I'm back in action! (with regard to my blog, that is)

Hey guys!

Sorry for being m.i.a. for so long!  I don't really have a good excuse for my absenteeism, other than that I've been out enjoying Cape Town.  But now I have even more interesting adventures to write about!  Also, make sure to re-check my posts from January and February - I am going to add a few pictures to them.

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So to start out, this is the 4th week of classes of semester 1 of 2011 here at UCT.  Since I took one class over the summer, I will only be taking three credits during the regular semester.  (There will be another post to follow this one, describing more about my Globalization and the Environment class.)  The two classes I am taking are Applied Ethics, which is in the Philosophy department, and a class called Race, Culture, and Identity in Africa, which is in a department called the Center for African Studies (CAS).  So far in Applied Ethics we have discussed the topics of "humor ethics," including racist and sexist jokes, "premarital sex and promiscuity," and now we're discussing "homosexuality."  (I recently read an online article that combines two of my favorite topics of discussion: gender and sex.  The name of the article is "Gender Differences and Casual Sex: The New Research, and the link is: http://yesmeansyesblog.wordpress.com/2011/03/03/gender-differences-and-casual-sex-the-new-research/.)  

My CAS class is a once-a-week seminar, and so far we've spent most of our time discussing the contested exhumation of an early colonial burial site on Prestwich Street in Cape Town.  In general, this class is meant to "survey developments in post-apartheid society, with a particular emphasis on issues of culture and identity."  The "keywords" my professor uses to describe his class are culture, identity, globalization, public history, memory, performance, the public sphere, and Cape Town.  Our class today was canceled, though, so I used my free afternoon to go the District Six Museum (which I will describe below).

My third credit will come from an independent study project that I will work on throughout the semester.  I am working within a sub-section of the department of Environmental and Geographical Science, the African Center for Cities (ACC).  The purpose of the ACC is to serve as a platform for interdisciplinary research on urban issues, such as "Africa Urbanism," "Urban Food Security," and "Climate Change and Cities."  I will be helping build the foundations of a new "Urban Violence CityLab."  To do this, I will be collecting both qualitative and quantitative data and statistics on violent crime from three communities in the Cape Flats (Harare, which is in the township Khayelitsha, Freedom Park, which is in the township Mitchells Plain, and Netreg, which is a separate township), which have all undergone post-apartheid urban upgrading projects.  The broad issue I will be exploring is whether these urban upgrading projects have had any effect (or correlation) on the prevalence and types of violence that happen in these communities.  As I'm sure many of you know, South African cities are plagued by crime and many types of violence, including vigilante terrorism, structural, political, institutional, economic, youth/gang, gender-based, drug-related, xenophobic, and psychological violence.  So far it seems like this will be a really great project for me, because I had been thinking about the possibility of writing my senior thesis next year on something related to urban violence.

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So back to the District Six Museum - I went there because everyone says it is a great representation of the memories of the forced removals that happened during apartheid, and I thought it would provide some good contextual knowledge for my CAS class.  Here's some info from the museum's website (http://www.districtsix.co.za/frames.htm):

"District Six was named the Sixth Municipal District of Cape Town in 1867. Originally established as a mixed community of freed slaves, merchants, artisans, labourers and immigrants, District Six was a vibrant centre with close links to the city and the port. By the beginning of the twentieth century, however, the history of removals and marginalisation had begun.

"In 1966, it was declared a white area under the Group areas Act of 1950, and by 1982, the life of the community was over. 60 000 people were forcibly removed to barren outlying areas aptly known as the Cape Flats, and their houses in District Six were flattened by bulldozers.

"The District Six Museum, established in December 1994, works with the memories of these experiences and with the history of forced removals more generally."

If any of you are ever in Cape Town, I would definitely recommend visiting the District Six Museum.  The extreme racial segregation is painfully obvious from the moment one steps into Cape Town, but no one talks directly about the exact process of institutional racism of apartheid.

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After going to the D6 Museum, I just walked around Greenmarket Square and down Long Street, being a tourist and examining the mass-produced African art that I've seen being sold by vendors all over Cape Town.  I should note, though, that even though the art is mass-produced, it is still hand-made.  Many people make their living from selling these crafts, and it is a well-established part of the culture here.

I ended up buying a three-dimensional collage, made of wood, paint, corrugated metal, and tin cans, at Greenmarket Square.  I've seen them around a lot over the past couple of months, and even though they're pretty touristy, I've come to really like them.  I also had a dream about them the other night, in which I left SA without finding the perfect tin-can-and-corrugated-metal-collage to bring home; after that, I was determined to deny the intense desire to prove to SA that I'm not just your typical American tourist, suck it up, and just buy one.

I chose this one specifically because of the AIDS ribbon and doctor sign on one of the little township shacks.  But besides that distinguishing feature, mine is pretty much identical to the rest.  They all have Table Mountain in the background, little black figures in front, and township shacks made of tin cans in the middle.  The type of tin can used to make the township shacks does vary sometimes, though.  I also liked that this one featured a Black Label piece of tin can:  The two major beers here are Castle and Black Label.  Historically, Castle has been considered a beer drunk by whites, and Black Label has been considered a beer drunk by blacks.  The majority of us Americans have preferred the taste of Black Label from the beginning, before we knew there was some sort of unofficial racial distinction.  When the 7 South Africans moved into our house, they told us about which race usually drinks which beer, and stated their own prefere

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On a slightly unrelated note, I bought a few postcards at the District Six Museum with Nelson Mandela quotes on them.  They say things like: "One of the most difficult things is not to change society - but to change yourself," "For to be free is not merely to cast off one's chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others," and "I am what I am both as a result of people who respected me and helped me, and of those who did not respect me and treated me badly."  One that made me laugh says, "I can't help it if the ladies take note of me; I am not going to protest."  But my favorite one says, "...Freedom cannot be achieved unless the women have been emancipated from all forms of oppression."  Nelson Mandela is a very wise man.

So this brings me to my next topic:  Happy (belated) International Women's Day!  (It was yesterday, March 8th.)  Here's a link to an article about it from one of my favorite blogs of all time, feministing.com: http://feministing.com/2011/03/08/happy-international-womens-day/.  And here is the link to a correlated article from The Guardian about one of the many, many benefits of equality for women - the reduction of world hunger: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/mar/07/women-equality-reduce-world-hunger.  Please take the time to read both of those - gender equality (or the lack thereof) is a very important issue.  As the NYT journalist Nick Kristof wrote in his book, "Half the Sky," “In the nineteenth century, the central moral challenge was slavery.  In the twentieth century, it was the battle against totalitarianism.  We believe that in this century the paramount moral challenge will be the struggle for gender equality around the world.”

And for those of you who haven't been keeping up with the (f***ing ridiculous) trends in American politics, here are some informative news articles:

"In Tahrir Square and the Pentagon: Sexual Assault Exposed"  (http://blog.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2011/02/16/sexual_assault_happens_from_tahrir_to_the_pentagon)

"Top 10 Shocking Attacks from the GOP's War on Women"  (http://pol.moveon.org/waronwomen/?rc=fb)

***"GOP War on Women Goes Global"  (http://www.rhrealitycheck.org/blog/2011/03/01/video-budget) *** (Read this one if you have limited time.  It is especially good because it talks about the overlap between sexism, women's right to reproductive health care, public health, and the numerous global connections.)

"AIDS will R.I.P. you apart"
a mural in Khayelitsha

***Update: 3/10/11
Also, today (March 10th) is (US) National Women and Girls HIV/AIDS Awareness Day.  Follow this link to learn about the human rights abuses suffered by positive women: http://www.pwn-usa.org/.

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OK, so that's it for now.  You will be hearing more from me soon!
Much love,
Kelley