Bruce from Zimbabwe

Jumamosi = Saturday in the Kiswahili language of East Africa

Finally! Bruce from Zimbabwe has organized SHINDA's first youth workshop in South Africa this coming Saturday. His boss has given him use of the cafe in which he works for 2 hours so ten youth can tell me what kind of help they need to create more lucrative employment for themselves. I will use this research to re-create SHINDA's non-scripted TV series pilot here in SA - hopefully with Endemol SA. One of Endemol's creative guys warned me over the phone that I should 'beware of how aggressive the company is'. Having been trained by some of Hollywood's most ruthless network executives for 12 years and then surviving Kenya's post-election violence while it became a 'failed state' - nothing scares me anymore. To be an entrepreneur in Africa builds muscles beyond your imagination.

Bruce says this group of youth is different that the township youth - more confident, more optimistic - that in the townships youth are idle, they have given up. This is a kid who doesn't have time to give up - he's heading upwards quickly which is why I hired him.

Bruce left Zimbabwe at age 20 on bus arriving in South Africa with R50 in his jeans - about $6 USD. A friend of a friend helped him start his life over again here. Do I know what that feels like! Now he has a good job but he needs to make more money. Because he is from Zimbabwe he is not allowed to open a bank account in South Africa and he has to renew his work permit every six months. Robert Mugabe is the reason why Bruce is here. He tells me that everyday he thinks about his mother.

This kid is smart and kind and happy. I could tell the moment I saw him for the first time in the Depasco Cafe on Long Street. Quick movements, attention to detail and buckets of charm. He hasn't given up. He is the future of Africa. The Zimbabweans stick out here - they're very different from the South Africans. It's like they perceive there is less of a barrier between them and white people like me. They come closer. They expect to be listened to - a product of a country that had developed into a very sophisticated economy - until Morgan Tsvangirai showed up threatening everything.

My husband and I talk about Zimbabwe a lot because he grew up there and still maintains a small farm. His heart is broken and angry about how far the country has fallen into decay. While we start our lives all over again here after watching Kenya also collapse - I wonder, will South Africa go down this same badly-managed road? The curse of mineral wealth looms over us all everyday in the news. There is talk of nationalizing the mines - which wouldn't be the worst thing - it would scare the hell out of the foreign investors, but it could actually work. It seems to be working in Bolivia and Cuba's redistributive agricultural policies are working. But the problem in Africa is governance.

The South African parastatals are not performing and tax revenues are being hijacked out of the system and into the pockets of the elite. So because of this, nationalization of the mines will never be accepted. What a great shame because the truth is - the mineral wealth of South Africa SHOULD belong to the people. Theoretically, wealth redistribution within a constitutional democracy is a very very good idea. Done well and you get the Province of Alberta where each resident gets $1000 cash each year from oil wealth and nobody pays income tax. Done badly, civil society slowly crubmles allowing the peel to paint, the moss to grow and shoulders to slouch.

Of all the things I get angry about watching how badly Africa is being managed for so many different complicated macro-economic reasons - this is the thing I can't stomach. To see such strong and dignified people just give up. Deeply ingrained cultures of giving up are one of the hardest things to change through policy. How do you legislate hope? What law has the strength to rebuild the optimism of a nation? A great leader can do this - like Mandela.

I think about Patrice Lumumba who began to emerge as a great leader in post-colonialism Zaire when the country became independant from Belgium. He was young and handsome and a had lovely family, corduroy jeans and drove a Buick I think. I see the images of his young family and think of John Kennedy or Pierre Trudeau. Lumumba was loved and destined to lead Zaire into it's new ideal future. But he didn't get that chance. He was assassinated and I wonder when I read the paper here about the criminal trials going on in France now about arms dealing in Angola - who arranged for Joseph Lumumba to be killed? Who decided that NOT empowering a nation was a better choice? If the rich mines in the Southern province of Katanga could talk.

When I sit with youth in Africa and listen to their dreams it's so painful to realize how much has been wasted in the last fifty years. So much time. So many pieces of gold and platinum that could have built highways and schools and dignity. And the kids here end up feeling bad about themselves, the shame of poverty in which they live. They need so much love and compassion and support because they are the ones who will finally make Africa work one day. All their tiny little efforts added up together day after day, year after year. Few of them see a 'future'. I ask Bruce what his most important issue is in terms of employment. He says 'feeding myself'. When I ask him about what he sees in his life next year he tells me he doesn't think like that. But he has to. His desire to create a better for himself forms the foundation of the life I live now. I need Bruce to believe in his dreams. My business will never succeed in Africa if kids like Bruce don't make this choice - if they don't choose 'to win'.

Mo Ibrahim did not award his $5 million USD prize this year. No African leader was decided to have accomplished the goal of the award for good governance. I guess $5 million just wasn't enough. How the system works now is far more lucrative. True change will probably only come once all the mines and oil deposits are gone so there's nothing left to fight over. Will it be too late or will it be the beginning of something much more peaceful that we are all failing to see?

Resilience - the ability or power to return to the original form.

Photo - Bruce with six SA and Zimbabwe youth telling me about their employment situation in Cape Town at the Depasco Cafe on Long Street.

The Popsicle Index

Whilst waiting for our TV meeting I explore the City Bowl neighbourhood high above the city of Cape Town cradled within the low bowl area of Table Mountain. The place reminds me so much of the Hollywood Hills above Los Angeles with its narrow winding streets and speeding cars. Walking up a broken-down cement staircase I stumble upon a beautiful gem hidden away behind overgrown trees and forgotten memories. The Gardens Bowling Club would be a fantastic space to disappear into for the afternoon with nothing but casual sport and cold cocktails to worry about. Nobody is here except me. I feel like Alice.

One of my favourite streets in the city starts here at the mouth of the Mount Nelson Hotel driveway - the Company's Garden walkway running all the way South almost to the main train station - from Orange Street down to Wale Street it's nothing but trees, birds and happy people. Public space. No cars. I love it. We are looking at an office space at the bottom of this lovely pathway in what is called Greenmarket Square nestled between the historic buildings on Strand, Adderly, Long and Longmarket Streets. If we buy the space, we will be a five-minute walk to our bank which I think is a very very good idea.

It's hard not to be in awe of the affordability of the city's real estate, especially as a foreigner. So many of the city's companies have left the cbd in search of safer quieter dwellings which is fine by me because there's more choice for SHINDA and more room to negotiate. I have to work in the city. I need to be in walking distance of coffee, newspapers and citizens. And popsicles, for their index of a livable city.

The Popsicle Index is the % of people who believe a child can leave their home, go to the nearest place to buy a popsicle or snack, and come home alone safely. For example, if you feel that 50% of your neighbors believe a child in your neighborhood would be safe, then your Popsicle Index is 50%. The Popsicle Index is based on gut level feelings of the people who have intimate knowledge of a place, rather than facts and figures. I would throw fresh fruit into that equation myself. I think I'll introduce myself to the Dan Plato, the mayor of Cape Town, and tell him about the popsicle index if he doesn't know about it already. He talks about livable cities and promotes the idea of high-density living for Africans. One of the reasons why he said the federal government is failing to deliver housing is that they mistakenly held onto the believe that every 'African' home needs to have a garden. Those days were long gone on this highly urbanizing continent. Africans need to look up and imagine how they will raise their families 5-10 stories above ground. Completely new and sustainable concepts need to be localized here in Africa if people are going to live in harmony together.

Photos; Upper Orange Street - Gardens Bowling Club, apartment for sale, The Company's Garden.

Green Point & Signal Hill

As I climb the dirt road high above Green Point I feel like I am back on the edge of the African bush. Cape Town is fabulous but I desperately miss the vast rich freedom of spirit I feel when I am in the bush, or 'veld' as we say here in South Africa.

Green Point is the site of one of the most significant economic opportunities for South Africa's future. Not because of all the soccer fans that are headed here next year, but because of what will happen after the 2010 World Cup; when the vision and memory of this beautiful place travels at the speed of light around the world for years to come. I think of Shoeless Joe and the idea 'if you build it they will come'. Nothing could be more true for this country.

Behind me rises the famous Signal Hill, the slightly less well-known icon than Table Mountain towering high above Table and False Bays. It's called Signal Hill for its historical maritime use - the broadcasting and reception of ships signals coming into port. I love living in a port city. It's real. It works all the time. It's noisy and big and impressive. So much from so far away seems possible. Porcelain from China. Lumber from Indonesia. Cars from Japan. Ideas that begin halfway around the world and through innovation, technology and profit are able to come here and build South Africa. But there is a price for this continental edge as well. South Africa used to manufacture many of the things it now imports. With the textile workers striking for higher wages, even the remaining mills may have to close. The economic opportunity has gone elsewhere to the cheaper shores of China.

I think this is fine because what we really want South Africa to become is a knowledge economy, not a cheap labour one. Valued-added, exportable, trademarked, leveraged and expanded.

Tomorrow we meet with a TV production company called HOMEBREW that produces what I believe is the best series on air in the country; SHORELINE. I am hoping to buy its DVD box set and send it to my folks for Christmas. What a great tool to promote African investment. It's all there in 17 gorgeous episodes profiling the beautiful history of South Africa's coastline. Hopefully the owner Jaco will be excited about documenting our first youth employment product as it launches into the South African market. From that we can edit the footage into a pilot to present to broadcasters who hopefully...will recognize its innovation and potential to harness the energy of youth enterprise. I will focus on selling the show to America. I want Americans to see what I see here in Africa. It's strength. It's imagination. It's ability to overcome some of the biggest odds the global economy has created.

What a big dream. What a beautiful day. What a gift to live in Africa.

SHINDA = to win

Photos; Green Point & the Cape Town 2010 World Cup Stadium, Signal Hill rising

Casual Labour

One of South Africa's biggest hot potatoes here politically and thus, economically, is the use of 'casual labour' and how it removes the opportunity of employee benefits. Casual labour is a necessary and fantastic tool in some aspects of the economy - like in agriculture when, for ten months of the year you'd be insane to pay pickers to stand around and wait for the crop to be ready. But when it's used to run the operations of a para-statal like the post office, it's a hands down disaster. I learned this today when I went to the largest mail sorting office in the Western Cape - CHEMPET 7442.

When I complain about any kind of service delivery in Africa, I like to be polite and up front about the process. Usually I start by saying "I am about to complain. Are you the right person for this?" This gives the person the chance to either get ready or find someone else for me to complain to. I have learned this tactic here in Africa because usually it takes about 2-3 people to actually find the right person to complain to. Even though Africans great respect the concept of a complaint (god knows they have enough of their own), they don't like it when Westerners complain to them especially if they have to accept fault. I respect this but it also makes me sad because I believe that if Africans were more willing to see and accept fault within themselves and their societies they could get on with the job of making things better here for the majority of citizens. Like the South African Post Office where I am standing. The last thing we need is another commission.

It turns out my registered letter has been rerouted for a second time because it sat too long in the last place during the recent 3-week strike. There's that word again - who is not striking here? The polite and obviously overwhelmed operations guy tells me the workers make R6,000 per month, about $700 USD. I ask him what would be the fair wage and he says more than double this, R15,000. No wonder the workers strike. Who can live on $700 USD a month in an industrialized country like South Africa? Why is the government not paying their postal workers a fair wage?

The other issue is that of casual labour. He tells me over 50% of his workforce is casual labour which means that on a daily basis his staff is training and retraining people for the same job over and over again. It appears the SA Labour Federation is involved and trying to end the mis-use of casual labour because it's considered a violation of economic rights and is exploitive. Another dead-end economic street for young Africans. Who would aspire to work as an underpaid letter-carrier? Up at 4am, walk to the taxi rank in the dark, wait for the taxi in the dark, arrive at work only to be paid $35 for what will be 16 hours of expended energy that day. That's about $2.16 per hour. The Africans in the sorting room watch my every move as I move through the huge room full of strange-looking equipment from the 1950's.

Labour is so under-valued in Africa that massive amounts of wasted human energy distort national economies making them unable to grow. And urban workers are forced to uncomplainingly work for less money than they need because there is always someone standing right behind them willing to do the same. It's like leaders who have the ability to create change are so busy fighting over the small opportunities in front of them that they don't see the value in the ocean of humanity right behind them, willing to follow and wanting to thrive. It feels like a five-lane highway that suddenly merges into a one-lane bridge with hundreds of millions of Africans screeching to a halt and unable to bring their energy into the system. Africa needs wider bridges, less paperwork & a supply-driven mentality. The energy circulating around this continent in absolutely staggering and yet to be truly harnessed.

As I disappointingly leave without my package which has now gone to a third location, I tell the guy to call me if I can help reorganize the post office. This country is amazing and I have come here to prosper so I will do my bit even though my plan was to do so through compliant taxation. If they will have me, I will offer my organizational and profit-making skills to workers of CHEMPET 7442. I will increase the wages by 25%, lobby to raise the price of a local stamp, chuck all these depressingly grey metal cabinets and get Microsoft on the phone. This is how I know how to help 'transform' South Africa - old-fashioned hard work that puts something real in your pocket at the end of the day.

Every major disfunction in Africa is a big beautiful business opportunity waiting to be discovered. If only the governments would get out of the way.

Photos; CHEMPET 7442 SA Post Office on the Koeberg Road, Milnerton

Standard Bank & Proteas

Banking in Africa is almost prohibitively expensive, especially if you want to write cheques. SHINDA's new bank charges not only a flat amount on each cheque but a % of each cheque amount as well. I don't think that would be legal in Canada. And South Africa doesn't have cell phone banking yet like Kenya so I guess we'll bank the good old-fashioned way here. At least the branch is beautiful, and right in the heart of the city beside the large outdoor flower market where I buy my Proteas. As I leave the building and my meeting with the branch manager, I look around at this massive architectural feat. It makes me feel like anything could become possible here. Surely that's the first step to any success - as Ghandi said, to be the change.

Photo; Standard Bank on Adderly Street, Trafalgar Place outdoor flower market

Persistence

Finally, a return phone call to an email. If you want to be successful in business, you have to persist.

We have been offered a meeting with the owners of Clockwork Zoo TV production next week about the possibility of them making our 'youth employment TV show'. Instead of starting from scratch, the possibility exists to video-document SHINDA's calendar project from Oct 15-Jan 15th to create the pilot show. Rather crafty I thought. Besides the show is designed to be about real youth trying to make real money in real-life circumstances.

It would be however, a monumentally unscripted risk to take. Perhaps too valuable to pass by. Can SHINDA, Rob & I, an empty office on Strand St, Reghard and his Arctic Circle, Christmas shoppers and 7,000 students from Cape Town College together generate R1million in youth income? Is SHINDA ready for this in South Africa? We're just becoming a shelf company! I can still see the look on the young lawyer's face when we paid him cash to get started. You would of thought I showed him my underwear. And this is how it will start - me sitting on the hardwork floor using my cell phone trying to finish the day before it gets dark so I don't get scared walking to my car in the parking lot. Mental note, put cushion and pepper spray in the trunk of my car.

We chose Clockwork Zoo as they form part of a team that produces 60 minutes of the 90 minutes of daily youth programming on SABC 2 called 'Q-Base'. Hectic Nine-9 is produced in their studios on Kloof Road high above the CBD. And they do the cool new football show called PLAYA for the E-Network. I wonder how much SABC would pay for our program? Or would the phone just ring endlessly now because the acquistions department is being investigated in what is becoming a high level SA corruption case? One official-type woman in the paper said the level of the theft from the parastatal 'made her hair stand on end'. And this is a perfect example of why it's so hard to make money as a young person in Africa...

If the state broadcasters across Africa were run properly they would create thousands of jobs for youth, pay them good money - even export South Africa to the world. But instead, this beautiful and powerful national opportunity was hijacked away from a very young Africa by the greed and short-sighted self-interest of a few. It's like blowing your entire paycheck in the bar and then having to eat cup-a-soup for the next month. This is why Africa so many Africans suffer in poverty - the misuse of capital. It's just such a shame. At least here there's a good chance of prosecution.

I read in the papers today that the United States has created a list of 15 Kenyan politicians who they perceive to be blocking the pace of political reform. I can't believe it - 2 1/2 years ago, I watched 1,000 people get killed over an election and nothing's been done about it. And now, a foreign country (ironically with its president a Kenyan descendant), has resorted to threats to correct this? Travel bans if necessary. I remember explaining this to the kids in our Nairobi studio, that unless they contributed to the effort to reform their political system they didn't have a hope in hell of succeeding in life. What a brutal lesson that must have been for them. But Hector Pietersen did it and he was 15 years old. This happened in South Africa which is the only reason why the country is evolving. When I would talk about this, mostly what the Kenyans told me was that 'God would take care of them'. I am not a religious person but I don't think god gets involved with politics - let alone constitutional reform.

The South African civil institutions, albeit far from perfect, are slowly facilitating the emerging delicate democracy here. That magnificent social contract that emerges in societies - unequivocably declaring that everyone is equal, that the constitution is respected, that no one is above the law. It's seriously being tested here that's for sure, and I am very surprised actually how delicate things are in South Africa, but it feels like democracy has a chance to win. For 15 years the country has fought to reinvent itself from a painfully oppressed Apartheid system. But I think we still have 35 more years to get through before this really starts working. That's three generations.

The oldest generation bears the responsibilty to remember a brutal past. The middle generation gets the chance to forget, but only if they are willing and able to forgive. And the youngest generation? Hopefully, they will never remember but always be grateful for their inheritance.

NKOSI - 'thank you' in the Xhosa language.

Media City

On a suggestion from the Cape Town Partnership, I head down to a rather desolate scape at the bottom of the city to hopefully…find an ideal retail space to make my TV show. One of the main problems facing Cape Town’s regeneration is the huge amount of land that, unplanned in its use decades ago, is now creating massive blockages in how residents live, work and flow through the grid. It’s like if you follow certain transport patterns continuously, you might never know an entire community even exists below you or beside you – a few metres past your daily turn-off.

I think this is why Africans love living in informal settlements or townships so much - they develop based on community need and not by a few major stakholders that dominate, control or change the human landscape. And typically these kinds of human settlements aren't dominated by cars but rather foot traffic so it feels more normal even though you may not know why. They're like huge connected villages where everything is open, accessible and shared. The commons.

As I venture South of Strand Street I get flashbacks of when I lived in Montreal. Back then I thought the main train station WAS the Southern edge of the city. It seemed a natural stoppage point. You couldn’t see past the thing and there seemed no way around it. Only twelve years later did I discover the entire and gorgeously historic ‘Old Montreal’ hiding on the other side of all the trains. I could cry thinking of all the wine and fantastic cheese I missed out on. That’s why whichever city in am in, I always find the oldest places to understand how things evolved.

Spilling into Herzog Boulevard, I feel like I am entering Tiannamen Square in China or Red Square in Moscow. Everything is HUGE. The roads are huge, the sidewalks are huge, the boulevards are huge and the buildings are even more huge. There are almost no people here. It’s really windy and it feels like it might pick me up and toss me off the edge of Africa. I can’t even figure out where to cross the street. My instincts don’t know how to navigate this kind of place.

I know I will recognize the empty space as soon as I see it. Like everything about how I run my business, I will feel what is right instinctually. And I know what the youth will love, what will welcome them, what needs them. But walking around I think probably nobody ever comes here. It doesn’t even feel abandoned. It feels more like people didn’t know they were supposed to care this place was here in the first place. This wildly dehumanizing system almost scares me as I clutch my digital camera and nearly choke myself with my thin cotton scarf.

And then I see it. A big empty space. Huge windows that could become roll-up garage doors. A parking lot that’s almost pretty. A rear entrance. A boulevard of trees out front. Buckets of light. I can work with that. A friendly gent says ‘I have the key’ so we go inside my space while we talk about kids in Africa. I ask him if the owner of the building is a nice person. How old are they? And where do they come from? What would they think of a TV show for kids here? He likes the idea himself and tells me the owner if a nice Greek chap. BMW and MINI would be our neighbours. Cool.

Walking around the massive ARTSCAPE across the street I start to think logistics. A youth competition poster. An empty concert hall. Two outdoor plazas that could welcome thousands of young people should they make the trip. As I grab my camera a small bus pulls up and out runs a group of young people towards me. ‘Take my picture’ one yells as he jumps up posing for the camera. The last fellow is missing a leg, following behind on his crutches. I wonder if he is from Sierra Leone or Liberia. They are right in front of me. They’re already here. It’s like they discovered it at the exact same time as me.

How do I convince a Greek millionaire that I can create a space for change – that his building could become something more than rent and retail and equity? With paint and cameras and computers and white boards – slowly slowly, bit by bit – that I will do whatever it takes to make this happen. If I can build a home in Cape Town for FANYA KAZI! the youth will do the rest themselves. It belongs to them and it will grow.

When I started my business five years ago I memorized a precious quote that gave me strength when all I had was my dream. “The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams”. If there’s one thing I always tell young people, it’s what I experienced today – that to pursue a dream is living the dream itself. Because that hunger we feel when we dare to dream becomes satiated as soon as we begin to move towards it. All those little moments that unfold before us catching us off guard, making us smile. It’s not a big clunky thing that happens at the end. It’s the infinite amount of tiny little things scattered all around us waiting to be scooped up and put to use. They are the dream if we are still enough and present enough to understand them.

What a beautiful afternoon I had. What an incredible place I got to see. How precious it is to even have the chance to believe, to wonder and to try. So tomorrow I will find the Greek and thank the American who suggested ‘Media City’ might be worth a visit.

Photos; Herzog & Malay Blvd Retail, Artscape Plaza, Herzog & Malay Streets, Artscape poster.

Bo Kaap - High Cape

I am wandering around the very cool and colourful 'Bo Kaap' at the Northeast top of Cape Town cbd. This city is like Vancouver, Sydney, San Francisco and New York all rolled into one but smaller and friendlier and more folksey.

A Khosa guy and a coloured guy who have made Upper Lewellen Park their home tell me that 'bo' means 'high' in Afrikans. I already know that Kaap means 'cape' from Kaapstad - Cape Town. After a few more tidbits of info they share with me from their bunkbeds, they ask for small money to buy smokes. As I always do, I tell people they shouldn't smoke because it will kill them to which they stare at me like I am an idiot. Obviously their current living situation illustrates that health and fitness aren't exactly a daily priority. A lot of people in Cape Town have asked me for money to buy smokes and no one in Kenya ever did that which is interesting. Maybe they think that me buying them smokes will somehow ease their plight, take off the edge, create a bond between people trying to get through the day. But they always understand that my refusal means I care, that to help them smoke is hardly a gesture of kindness. What I want for them is to be healthy, contribute and thrive. Sleeping in a park isn't exactly an end-game plan.

The Bo Kaap was one of the communities of Cape Town where forced removal of coloured or African residents did not occur. Primarily an Islamic area, the neighbourhood was more like a hide-out for slaves &/or slaves who gained freedom. And the more I learn about Islam the more I see the small acts of courtesy and respect within its culture. Like the Sharia banking system and how it's illegal to charge interest on deposits. The Islamic faith does not allow that. They believe in taking equity from lenders and sharing risk to share gain. Slavery is a major story here in Cape Town much like in West Africa but far less told. Slowly the history is being rebuilt into Cape Town's storytelling, but there are few visible markers.

So the Bo Kaap is this funky blend of muslims, coloureds and brightly painted buildings you see in Cape Town postcards. Carved into the height of the city like the peak moment of a rollercoaster ride - the Bo Kaap immediately faces the front side of Table Mountain in an ideal residential setting. I would like to live in Bo Kaap and take a leisurely stroll down to work every morning. This feels like a place to call home. Extended, connected, warm. Not to mention the killer samosas. Where there are muslims, there are samosas.

Regeneration of Bo Kaap seems to quickly be taking place. With a finite amount of land for the CBD to expand into, the Bo Kaap is a target for urban renewal. How will these families who have lived here throughout the generations be able to stay? Hopefully they own their little smartie box houses - hopefully they're not just renters. Because if they leave, so much of the great community character will leave with them. Will the growing economy 'un-forceably' remove them from this place? When rents rise and developers come knocking, will the aging grandchildren of freed African slaves be able to hang on to their homes?

The market value of real estate in the cbd is extremely low compared to the world-class club of cities Cape Town is most definitely a party to. I would say prices are anywhere from 10-30% the price of what foreign investors would expect. But then there government buildings, the narrow streets, the locked security gates at night that all cut into the valuation structure. This is changing. Now is the time to buy with the fear of scarcity growing proportionately amongst the locals.

When the World Cup comes in 2010 all levels of government are bracing to exploit what will hopefully be an economic tidal wave. I believe when the soccer fans come in droves the masses will walk the streets as I do and think - what a fantastic opportunity all of this really is. So much is still possible here. The issue however is for these governments to use the coming growth trajectory to also lift the lives of its citizens in every small way possible. Can the people of Bo Kaap access capital? Do they understand the complexity of property rights? Will their Sharia banking system preserve their equity for the coming generations?

Photos; Upper Wall Street, off Bree Street, Upper Leeuwen Park, Bo Kaap Historic Mural, Bo Kaap youth.

ITHEMBA = 'hope' in the Zulu language

Ithemba - what a lovely word as it rolls off the tongue. Hope.

This week we begin to register the new corporation that will own Fanya Kazi!'s intellectual property. As the meetings, plans and paperwork gets done I think about ithemba - the collective hope of Africa's youth. How much hope do they have? This is so crucial with social change. Unlike the charity model which really has been nothing but a disaster for Africa and contrary to their traditions, true transformation only occurs within us. So instead of creating jobs for young people, I need to create the conditions where this change can become possible. My business has to create a space in the mental landscape of young Africans so they can begin to imagine constructing a foundation for themselves on which to build. That is my ithemba. I lost my ithemba in Kenya.

I see on my new favourite TV show about parliamentary affairs, the statistics about youth aren't great. Wilmot James of the Democratic Alliance political party says that in most industrialized societies around 61% of youth age 18-25 are in tertiary education. North Korea boasts 90%. In South Africa only 16% of this age group will receive post-high school education, and then the trickle down effects of that for themselves and their families. He also says that 2 million South Africans in this age range are currently not receiving education or are they employed. That's a time bomb. It's like Moi's lost generation in Kenya - 5 million of them called Mungiki.

This is my target market. Those 2 million youth who wake up every morning wondering what is going to happen to them, what they can make of themselves. I can only imagine what temptations await them in the informal settlements with one parent or both away at work all day. Television, hanging out, a little bit of trickery here and there. Before you know it maybe a life of crime in a gang. And it doesn't have to be this way. Great education breaks this cycle. And hope. How do you measure the value of something like hope? How do you factor it into economic policy?

This big government system reminds me of Canada in the 70's before we dismantled a lot it and created private sector partnerships. I mailed my husband a postcard to our new home (so he would feel excited to get mail) and it took almost two weeks to reach us. A new dialogue has to be started that big government is a big waste and this is not the route for South Africa. Can the African leaders acheive this here? It's very contrary to how their social systems have always operated. But Zuma can't make everyone happy. The failure of services delivery is testament to that. A new system has to be started, one that can harness the energy of the informal sector to provide for itself on its own terms. If the laws and policies were truly transparent, the government would choose to let go of its control and allow the people to get busier.

One of the most amazing things that exists here, and probably only in South Africa of all the African countries, is the idea of transformation. It's talked about, debated, expected - that hard work took 15 years at least. But now the country must do something with these ideas of empowerment; put them to the real test to see if society is truly willing to embrace them. I think about how hard it was to work in Kenya because this idea of transformation has not proliferated. The African politicians in Kenya are still oppressing their own people and the Kenyans aren't motivated enough to rise above this and change it so it won't change, it can't change because the people haven't achieved it on their own terms to feel the right to deserve it. That concept already exists here. Thank god.

'Rea Vaya' Bus Rapid Transit System (BRT)

Gauteng Province has launched a fantastic new surface-streets public bus system called Rea Vaya. State-financed movement of people so they can work, prosper and seek opportunity for themselves. Like education and health care, public transportation is one of the easiest empowerment tools a government can offer its citizens. http://www.reavaya.org.za/ - check it out. Rea Vaya means 'we are moving' - just like Standard Bank - 'moving forward' connecting Africa to the world.

The only catch here is - the private sector 'taxis' or minibuses aren't so keen about this evolution. Rightly so, they fear all the work they have done to build up ridership, systems and growth will be snatched from them by bigger, safer and probably more comfortable buses. They must be integrated into the new vision and many are through jobs, but some aren't. The papers say the main taxi association is angry they have not been given controlling interest in the new Rea Vaya private company that will operate the system. Like in Vancouver, the Coast Mountain Bus Company operates the system for the provincial government in exchange for the opportunity to profit. The right to gain economically. The right to prosper. The buses actually look like Vancouver buses so maybe they're manufactured by the same company. Will have to check that out.

The group here that is allegedly upset is a stakeholder in the new Gautrain, mass rapid transit for Josie riders, so they obviously support the concept - maybe just not the fine print of this particular deal. This really has revealed itself in a very ugly (but not suprising for Joburg - there is a 'gun safe' in an upmarket casino/shopping mall here - are people allowed to carry weapons around?) and violent outcome - taxis fired guns at a couple of the new buses doing their routes through Soweto. I can't help but think of the new South African film showing right now around the world called 'District 9' where this sort of thing is the norm. Not a great PR message for South Africa. Who on earth would understand a public bus system being 'under fire'? How extreme. How unnecessary. Fear rears its ugly head through violence.

But having lived in Africa now for over three years I always come back to the same idea. Africa is in transition. New ideas that are the result of industrialization are threatening. That's really what's going on here in SA - the country is rapidly industrializing and it's not going to work in everybody's favour. We all have to embrace change and dialogue to create a new future here. The trick is to uplift the most people possible - to utilize state institutions like media, judiciary, legislature, education, health care - to be the waves that citizen surfers can ride. It's as if Zuma gave every SA citizen a surfboard and told them to 'get riding' - or an ID card so they can 'get working' - it's these tools of empowerment that count - and when they truly are for everybody, societies evolve.

I would be very surprised if the Rea Vaya buses were under attack again. I think this first shooting must be some sort of warning or backlash that the majority of riders will not accept. A working parent who finally can organize his or her family's movements - what do they tell their kids about new buses being shot at? Let's not show more of this to the world who are busy booking their hotel rooms and rental cars for the Rugby World Cup. Foreigners coming to spend hard-earned cash in South Africa might not quite understand the rage of Joburg taxi drivers. This kind of violence will be perceived as backwards, dangerous and sad. But the free press has to do its job - let the world decide, let South Africans decide if this is acceptable behaviour here. This country has come so far and is such a shining example of what is possible for Africa. There's far too much at stake. Mandela didn't sit in jail to give his people the right to shoot guns at each other on the commute home.

My taxi driver in Joburg said he thinks the country has a 50% chance of evolving into a communist state. Wow. What a concept. I didn't realize Communism was an option anymore. We've got to be more evolved than this to go back to an idea we have outlived. Haven't we created something better than communism? Do we really want to stand in line waiting for bread?

Beyond scarcity. There must be a utopian possibility for what lies beyond scarcity. We just have to keep evolving...keep talking, keep accepting, keep loving & keep moving forward.

REA VAYA - let's go South Africa!

Photos; Sandton City Shopping Centre, Rea Vaya Bus Route.

Cecil Rhodes

There probably isn't a more controversial name on the Africa contient than that of Cecil John Rhodes. When visiting his imposing granite memorial scraped into the south west waistline of Devi's Peak, I compare his history to that of present-day Africa. It's a history the continent is not very fond of; a sorespot on the landscape across the Southern African nations. Rhodes believed the Anglo Saxon race to be superior - not exactly politically correct in this part of the world these days. The empire he built darkly hangs over the Republic yet ironically has contributed to the growth of the economy here. I think that must be the hardest issue for Africa to reconcile here and in America. To rise about centuries of oppression while not remaining bitter and angry. Like Mandela in jail all those years, every African must come to terms with the past in order to move forward.

Photos; Cecil John Rhodes Memorial, Devil's Peak near Table Mountain in Cape Town.

Surfing as a Metaphor for Human Development

Human development, human capital, human rights. If there is one thing that Africa has always been less exposed to - it's that of the development of it's human capital. That's the core of BBBEE, or what the policy is supposed to achieve; broad-based black economic empowerment. Sounds great. That's exactly what Africa needs in general - of the almost 1 billion residents on the continent, how many could be measured to be 'economically empowered'? And I guess most importantly, what are the policies or activities that truly create lasting economic empowerment?

The policy that immediately comes to my mind is for a state to provide world class education for it's citizens - for free. Nations that provide high quality free education are obviously out to empower their people. What could be more fundamental a foundation to lay in developing human capital than education? A second obvious policy would be free or low-cost health services. This is why America is now getting into trouble - their choice not to offer much health care at all is catching up with them basically rendering the society sick. Some of the American politicians say constantly that my country, Canada, actually has the best health system called 'single-user pay' and they are dumbfounded why the richest nation in the world is not empowering its citizens with this simple tool. So in that sense, America is not developing its human capital to the fullest extent possible, and that in the future they will pay dearly for this.

South Africa is facing a similar dilemna with the respect to its education system. Everyday in the papers I read that university students are entering the system with surprisingly low skills in reading and writing - that the secondary and high schools are not doing their job basically. But this is the launchpad of future economic growth - educated youth who will then be able to thrive, create jobs, grow capital and become leaders. So what is going on in the schools I wonder? Is there a national cirriculum? And when was the last time it was revamped? How old are the textbooks here? These answers are the obvious results of how a government chooses to develop its human capital - or not develop it.

I decide to contact the Western Cape's MEC for Education - Donald Grant to see if he can explain what is going on in the education system here - and most importantly, where the gaps are, why kids are falling through the cracks. The Western Cape province is one of the most dynamic in the country, with Cape Town being it's economic engine basically. There is a huge emphasis on rebuilding the downtown core and city centre so it can become even more powerful than it is now. San Francisco, London, Hong Kong, Sydney - rich nations flourish from the centralized economic growth that becomes possible from their great cities. So to invest in a great city naturally leads to the economic growth for the surrounding political region - be it a province, state or nation. That's why the World Cup could become so significant for Cape Town like what Expo '86 did for Vancouver which began a 20-year economic boom basically thanks to foreigners, mostly Chinese. The BC provincial government could never has rallied the resources that came from foreign investors. By choosing to open it's doors and welcome the world, BC experienced a major transformational boom that no one could have predicted.

But the key thing for South Africa in this scenario of the World Cup - is to also have systems in place that allow the citizens to be uplifted on the wave of economic growth so locals won't be left out. It's like all the surfers I see waiting for the waves in Milnerton, Camps Bay and even in little Foesh Hook - they are all there on their boards waiting for that great wave that's coming. The fear here is that most of the citizens aren't out in the water yet, they don't have surfboards or maybe they can't even swim. If surfing is the metaphor for human development in Africa, how many citizens are ready to ride the wave?

African Leadership Academy

The cosmic forces are about to create something truly amazing...the possibility to finally meet a young Sierra Leonian who I bought a digital camera for three years ago. Syl Rogers is on his way from Freetown to Joburg next week to start enjoying his scholarship to the African Leadership Academy. I have just got an email from him to say his visa has not come back from Cote D'Ivoire as it was supposed to like it did for the other youth - so he's bummed out and stuck in Freetown instead of on his way here. Fingers crossed, must be some logistical error although I feel his pain.

He has come so far to even get to this point. How many youth from West Africa earn the opportunity to receive a scholarship to study in the most powerful economy on the continent? What a great kid - so sweet and completely stylin' as well. He looked like more of a kid when I first was in touch 3 years ago, and now he looks like a handsome young man. I am so proud of him!

Hopefully next week I will finally meet him in Joburg or at least get to the ALA and leave a gift for him. I should be back in 'Josie' as the locals call it in a few weeks if my meetings go well so a regular visit with Syl could be on the cards. This would be a great place to feature in my TV show - we'll see what the administrators think of this. I imagine the technology at the ALA would be top knotch but I'm keen to see what their cirriculum is around business and entrepreneurialsm.

Good luck Syl. May the visa gods be looking down on you now.

Photo; Syl Rogers graduating from high school in Freetown, Sierra Leone.

Woodstock

This is one of my favourite kinds of neighbourhoods - working class & cbd-adjacent with a history. As I am early for my meeting at Arctic Circle Brand Institute, I pop in to a take-aways shop for some hot tea and a chat with the locals. A friendly old man named Yusuf Davids tells me he worked in San Francisco as a steward/cook on boats heading to the Panama Canal. He's originally from the Malay Archipelago near Indonesia but now lives in the Woodstock neighbourhood Northeast of the cbd. He believes what I do - that young people have to create work for themselves, that handouts are de-motivating and lead to a culture of laziness. Funny how easy it is to get right to the point here discussing politics with South Africans. This is a highly politicized nation.

Like so many older neighbourhoods in the great cities of the world, the working-class community is rapidly being gentrified. Lower cost, more square footage, a good dose of deserved charm crumbling off the side of the building; who wouldn't be interested to move in? Yusuf tells me there used to be a parts factory nearby that created employment in the 70's but now it's closed. He says this is the best kind of employment and that Zuma should be focussing on this. He's worried what will happen after 2010 when the jobs stop, that the government won't retrench people and they will keep receiving income without working because there won't be any work. Should a government promise employment? Or housing? When people get things without working for them they usually don't take care of them very well. Like Dambiso Boyo writes in 'Dead Aid', after 40 years of aid in Africa, why are things worse?

Arctic Circle is a cutting-edge brand strategy firm where I have come to introduce my Fanya Kazi! TV show. If this works the way I think it should, Fanya Kazi! will need one key corporate partner and 2-3 weekly companies for the 52 weeks we will be in production. That's 150 of South Africa's most youth-friendly businesses committed to empower, educate and inspire a nation waiting to lift itself out of poverty. This is probably one of the coolest companies I have ever been inside and the guy who started it all is a dynamo. He gets the picture of what I am trying to do and commits to some follow up contact next week. He also mentions I should go talk to Helen Zille, the Premier of the Western Cape - probably the most controversial politician on the continent because she leads a provincial government and she is white. This would be ideal because the show will showcase the Western Cape as a foreign investment and tourism destination. Might as well try to get the boss on side.

As my husband has taken the shared car into town for work I head back to the main side of the road to wait for a 'taxi' which is what would be called a 'matatu' in Kenya; a Nissan minibus with a yellow stripe down the side. Within seconds I am in the vehicle. Love that private sector motivation. Five Rand into town, cool tunes on the radio and again, a good chat with the locals. Like in Kenya most Cape Tonians seem rather charmed by the 'American' in their company. Even though I am Canadian I tell everyone I'm American because the reaction is much better. Nobody seems to know anything about Canada here at all. A young Xhosa gal asked me if Canada was inside America which ironically was quite reassuring to know that America has not overtaken the local culture.

Back inside Yusuf's take aways shop, three courier guys have some good insight for me and agree to have their picture taken. They work for an Italian, are well-paid and are non-unionized labour providing a much needed service here in Cape Town. Oscar has excellent ideas about how their photograph should be composed and is a natural subject. He has the open heart, the warm smile, four children and the spirit of Africa that always gives me hope. He thinks leaders should be accountable and that it doesn't matter that Zille is white - it's what kind of a job she is doing. Which really should be the benchmark right? Not the colour of skin, faith or heritage. But South Africa's not there yet. The wounds haven't healed and new ones seem to be appearing on the skin of society.

There is great fear here that South Africa will slip back into an autocratic state like Apartheid except this time, the black government will be doing the oppressing of the blacks. That in the government's effort to 'redistribute' opportunity to the poor, it will damage the fragile yet ambitious social contract before it even gets a chance to truly succeed. Thank god for the World Cup because it has put the economy and the government under a hot microscopic international lens where the world is watching every move made here. If the workers strike enough times to prevent the stadiums from being built in time, this will be a nation psychically damaged for decades to come. This is an opportunity South Africa worked incredibly hard for and greatly deserves - probably one of the most defining moments in its history.

Photos; Yusuf Davids (painter), Artic Circle Brand Strategy, Oscar and the boys - Woodstock Cape Town.

Winelands

I decide that since I have the car for a few days that I will get some of the eco-friendly dish soap I saw last week in a grocery store in the Tygerberg Valley. Rather a long way to drive for dish soap burning how god knows how many carbon molecules - but nonetheless I head off North on the NI Hwy. The biodynamic soap we are using now leaves a rather unpleasant grease on everything unless the water is scorching hot. As much as I am pulling for my biodynamic dish soap to be a wonder product, it's just not cutting it and it's time to move on. I will use it to clean the toilets.

As I pull off the highway and head Northeast into the low rolling Durbanville Hills overlooking the valley, I realize I live ten minutes from some of the most prolific wine growing regions in the world. Cool! What a great industry for Africa - value-added, agriculturally-based, exportable and climatically leveraged above most other nations who will never ever be able to grow wine. This is a major winner positioned for growth for a long long time. One day the mines will be empty or the unions will be unaffordable, but in good times or bad - everybody likes a good drink.

The first vineyard or estate I pull into is the Hillcrest Estate where they have the cutest little olive oil sales shack at the bottom of the long driveway. The company has wisely decided to diversify from wine and move into other higher price-point goods like olives and oils. I taste every olive on sample and buy the kind with the prettiest bottle so I can re-use it at home as a candle holder or flower vase so I can get 2 uses out of one product, save money and save the earth.

The second estate has a gorgeous restaurant with huge windows framing the hills and valley in a table-side portrait of wine beauty. It's too bad there is an arctic gale lashing itself at us today but I suppose the cold and rains are what feed the grapes so they can grow into delicious African nectar. The 'Cassina' restaurant is located on the Nitida Wine Farm on the Tygerbergvalley Road (or the M13 Hwy) in Durbanville. This is classic South Africa to me - modern yet historic - they've been growing wine here since the 17th Century. In 1655, 3 years after his arrival in Table Bay, Jan Van Riebeeck of the Dutch East India Company planted the first vines. That's three hundred and fifty four years ago - about the same age as the Hudson's Bay Company in Canada.

Photos; Cassina Restaurant on Nitida Wine Farm, Hillcrest Estate olive shop, Durbanville Hills

The Soapies

Watching TV is always an excellent way to understand a culture. Even in a country like North Korea whatever is shown on TV there illustrates what is going on in the larger society. Like all those weird parades and costume events, or when you see the North Korean roads on video how there are almost no cars on them. I wonder why they built them in the first place?

In the States on TV there is a lot of decorating, harm to women and crime. Why does America allow Jerry Bruckheimer to continue to produce such mysognistic TV programs? Every week on CSI there it is - a woman gets violently sexually assaulted and then the story begins - beaming this content into the homes of millions and millions of teenage girls. I think there is a connection to Jerry Bruckheimer's TV shows and how much rape and violence women in experience in America. If I was in university I would make that my thesis paper. How can there not be a connection? There must be an effect of hours and hours of his programs on the culture.

Living outside the West I now understand why other cultures are so angry at America or American foreign policy I should say. But their TV programs and films are sortive the same thing - full of violence, domination and war. I'm not angry at America. I feel compassion for Americans that their country is so controlled by the military industrial complex and maybe if the people travelled more or lived abroad they would see their culture from the outside in. We all would. Africans who live outside Africa are much more critical of their countries, much more educated about options that Africans should have the right to experience.

So I have been watching the South African soapies as a research project into the culture. The storylines mimic the newspapers - gender violence, unequal land distribution, unemployment and race inequality. SABC is the state broadcaster with 3 channels that air content pretty much nation-wide. It's kinda like the CBC in Canada, or PBS in America - TV for the people less hindered by corporate advertising influence than private networks. Sadly, I just read that SABC will be buying 75% less local content than last year because they can't afford to pay the local producers to make the shows. So likely South Africans are going to be watching those awful Spanish-language soapies full of plastic surgery, infidelity and greed. They get 'dumped' on African culture through cheap program sales subsidized by the international sales market. It's no different that the dumping that occurs in Africa through wheat, cotton and used goods. How can a South African TV producer compete with a foreign company who charges $100 USD for a program to air here? Painfully, the foreign programs create no jobs, offer little domestic role modeling for the society and are often full of weirdly inappropriate storylines.

Just like in the country - there is a lot of conflict in the South African soapies. The characters play out the real world issues facing people here encapsulating their lives. Most of the shows seem to be made in Joburg but I am meeting with a company here who will hopefully produce my youth entrepreneur TV show. Head offices are in Joburg and corporate marketing money is the fuel that runs the engine of TV.

Photos; South African Broadcasting Corporation programming adverts

Workers, Wages and Strikes

I am now living in an Africa that is noticeably more white. It doesn't seem like much, but in South Africa nearly 9% of the population of 49 million is white - which is just over 4 million people - a hell of a lot compared to Kenya! I am rarely the only white person standing in line, on the highway, walking down the street. Having said that, most people I walk by on the streets are either black or 'coloured' as is commonly called here for people of mixed heritage like Obama. That would be very politically incorrect in the USA - to call Obama 'coloured' - but it's what is said here and the coloureds are proud of their namesake. Usually the whites are in cars but since I walk most places I am the exception to the rule. I love this opportunity to chat with the Africans as I did in Kenya - always a hello, a little joke, the nod of the head. Also, they are mostly the workers here - guards, cleaners, construction, waiters - so contact with them is inevitable.

It might not seem like the greatest job in the world cleaning the floors of a shopping mall but it's a start - and it could lead to the next rung on the ladder - supervising the cleaners with a pay raise. South Africa is much more formal in it's political ideology than Kenya. You hear terms like 'worker', 'comrade' or 'manifesto' like an invisible blanket of communism is hanging above all our heads warming the society up to the idea of labour emancipation. That's a good thing - wages need to increase exponentially to facilitate domestic growth - but they can't increase too quickly and without an accompanying increase in GDP or tax revenue. 40% of South African workers are unionized, mostly because the leading industry is resource extraction in the form of mining. One of the deal points in the end of Apartheid was that the mines would not be nationalized - and that the basic structure of the economy would not be altered. So the big question is, after 15 years of independence, has the country succeeding in transforming itself to a new empowered society for blacks? Have the political and social systems like Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) taken the society to that next level? Nightly on the news, this question is posed against the efforts of President Jacob Zuma and his leadership.

One of my favourite thinkers who transformed the business department at the University of Witswatersrand in Johannesburg, believes that BEE has achieved the first part of what it was designed to do but now something else is needed. But what lies beyond BEE? If it has succeeded in somewhat leveling out the playing field, now what? Should BEE stop? Should it continue for another 5, 10 or 50 years? I think maybe it should start to be tapered out actually because everyone seems to think that over the last few years things are getting worse. Maybe the BEE mountain has been climbed and the country is now looking at the next much larger mountain behind it? The other scary issue for me coming from North America, is the call to dismantle 2 provinces here and putting them under control of the federal system. This to me is a massive noisy red flag all South Africans should be concerned about. That would be like getting rid of California or Alberta in Canada. The worry is that most South Africans don't entirely understand the intricacies of political systems and that they might just support Zuma in this effort because he is the elected leader. Shouldn't there be a referendum or something? What would Tutu say? Or Mandela?

I ask a woman who works at one of the businesses here in the mall how much income she earns. She says between 300-400 Rand per month for 4 days work. That's about $45-55 US dollars or let's say $200 USD per month. It seems extremely low but you'd have to measure this against the overall profit of the business right? And then you'd have to measure somehow, her unique contributions to the bottom line. Maybe she is the top worker or maybe she is the biggest slacker - two very different scenarios. And maybe this wage is not so low considering her skill set, education and other options to earn wages. I believe the union members earn about $500 USD per month. Mid-level executives I was told would be luckly to earn $3,000 USD per month.

That's why I always encourage young Africans to become entrepreneurs - to sidestep the very limits of wage constraints in the first place. Take the minimum wage, pay the rent, fill the fridge and then in your spare time grow the business that will give you true prosperity. Understand how money and capital truly works, and make a plan. Economic and social transformation will only truly occur in Africa when enough Africans create this reality for themselves in the first place. An employer will mostly never care enough to do that for their workers - he has enough problems of his own paying taxes, sweeping the floor and counting stock. And a government can never guarantee this for every single person in any nation - that would require such a massive bureaucracy to oversee all this it could never be sustained, not to mention a waste of taxes. I remember when Canada operated more like this in the 1970's before the wave of para-statal privatization rolled onto our shores. What was a money-losing beurocratic monolith of a failing postal system, has now become a technology-driven tool that facilitates every aspect of the country's growth. Canada even went to Kenya to teach them our system. If you get a computer receipt from postage (very unlikely) you can see it's exactly like the receipts from Canada Post. I wonder what happened?

So how is South Africa going to solve this issue? The unions are striking for up to a 7% pay increase, the government is trying to calm the foreign investors, the currency is fluctuating and the newspapers are selling. Zuma seems to follow the legal book quite accurately saying that if strikers deny the rights of citizens then they will face legal action, but it is these workers who gave him power in the first place and most of them don't even have electricity at home. They have stopped the garbage, the parking fees and now public transport from some of the largest informal settlements in the country. My work permit application was delayed this week because of a strike in public transit which made me feel a little nervous since my attorney had obviously planned that someone was travelling with my passport to Home Affairs on a bus.

The institution of law is one of South Africa's most precious resources right now to guide it and all of it's people to be equal. If that changes who knows what could happen. And who is going to replace Zuma when he's done? Who is going to be able to balance these fractured and highly vulnerable scales holding up the society? A young Kenyan brought me coffee the other morning in the mall. I asked him if living here was better than Kenya. He said it was better last year but now things were getting worse. I have flashbacks about how my business suffered when the Kenyan politicians basically lowered the growth rate by 5 points after a disastrous 2007 election. Am I about to live through this again? Sitting in the largest shopping mall on the continent, it seems unlikely. I mean, there is a Jimmy Choo store here. I wonder if Tamara Mellon knows about the strikes?

Prosperity for all has got to be possible. South Africa has achieved so much in such a short period time compared to most other African nations, it's got to be able to keep evolving, transforming, prospering. The youth league is pushing to nationalize the mines. I wonder what Mandela and Tutu and Machel think about this? It's always the elders who have the best ideas because they have the most to draw upon in hindsight. They know how long social change takes and how delicate the institutions that allow democracy to flourish truly are.

Photo; Young woman in Stellenbosch, Canal Walk Shopping Mall, Century City