Fraud prevention via SMS

I have written before about the heavy feels to use banking services in SA. One thing that initially annoyed me was that I receive an SMS every time I log into the website, withdraw, deposit, or any other action. I’ve never been a bit SMS guy, so I treated it as clutter initially. I realized, however, that’s it’s actually a great security measure. If I’m not at my computer and get an SMS about logging in, I know to immediately call and report fraud. Not a bad idea after all, SA.

Swaziland

I had some adventures in Swaziland a while back. I set off with 7 others for a weekend of rafting and the Brushfire annual music festival.

 A visit from some larger-than-life party animals.

The first part of the adventure was just navigating the roads. It’s a ~5 hr drive in good circumstances, and roads in SA are rarely good circumstances. In this case, the road is single lane each way for most of the drive, and they were doing work on probably ~40km of road. This meant lots of stops as they turned the road into a one-way alternating road. It’s classic SA road work: rather than devoting a lot of resources to quickly finishing sections, they tear up big chunks that take forever to complete. (On the way back some signalman switched the sign on the other end too early, and we ended up dodging oncoming cars for most of the stretch.)

My car eventually made it to the border, where we stopped at a tiny border crossing – 2 guards on each side with not much activity. Both the SA and Swazi guards were watching the final of the SA soccer league (the Orlando Pirates came out champions), and that struck me as an interesting statement.

After the border post we bumped along dirt roads for several km. Swazi was truly a sleepy country as a whole and sparsely populated; the whole country felt like rural hill country Texas – and had the same beauty to me. Most of the country is ringed by a range of low mountains, so it really feels separate/quasi cut off from its neighbors. It’s also the last remaining absolute monarchy in Africa, though that has recently been challenged by riots and I don’t anticipate that lasting too much longer.

A friend of mine sells insurance in Swaziland and said she had to modify their policies when she encountered an issue. “Where do I put my other wives? You mean I can only insure one wife and kids as my family?” Their policies now accommodate multiple wives. (The king had to stop taking more wives because of a tight government budget.)

Bush Fire was different than I expected. It was much smaller – maybe 1000 people there on Saturday night. The crowd was much whiter (~50%?) than I anticipated; lots of Portuguese speakers, which I peg either as Mozambicans or tourists who came over from Moz. At ~$30 for a one-day ticket, however, they definitely weren’t aiming this at the local crowd.

Between acts at Bush Fire 2011.

That was also the evening of the Champions League final, and they deferred to this by setting up a tent with a projected screen. The place was absolutely packed; I got their early and got a seat, but didn’t leave when my group couldn’t find a spot because there would be no reclaiming my prime real estate. The trash talk was lively and the elbows were sharp when jockeying for space. In the end Barcelona handily beat Man U and made it look pretty. I’d say more than half the crowd was pulling for Man U, however.

I can truthfully say I’ve been all over Swaziland, because the next day we drove ~ 2 hours to the rafting site across the country. Half was on dirt roads. There is no way even with good directions I could find my way back to where we went in/came out of the river.

The photos of the king and king's mother.

On our way out that night my car realized we had entered the country a different way than the rest of the group, so we exited by the main border post to SA – which meant there was a metal building with marked parking spaces outside.

Swaziland was beautiful. It’s definitely impoverished, but for now you can visit a mostly undisturbed country and enjoy it.

So this is why they have electric blankets

After a year of living in Joburg, I have to lodge a complaint against the architects who built most of the residential city: you guys need to get with the game.

My apartment (and most other apartment/townhouse complexes) have decent security: electrified fences, boom gates with retracting tire spikes, 24/7 guard, and a fingerprint-activated entry system.  However, what lies behind that security leaves much to be desired.

Where to begin.  Joburg gets hot in the summer (reaching 30 C) and cold in the winter (occasional <0 C frosts).  However, they use single-pane windows, and the ubiquitous concrete construction doesn’t retain/block heat very well.  I have never been in a house, even nice ones, with central AC or heat, though some houses have built-in space heaters (like heated floors in a certain room, or a heating element built into a wall).  Ceiling fans are also rare.

Want to have people over?  They will probably have to park outside all of that fancy security.  You’re lucky if you get 2 parking spots for a 2-bed apartment, and you’re very lucky if they are both covered (typically one close and covered, one uncovered further away).  My roommate and I are “very lucky”… but our parking spaces are end to end, meaning one person must move to let the other out.  In addition, they are under a parking garage, but there is no covered walkway from the apartments to the garage, meaning you may be able to get groceries out of the car and stay dry only to get drenched carrying them in.

BEE: not a panacea

I got a new perspective at a braai a while back when the topic turned to apartheid.

My generation – or at least these Afrikaner test subjects – weren’t really affected by/had few memories of apartheid.  Apartheid fell when they were ~10 years old, and for them the end of apartheid simply meant black kids showed up at their schools.

However, they do have some strong memories of the emotions surrounding the event; as kids they may not have known the intricacies, but they could read the atmosphere.  One told a story of how their principal announced at school that he wanted to see the “Black kids” in his office.  He meant kids from a family named Black, but this was lost on some parents who called and threatened him personally.

Another person’s dad was in the police at the time, and she remembers him getting death threats by phone.

One of the things that was said that I think summarizes BEE – and a lot of other big programs like it – is that “everyone thinks they are getting screwed,” in the words of one.  Blacks don’t see progress fast enough in the form of jobs, and then better jobs.  Whites feel like they’re almost discarded at the bottom of the pile.  Indians/colourds feel like they were left dangling before (they had more privileges than blacks, but weren’t considered white) and are again stuck in limbo (since they only yield “partial credit” under BEE).

The international do-gooder

People in developing nations can be bitter towards international governments and NGOs that come in attempting to help but do so without regard to local culture.

However, that high-minded but condescending person doesn’t always need to be a full-fledged foreigner.  On the Mozambique trip there was a Nigerian who, like many well-off Nigerians, was educated in the UK.  When she saw people on the island living on poverty and farming plots she wondered aloud why they didn’t move across the bay to the city, where “surely they have affordable housing.”  I almost laughed out loud.  South Africa still doesn’t have affordable housing for millions, and a drive around Lagos should be enough to dispel any expectation of easily available affordable housing – especially in one of the poorest nations on the continent.  I’m sure she could talk all about development theory and her whole purpose in being in Africa was to talk to people for a book she was writing, but she was missing the reality under her nose.

I recently read A Bend in the River by V.S. Naipaul, a book I highly recommend.  It’s well-written and a good story, and it contains lots of truth about Africa.  (Be advised that part of the book does revolve around an affair.) At one point the main (African) character reads some articles by a well-known European researcher in an African country who works for the government or a development group and realizes that "He knew so much, had researched so much.  He must have spent weeks on each article.  But he had less true knowledge of Africa, less feel for it, than [other characters]" because his was purely intellectual research.

Mozambique

One weekend I hit up Maputo with a group of colleagues. Traveling with a group of 12 reminded me why I will never travel with more than three for any longer than a weekend, but it was a great time. Highlights included someone getting clotheslined by a roped goat, eating calamari three times in as many days, and going out with some locals to what was one of their favorite places and I’m sure would be one of mine, too.

When you arrive in Maputo you must get a visa. Why you must get a full visa rather than just a stamp, I don’t know. Actually, I have a suspicion: because they are very proud of their visa system. You get fingerprinted, your picture taken, and then they print a sticky visa out and stick it in your passport. Sounds simple, but it took ~1.5 hours for the 20 people in line in front of us to get through. There were three people behind the counter using one of two cameras, and they would only do one person at a time (no parallel processing). Our Portuguese-speaker convinced them to speed things up by doing things in parallel, but we later found out why they don’t do this: they put a visa in the wrong person’s passport, and it took quite a while to back everything up and re-do it.

Mozambique was ravaged by a long and taxing civil war, and the result is a country that is very poor even by African standards.  They've been having riots as a result of increasing prices of bread recently.

Maputo (the capital) might be one of the most relaxed places I have ever been. The seaboard was lined with old cars with doors opened, and car radios provided the soundtrack for the night. I split from the group and met up with a Mozambican and a place and then we headed to Mafalala Libre. It’s nothing special at all, but I loved it. In the back a great band was playing some interesting electronic/rock mix music and the crowd was very into it. Out in front the patio was packed and the crowd spilled out onto the street. If I wanted to blend in I should have worn a Che t-shirt over jeans and flip flops, and maybe disguised my short-cut hair under a rasta-type beanie. It was a beautiful evening, a mixed crowd, and everyone was very laid back. Having been warned that a typical Friday night ended at 7am Saturday, I called it a night early because of a tiring week, but reluctantly.

Instant dreads, anyone?

The next day we took the ferry to Inhaca island off the Maputo coast. There is a stretch of beach facing Maputo that has a hotel, a couple of lodges, and a tiny town (50m of dirt road). A cruise ship had disgorged its passengers onto the island, and we arrived just as they left, leaving us alone with as much beach as we wanted. The two restaurants in town have regular menus and “cruise ship menus” with doubled prices. Since the ship was gone we ate on the beach and watched the sunset. The beach goes out so gradually that low tide means almost an extra 0.5 km of beach exposed.

The next day we hired a guy to cram 11 of us into his pickup (imagine 11 people in a Ford Ranger) and drive us to the NE corner of the island. The SW corner has the “tourist town.” People living here frequently go back and forth from Maputo, and many are only on the island to cater to tourists during the day. The rest of the island is inhabited by the “true locals” eking out a living from the land and the sea. Our drive took us through their outposts, though at a fork in the road we turned left despite the sign for the king pointing right.

We passed obviously cultivated blocks of land, but it must be difficult to grow anything in the extremely sandy soil. We also passed some locals walking back from church in full suits, some also sporting black baseball caps. I doubt the suit gets drycleaned very often (as in never).

On this drive we encountered the “goat rope.” Our driver didn’t notice until too late that there was a rope across the road; it went up over the hood and clotheslined (goatlined?) a guy in the bed of the pickup pretty badly. One end was tied to a tree, the other to a goat. The poor goat had decided the grass was greener on the other side of the road, and he got a nasty surprise when jerked back by a truck hitting his tether.

The ocean pounds the east side of the island with its full broadside. We shared the beach with a crowd of local women and kids picking mussels from rocks exposed by the low tide. Parts of the beach were craggy rock formations pockmarked by crevices, some deep enough to swallow the kids playing in them. Each was a tiny tropical aquarium featuring the standard kelp and hermit crabs along with whatever tropical fish were unlucky enough to be stranded there until the next high tide.

Back in Maputo we wandered around the city some. Maybe the air itself makes one lazy, but the whole town had that feel. We got a drink at the old train station known for its architecture and ID’d some of the art deco buildings that were once new and now look their age. It’s easy to remember street names here because they are all named for revolutions or Marxist leaders.

We went through a big market that was about half fruit/veggies/fish and half beauty supplies, which primarily means hair extensions. I’d never walked around a lot of stalls selling hair extensions in so many colors or styles. Slightly odd. As we entered the market we were pestered by a guy trying to sell us a D60 (SLR camera). I’d guess that there was another guy somewhere in the city trying to figure out where his camera went.

We got stopped by police that night at a road block. They wanted us to all show our passports, which we didn’t have on us, and they told the cab driver he would need to drive to the hotel, get our passports, and then come back and retrieve us. This plan wasn’t through on many levels, and our Portuguese-speaking colleague wheedled enough and batted her eyelashes enough to get us out of what would have been a royally inconvenient spot.

My summary: I would definitely go back. At the rate Mozambique moves, this is not a place to attempt a drive-by one-week tour.

Perhaps the summary of it all

One thing you quickly learn in new cultures is that “knowing” is not the same as “comprehending.”

Below is a link to an excellent article that sums up a lot of things about South Africa that I know, but – like the author, it seems – do not comprehend.  I highly recommend it, and hats off to the author for his work in putting the article together.



Here is the article itself.

Here is an accompanying video.  Note the content warning.


I think it does a great job bringing into focus lots of threads in South Africa: poverty, xenophobia, corruption, muthi and mixed superstition/Christianity [side note: the article refers to the ZCC], complete breakdown of the family, Bible-laced political speech, and a culture that can be so seemingly callous – like nurses barricading hospitals while on strike – that I just can’t understand it despite seeing it repeatedly.

One time he refused to intervene when a mob set a man on fire after compelling his “confession” by making him swallow sewer water. “If I see burning now, if I see raping, I look the other way,” he said huffily back then.

ICT follow-up

In a previous post I gave a history of a mining deal fight that smells as fishy as the leftover sushi that sat in my fridge for 3 weeks.  There is an interesting update: ArcelorMittal is joining the complaint against ICT.  ArcelorMittal was previously willing to hold its nose and buy ICT for R800m (~$115m) in order to get access to cheap iron ore.  However, it looks like some backroom dealings fell apart, so now ArcelorMittal is coming out on the other side.

The reality check

People ask me if I feel safe in Joburg, and my answer is yes. However, “safe” is a relative term. I think the odds of something happening to me are only slightly worse than other major cities. The first qualification is that this is heavily influenced by the areas in which I generally hang out; most crime is black-on-black in/near townships, and I don’t generally hang out in shebeens. The second qualification is that if something does happen, it will likely be much more violent than its American counterpart.

To bring this home, I found out yesterday that a friend of a friend was at home when two robbers entered the house. They got out, and while outside the home they heard the gunshots that killed the father.

"Vengeance is mine" seems to be a common theme in some places; another friend knew someone who was killed by taxi drivers.  His crime?  Driving his own minibus taxi on someone else's route.

Could it be?

Another displaced Texan?  Quite possibly.

"A man and a morass" - a must-read on Nigeria

A great Economist article on Nigeria, the recent elections, and the hope and hurdles facing Nigeria.  A taste:

Many frustrated businessmen—some unpaid for years—think the situation is hopeless. Yet Nigeria’s recent past suggests that small changes can bring vast benefits. The appointment of Attahiru Jega as head of the election commission last year produced the first credible poll in a generation. Telecoms privatisation has reduced phone prices by 99%.

Nigeria is reformable, but it needs the right sort of leader. Its presidency is more powerful than its American equivalent. Favours are bestowed and punishments meted out by “the man in the villa”, as some Nigerians call the occupant of the presidential palace. But he must assert himself over advisers, ministers and godfathers—the visiting regional bosses who lobby him. Many supported Mr Jonathan, who was formerly vice-president, during his 12-month interim presidency after his predecessor, Umaru Yar’Adua, died in office. Now they expect payback. IOUs will be cashed. This is the point where every civil-service reform in the past has failed.

We Love(?) The King

In Swaziland, just like in Thailand, every establishment has a picture of
the king. In Swaziland it is accompanied by a wife of the king's mother.
That may seem odd until you realize he has ~12 wives, so maybe it makes
sense to honor the one from the previous batch of queens that birthed the
king. There's got to be enough catfighting among them without someone
getting their picture everywhere.

There was recently unrest in Swaziland as people protested the last
absolute monarchy in Africa. When I asked several Swazis, however, they
were fine with him and happy with Swaziland.

I have to agree with their points. It is very underdeveloped (cows
wandering through petrol stations in one place), but it has a definite
natural beauty.

I went rafting in Swaziland and it was the first time I had to dodge cows
while going down a river. We were in the middle of nowhere, and children
along the bank were always curious. One bunch called us to "Come! Come!"
like tiny Sirens.

Happy Africa day!

Happy Africa day today: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Africa_Day

Hair today, gone tomorrow

On my last project I almost didn’t recognize my black colleague when she showed up on Monday of the second week. The week prior she had short, straight hair that was slightly puffy around her head. The next week she had tight braids down her back. Many African ladies use wigs or hair extensions, so there is no telling what you’ll see from one week to the next. Guys can go close-shaven/bald, and there are a decent number of women who do, too. For the rest, the standards of beauty are not kind to natural hair.

A stall in Mozambique selling all kinds of hair.

History carved into the earth, and money carved out of it

I have a bunch of notes that I haven’t turned into posts; this is one of them.

You can see signs of South Africa’s mining history if you travel around Joburg at all. Remember that Joburg wouldn’t exist if it weren’t for mines – it is the largest city in the world not on a river or body of water. As you fly in over the city you can see scarred circles in the earth that are defunct mines; Joburg has generally built itself around them, and the effect of modern homes next to what looks like a festering wound in the earth is a bit jarring. As technology has improved it has sometimes become economically viable to re-process the waste, so some of the man-made hills are now disappearing again.

Camelthorn tree.  For perspective, the larger thorns are as long as my finger.

Driving to the mine I worked at in Northern Cape is impressive. It doesn’t look that big from a distance, but as you approach you realize that it’s the proportions (long and low) that make it seem smaller, not the actual size. A massive berm rises above flat grasslands and stunted trees. I’m probably misjudging this, but I would guess the berm – the waste excavated from the pit – is likely ~150 ft tall. While that is big for a mound of dirt that stretches the entire pit circumference (possibly 30 km), even more impressive is the view from the edge as you look inside. The pit walls are built up as the pit is excavated down. Cresting the hill for the first time and looking down inside is like discovering an underground world that has been exposed. Bakkies (pickup trucks) look like ants; the industrial dump trucks look like the Hot Wheels-sized versions of themselves. That’s saying something when each truck can haul >250 tons and is larger along every axis than a portable home.

These dump trucks have electrical contacts so they can use electric motors to supplement the diesel engine going uphill; engineers will appreciate the extra (and efficient) power this provides at low speeds.

"Culture" meets culture at the opera

I went to hear the opera Carmen the other day. I went mostly for Bizet’s music, and I decided I like the music sans opera better. The lady who played Carmen was American, and while I thought she was decent, my group universally agreed that the black South African who played Micaela was much better.

The opera is typically considered “high culture,” and in this case it was mixed with a good dose of SA culture: during intermissions you could get a wors in a bun (local sausage in a hot dog bun) and biltong (SA version of jerky). That might be the equivalent of a U.S. opera selling popcorn and Mike & Ikes.

I’m going to miss this place.

Today I was doing one of my favorite things: reading on my balcony. This past week I started the machinations to move back, and it’s starting to set in – and a strong part of me is digging in its heels.

My balcony might be an odd place to contemplate SA. I can find a balcony anywhere. The only distinctively SA things I can see are the three braai pits in the common area and a few hadeda ibis. (I can also definitely hear the hadedas...) Not only that, but the SA I see out my balcony is wealthy Sandton, which is a far cry from a lot of SA.

Winter sunset off my balcony; the shot into the sunset washes out both the vibrant orange and the trees' autumn canopy.

A word you hear in SA all the time is “vibe.” Everyone in SA is looking for a “vibey” place, or asking about the “vibe” at work, home, party, city. It was initially something I noted and moved past – it’s not concrete, it varies based on what a person is looking for, and is fleeting. Where does it come from? What does it represent?

However, I have come to appreciate it.

I’m going to miss the “vibe” here. I started to parse out the sources of that vibe for me as I am wont to do, but I decided that’s for me to know and for you to come discover.

Bright idea

Ever thought there was a spot behind a big truck only to discover there was
a Smart car parked there? The Johannesburg airport parking has a great
system: above each spot is a sensor with a red or green light to signal
whether there is a car in that bay. Simply hone in on a green light and
you're found a spot.

I like to travel

"The difference between travel and tourism is simple.  A tourist experiences disconnected sights and sounds and enjoys them without drawing meaning.  A traveler roams the earth, digests what he sees and hears, and collects them in a framework of understanding, which he both brings to his travels and deepens with travels.  The former is a pleasant interlude in life.  The latter is about life itself." -George Friedman of STRATFOR

"Geez, I'm only married to her!"

I mentioned once before that about every month there is some big corruption story in SA.  This month it comes courtesy of the wife of the Minister of State Security, whose wife was convicted of running a drug smuggling ring.  Oh, and Minister Cwele was previously the chair of the Standing Committee on Intelligence.

Of course, he claims he had no idea what his wife would be doing.  But if he couldn't figure out what his wife was doing during his time as head of intelligence, does anyone really want him heading up State Security?

One of the two people carrying drugs for her was caught and is in a Brazilian jail where she is allowed two phone calls per year.  I'm pretty sure Mrs. Cwele won't be too deprived in jail.

In other news, Malema is the firebrand as usual.  At a rally with President Zuma he had some choice words for white "criminals" and DA "monkeys" and called for nationalization.  While people expect this of Malema, the more telling point is that Zuma did not rebut this in his speech immediately after and that he leans on Malema to energize his voting base.

SA's loud silence on bin Laden's death

The Atlantic has a very good article on SA's negative reaction to bin Laden's death this week.  I highly recommend reading it for background on SA's foreign policy.

An excerpt:
"The ANC's position on bin Laden's demise is illustrative of a disturbing trend: South Africa's transformation, under its tutelage, into an increasingly anti-Western power. Supported by the Soviet Union during the Cold War, the ANC's alliance with the communist bloc was more than just a tactical alignment for an exiled, decimated, and desperate liberation movement. Most of the ANC's senior leaders during the apartheid years were simultaneously members of the South African Communist Party, and today, the ANC governs the country as part of a formal "Tripartite Alliance" with the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) and the South African Communist Party (SACP). Thanks to its intellectual kinship with Marxism-Leninism, decades-long working alliance with such thugs and terrorist movements like Muammer Qadaffi and the PLO, and lingering resentment towards Western governments for not taking a harder line against the apartheid government, the ANC elite has never gotten over its deep suspicion of the West in general and America in particular. Coloring all this is the continuing legacy of apartheid, which has made the party's intellectual elite hostile toward anything that carries even a hint of "colonialism" about it."

On a related note, the front-page headline in The Star, an SA paper, the day after the death was that OBL was unarmed.  This turned out to be true and confirmed by the White House, but at the time the only source of that was a statement from one of OBL's wives.  That they would take that statement and state it as fact on a headline despite the (then) contradictory message from the people actually involved said something to me.

When your infrastructure assumes service delivery failure

Many places have parallel power plugs as shown. The red plugs go through a
device that ensures "clean" power (no frequency/voltage fluctuations).
These are built because SA has struggled with power; it had load-shedding
in 2008 (basically pre-announced rolling blackouts) and it currently runs
on 1/2 the recommended reserve margin, meaning it has very little spare
capacity. The assumed poor ability of parastatals to consistently deliver
basic services means extra costs to people.

In another example, guess what MTN's (big cell phone company) biggest
expense is in Nigeria? Diesel. It has to have a diesel generator next to
every cell tower because of the total lack of consistent power, so it has a
network of trucks to refuel the generators daily. AT&T Mobile has probably
never thought about its diesel consumption.

Mindset shifts

Actual conversation yesterday with a South African that pointed out to
me another fundamental difference in life that drives different
operating assumptions.

Them: "I wonder if police purposefully time roadblocks for paydays or
if they just seem like that."
Me: "why?  So they know everyone has money and they can get more
bribes?" [See, I'm learning!]
Them: "No, because everyone goes out and gets drunk!"

There were a lot of similar things I encountered on a previous project
that introduced me to what it really means to live paycheck to
paycheck -- and peoples' counterintuitive (or at least irresponsible)
behaviors.

Go Lions!

Here is some advice in case you visit South Africa: never wander around near the CBD alone, without a phone, at night. I never thought I would have to give that advice, as even if this weren’t Joburg most people would instinctively understand that is a no-no. However, apparently that isn’t universal common sense.

I went to a rugby game with a group of McKinsey folks. It was a great time and quite entertaining, on multiple levels. Yes, the game was good – a cross-town rivalry between the Lions (Joburg) and the Blue Bulls (Pretoria). There was also the fun of chatting with the Afrikaners around us who never quite figured out who we were – about 12 of us representing almost as many countries. They adopted us nonetheless, and as a token of our being adopted rugby fans they helped us understand both the game and how to watch it. The latter part involves taking single-shot plastic packets of brandy (the staple liquor) and putting them into your Coke bottle. I would say that these tiny packets are a great way to smuggle brandy into a game, except that I could probably wheel a keg in with me and I don’t think anyone would have really noticed. There were some outrageously drunk Afrikaners by the end of the game.

Speaking of Coke, everything is shockingly cheap at sporting events. A 500mL Coke was ~$1.50, and a voers in a bun was ~$2.50.

After seeing some rugby, I would say it’s closer to soccer than U.S. football: it’s an endurance game, and a lot of it revolves around waiting for the other team to get out of position and then quickly moving the ball to that hit at that area of their line. There is definitely some strategy, but just like in soccer the strategy is more a general strategy set before the game instead of the play-by-play “paper/scissors/rock” strategy of American football.

At the end of the night as we somehow lost a blond, 90-lb intern from Germany. We called, we re-traced our steps, we went to the police, we called the hotel, we called the cab companies, and after an hour or so some of us finally went back to the hotel just to check. We found her sitting downstairs. Apparently she had decided it would be a good idea to wander into the parking lot looking for our car. A white SA family finally noticed her, helped her look a little, and finally told her it wasn’t safe and they drove her back to the hotel. Very nice of them, since it could have ended in news headlines.

Self-imposed isolation

Following on my previous post, I continue to be surprised by the voluntary isolation of South Africans. Hiding behind walled compounds is one expression, but it manifests itself in other ways. One of the big things to do here is take a tour of a township (usually Soweto) to get a flavor for where black culture in Africa grew during apartheid as well as the living conditions. However, I’ve met multiple South Africans my age who have never been in a township, period. I’ve even gone to an Orlando Pirates soccer game in a township.  Echoing something I've noted earlier, most South Africans have traveled very little even around their neighboring countries.

SA sports and provincialism

You know people are generally sports-crazy when button-downs with team logos are acceptable office wear and when the women in your office will have a 30 min conversation around rugby.

You also realize the impact of isolation on South Africa after a while – isolation of the races during apartheid, but also isolation of South Africa in general vs. the world. If you think about it, the ANC leadership in exile was probably some of the most exposed/international South Africans during the late apartheid years.

One consequence I haven’t mentioned is on sports loyalties. Rugby is a big deal here, but surprisingly there is more passion around local teams than around the national Springboks team. People will wear Blue Bulls or Stormers-logoed dress shirts to work, and one of my clients always wore a Blue Bulls belt buckle. During a conversation, everything fell into place: because the Springboks really couldn’t travel until after 1994, all sports passions revolved around the regional teams. (On the other hand, college sports are just beginning to get a little notice over here in contrast to the college mania in the U.S.)

You might argue this is the same in the U.S.: more people watch their NBA team than watch the Dream Team during the Olympics. However, for U.S. sports an international competition is rare (really just the Olympics or World Cup). For rugby, however, there are multiple international leagues that take place during the regular rugby year.

South Africa’s cricket team, the Proteas (named after a SA flower), had another disappointing exit in the quarterfinals of the Test cricket World Cup this year. I got to watch a thrilling Pakistan/India semifinal game that was just huge.

South Africans can watch a lot of sports, because there are 7 sports channels (Super Sports 1-7) that come with the basic TV package here.

It would take a very special game (World Cup 42?) to displace college football as my favorite sport, but I have come to enjoy Champions League soccer, cricket, and Super 15 rugby. For a guy who was never remotely interested in soccer from back in the U.S., that’s a big shift.

What about "right now"?

Remember the difference between "just now," "now now," and "now"?

-Just now: don't count on it
-Now now: probably do it today
-Now: in theory, actually "now."  In practice, in the next hour or so... hopefully

A different Zion

Yesterday I was driving back to Joburg from Mpumalanga against Easter exodus traffic. As I approached Joburg traffic was so bad that the highway was at a complete standstill leaving Joburg and clogged with Kumbis. I found out that the reason was that the Zion Christian Church has an annual trip to their holy mountain in Limpopo (also east of Joburg) over Easter, and that caused the absurd traffic.

The black South African I was with explained that it is a mix of Christianity and native superstitions, involves communing with ancestors, trips to this holy mountain, some holy tea/water that makes people vomit, and that it is very hierarchical. From some quick research it seems there are ~4m members, or ~8% of SA’s population, and that this is mostly concentrated among three tribes.

I have seen a lot of blacks wearing green ribbons with silver stars on them, almost like a sheriff badge on a green ribbon. I found out that this is the symbol of someone in the ZCC, along with special clothes I’d seen – blue/white bishop-looking robes, khaki uniforms with service covers, etc. Everything sort of clicked then.

Anger management, anyone?

A train was lit on fire in South Africa yesterday.  This may not be unique to South Africa, but it is certainly common. With copper prices soaring, theft of copper overhead power lines from railroad tracks is fairly common. This means trains get stranded, and frequently passengers will express frustration by torching the train cars. Not exactly sure how they think this helps them get to their destination, but it does make news.  (This torching was not related to copper theft, but reminded me.)

Catching up on SA reading

I've neglected this blog for a while, though I have been posting quick notes and links to SA news on my Twitter feed.

In case you're catching up, here is some recent news that is noteworthy or provides insight to this region:
-Scary Economist article about attitudes toward democratic accountability in SA
-Another scary set of stats on public private workers in SA.  1 in 8 workers is employed by the government, at an average salary 44% above that of the private sector.  (The latter may be skewed if, as I suspect, government employees on average more-skilled labor.)
-A good article in the NYT about the proper role of plastic.  If you see plastic trash in rural Africa, it is appalling.
-An article on education unions in SA.  In a conversation the other day with a black SA colleague, she talked about the ridiculous cycle of strikes in education.  Teachers go on strike, then when they come back students will go on strike to protest the teachers striking.
-Doctors in Nigeria went on strike, reminiscent of the violent and shocking nursing strike in SA last September or so.
-The ANC government is pretty vocal about supporting unions and working for laborers, except apparently when it gets a donation at the expense of those same workers.  The response of the donor (President Zuma's nephew) is pretty brazen in his disdain for the claims of the workers.
-In another example of what is euphemistically called "industrial action" here, workers at parastatal power company Eskom want a 16% hike.  Remember that inflation is ~6-7% here, and last year they got a 9% increase plus a housing stipend.

Carnivore barometer

Just how much do South Africans like their meat? Enough to have a "spare
rib"-flavour of crisp (chip).

When in a mining town...

At a hotel in the town where I'm working. Population about 25,000. Almost
everyone either works at the mine or sells to those who do.

A different line of work

Last night a guy walked into a road to block two lanes of traffic in
each direction to let me make a turn coming out of a stadium after a
soccer game.

For R5 ($0.70).

The Racism accusation in SA politics

Race is always a touchy issue, and a recent event here in SA emphasized this.  One SA government minister excoriated another in an open letter recently here in SA over a race and employment bill.  This article gives good background, but basically it would modify the race composition targets to reflect the national, not local, composition.

Back up: "black" here sometimes means "anyone who wasn't white under apartheid" and sometimes means "historically African."  In the latter context, races here are typically broken into white, Indian, coloured, and black.  All non-whites were discriminated against under apartheid, though to slightly varying degrees, and all benefit from legislation like BEE (SA's affirmative action policy).

The key effect of the proposed Employment Equity Act amendments is that in areas that don't reflect the general SA demographic -- namely Western Cape -- you could see coloureds (who make up a disproportionate % of the WC population) get pushed out of jobs in favor of blacks, even though all are "historically disadvantaged."

Here is a link to an interesting open letter by Trevor Manuel, former high-profile Finance Minister for SA.  There is a reference in another article about race categories; the comments are perhaps even more interesting than the article.

Fantasyland, USA

This Kraft bag of white and pink marshmallows invites readers to join its
giraffe mascot in the "unreal world of Manhattan." I'm assuming this is
somewhere between "Peter Pan's Flight" and "Mr. Toad's Wild Ride."

Two good links on Nigeria

Read a little bit about Nigeria, oil revenues, bad incentives, and corruption here and here.

A very South African exchange

"Howzit?"
"Hectic, but we're winning! First place would be to have it all done now now."

The miscellaneous

1) During the weekend I had brunch at a place called Nice, and it lived up to its name. On the menu: “Scrummy Crumpets.” With a name like that, I had to order it.

First, crumpets: turns out they are small, sweet pancakes. Pancakes are always a winner in my book, so we’re off to a good start.

Next, bacon: bacon makes everything better. Rules of The Bacon Game: name something that tastes worse when bacon is added. It doesn’t take long to play, because the list is very short. ( Apparently even bourbon is enhanced by bacon. HT to Nancy.)

Layer with strawberries and cream, which I would consume in mass quantities even by themselves, and you have a winner – though if you manage to come up with a bad recipe using those ingredients, I’d be amazed.

2) Over here, an “American breakfast” includes baked beans.

3) You know you’re in a low-income country when radio ads tell people to SMS to a certain number in order to receive a call back from a salesman.

4) Google Maps is slightly behind Coke’s marketing in “products that amaze me” (it even tells you which exit to take from roundabouts). However, it hasn’t fully adjusted to Joburg security, because there are frequently situations where it looks like you can get from A to B on neighborhood streets only to discover that the area is gated and closed off. Fail.

I usually think of a "0 km/h" speed bump as being... a wall.

5) I have complained on here before about the lack of straight citrus juices in SA.  If you take a look at this carton, it has a bunch of oranges on the front and says, plain as day, "Orange juice."  If you take a look at the ingredients, though, the first ingredient is "deflavoured apple or pear juice."  Deflavoured juice... in my juice?  Aren't you just left with sugar water?

6) I will again sing the praises of South African braais. Last weekend I was at a “bring and braai” (the braai version of potluck – everyone brings a meat to put on the grill). The end result is a big pile of meat of various cuts/seasonings. So good, but I’m still manning up – sometimes afterward I just want a salad. Maybe with some bacon…

Just to prove my point

After going off about bacon this weekend, I thought this was relevant. The
French girl on my team bought these bacon-infused Ritz crackers for our
team room.

Different perspectives on different worlds

I had a long chat with a friend who has been living in China for three years and will be there for a few more. It was a very refreshing conversation and fascinating as we saw both striking similarities and differences in our experiences and the people around us.

As I traveled in college I quickly realized that those who haven’t left the U.S. simply have a limited ability to understand the stories and experiences one brings back. Living abroad takes this to another level, and I have realized this is one reason why expat communities are so strong: even if I’m in South Africa and someone else is in China, we both understand each other’s life better than anyone in the U.S. can.

Last week I was talking with an Afrikaner who specifically said he wouldn’t want to live abroad because he was afraid it would change him. I couldn’t argue with that. But what kind of change is it? I would argue that it is a development – each lesson I gain from being abroad teaches me two things: something about the people/area around me and something about who I am/where I come from. It is no coincidence that a touring Frenchman wrote a defining account of early America.

Afri-Tex-Mex

What does it take to make decent texmex here? Well, it took me three grocery trips, lots of confused grocery stockers, and some tortillas flown in from the U.S. There was some improvising, but I was pretty happy with what I dubbed “Afri-Tex-Mex.”

It’s something I had wanted to do for a while, but it finally came to pass because I got a shipment of tortillas from the U.S. That’s right. A friend’s dad is a pilot who was flying to JNB, so I met him for a meal and got some tortillas from the deal.

The final meal was tacos and Spanish rice with chips and salsa – a slight downgrade from the planned enchiladas, Mexican black beans, and the rice. I got curious and tallied everything up. Final cost? ~$8/head. Not bad vs. going out, but relatively expensive for home cooking.

In my quest to put together this meal, I was buying a bag of Bandito’s chips and as I got my card out and signed the receipt the cashier looked at the chips… turned them over… looked at me… and finally asked me something like, “what are these?” I told her they were plain chips for salsa, not like that would enlighten her at all. She said in an amazed voice, “They’re expensive!” She’s right. As discussed before, chips are pricey. I also found that Bandito’s has a monopoly on all things quasi-Mexican (the only jalapenos I found are also Bandito’s, and I saw taco sauces).

I came up short when looking for black beans.  There are plenty of beans, but just no black beans either in canned or dry form. I may be able to find them at a specialty store.  I also gave up on chicken broth after several guys all staring blankly when I asked for it.

I was at a point of crisis until I found out that cilantro is coriander leaf. I didn’t realize this until I went to my third store and found someone who made the connection. Once I found that out, one of my key missing spices turned out to be ubiquitous.


At that same third grocery I finally found lime juice… in an expensive, small jar.  Lime and dill are some of my favorite seasonings, so this is disappointing.  

While shopping I was wearing a t-shirt I got in Honduras that was designed by a friend I work with at Building a Future. A guy in an elevator turns to me and says, “All the way from Mexico?” I let the Honduras/Mexico mix-up slide, and then he says: “That must have been a heckuva canoe trip.” Yes, yes it was…

Township visit: Alexandra

Last week I steeled myself for a visit to what is probably Johannesburg’s 2nd grittiest township by reputation. (A township is a neighborhood reserved for blacks under apartheid. Link.) I came out thinking that the poor in Joburg are very well off, relatively speaking.

First, some stats on Alexandra (usually called Alex):
-Estimated ~350,000-450,000 people
-Area of ~8 square km (~3 sq mi)
>Density of ~130,000 per sq mi, or roughly 30x the average population density of Houston
-Approximately 60% unemployment
-Estimated average family income of R3000 (~$425) per year according to the guys I was with

We saw a lot of squalor. Many houses don’t have toilets, so there are port-o-potties on the street for blocks of houses that get emptied every day. Diet staples consist of bread, mealie meal (like cornmeal), tinned meat/fish, and rice. The worst housing is usually inhabited by immigrants. There is some trash in the streets, well-worn laundry hangs everywhere, and there are a lot of people obviously doing nothing.

Alex street.  Note the green/gray port-o-potties on the right side.

However, it looked a lot nicer than a lot of living conditions I had seen in Nigeria and (to a lesser degree) Kenya. Roads were paved. We saw several police patrols driving through. Some houses were corrugated tin shacks, but most were actual buildings on foundations with windows. Some houses had proper fences around them and tiny yards. Except for shacks, everything has running water, and everyone has power (albeit not always legally). Trash existed, but not on the scale I've seen elsewhere. On the edge of the neighborhood is a nice mall catering to the Alexandra inhabitants. Yes, it was crowded, but there was elbow room compared to what I have seen in Lagos.

Now I know why there are so many immigrants there – it is still nicer than what they left behind.

Crime is still a problem there, though we were told it’s not nearly as bad as portrayed (a common theme in Africa from my experience). Separately, I heard an interesting story: criminals used to operate in Alex more successfully because policemen didn’t know the road signs, so never knew where they were to respond to calls/call for backup. They made a deal with advertisers where the advertisers put signs at the corners and the city stuck street signs on there to fix that problem. Unfortunately I forgot to watch for those signs today.

Township food/drink
The recurring themes at little restaurants (usually tables placed on a covered patio) was the “kota” and the “sly,” both of which are from butchered English words. A sly is a sandwich (“slices” became “sly”) and a kota is a special sandwich in a quarter loaf of bread (“quarter” became “kota”).

The fillings are usually processed meats, with a decent sausage being the top-end filling. Polony is a fish that also appeared frequently. I had some breaded polony and seasoned chips (fries) and both were surprisingly good – if I didn’t have to go into Alex to get them, I would order them from time to time for their ~$1.50 cost.

This menu is all of the sly options, and the left menu is all of the kotas.

Look at the picture of the menu and then imagine you have R3000 to spend on your family for the year. Also, a coke costs R4 and a quart beer (beer pretty much only comes in quarts in townships) costs R8.50. Eating out is expensive as a % of income.

A cost of living note: I know that a coke in Sandton (which is separated from Alex only by a freeway) will cost about R14 in a restaurant.

On the right is a kota -- a quarter loaf of bread with the center cut out to make a sandwich.  Yes, Coke's distribution/marketing continues to amaze me.

AIDS effect, part 1

Just how much impact has AIDS had?  You can see one impersonal but stunning result by watching this animation that shows country fertility and average lifespan over time.

The huge bubble that falls rapidly is China.  No surprise due to the one-child policy.  However, let it run to the end (2008) and then hover over the bubbles in the bottom left, which are outliers from the general trend.  You’ll find South Africa, Swaziland, and Lesotho.  Now look them up on the map if you don’t already know where Swaziland/Lesotho are.

Now rewind to about 1990 and watch again in slow motion.  They all follow the general trend, moving right and down, but starting in the late 1990’s they suddenly continue down while moving dramatically to the left – toward decreasing average lifespan.

While I’m sure there are multiple factors at work, I’m willing to bet my bottom dollar that the primary driver of that shift is AIDS.

AIDS really is a pandemic here.  My health insurance company sent me a 60 page booklet on AIDS recently.  Companies have free condom dispensers in bathrooms.  There are lots of AIDS orphanages and even more orphans.  But this animation sort of put it all together for me at a macro level.

HT to Kevin.

SA in the News, Feb 28 - BEE and corporate nepotism

This article has a lot of interesting “flavors of SA” in it.

The overview: a big steelmaker (ArcelorMittal) owned partial mining rights to an iron ore pit. The iron ore miner (Kumba) got those rights in exchange for a promise to sell ore to the Mittal at cost +3%, which is a big discount to the market rate.

Those rights lapsed, and it sounds like someone at Mittal just forgot to re-file. Not sure what happened, but it was a monster mistake. Kumba applied to get the rights for itself. Mittal applied to get the rights again (because it wants the cost+ deal again). A no-name company called ICT, which seems to basically be a shell company with some cash, filed for the rights.

It just so happens that ICT is owned in large part by the son of President Zuma and by a family with close ties to Zuma.

ICT was awarded the rights, and Mittal immediately offered to buy the company for >$100m (with the goal of re-negotiating the contract that previously existed). That’s a very tidy profit for a group of people that, as far as I’m aware, didn’t actually do anything except hire lawyers and apply for a permit.

Oh, and why did ICT get awarded the rights over Kumba? “The [mining/minerals] department judged ICT to have greater black economic empowerment credentials and awarded it a prospecting right, prompting Kumba to cry foul and approach the court last year to set aside the decision.”

And, by the way, the minerals dept will likely force Kumba into the same cost +3% deal with ICT that Kumba had with Mittal. Justification? Kumba played dirty by not reminding Mittal to re-apply: “‘In light of the duty of good faith which Sishen Iron Ore owed ArcelorMittal in terms of the supply agreement, Sishen Iron Ore’s conduct as afore described falls short of the minimum standards of ordinary business ethics which, I submit, apply even in the cutthroat environment of the South African mining industry,’ Mr Nogxina’s affidavit reads.” If Kumba played dirty, wouldn’t it make more sense to… simply give Mittal the rights back? After all, Kumba didn’t do anything to harm ICT.

Oh, and let’s not forget: at the same time ArcelorMittal bought ICT back in August, Mittal made a deal to help its BEE score. “In a separate statement, ArcelorMittal South Africa said it had finalised its black economic empowerment deals with an aggregate value of R9.075bn, transferring 26 percent of its shares to a group of black investors -- including an investment group led by the son of South African President Jacob Zuma -- and employees.” Right… I’m sure that’s completely separate from the deal to buy ICT from Zuma Jr. & Co.

As a disclaimer, I don't know any more than what a few newspaper articles and conversations have told me.  However, there are a lot of signs that things are fishy, even if technically legal.

Commuting and the color divide

Attached is a picture of the bus stop across the street from my apartment during the 5pm commute home. Hard to see, but not a single person waiting for the bus is white. Some blacks/coloreds [for American readers, remember that these are standard terms here] have cars, but you see many more taking mass transit.

Also, only some of them are waiting for a proper bus. Most are waiting on a kombi. Hand signs match commuter and kombi – pointing down means you are going somewhere close, etc.

I live about a 10 min walk from my office, so I walk when possible.  I get a lot of strange looks both from whites watching me from their cars and from blacks that I pass on the sidewalk who are probably wondering what a white guy in biz cas is doing walking around.

News flash: low-quality picnic blanket wreaks havoc on Johannesburg outing

"When you go on Picnics it is important to use the right company and with the correct equipment. There are a variety of different professional packages offering Picnics in Johannesburg. So whether it’s a solo, family or corporate team building activity you should find something that suites you."

It's such a relief to know there are professionals willing to pack my solo lunch basket.  I'm just not sure what to think about finding something that "suites" me.

From a website listing things to do in Joburg.

World traveler vs. "entire world" traveler

I consider myself decently well-traveled for an American my age. I’ve been to approximately 1/6 of the world’s countries, and by the end of my South African assignment I will have spent about a cumulative two years abroad.

There are plenty of people who will put me to shame in this department, but none more so than Andre Brugiroux, whom I had the chance to meet here in South Africa. Andre has been named the “greatest living traveler on earth” and has visited every country. Hearing his stories from Africa from the 80’s make it clear that some things have changed and others have not.

Interestingly, he things world peace is inevitable as ideas travel across borders, people see that they are all fundamentally the same, and economics tie countries together.  I would argue that people are, indeed, fundamentally the same globally -- but that our universal tendencies such as greed and power hunger mean that any temporary universal peace established by mankind will succumb to realpolitik.

Joining the traffic jam

A great WSJ article on buying used cars in Lagos.

Cars are status symbols everywhere, but in Nigeria and other African countries they are particularly "aspirational" status symbols -- people will buy above their means to show not what they have but what they hope to have.

Apartheid's effects, part 1

Just before I left for the holiday break I was again slapped in the face by something that I intellectually know but that is still hard to comprehend: the South Africans I work with, both black and white, grew up under apartheid. Race discussions do not revolve around the legacy of wrongs done to ancestors, but rather on wrongs done to the present individuals.

Having a maid is the standard here. When we were checking out our current place, the landlord spend most of her time worrying about two things: 1) trying to get the satellite TV fixed and 2) figuring out whether the apartment complex supplied the maids or we had to get our own. I was just shaking my head.

We had a maid come because we moved in early and the landlord didn’t get a chance to seriously clean, so she offered to pay the first time we had a maid. I picked up "Jane" at the appointed time/place and had ~30 min to chat with her during the drive to and fro.

Jane is probably about 30, married with two kids, and lives in Germiston with them and her husband. She works during the week at a guest house, where she makes R1750 a month. Less the R7.50 each way for the 1.5-hr kombi ride (the ubiquitous 16-passenger minibuses), this is about US$200 per month. That means her commute adds ~50% of her working hours daily, and her transportation takes 20% of her gross income. She also has to pay extra for after-school care for her kids, since school only runs from 8-4:30. No wonder she supplements by cleaning private houses on the weekends. What I consider a steal – R150, or ~$20, to clean, do dishes, and do all our laundry – is good money to her.

It was difficult to explain to Jane where my roommate and I are from because she hadn’t heard of either Boston or Houston (she originally thought Boston was the name our company) and she didn’t know where Texas was (tragic, I know). She has never driven a car, so her sense of direction and distance are completely different: when I asked whether Germiston was east or west of Sandton and how far, she had no idea of the direction and answered the distance by saying it’s an “R7.50 ride.”

Later that day I went with my roommate to the apartheid museum. Perhaps the best part of the museum was the entrance: your ticket had a barcode and “white” or “non-white” stamped on it, and you could only enter through the corresponding door; the two paths were separated through the first exhibit.

Apartheid was a bit of a cross between slavery, 1800’s American Indian policy, and Nazi Germany. While there was technically no ownership of people, the power and money disparities made it essentially so. Blacks were resettled several times, at one point to “homelands” that were made “independent” so that it wouldn’t look so bad on the white SA government. Pass books and language of racial superiority were both parts of apartheid. When you are faced with the extend of apartheid and realize that the most violent period (including SA raids in adjacent countries, not just within SA) was right about 1990, the peaceful transition to power after the 1994 elections is that much more amazing.

Bringing this full circle, I walk into our multi-racial office and normally don’t think much of it. However, I should marvel at the fact that people working together on a project, or a partner and their assistant, would not have been able to even associate when they were born.

Coming up to speed: some SA reading for the new year

A few things worth reading.

In big news, South Africa has formally been asked to join the BRIC countries (which will now be the BRICS).  What difference will it make, though, if SA views its membership the wrong way -- as a way to band against Western countries rather than an opportunity to expand trade with them?

South Africa's economic policy is always a bit muddled, and in part it seems like it's because the government doesn't need to have and communicate to the people a clear plan, since the ruling ANC will dominate elections no matter what.  Look no further than Julius Malema, leader of the influential ANC Youth League and huge demagogue (and potential next in line to be President), to see what scares companies considering business in South Africa.

On a very different note, I found this article on art and inspiration to be a very interesting read, though I think the author's rejection of "devotion to God" as a possible motivator means he misses a possible solution.

...and MULLETS!

This is an addendum to my previous post about what I'm looking forward to on both sides of the Atlantic.  There is one thing I forgot to add that I am looking forward to back in South Africa:

Mullets.

Certain segments of white South Africans still rock the mullet, though toned down a bit vs. its cousin from decades gone by.  It gets gelled up in front, tapers to a bit of a ponytail in back, and is close on the sides in case you want a cross-sectional view.

I'm not sure how I left this off my initial list, because it's one reason I enjoy running errands.  I've seen it for weeks, but I still laugh to myself each time.  I wonder how long it would take my hair to reach mullet-worthy length...

World traveler x4

During my first five months in Africa (July-December) I logged ~102,000 flying miles (actual, not frequent flyer) on 76 flying legs.  That's enough to have flown around the world 4 times in the 5 months.

Cool?  Yes.  Do I recommend it?  No.