Oh, Say Can You See…

At a recent rugby match between South Africa and France, Ras Dumisani, a reggae singer, butchered the South African national anthem.  He sung off-key and struggled to remember the words.  It has since been played over and over in South Africa and has even peaked international interest.  Members of Parliament are calling it treason.  The players were shocked and horrified by the performance… along with the rest of South Africa.  As The Guardian in England put it, “It was not just bad.  It was not-knowing-where-to-look bad.  And the man responsible is rapidly becoming public enemy number one in South Africa.”

Since the infamous rendition, there have been reports that many South Africans do not know the national anthem, which I find fascinating.  Before the end of the apartheid in 1994, there was an official national anthem in Afrikaans, “Die Stem,” or “The Call of South Africa.”  There was also an unofficial anthem, “Nkosi Sikelel’ iAfrika,” or “Lord, Bless Africa,” sung in isiXhosa.  It is a hymn which became an anthem against black oppression.

The current official national anthem is an amalgam of the two songs and is sung in five languages.  South Africa has eleven official languages, but some are very close to each other and can be widely understood.  The five used in the anthem are the most common languages spoken in South Africa, and everyone can understand at least one of these languages.

I first understood this to mean that the national anthem was translated into five different languages, and a person could choose his own language.  However, the song uses all five languages in its four stanzas, which makes me understand why many South Africans don’t know the song.  They don’t speak all the languages, and after all, the song itself is only 15 years old.  In practicality, I imagine it is tough to learn.  What it represents, however, is beautiful.

The national anthem is as follows.  The first stanza is in isiXhosa and isiZulu.  The second is in Sesotho and the third in Afrikaans.

Nkosi sikelel’ iAfrika (Lord, Bless Africa)
Maluphakanyisw’ uphondo lwayo, (May her spirit rise high up)
Yizwa imithandazo yethu, (Hear thou our prayers)
Nkosi sikelela, thina lusapho lwayo. (Lord bless us.)

Morena boloka setjhaba sa heso, (Lord, bless Africa)
O fedise dintwa la matshwenyeho, (Banish wars and strife)
O se boloke, O se boloke setjhaba sa heso, (Lord, bless our nation)
Setjhaba sa South Afrika – South Afrika. (Of South Africa.)

Uit die blou van onse hemel, (Ringing out from our blue heavens)
Uit die diepte van ons see, (From our deep seas breaking round)
Oor ons ewige gebergtes, (Over everlasting mountains)
Waar die kranse antwoord gee, (Where the echoing crags resound…)

Sounds the call to come together,
And united we shall stand,
Let us live and strive for freedom,
In South Africa our land.

So is butchering the national anthem treasonous?  Maybe because I have sung the American national anthem several times in front of large crowds or because I only speak one language, I’m willing to give the guy a break.  Or because I know how much monitors and working equipment really do affect a performance.  As Americans, I think we tend to laugh off such performances.  I have heard many terrible interpretations of the American national anthem, but I don’t find it disrespectful to the country.  I imagine he is mortified.  I am, however, in the minority opinion.  And it’s quite possible I am the only one.

The national anthem should, however, be something citizens take pride in singing and something that unifies the nation.  Not to mention something citizens know, no matter how difficult.  This is especially true when it is played before international audiences (like at this rugby match).  When I watch the Olympics and an American wins a gold medal, I love seeing that person on top of the stand, our flag being raised above the rest and our national anthem being played in the background… It’s almost magical.  In that moment, I am very proud to be an American, and I think our national anthem is the most beautiful in the world.

South Africans must feel the same way.  In a country that recently ended segregation, the anthem with its two melodies and five languages is a symbol of unity.  It has to bring pride to all South Africans who for so long sang their hymn as a cry for freedom, to see it incorporated into the official anthem.  And for those who were privileged but fought for the rights and dignity of all people, to celebrate a new history.

The history of the South African national anthem is actually quite interesting.

As is Ras Dumisani’s performance…

Tin Shacks

Occasionally, being in South Africa feels like a movie.  Or rather like being in a movie, because I am an active participant.  During my few visits to Soweto, I have seen another side of life, and somehow it didn’t seem real.  There is widespread poverty in South Africa’s townships, which were developed to move black people out of the cities during the apartheid.  They have huge populations and are filled with a range of housing, from modest homes to government-subsidized housing to corrugated tin shacks.

Soweto

I have seen pictures of such areas many times, and in some ways, that is how I pictured Africa before I arrived.  Poverty is endemic.  Movies often depict life in such areas.  Most recently District 9 in South Africa and Slum Dog Millionaire in India have given the world a glimpse of what life is like in these communities.  As I walked down the dirt roads, I thought to myself how familiar it looked.  The tin shacks looked just like in the movies.  The smell and the dust, however, brought the picture to life.  There was no longer the separation that you have in a movie theater, eating popcorn, reclining in padded chairs and anonymously peering in. To see it in person, it’s overwhelming in the sense that there are so many people living in these conditions.  To see poverty on such a scale makes trying to help seem futile.

Missionaries and non-governmental organizations work to reduce poverty and to provide for those in need.  They improve the lives of many people, and I suppose their mantra is one person or one family at a time.  When I walked down the roads of Soweto, however, stepping over rotting garbage and batting away flies, I couldn’t help but think the problem is too big.  Where do you start, and who gets to be first?

One of my first weeks here, I accompanied a reporter to a section of Soweto where people were being evicted from RDP housing.  The Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP) was established in 1994 when the African National Congress took over the government after the end of the apartheid. Section 26 of the Constitution, ratified in 1996, states that everyone has the right to have “access to adequate housing.”  The goal is to tear down the squatter camps and provide houses for everyone in the country.  The RDP set out to build 300,000 houses each year and a minimum of one million in five years.  The actual figures are nowhere close.  However, many people have been given homes at the expense of the government and taxpayers since the program began.

I think South Africa’s government is also asking how? and who first?  An application system was developed to create order and to begin to assign completed housing to those in need.  As housing settlements are being built, however, people who do not rightfully belong in those houses move in and become squatters, claiming they have the right (which the Constitution grants them).  You can see the problem…  People are evicted with all their belongings and are left on the dirt roads of the townships so the family who is first on the list can receive its housing.

RDP Houses in South Africa

With the protection of another reporter and a photographer and the power of a television camera, I talked to people being evicted from their homes.  Eager to tell their stories, they welcomed us into their homes.  Walking down the streets as a tourist, however, was very different.  People sneered at me as I walked by, thinking I had come to stare.  I couldn’t bring myself to take pictures of the tin shacks or RDP houses because I felt like the tourist who goes back home to her big, warm house and flaunts a slide show to her friends about her trip to Soweto and talks about how bad it was.

I didn’t know how to react.  I felt sorry for them, and I am ashamed to admit I hopped into the shower as soon as I got home, to wash off the filth and the dust that accumulates while walking through the townships.  Being thankful for a roof over my head and a warm bed now somehow seems trite.  The sight moved me to want to change the reality of these people’s lives but left me dumbfounded about where to start.

Despite widespread corruption, mismanagement of funds and racially-biased politics (even within the building and assignment of RDP housing), I think the government is actually attempting to tackle this mammoth problem.  The people feel a responsibility to provide housing to every South African, and the taxpayers are doing just that, albeit slowly.  Indoor plumbing, proper sanitation and competent construction are not a given in these settlements, but I have to be optimistic about the intent.  They are doing something.

It lends credence to the idea that we should let Africa solve its own problems. Sometimes countries like the United States feel they have an obligation to fix all the world’s problems.  Maybe countries fixing their own problems when possible strengthens those countries two-fold.  Even though the building and assigning of houses in South Africa seems like a disaster at times,  in its attempt, the country is stronger.

A Taxi… Kind of

Against better judgement and against the recommendations of co-workers, I boarded a taxi in Johannesburg to take a tour of Soweto.  The taxis in South Africa are not what Americans think of as a taxi. You hail them down on the street — or, rather, they hail you down with incessant honking — but the similarities end there.  Taxis are 16 passenger vans in varying degrees of disrepair and are the only form of public transportation.

Photo by Andrew Skurka

I wanted to take a guided tour of Soweto, a township outside Johannesburg where Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu are from.  In desperation, I hopped into a taxi.  Not because I wanted to experience what life is like for a typical Sowetan, but because I had no other option.  I don’t have a car, and the tour guide only rents a car for two or more people.  She does not own a car herself, and taxis for her are a way of life.  Always a “table for one,” my guide met me at my guest house and ushered me around Soweto in no less than ten minibus taxis.  If I felt uncomfortable, the other people in the taxis were amused.  Certainly most had never seen a white girl use public transportation.

Scrunched in with 15 strangers after having climbed over them to find an empty seat, the springs in the seats poked my legs and back.  The wheels seeemed as if they might fall off at any moment, and there was no air conditioning to speak of.  During the first trip, the taxi driver got a signal and pulled a quick U-turn to avoid driving into a police checkpoint.  By the time I got out of the first taxi, I felt sick and gasped for fresh air.  The taxis take routes like buses, and you frequently have to transfer to reach your destination.  In addition, there is a complicated (to me) set of hand gestures that signal to the driver where you want to go.  There is no discussion once you get inside.

Cartoon by Zapiro

Taking the taxis was extremely unpleasant and made me grateful for my car, which sits parked, waiting for me at home, but they provide an important service to South Africans.  Because there is no other form of reliable public transportation, it is the only way for many people to get to and from work and around town.  In addition, taxi drivers make their living taking people from one place to another.

In anticipation of the FIFA World Cup next year, the government is building a Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system that will  improve the ease of transportation for many South Africans and visitors.  It is desperately needed and long over-due.

The taxi drivers are up in arms and staging protests against the new system.  They will presumably be unemployed or underemployed after the new system is completed.  The drivers intend to prevent access to and hold up the running of the new buses.  This will certainly create a headache for the government, the police force and all people on the road. They have banded together to block traffic on the highway, forcing closures.  They will wreak havoc on Johannesburg traffic until the government appeases them.

Even though I have taken enough trips in the minibus taxis to last a lifetime, I sympathize with the taxi drivers who are trying to make a decent living.   At the same time, I wish I could have enjoyed the clean, reliable, functioning, efficient buses visitors will enjoy next year.  Taxi drivers ignore all traffic laws, jut in and out of lanes, and put ordinary drivers in danger.  They often operate without licences, and there is no regard for the safety or comfort of the passenger.  If I lived in South Africa, I would do anything in my power to get them off the streets.

Cartoon by Zapiro

In the Jungle

For some reason, everyone in South Africa thinks Americans think lions roam the streets of Johannesburg — and all of Africa, for that matter.  I feel comfortable saying all South Africans because I have been asked too many times to count what I was expecting to see when I arrived… and did it include lions roaming the streets?  Always lions.  I’m not sure why.

Photo from virtualeyesee.com

I find this funny because the first few nights I was here, the country club down the street held concerts, and as I was sitting outside where I can pick up a wireless internet signal, the music came wafting through the air, as if a soundtrack to South Africa.  The songlist always included a rendition of “The Circle of Life” from The Lion King.  Of course I come to Africa and music from The Lion King just fills the air!  I thought Africans would think The Lion King was silly or inaccurate.  When a movie is made by one culture about another, the latter often accuses the former of getting it all wrong.  I assumed the Disney animated film would elicit that response here.

Lo and behold, the movie is a hit and features lions ruling the continent and roaming as they please.  Another stereotype I’m surprised to find confirmed.  Could it be that because it was produced in the United States by an American company, South Africans think Americans find this an accurate portrayal of life across the continent?  Or am I stretching to connect two unrelated suppositions?

Photo from Entertainment Weekly

Either way, I find it humorous that South Africans think Americans think lions roam the country freely and laugh at our ignorance, but I’ve never once heard an American say he thinks this is true, or even might be true.  We know where the lion sleeps tonight… in the jungle.  I also think it’s funny that Americans assume The Lion King must be too cliche to be enjoyed by Africans, yet its music fills the air in Johannesburg.

State Broadcaster

The SABC is attempting to abolish TV licenses in favor of a tax on the public to secure funding.  The South African Broadcasting Corporation is a public service broadcaster, its vision being to empower citizens with the knowledge to participate in a democratic society.  Its three television channels and 18 radio stations broadcast news in all eleven official languages.  Currently, people must pay a license in order to receive the public television stations, much like in England. 

This change is of concern to wealthier taxpayers, who will have to pay a higher percentage of their incomes to the public broadcaster, and to families with people earning multiple incomes, who will each have to pay.  TV licenses are currently paid by household.  Of concern to politically active citizens, however, are the changes being made within the corporation.  The government already appoints SABC board members and top level executives, therefore controlling the content and point of view of the news. 

Cartoon by Zapiro/Z News

Channel Africa, an international radio station braodcast in six langauges, will now promote South Africa’s official foreign policy.  This shift has industry experts concerned SABC will become a state broadcaster and the transition will happen before the public has a chance to speak out against it. 

The shift in ideology may not seem harmful at first glance.  There are countless radio stations, television stations, newspapers and magazines produced in South Africa, most of which are independent.  Those who have satellite television and radio and purchase a daily newspaper can easily avoid hearing foreign policy masked as news, but those who cannot afford such luxuries, who rely on the public broadcaster for information, cannot.  Turning one radio station into a state mouthpiece could be a signal of additional influence in the future.  It is a slippery slope.  When the government already influences the content on SABC’s TV and radio stations, imagine how that control will increase if they are officially sanctioned to do so. 

Reporters Without Borders issued its eigth annual World Press Freedom Index today, ranking each country based on violations of press freedom that have occured within the past year.  The organization reviews media law and legislation, censorship, access to public records, threats to journalists, and incidents of journalists being arrested or killed in each nation.  At the top of the list are Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Norway and Sweden, all tied for having the most free press systems.  This year, South Africa was ranked 33rd, up from 36th last year.  The United States, which often prides itself on its freedom of the press, was tied with South Africa in 2008 and moved up to 20th in the last year. 

Cartoon by Zapiro/Z News

I’m not sure whether that is a comment on the United States’ press freedom violations under the Bush administration or South Africa’s valiant attempts to adopt a more free press system since the end of the apartheid.  Probably both.  How will Reporters Without Borders reflect this shift in policy in its report next year?  But more importantly, how will South African citizens respond to the (albeit slight) erosion of a press system free from government control?  And why are people around the office (journalists) concerned more about what it will now cost them to watch television?

Southern (African) Hospitality

Riding around Johannesburg has given me a glimpse of a unique transportation custom in South Africa.  I don’t have a car and am at the mercy of my co-workers and my landlady to drive me around.  Because there is no public transportation system to speak of, when no one is available, I spend a lot of cash to take a private cab.  I am always a passenger. 

In every situation, I have been given the front passenger side seat.  No exceptions.  No matter how long the drive or whether I begin the trip with the driver or am picked up mid-trip, I always sit in front.  I don’t demand this; I am directed to take that seat.  If my landlady drives me somewhere, her daughters always sit in the back seat.  When I get picked up, if one of her daughters is sitting in front, she will get out and get into the back.  The same is true whenever a co-worker picks me up to go out to dinner.  If there are two people in the car already, the person in the front seat, without fail, gets out of the car to make room for me.

This is so odd to me.  As a person who gets carsick sitting in the back seat, I appreciate the gesture tremendously, and I wish I could bring the custom back to the United States — but have it only apply to me.  I don’t want to give up my front seat for anyone else.   At home, if I were to ride with someone in the car and need to pick up a friend, I would not even consider vacating my seat.  He or she would just get in the back.

The special treatment seems to be strictly for visitors.  South Africans want to give me (and presumably other guests) preferential treatment while I’m here.  I haven’t noticed South Africans vacating the prime passenger seat for each other.  Thankfully, this relieves me of the duty to give up my seat for a friend when I return home.  It also reminds me of southern hospitality.  I wonder if in Mississippi this concept wouldn’t seem so foreign.  Or uncomfortable.  In both areas of the world, people are extremely friendly, and they want to be of service to you.  People go out of their way to make sure you are accommodated and are enjoying your stay.  But you are never one of them.  Somehow these little customs, meant to honor you, also keep you at an arm’s length.  I think it’s one of the best and worst qualities of both the southern region of the United States and South Africa.

Living here for three months, I don’t always want to be on the outside or given preferential treatment.  I appreciate the attentiveness and the intent, but I would rather assimilate a little more into society.  The practice is supposed to make you comfortable, but for me does the opposite.

Political Scandals

News around the world is riffe with political scandals.  I can safely say every culture enjoys hearing dirt about the nation’s leaders.  And politicians’ gaffes keep the media in business.  The most popular stories each year are the ones in which a politician goes against cultural mores and has to come clean about his (or her — but let’s be honest —  it’s usually his) mistakes.  Especially when the incident is in direct opposition to the issue the politician most strongly fights against, media fireworks ensue.  Think Larry Craig.  Elliot Spitzer.  John Edwards.

What constitutes a “political scandal,” however, seems to be different around the world.  In the United States, we impeached a president for having an affair.  Most apologies from politicians somehow involve sex.  As a country, we are concerned about family values and do not think a politician is fit to continue serving if he (or she) fails to uphold Christian mores.

South Africa’s current president, Jacob Zuma, was tried and acquitted for rape.  Before he was elected.  The fact that he had an affair (with someone other than one of his five wives) or that the girl may not have consented was not the scandal.  The only reason the incident keeps coming up is because in his testimony, President Zuma said he knew the girl was HIV-positive so he took a shower afterwards.  As you can imagine, his efforts to control the spread of HIV/AIDS in South Africa (and his knowledge of how the virus is transmitted) are not heroic, and his statement generally comes up within that context.

After such a trial in the United States, Jacob Zuma would never have been elected to public office.  No matter that he was acquitted.  Even the accusation would bar him from ever running.  South Africans are not concerned, however, about sexual liaisons (much like the French).  They are concerned about corruption in government and mismanaging government funds.

Minister of National Planning Trevor Manuel / Photo from polity.org.za

This week the Minister of National Planning Trevor Manuel apologized in Parliament for his political gaffe.  He purchased a car worth 1.2 million Rands (about $160,000) using government funds.  Ministers are allocated money to purchase a vehicle for official use, and his purchase was not technically out of bounds.  However, in a year when government programs are being dropped for lack of funding and the Finance Minister is rooting out private companies that are taking advantage of the government, the purchase was not met with public approval.  It seems that government officials are taking advantage of the taxpayers. 

While the United States is obsessed with the sexual exploits of its politicians — and for that matter — all public figures and celebrities, South Africans are obsessed with money.  It’s not that misspending government funds does not exist in the United States or that people are not shocked by sexual scandals in South Africa.  It’s only that unless it’s Sarah Palin buying a wardrobe of designer clothing with campaign funds and flying her children around the country on the state of Alaska’s dime, these issues are not met with public outcry.

Walled In

I understand why people are moving out of South Africa — even though the country is absolutely stunning.  There is a wide variety of landscapes, and the beaches are beautiful.  There are mountains and grasslands full of exotic animals.  There are bustling cities with modern conveniences, relaxing rural areas, and sprawling vineyards.  People from all over the world pay a lot of money to experience all South Africa has to offer.  And I imagine they all go home pleased.  There are a lot of reasons to love living in South Africa, but I would still never move to Johannesburg.  I feel like a prisoner, jailed by brick walls and electric fences.

Photo from moreintelligentlife.com

I stay across the street from SABC, where I am doing an internship.  When I say across the street, I mean that the buildings are basically next door, with an intersection in between.  People insist, though, on driving me home from work at 7:30 p.m.  Driving, mind you, takes longer than walking, but the possibility of getting mugged in the two minutes between leaving SABC and arriving safely within the electrified safety of my guest house is so great, people do not want me to take the chance.

Yesterday, I was certain I was going to get mugged on my way to work.  I was so rattled, it took me an hour to truly settle down once I arrived safely.  It was pouring down rain, so the streets were deserted, save for one man walking towards me.  He was wearing ratty clothes and had his hand in his pocket, almost as if concealing a gun.  I had no choice but to walk by him, so I went around him in the gutter, so as not to get too close.  As I walked away, I thought I may have offended him or indicated my discomfort, and because it was raining so hard, I could not hear whether or not he had turned around and was walking behind me.

I don’t have a car, which is a major problem in this city.  Transportation, in fact, deserves its own entry.  However, for the moment, I’ll just say getting around is a bit tricky.  Or expensive.  Since I arrived, I have on four or five occasions walked to the nearest shopping center to get groceries, refill my cell phone minutes, or buy stamps.  Little errands.  Each time, however, I felt I have taken my life into my own hands.  During the entire 15 minute walk, my heart races, and each person who passes me seems a potential thief.  I don’t wear makeup or nice clothes.  I never carry a purse.  Instead, I carry only the essential items in four separate pockets of my jeans.  Each time I arrive safely at home, I feel lucky.

Lest you think I’m a pretty white girl, needlessly afraid to walk down the streets alone, let me explain.  I lived in central Harlem and when I walked down the street was often the only white person in sight.  Never once did anything happen to me, and never once did I hesitate to walk to the grocery store or to get coffee.  As a waitress, I stockpiled cash in my apartment and every few weeks, I would walk down the street with $2,000 – $3,000 in my bag.  Without incident and without real fear I would never make it to the bank.  It is different here.  In fact, people laugh when I tell them I lived in Harlem.  They think that’s very quaint, and that I should be careful in a city with a real crime problem.

I don’t understand how people can live in a city where you cannot walk down the street.  Where you cannot talk to your neighbor because your house is caged in.  Where despite the gates, fences, house alarms and sometimes bars on the doors, the number of home burglaries is rising each year.  If you have money, it’s a wonderful place to live.  You can drive a BMW, eat at unbelievable restaurants, and live in a gorgeous home.  The infrastructure is good enough that you can watch satellite TV, have Internet in your home, and run the filter on your pool.  And the weather is gorgeous.  But the trade-off is you have to live in fear.

To get a resident’s perspective about living in Johannesburg, read this account on one of The Economist’s Web sites.  The writer discusses these issues from the point of view of someone living here and who refuses to give her life over to fear.  She recognizes she is in the minority.

Perspectives on Weather

I’m in the southern hemisphere for the first time in my life.  I came as the seasons were changing around the world.  Mid-September.  Summer in the United States was winding down, and spring was in bloom in South Africa.  For the first few weeks, I was freezing.  I was also very confused about why I was so cold (because I am in Africa, which is supposed to be hot).  I would sit outside, shaking from the cool, crisp night air.  And I had to sit outside because that’s the only place I can get internet connection — in one particular chair in the garden.  In addition, I was horrified that South Africans were wearing shorts, skirts, dresses, and tank tops.  At the same time, I was wearing long pants, long sleeves, a light jacket, and a fleece on top… and still cold.  How were they not freezing? 

In my experience, when Africans come to the United States, they complain that they are cold all the time.  If that’s true, how could I possibly be cold when they were so warm?  Then I had visions of college girls laying out in bikinis in March on the first slightly warm and sunny day of spring.  It all became clear.  Having been bundled up all winter long and yearning to let their legs sparkle in the spring sunshine, it felt very warm outside to them.  Flying in from the summer in the northern hemisphere, however, it felt like the first frost of winter to me.  I must add, though, after the first six weeks of shivering, I became the girl laying out in her bikini at the first sign of heat.  (In my defense, it was 85 and sunny.)

Then I had a terrible thought…  What will December feel like when I go home?  I will leave South Africa in the height of summer, and I think the winter air will quite literally slap me in the face when I get off the plane.  Maybe I’ll stay through March…

Now

When someone living in Los Angeles (read: a film producer) says, “let’s do lunch,” what is the likelihood that lunch will ever take place?  I have come to have a similar expectation when a South African says he will do something “now.”

Never in my life has “now” meant sometime in the future – possibly the distant future.  South Africans have the strangest way (strange to me, anyway) of describing when something is to be done.  There is “now,” “now now,” and “just now.”  They all mean different things, but none of them is actually an indication that something will be done at that moment in time.  From what I’ve been able to translate, “now” means sometime in the near future (probably).  “Now now” means in awhile, but without specification or promise of when that may be.  And “just now” means it may or may not happen at all that day.

I am not sure if the discrepancy is a different sense of immediacy or just semantics.  After all, if everyone understands the difference between the three, then when one is used, there is an expectation of when the event will might occur.  I guess it works for them, but it’s hard to get used to.  And I still haven’t found the South African expression for “immediately” (or what I would call “now”).

I have found myself sitting around waiting expectantly for things to happen, only to still be waiting hours later.  I have rushed to take showers and get ready, or hurried to gather my belongings and log off my computer, only to wait.  Or to be asked why I was standing there with my purse.  I have learned I should only move when I see some reciprocal action in the intended direction.

Photo by Gizmodo

South Africans, in general, are very laid back.  There is almost never a need to rush.  Certainly, though, there must be times when things need to occur at that precise moment.  I wonder how they indicate that or how they light a fire under the rest of the party involved when necessary.

It’s especially baffling to hear people talk about the differences between cities in South Africa.  Johannesburg is the bustling, big city, where people are in a rush to get from place to place and have work deadlines pushing them forward.  Cape Town is said to be much more relaxed – beach town, vineyards nearby, very “west coast.”  It also happens to be on their west coast, and I wonder if there is a geographical correlation to the temperament of people in a corresponding location.  But I digress…  If in Johannesburg (the only city in which I’ve spent time) “now” means sometime that day (with any luck), when do events occur in Cape Town?