Refugees- with a lost cause?

I cannot believe how many strong men I have met who have moved to my country in search of a better life. The question I am forced to ask myself is ‘have they found it?’ My friend David Erasmus (www.daviderasmus.com) keeps telling me how important it is to tell stories. But there are so many stories in South Africa that I am intimidated an unsure where to start. Many of us feel despondent as the strong French accented refugee glares across the parking lot at us- as we hurry into our cars to avoid tipping him.

I am not despondent because he is there, but rather because in most cases he is over qualified and underutilised as a parking guard.

My friend Gisele and I always manage to get each others blood pumping for change…

‘The other night after we went dancing in Long street we met a tall dark and puffy eyed man. He had been guarding our car as we danced our cares away… Sadly his cares could not be danced away like ours. If you have no home and work all night, where do you sleep? Any way, I can’t remember his name but his kind face is so clear in my memory. I asked what he had done before he left the DRC; “I am an artist, I work with oil on canvas- but its too expensive here and I send most of my money home” he answered.

I thought about my abandoned paint box and uncoloured canvasses and was ashamed that my neglected hobby was too expensive for a strong man, twice my age and twice my size.

How frustrating it must be. An artist without canvass and paint, a father without children and a husband without a wife. A son without a mother. When you leave your family for the hope of South Africa, you leave everything. Sadly so many have left everything in search of something and have found nothing. How can you go home empty handed? How can you get home without a pay cheque? How can you survive in a country that is not your home and is not the land of milk and honey you expected?

Gisele and I started to think about our role in solving this problem… We chatted late into the night about the power of information and the power of networking. We found only two organisations that provide refugees with information and both had lost steam after the xenophobia had calmed down… Who will tell these men and woman their rights? Who will show them the way to be part of the South African economy? Perhaps we will.

 

Roslyn: 20, homeless and pregnant.

I am challenging my development economics students to examine their prejudice along income lines. South Africans so often lead lives above and below one very distinctive income line. The top 5% and then all the rest… Broad-based Black Economic Empowerment has made sure that this is no longer a colour line and yet the rainbow nation has difficulty looking beyond ‘class’. For the top 5% it has become too easy to meet, work and socialise with people who are also privileged.

I asked my class of 18 students how many of them have made friends with someone who couldn’t afford to take them out for coffee. None of them had.

I challenged all of us to meet and befriend someone with a story opposed to someone with an income. The following week was filled with jubilant discussion of tales that crossed all kinds of class and prejudice lines: “Nothando the housekeeper, who lets white people call her Irene”, “John the Rwandan teacher and entrepreneur, who has been here for 7 years with his wife and children”, “Peter the Congolese engineer, who hates his f*ing job as a parking guard”.

Challenging them had also challenged me. I couldn’t remember one sustained friendship I had with someone who earned substantially less than me. Oh, except for Pumla, my housekeeper.

I hit the street; and that is where I met Roslyn. You may have bumped into her before and shooed her away as she asked you for some spare change. She works Long street in Town rather than Main road Kenilworth*. It was nearing 9pm when she asked me for some “coins or food”.

I asked if she had some time to tell me her story in exchange for a milkshake at Pickwick’s. She agreed and some time after that we became friends, exchanged numbers (she gave me the name of her shelter, I gave her a business card) and enjoyed each others company. We chatted for over an hour about life, love and how expensive food was becoming. The waitress was taken aback at first; Roslyn was usually chased away from places like these, but after she realised how intently we were chatting she chilled out.

To be honest I haven’t heard from Roslyn yet, she said she would call in the next three weeks, maybe she would know the babies sex by then, but no word yet. I have forgotten the shelter’s name (like most other rich arseholes would) and I miss her.

*Long street in Cape Town is know for being home to street kids, refugees and beggars, Main Road Kenilworth is know for Prostitution.

 

Kids can teach themselves.

This is the most inspiring story that really makes me believe that there is hope for our young and growing population.

 

Yet Another Overpriced CSI conference??

On my Kulula fight from Joburg to Cape Town yesterday, I was completely entranced by the January issue of Financial Mail. Making head or tail of the Rand is an informative and simply put explanation of exchange rate fluctuations, international market competition and their effects on South Africa’s economic growth for 2010. After skimming over the benefits of Solar Power and diving into an article presenting ‘private schooling as a township enterprise that can transform the academic landscape of our country’- I happened upon an advert for yet another CSI conference.

In the Broad Based Black Economic Empowerment climate of the South African economy, it is no wonder that companies- previously focussed on profit maximising- are confused as government forces them to invest socially. The legislature forcing companies to become compliant in a developing economy is not only costly but also intricate. This has unleashed a wave of companies advertising themselves as CSI guru’s and triple BEE experts. Not only do they promise to advocate responsible charities and initiatives for your company to invest in, but they also provide expensive corporate conferences for CSI crash courses.

As corporate companies send various representatives to be wined and dined on a roughly five-thousand-rand two day excursion, CSI guru’s lap up exorbitant profits for telling them how and where to spill over their CSI spend. I am enraged when I think about a conference advocating investment in certain charities as well dressed and neatly pressed droids lap up a free lunch and leave early.

I know that the value in assisting companies to manage their CSI spend effectively cannot be measured, but surely at over half a million in profit…

I am not sure if it is them charging so much that enrages me or rather that they are just all these suits deciding who to write a check to. I want to hear about companies getting their hands dirty and really investing in change. Not just dishing out a percentage in profit but rather gaining an understanding of how social investment can actually be profitable for them in the long run. I want to see large corporation inspiring small businesses to be better and to push harder.

A weeping African woman examines some kind of plant as Creative Space Media advertise their CSI conference on “Serious Social Investing”. Their catchphrase is ‘If you book just one CSI learning event for 2010, let this be it’. I am forced to ask myself Why? Why this one? The advertised guest speakers are awesome and yet the conference looks like just another overpriced CSI conference?

But then my business mind gets the best of me and I am forced to ask myself, why shouldn’t they charge a lot? They are making a business of directing large sums of misappropriated funds that government forces companies to spend each year towards initiatives that can actually make a change?

These are two conferences, if you have the budget, to think about attending this year…

http://www.tshikululu.org.za/events/serious-social-investing-conference/

http://www.trialogue.co.za/conference2010.html

 

Cape Town International Airport

The latest improvements to Cape Town International Airport are truly inspired. I was pleasantly surprised to discover the “international standard” of Cape Town’s new and improved airport building. The beginning of my short trip to Durban and Johannesburg this week was met with the tangible benefits of the 2010 World Cup. A clean and efficient departures terminal led me speedily through one of six security check points into a spacious hub of airport activity. Coffee shops, book stores, curios and smiling staff made waiting for my flight seem like bonus moments at the local mall.

Sitting in a hard but comfortable ‘silver’ chair in the spacious foyer of Gate C6, I fondly remembered the windswept, dusty and overcrowded temporary departures tent. As I sat there, I could not help but smile to myself, I could finally see where the money was going, I was so proud, so excited.

In fact, I almost reached beneath my seat to retrieve a royal blue vuvu-zela. Welcome soccer, welcome tourists, and welcome tangible change.

 

The Boy Who Harnessed The Wind.

Can you imagine living in the middle of no where, no electricity, no running water? William Kamkwamba found himself in this situation, in an isolated part of Malawi. Inspired by a book he discovered in the local library, Willian began experimenting with wind power to provide light for his family. This led him to collect a variety of scraps from the surrounding country side and build a windmill according to the pictures he saw in the book. As the above video reveals, Williams efforts were not only a success, but also inspirational.

After I watched the video I was so moved by Williams’s ambition to change his circumstance that it left me thinking… Why did they spend money flying him around the world but not invest in what could be a powerful business? One of the biggest problems in rural areas that seriously impacts productivity is the fact that there is no electricity or power. While not entirely obvious this is because it means that as soon as the sun goes down, the day is over. Many young students study by candle light. Imagine the amount you can improve a persons chances of success by providing electricity from wind?

Check out William and his recent activities at:

http://williamkamkwamba.typepad.com/