Walking in Africa

I have done lots of writing and lots of walking here in South Africa. On the weekend I walked everywhere and on most streets I was the only white person. I visited the Mall, and walked past the markets and up to the University. Most white people were in cars-small, mostly white ones-and other people walked. I walked too.

Sunday was fascinating in terms of who was on the street and what times they were there and then everyone headed to Church. I went wine tasting via car, a tan Land Rover. The driver told me he was Khoisan. He told me all he knew of SA history. Some of it was very sad and some was amazing. Many things I never knew, how could I? You really have to work hard in the States to learn about Africa. I asked many questions and learned.  Louwtjie was an excellent tour guide and owns the company. I made him work for the money which you MUST do here. Collected me at 9 am, 4 vineyards, lunch (not included) and back at the hotel at 4 pm. R1200, cash, paid upfront the night before (so African)! I think the price was ok.        

The Winelands are magnificent. The mountains and valleys, the vineyards and farms, and the absolutely picturesque buildings. It was spectacular. Murphy's law, of course, only 4 of my 62 pictures of the vineyards came out...the wine was good too.

Today is Monday and I did some more walking and some loitering. I NEVER sit at coffee shops. I just never have. I see people do it in movies and I wonder why I never do. It looks....meaningful. Today, I loitered at a table on the street near a main intersection in Stellenbosch. I just kept ordering tea, read my Cape Times and loitered. I watched and people watched me too. Stellenbosch is a University town so there were students and school children in uniforms. There were ladies lunching and women doing the grocery run. Lots of workers and other shoppers. For my first ever, real loitering gig, I think I did fine. The waitress was happy to see me go. I am not sure it was meaningful but I did come to a conclusion. This place is so very diverse. It does not know how to handle this diversity. This place becomes more diverse all of the time.

So frequently I see similarities with Southern Africa and the US. We, in California, watch senseless drug violence in Mexico and then deal with the immigrant/refugees. We face the decline of the white majority and the growth of all kinds of race mixtures and ethnicities who speak other languages and attend school and live next door and walk the streets. This dealing with the differences never ends, I don't believe. Moreover, it is often not at all pretty.  

My loitering with intention ended and I left the coffee shop and began to walk again. I came across a bookshop that I had previously ignored. In that shop I bought a book call Shoe Shop. The book is part of a larger project developed by, among others, a German writer and curator, Marie-Hélène-Gutberlet. The book followed an exhibit and festival in Johannesburg in May celebrating the migratory nature of South Africans. The book is an anthology of movement, mobility, feet, physicality and shoes. As I purchased the book, the shop-owner and I discussed the effort to understand SA. She said that is even more challenging for those who live here.

Tomorrow, I head back to the bookstore. The shop-owner wants me to read an out-of-print book written by Sindiwe Magona. She is bringing it from home and says I can finish it in one day. I will do that and then leave South Africa for Malawi then Dar es Salaam.      

CoSSE new website

The Committee of SADC Stock Exchanges has a new website!
The member exchanges include, Botswana, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe.

This is a private organization that has formal status as being blessed under SADC's Finance and Investment Protocol. The website has current Financial information for each member exchange which is very useful.    

South Africa

I sit here in Stellenbosch, SA trying to tie up some loose ends on my dissertation: a writing retreat of sorts and the WiFi is free.

It is beautiful here and just turning winter. The leaves are falling from the numerous oak trees.

Talking about tying up loose ends I want to refer everyone to the IntLaw Grrls blog discussion on the SA Court judgment regarding Universal Jurisdiction. I did read (most) of the courts opinion but to be honest it was mostly the type of legal brick laying that is methodical, necessary but not hugely interesting.

Essentially, the court went to pains to show why it had the power to tell the Police to do their job and investigate Human rights violations. In no way am I diminishing the significance of he decision. It is the kind of rule of law stuff that makes society move forward. And this is complex and political stuff upon which other progressive and positive decisions will depend.

It is just that the law grrrls blog discussion is comprehensive and has a link to the judgment.
TTFN



 

Zim National Land Audit

Zimbabwe National Land Audit discussion continues.
Please check out this link.

I am reading the SA Court case ruling but it is 98 pages loooooong.
Very interesting stuff, not sure what I can add but will do soooooon.

Decision by the SA court about Zimbabwe

A South African Court recently rendered a judgment essentially declaring its power to rule on misconduct by Zimbabwe officials. It seems to base its finding on Human Rights and as SA is a signatory to the Rome Convention and therefore a signatory to the International Criminal Court (ICC).

I will take some time to look at the news reports and try to look at the decision myself so I can discuss it in more detail. Right now this is all I have.      

Sokari Douglas Camp

Nigerian artist Sokari Douglas Camp has an exhibit in London. She sculpts with steel combining her Nigerian roots, her life in London and her stage of life. The BBC interviewed her.

Very interesting interview with her discussing the works in this exhibit at the Tiwani Gallery in London.

Land reform similarities: US and Zimbabwe

I went for a walk this afternoon around my neighborhood with the for sale signs and the people moving out. I wondered where all the people go. I know some people who lost their jobs, homes and then moved away. I know people who lost jobs, homes and stayed but downsized. When I think about the changes to my affluent town I am frequently reminded of the changes in Zimbabwe. I also recently happened to finally have watched the movie Mugabe and the White African which chronicles the case of Ben Freeth and the SADC tribunal ruling on Land Reform in Zimbabwe. It occurred to me, while I was walking in my neighborhood, that America has created a kind of Land Reform program of its own. It has redistributed property from American families to banks. This redistribution of land has many similarities to the program of Land Reform in Zim.

My neighbor has had it share of foreclosures but I failed to find out exactly how many of the years. Recent statistics show that 1 in every 303 housing units in the state of California is foreclosed.   That sounds like a lot to me. I wonder who gets those properties? If a home is foreclosed it goes back to the bank who held the loan or mortgage. So the banks now own the house. Banks like Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Bank of New York, and JP Morgan are beneficiaries of foreclosure. They now own those properties.

It is true that some properties are resold to new American homeowners, about 33% of sales are resales from foreclosures. So what happens to the balance? What if the banks own them ? What does it mean socially, politically and economically that banks own so much property in California?

The new sub-prime mortgage loan process that relaxed lendee credit and income requirements was spearheaded by banks and mortgage lenders. Now the banks own those failed mortgage lenders and the banks own the homes as well. The US government permitted this through its determination not to regulate.

Homeowners have tried to sue banks and argue to keep their homes because of the deficiencies in the assignment of mortgages to MERS the mortgage electronic registration system leaving the bank not with the title but the homeowner. These cases are not successful as the courts do not support the homeowner but instead support the bank in order to maintain the status quo.

It's official. I do live in Africa. Let's go through the similarities between the land reform programs.

The government of Zimbabwe passed laws to redistribute land. The US government failed to regulate MERS and the entire driver of the subprime lending fiasco, collateralized debt obligations. Both government activity of failure to act resulted in homeowners losing their homestead and suing in the courts.

Both land reform programs, one intentional one incidental, resulted in courts being slow to see the homeowners point of view. Africa is actually ahead of the game on this point. SADC declared land reform illegal in Zim. In the US, the courts pretty much rubber stamp foreclosures.

Lawyers have been trying to argue for more scrutiny by courts in these cases in order to recognize the numerous legal deficiencies in the foreclosure process giving an advantage to the banks. But these cases are few and far between.

The US land reform program resulted in transferring property to banks. In Zim, former white owned farms are redistributed to indigenous Zimbabweans, who sometimes also work for the Zim government. Two programs that may have had one purpose to begin with or on their face, but resulted in the same thing: dispossession, economic downturn and a complete lack of faith in the process and rule of law.