Thursday, October 4, 2007

Rotary Banners


Rotarians trade and collect banners when formal visits take place between clubs. We visited a number of clubs and also received banners from clubs whose members attended our fromal dinner in Gonubie our last night together.
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I've sat through many Rotary meetings in Westminster not giving much thought to the banners displayed at the Legacy Ridge Golf Course club house. The colorful pennants with their unique logos and designs create an interesting backdrop. Occasionally I would try and imagine where in the world were the clubs with the more exotic names.
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Now as I prepare to carry the flags back to my club I realize what these banners represent. They represent people.
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They represent people who have joined together for various personal reasons. Some of us are looking for fellowship; some for business contacts; some join because their employer pays their dues; some desire to make a "difference" in their community; some want to help the underpriviledged overseas; some join to feel as if they have contibuted to eradicating a disease such as polio; some join to fill a social void; some desire recognition; some look for the satisfaction of a child's smile; some join knowing that what little they do may make even one day a bit better for another - even a complete stranger.
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Rotarians pick up where government and churches leave off. They look for opportunities. They provide money, work, food, recreation equipment, medicine, life saving apparatus, a helping hand where ever they can.
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These banners also represent the clubs. The various groups that through unity provide fellowship, a workforce, a pool of money, a collective for change or to address a need which would go unmet but for group effort.
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The banners represent an ideal of service, of positive energy focused by the vision and expertise of individuals members.
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The banners represent people with families, with jobs, with businesses, all with ideals.
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The banners represent good.

Wednesday, October 3, 2007

Of Security, Prevailing Mindsets and Rotary


Of Security, Prevailing Mindsets and Rotary
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Emil here: We end our month long tour on the southern shores of the African continent. Gonubie is a seaside town near East London. The small resort city is named after the Gonub, a local nut, which is a Xhosa name pronounced with a “cluck” of the tongue as opposed to a “click.” The town is a sleepy suburb of East London, in the Eastern Cape. The streets are lined with brick homes and upscale neighborhoods have gently rolling hills. The rocky coast of the Indian Ocean invites tourists, especially during the heat of the Christmas season. There are no hotels or motels so the area is dotted with B&Bs.
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John and Lynne Hall, our host Rotarians, live about 100 meters from the rough shore. While we cannot see the ocean from their home, the smells and sounds of the sea are pleasantly ever present.
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Their home is a three bedroom, two bath brick and stucco. An out building houses the two-car garage, laundry and “pub,” as John calls it. The pub is a recreation room with wet bar, SONY wall-mounted flat screen and bathroom. The braai (bar-b-que) area is just outside near the kidney-shaped pool.
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In our month of traveling south, we’ve found progressively less Afrikaans spoken. Here, along the shore, if the locals are bilingual, it’s English and Xhosa. Also, the Hall’s are the first family that we’ve stayed with who do not have a full-time “domestic;” although they do employ a gardener and “Chorer” (helps with the chores, of course) once per week.
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One cannot write of the Halls without mentioning the five, full grown, Labrador Retrievers that occupy the tile floored home. Imagine a pack of overgrown puppies that one must wade among while moving from one room to another. Thank goodness the dogs are each 60 pounds of tail-wagging love each with an over-whelming desire for a belly rub.
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Getting in or out of the house is a major exercise. The dogs always go into pack mode when anyone dares open a door. One never knows if they’ll make a mad dash out the door or include the human in their waddling procession. Lynne controls the mob with spray bottles strategically placed within arm’s reach through the house. John uses a rolled up newspaper, now tattered and torn, to get their attention by slapping his thigh. He never strikes their babies.


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Opening the electric driveway gate is a major logistical event. The house is surrounded by a six foot brick wall – a relatively recent addition, ten years or so ago. The gate is remote controlled. The dogs must be in the house when the gate opens or it’s a free-for-all with the pack loose on the streets of Gonubie. These collarless over-grown pups would run. So John and Lynne coordinate their efforts with pre-departure planning resembling an escape from a detention facility. They use a series of car honks, open window shouts and occasionally cell phones to revise their plans as they discover the gate is chained, the remote is left behind or a dog somehow managed to be in the yard. When the Halls are not home, the dogs freely roam the fenced property. This creates an intimidating presence as they gather at approaching visitors.
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The Halls have added an electric fence to the top of their wall; five strands of 800-volt wire to deter the criminally poor. This barrier added after their wash disappeared from their line while they were home several months back. The voltage doesn’t kill but serves up quite a kick as John learned once when he was trimming the trees and Lynne did him a favor upon noticing the power was off.
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Of course the house has the required alarm system, as does the outbuilding. Keys are used dozens of times a day. As one goes out, the door is unlocked and relocked. The Halls have three televisions, one each in the pub, the bedroom and the main house. The televisions are switched on, to give the impression of occupation – always. Always.
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Between the homes and the beach is a long strip of dense bush. Paths leading into the thick brambles are at once inviting and foreboding. We were warned that “bush dwellers” frequent the area. The story of a neighbor’s daughter being gang-raped on the beach in front of their home, in broad daylight, by three attackers gives us a horrid edge to the otherwise pleasant scene of surf, sun and sand.
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Before the end of Apartheid, law prevented blacks from being in white towns after 6:00 p.m. unless they were working. Now that the laws have been repealed the blacks are settling in town. This means the number of unemployed youths roaming the streets is increasing although this is still rare in white areas. Lionel Cummings, a retiree from the Mercedes Benz assembly plant here, estimates unemployment at least 75% in this area. Again, as we mentioned in earlier posts, cars are too expensive. We see black people walking everywhere. So the crime rate is not as high as it could be if more people had accessibility to cars
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The greater East London, Gonubie and township area of Mdantsani is now known as the Buffalo Municipality. It is home to an estimated 700,000 people. If the official national government affirmative action figures are correct, about 88% are black. This translates into about 600,000 people who do not have a “history of opportunities.” Just in this area alone. Recall the country is estimated to be home to 47 million. The resulting poverty breeds disease, crime and corruption.
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There are sections of East London where the local Gonubie newspaper owner Ron Jones, says he would not travel even with a pack of white people. He tells us that we tourists are easy to spot because we tend to look around rather than focus directly on where we are headed. He also says that when tourists bump into someone we raise our hands as if to apologize rather than just “push ‘them’ out of the way.”
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His comments on the police were enlightening. He believes that as affirmative action is now in place, more people who were unemployed, underprivileged just a few short years ago are now in positions of authority. He tells us it’s relatively common for a police officer to succumb to the temptation of a bribe or be busy at another place seeking a pay-off when summoned for crime control by a citizen. Of course, we take his comments with a grain of salt, but as our earlier posts indicate, this view law enforcement prevails.
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Again, as posted earlier, the National Chief of Police has alleged underworld ties. The national Director of Public Prosecutions has issued a warrant for arrest of the chief. But chief denies that the warrant exists. And for certain, the President has suspended the Director of Public Prosecutions for inability to get along with the Minister of Justice. So the reasoning at the white street level goes, “If these things are happening at the top, believe anything you hear about what the local cops are doing.”
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Speaking of greed and corruption, the television news this morning has as the top story an article concerning the National Soccer League’s Board of Directors. It appears that the board is negotiating the players contract with the government for next year. The board has voted to take a ten percent commission on the final figure of the compensation package. This may amount to about one million Rand for each board member. The Minister of Finance is decrying this and is accusing the board of violating both the national and soccer league constitutions. The news station is asking their viewing audience to vote by email their opinion of this development. Surprisingly, this could be a close vote.
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The prevailing view of the whites is that the black tribes are of a different culture. That whatever is available for the taking is “fair game.” This mindset is evident as everything is barred, locked or chained – schoolroom doors after hours, car doors, trailers, benches, you name it.
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This unfortunately spills over to Rotary. Black membership is low or non-existent in clubs we visited from Potchefstroom in the north to Gonubie in the south. Besotho Rotarians from Lesotho explained the black mindset. Those of the black cultures generally believe that one should not volunteer, or work for free. They do not agree that money collected by the clubs should be given away.
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The Besotho Rotarian speaking of those which shared his black heritage concluded by gesturing as he explained: as long as black business and professional leaders continue to approach life like this – he holds his hand out as if to receive something – and not like this – he gestures with his hand as if to give something – we will not have significant numbers of blacks in South African Rotary clubs.