In order to elaborate on the educational excursions in the rural homestay, I will write from my journal...it's easier! So...

Traditional Authority Visit--

Hawu! We lucked out today at the tribal court, because we were able to witness a case study of the sturggle to implement effective, equitable development plans. Sports Cities International, in cooperation with Cricket South Africa are proposing a massive development on the Amacambini tribal authority's land. The CEO's of SCI pitched their project to the council and inkose (chief), which was--to say the least--amusing. I made several interesting observations about how the whole thing went down...

1. The set up of the meeting room is clearly a reflection of the non-democratic nature of the council. The inkosi sits in a plush swivel chair on a platform about 1 1/2 feet elevated above the level of the chairs for the rest of the council members. his desk is even an inch or so taller than that of his right-hand man, whose job I assume to be something like a scribe.

2. The presenters from Dubai were petrified. They looked extremely uncomfortable during the presentation, especially when we started asking challenging questions about their development's affect on the local residents.

3. The presentation was entirely in english--when clearly some of the council members had limited use of the english language, and all would have been better able to understand a presentation in Zulu.

4. The presentation and videos clearly depicted the resorts, spas, first class athletic facilities, and ritzy residential apartments, with an inflammatory consumerist rhetoric. Meanwhile, it blatantly ignored the effect on the local community--what really matters. I highly doubt, for instance, that my family here will be able to (and I quote) "spend every day of the rest of your lavish life in paradise," or live "a life of ease and fulfillment" because of this project.

5. The only voluntary mention of aid to local communities was vague and ambiguous--referring to "houses," "employment," and "business opportunities." When I asked them to elaborate on these business opportunities, the response was about jobs created in "5-star" hotels and shopping malls. This is not exactly what I think of when I hear "business opportunities"--getting a job in someone else's already thriving business doesn't do much for a person in terms of economic advancement and empowerment!

6. Luckily, the Xhosa presenter realized the real meaning of the question, and responded that "employment opportunities" was an outdated term in South Africa (halleluiah!), and that business opportunities would appear in the form of new markets for agricultural and other goods, and transportation services (from the influx of athletes that would use these facilities). While I'm still not convinced this will be the development miracle that they claim, at least he had an answer that was relevant to the question I asked.

7. On that note, it is clear that ideological disconnects abound in this development project. For one, the nature of the presentation made it abundantly clear that the men from Dubai don't really have th ebest interest of the people of Amacambini as a top priority. There is yet another disconnect from the developers to the council, mainly regarding the level of discourse going on. It seemed to me that many aspects of the presentation may have been unclear to some members of the council, due to the dual language barriers of English and Economics. The lack of serious questions and comments from the council astounded me, and gave the impression that they really didn't understand the ramifications of this development decision--which is quite scary to me.

8. At the end of the presentation, the inkosi made some token statements about his skepticism regarding the project, but I believed these to be mostly demonstrations of power rather than actual concern. He said, "don't talk to me about compensating me when you need my land! I will tell you how much I want for it!" This was consistent with the inkosi's repeated mention of the fact that "everyone has a voice," tempered with the ultimate fact tha the was the one making the real decisions.

With all of these observations, and through discussions with other students, I realized the reality of this situation--this development is going to happen--they always do when money = power. It's a shameful pattern tha plays out on a daily basis in the development world, and this is yet another case of the same-old, same-old.

Shame.

Taxi's here--more later!!