August-Inspiration

Contrary to what I had believed, the local outbreak of H1N1 has claimed the life of a student here at the university of Stellenbosch.  My thoughts and my prayers are with his family.

My conditioned and I went to campus health services on Friday, who agreed that it was the flu.  The doctor didn’t think it necessary to test for H1N1 as the medication and advice would still be the same: antibiotics and rest.  Today I’m back at Stellenbosch after having gone home for the weekend.  I feel better, but there is a strange feeling in/on/around me heart which is worrying.  This, together with the oddities I’ve mentioned previously about the disease has led me to a self-diagnosis of H1N1.  I’ve decided to stay home (well, not go into the office) for the rest of the week, as far as possible.

A lot of Capetonians have been taken down by some disease or another in the past week or so.  On the radio earlier it was said that there are about 600 confirmed cases of H1N1 here.  The actual number of infected is sure to be higher, as a test would have cost me R700 and would not have been covered by the medical aid fund.  Fun.  Authorities are now stepping up prevention and treatment campaigns following the news of the death of the Maties student.

By now its old news, but H1N1 has finally hit Stellenbosch campus.  By Monday there were at least two confirmed cases; I suspect that number has increased now.  But, I’m not too worried about it.  H1N1 has been massively hyped up by the media, but the mortality rate of regular flu remains higher.  I did speak to someone yesterday who is very nervous about contracting the disease: not out of a fear for himself, but for passing it on to his small children.  That is an understandable concern.  But I reckon the rest of us “young adults” will be alright.

The timing could have been better, though.

Half of the Cape (let alone Stellenbosch) has been taken down by what I guess is a swarm of various seasonal diseases.  I myself have been feeling a bit under the weather for the past two days.  I haven’t been sick all year (which has to be some kind of personal record), but what I have now isn’t like anything I’ve experienced before.  I definitely have that “I’m sick” feeling and I have some of the tiredness and soreness/stiffness that usually accompanies the flu, but no other symptoms to speak of.  My nose is more runny that usual (for this time of year), I don’t really have a cough, I don’t sneeze more than usual, no more headaches than usual (I’ve never had headaches, but recently I’ve been getting them due to prolonged staring at computer screens), and, most incredibly, my throat isn’t sore.  Soreness in the throat is the hallmark of every incident of me being sick for at least about 10 years.  Fever is unverified, though, but I’m sure I don’t have one.  So what is it?  It doesn’t seem to be a cold, nor the flu.  Is it Fibromyalgia?  Can I weather it by myself?  What is going on?  The mystery continues…

Just a few random ramblings about some of the election posters I’ve seen popping up around town.

Independent Democrats (ID)

Patrica, babe, come on.  I am sure that you will still be around for a long time to be a thorn in the side of everyone else.  You’ll be policing and keeping everyone in check for many years still, I’m sure.  But, you are no longer the foxy lady you were when you broke away from the ANC to form the ID.  Please, consider putting your hair put for the next poster.

United Democratic Movement (UDM)

Mr Holomisa, you look awefully uncomfortable on your party’s election posters.  This does not inspire confidence.  Far be it from me to try and put you into stigmatised and stereotyped little box, but perhaps you can try for one of those big, fake politician smiles next time?

Democratic Alliance (DA)

I know Helen Zille, but who are these other random people on your posters?

African National Congress (ANC)

You guys have the most to answer for.  Having “President Zuma Speaks” in big fat letters with the rest of the text tiny below it is a low, despicable blow.  But, no-one is surprised by it.  Worst of all is that you guys sleep like babies at night.

“Together, we can make a difference”.  Wrong!  You guys are the status quo.  You are either (1) admitting that you guys have been screwing up for the past 15 years, or (2) making a blatant empty promise by just spewing forth random election time buzz words.

Lol @ Zumatello!

Congress of the People (COPE)

I know you guys are the new kids on the block.  I think your logo is alright.  But you need to work on your slogans.  “Lets fight drugs” is a good ideology, but it is not going to win you the election.  You can just as much promise to stop global warming.  Even if you manage to eventually do it, I don’t think anyone is taking any promises seriously at the moment.

Someone who lived through the Second World War recently remarked how the art of propaganda had been lost in the modern age.  The Nazi’s and Soviets knew how to properly twist truths and perceptions.  Today, everything is rather transparent.

Its been several weeks since those terrible fires around Stellenbosch started.  Since then, they have receeded and returned.  The town of Stellenbosch has been spared the flames and life continues as normal.  But all around us, the fires are threatening our neighbours.  Somerset West and, recently, Paarl.  Our lungs and nostrils no longer expell the ash and smoke we breathe.  The sun permanently casts down a gloomy brown glow like that of an old incandescent light bulb.  And certain nights the moon shines red, complimenting the searing halos around surrounding the mountains and hills.  These things have become mundane and commonplace.

I honestly always thought that the post-millennial American obsession with fire-fighters was the product of milking the 9/11 of every bit of conceivable patriotism.  Yes, I know the dangers are quite really, the work really hard and that some fire-fighters are bona fide heroes.  But now, looking at what is going on around me and thinking back to Australia earlier this year and Table Mountain a few years back, I realise that these people are really hard-core.  Even if they tire, whether physically or mentally, they cannot relent, or else the danger spreads and becomes very real for the people who otherwise wouldn’t worry too much about it.

Kudos to the guys fighting the fire-fight!  Keep up the good work!

The entire province is on fire and I am amazed at the longevity of the flames.  Nothing satisfies it, on sustains it.

Fires are not at all uncommon in the Stellenbosch area.  For the five years I have been here, I have seen some pretty bad, as well as spectacular, fires.  But none of them compare in scale to the one raging at the moment.

Apparently¹ the fire started in the Jonkershoek nature reserve.  The reserve itself is very close to town—in fact, the gate faces towards some of the rez’s.  From there it spread up towards the Stellenbosch mountain.  This all happened on day one.  It seems like it was contained towards the town, but slipped over to the other side of the mountain.  Meanwhile, as I noticed this morning, the fire’s flank maneuvered past the fire fighters and was also rapidly heading in the other direction: closer to where I live.  It is still far away, but things seem really bad and the usual scaremongering is rife on campus.

Notable buildings threatened (but which did not burn down) include the gym at Coetzenburg and the Tokara restaurant/wine farm outside of town.

On the first day of the fire I heard the initial reports on the fire, but didn’t think much of them.  I then went to sleep and woke up late in the afternoon.  By then, it looked like the apocalypse: a thick blanket of smoked covered the town and the rays of the sun which managed to break through illuminated the town in an eerie and foul orange glow.  I was a very unnerving sight to wake up to, especially when one considers that my bedroom window overlooks a part of town from a small hill.  For the next two days, our blanket of greenhouse gas (and perhaps some radiance from the fires themselves) helped heat the town to a few degrees more than it should have been underneath the summer sun.  All across town, furniture doubtlessly smells like smoke and people opt to drive rather than walk, not wanting to expose their lungs to the foggy smoke.  This evening, as I drove home, the sky looked clearer to the west, but in the east (where the fires are), was covered in a thick, low laying dark grey cloud.  It looks like heavy thunderclouds, but in stead of large rain drops, these clouds spew forth red embers.

Conditions for fire fighting could not have been worse.  Not only were there no incoming rain, but a strong, warm wind blew, which obviously fed the fire like petrol.  Today the wind had quieted down, but it seems like the fire is still spreading.  These conditions incubated not only the fires around Stellenbosch, but also nearly half-a-dozen other fires throughout the Western Cape.

Lets hope and pray these fires are soon extinguished!

1. Please note that all my information comes from second-hand sources.  I disqualify all the insane panicky rumours, but I believe a fair amount of the the reasonable sounding news I get, as the fire are hard to ignore where they are burning just a short distance away. [↩]

Today¹ was the third day of continuous sunshine in a cold, protracted winter.  Today was the first day it was actually relatively warm, but more cold fronts are on the way.  The capetonians are thoroughly tired of the cold, wet weather.  Friday was the first day in the current spell of sunny weather, but the winds carried a freezing breeze from the snow-capped mountain peaks.  Yet still some people ventured outside in shorts and skirts, as if protesting nature, demanding their right to a descent spring and, eventually, summer.  At present, however, summer seems like a mythical promise: a utopia or Atlantis.  It is no secret that I prefer warmer weather.  While I do find many little joys in the periodic raging of winter, I believe everyone now agrees that its time for the seasonal pendulum to swing the other way.

I had better not hear a single person complain about the heat this summer!  There is just no pleasing some people.

A change of political climate is occurring in South Africa.  The ruling party has asked the president to resign, which he did.  President Thabo Mbeki has received much flak during his time in office, but I fear the ANC’s intentions are less than noble in asking him to resign.  Popular support is trying to usher Jacob Zuma in as the new president as soon as possible.  This is not something I, nor many other people in the country are particularly keen about.  I could elaborate on Zuma’s sordid past, but I’m sure there are ample sources on the web, which would make my efforts redundant.  What I do want to say about this whole debacle is that I am not as anti-Mbeki as most of the people I see and hear around me.  He faced criticism primarily for (1) his ignorance about the AIDS epidemic in the country, (2) the vast amounts of time he spent abroad and (3) not dealing with crime.  One can’t expect any president, however, to just wave a magic wand and make all the problems go away.  Yes, his ignorance about AIDS was something which was his fault.  Yes, I would have liked less crime in the country.  But the time he spent abroad he was building international ties, workings towards his success in building the economy.

I am not politically savvy; in fact, I am vigorously apathetic towards the subject.  But while I agree that Mbeki’s presidency left a lot to be desired, we should not only focus on his misdoings.  In the nearly 10 years while he was in office, the country did not regress, but progress.  He played the political game, but respected the constitution and our institutions.  In the end was outmaneuvered by someone who simply was more popular.

As for Zuma… well, we are going to have to see, won’t we?

1. Well, yesterday, but only by a narrow margin. [↩]