those of you in the know may already know south africa is going through a public sector strike. public workers differ here in some ways from back in the states. they're also the same in many ways. here in south africa, some hospitals operate under the government as do schools. so a strike not only sends children home requiring their parents to stay home with them but it cripples hospitals. and not to disparage africa's public sector but i'm not going out on a limb when i say that the public sector wasn't doing so hot to start with. the post office queues are like watching the grass grow. car registration already had a backup of months with cars sitting on lots, sold but unable to be given to their owners.
in slow stages, more and more of the public workers are striking demanding a 12% pay increase to account for inflation. the government only wants to pay out 6%. at one point the offer went up to 7%. no dice.
one thing i haven't spoken about enough is that protests are not uncommon in this country. lots of frustration leads to lots of protesting and the protests are on the news frequently. while in the states, protests involve angrily waving pickets, angrily walking in circles, and angrily shouting through loudspeakers, protests here have dancing. it's called "toi-toi-ing" and it has moves and songs that go along with it. so it's kind of a different feel.
but that's only when things are going well. when things go worse, it goes way worse.
the resentment that has formed between public workers that strike and those who don't has resulted in an almost irish-factory-worker-esque "don't cross the picket line" mentality. some striking teachers and workers are going to work and beating up those that are working. one hospital had its drains blocked and then faucets left on to flood the place. tragically counterproductive.
last week the koombi drives (not in the public sector) striked in sympathy. this left kitchens unstaffed all over kwazulu-natal. 90% of restaurants have stayed closed or closed early.
next week things may get worse. police haven't joined the strike but they've threatened to join in eventually if the 12% isn't met soon. so far, the military has stepped in to try to help out in hospitals where nurses are providing only a skeleton crew. but the military (i've heard) wants an 18% pay hike... so if the cops walk, who knows what will happen. i think nobody expects it to go that far. BUT. one thing i picked up on quickly here is that a lot of people believe that the government is sitting on piles of cash. with such a high tax-rate, they argue, where is all the money going? bear in mind, south africa doesn't have the borrowing power that the united states has. we don't print our own money here. the world cup has allowed south africa a lot of leeway but it only goes so far as people believe in their investment. a nation of striking workers demanding what their government can't give them... well you do the math.
the difference in people is exemplified by the scene as well. the public sector is largely black while the private sector... else. striking never occurred under the "old" government and it highlights shortcomings of the current government and even the direction of the country. others just don't understand why the government won't give it's people the raise necessitated by inflation.
one last thought. the inflation is caused by rising oil prices. rising oil prices which are being caused by a war in iraq headed by the united states. the cause and effect relationship isn't talked about as such here. or at least i haven't heard it yet.
Sunday, June 17, 2007
Saturday, June 9, 2007
Let's Beer It for Here!
joelene's been sick so i've had some time to myself. i figured i need to go out to the midlands to stock up on flavored coffees and so i did. the place that sells the flavored coffee is called 'the wine cellar' and it's tucked away pretty deep towards the end of the meander. i should take a picture of this place because it's so cozy. wine bottles EVERYWHERE many just going bad (or "going off" as they would say here).
the "i should take a picture" thing brings me to my first tangent. it took me two weeks but i've managed to place an order for a new cell phone. one with a camera. a 3.2 megapixel camera to be exact so the days of me forgetting my camera shall soon be over. getting my hands on a good camera was quite an ordeal. unlike in the states where you walk into a store and walk out with a phone 30 minutes later, here, no matter who you are, you need to provide a copy of your lease agreement or proof of residence as well as three months bank statements. no exceptions. now i can understand how people can walk in from some township, get a phone and disappear and never make their payments again but it is harder to get a phone than it is to buy a car. and here's a quote from a phone salesman: "a phone is easier to take out of the country". does everyone understand that one? good. vodocom wasn't satisfied that i had a letter hand-signed by one of my personal bankers at redlands saying, he hasn't been banking for three months but he's a on ok bloke. mtn didn't like that my work visa would expire before my 24 month contract would be up (in fact, they couldn't even figure out my work visa at first). so i've ordered the phone through my company. they'll deduct the bill from my paycheck. now i just sit and wait. expect to be inundated with pictures... until i'm robbed and lose the phone.
i bought a bottle of port and... 9 bottles of begian beer! after 3 months, i've finally found belgian beer. let's talk beer.
the beers that run the show here are 'heineken' (pilsner), 'caslte' (lager), 'hansa' (pilsner) and 'carling black label' (lager). now, similar to "mum deoderant" and "lux soap", carling black label is a product i'm familiar with thanks to my time with old time radio. it's not really popular in the states but the english love it so it sells here.
i'm not exactly sure how it all works but i think there's a little problem with south african breweries buying out other breweries and smothering the competition. i think hansa had leased the rights to brew heineken here but now heineken has pulled the contract saying that hansa is getting too big because of this deal. on a side note, namibia brews a 'windhoek' lager that isn't hard to find. but it's all megabrewed. so for the first many weeks here it was all lager and pilsner unless i bought something from the one local brewery (about a 30 minute drive from here) nottingham road brewery. they make a brown ale (whistling weasel) that is rich in flavor. tastes like home. few people believe that in the usa there is a huge selection of ales. nottingham road also makes a stout as does castle (milk stout). both are 7s out of 10 compared to guinness and mackeson being 10s and 11s. nottingham road only makes four beers typically. they had a pink beer i've heard last year and they commonly will come out with a fifth beer for a couple months... baited breath.
at the last company month-end drinks and dinner, kevin, who was in charge of beer couldn't find any heineken (due to that licensing problem) so he grabbed a bunch of tall 'bavaria' cans. the only wheat beer so far that i've found in this country modeled after the german style of brewing but made here in south africa. so that made me a little happier even though i've never been nuts for weisens.
but today i found three types of belgian beers at the wine cellar. duvel with it's requisite high alcohol level and two others; a golden and a brown. not cheap. they not only would cost less in the states but this duvel isn't the quality of belgian beer that you can get at trader joe's. sigh... this duvel doesn't have any yeast in the bottle so no master pour to show off to my friends. i've already taken the bottle to boozies the local liquor store across the street to say "get this beer here!". they must think the world of me there.
i also bought a bottle of south african port. here's the itemized receipt: 5 duvels. 4 other belgian beers, 750grams of gourmet coffee and a bottle of quality port. "see you next week" i said as i left.
this little mom and pops store has people walking out with multiple boxes of wine and booze. amazing. it's getting cold in south africa so this is one way to stay warm eh? it's now sunday evening and i've just cracked one of the duvels. very very good stuff. very creamy head on it, with the sweet very belgian flavor. not as good as the two beers that you can get at trader joes but i'm very happy still.
after leaving the wine cellar i stopped in at 'gunthers'. a small german eatery on a hillside overlooking some of the midlands rolling hills. the menu includes german sausages served on a roll with potatoes. i got a cheese sausage and spoke with the owner, gunther. he was in germany for world cup. we spoke about the night and day differences between germany and south africa. trains that run on time without interruption versus south africa's lack of a train system (or public transportation for that matter). gunther used to work in south africa's transport planning or something and he spoke to me extensively about suggestions he had for fixing the transportation problem in joburg and all of south africa. i had to explain that my job consists of design and not planning. it took me 1,5 hours to finish just the sausage and as i left a couple showed up and ordered 7 sausages between the two of them.
in other news, the public workers here are still striking demanding a 12% pay increase. whilst the upper-eschelon officials are giving themselves larger pay increases, they argue there's not enough money for the 12% raises. they did offer 6.5% but it was rejected. whilst there are plenty of similarities between the usa and s.a., the differences leap out at you during a worker strike. the strikers include teachers as well as the nurses at government run hospitals. deaths have been recorded due to lack of hospital workers and some people are losing sympathy for the strikers. also schools are closed and bridgit has brought her son to work the past couple of days. here's where south africa acts a little different from the usa (and more like ireland) with its strikes. here, teachers that are striking are going to work... to beat up teachers that aren't striking. the strike gets extra momentum when people are afraid to not strike.
also, i had a thought today: this country is renaming many of its streets to reflect its african pride / government. problem is the previous white government that named the streets previously had a serious lack of imagination. when someone gives you directions, the street names in howick can also be found in maritzburg and even durban (remember durban has 5 umgeni roads). so the result is directions that make you want to kill yourself. maps either don't have the street names people are giving you or worse the street signs don't match your map. also, it's not like the new government is renaming the ENTIRE street. in some case, just a few blocks get renamed. street names that change several times without you making a turn is not uncommon.
OR
today, in howick i took a right turn from "link road" onto a street called "hayfields road" (why name a street after a neighboring town?!). the street took a little loop and ended back up on itself. here's the crazy part: i did a u-turn and instead of finding myself on "hayfields road" again, i was on "tweedy road". address numbers started at 1 but before they even got to 4, the street took a little left turn and address numbers started at 1 again as the street name changed to "hyslop road". note that "hyslop road" also exists in maritzburg as does "link road".
so that's my story about roads. my new cell phone is gps enabled should i decide that i should shell out for the software. as i venture further out of pmb, i'll consider the option more feasible.
ok, tomorrow i'm gonna run to work for the second time tomorrow morning. hopefully a faster time this time... wish me luck and pray for my knees.
to wrap up, word got out in the office about my blog about my office. i never expected anyone in south africa to spend the time reading about my time in south africa... live and learn. maybe i now have some explaining to do? hopefully nobody found anything too scandalous or disagreeable in there.
as always, stay tuned for future drama!
the "i should take a picture" thing brings me to my first tangent. it took me two weeks but i've managed to place an order for a new cell phone. one with a camera. a 3.2 megapixel camera to be exact so the days of me forgetting my camera shall soon be over. getting my hands on a good camera was quite an ordeal. unlike in the states where you walk into a store and walk out with a phone 30 minutes later, here, no matter who you are, you need to provide a copy of your lease agreement or proof of residence as well as three months bank statements. no exceptions. now i can understand how people can walk in from some township, get a phone and disappear and never make their payments again but it is harder to get a phone than it is to buy a car. and here's a quote from a phone salesman: "a phone is easier to take out of the country". does everyone understand that one? good. vodocom wasn't satisfied that i had a letter hand-signed by one of my personal bankers at redlands saying, he hasn't been banking for three months but he's a on ok bloke. mtn didn't like that my work visa would expire before my 24 month contract would be up (in fact, they couldn't even figure out my work visa at first). so i've ordered the phone through my company. they'll deduct the bill from my paycheck. now i just sit and wait. expect to be inundated with pictures... until i'm robbed and lose the phone.
i bought a bottle of port and... 9 bottles of begian beer! after 3 months, i've finally found belgian beer. let's talk beer.
the beers that run the show here are 'heineken' (pilsner), 'caslte' (lager), 'hansa' (pilsner) and 'carling black label' (lager). now, similar to "mum deoderant" and "lux soap", carling black label is a product i'm familiar with thanks to my time with old time radio. it's not really popular in the states but the english love it so it sells here.i'm not exactly sure how it all works but i think there's a little problem with south african breweries buying out other breweries and smothering the competition. i think hansa had leased the rights to brew heineken here but now heineken has pulled the contract saying that hansa is getting too big because of this deal. on a side note, namibia brews a 'windhoek' lager that isn't hard to find. but it's all megabrewed. so for the first many weeks here it was all lager and pilsner unless i bought something from the one local brewery (about a 30 minute drive from here) nottingham road brewery. they make a brown ale (whistling weasel) that is rich in flavor. tastes like home. few people believe that in the usa there is a huge selection of ales. nottingham road also makes a stout as does castle (milk stout). both are 7s out of 10 compared to guinness and mackeson being 10s and 11s. nottingham road only makes four beers typically. they had a pink beer i've heard last year and they commonly will come out with a fifth beer for a couple months... baited breath.
at the last company month-end drinks and dinner, kevin, who was in charge of beer couldn't find any heineken (due to that licensing problem) so he grabbed a bunch of tall 'bavaria' cans. the only wheat beer so far that i've found in this country modeled after the german style of brewing but made here in south africa. so that made me a little happier even though i've never been nuts for weisens.
but today i found three types of belgian beers at the wine cellar. duvel with it's requisite high alcohol level and two others; a golden and a brown. not cheap. they not only would cost less in the states but this duvel isn't the quality of belgian beer that you can get at trader joe's. sigh... this duvel doesn't have any yeast in the bottle so no master pour to show off to my friends. i've already taken the bottle to boozies the local liquor store across the street to say "get this beer here!". they must think the world of me there.
i also bought a bottle of south african port. here's the itemized receipt: 5 duvels. 4 other belgian beers, 750grams of gourmet coffee and a bottle of quality port. "see you next week" i said as i left.
this little mom and pops store has people walking out with multiple boxes of wine and booze. amazing. it's getting cold in south africa so this is one way to stay warm eh? it's now sunday evening and i've just cracked one of the duvels. very very good stuff. very creamy head on it, with the sweet very belgian flavor. not as good as the two beers that you can get at trader joes but i'm very happy still.
after leaving the wine cellar i stopped in at 'gunthers'. a small german eatery on a hillside overlooking some of the midlands rolling hills. the menu includes german sausages served on a roll with potatoes. i got a cheese sausage and spoke with the owner, gunther. he was in germany for world cup. we spoke about the night and day differences between germany and south africa. trains that run on time without interruption versus south africa's lack of a train system (or public transportation for that matter). gunther used to work in south africa's transport planning or something and he spoke to me extensively about suggestions he had for fixing the transportation problem in joburg and all of south africa. i had to explain that my job consists of design and not planning. it took me 1,5 hours to finish just the sausage and as i left a couple showed up and ordered 7 sausages between the two of them.
in other news, the public workers here are still striking demanding a 12% pay increase. whilst the upper-eschelon officials are giving themselves larger pay increases, they argue there's not enough money for the 12% raises. they did offer 6.5% but it was rejected. whilst there are plenty of similarities between the usa and s.a., the differences leap out at you during a worker strike. the strikers include teachers as well as the nurses at government run hospitals. deaths have been recorded due to lack of hospital workers and some people are losing sympathy for the strikers. also schools are closed and bridgit has brought her son to work the past couple of days. here's where south africa acts a little different from the usa (and more like ireland) with its strikes. here, teachers that are striking are going to work... to beat up teachers that aren't striking. the strike gets extra momentum when people are afraid to not strike.
also, i had a thought today: this country is renaming many of its streets to reflect its african pride / government. problem is the previous white government that named the streets previously had a serious lack of imagination. when someone gives you directions, the street names in howick can also be found in maritzburg and even durban (remember durban has 5 umgeni roads). so the result is directions that make you want to kill yourself. maps either don't have the street names people are giving you or worse the street signs don't match your map. also, it's not like the new government is renaming the ENTIRE street. in some case, just a few blocks get renamed. street names that change several times without you making a turn is not uncommon.
OR
today, in howick i took a right turn from "link road" onto a street called "hayfields road" (why name a street after a neighboring town?!). the street took a little loop and ended back up on itself. here's the crazy part: i did a u-turn and instead of finding myself on "hayfields road" again, i was on "tweedy road". address numbers started at 1 but before they even got to 4, the street took a little left turn and address numbers started at 1 again as the street name changed to "hyslop road". note that "hyslop road" also exists in maritzburg as does "link road".
so that's my story about roads. my new cell phone is gps enabled should i decide that i should shell out for the software. as i venture further out of pmb, i'll consider the option more feasible.ok, tomorrow i'm gonna run to work for the second time tomorrow morning. hopefully a faster time this time... wish me luck and pray for my knees.
to wrap up, word got out in the office about my blog about my office. i never expected anyone in south africa to spend the time reading about my time in south africa... live and learn. maybe i now have some explaining to do? hopefully nobody found anything too scandalous or disagreeable in there.
as always, stay tuned for future drama!
Monday, June 4, 2007
I Bollywood If I Could (Sari About the Pillai on Words)
well thanks to joelene, i've come across another gem of south africa. the gem: indian theater. up until last weekend, my only serious exposure (not counting eating dinner at 'falafal house' in downtown s.c.) to bollywood or indian music videos was the episode of the simpsons where abu stays with the simpsons.
that all changed dramatically this last weekend. y'see, joelene's position as p.a. to the ceo of umgeni water gets her all kinds of perks. umgeni water has boxes at all the sports stadia in durban and she's always being given tickets to shows. this time she took them, we hopped in my car and off we went to durban.
at dinner beforehand, i learned what i already knew. i can't eat spicy food. everyone in this country must grow up nursing off of a chilli pepper or something because nothing fazes the indian population around here and the sauces are created accordingly. this chain, "mugg & bean", had four sauces and joelene just put the hottest one on her french fries (chips) like it was ketchup (tomato paste). i had one fry and couldn't eat for five minutes. it hurt to breath.
before the show, we waited in the foyer and i played one of my favorite games, "find a white person", while i sat with joelene and slowly sipped my second jack daniels on the rocks in 15 minutes. why the sudden interest in booze? the synopsis made me do it: something like, "when the star of the show quits a week before opening night, the director must find a replacement. but the replacement is inexperienced so the director insists he must attend a film and acting school first." the plot turned out to be totally irrelevant. the whole thing was a vehicle for everyone to lip-sync and dance along to famous bollywood songs. the dancing was AMAZING. hours and hours of it, all of the indian hand-thingy style. the costumes were constantly changing and that was the show's one hiccup. instead of having one or two people come out and dance while everyone else was changing, they'd have dialogue. i might be the only one complaining though seeing as i might've been the only one who didn't get the impersonations of all the famous bollywood actors. the film ended where the whole school sequence was just a dream he had after falling asleep the moment after having the conversation about going to attend "famous film school". i think. it was complicated.
one last thing to comment on was that the cast was mixed. it had several black women and men and even a white girl. regardless of skin color, almost all of them at one point had to lip-sync the words of some of the songs in hindi. but while they could all do the indian style moves, make no mistake, it was the indian girls (and guys) who could really really move their feet and hands. anyone that comes here has to experience one of these shows.
that all changed dramatically this last weekend. y'see, joelene's position as p.a. to the ceo of umgeni water gets her all kinds of perks. umgeni water has boxes at all the sports stadia in durban and she's always being given tickets to shows. this time she took them, we hopped in my car and off we went to durban.
at dinner beforehand, i learned what i already knew. i can't eat spicy food. everyone in this country must grow up nursing off of a chilli pepper or something because nothing fazes the indian population around here and the sauces are created accordingly. this chain, "mugg & bean", had four sauces and joelene just put the hottest one on her french fries (chips) like it was ketchup (tomato paste). i had one fry and couldn't eat for five minutes. it hurt to breath.
before the show, we waited in the foyer and i played one of my favorite games, "find a white person", while i sat with joelene and slowly sipped my second jack daniels on the rocks in 15 minutes. why the sudden interest in booze? the synopsis made me do it: something like, "when the star of the show quits a week before opening night, the director must find a replacement. but the replacement is inexperienced so the director insists he must attend a film and acting school first." the plot turned out to be totally irrelevant. the whole thing was a vehicle for everyone to lip-sync and dance along to famous bollywood songs. the dancing was AMAZING. hours and hours of it, all of the indian hand-thingy style. the costumes were constantly changing and that was the show's one hiccup. instead of having one or two people come out and dance while everyone else was changing, they'd have dialogue. i might be the only one complaining though seeing as i might've been the only one who didn't get the impersonations of all the famous bollywood actors. the film ended where the whole school sequence was just a dream he had after falling asleep the moment after having the conversation about going to attend "famous film school". i think. it was complicated.
one last thing to comment on was that the cast was mixed. it had several black women and men and even a white girl. regardless of skin color, almost all of them at one point had to lip-sync the words of some of the songs in hindi. but while they could all do the indian style moves, make no mistake, it was the indian girls (and guys) who could really really move their feet and hands. anyone that comes here has to experience one of these shows.
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