Happy 28th Birthday South Africa

I was supported through university by Old Mutual. It was part of why I chose the career I did. Pragmatically sitting on a bench in London during two gap years between school and university, I took the decision that life would be harder if I didn't do something that made money. There are certain choices that are easier to get support for. I found a course and a company that would put me on a path to financial security. It wasn't romantic. I worked for 1.5 years for each year I was supported... then aged 28, got itchy feet. Old Mutual were supportive. I looked at jobs internally, but also got support and positive recommendations to look externally. I then headed overseas again, and back to the UK (via Bermuda). I did feel loyalty to the company... but in reality, that meant to the people. Those who had backed me. But that didn't mean my choices couldn't look beyond the container. As it turned out, I came back to work at Old Mutual 12 years later when I returned to South Africa. How you treat the people who leave says a lot about who you are. The containers we use to build each other up are there to build rather than constrain. Today those who stay, go, or arrive, celebrate the fall of the Apartheid that separated us... and pretended that it was our containers that defined us.

Warm Bermuda Welcome - 2008

Happy Birthday South Africa - 27 - 26 - 25 - 24 - 23 - 22 - 21

Blerrie Complicated

PK and “The Power of One” created a vivid picture of overcoming struggle, and of Oxford and the Rhodes Scholarship, for me. Cecil John Rhodes casts a shadow over South Africa with a bloody complicated legacy (or blerrie complicated, as my Grandfather would say to avoid swearing). Which includes an Oxford-like university in Grahamstown called Rhodes, surrounded by places like King William’s Town, Queenstown (where my Mom was from, with family on both sides of the Anglo-Boer war), Port Elizabeth and East London, in the area where the 1820 Settlers arrived after the Napoleonic Wars. Smack in the middle of a 100-year conflict between the Xhosa Kingdom and earlier European settlers. Rhodes’ statue also used to preside over the Rugby fields, looking with South England ambition towards the mountains, outside my leafy residence at the University of Cape Town. I applied for the Rhodes Scholarship, but didn’t get an interview. I still ended up in Oxfordshire on a different path. Living just outside the city in a small medieval market town called Burford. A Buhr is an old English fortification. A ford is a river. Crossing rivers. Crossing continents. Crossing cultures. Unpacking blerrie complication.

Statue Removed, Shadow Remains

Core Strength

Stay home doesn’t have a universal meaning. The self-evident truth of the current Global Crisis is that while we are all in the same storm, we don’t have the same life-boats. An excessive focus on the conspicuous, means our foundations and buffers have been found wanting. Our lives revolve around income. Income defines our local. Who we spend our time with. How we spend our time. Who can afford to spend time with us. So that in an emergency, when we retreat to our safe spaces, we aren’t connected to those who don’t have matching core security. We don’t have names, faces and trust to do something as simple as a Cash Transfer to those who don’t have the privilege of a world that continues when the work stops. Most of us don’t even have trusted individuals who have done the work to understand the parallel realities we are separated from in Global Apartheid. There is some existing trust. There are existing relationships.  We need to lean in, imperfectly. Then tear down walls and build bridges when we start again.

Best Practice

One of my favourite essays to regularly reread is Scott Alexander’s “I can tolerate anything except the outgroup”. It reminds me of how some of our biggest fights are with the people we most agree with. Because we care so much about the same issues. We understand the same nuance that other people don’t even see. An advantage of being a Global Citizen is the natural social experiment that goes on. We get to see Best Practice at play in a variety of contexts. Our issues, but not our issues. What if we changed this aspect? What if we keep that aspect the same? A strong temptation in any research is to provide Public Relations and Legal Arguments for pre-existing beliefs. Numbers and words to pad our gut feel. Looking far from home is often an easier way to unpack issues that are too close to see. Then, like Bruce Lee, we can take what is useful, discard what is not, and add what is uniquely our own.

Too Close

Conscious Connection

A big part of the “who are we?” struggle going on is a battle between Globalisation and Localisation. We live in a connected world. No man is an island. There is also no such thing as “The People”. You can’t draw borders around a group and define them with a stereotype by handing them a flag, teaching them a song, and losing your pooled tax money on a dysfunctional airline. We have communities we value. Places of worship, sports teams, social networks, languages, where we work, and interest groups. They overlap. The challenge is how to build together. Cracking on as individuals weakens the glue. Forcing glue on people creates partisan fist fights. I think we can do better. Dunbar’s number is the idea that there is a limit to how many interpersonal relationships we can have before we need to rely on prejudices and abstraction. About 150. I think we can add back names and faces if we consciously build communities of people in who we are willing to invest. If we balance the local and global forces with real people who we can see.  

Bigger World

I moved to the UK in 2008 partly for family reasons, and partly for the increased opportunity set of working in a Global City. I never “left South Africa”. I just thought that earning Pounds, gave me a better chance of squirreling away some acorns for the winter. Like investment returns, opportunity compounds. I got the chance to work in the UK based on my age, income, education level, and ability to speak English. It isn’t an opportunity open to everyone. By 2014, still thinking in Rands, I felt I had sufficient acorns to stop worrying about squirreling if I was good at controlling my expenses. Acorns grown by the Pound go further in cheaper areas. Working is expensive. Many who work in London earn more, but still live hand-to-mouth. The living can be done cheaper elsewhere if your hand and mouth can look up and see a bigger world.

Moving Home

Finding Roots in a Global World

I have been writing my blog almost daily for about 4.5 years now. A form of stream of consciousness, where I think aloud and then my ideas get fired in the public kiln till the bubbles crack the badly formed ones. 

One tool that I find useful is consistency. How can you believe A, and B, if B is not A. You have to choose. The problem is consistency has its limits. Our beliefs and preferences tend to be narrow, and dependant. I used to think you couldn't be racist and intelligent. Then I learned about Wouter Basson ("Dr. Death"). There are plenty of examples of people who are persecuted and persecutors. There are examples of people who are one person at work, another at home, and another at play. Whose beliefs depend on the group they are in, and who like multiple groups.

We layer meaning on top of facts. We think in categories and stories. This means we can be reading two books as we look at the same situation. Our response depends.

A theme of my writing has been the homelessness of my circle of friends and family, in a world that is battling with Globalisation and Localisation. Home has had to become a collection of my favourite competing stories. To maintain my mental health, I have to switch between worlds. To learn to let go of things that really matter to me... temporarily.

I am a Soutie. I have one foot in the UK and one foot in South Africa. I have good friends in the US, China, Brazil, and New Zealand. My family is all over. Even when people are in the same place physically, they are often not available. Everyone is so busy, it becomes near impossible to arrange events when groups get bigger than two or three. It isn't that they don't care. They are just reading something else. So there isn't actually an option of "moving home". My home is always moving.

As someone who loves seeking out patterns and layering meaning, I have had to develop a lighter touch. A half-hearted detachment. Not everything means something. Not everything is consistent.

I would love to figure out how you can build community in this brave new world. How do you develop roots that are oceans apart? Letting go is required just as much as digging in.

Be the Tree-v

Personal Schism

Trev:

I grew up in a religious, mostly protestant, mostly white, liberalish community in Apartheid South Africa. One of my watershed moments was being forced to choose between two of the local churches. The one I had grown up in, and the one I was enjoying attending because of my circle of friends. To become a member of the Baptist Church, I had to be baptised. To become a member of the Methodist Church, I had to confirm my baptism. I had been dunked as a baby, which was not recognised by the Baptist church. Being 'baptised again' would mean that my first Baptism was rejected in some way which would upset some people who were important to me. I didn't really know why it was important, but in the end went back to the Church I grew up in for Confirmation classes. The long history of the Abrahamic Religions is a series of these kinds of 'there is only one path' splits. This was my personal Schism.

'The Angel hinders the offering of Isaac'

Rembrandt

Mike:
The Protestant Church grew out of the idea that you should be able to look inside. Rather than a delivered truth, people should be able to look inside. They should be able to be their own ministers and priests. They should be able to read "The Word" in their own tongue and interpret it according to their own contexts. The movement was as much a political statement as a convenient shift in religious beliefs. The Christianisation of the Barbarian Tribes was also an attempt to control them. Vladamir The Great dated all the Abrahamic Religions before choosing Christianity because he liked wine. Charlemagne and Louis The Great were also one country, one religion, kind of guys. It was Louis who kicked the Protestants that headed to South Africa out.

Paul:
You should take another look at the Church Trev. It is not the same place as when you grew up. Also, don't you remember all the good bits? Church provides a centre for the Community. A shared belief that brings people together once a week to think about something bigger than themselves. It is a place to look after each others mental health, and to think about those less fortunate than ourselves. Surely that is a good thing? The Churches in Westville have done a lot of work over the last 20 years. There are more women involved in leadership roles, the demographics of the services are more mixed, they are wrestling with their homophobia monkeys and the various churches are starting to put aside their different interpretations and work together. Even the Catholic Churches are very much part of the mix. And the Mosques and Temples. The door is always open to you. 

Trev:
It does play on my mind that leaving the Church leaves these spaces only open to particular parts of the Community. I now live in the UK, where most villages have beautiful little churches. Churches that are struggling to get people to come. I can't teach Yoga at my local Church because it is viewed as "Hindu". I could, but I would have to strip out the Oms and Chants and bits that freak people out. That is kind of like saying, you can make the Braveheart movie, but I don't want there to be any Kilts. I feel like we get excluded from a lot of the beauty of seeing different perspectives because we are forced to choose which one is "right".

Jessica:
You need a shared story for the place to be Holy. It can't be a free for all. It isn't about being right, it is about keeping stories clean. A genuinely open Community Hall might be great because it is all-inclusive, but it will be excluded from the magic of keeping things pure. Imagine a Buddhist Silent Retreat that now had to accommodate your Oms and Jaya Ganeshas... even though they share a common underlying philosophy, they would probably also tell you to pipe down.  There is nothing wrong with that. Just because Coke, Orange Juice, Milk, and Vodka are nice drinks doesn't mean you can throw all of them into a bucket with an extra thin mint and think your stomach will accept it willingly. Tolerance doesn't mean you can't protect spaces for a coherent story. Even if you admit that it is just a story.

Trev:
Sure, but then how do you create a shared narrative? The rulers of the past just issued "the truth" and then used their monopoly on power to brainwash everyone into that. The new Churches are just political parties. Protestants and Catholics may have made peace, but now we have Partisan Political Parties. In the UK, US, and South Africa where I know most about the politics relative to other countries... the majority of voters are hugely tribal. They interpret "facts" based on the opposite of whatever the other team thinks. Too many people believe anyone who disagrees with them is stupid, evil, or has some other Bad Faith incentive to obstruct and destroy. 

Rory:
It's just noise. People do actually get along pretty well. Particularly if there is money to be made. We huff and puff a lot on Social Media but as soon as you put people into a room together off camera, then people tend to learn social skills that make things work quickly. It genuinely isn't as bad as all the Drama Queens out there are making it out to be. If anything, it is just distracting us from continuing the progress. Yes, Church buildings are emptier... but there are far more cross-community communities springing up. The world has never been more tolerant, less xenophobic, less homophobic, less sexist etc. than now. We just focus on the bad stuff. It makes for a better moan. And we have always loved a good moan.

Trev:
There are more cross-community communities, but they weaken local communities. If we all live in digital land, we have less motivation to make friends with our neighbours. If the shows we watch become global, there is an increasing sameness to our storytelling. There is a larger "structural" risk, because we aren't trying different things. There are no fire breaks for if we try something that seems to work, and it goes horribly wrong.  There is also a local disconnect. In the past, leaders in communities used to live very similar lives to the people they led. Increasingly the CEOs, MPs, Professors, Priests and other leaders live in unrecognisable bubbles. Physical lives separate from mental lives. That means we become these mindless bodies and bodyless minds living different lives.

Alex:
You can't go backward. The communities of old weren't these glorious little neighbourhoods we like to picture. Think about how difficult it is to live in a closed community where everyone knows everything. Where your mistakes follow you like they are burnt into your forehead. There are positives to a separation of physical space from the mental. We all get a little more peace. We also aren't as subject to the geographical lotteries that force us to interact with the people where we were born, and believe what they believe. It is also much easier to physically get off your ass and go visit the people you meet online than ever before. In my experience, people make more of an effort to see you when you don't live where they do. The visit triggers a "must make a plan" attitude, rather than a "but I don't feel like it now" vibe.

Trev:
I get it. But I, like a lot of Global Citizens, probably feel like Theresa May nailed it when she said Global Citizens are "Citizens of Nowhere". It sometimes feels like that. Rootless. I know there is no way to solve this. We are Scatterlings of Africa. Everybody. Everywhere. People have always migrated, and the stories we have used to describe ourselves have always changed. I think that is beautiful, and it allows us to evolve and work through our problems. But it also leaves me feeling rootless a lot of the time. Like my foundations are creaking. Like I have forgotten something somewhere. A sense of unease. Maybe that's just life.

[Mike, Paul, Jessica, Rory, and Alex are fictional]

More Than a Whisper

Trev:

I got my British Passport a year before the Brexit Referendum. As someone who believes the C20th introduction of passport control was simply the physical role out of Global Apartheid, getting another passport has its ironies. Rather than burning Dompas like Madiba, I was collecting another one of the things I don't believe in. I came on a Migrants Program that gave me the opportunity because of my education, salary, language, age and work experiences. Kind of like a lottery for those who have previously won the lottery. Still, I was proud. Like a recovering Alcoholic, the description of Britain at my Citizenship Ceremony reminded me of the scene of Marcus Aurelius in the Gladiator. "There was a dream that was Rome. You could only whisper it. Anything more than a whisper and it would vanish, it was so fragile." There were people from all over the world becoming citizens of a country that seemed to stand for so many things I believed in. Then 2016 happened and whispers became shouts.

More Than a Whisper

Alex:
The way you pitch it is as if the primary reason behind Brexit was closing the borders. You and I have very similar beliefs. We both want this "Rome" with an open society that is inclusive. We both believe in Freedom of Trade, Movement, Services, and People. I didn't see the Referendum as anything other than a vote of no confidence in the INSTITUTION of the EU. Not Europe. Britain can't physically leave Europe. It is a part of it. All the crying and gnashing of teeth makes out as if all Brexiteers are racists and xenophobes. What about the European border in Ceuta? You can't paint the EU as this Liberal Democracy. I was voting against a Brussels run by technocrats.

Paul: 
I didn't actually think the vote would go through. I have just been a Eurosceptic for years. I was undecided when I stepped into the voting booth, but I didn't feel it would be right to moan about the EU and then vote for them. I have business in Europe, but the European regulations make my life an absolute nightmare. I prefer hiring Brits. I really didn't think Brexit would actually happen, and even when it did, I didn't think there wouldn't be some sort of deal that allowed life to carry on pretty much as normal. It doesn't make sense for anybody for us to not be able to keep on doing what we do. Anyway, if things don't work out, I am okay. I'll just close up shop and go traveling.

Stewart:
I don't really follow all this nonsense. I have my own stuff to worry about. There is no point in worrying anyway. The people in London will do what they do and life will go on. It is not going to affect me. I voted for Brexit because the NHS is creaking at the seams with all the immigrants in the waiting rooms, and the jobs going to people who aren't even from here. Look after your own first I say. Don't have guests until you can afford to keep your house in order. You have to choose. If you want to have a Welfare State that looks after people, it is simple maths that you can't afford to look after everybody else too. Get rid of that stuff, and then sure... people who can afford to look after themselves are welcome to come.

Angela:
The reality is we are a small island. Environmentally, we can't afford to have more people here. 60 million plus is probably too many already. There aren't enough houses, which is why housing is unaffordable for the people who were born here. I am all for being accommodating to others, but there is the question of sustainability. The roads are clogged. The trains are clogged. The Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty are being filled with new housing that doesn't have the necessary schools and facilities. We may be a rich country in theory, but there are lots of problems we need to sort out. Leaving the EU is the only way we can do that.

Michelle:
There are fundamental political differences between the UK and the EU. You either believe in central decision-making technocrats, or you believe in devolved responsibility. In the UK, you hire and fire your political representatives directly. I can meet with my Member of Parliament, and it doesn't matter how much of a big wig they are, they have to serve their constituency. Nigel Farage certainly doesn't represent my views, and I resent being associated with him because I am against the EU. There is some irony that he has never ever won a seat in the UK, and his voice has been handed to him by Europe. Nigel is not the voice of Leave.

Trev:
The problem I have with these views is that they are mostly ideological. Much like my "I don't believe in Passports". The problem is Passports are a real thing. It doesn't matter if I believe in them or not. At the end of the day, I have to use them to move around. I am a deep pragmatist. What we do matters. Results matter. Yes, beliefs matter, but in the real world, we have to work with other people. The EU may have chosen Proportional Representation over "First Past The Post" seats. That has advantages and disadvantages. South Africa made the same choice. The inability of minority parties to get a voice in the UK is one of the disadvantages. Sustainability, Resource Allocation, and Regulatory Simplicity are all important... but we can't just vote for everyone to agree with us. The EU is much more likely to reform from within. It is better with the UK in it.

Andrew:
I have severe Brexit Fatigue. There are more important issues that which club different Rich countries belong or don't belong to. "Meanwhile in China" the world is carrying on while the Government of the UK grinds to a halt in this big talk shop. Whatever happens, won't change that much anyway. Like the Y2K "Crisis", the Global Financial "Crisis", the news always needs some Armageddon event to keep it entertained. Proper Crises like the World Wars, the resulting global flu pandemics, and the starvations in China and (now) Venezuela are proper things worth worrying about. Not how long it takes to fill in some bloody forms so you can sell your stuff or have to put another sticker on it. Britain "exiting" Europe is like a divorce where the spouses stay living in the same house. It's ridiculous, and we talk about it too much.

Alex:
I would probably change my vote now. I still believe I voted in good conscience the specific question that was asked. I wanted to leave the EU. I didn't want to end Freedom of Movement or any of the other nastinesses that get attributed to me because I think the EU is a bullying Leviathon. I think we have handled the negotiations terribly. Other politicians could have done a better job at negotiating with the EU instead of pandering to them. All the political parties are pretty weak at the moment, at a time when we needed strong leadership.

Trev:
I worry that the price of Brexit is simply a dismantling of the United Kingdom. The real world price of Britain leaving the EU, in my view, is that the UK will be dismantled. Ireland will reunify (I can't see any other solution to the "Backstop" issue) and stay in the EU. Scotland will then be left with a choice between the UK and the EU, and politically I think Scotland is more aligned with the EU. Andrew is probably right that "all will be fine". Relatively speaking, I do think there are bigger issues to worry about. It just makes me sad. I certainly feel that the first few sparks of seeing Britain as an "X years sober" alcoholic are at real risk of quite a few years of falling off the wagon. I am positive. I do think we can sober up again. It just didn't need to be this hard. 

[Alex, Paul, Angela, Stewart, Michelle and Andrew are fictional]

Chengdu

Two thousand years of Imperial Rule ended in China in 1912. A lightly held Republic was established, but that descended into Civil War as "The People" had different views of how to govern. A common foreign enemy in the form of Japan brought temporary alignment before the Civil War resumed after the second World War. Part of the Cold War, in 1949, the Government of the Republic was forced to Taiwan and the Communist Party established the People's Republic. Chengdu is unique as a major settlement that mostly maintained its name through these periods. It means "becoming a Capital". I like that. Cities are the closest thing physical places have to people with limited lives. They may still be there, but like growing children, you have to love them while letting go of each moment as they fundamentally become something else. King Tai said a settlement needed "one year to become a town, two to become a city, and three to become a metropolis". Today Chengdu is home to 14-18 million people depending on your definition of its borders. It is still becoming.

1949 Troops entering Chengdu

ending the Chinese Civil War

Guangzhou

Guangzhou has a 2,200 year history as a Silk Road port. What we think of as "The Age of Discovery" is analogous to an undergraduate University student discovering a philosopher or book they like, and thinking no one else has (literally) every read it. Cities and Ports are always evolving. Domestic (Chinese) migrants from other provinces make up about 40% of Guangzhou's 14-25 million strong population (depending on where you mark the city's edge). Until the Opium Wars forced the opening of other points, it was a single point of entry for most foreign traders. "Canton" derived from Cantão, which was a muddling Portuguese pronunciation of Guangdong (The Province which Guangzhou is the Capital of). Muslim conquests sacked and held the city for a century from 758. Following that, foreign trade came in an out of favour depending on the Emperor. Legal Trade was often restricted to tribute delegations. Eventually, around the 17th century, when the Portuguese became regulars, they were permitted to warehouse their goods at Macau instead of Guangzhou itself. Trade increased under the Canton System as the city gradually became a centre of Global Trade. 

City Montage

Just One Fifty

We have limited capacity. Limited time. Limited attention. Limited energy. The power of this is that we will make different mistakes. Mistakes are the foundation of resilience in an unpredictable world. With perfect knowledge of the future, doing what works again is sensible. With a complex, ambiguous, and uncertain world... small, regular, reversible mistakes are strength. 

Financial Empowerment (Ending Poverty) and Mental Health (Relationship Building) are my areas of focus. In 'Factfulness', Hans Rosling identifies five key threats we are wrestling with. Global Pandemic (the rampant spread of a disease in a connected world), World War (with weapons that could wipe us all out), Financial Meltdown (with the systems that keep us cooperating breaking down), Climate Change (where the resources and environment that sustain us breaks down), and Absolute Poverty (where Billions are excluded from the opportunities our ancestors built). These huge challenges facing 7.5 Billion people seem way to big to wrap our heads and hearts around.

It also means there are 7.5 Billion other heads and hearts facing the same challenges. The resilience, endurance, and creativity can come from everywhere. How do we narrow down and choose our own particular area of focus?

I am attempting to do that by joining others to build a Community of 150 People. 'Dunbar's Number' gives a (relatively arbitrary) number to the limit of our ability to develop stable social relationships. A group of people where you can know everyone, and know how everyone knows everyone. Where you can develop an understanding of the group's values, skills, and knowledge. An understanding of the group's story.

This should allow the ability to put names, faces, and stories to massive problems. Instead of 'X million people' don't have access to electricity, clean water, safety etc., it becomes a person. Mike doesn't have a bank account. Kerishnie doesn't know how to put a C.V. together. Thandiwe is old, and lonely. It also allows relationship building with people to be done in a sensitive, peer-to-peer, way.

We have a horrible history of 'Civilising Missions'. Where people with Saviour Complexes have attempted to spread their truth roughshod over established beliefs and strengths. Helping sensitively is hard. It is a minefield. Not to treating people as problems or projects. Regularly reflecting on the real intentions behind our actions. Unwinding our unknown prejudices.

I believe a group of 150 is sufficiently small for us to stretch ourselves. The 'Six Degrees of Separation' theory, is that all 7.5 Billion of us are connected by just 6 relationships. One knows Two, who knows Three, who knows Four, who knows Five, who knows Six, who knows Seven. That viral spread of knowledge lets what we learn benefit everybody. In a group of 150, we can try get the balance right between Local and Global. Stretching ourselves enough that we don't snap the 'Peer-to-Peer' connection. Enough common ground to see each other, enough different perspective to create a discomfort from which we can learn.

Those big risks we face are daunting. We need to break them down into bites. We need to look after ourselves, and each other. I believe that starts with Community Building. 7.5 Billion people is a lot of people to care for. How would the problem change if you focus on just One Fifty? How would you build that One Fifty?

Six Relationships

Different Context

I am a Soutie. I have one foot in South Africa and one foot in the United Kingdom.  I am not the only one. There are plenty of South Africans all over the world now... the Scatterlings. This is also not uniquely South African. Young people from all over are far less inclined to stick to where they were planted.

South Africans abroad have an additional existential angst though. It can be assumed you have 'left'. That this leaving has reasons. Reasons for staying, and reasons for going, are daily conversations. Even for 'potential Souties' living in South Africa who may live somewhere else too one day. During the later stages of Apartheid, those thinking that the best form of activism they had against the Police State was to leave were derogatorily called PFPs (Packing for Perth). 'Those bloody Liberals'. Ironically now, some (not all) who leave for Australia are still against the State... but the state that replaced the Apartheid State. Rather than just being part of the 'wave of Globalisation', it can be assumed that you are part of that wave. I am not part of that wave. My heart is very much on both sides of the pond.

I regularly bump into people with South African accents. I live in a tiny market village that doubles in population when school is in session. Despite that, there is a South African working at the sweet shop, and another one who owns the pub. The other day I was having a coffee at the Sainsbury's in the neighbouring town of Witney (David Cameron's old constituency) and the couple next to me were having a lekker kuier in deep Afrikaans.

I always find it interesting how hearing one of the many Saffa accents perks up my spirits. Imagine being home and getting excited by someone who had an accent from your country? It is a great conversation starter out of context. In context - everyone blurs... people seem to miss each other and forget that we are individuals too. Or our individuality makes us strangers where out of context it would bring us together.

Our context also defines our triggers. Race is a big part of everyday conversation in South Africa. Because I am so active online, it is also part of my daily conversation. The subtleties of working to overcome Institutionalised Racism mean that being stretched across contexts sometimes makes the blurs meaningful. I hate it when people in the United Kingdom refer to "Africa" as if they are referring to one country. My neck prickles when I hear that song from Live Aid every Christmas. A 1985 Charity Concert raised money for the famine in Ethiopia, but now Africa is deeply associated with that famine. Context even blurs from the outside. 33 years later - "Africa" is a vast continent of change and energy. Addis Ababa (Ethiopia) is 5900 km from London (England). Addis Ababa (Ethiopia) is 5250km away from Cape Town (South Africa). A decent halfway stop. At their closest point, Africa and Europe are 14 km away across the easy to cross-straits of Gilbrator. All of the Mediterranean islands are located on the African continental plate. The Suez Canal is man-made so you can walk if you like. Europe's most fortified land border is in Africa - in Ceuta. Contexts blur where we choose them to blur.

We use emotional stories to sell ideas. Those ideas soak deep. We need to be vigilant in challenging our deep soaked ideas. Sometimes our context blurs and an outside perspective helps. Sometimes the outside perspective is blurred. There are no easy answers. In a connected world, it is more beautiful questions we should be after.

Not 1985, Not One Country

Cost of Living

"Purchase Power Parity" (PPP) is a tool used when comparing the output of two countries. If you just compare the Price, it doesn't compare apples with apples. Since apples don't cost the same in both countries. 

I first dipped my toe into life as a Soutie when I was 18 years old. I had two older brothers at university, and no idea what to study. I hated the idea of having to choose one thing. At school, you could do everything. Apparently being an Adult meant forgetting how to play. I wasn't ready. The bonus of a 'Gap Year' (or two) from the School-University-Work-Retirement-Death machine was that it wouldn't have fees. At that stage, you could get a two year 'working holiday visa' to go the UK. That sounded fun. I earned the plane ticket fee by working at Centre Court Restaurant at the Pavillion in Westville. I then hopped on that plane and went to work at a school in the South of England.

During the 9 week Summer holiday, I took on an extra job at a local hotel as a waiter, and a Night Porter. Scurrying away my pounds like a Hamster, I tried to live as cheaply as possible. The school I was working as an Assistant Teacher (Gap Student) gave me board and lodging. I tried to spend almost nothing.

I particularly remember the first round of drinks I had to buy. In South Africa, I was used to buying drinks for people. But normally on a one to one basis. In the UK, it seemed drinking was more of a Rugby match than a Tennis match. A Team Sport. One round cost me the same as the most I had ever spent on booze.

When I got back to South Africa, my Pounds were magically converted into Rands. I felt like a Millionaire. The opposite of the punch to the stomach when you reached the bar, it felt like I was being given the beer. "Thinking in Pounds" gave me a spring in my step. The Barmy Army felt the same, and made up a song called "We're so rich it's unbelievable".

Barmy Banter - a Donkey taunting the Army

"The Law of One Price" is the idea that without friction, and with free competition, the same thing should cost the same everywhere. The "Law" doesn't work. In reality, prices are local, and the cost of living differs in different communities. Money is a story, and stories are local. Even within a country, the cost of living differs in different places. Every community has a different "Entry Ticket".

Financial Security depends at least as much on the outs as the ins. It depends more on the outs than the ins. Someone who gets control of their outs, and can get that sustainably below their ins, is in a much better position than someone with big ins but outsized outs.

Often ins and outs end up matching. Working is expensive. We have to pay to live close to work, perhaps put kids in school close to work, and we end up having to 'buy our round'. Buying your round may not be how you want to spend your money, but you end up being forced to because that is what everyone around you is doing, and where the people you want to be around are.

It is hard to get control of your ins and outs by yourself. Financial Security is also a team sport.

Ins and Outs

Mumbai

Some people get Microwave Ovens as wedding gifts. Bombaim means good little Bay in Portuguese. In 1661, Charles II of England was given the seven islands of Bombay, when he married the daughter of the King of Portugal. The indigenous people of the islands were the Koli. Places became the personal property of Monarchs. Never mind who lived there. The King leased the islands (which then had a population of around 10,000 people) to the East India Company. Major roads, railways, and reclamation projects transformed Bombay into a significant port on the Arabian Sea. Economic and Educational development lead to the City becoming a central point in the Indian Independence Movement. In 1995, the City was renamed Mumbai. Mumbadevi is the patron goddess of the Koli people. It is now one of the top ten centres of global financial flows, generating more than 6% of India's GDP. The business opportunities attract migrants from all over India (more Continent than Country with a population of 1.3 Billion) making Mumbai a melting pot like many Global Cities around the world. It now has a population of between 12 and 21 million people, depending on the boundaries you believe in.

Mumba Devi Temple

One to One

I feel most alive when I am engaging with someone else. When I am having a good Kuier. I like doing my blog and recording video blogs. That is when I think aloud, in the hope that it sparks discussion and Kuiering. They can act as a catalyst to real-world interaction. That is what I love. I think I include Skype chats in real-world interaction. As a Global Citizen, I am a scatterling. Face to face interactions and hugs are a treat. The benefit of Skype Chats is the conversation is two-way. I also get to listen. Reading is a form of listening, but it restricts our view of someone to their filtered view of themselves. Listening is a revealing dance. If you fancy a Skype Chat, drop me a line.

España y Sudáfrica

Durante mucho tiempo, España fue la potencia mundial dominante. Crecí en Sudáfrica, donde cualquier impacto duradero no es inmediatamente obvio. España dominó las Américas hasta una combinación del movimiento de independencia después de Napoleón y la Guerra Hispanoamericana de 1898. Sudáfrica también fue afectada por la Guerra Napoleónica. Fue entonces cuando Gran Bretaña miró al sur. Llegaron los 1820 Settlers y comenzó una serie de Anglo-Somebody Wars hasta que se formó la Unión de Sudáfrica en 1910. Para entonces, España ya no era un gran negocio. Creo que entender el colonialismo español ayudará a entender los pasos necesarios para ayudar a sanar mi propia patria.

Guerra hispano-estadounidense

Bordered Tongues

A pet-peeve of a lot of South Africans, including myself, is when people speak of Africa as if it is one country, or one place separate from the rest of the world. Africa is HUGE. The distance from Tunis on the Mediterranean coast to Cape Town on the Southern Tip is about 8,000 km as the crow flies. That is about the same distance as Amsterdam to Beijing. If you have visited Beijing, you haven't visited Amsterdam. If you have visited Tunis, you haven't visited Cape Town.

The problem is this peeve also works both ways. A friend of mine is working on a project where a lot of business is done in Africa. That is the corporate definition of their area of interest. When he joins conference calls, they will often switch from Arabic to French. Neither of these will be their local language, but they will speak both fluently. My friend speaks neither, so then asks (slightly embarrassed) for them to swap to English. Again, fluently.

Swahili is the widest spoken African language. As Arabic and Persian traders started dealing with Africa a trading language was needed. For the equivalent of my friends business meetings - but a long time ago. It was originally written in Arabic Script. While it is now the first language of about 3-15 million people, it is spoken by about 100 million people.

My friend has started French lessons. Many non-English first language Europeans are adept at picking up new tongues, and training their ears to understand variations. This is like the many skillful linguists in South Africa which has 11 official languages. The 'borders' of these official languages were artificially created as languages were built up as one of the blocks of Nation States.

The reality is that language is as full of flavour as people. People don't stay still and don't fit into categories. To truly see, and hear, people... language needs to go back to the kitchen. Adding to your vocabulary can't stop once you have 'finished' mastering your home tongue. Your tongue needs to move with you.

A (small) start is saying someone's name the way they want to be greeted - rather than giving them a name that doesn't need any effort from you.

Language Families

Abundance v Scarcity

1801 Map of the World - Mercator Projection

Economics is the study of scarcity. In a world with limited resources, how do we maximise the production, consumption and transfer of wealth for the best possible outcome? Times change, and change dramatically. In 1800, the world's population was less than 1 Billion. Resources were abundant, what we needed was scarce. It is now at 7.6 Billion, and some estimates see us topping out at around 11 Billion. Parts of this explosion has come from massive changes in how much stuff we can make, and how well we can deal with death and diseases. The question of how can we grow enough, shifts to what is enough?  The mindset is completely different. Saying I have enough, allows you to shift your attention to others. Rather than production, consumption, and transfer... study shifts to sustainability, custodianship, and interdependence. Learning to thrive. Learning to share. The study of Sustainable Abundance.

Authagraph Projection

Homelands and Nation States

Apartheid involved the creation of Homelands for people of specific ethnic groups - creating homogenous Nation States. The idea fed off the post World War I dismantling of Empires, and post World War II dismantling of Colonialism. The idea of self-determination requires defining 'The People' in exclusionary terms. Four of South Africa's Bantustans (Bantu means People, -stan means land in the Persian language) were declared independent, although this was not recognised outside South Africa. Europe was also divided into new Nation States over the last 100 years. This involved population swaps, and standardisation of religion and language. The European Union project is in part an attempt to unwind the consequences. 

Homelands at the end of Apartheid in 1994

The long-term plan of creating these Homelands in South Africa was to strip Black South Africans of their South African citizenship. To stop them coming in (to "take control of the borders"). The philosophical connection was made to the separation in 1947 of Pakistan (i.e. -stan) and India, effectively into Muslim and Hindu states. Estimates of the deaths related to the partition of the British Raj are between 250,000 and 1.5 million. In South Africa, it is estimated that 3.5 million people were forcibly resettled to the Bantustans in the 1960s through to the 1980s. The allocation of people to homelands was fairly arbitrary - especially where people had never visited "where they came from" or had parents from different groups. The tying of people to land has been bloody.

British Indian Empire ("British Raj")

1858-1947

South Africa was still reliant on the labour of the Black Population. As in a world where we are now comfortable with the free movement of goods, capital and services. It is the free movement of people that aren't the same as us that seems to cause concern. Eventually, the White South African government capitulated...

"every effort to turn the tide [of black workers] streaming into the urban areas failed. It does not help to bluff ourselves about this. The economy demands the permanent presence of the majority of blacks in urban areas ... They cannot stay in South Africa year after year without political representation."

F.W. de Klerk on 1987 National Party general election campaign