Last Update: Dec. 17, 2000
Last Update: Dec. 17, 2000 |
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South African students in Cuba
Havana - South African students have experienced true African ubuntu in Cuba. The students, studying towards degrees in medicine, have experienced life in a socialist system. They have also been fortunate enough to have an insider's glimpse into the Cuban psyche. "It is very different. The life, the system and the administration" said Khanyisa Makamba, a medical student in Santa Clara, originally from Umtata in the Eastern Cape. They have found the Cubans to be very open and warm. "We have learnt the true meaning of ubuntu from the Cubans," said Makamba. Most of the South African students wholeheartedly agree with Makamba. "We have learnt about humanity," said Lindokuhze Nathentonga from KwaZulu-Natal. "People are very friendly in Cuba. We have learnt what it means to be human, we have learnt what it means to be giving without expecting something back." Sipho Fana Simselane, also from KwaZulu Natal, said he has learnt how to share whatever you have, to improve the collective. The students reckon South African society could benefit and learn from the Cuban societies' organisation. "In their one party state, everything is extremely well organized. Their consciousness is more organised than back home" Makamba said. Simselane said South Africa could follow Cuba's example in terms of co-operation and solidarity between Cubans. "We could also learn how to eliminate problems like crime." Simselane said. They have also realised that a socialist organisation requires a certain attitude towards life. "We have moved beyond socialism at home. Socialism is a state of consciousness" Makamba explained. "90% of the Cubans believe socialism is good for them, and they have survived for forty years." In Cuba, they have encountered a society without any discrimination against people of colour. "It doesn't matter where you come from, or the colour of your face or your culture, " said Sibusiso Ntombela from Ulundi, in KwaZulu-Natal. "The Cubans have united," said Nkosinathi Patrick Mkhwanazi, also from KwaZulu-Natal. The students admitted to being worried about the occurrence of prostitution in Cuba, and particularly in Havana, as a means to earn an extra income. South Africa currently has 186 students studying medicine in various provinces all across Cuba. The first group of nine Mpumalanga students left South Africa in 1997. These students are all currently in their fourth year of medicine in the central province of Sancti Spiritus. Three other groups followed in 1997 and 1998, represented by students from all across the provinces of South Africa. The last group of 63 students, the fifth group since the inception of the program in 1997, arrived in Cuba on the 6th of September. They are currently studying Spanish until July 2001. They will start first year medicine in September 2001. All the students are studying towards six year degrees in medicine in a country "where the health system is the best in the world," according to them. Their training is extremely intensive, and it requires hard work and dedication. The first year of their training involves intense Spanish lessons. The students were interviewed and selected in South Africa from different sectors of society. Some were disadvantaged, while others had already qualified as technicians or attended university in South Africa. Most of them had no problems adapting to Cuba, because the Cubans made them feel very welcome. "We really connected with the people" Makamba said. Especially in the first week in the new country, most students acknowledge to being very depressed because they missed home. The South African students have access to e-mail in Cuba, but several of their families do not have e-mail or telephones. "My mom has no electricity or a telephone," said Nontembeko Kunene from Umtata. "But she has cheap cell phone so we can communicate." Kunene says although it was hard in the beginning, the Cubans are "so human" that she adapted easily. Although they all love Cuba, the students still miss South Africa, "because there is no place like home." The students based in Santa Clara, in the province of Villa Clara, often have South African socials and parties. They braai, and this South African family ritual has acquired a Cuban touch with rum and cigars. On June the 16th, National Youth day, the students from Santa Clara organised a cultural celebration with typically South African poems, toi-toi and traditional dancing. Afterwards they had a braai. Late South African Ambassador to Cuba, Makhaya Mosia, attended their celebration. The students are looking forward to their eventual return to South Africa. They are allowed to visit South Africa twice during the six years of their studies. They are allowed to go home after two years of medical studies, and also after the 5th year. The students have the opportunity to travel through the beautiful Cuba during their summer holidays. They get a monthly allowance of 200 U.S. dollars per student, more than ten times the average Cuban's monthly wage. Their first year of intensive Spanish tuition amounts to $2 000 per student per year, which is inclusive of tuition, accommodation and meals. The medical tuition amounts to $5 000 per student per annum, inclusive of tuition, accommodation and meals. © RSA-Overseas & Matheson Communications [ Top ]  Kytie Koekblik ColumnIlda Jacobs Washington D.C. - Niks het my voorberei op winter in Washington nie. Nie eers daardie vriesende nagte in die Grahamstadse winter of in Lichtenburg of vroeg soggens in Colesberg as jou ruite gevries is nie. Washington koue byt. Jy kry koud deur jou langbroek, selfs jou neusgate en wange voel asof 'n koue lagie teen jou vel vasgevries het. Maar ek en die winter het nou uiteidenlik vrede gemaak hierdie week. Ek dink ek het nou die beauty van winter ontdek, en as ek vir die spierwit hemelruim kyk, dan dink ek dit is ongelooflik. Dalk is dit nou vir my mooi omdat die laaste hardnekkige, dor blare van die bome afgeval het. Die kaal bome lyk skielik nie meer so hartseer nie, hulle lyk net asof hulle slaap in die wit wit kombers in die lug. En natuurlik het ek ook vir die eerste keer 'n gevriesde, gloeiende wereld gesien hierdie week. Als het geys, om elke fyn blaartjie of die bosvingers en takke, was 'n deurskynende, blink lagie ys. Dit was soos 'n wonder wereld wat skielik getoor is, spierwit en gloeiend. Onwerklik, asof alles in glas gepreserveer is. Ek wou nie he dit moes smelt nie, ek wou fotos neem van die denneboom in sy glasjas en van die stekelrige, regop armpies gras oral oor grasperke. Ek het vrede gemaak met winter in Washington. Nou wag ek op die sneeu, ek kan nie wag alles spierwit en sag te sien nie, ek kan nie wag om in sneeu te speel nie, ek kan nie wag vir 'n nuwe ervaring nie. Miskien is dit die karakter van Washington D.C. - sy persoonlikheid, soos moodswings, die verskriklik benouende hitte, die gloeiende rooi en oranje blare in herfs, die wit winters, die drastiese seisoens wisselinge. Washington is nooit vervelig nie. Lange somersdae en die kort wintersdae. Ewe skielik het ek ontdek hoe lekker dit is om in jou kombers in jou warm huis te le en televisie kyk, en ek sien uit na 'n koue kersfees met warm liggies. Praat van Kersfees, daar is oral liggies, bokke en vader kersfees en sterre en kersbome wat elke nag soos 'n fees laat voel. Vir die eerste keer gaan ek 'n kaggelvuur he op kersfees. Om my kersfees volmaak te maak, hoop ek dit sneeu, dat ek 'n wit kersfees kan he. Soos 'n droom. In elk geval, Kytie voel 'n bietjie beter na die depressie my effens onkant gevang het, en ek na Tafelberg en sonnige dae op Blouberg se strand verlang het. Hieride tyd van die jaar is mos wanneer almal see toe gaan, en wanneer die groot trek van die transvaal af kom afpak in die kaapse familie se huisies by die see. Maar ek is nou in Amerika, en ek sal maar vir Santa Clause in sy winkel sentrums gaan besoek..en my rooi mussie opsit. En net omdat ek dit in die anale van kytie koekblik se joernaal moet verewig, moet ek dus iets se oor die afloop van Elections 2000. So nou het Amerika 'n president. Geseende Kersfees president George W. Bush, ek hoop vader en seun gaan .'n lekker koue dag he in texas op 'n ranch iewers met kalkoen. Daarmee saam my nuwejaarswens: Ek gun u 'n aardrykskunde kursus, 'n crash course in wereldpolitiek. Met 'n tikkie geskiedenis daarby, want daar is baie lande in Afrika, amper net soveel soos state in amerika, en hulle het elkeen 'n president met 'n naam. Van die oas op die jas.Friendship Heights, waar ek bly, is op die oomblik in die middel van 'n kontroversie wat losgebars. Rokers mag nie meer in die openbaar rook nie. As jy in Friendship Heights, Maryland bly, kan jy beboet word as jy jou stompie neergooi op straat of jou rookasem in die wit lug inblaas. Bly jy in die distrik Columbia, kan jy maar rook as jy buite is. Ek voel so half jammer vir rokers wat in Friendship Heights werk, as jy regtig 'n verslaafde is en jy mag slegs buite rook, het jy nou geen ander keuse as om in jou kar te gaan sit vir jou smokebreak nie.ek neem aan dit is nie onwettig nie.. Die probleem is, meeste rokers rook nie omdat hulle wil nie, dit is 'n verslawing en as jy op daardie punt is waar jy elke kort-kort moet gaan vir 'n rokie buite jou gebou, dan moet jy maar op 'n ander plek as Friendship Heights werk.Dus so much for minder government interference in the affairs of citizens. Ek is seker dit is unconstitutional. Ek is seker dit is jou human rights om te kan rook buite solank as wat jy nie ander benadeel nie - net soos dit jou reg is om jou self vol te stop met cholestrol-loaded kos? Of sit ek die pot mis? Kytie K. Kytie Koekblik would like you to respond to her tongue-in-cheek running commentary on suburban life in America in this editorial. Fresh off the boat, she is ready to explore and experiment with American bath plugs and to drive on the other side of the road. You can contact her here. © RSA-Overseas & Matheson Communications [ Top ] Ithutheng students express dissatisfaction with government Students at the Sowetan based Ithutheng Learning Project have expressed their concern over a "damaging report" by the Gauteng MEC, Ignatius Jacobs, which was sent to various government offices, including the office of President Thabo Mbeki. It was confirmed by a senior member of the MEC for the Gauteng Department of Education that a damaging report about the Ithutheng youth was received by Mbeki's office, however the report has not been made available to the Ithtutheng Trust. The report pertains to a court case surrounding the events in October this year, when the Ithutheng students were refused entry into the Soweto College of Education building during their exams. According to the students, for three weeks in succession in October, police and no less than fourteen police vehicles stormed the classrooms during lessons. "At that time the police were entertaining themselves by harassing us, a situation which is not different from that which our parents suffered with the previous government. They evicted us during exam time, finally, they took us to court" the students claim. Jacobs has allegedly applied for an interdict against the Ithutheng students which prohibits them from entering the Soweto College of Education. "It was a blessing that Mr Ignatius Jacobs took us to court because it is clear to us that if this matter was to be solved within the government structures, we wouldn't have had a fair hearing," the groups of students claimed. Jacobs applied to the court that the Ithutheng youth should be interdicted one kilometre from the college. The students said Jacobs did not realise that some of the Ithutheng students reside in the Pimville area "often less than twenty metres from the college gates." The students have requested to remain anonymous, "in fear of being academically victimised." They have strongly critised Jacobs and the subsequent government reaction towards them. "The question is: Which government in the world has ever taken its youth to court for simply asking for a place of learning, a desk, a chair and a roof above their heads to be better citizens of tomorrow?" The youth also alleges that the Department of Education, will not assist poor and disadvantaged schools, because they have labeled the "young, black and poor as criminal and disruptive radicals." Allegedly the Department of Education rescued the St Barnabas College with 12 million rands, but Pace College in Soweto, and other black schools struggling financially, have not been assisted with any government funds. "The question that we the youth are asking ourselves is, was St Barnabas College rescued because it is a predominantly Coloured school and so is Mr Ignatius Jacobs? In a letter addressed to President Thabo Mbeki, the students have requested a national television debate between the Ithutheng Trust Youth and Jacobs in order to achieve a measure of transparency. They have also accused the government of accepting Jacobs' report without giving them a fair hearing. "What happened to the transparency that the Government preached in 1994?" the youths have asked. "This is because of our colours and our poor backgrounds. This situation is no different from the previous government's behavioral pattern." Earlier in the year during their graduation ceremony, President Mbeki praised the Work of the Ithutheng Trust during his State of the Nation Address. "Through the work of their Ithutheng Trust, we now have 1 500 Soweto youths who not only study hard but also carry out important voluntary community work, including educating their peers to turn against crime, rape and drug abuse." The Ithutheng Trust appealed to African Eye News in the United States to print their compliant against the government. Jacobs' motivation for filing a lawsuit against the Ithutheng trust and the police interference at the Soweto College of Education, is being investigated by African Eye News in South Africa. © RSA-Overseas & Matheson Communications [ Top ] Innocence confronts evil in South Africa. 
"The Syringa Tree." Written and performed by Pamela Gien. Directed by Larry Moss. Set by Kenneth Foy. Costume by William Ivey Long. Lighting by Jason Kantrowitz. Sound by Tony Suraci. New York: Playhouse.
'THE SYRINGA TREE' SHADES COUNTRY OF SORROWS by Lucy Komisar New York, N.Y. Innocence confronts evil in South Africa. NEW YORK -- Through a child's eyes, Pamela Gien recreates the powerful reality of apartheid in South Africa. In an astonishing performance, portraying multiple characters, she offers a panorama of personalities and political views and a lucid picture of the anguish and complexities of that era. It is funny, clever, and moving. She says it is a fictional story based on true events. Gien is a consummate performer, handling moods and accents with polished artistry, and director Larry Moss makes one think the stage is bursting with characters and action. Her viewpoint is that of the liberal whites. Dangling in a swing, Gien is chirpy 7-year-old Miss Lizzie alarming the black servant, Selamina, about the "Tokalozh" spirit. But she is also the racist Afrikaner neighbor from whom one must hide the birth of Selamina's child so that it isn't discovered and banished from the white neighborhood. Lizzie's mother is a believing Catholic and her father a Jewish atheist. The contradictions in their lives are vivid, marked by real affections and overwhelming barriers. One flinches when the blacks refer to their employer as 'the master.' Against a backdrop of rough texture that seems to change shades from brown to blue or green, and with balletic movements, Gien is a naive child noticing the black members of a road gang. She is Isaac Grace, Lizzie's doctor father, disgusted because a white patient gets angry at seeing a black child in his dispensary. She is her mother, Eugenie, ordering that the servants get table leftovers. The little girl, observing a police car, comments with excruciating matter-of-factness, "They are looking for people who have got no papers." You hear the sounds of a motor and dogs. Lizzie reports that the quarry scramble to safety by climbing into the syringa tree. But there are few "syringa trees" to harbor apartheid's victims. The contrast between black and white is highlighted by the parallel lives of Lizzie and of Molisene, Selamina's daughter. The baby Molisene is almost lost in a hospital system that holds her in so little regard, it doesn't bother recording her presence. Then, she is a militant among the youths who lead Soweto school strikes. However, it's clear that whites are the system's victims, too, when violent tragedy strikes the Graces. The lighting by Jason Kantrowitz and the sound by Tony Suraci create a palpable set with car lights and horns, shadows of shutters, chirping of frogs and crickets, and the melody and beat of Africans songs. One feels transported to a country of aching sorrows. Lucy Komisar is a New York theater critic. © RSA-Overseas & Matheson Communications [ Top ] Southern Right whales make comeback Cape Town - With a noisy spurt of water and air the head of the giant creature emerges from the ocean before gracefully sinking back below the surface to gasps from the boat-borne spectators just metres away. The Southern Right whale, gentle giant of the depths, is making a steady comeback from the edge of oblivion to which it was hunted as recently as 40 years ago. It is now packing in the foreign and local tourists. 'Whales have body language and moods' "We estimate there are about 2 000 to 2 500 who visit our coastline each year, making ours the biggest population in the world along with Argentina," South African whale expert Peter Best said in Gansbaai, 150km east of Cape Town. It is a far cry from the 1940s when the American and British whalers who had plundered the southern oceans for more than a century had reduced the Southern Right population off the coast of South Africa to between 100 and 200 animals. Two decades of recovery followed, but were brought to an abrupt end by Russian whaling ships with quotas to fill hungry mouths to feed back home in the Cold War Soviet Union. Figures recently released by Moscow show that the Russian whalers slaughtered more than 3 000 Southern Rights during the 1960s, Best said. But now the population is well on the way to recovery, with no natural predators to worry about and the arch enemy - mankind - banned from whaling and only very recently even allowed to approach the huge mammals. 'We have been studying whales for only 15 years. Before that we were killing them' Rudi Hughes, one of the few South Africans with a permit to take tourists on boats to watch the whales, said: "I love doing this. Whales have body language and moods. Sometimes they are playful, inquisitive, shy or just want to be left alone. "I love watching the faces of the people when they see an animal of that size so close," he said as the spectators on his small motorised catamaran, Ivanhoe, gazed in awe at a whale cow and calf wallowing a few arms' lengths away. "This is fantastic," said holidaymaker Jake Easton in hushed tones. He is touring South Africa with his partner, Samantha O'Keefe - both from Los Angeles. Two-year-old Ieuan Davies, on holiday with his parents, Roy and Jan, from near Aberystwyth in Wales, gurgled his agreement. Hughes said: "I was the first person to get a permit in this area, and we are now coming to the end of only our third season. "We have been studying whales for only 15 years. Before that we were killing them," he said. "You cannot possibly learn everything you need to know about whales in just 15 years." Best, an internationally-renowned whale specialist who operates out of his book-lined office in the South African Museum in Cape Town about 150km west of Gansbaai, agreed wholeheartedly. "We really know very little about our Right whales. We can guess how long they live and how heavy they are, but we don't even know exactly where they go on their annual migration when they leave here," he said. "We know our population is growing at about seven percent a year, that a cow will probably have her first calf at the age of eight and have an average of one every three years from then until she dies," he added. Best said evidence collected so far suggested that Southern Rights probably live to at least 50 years, growing to a length of 15m, a weight of 60 tons, and developing a cruising speed of about three knots. "Data suggests they migrate south from here in our summer to the Roaring Forties and down to the Antarctic. But we don't know for sure," he said. In stark contrast to the dwindling and increasingly infertile and unhealthy population of northern hemisphere Right whales - which now number only about 300 and look doomed to extinction - the Southern Rights have a broad gene pool and a clean bill of health. They are also remarkably faithful to South Africa. "Just about every female calf born here comes back to have her own calf," Best said, adding that each animal had unique lumps and marks on its head that made it easily distinguishable from all the others. "They are highly recognisable from their warts. I have 550 adult females photographed and catalogued," he added. Best said each cow had her single calf in shallow coastal waters and the pair stayed together for between six months and a year. The males, known as bulls, seem to spend all their time frolicking sexually and seemingly indiscriminately, he added. The annual migration north to South Africa during the southern hemisphere winter has become a tourist spectacle, with crowds of people heading for the south coast at weekends from June to October to view the animals' antics. Like their far smaller cousins, the seals, Right whales seem to enjoy playing - sometimes heaving their huge bodies out of the water in an action called breaching and landing back down again with a thud that can be heard hundreds of metres away. Watching from the shore - the cheap way of doing it - the sight is spectacular. According to Hughes, watching from a boat - especially if it is unexpected and close by - it can be heart-stopping. "It happened once to me. I was out with some scientists and we were watching a whale in front of us when suddenly one breached behind us and we were nearly swamped by a huge wave," he said. "It destroyed all their camera equipment." But while the present at least is secure for the Right whales and the future looks rosy, there is still much to be done to protect and nurture the huge mammals. "The present numbers are still probably only 10 percent of what they were," Best said. "There is still a lot of work to do." Thanks to IOL.co.za [ Top ] Crocodile disappears with woman in its jaws On Tuesday, just four days after a young Gauteng holidaymaker was killed by a crocodile at Lake St Lucia, the police were searching for the body of another woman who disappeared in the jaws of a large crocodile in the Nseleni River near Empangeni. KwaZulu-Natal Wildlife officer Roy Jones said no one had witnessed the attack, but the unidentified woman was seen shortly afterwards in the reptile's mouth. It is not known if the crocodile attacked her while she was walking next to the river, or if she slipped off rocks while making her way across the water at a crossing point used by members of the community. Police divers from Richards Bay were sent out, but it was too dangerous to search the muddy water for her body. Jones said the crocodile had submerged and there was no further sign of it or the woman's body. 'It's just common sense not to go skinny-dipping' People from the rural community had gathered at the river and the crocodile was unlikely to release the body while there was so much activity in the area. The latest attack follows the death of Johannesburg holidaymaker Tracy Hunt, 22, who was killed by a crocodile late on Friday while paddling in the estuary at Lake St Lucia with her boyfriend, Claudio Celestino, 27. Crocodile expert and former KZN game ranger Tony Pooley said holidaymakers in particular should be warned of the danger of crocodile attacks at this time of year. Pooley, who is writing a book after analysing more than 200 crocodile attacks in southern Africa in recent years, said there was overwhelming evidence the majority of attacks happened in the breeding season, when males were defending their territory and females were guarding their nesting sites. "Attacks are common from October onwards, but the worst months are January, February and March. "It's tragic when people are killed, but when there are signboards all over the place showing crocodiles with their jaws wide open, it's just common sense not to go skinny-dipping after dark in waist-deep water. "Now everyone will want conservation officials to kill all the crocodiles in the vicinity, when St Lucia is the most important protected area and breeding ground for this species in South Africa." Meanwhile, a distraught Celestino spoke on Tuesday of watching helplessly as Hunt was snatched by the leg and dragged under water during the fatal crocodile attack on Friday night. The 27-year-old Edenglen financial services manager, who phoned The Mercury on Tuesday to clarify the circumstances of the attack, said he had booked into a guest lodge in St Lucia village on Friday evening with Hunt. The couple met each other four weeks ago. "I never saw any signs warning people about crocodiles. It never even entered my head that there could be crocodiles there." Celestino said he was standing at the water's edge at the time. "Tracy was standing in knee-deep water and we were talking to each other. Suddenly she said, "Ouch!"... like something had bumped her. She didn't scream out in pain. "As I stepped forward to pull her out, she just disappeared under water. I saw the crocodile surface briefly, but it was all so quick." When he realised what had happened, Celestino raced back to the guest lodge for help and KZN Wildlife officials arrived soon afterwards to search for Hunt. KZN Wildlife official Mark Robertson has also urged visitors to take the threat of crocodile attacks seriously. "Our staff are verbally abused when they try to warn people and it is unfortunate that people only wake up when something terrible happens." Officials at St Lucia have put up more warning signs at the estuary mouth, which has changed considerably as a result of last month's floods and further recent rains. The beach just north of the mouth has been washed away and is littered with trees and stumps washed down from the swollen Umfolozi and Msunduse rivers. Thanks to IOL.co.za [ Top ] |
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