Responsible for course design, planning, administration, and teaching; and was assisted by a team of tutors/teaching assistants where indicated, in the following courses:
2003 – 2005: Socio-Informatics III: Information practice: 378 (final undergraduate year internship module, along with H Kruger, W Van der Merwe, and M Van der Walt)
2003: Information Science 212: Information Systems.
2003 -2005: Socio-Informatics I: Introduction to Information and Communication Technologies: 144.
• Faculty-wide (Arts and Humanities Faculty – +- 1200 students p.a.) 2003: Information Skills 272.
2003 – 2005: Information Skills 172 / Inligtingvaardighede 172
The Information Skills course was a compulsory course for all first year undergraduates in the Arts and Humanities Faculty, encompassing not only computer literacy (training equivalent to the European Computer Driving Licence), but also information literacy (finding, evaluating, using, and reporting information appropriate to the scholarly environment). I was responsible for course design, planning, and administration, and would teach one lecture per week, the remainder of the week´s lectures (+- 25 in toto) being taught by teaching assistants/tutors.
• 19 April 2007: Beyond 1st Generation Open Access for Africa at "Accessing Development Knowledge - Partnership Perspectives" symposium. Finnish Universities´ Partnership for International Development (UniPID) and the European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI) [Helsinki, Finland]
• 6-8 Sept 2006: Open Access in developing and transition countries: eIFL and a view from South Africa, at "Bridging the North-South Divide in Scholarly Communication on Africa. Threats and Opportunities in the Digital era". Afrika-Studiecentrum (ASC) and the Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA). [Leiden, the Netherlands]
• 3 May 2006: Open Access; South Africa, and Berlin4 at the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations [Rome, Italy]
• 29-31 March 2006: Open Access in South Africa: progress report at "Berlin4 Open Access - from Promise to Practice" conference, Albert Einstein Institut, Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics [Potsdam-Golm, Germany]
• 20-22 October 2005: Making the innovation case in Open Access scholarly communication at "OAI4
- Workshop on Innovations in Scholarly Communication", CERN [Geneva, Switzerland]
• 5-7 September 2005: Mandate is not a four-letter word: taking Open Access scholarly communication forward at "CODATA Task Group Workshop: Strategies for Permanent Access to Scientific Information in Southern Africa: Focus on Health and Environmental Information for Sustainable Development". [Pretoria, South Africa]
• 31 August 2005: Invited panel member on Session titled The Scientific Journal - From Paper to Web-based? at "7th Annual Conference on World Wide Web Applications", Cape Town International Convention Centre. [Cape Town, South Africa]
• 29 July 2004: Open Access in South Africa: preliminary results of a survey at "South African Site Licensing Initiative (SASLI) and Open Society Institute (OSI) Open Access Scholarly Communication Conference". [Pretoria, South Africa]
• Schroeder, R., Fry, J. and De Beer, J. 2007. e-Research infrastructures and
scientific communication. "IATUL 2007 - 28th IATUL annual conference: Global
Access to Science - Scientific Publishing for the Future", Stockholm. [Sweden]
• De Beer, J.A. 2007. Beyond First-Generation Open Access for Africa. EADI
Newsletter. European Association of Development Research and Training
Institutes. http://www.eadi.org [EU]
• Story, A, Darch, C, and Halbert, D. (eds.) 2006. C/S Dossier: Issues in the economics, politics, and ideology of
copyright in the global South. CopySouth Research Group, funded by the
University of Kent Law School, and the Open Society Institute. [Contributing
author] http://www.copysouth.org/ [Multi-country]
• Galant, J, Mouton, J, Boshoff, N, De Beer, J, Esau, S, Prozesky, H, and Lorenzen, L. 2005. A monitoring
and evaluation framework to benchmark the performance of women in the NSI.
Centre for Research on Science and Technology, Stellenbosch University [South
Africa]
El mayor estudio sobre discriminación racial en la contratación laboral realizado en Europa revela que tener un fenotipo no blanco es un obstáculo importante a la hora de encontrar empleo para los europeos nacidos de padres inmigrantes. Esta es una de las principales conclusiones de un estudio realizado por la Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M) en colaboración con la Universidad de Ámsterdam, el Centro de Ciencias Sociales de Berlín (WZB) y el Centro Alemán de Investigación sobre Integración y Migración (DeZIM).
Las investigaciones precedentes sobre la incorporación al mercado laboral de los inmigrantes internacionales y sus descendientes en Europa han identificado la procedencia de países musulmanes como el principal factor desencadenante del prejuicio y la discriminación. Sin embargo, estas investigaciones no han tenido en cuenta el papel del aspecto físico como potencial barrera al empleo. Para cubrir esta carencia, este nuevo estudio analizó hasta qué punto el hecho de pertenecer a una minoría "visible" (es decir, tener un fenotipo no blanco) es una fuente adicional de discriminación contra los descendientes de inmigrantes internacionales en Europa.
El estudio, publicado en la revista Socio-Economic Review, muestra que tener un fenotipo negro o asiático/amerindio reduce las probabilidades de que el empleador se interese por el candidato/a en aproximadamente un 20% (promedio entre los tres países del estudio: Alemania, España y Países Bajos), mientras que tener un fenotipo caucásico de piel morena (muy extendido en el norte de África) reduce dichas probabilidades medias en aproximadamente un 10%, en comparación con tener un fenotipo caucásico blanco. Estas estimaciones capturan el efecto del fenotipo sobre las respuestas de los empleadores europeos, una vez aislado del efecto de la región de ancestro de los solicitantes. Sin embargo, el estudio también muestra que el efecto combinado de la ascendencia étnica y el fenotipo puede dar lugar a graves niveles de discriminación en Europa.
Para realizar el estudio, los investigadores analizaron las respuestas de casi 13.000 empresas europeas a solicitudes de empleo con CV ficticios en estos tres países europeos donde adjuntar una fotografía a las solicitudes de empleo es una práctica habitual. Para realizar este experimento, los investigadores modificaron los nombres y fotografías de los solicitantes de empleo ficticios (manteniendo el resto de datos del CV idénticos) que se presentaban a vacantes reales para una amplia gama de ocupaciones. Todos estos solicitantes simulados eran jóvenes con nacionalidad del país del experimento y descendientes de padres procedentes de cuatro grandes regiones del mundo (Europa-EE.UU, Magreb-Oriente Próximo, América Latina y Asia). Esta procedencia o ancestro étnico se señalizó en los CV fundamentalmente a través de los nombres completos de los solicitantes. Las fotografías utilizadas en los CV fueron cuidadosamente seleccionadas para resultar comparables en atractivo físico, pero variaban crucialmente en apariencia racial a lo largo de cuatro grupos fenotípicos (etiquetados como "Negro", "Asiático/Amerindio", "Caucásico de piel morena" y "Caucásico Blanco"). Este diseño permitió a los investigadores obtener las primeras estimaciones de discriminación racial comparables entre países de las que se tiene constancia en la literatura experimental de campo.
"La mayor parte de lo que sabíamos sobre la discriminación racial en la contratación hasta la fecha procedía de países anglosajones, especialmente de EEUU, donde el uso de fotografías en las solicitudes de empleo está prohibido por ley. Esto obligaba a los investigadores a estimar la discriminación racial utilizando exclusivamente el nombre de los solicitantes, lo cual es muy problemático. Una ventaja crucial de nuestro estudio es que investigamos el papel del fenotipo y la ascendencia étnica como desencadenantes potencialmente distintos de la discriminación mediante la explotación de la variación fenotípica plausible en grandes regiones de ancestro", explica el autor principal del estudio, Javier Polavieja, catedrático Banco Santander de Sociología de la UC3M, donde dirige el Laboratorio sobre la Discriminación y la Desigualdad (D-Lab).
"Según nuestras estimaciones, en los tres países estudiados, los solicitantes de ascendencia del Magreb y Oriente Próximo con fenotipos negros tienen que enviar aproximadamente un cincuenta por ciento más de solicitudes para recibir una llamada de los empleadores que solicitantes curricularmente idénticos pero de ascendencia europea y fenotipo blanco. Estas estimaciones de discriminación son comparables, si no superiores, a las que se suelen dar en el caso de los afroamericanos en Estados Unidos. La discriminación contra los solicitantes de fenotipo negro y padres europeos o estadounidenses es algo menor pero también significativa", explica Susanne Veit, directora del laboratorio DeZIM y una de las coautoras del estudio.
Diferencias entre países
Los investigadores también analizaron los patrones de discriminación racial de los tres países del experimento y encontraron algunas diferencias significativas entre España y los dos países del norte. "Nuestros resultados sugieren que el fenotipo actúa como desencadenante autónomo de la discriminación en Alemania y los Países Bajos, reduciendo las oportunidades de acceso al empleo para solicitantes no blancos con independencia del origen de sus padres. En cambio, en España la discriminación parece restringirse a determinadas combinaciones de fenotipo y ancestro, especialmente aquellas en las que el aspecto físico de los solicitantes es el más prototípico de su región de ascendencia”, señala Javier Polavieja. “Esto no significa que el fenotipo sea irrelevante en España, no lo es en absoluto; sólo significa que su efecto en las respuestas de los empresarios parece más difícil de disociar del efecto del ancestro étnico de los solicitantes", aclara.
El estudio se ha realizado en el marco del proyecto GEMM (Growth, Equal opportunities, Migration & Markets), financiado por el Programa de Investigación e Innovación Horizonte 2020 de la Unión Europea (GA 649255) y ha recibido financiación adicional del Proyecto-D (Nuevas Fronteras en la Investigación sobre Discriminación Étnico-Racial en el Empleo) (PID2020-119558GB-I00), financiado por el Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación español (MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033).
Referencia bibliográfica: Polavieja, J., Lancee, B., Ramos, M. Veit, S. and Yemane, R. (2023). In Your Face: A Comparative Field Experiment on Racial Discrimination in Europe. Socio-Economic Review, mwad009, https://doi.org/10.1093/ser/mwad009
I often maintain, and still do, that one's education only truly starts once one has _successfully_ completed one's final year of high school. Which is not to claim that school should be ignored nor breezed through, for it is undoubtedly vital, yet nevertheless forms merely the starting blocks for life's journey. Moreover, the education of girls, too often ignored or belittled, is paramount. Herewith then, a related article:
Secondary Schools’ Primary Importanceby Kamal Ahmad and Joel E. Cohenlink
DHAKA – The world has made remarkable progress in providing primary education to children worldwide. In the 1960s, fewer than half of the developing world’s children were enrolled in primary school. Today, more than 90% are. In many regions, a higher proportion of girls than boys enroll in primary school. To be sure, too many children remain out of school in countries like Nigeria and Pakistan, but the real problem lies in what happens after the primary years are over.
Without opportunities for secondary education, children have little chance to improve their livelihoods, and the progress the world has made could be jeopardized. In September, speaking at the Clinton Global Initiative, former US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton recognized that “lack of secondary education holds back the aspirations of so many girls and their families. It undermines prosperity and stability around the world.”
Clinton announced a major initiative in cooperation with more than 30 organizations, including the MasterCard Foundation, Intel, and Microsoft. This group has pledged more than $600 million over five years to enable 14 million girls to “attend and complete primary and secondary school.” It is a wise investment. In addition to the obvious benefits that education can deliver, increased enrollment in secondary schools offers advantages to all levels of society.
For example, requiring girls to continue their education reduces child marriage. In the developing world, one girl in seven is married by the age of 15; nearly half become mothers by the age of 18. Girls attending secondary school, by contrast, are much less likely to marry and bear children before reaching adulthood.
Providing girls with secondary education also reduces family sizes, and, when they do become mothers, it improves their children’s health and chances of survival. One study found that in developing countries where one girl in five received a secondary education, women had, on average, more than five children. Where half of the girls received secondary education, the average was just three children, and child and infant mortality were much lower.
Access to secondary schools can also boost enrollment in primary schools, reducing the likelihood that parents will keep their children at home to work or, as is often the case with girls, to help with domestic chores. If children have no choice but to return from primary school to the farm, why send them to school at all?
Providing secondary education need not cost a fortune. Poor countries can move swiftly to expand opportunities for education at a much lower cost than is commonly imagined. Most village primary schools are used for education only a small fraction of the time. Appropriate modifications could turn these into secondary schools for part of each day, bringing secondary education closer to children’s homes.
For girls, secondary education closer to home would have the added benefit of reducing the risks of sexual abuse and violence. Every year, roughly 60 million girls are sexually assaulted at or on their way to school. Using facilities that are more familiar and more conveniently located could reduce this barrier to attendance.
Likewise police stations, post offices, and other existing public facilities might, with modest adjustments, provide space for secondary schools for at least part of the day. Modular classrooms, which can be built quickly and inexpensively, could provide local employment and supplement existing school facilities.
Programs in the United States like “Teach for America” and “Teach for All” can serve as powerful new models for recruiting the teachers that will be needed for new secondary schools. Life expectancy is rising, but retirement ages often remain in the late 50s, implying that pensioners could be encouraged to become teachers.
Teachers will always remain essential for students’ growth and maturity, but new digital technologies can enhance secondary education. Online resources, such as the Khan Academy, hold great promise for delivering broad, inexpensive results in education.
The world stands at a crossroads. American corporations donate about $7 billion annually to global health, but only $500 million to education in developing countries. Yet young people are the fastest-growing segment of the population in the developing world. Uneducated, they could become an unprecedented burden as their societies age. But if they are provided with secondary education, they will be able to transform their future – and ours – for the better.
I write this as I listen (on Cadena Ser) to the Spain - USA soccer match in the Confederations Cup. The score stands at 2-0 for the EEUU, in the final minutes of the game. Aye, la pobre España. Cómo me duele una derrota. But, as consolation (of a sort), one of their citizens received an honorary doctorate at Oxford today. Well, I guess the two aren´t really related. But since I was at the Encaenia ceremony, and I am surprised and disappointed to hear that the soccer match is going so badly; contrast that with how pleased I felt earlier today when Calatrava was awarded the degree, me inspira poner el texto del evento aquí. First the Latin text (which is read at the Encaenia), and then the English.
Dr Santiago Calatrava Valls
Poeta, dummodo chartam et calamum habeat, versus scribere potest; musico forsitan clavicymbalum vel voces paucorum sufficiant; pictor colores et tabulas non magna impensa emit; at architecto non solum patrono et pecunia opus est sed cum pondere et repulsa vastae molis materiei luctandum. Virum tamen nunc laudo qui et patronos e multi orbis terrarum regionibus allexit et ipsi rerum gravitati resistere videtur; tanta enim arte aedificia construit ut materiem quamvis concretam velut ceram fingi velut aquam fluere prope credamus. Valentiae natus est, cuius civibus monumenta fecit praeclarissima, Valentiae in disciplina ingeniaria est erudutis; quare seu pontem fabricatur seu stationem ferroviariam seu museum, rigorem et phantasiam coniungit. Velut poeta rhythmum, velut musicus concordiam bene intelligit, neque miror eum partem otii in statuis faciendis consumpisse; nam qua facilitate sculptores materiem suam tractare solent, ea item aedifica flecti et curvari coegit. Vergilius in Aeneide de aere spiranti et vultibus vivis e marmore ductis loquitur; simili modo non multum abest quin huius viri opera, licet formam neque hominum neque animalium imitentur, motus capacia esse existimares. Ita museum quod pro Wisconsinensibus fecit nihil quod in natura videmus repraesentat, attamen mentes spectatorum imagione aquilae vel ad altum tendentis vel desuper ruentis saepe capiuntur. Titulus in tumulo Pauli Veronensis pictoris inscriptus aemulum eum naturae orbis miraculum vocat, quae verba ad hunc virum referre possis; nam inventionis audaciam stupet mundus, pulchritudine iuvatur.
Praesento magum Hispanum, qui chabylem cretam saxum potestati suae subiecit, Sanctum-Iacobum Calatrava Valls, ut admittatur honoris causa ad gradum Doctoris in Litteris.
Admission by the Chancellor
Summe architecturae magister, cuius opera utile pulchro miscent, ego auctoritate mea et totius Universitatis admitto te ad gradum Doctoris in Litteris honoris causa.
---
A poet can write his verses as long as he has pen and paper; a piano and a few voices may be enough for a composer; a painter´s colours and canvases do not cost him much; but an architect not only needs commissions and the funding to go with them but has to struggle with the bulk and the resistance of masses of heavy material. Yet the man whom I now praise has attracted commissions from many parts of the world and seems to defy the law of gravity; such is the skill with which he designs his works that concrete seems to be moulded like wax or flow like water. He was born in Valencia, to which city he has contributed a magnificent group of public buildings, and studied engineering there, acquiring from this experience a mastery that has enabled him to combine logic and imagination, whether he is putting up a bridge, a railway station or a museum. He has a poet´s feeling for rhythm, a musician´s sense of harmony, nor am I surprised that he has devoted soem of his leisure to sculpture, for he makes buildings bend and curve with the kind of command that sculptors have over their own medium. Virgil speaks in the Aeneid of breathing bronze and living faces drawn from marble, and in similar vein one may feel that this man´s works, without actually imitating the forms of living creatures, appear almost capable of motion. Thus the museum which he has designed at Milwaukee does not represent anything found in nature, and yet a good number of those who have seen it have found themselves thinking of an eagle soaring aloft or swooping from on high. The Latin epitaph on the grave of the painter Veronese describes him as the rival of nature and the wonder of the globe, words which one can apply equally to this honorand; for the world marvels at the boldness of his invention and delights in its beauty.
I present a Spanish magician, who has compelled steel and concrete to submit to his will, Santiago Calatrava Valls, to be admitted to the honorary degree of Doctor of Letters.
Admission by the Chancellor
Superlative architect, in whose works function and beauty are conjoined, I on my authority and that of the whole University admit you to the honorary degree of Doctor of Letters.
---
Al final, Spain lost their match against the USA, and are out of the Confederations Cup. What a pity
Are you interested in Sub-Saharan Africa and is your Masters thesis on a related subject? If so, the African Studies Centre (ASC) in Leiden is offering you the chance to win €1000 in its Africa Thesis Award!
The award aims to encourage student research and writing on Sub-Saharan Africa and to promote the study of African cultures and societies. It is presented annually to a student whose Masters thesis has been completed on the basis of research conducted on Africa.
The award consists of a prize of €1000 for the winning thesis. The winning thesis will be published in the ASC African Studies Collection. Submitted theses may be (partially) published on The Broker's website:www.thebrokeronline.eu.
Who can apply
Any final-year student who has completed his/her Masters thesis with distinction (80% or higher or a Dutch rating of at least 8) at a university in Africa or the Netherlands can apply. The thesis has to be based on independent empirical research related to Sub-Saharan Africa in one of the subjects listed in the following section and must have been examined within one year prior to the deadline for submitting manuscripts (see below). The ASC specifically encourage students from Sub-Saharan Africa to submit their theses for this annual competition.
Subject of the thesis
Any thesis thematically related to socio-geographical, economic, political, juridical or anthropological issues or focusing on the humanities such as history, religion and literature (but with the exception of language and/or semiotic studies) can be submitted. Its geographical focus should be on Sub-Saharan Africa or its migrant communities elsewhere in the world. The thesis must be socially relevant.
I´ve always loved this song. It´s "Scissors Cut" written by Jimmy Webb, but here sung by Art Garfunkel (never knew Garfunkel sang it btw - I prefer Jimmy Webb singing it, on his album "Angel Heart" (album´s hard to find; v expensive!...))
It contains the quintessential Cold War declaration of love, when starting:
"If they ever drop the bomb," you said "I'll find you in the flames"
As for the Garfunkel, it´s still good. I do wonder if that´s possibly Jennifer Warnes or Linda Ronstadt singing the backing vocals.
yet another stroll down memory lane. first up, "only a dream in Rio" with Milton Nascimento and James Taylor (the song is on Nascimento´s album titled Angelus). then, Milton Nascimento singing/performing "Veracruz". lovely lovely.
The news of a French beggar who has been handed an 18 month jail term for stealing a loaf of bread in Spain (Badalona), reminded me of a talk by Dr Judith Rowbotham given at a conference titled "Experiencing the Law. From Globalisation to Poverty: the implications of a credit crunch" at the IALS last month (December 2008). [What I am writing here is purely from memory (of her talk), so don´t quote me- or quote with a similar caveat :-) ]
Dr Rowbotham spoke about the criminal justice system in 1800´s England, and quite interestingly, told that petty crime (such as one could consider the crime above) then had been punished with only ever a limited period of jail time (say, 48rs, - though I´d have to check my notes for the specifics, she may have said 72 hrs) since (1) this was considered less disruptive to the community and family life of the person concerned, (2) the reputational damage suffered through incarceration would be contained, (3) the offender could return to work quickly (if they were employed) which would be less disruptive to his/her place of employ, (3) the shock value of incarceration and its consequent impact on the offender was found to occur within the first 48 hours of jail time anyway (so a longer stay did not foster a greater sense of remorse for what had been done).
Returning to the Spanish case, I wonder how it is that this person could not have been sentenced to doing some community service instead(?)
Here is a documentary, and subsequent interview with the filmmaker and one of the fellow passengers, screened on Spanish television, about the quest of countless Africans to arrive (after risking life and limb on the high seas) on Spanish soil. Dominique Mollard went undercover for a period of years in order to tell and reveal the more human face behind the almost-daily reports of illegal immigration into Spain. It is well worth watching, even if you don´t understand Spanish.
From the rtve web site:
11-11-2008 Documental único, obra del francés Dominique Mollard, quien, tras 26 meses de trabajo, logró embarcarse en un cayuco para retratar como nunca antes se había hecho -el combate a vida o muerte- al que se enfrentan miles de africanos que buscan una vida mejor más allá de nuestras costas. Pepa Bueno, entrevista al propio Mollard y a una de las pasajeras del cayuco.
I´ve been trying to get a sense of Obamania in South Africa as I sit perched here at a distance in the UK, but scanning the daily SA papers online, the reporting (those that I could gain unpaid access to) always seemed to me rather low-key. I also saw the odd congratulatory facebook status message whizz by (if that´s any useful indication) from a handful of South African friends, but not many. And this seeming lack of enthusiasm (don´t know what else to call it) seemed all the more odd, as in contrast, I´d seen reporting not only on Kenyans taking to the streets celebrating Barack Obama´s win (with even an official day of holiday thrown in for good measure), but also earlier today I´d read an article in the El País reporting on how excited Africa was about the Obama win (not forgetting that the story only profiled, in very brief paragraphs, about six or seven countries in toto, all sub-saharan).
That said, moments ago I´d stumbled across the following series of stories published by the Mail & Guardian in South Africa, titled "Voices of Africa". The series seems to me a splendid idea. Here (below) is how it describes its aims and remit. About half of the current submissions (at the time of writing this post) report on the country-specific responses to Barack Obama. One criticism: I do think that "Voices of Africa" could include North African voices in their offering too.
The blurb:
About Voices of Africa Life in Africa: a one-dimensional struggle to survive war, poverty, corruption and disease; an ongoing saga of famine and failure. Recognise the story?
It's the one most often presented to newspaper readers and other media consumers. We know it's not the whole story. We know these are not the only stories.
Voices of Africa is an ambitious new publishing venture by the Mail & Guardian, which aims to show how we live in Africa, not how we die; how we thrive as multifaceted humans, not merely as survivors. It is an ongoing series of lively articles written by Africans about life in "their" Africa -- ordinary people getting on with their own lives, often in the face of adversity.
Where and how we live might partly determine our behaviour and attitudes. But there are universal joys and tribulations that bind us: we fall in love, we have families, we get older, we watch TV, play, gossip, fight with our bosses, laugh with our friends, shop, worry about our health, our children, our budgets … We publish a selection of exclusively commissioned stories that give us glimpses across the fence into the daily lives, loves and frustrations of our neighbours -- beyond the usual headlines. Voices of Africa is a dynamic series-in-progress and today we take our first "baby steps".
In the next months we will continue to scout for fresh, original voices from a growing number of countries, bringing our readers weekly insights into the experiences of the people who call some small corner of this continent home.
As Voices of Africa grows, we will also launch a more complete online version of the series, about which we'll keep readers posted. To capture as rich and diverse a range of voices that truly represents the continent, we will also commission and translate suitable articles written in French.
Though the nature of this exciting series excludes South African contributions, we hope our readers will help us to grow Voices of Africa into a unique and compelling series by spreading the word among their friends and acquaintances in other African countries.
Welcome to our Africa, explored as never before.
Click here for details about how to "audition" for Voices of Africa.
Contact us Anglophone correspondence to Charlotte Bauer: charlotteb@mg.co.za Francophone correspondence to Stephanie Wolters: stephanie@okapi.cc Tel: +27 11 250 7300
Between January 2002 and November 2005, I blogged in simple html markup on my homepage. In November 2005 I finally switched to blogger when I thought that their design sense had caught up with their technical sense (I´d always seen a site´s design as integral to its message, and in the early blogging days, the blogging templates were just plain ugly.) Anyway, I´d compiled all those old posts into one document recently, and will, from time to time, republish some of them here I think. In those days (a mere six years ago, but a lifetime ago it feels) my blog postings were ordered by date, and had no titles. The posting below refers largely to Spain, but also makes reference to the then situation in Zimbabwe. What strikes me about the posting is the sheer absence of hyperlinks (This (dodgy memory aside) I can only ascribe to that there was a time when access to the Spanish newspaper had been gated, so maybe hyperlinking then made no sense.) I´ve added in the links this time. [Searching the Prisacom archives online (parent company of the El País) there is a surfeit of articles dated 19 July 2002, a number of them published in the El País of that day/date. Below I´ve linked to the article that seems the most likely source I had referred to then.] The reference to Madrid is of my stay there in 2000.
[20-July-2002]
The Battle for Parsley Island. Spain vs. Morocco. Never knew 'perejil' = 'parsley'. I guess this would indicate that I never needed to order in parsley whilst in Madrid. One piece I read about this 'battle' quoted Jorge Luis Borges, saying that it was like two bald men fighting over a comb. I've read an opinion piece ayer in El Pais which claims that Spain is just as 'in the wrong' as Morocco. Kudos to the Spanish press.
This makes me think of anti-immigration sentiment which is on the rise, more pointedly in Western Europe, but I suppose elsewhere also. For instance, I recall the scare-mongering which took place at about the time when SA finally decided to raise an opinion about the goings-on in Zimbabwe. It was soon after the elections there earlier this year. SA made a dimplomatic about-turn and felt the need to assist. Before it was "we respect their sovereignty and cannot intervene", whilst so many were reportedly being hounded and intimidated, not to mention the violent land appropriations, and the constitution being tampered with by their President. And then finally, to save face it seems, we (as in SA) felt the need to assist, saying that 'the elections were over, we respect the result and to move forward we must assist our neighbour'. After all, food security is an issue for Southern Africa due to drought. Suddenly we must assist since 'if we don't they'll be knocking on our doorstep' (Pallo Jordan's words at an address at the University). Once upon a time it was the 'rooi gevaar'(communist threat), and the 'swart gevaar' (pan-Africanist threat), now it's the 'drought gevaar'...
Ah, lest I forget. Carlos Fuentes wrote a very good opinion piece in the El Pais of 12 July titled 'Migraciones impunes y castigadas' (Punished and unpunished migrations). He makes the point, highlighting various historic events between 1503 and 2002, that many societies have evolved to what they are today due to the mass migration of people. People who travelled without visas and work permits. For instance: Western Europe owes its development due to the exploitation of Latin America. He quotes a contemporary Spanish economist, Alonso de Carranza, who claims that 75% of the treasure brought to Spain in 1629 was re-dispersed in Protestant Europe. Fuentes adds that the exploitation of (Latin) America led to the decadent power of Spain and the rise of capitalism in Europe. All without visas and work permits.
I translate some more:
Massachusetts, 1620. English Puritans without visas nor work permits, establish New England. From there anglosaxon America expands from the Atlantic to the Pacific, wresting land from the Indians, importing African slaves and annexing half the Mexican territory.
Pennsylvania, 1753. The Humanist and scientist Benjamin Franklin, future chief protagonist of US Independence, complains bitterly about the immigration of Germans to Pennsylvania. "They will create..." says Franklin, "...great disorder among us...They will never learn English, which will mean that we will always require interpreters. They will surpass us in number... so much so that we will not be able to preserve our language and even our government will be under threat." Fuentes goes on to mention the colonization of India by Clive in 1757, Algeria in 1830 (Start of colonization of Africa (in earnest) by Europe), New York in 1910 (17 million Europeans immigrated to the USA between 1880 and 1910, among these Irish fleeing the potato famine), Europe in 1963 (700 000 Spanish, mostly male farm labourers, migrate across the Pyrennees. Sending their earnings back to Spain they boost the Spanish economy, preparing it for a modern post-Franco era), California 1994 (California produces 1/3 of the agricultural riches in the USA, and 3/4 of the latter is derived from Mexican migrant labour.), etc. The main points of Fuentes' article being that this mix of cultures occurred without visas and work permits, and that eventually the riches of the developed nations is in large part dependent on migrant labour. Now, in Western Europe it seems there is great fear and loathing due to the migrant workers who run from the Southern hemisphere to the North. But as Fuentes illustrates so well, the mass migration of people has always occurred, with the concomitant fear and loathing, but that this is how cultures evolve, and have evolved.
Some weeks ago I´d read the novel "El mundo" by Juan José Millás. Without a doubt it is one of the best novels I´ve read in recent years, not only for its simple (uncomplicated) prose, but more so for its absolute honesty. And I mean here the honesty of the narrator who is Millás telling us about his childhood, and about later encounters with one or two of those same childhood friends. For instance, he writes about his childhood notions of a "barrio de los difuntos" - a neighbourhood of the dead. This ghostly lustre of the neighbourhood has more to do with its opulence (so very unlike his own neighbourhood); a neighbourhood that he strays into one day as he makes an improvised tram journey away from home if only to disperse the (now shredded) evidence of the banknote he´d pilfered from his father´s jacket pocket. You´ll have to read the novel to find out why he was taking the money to start with... It is entirely endearing the way he narrates the logic and thinking of his childhood self; those pivotal friendships and moments as one grows up (He tells of being besotted with a girl, only for her to turn to him at some point saying "you´re not interesting to me". And he then toys with the sentence, inserting pauses and punctuation so as to give it a varied meaning, wondering at the same time which of his interpretations were the most accurate.) The moments he narrates are often hilarious and at times so very poignant.
In an interview (see video) he mentions that the novel is being translated into a number of languages, but it seems, unfortunately, English isn´t one of them. Not yet anyway. What a great pity, since it seems so universal, the essence of the story that he tells.
