Week 8: Top 10 List

In no particular order:

#10)  Apartheid Timeline - This is just really helpful for me in visualizing how the movement played out and how long this system lasted. When we talk about it in class, I tend to think of everything happening all at once or over the span of a couple of years.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/endgame/timeline.html
Posted by Joshua Alvarez

#9) US Anti-Apartheid Movement - It's important to understand relations between the US and South Africa prior to traveling there.  The US was influential in putting an end to apartheid, but many criticized us for not getting involved sooner, so there may be some tension there.
 http://www.voanews.com/content/us-anti-apartheid-movementhelpsbringchangetosouthafrica/1900704.html
Posted by Bianca Alcorta

#8) Not White Enough, Not Black Enough - Very informative article about what it is like to be a "colored" person in South Africa.  There is also a difference between being black, colored, and mixed race, which I never knew.  It explains how many colored people feel they are not benefiting from post-apartheid democracy because many policies are aimed only at black South Africans.
http://latitude.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/02/15/in-south-africa-after-apartheid-colored-community-is-the-big-loser/?_r=0
Posted by Elsia Benavides

#7) South Africa's Ticking Time Bomb - Explains most of the economic problems impacting South Africa today.  Their currency has dropped 70 percent against the dollar, 2/3 of all unemployed South Africans are under the age of 35, only 37 percent of the youth labor force has a high school degree, etc.  All of these problems are leading to increases in crime, such as gangs and robbery.
http://www.usnews.com/opinion/blogs/world-report/2014/07/02/south-africas-major-problems-youth-unemployment-and-economic-inequality
Posted by Nestor Castro

#6) Race Relations at Crossroads in Mandela's South Africa - This article describes the current tensions between whites and blacks in South Africa.  I was very surprised to read that only 53 percent of white South Africans believed apartheid was a crime against humanity.  Clearly, there is a lot more work to be done between the two groups before the country can truly move forward.
http://www.newvision.co.ug/news/664567-race-relations-at-crossroads-in-mandela-s-south-africa.html
Posted by Joanna Windom

#5) Power and Privilege Definitions - These terms are important for all of us to keep in mind when we travel to South Africa so that we are aware of our own privileges, the problems oppressed people face, and how to become an ally to them.
Posted by Joshua Alvarez

#4) Why is Crime and Violence so High in South Africa? - Explains why murder rates are so high and only half of the cases at best even make it to court.  During apartheid, many of the laws were unjust and also unfairly enforced.  This was designed to keep living in fear, so many people don't have respect for the laws.  There is also a large amount of government corruption.
http://www.news24.com/Columnists/GuestColumn/Why-is-crime-and-violence-so-high-in-South-Africa-20140918
Posted by Tiasha Ullah

#3) South Africa Progressive on LGBT Rights, but Gays Still Battle for Social Reform - I was impressed to learn that South Africa was the first country in the world to outlaw discrimination based on sexual orientation.  However, under the rule of apartheid, gay men could be imprisoned for up to 7 years.  Just because the laws have changed, does not mean homophobia has disappeared though, particularly in townships,
http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/south-africa-progressive-lgbt-rights-gays-still-battle-social-reform-1471213
Posted by Ignacio Cruz

#2) Factbox: South Africa since Apartheid - This article outlines the major problems South Africa is facing since the end of Apartheid.  I knew housing was a problem, but I didn't realize that there was one formal brick house for every 43 blacks.  Also, there is a huge rich-poor gap.  Blacks make up 79 percent of the population but only earned 41 percent of the national income.  Whites make up 9 percent of the population, but earn 45 percent of the national income.  That is a huge inequality.
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2012-06-24/news/sns-rt-us-safrica-anc-factbre85n067-20120624_1_blacks-south-africans-african-national-congress
Posted by Faith Izuegbu

#1) Education Today - Education is so important, so I was sad to read that of the 1 million students who enrolled in school in 2000, 50 percent of them ended up dropping out and only 25 percent passed their matric exams.  Many public schools are being shut down due to lack of funding.  South Africa really needs to start investing in their youth by providing them with adequate education.
http://www.freedomtolearn.co.za/education-today
Posted by Denice Carpenter

Week 7: Peers' Research

I read the article Denice suggested on “Realizing Women’s Human Rights in South Africa.”  It’s interesting to read that many South African men feel threatened if their wife works or will not accept a woman’s wages.  The four main factors that continue to prevent black South African women from obtaining their rights are the unwillingness of men to adapt to changing gender roles, the perceived incompatibility between cultural preservation and human rights, poor urban planning coupled with the economic vulnerability of women, and the police and courts' inadequate implementation of legislation.  Men in South Africa also argue that there is a bias against them in legislation that is aimed at protecting women.  Things that were maybe acceptable when they were growing up and learning how to treat women are no longer acceptable, and they could face arrest, so it is a difficult to change to make.  Practices such as labola, the groom's family paying the bride's family upon marriage, continue in South Africa today.  Practices like this one allow the idea that women and wives are property to continue living on.  This is dangerous because it is often used as a way to justify abuse against women.  While some of the practices in South Africa are more extreme than the ones here in the US, women in South Africa face a lot of the same challenges women in the United States face as well.

I viewed Larisa’s link on the Sharpeville Massacre.  It was horrifying to read that 180 people were injured and 69 were killed, which is what really triggered the militant approaches in the anti-apartheid movement.  It was also inspiring though that 5,000 to 7,000 black South Africans came together to protest the pass laws.  That is a massive amount of people, and this really caught the attention of the international world.  I think it is especially shocking to see something like that because we often take advantage and forget the privileges we have here living in the United States.  None of us lived through the Civil Rights Era and saw blacks beaten by police officers, much less seen mass amounts of people shot and killed right in front of us, so we don't really think about it.  When we do see something like this happen, it's nearly impossible to continue to turn a blind eye to it.

I looked at the article Hashem posted called, “Jacob Zuma, South Africa’s unsavory next president.”  I never knew he faced many charges of fraud and racketeering, was accused of raping a woman, and has several wives and 20 children.  I guess it's pretty common for government officials in South Africa to be viewed by the public as being corrupt, creating a lack of faith in the ANC.  It's also very interesting that someone could run for president without any education or finances because in the US, most of our presidents attended very prestigious schools and it's pretty much a requirement that they are wealthy as presidential elections are extraordinarily expensive.  I can see how this does appeal to the ordinary man though.  He is a lot more grounded and relatable than our elite politicians.  Perhaps they believe that a president who experienced the same hardships they have will move to action quicker in providing them with the services they need.

Week 6: The Status of Coloured People in South Africa

It was interesting to read about the status of Coloureds in South Africa.  I have always been taught that race is a social construct, but it was interesting to see how subjective race truly is depending on the area you're in.  When I hear "coloured," I immediately think black, but Dr. Gilbert explained to us that it meant other minorities who are not black, so I began to picture Asians and Indians, like in the Nelson Mandela movie.  However, the article explains that many coloured people may actually look black, like Usher and Denzel Washington, and tourists probably would not be able to tell the difference.  It is unfortunate that they are not considered African and are often overlooked by their own government.  They were first discriminated against by the Afrikaner government, and they are now being overlooked again by the African National Congress, despite the fact that they worked with the blacks to eliminate Apartheid.  The wife of former president F. W. de Klerk described coloured as "non-person...the leftovers." In contrast to America, where most mixed people tend to identify as African American, coloureds in South Africa usually tend to adopt the religion, language, customs, and family names of their white oppressors.  Many coloureds feel that they are now at the bottom of the pecking order under the rule of the ANC.  All of this information is important for us to keep in mind because most coloured people live in Cape Town, where a lot of racial mixing began to occur about 350 years ago.

http://www.theroot.com/articles/world/2013/10/south_africas_coloreds_identify_most_with_blacks_in_the_us.3.html

http://www.economist.com/node/21546062