad at myself for being so wasteful and our world leaders for being all about money. The movie discussed the American problem of consumerism. Some little kids in Iraq who were clearly resentful of American destroying their way of life expressed that American are wasteful. One example the two kids gave were that American never wear their shoes until they fall apart. In Iraq they explained after their shoes are worn out, they simply fix them and keep on wearing them. It also revealed the horrible things that Shell Gas and Oil Company has done to small villages in rural areas of Africa. They are deepening poverty levels by polluting the water, preventing fish from growing full size and eliminating all clean drinking water. They also promised these villages that they would contribute monetarily to their development in exchange for allowing to them to drill for oil but nothing has been done to improve the living standards. After watching this movie I thought about how wasteful I was with everything!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This movie predicts that the world will basically at its end in 2055 if we continue with our wasteful habits because global warming effects will be accelerated. What can we all do individually to make a large difference?