Last Update: Jan. 14, 2001
Last Update: Jan. 14, 2001 |
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Disadvantaged children seek help in Africa [Note: we felt the need to run this article again this week to increase exposure. Any feedback, comments or ideas would be welcome...]
Conceptualised by one man's dream and the collective support of many, AFRICAN KNIGHTS is committed to using the African wilderness, her people, wildlife, wide open spaces and inherent beauty, to assist in the healing, education and development of disadvantaged children from southern Africa and around the world. The words "African Safari" conjure up visions of a magical journey into a primitive, untamed animal kingdom of sights and sounds beyond the imagination. For many, such an adventure is the stuff of dreams. Until now... 
Based in Cape Town, the organisation intends using overland safari vehicles to take groups of 20 children, their teachers and/or careworkers on sponsored camping safaris deep into the African wilderness visiting the many exquisite national parks and game preserves of southern Africa. African Knights hope to make what has until now been an experience of the privileged, a dream come true for those less fortunate. Those set to benefit most from this life embracing venture include; orphaned and abused children, teenagers recovering from drug addiction and "at-risk" youth — often the result of increased urbanization.
It's a sad fact but most children today grow up in cities with little or no knowledge of the natural world beyond the concrete urban sprawl they call home. It's a grave irony, that in a world where we are trying to educate our children about protecting the natural environment few actually get to see what we are talking about! Can we really expect them to respond without giving the benefit of the experience? African Knights believe that being exposed to an experience of this nature as a child has many important educational and personal developmental benefits. They believe that such an early experience can: 1.) Promote a better understanding of the natural world and a healthy respect for her fragile eco-systems. 2.) Educate children about the diversity of other cultures. 3.) Act as a natural healing process for children who may be suffering from trauma. And what better place than Africa's magnificent animal and plant kingdom? 
THE AFRICAN KNIGHTS WORLD CHALLENGE In their quest to brighten the lives of disadvantaged children in southern Africa and from around the world, African Knights ask's individuals, communities, schools and business to please make a donation (of any amount) towards this worthwhile cause. Their immediate goal is to raise sufficient capital to build and equip their first overland vehicle to be put into service by April 2001. The cost of building a fully equipped overland vehicle complete with camping equipment for 24 persons is R300 000 (US$ 40 000, UK 26 000). For more info and details on how you can make a donation please visit their website at www.africanknights.org or email keith@africanknights.org Comment on this story © RSA-Overseas [ Top ]  Kytie Koekblik ColumnIlda Jacobs Washington D.C. - Ek het Kytie Koekblik geword op universiteit. By die Rhodes universiteit op Grahamstad, was ons 'n handjievol Afrikaanssprekendes. Vir die eerste maal in my lewe na my Kuilsrivier-lewe, het ek begin vriende maak met die Suid-Afrikaanssprekende Engelse, daardie uit die Suidelike voorstede van Kaapstad; uit posh suburbs in Sandton, ander van Zimbabwe, en ander uit Natal. Daar was Britse Engelse en Ierse Engelse en Joodse Engelse en Katolieke Engelse en tussen hulle almal was daar ek, 'n Afrikaanse girl van agter die sogenaamde "boereworsgordyn" in die Kaap. Vir die eerste keer het ek besef in watter isolasie ek grootgeword het in my pendeldorpie in die Kaap. (Die omvang van daardie isolasie van die Afrikaner het ek nou nog nie eers ten volle besef nie, en ek ys as ek dink die isolasie bestaan steeds, maar dit daar gelaat.) Daar is met die Afrikaners gespot. En selfs teen hulle gediskrimineer. Daar was ook 'n stereotype van tipiese Afrikaanse meisie wat die klomp in hulle koppe gehad het, 'n soort huismuis rockspider, submissive, wat net wou trou en kinders kry. Toe het ek besluit, basta daarmee en klaar. Ek gaan nie langer verskoning vra omdat ek Afrikaans is nie. Dis mos my hartstaal. Ek het immers met die "alternatiewe" Afrikaners, Koos Kombuis, Valiant Swart, die Springbok Nude Girls en die hele Skelmbos-brigade en die Wolmers van Pretoria geassosieer. Ons was/is cool. Ons probeer om uit die kake van ignorance te ontsnap. Ons het 'n Kultuur en 'n Taal om op trots te wees, en niemand kan "onder in my whiskeyglas" of "soek ons die Mystic boer" of "bomskok babelas" sing met soveel melankolie soos ons Afrikaanssprekendes/Afrikaners/Afrikane nie. Ek was trots daarop om as jong Afrikaner uit 'n kultuur en 'n tradisie te kom, ek het skielik op my identiteit as post-apartheid Suid-Afrikaner trots geraak. Lekker mense, dis hoe ons is. Ek het selfs jammer gevoel vir die arme Engelse Suid-Afrikaners, wat so hard probeer Brits wees het, en eintlik identiteitsloos geraak het met die verwaterde vorm van Anglo-Saxon tradisies van hulle families probeer vaskleef het aan. Daarom het ek besluit op Kytie Koekblik, die lekker rockspider, trots daarop om die taal te kan praat. Afrikaans tot in alle ewigheid. My pa het ook altyd gese, "n mens moenie in 'n koekblik leef nie" Bedoelende jy moet oop wees vir die realiteit, en nie narrowminded wees nie. Kytie Koekblik is dus 'n simboliese naam, want ek is trots daarop om my Suid-Afrikaansheid te embrace. Wat gaan van Kytie Koekblik word in die land of the free and the brave, wou my vriende weet toe ek die joppie in die States kry. Dalk word sy Brooke Biltong, het ek gespot. Baie gou het ek besef Koekblik het nie soveel trefkrag onder my Amerikaanse maters nie, selfs die translation Katie Caketin klink net nie soos "kytie koekblik" nie. Maar Kytie Koekblik kom nie uit my sisteem nie, en gou-gou het ek besef dit gee alle homesick ekspats 'n hartseer glimlaggie, die naampie. Wat my by name bring. Hoe weet ons Latinos/Kubane/Jode/Duitsers/Franse is wat hulle is. of praat die taal wat hulle praat? Soms verraai jou naam iets oor jou identiteit. En as jy daardie naam verander, se dit iets? Ek probeer dit nog uitfigure. 'n Seker aupair van Mosselbaai met die naam Yolande, staan deesdae bekend as Andy. Ek weet van 'n Van Vliet wat Valiet geword het. 'n Jaco het eenvoudig besluit om David te word, omdat niemand Jaco kan uitspreek nie. Daar is ook Ragel wat as Rachel bekend staan. En dan is daar die ou Van der Westhuizen wat "west" geword, vir besigheidsdoeleindes. Gee 'n mens iets van jou Suid-Afrikaansheid prys as jy jou naam verander? Ek dink die vraag sal in die lug bly hang. Gee jy iets van jou Suid-Afrikaansheid prys as jy nie in Suid-Afrika woon nie? Ek weet ook nie. Ek weet wel die lot van ek hier in die States raakloop, dink en weet meer en is meer Suid-Afrikaans as wat baie van ons was toe ons in ignorance in die land gebly het. En is dit belangrik om "nasionalisties" te voel, is dit nie immers 'n sonde wat van Suid-Afrika en die Afrikaners gemaak het wat hulle was nie? Soms wonder ek of ek genoeg het om op trots te wees in my volkie se geskiedenis, asof dit maar liewers vergeet moet word. Self-induced amnesia. Want al die ooms en tannies wat kaalvoet oor berge geloop het, ek moet nou hulle bevraagteken. Ek moet Jan van Riebeeck wat in 1652 aan die Kaap geland het, bevraagteken. Ek moet vergeet dat ek in 1998 op die ouderdom van 11 al die woorde van Carike Keuzenkamp se "Bartholomias Dias, ons wil huis toe gaan," uit my kop uit geken het. Ek het nie iets om op trots te wees in die geskiedenis nie, of so voel ek met tye. So ek kan maar net sowel in enige land in die wereld bly en 'n honorary Kubaan of 'n honorary Zimbabwean word? Ek kan maar net aanhou vrae vra. Onophoudelik. Dink dink dink oor al die dinge en nie mag, kennis en gegewens for granted vat nie. As globale wereld burger, Afrikaan, Suid-Afrikaner, Afrikaanssprekende, Afrikaner, Kytie Koekblik van Kuilsrivier, kan ek maar net saam met oom Castro sug. "History will absolve me." Vader Tyd sal ons leer. 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 ] What happens after Matric? The euphoria surrounding the much-improved matric results will soon give way to preparing for a career and job searching and, for most of the newly qualified matriculants, the harsh reality is that the chances of finding a job in the formal employment sector are slim. Although newspapers publish thousands of job ads each week, most of the positions on offer require either qualifications and/or experience. It is clear that some sort of further study is essential and very few job- seekers with just a matric certificate are likely to find employment via the print media. The range of tertiary education available is wider than ever and it is important for matriculants to choose wisely. Candidates should look at sectors where employment is taking place and the course must make the student employable and valuable to the employer from day one. The Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) newsletter, The Graduate, reported last year that "graduate unemployment" has become a real problem. There are stories of graduates who have studied for many years and still cannot find work, and everybody appears to know someone who has had to resort to being a waiter or waitress, because their qualification did not provide them with a "real job". To be employable, The Graduate says, one needs to have some understanding of the massive changes occurring in the workplace. A qualification is the initial preparation for employment, but employers do not employ qualifications alone. The employability of graduates depends much less on the nature of the degree and much more on the students themselves. The emphasis has moved from "knowing" to "doing". Graduates should leave higher education with a whole range of skills, qualities and experiences gained outside the lecture hall which will make them marketable, whatever their degree. There is remarkable consistency internationally in what employers are looking for in potential employees, according to The Graduate. The qualities desired reflect the rapidly changing nature of the workplace. They require fewer "technical specialists" who are able to work in narrowly defined jobs. Graduates need to be team players capable of communicating and solving problems. There is consensus that some sort of IT qualification is the most useful to aim for. However, it is important to choose the right training institution from the many that exist. Steve Eilertsen, headmaster of Boston Technology Campus, warns matrics to investigate computer colleges thoroughly before enrolling. He advises students to check that private colleges have been certified by the industry. For example, colleges offering training in Microsoft products must be recognised by Microsoft as meeting certain minimum requirements for staff, hardware, software and training manuals. Class size is important. Confident students who want to pursue a matter further with their lecturer will get more attention if they are placed in a smaller class. Look for colleges that offer full-time courses that are divided into units of one year each, so students can complete one, two, three or four years of study with the option of leaving the programme at the end of any particular year. Be wary of colleges that have no aptitude tests. At worst, a college should offer a one-hour interview with a suitable counsellor. First-time job-seekers are invariably confronted with the vicious 'no-experience-no-job' cycle. One way of getting around this is to take the temporary employment route. Some sort of office work qualification will usually be enough to get you a temporary assignment. Recruitment agencies that specialise in temp assignments will often provide training and support for the temporary workers on their books. Temping, for the matriculant, can be a practical way to acquire a variety of business skills while still deciding which career to follow and, equally important, earning money and receiving benefits. Thanks to IOL.co.za [ Top ] SA drug firms fight government London - A group of more than 40 drug companies is taking the South African government to court to put a lid on the uncontrolled importation or manufacture of cut-price versions of patented Aids drugs, officials said on Sunday. The action, brought by the South African pharmaceutical manufacturers association on behalf of its members, will be heard in the Pretoria High Court on March 5, bringing to a head a three-year-old intellectual property dispute. London-based GlaxoSmithKline, the world's largest supplier of HIV and Aids medicines, said the industry was committed to supplying cheap Aids medicines to Africa but was alarmed by implications of a law passed by former President Nelson Mandela in 1997. "Clause 15c gives the health minister total power to dismiss patents without any process whatsover. That is what the companies object to," company spokesperson Phil Thomson said. A South African Health Ministry official in Pretoria said the government would defend the action, seeing it as important to ensure the government has the right to obtain cheap drugs to fight the Aids epidemic sweeping the country. "The government wants to legalise the parallel importation of these drugs. It has legislation in place but this is on hold because the drug companies have opposed it and have challenged it on the grounds of intellectual property laws," Jo-Anne Collinge of the ministry said. Of the world's 34 million people infected with HIV, the virus that causes Aids, 25 million live in sub-Saharan Africa but only a tiny proportion receive the anti-retroviral drugs that have slashed death rates in the developed world. The South African dispute is a thorn in the side of the international drugs industry, which is eager to prevent the uncontrolled spread of generic Aids drugs in the developing world that might leak back on to high-price markets in Europe and North America. Elsewhere in Africa, the drugs industry has been working with the United Nations to supply cut-price drugs to governments in a controlled way. Senegal and Uganda both clinched Aids drugs supply agreements under the UN Accelerating Access Initiative last year. They are expected to be joined by Swaziland, Kenya, Central African Republic, Botswana and Gabon in 2001. South Africa has not signed up to the initiative. Thanks to IOL.co.za [ Top ] Plumbers find Khoisan skeleton in Cape Town A routine plumbing job at a house in Melkbosstrand, Cape Town on Thursday led to the discovery of the skeleton of a Khoisan man, estimated at between 300 and 2000 years old. House owner Tertia Viljoen was called by the plumbers who showed her the remains they found in a trench they were digging. Viljoen immediately contacted the SA Museum. Because she was interested in their history, she was aware there could be Khoisan remains in the area. SA Museum archaeologist Royden Yates and University of Cape Town physical anthropologist Dino Stydner excavated and removed the remains on Thursday. Yates said the man had been buried in a foetal position, which was Khoisan tradition. "The indications are that the skeleton was a Khoisan man, between the ages of 20 and 30 years old when he died." Yates said the man died between 300 and 2000 years ago as the remains of sheep had been found near the skeleton. Sheep were introduced to the Cape 2000 years ago. The skeleton was found between the house and an outbuilding and the plumbers had only minimally disturbed it. The Khoisan man was missing some teeth from his upper jaw. Yates said they could have fallen out when the plumbers dug up the skull, but he believed it was probably a post-mortem effect caused by the decay of the jaw bone. By early Friday morning, the skeleton had been cleaned. The Khoisan man's remains would be kept as part of the museum collection, Yates said. Thanks to IOL.co.za [ Top ] South African's hungerstrike successful Washington D.C. - The 25 day hungerstrike a South African woman to have her imprisoned African American husband declassified as a gangster, has sufficiently pressured the California Department of Corrections and the Salinas State Valley to admit their erroneous classification. In a letter to Lara Johnson, wife of inmate Demian Johnson, 36, the authorities have committed themselves to review the negative impacts which the gang label has had on the prisoner. This letter might enable Lara to file for a Federal Civil Rights Violation. Johnson, 34, from Volksrust in Mpumalanga, started her hungerstrike on the 19th of November last year to obtain justice for her husband, who was jailed in 1983 for second-degree felony murder after he and some friends refused to pay a taxi driver and shot him dead. Johnson received sentence of 15 years to life, of which he has served 18 years. He has been incarcerated at eight prisons and is currently at the Salinas State Valley Prison in California. The Warden at the Salinas Valley State Prison, A. A. Lamarque, wrote a letter to Lara in which he admitted that Johnson was erroneously classified as a member of the Black Guerilla Family gang. Johnson was classified as a gangster in 1987 when he was at the San Quentin Prison, and was subsequently housed in a security unit for six years. The Warden wrote the letter to after several discussions with the California Department of Corrections and the Inspector General's office. After a thorough review of Johnson's file, they concluded that there was insufficient evidence to validate any gang affiliation. The warden admitted that "inmate Johnson was previously erroneously classified as BGF associate, and as such, was placed into a security housing unit, on an indeterminate basis." He also said Johnson status should be reviewed. Johnson was denied parole in August last year due to his incorrect association with the Black Guerilla Family Gang. The warden suggested that Johnson's case should be prepared for an Institutional Classification Committee review in order to "resolve any negative impact on inmate Johnson's case-factors." Although Lara is satisfied with her husband's declassification, she will pursue the matter further. This is not the first time that Johnson's gangster label has been deleted, and both the Department of Corrections and the Office of the Inspector General have previously declared the label to be erroneous. The local prison authorities have repeatedly rejected higher authority by not removing the label from Johnson's file, thereby jeopardizing prisoner Johnson's parole hearings. According to Lara, the letter from the warden will make a strong case in a lawsuit against the prison. "I have an attorney looking into the case, and he wants to pursue it as a Federal Rights Violation." [Read First Article here] © RSA-Overseas & Matheson Communications [ Top ] |
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