I leave in a few days. It's all very, very surreal--so far I feel prepared, but anxious as can be. So as I sit in the back of a classroom neither teaching nor preparing to teach, I may as well brush up on the current events in the country I'm about to live in.
Someone mentioned this to me a week or two ago, that there were problems between the farmers and the government. That's really all I know at this point. Didn't pay a lot of attention to my original source, as it was someone I don't really trust on international issues. You know the kind.
After having read the article: I'm a little concerned about how this will pan out. I don't know much about farming outside of the US, but if this was to happen in America, it would essentially be a race and imperialism fix that causes a deeper problem in class. At least here, farmers don't tend to be well off--I'm concerned that, if the same trend exists in South Africa, white farmers will be ill-prepared to transition off of stolen land.
The article also mentioned that, in other cases where land has been removed from colonial hands and given back to its rightful owners, land can go fallow or be misused by farmers who aren't prepared to work with the land. It seems that there are supports in place here, so I'm optimistic about that.
Overall, I'm glad that the country is trying to fix its past. That bodes well for the nation.
This was another thing that was brought to my attention before I researched it. I can't recall if it was the radio or TV news, but I heard something about this a day or two ago, so I knew at least a little bit.
What I learned: this is a drought of historic proportions. Apparently parliament is investigating the water service to see if there's some mismanagement (so far, it seems there probably is, it's just to what extent?). HeraldLIVE says that the drought isn't just limited to the Western Cape, so the Eastern Cape might be having issues as well. I'll have to see.
For now, I'm planning on taking more baths than showers.
This one I know I heard a little about on the news. I had heard that the previous president was asked to step down and that he eventually did, but I really don't know anything about the new president.
After reading: So President Ramphosa kept a few of Zuma's men around. He brought back finance minister Nene, fired a few years ago, to his former post, and he named the well-regarded Pravin Gordhan to the Public Enterprise ministry. There's also apparently a reappointment of one Mr. Mabuza, who seems a rather... controversial figure.
Ramphosa wants to clear up governmental corruption, create jobs and help the economy. So I suppose we'll see how that goes. I feel like I shouldn't have much of an opinion in the matter–and to be honest, I really don't. Politics aren't my wheelhouse to begin with, and I don't know any of these figures to boot. While I had my thoughts about the farmland redistribution, that came from some familiarity at home. I know nothing about this situation.
So there's some news! It's going to be dry and there's some change going on. Sounds like home.
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