Cheetah

We had a great day of meetings and exploration of South Africa. The day started at IDASA a non-profit group that is dedicated to promoting democracy. They started during the negotiations to end apartheid in South Africa and have now grown to include work not only in South Africa, but also in neighboring countries. They have a number of great programs that deal with the problems of a young democracy.

We had an interesting discussion about democracy and education. One of their speakers had noted that education is not all that integral to democracy. Of course one of the members of our delegation started to ask questions about that theory, as most of us Americans assumed that education would be at the heart of democracy. After all, the stereotype in America is that it is mostly educated people that are involved in civic activities.

He stated their research had shown in South Africa, that it was primarily the poor, uneducated people that voted and that the educated people tend not to vote. He noted that education wasn’t required for democracy, just the willingness to be involved and educated about the process. What I drew from that showed the difference in age of our democracies. In South Africa, democracy is only 14 years old, in America, well over 200 years old. Perhaps how we see being in involved in government has a lot to do with their brief and our long history in that type of government. Anyway, it made for an intriguing and thought provoking discussion.

We got a great overview of the structure of government in South Africa and had some insight into the FIFA World Cup I had mentioned last time. Not only does South Africa see the World Cup as a chance to show off to the world, but the government is also using the World Cup as an economic stimulus plan for the country. The South African government runs a pretty good surplus and they thought this was a good way to inject some much needed government dollars into the economy. While they have been shy about doing that for ongoing entitlement dollars, they felt that putting money in the economy for material and construction of the soccer stadiums would be a good, short term, one-time infusion of money into the economy with out creating government programs that will have to be funded long into the future.

We had an absolutely great talk about Zimbabwe and what is going on in that country. If you have been following it, I have because I was coming to South Africa, we got some great insight into the history of the current conflict, an overview of the players involved, and an update on what is going in the present. If you haven’t been following, I probably can’t summarize well and it’s a little too late in the evening for me to try. Most everyone in the group found that to be the highlight of the day.

Our last speaker at IDASA talked to us about his program for civic leadership. South Africa and other emerging democracies have had trouble with leadership in civil society and out side the government. What tends to happen is that the people that were the leaders and organizers of the protests and opposition to the government tend to move into the government, once democracy takes hold. This leaves a void of leadership in community organizations, trade unions, churches, and many other places. They are working on a program to try to motivate members of society to become leaders in those groups.

After lunch, we headed out to the De Wildt Cheetah preserve. They have many different animals they take care of and breed in captivity for release into the wild. It was a great little tour through their place. We got to see cheetahs, wild dogs, hyenas, impala, ostrich, and ngala. It was a great little trip and it felt like a mini-safari.

Dinner was a traditional South African Boer meal. I thought I was going to have the bobotie, but settled for a springbok stew that was just wonderful. I had a taste of the bobotie and hope to get to order a meal of my own soon. It is a favorite in South Africa, so I’m sure I’ll have a chance again. When push came to shove, I did have to have the springbok stew and I wasn’t disappointed.

Tomorrow is a meeting with a city council and a trip to the Cradle of Mankind.