Madam and Eve

To any South African readers: please excuse me while explain this seemingly important element of your culture to friends and family around the world. If I get some of the details wrong - or if you think I'm misreading the cultural significance - please don't hesitate to post a comment to let me know.

So, there's this interesting cartoon that you run into in most of the major newspapers in SA. It's called Madam & Eve, and features as it's main characters a maid (Eve), her boss (the Madam), Madam's mother, and Eve's young cousin. In fact, M&E has a nice little schematic up on their website that with all of this information (if the resolution is too low, just click on the picture to see an enlarged version):


This is the sort of cartoon that is funny to South African readers of all races because it so effectively lampoons the peculiarities (and subtleties) of post-Apartheid South African culture. Now because I'm not South African, I tend to miss lots of the jokes. However, as I've spent more time here, and as I learn more about SA culture - especially with respect to their politicians, who often figure prominently in M&E - this cartoon strip has become increasingly funny to me. As a primer, here are a series of cartoons purporting to 'explain South African culture' to international readers. (Some of you might remember my discussion of traffic lights strangely being referred to as 'robots' here in my post on South African slang.)



And here are some comics that were posted just after Dick Chaney's now infamous 'hunting trip' in the middle of 2006. It will help if you know that Jacob Zuma is the Deputy President of SA, accused in 2005 of having raped an old family friend of his, a 25 year-old HIV-positive woman. (Again, sorry for the low res. Just click on the comics to see them in a more readable form, and I'll try and figure out the problem as soon as possible):



These few selections only represent a tiny fraction of all of the interesting and current events M&E addresses. In fact, I'm pretty sure I saw a cartoon in the paper earlier this week that focused on Brittany Spears' recent head shaving episode. If you guys find these cartoons in the least bit entertaining, you should certainly feel free to go check out the searchable archive that the artists have set up on their website. I'll also try to post a particularly interesting or relevant comic strip on here from time to time.

I'm off to go get a bunny chow for lunch. There's nothing quite like eating extraordinarily spicy foods on extraordinarily hot days. Mmmmmm...head sweat.

Electronic odds and ends

Because I wouldn't want you guys to start suffering from a lack of content, here's some interesting stuff for you to check out/think about:

For those of you who don’t subscribe to my feed and are reading this directly off the website, I would like to take a moment to introduce you to the Greatest Contest Ever Held. Science Blogs – a place I have been known to waste a great deal of my time on the internets – in conjunction with Threadless – another site I have been known to frequent –
have joined forces to sponsor a t-shirt design contest. The designer of the most creative image in response to the prompt “Science is Culture” will be handsomely rewarded with cash and other prizes (including a sorely needed iPod). I’ve been turning over some ideas in my head – especially relating to the heavy Religious/Creationist bent of many South Africans I have come to meet in the past few weeks - but am not sure if I really have the technical knowhow, or creativity, to put together a winning proposal. In any case, if I win (or even place), I’m sure you guys will be the first to hear about it.

I would also like to let you guys know about Tim Fite’s new album Over the Counter Culture, which is quite good and quite free when downloaded from his website. It’s relatively spare Hip Hop production, but I know that many of you will agree with his take on the subject matter and some of you might even appreciate his flow. You can also hear him interviewed on this weeks’ episode of Sound Opinions, where I managed to hear about his newly released album in the first place. I’ve been hurting for new music as of late (my internet connection from the office here isn’t quite fast enough for me to feel comfortable downloading stuff from iTunes or other music sites), so it’s been nice to have something new to listen to.

As for my weekend: it consisted of a second viewing of Blood Diamond (Leo’s Rhodesian accent and slang stands up to my improved ability to discern a good accent from a bad one), a early morning trip to the beach for a few hours of body surfing, and reading the first half of Nelson Mandela’s autobiography, Long Walk to Freedom. Oh, and I've also started looking into getting my International Driving Permit for when I get my car in March. Not a bad weekend, certainly, but not the most exciting on record. Hope you all had great weekends, wherever you are in the world, and I’d love to hear from you if you find yourself at a computer with a moment or two on your hands. Talk soon.

When the going gets tough

I imagine that you can tell from my post earlier this morning that I've been struggling a bit over the past few days. It's not always easy living far away from the people, places, and things that you consider Home - but I am trying to tell myself that these are equally valuable parts of this experience.

In a last-ditch effort to increase the weekly Joy Quotient of STAB I was going to upload some of the devastatingly cute pictures of the kids I help teach basketball to on the weekends - however, the Blogger site doesn't seem to be accepting uploads at the moment, and I've maxed out all of my Flickr bandwith for the month. So, you'll just have to wait on those pix for a little while. Uhhhhh, looks I'm a big liar. The upload script seems to be working just fine now. Enjoy the pictures (I'll try to get some more good ones when I go out with the PeacePlayers International guys again next week) and have a lovely weekend!

Top 5 Stories for 23 February 2007

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Widespread Technology Failures Continue; ipod Hard Drive Corruption Sweeps Through Durban

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Quest for Elusive “I Come Face To Face With Highly Infectious Diseases On A Daily Basis” Badge Continues; "I Can Be A Prick When It Comes To Science" Badge Remains Problematic

Med School, Schmed School: An Application Process From The Seventh (or Possibly Eighth) Circle of Hell

Extreme Laziness Prevalent In Smarter Bears, New Studies Show

Blackjack!

A few new readers in a few new countries has brought the total number of nations where Smarter Than the Average Bearnot (STAB) is read up to lucky number 21.

I'd like to welcome new readers in Switzerland, Egypt, Philippines, Maldives (To be fair, I had to look this one up. The Republic of Maldives is actually a collection of atolls located 450 miles southwest of Sri Lanka, off the coast of India - and it looks like it would be an absolutely fantastic place to visit someday), Ghana, and Australia to the STAB party! I hope you guys are enjoying the posts so far, and please feel free to post a comment or send me an e-mail me if the spirit moves you.

Lots of work to do today trying to wrap my mind around the complexities of diagnosed and undiagnosed tuberculosis in communities with high HIV/AIDS prevalence. And after that, I'll probably move on to reading about how to develop Monitoring and Evaluation tools to measure and track patient outcomes longitudinally. Might not sound all that interesting to you, but I'm pretty excited about it all. Be well.

Making the most of it

Blech. This post will have to be short because my computer is acting up, and my comma and period keys are only working intermittently at the moment. This has/will continue to be a giant pain, but I think I’ve managed to track down the one licensed Apple repair place in Durban. I’m going to be taking my poor computer over there sometime later today, and hopefully we can get this problem sorted out as quickly and painlessly (read: cheaply) as possible. However, I am resolved to not let this unfortunate technological turn ruin my week.

Yesterday night I went out to dinner at the HIV Programme Coordinator’s house in the rural suburb of Hillcrest. She is a lovely and brilliant woman, and the rest of her family was very interesting, making for a wonderful evening. In addition to getting to see her beautiful house – replete with beautiful vistas of rolling hills and lots of animals (dogs and cats, mostly) running free around on her property – I was also able to find a car to buy and to establish plans for my first trip out of the country; now that’s some serious multitasking.

The car is currently owned by a little old lady who drives it infrequently, takes it for maintenance at an alarmingly prudent frequency, and seems to be selling it at far under market value. Sounds absolutely perfect to me. And the trip would be to Lesotho with Janet’s (the HIV Programmes Coordinator) husband Steve, a Professor at the Nelson Mandela School of Medicine here in Durban, as he goes to check out a rural clinic up in the mountains and does a day or two of serious mountain biking with his boys. Additionally, this trip is timed perfectly to allow me to renew the 3-month tourist visa that I’m currently on. All in all, last night couldn’t have gone much better.

Alright, it’s time for me to head up the hill to go learn some more about HIV/TB clinics are supposed to be run. I hope you are all doing well, and I’ll catch up with you again soon.

Spreading the good word

I thought that one last post before the weekend hit was in order. Unfortunately the news I have to share isn’t good. Durbanites – or at least the small subset that I’ve had the opportunity to meet over the past few weeks – have terrible taste in music. Last night I went to a small dinner party at the flat of a friend I’ve made through the family I’m staying with. And just so you can get a sense of the demographics of the situation – almost all of the 20 or so attendees of this party were university students at the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UK[ZED]N) , and most of them are parishioners at the local Glenridge Church.

They had absolutely no knowledge of my favorite genres; my increasingly exasperated questions inquiring about any knowledge of Motown, soul, Al Green, Otis Redding, STEVIE WONDER, REALLY NOT EVEN SONGS IN THE KEY OF LIFE??? were met with vacant stares. At this point I could barely restrain myself from running back to my house that very instant to go get my ipod. And to make matters even worse, they didn’t know anything about contemporary Hip Hop or Indie Rock. In the parlance of South Africa: Shame, man.

I was absolutely devastated. I don’t think I need to tell you all this, but six-month-old American pop music mixed with a smattering House and Trance beats does not a music collection make. Actually, I am fairly confident that their sonic diets are deficient in essential acoustic vitamins and sonic minerals, leaving them in a malnourished malaise. Upon further consideration, I have decided to revise my list of Roles and Responsibilities for my time in SA; I will rise to the challenge to as a Good Music Evangelist (Bringing Beats to the Masses™), charged with the crucial responsibility of spreading the Gospel of Good Music. I refuse to stand idly by as a generation wastes its most valuable music-listening years.

Even before learning of their poor aural hygiene, I had promised to bring a playlist to the next get-together – but now the pressure is on to make sure that this compilation of songs transcends Good. My new mission (should I choose to accept it) is to craft a playlist that is Eye Opening and Horizon Expanding.

Now, this isn’t to say that the music coming out of South Africa is bad. I actually don’t think that this is the case at all. South Africa has a long history of producing great music, including such incredible artists as Johnny Clegg and Ladysmith Black Mambazo (some clips, including a hilarious parody of LBM, can be found below) as well as more contemporary artists – which I’ve been working hard to try and find some mp3s or streaming files of to share with you guys. However, the existence of such good music only serves to further indict poor taste on the behalf of these poor souls.

Alright, enough of my ranting! I will certainly let you know how things turn out. But if I don’t return to the US at the end of this trip, don’t worry; it will be because I have found my calling as a Good Music Evangelist, and there is little rest for sonic missionaries.

On the incompatibility of international health care and partisan politics

The funding that pays for the HIV and TB programming at the hospital and clinic I am working at is in jeopardy. “Why is this?” you ask. Ineffective treatment methods? Nope; we actually have one of the highest survival rates in the province and in the country. Budget cuts coming from the South African government? Nope; it was only recently that President Mbeki even admitted that HIV and AIDS were related and government spending, while still relatively meager, is just now starting to grow. The answer is: Partisan Politics in US Congress.

Almost all of the money that the McCord Hospital uses to pay for antiretrovirals, TB medications, and the necessary staff to administer/monitor these drugs comes from PEPFAR - the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief – a five-year, $15 billion program that directs funding for HIV/AIDS, TB and malaria primarily to 15 focus countries and provides funding to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. However, the renewed 2007 budget for this fund is now in danger because of budget concerns raised by the newly elected Democratic Senate. Here is how the story was first reported in the San Fransico Chronicle:

“Because of an impasse over budget priorities that began during the waning days of the Republican-controlled Congress last fall, nearly all federal spending for this year has been frozen at 2006 levels. That creates special problems for programs, like PEPFAR, that were scheduled for big expansions in 2007.

At stake is nearly $1 billion in new spending for various programs to fight AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria abroad. The Bush administration had sought the money, and both houses in Congress were inclined to support the funding, but it could all disappear by the end of February without special consideration by lawmakers whose attention is now focused on Iraq.

Unless the new Democrat-controlled Congress makes an exception, PEPFAR will have to stay at last year's spending level through September -- leaving no money for new enrollment after February.”

I can not emphasize enough how what a devastating blow this would be to the developing world; If not reversed, this partisan impasse will force hundreds of thousands of people to forgo prevention, treatment, care and support for the three most deadly infectious diseases in the world.

The situation has become so dire, in fact, that Archbishop Desmond Tutu recently wrote an OpEd piece for the Washington Post addressing this issue. Because Archbishop Tutu is far more eloquent than I might ever hope to be, I will end this post with an excerpt from his editorial, and I would greatly encourage you to go and read the text in its entirety here. And hopefully I will have some positive news to share with you all when the pertinent bill is taken up by Congress in the coming days. Take it away Mr. Archbishop:

"If funding for 2007 is not increased from 2006 levels, it may be impossible for the United States to continue making headway on the human catastrophe that is HIV-AIDS. Staying at 2006 funding levels would result in a loss of up to $700 million for the 15 PEPFAR focus countries. As a result, 280,000 fewer people will be put on AIDS treatment. That is 280,000 lives needlessly lost. …

HIV-AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria, and the tens of thousands of orphaned and vulnerable children are symptoms of our collective failure to protect each other, to ensure that all people's basic needs and rights are met, and to guarantee everyone a life of dignity. This failure is very troubling to me.

It is a sign of our breakdown as one human family. Worldwide, we have made stops and starts at healing this rift and keeping our promises to one another. But if Congress does not act to restore that $1 billion for global health, poverty alleviation and foreign aid, the rift will only grow wider and healing will be further beyond our reach.

The United States has the potential to be a global leader. Congress has the opportunity to remind the world of the good that can be done in the name of the American people, to help people around the world build better lives and restore our brotherhood and sisterhood. The promises made to poor countries are not just words on paper. They concern the lives of people who, in different circumstances, could be you or me. … I join the world in watching, and waiting for its decision."

It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World

South Africa is a deeply schizophrenic place. Some aspects of its personality are incredible: tremendous natural beauty, fabulous weather year-round, and a distinctive amalgam of widely varying cultures. Some aspects of its personality are quite civilized: mid-morning and afternoon tea breaks, 8-5 work days that enable professionals to balance work and personal lives, and a deeply Faithful population. However, many aspects of South Africa’s personality are much more sinister: high crime rates further complicated by underlying White Paranoia, exceedingly high HIV/AIDS rates exacerbated by the stigma of disease, corruption at local and national levels, and – maybe most strikingly – a severe socioeconomic stratification that extra-legally enables the continuation of many Apartheid-era practices.

I’m tempted to list examples to illuminate these negative depictions of South African character, but I think I’ll hold off for the time being. They won’t mean much to you out of context, and I would much prefer to provide you with a fuller, more detailed picture at some future moment. I realize that I’m always telling you about the ‘Things I’m Going to Write About (Eventually),’ but with only 3 weeks down and many more to go, you guys are just going to have to take my word for it for the time being.

In any case, back to my original point - It is precisely this cultural schizophrenia that makes Durban such a bewildering place at times. Traveling from one place in the city to another, or even just having conversations with two different people, gives you an agonizingly different vantage on this city. The real challenge, it occurs to me, is going to lie in finding ways to reconcile these vast differences, allowing for discrepancies (I’ve quickly learned that no two viewpoints are mutually exclusive here) while embracing the larger depiction of this rich culture as it starts to come into focus. So, the goal for now is just to keep my eyes and ears open and to soak as much of it up as much as possible.

Call and response

In response to my Uncle's comment to my last post (his original text can be found here):

Hey Rick -

Your thoughts on this matter on much appreciated, and it is something that Ariel (who I have a hunch might have been that first poster) and the rest of my friends have talked about at length. I think that the suggestion you've posited about our desire for Celebrity is certainly part of the story. However, I also think that those who you are referring to as My Generation have a ever-growing belief that information - about themselves, about their friends, about the wider world we live in - resides in the public domain.

At first these web-based tools like blogs, photo sharing sites, etc. were utilized almost expressly as a convenient medium for sharing this information with friends and family. But much of this, once private, information has become readily available to anyone with access to the internet with the rapidly growing power of search engines and social networking sites - and my generation has embraced this shift. (I often speculate that this trend will spiral out of control, ultimately giving way to The Dystopia, but that is outside the scope of this particular discussion, I think.)

These are just some of my off-the-cuff thoughts on the matter, but the larger questions at hand are certainly something that is actively being actively thought about and discussed by many of us. This is a subject that would certainly warrant further discussion at another moment in the near future.

Also, Ariel has just informed me that New York Magazine recently published an article discussing this issue exactly. The article is called Say Everything and can be found on their website here. I haven't read the article yet, but hopefully it will shed some further light on this question.