04.07.08 – 15h30pm

Transit in Heathrow…it is massive – first time here. But highly irritated at the same time. I was in Geneva 3 hours before to check so that I can cruise around one last time before departing only to encounter the hassles of Olympic Airlines’ incompetence and British Airways’ ridiculous rules!
Ideally I was to fly from Geneva – Athens (with an 8hrs transit) – Johannesburg, on Wednesday Olympic airlines (which I have a ticket with) called me to change my itenary to Geneva – London – Athens –Johannesburg – I was not about to complain as I had not been to London before and they saved me the 8hrs I was to spend in Athens at 40 degrees doing nothing (actually reading my newly acquired The Audacity of Hope - Barack Obama). I had 4 items of luggage i.e. two suitcase and two backpacks…..being the ‘goody’ that I am I went ahead to check-in one suitcase and one backpack and the others were going to be hand luggage, and to allow myself to have ample time to have breakfast with Linda and Luca before leaving…I arrived to check in and then I was told that the policy of British Airlines is to allow only one bag per passenger for check-in (…what the f**ck, since when?) even though I was below the prescribed weight allowance for check-in luggage. Luca, Linda and I ran around the airport looking for a bag at a reasonable rate for an airport…we found one at 70 CHF (R450)…I packed luggage of two bags into one and then headed off to the check-in desk again and it was checked in alright even though it weight 26 Kg.

07.07.08 – 13h42pm

…went through Heathrow to get to my terminal and I must say it is big is not that pretty! N’way boarded and landed in Athens – It felt like 40 degrees when we stepped out of the plain into the airport and I met a Xhosa and an Indian women and heated off into a conversation about the uncultured English young people and the rest of Europe for that matter, the soaring prices of bread and petrol in S.A. and all that could come to mind while we waited for the Athens – Johannesburg connection which was late and when we finally did get on – the food was horrible, could not eat much except drink water and juice!! Its understandable as they were the cheapest airline I got in this high season and I would travel with them again (this time get a day or two in athens for a tan J) but carry a lunch box with me.

…Landed in South Africa, for the first time noticed that there is a South Africa and an African check-in section - customs for passports at the airport similar to Europe where they say EU and Non EU passports queues, I was proud! This might seem like a randon statement but when you have travelled first worlds and have had hassles at customs due to an African passport you would know what I am talking about.

I am home, sitting in a mall at house of coffees finishing this blog and planning my two days stay in Johannesburg and life in general. I feel the pinch of rising prices…got into a taxi this morning and it costs R8 than a previous R5 and the tea I am having costs similar to the taxi fair, but for some reason people are still flocking into clothing shops to get some new goodies that will make their bodies twist and turn better with the midday breeze and capture the eye’s attention! I am holding tight to my wallet, gallivanting the world can hurt your pocket quite a bit.

14.07.08 – 14h45pm

Now I am home, I get out when the sun is sitting in the mid-sky because it is damn cold down here. I am at a friend’s house – my usual urgent thinking and behavior have subsided, ideally o should be on holiday and relax but I am bored already for doing nothing except eating to fatten myself up…

Well I gotta go, my internet time is about to lapse, I miss my limitless wireless back in Bern!

Time of my life

03.07.08 – 04h00pm

It has started settling in that I am leaving Switzerland after 7 months of being here and the second time living here in 4 years, I’m on the train right now on my way from Luzern - Lugano . . .its summer already – extremely hot, people are swimming in the river and walking in bathing suits in the middle of the day and I am still astonished by the beauty of this country especially the route I am travelling on right now…when you have time once take a train from Luzern – Lugano or Brig – Fiesch or Romont – Lausanne or Lausanne – Montreau or Geneva – Neuchatel or Neuchatel – Biel or just take a trip up to Jungfrau jong mountain . . . I have been everywhere and nature’s beauty weather its winter or summer has been an eye opening and I don’t know if Swiss people truly realize how amazing this place is.

I have lived in paradise, I hardly had to walk anywhere unless I was travelling after midnight (…yes travel after midnight without fear of being mugged, the only fear I had was a ghost jumping in front of me from old buildings J), I had a bus/tram next to the flat, took a train everywhere within the country (didn’t pay – all I had to do was show my GA card – gives me free access to all transportation within the country this obviously has made me very lazy J to walk anywhere).This country has shown me the ability to be able to provide social security even for the ‘lowest’ level of its citizens, I love this country – actually I am in-love with the Swiss’s natural beauty,and sense of togetherness in its diversity and this has obviously made it hard for me to say goodbye….

04.07.08 – 02h20am

I worked with amazing people colleagues & friends from AIESEC to UNFPA and met inspiring people in my usually unpredictable way…

Anna – The bubbly German caramel girl, well I hope you are having a great time some special ones from far far away.
Ivan – The Slovak cook, I hope you find what you are looking for on the pilgrimage.
Luca – The Swiss-French going to the Brazil beach/bitch J, come to S.A. and I will take you to Pretoria – I promise.
Simone – The calm Swiss-German who kept things together, I hope the Brussels people take you if they know what’s good for them.
Jeroen – another bubbly Dutch who enjoyed picking me up for fun, the world is your playground my friend.
Linda – The Arabic/Swiss-French caring individual, something great will come up soon.
Jean-Paul – my brother from another mother, I hope all goes well soon.

. . . and to all those I did not mention I have enjoyed our time together, I mentioned the above people as I literally spent days and nights with them at close range, I have enjoyed my time here – it is one of the best times of my life…

Coming back home!

Since my time is near for going home, i thought this song would do.

Conflicts in Africa: any good news

On the …..i attended a seminar/session on the above mentioned topic organised by the UN reasearch and training agency, the panel consisted of various individuals such as Mrs Fraser-Moleketi – the minister of public service and administration in South Africa, Mrs Sydnes – head of Church Aid in Norway, Mr Edusei – Ambassador of Ghana to the US and Mr Mkandawire – a world acclaimed academic.
I must say…to my surprise, there were more europeans in the room than Africans, any way the points that I highlighted as they impressed me were that:

• For the 4th conservative year, in 2007 Africa’s real GDP growth rate exceeded 5% ….with growth becoming more broad based, of which; 25 countries achieved GDP growth rate of above 5% and 14 countries achieved GDP between 3% and 5%.


• When you talk to the people on the ground, the notion is about getting better….


• Most wars are over, but fear that lingers is that wars will come due to new themes of the world such as terrorism.


• Africa is in good track of most Millennium Development Goals


• Atleast leaders are not comparing medals on the chest but how fast economies are growing, and new definitions were given: Dictators – count civilians who can be put into military use and Democracies – leaders count people in the country and where they can be placed on the needs of country.


• Africa deals with diversity more than anyone i.e. we appear as one during the day and manage tribalism at night, but we do need a platform for diversity management to avoid the kenyan and now recently South African rapture.


• All African wants is fair and free trade and fair press

All this have been due to good policies in recent good time where better economic was managed, there were more competitive exchange rates, better institutions and governance and fewer conflicts – although we do acknowledge that there will always be conflicts as the continent is large with many different tribes and dialects.

Ps: I found diplomats to have no meeting etiquettes despite their job being to attending meetings. In us embracing communication/technology - I still find it offensive for one person to answer a phone in the middle of a session, its disrespectful to the speaker on the floor and/or presenter on the floor. I don’t know if it’s a subtle behavior amongst ‘this’ community or they are just not used to being told if something in inappropriate in a direct manner!

South African (S.A.) xenophobic attacks!

You might have realized the xenophobic attacks that had erupted in S.A. in recent weeks – which made headlines all over the world….they temporarily over-shadowed Zimbabwe’s elections, China’s Olympics and any other disasters around the world. I must say I was not impressed by my country and the violence did not improve our image at all. In Switzerland we are on all communication materials you can think of…from TV, newspapers and even tabloits (20minute is a tabloit!). South Africans need to think about what they are doing, imagine if I had to be chased around in Switzerland with fear that I will be burned to death…. I have had to be the undesignated spokesperson of SA lately with questions fuelling from Canada, Germany, Kenya, Brussels, and mostly Switzerland and I told them that ‘i hate the violence ...i think its plain stupidity of a violent uneducated and unknowledgeable minority’….why didn’t they just march and burn Home Affairs department if they had problems with immigrants and the government….what happened to Ubuntu (humanity)?

…I have been thinking about the whole saga and why it started, and it still comes back to one thing – economic refugees – mainly coming from Zimbabwe, here is the reason why; South Africa has always been a country of immigrants, the countless mines that brew diamonds, gold, platinum and all other metals we have in abundance were not just dug by South African men from the 1900…..they were dug by men from Lesotho, Swaziland, Angola, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Botswana, Zambia – there are even trains and buses from this countries coming directly into South Africa known to have transported mine workers mostly. With history you would know that most settled in especially around Johannesburg and made that home, that’s why joburg is an extremely mixed city….most children actually cannot speak one pure language because they grew up speaking all of them at once…you will find that a typical joburger in a conversation has switched to atleast 3 languages and is still understood perfectly by a recepient.
Listern to the song: Stimela by Hugh Masekela, you will understand what I am saying to you.

So with this in mind, something else must have been brewing behind to have come to this and to me economic refugees made sense… With our next door neigbour’s (Zimbabwe) drama ; with South Africa hosting 2010 soccer world cup and our president refusing to acknowledge there is a crisis in Zimbabwe plus opening our border gates as wide as possible without proper policies for refugees like intergration, status clearance, etc (…for an intellect, he is such an idiot sometimes) – Zimbabweans have found South Africa a safe heaven. Even before I left to come to Switzerland in most restaurants around joburg…most waiters and waitresses were Zimbabweans (…you can hear their proper British English with that unique accent) and I believe this has caused the chaos because there is very little resources in the country even for South Africans hence the high unemployment rate, then you have illegal immigrants treated as cheap labour by most businesses (…and what are the poor people supposed to do in Zimbabwe when there is nothing left to even put into their mouths) and this salad caused the unemployed to march and take out immigrants as they believe they (immigrants) are taking their jobs…..no employed right person who has a proper job can run around during the middle of day in pursuit of immigrants.

As I said; I do not believe in violence, we have come so far in the world to be able to find solutions for problems just by conversing (except for the US), things should never carry on like this…that is why politics are such a bore! And I hope S.A. is taking hold of the situation as competent people should, atleast a majority of South Africans marched to the government to condemn the attackes…. Check out - www.mg.co.za .

Obamatopia....comedy

Chill in Brussels and party in Amsterdam

I took Friday off as i was planning to spend a long weekend in Brussels with a friend and former colleague – Chituru. Since I missed the easyjet special, I had to take the train which took 6 hrs through north of France, Luxembourg and finally Brussels. When the train arrived at the central station….I was a bit surprised by the abundance of black people at the station – it felt like I was in Africa again. . . the train station did not look that ‘pretty’ though and trains were very old aswell . . . I guess having been in Switzerland for this long has spoiled me to a certain level as the stations are more organized and cleaner – owing to the fact that they never got bombed throughout history, the trains are not that old (not German magnificent either) and the fact that there are not that many foreigners in Switzerland as in other European countries due to restrictions has created a sort of bubble for me.

Went to a festival at about 17h00, a celebration of spring with all kinds of music….but listened to a lot of Arabic music through-out the day, quite a cultural experience and had a watermelon – which seems to be a delicacy this part of the world. Came back @ 00h20 or so, had water to dilute our alcohol intake and then continued to talk about world issues until 05h00….and the main issues were an African point of view about Zimbabwe & Mugabe, Democracy versus dictatorship and being a foreigner in Europe.After all those deep discussions, my head was dizzy so I went to lie down a while, awakened later on that Sunday morning to have breakfast @ 11h00, slept again to gain more rest during the late afternoon

At about 23h00, left Brussels for a club in Amsterdam and stayed until we were escorted out. Instead of going home at about 04h00 – headed for a bar 100 meters down the road and waited until sunrise…..then we headed back to Brussels 4 hours later. When we got to Brussels we went straight for my luggage, even though time was not on my side - had to wash the necessary parts though cause I was to have another 6hrs sitting down straight.

I feel I am still recovering from last weekend, but that is not happening as I am in the middle of a conference about new generations and demographics organized by the economic commission for Europe where in lay men’s terms they are talking about why Europe east and west are not making anymore babies and what should be done to assist the process of reproduction….another story for another day….right now I shall continue with my book Hannibal, pride of Carthage by David Anthony Durham – on that note I learned on my train trip to Brussels that Carthage people are what we call Tunisians from a Tunisian who was sitting across me.

Dinner in France....24hrs later dinner in Sweden!

Sounds like a life of the rich and famous, right…but believe me even nomads can have their way…here is what I mean.
Team days (time when national office members of AIESEC in Switzerland get together outside of the office space) this time had been scheduled to be together in Sweden, and that meant that I had to apply for a schengen visa to travel outside of Switzerland, and since I work in Geneva; my immediate thought was applying at the French embassy in Geneva – but since I live in bern I ended up applying in Zurich instead, nevertheless I had my visa posted to me with no hassles.
I was told that my fist entry into any schengen state would have to be the country that issued me with the visa so that I do not experience problems while travelling to other states. On Monday 21.04.08 I made a trip to the nearest town in france from Geneva called Thoiry so that I can receive a stamp to prove to the authorities that I was there, I waited for the bus for about an hour i.e. from 18h59 and caught it at 20h11, The bus ride was pleasant and when we arrived I was the only person in the bus except the bus driver, he stopped for 10minutes in Thoiry – I had a little chat with him and we went for coffee and a burger at Mcdonalds, I found out that he is from Cape Verde and has been living in Avian for 14 years now – sounded like a nice, genuine person, but communication was hard as he mastered only French and Portugese and I only English 
When I got back to Geneva I realized that I had left my mobile phone in the bus, I called my phone and the driver answered, for 10 minutes I was trying to understand where I should meet him to collect it – we finally understood each other that I should meet him at 23h45 at the station, during this time I stepped into an internet café to get numbers of people I knew in Geneva to house me for the night as I was going to miss my last train back to Bern, I ended up chatting with Emily in Canada who contacted Regi in Switzerland who phoned someone in Geneva who then phoned Nicole to come pick me up at 00h30 when I got back to town – I was scared of having no accommodation for the night but things worked out thankfully. I woke up at 07h00 to catch an 8h45 train to Bern, on arrival I packed my clothes and headed for another train going to Basel – one hour away, where I caught Rynair which took 2hrs & 20min to arrive in Stockholm Skavstra airport.
Stockholm, a beautiful city surrounded by water, went out to discover the city with my new found friends from Sweden (Himanshu - Indian, Joao – Brazilian, Joanna - Swedish and Linn - Swedish). This was my first Scandinavian travel and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
…..Last day with the Swedes was spent with a national dish called köttbullar i.e. meat balls, boiled potatoes, and canburry sause/jam, the conversation last light – me and Himanshu kept on with our common wealth connection in trying to detect the commonness of our cultures until about 23h30.
Since our flight back to Basel was at 07h50, and getting to the airport took an hour and half, we had to wake up 02h45 for breakfast, catch a taxi at 03h20, then caught a bus and later at an odd hour of the morning we arrived at the Stockholm Skavstra airport.

….when I landed in Stockholm, the customs security check guy singled me out of a group of people passing-by and then asked me where am I coming from and what am I doing here; my response was ‘I just flew in from Switzerland,’ and he let me go, I wonder if I had mentioned I am originally from South Africa – would I have been stripped searched?
Then on my return again at customs, the security guy let my workmates pass and stopped me, demanded that I put all my belongings on a scanner – he even scanned my passport! I wish to understand what the criteria is for picking out people at the airport for inspection, how do you explain being singled out on a queue and being the only one to be humiliated by being double- checked while other people just simply pass-by . . . it must be disappointing for them not to find any drugs in my bag.

Kick Off 2008

Last week i was in fiesch (high on the Swiss beautiful mountains) engaged in a conference with about 300 people talking about world issues and our impact as individuals and communities. There were people from different parts of the world and it was really interesting, below is a clip of what happened.

Shoot the bastards!

...that is what the South African deputy safety and security minister said the police should do to criminals if they feel their lives threatened. The statement has received an enormous publicity attention from the media all over and attracted human rights activists and so on and so forth…
There is always an issue of human rights, the constitution, etc, one has to consider when it comes to such statements from a public representative but all of this issues are debatable under 2 perspectives for me i.e. from those who’ve experienced violent crime and those who have not!
When you have been pickpocket you last transport money at the age of 12 by 3 guys, had your laptop stolen from your bag at gun point in the middle of the night in a place thought to have been safe, had your house ‘broken-in’ that they even stole your room-mate’s underwear because she packet them in a fancy bag (they did not bother to look inside) in your absence then I suppose it would be automatic for one to support the deputy minister because one’s life has been threatened on many occasions!
But there are others who have not experienced such brutality and would advocate that giving license to shoot is not proper – we should look at the root of the problem and do ‘the right’ thing and not a ‘good’ thing and that is have a highly trained police force, get an efficient and effective justice system and get competent human capital to execute this tasks. hmmm…this reminds me of the argument: the right to life vs the limitation clause (every right is limited) – this discussion is very interesting and can get really heated when you talk about abortion – does life begin at conception? …anyway this is discussion for another day!
Personally because of my above experiences I choose the first option. Hypothetically – if someone jumps over my wall at odd hours of the morning then drags me at gun point, fastens & blind folds me to help themselves to my hard earned furniture and food that I continuously pay for and they just come and take (they invaded my right to privacy & psychologically scared me about safety in my own yard. I might forgive them but I won’t forget) but if someone jumps over my wall at odd hours of the morning, drags me and my family at gun point and rapes my kids then I will shoot the bastard and forget about who has rights in which circumstance.
…Yet again I don’t want the country to emulate the US where people have killing spree paranoia even in high schools by advocating that guns solve the issues but what is the short term solution that will benefit a long term solution of re-educating a criminal mind? Ohh and I don’t think offering a job is a short term solution – some criminals prefer not to work hard for their money.
….so if you look at this was the minister really wrong in saying what she said, I think she spoke from a parent’s perspective and let down her guard as a minister.

Bush booed at 2008 Nationals home opener

Dear God

I missed home thoroughly today, Easter is spent with family – going to church and listening to the 7 phrases Jesus spoke at the cross – and having a feast of lunch with close relatives and neighbors.
. . . I have been meaning to drop by at a Methodist church in Bern (…once I have found it!) and say a word or two to the man upstairs, it would have been more fun to go with other people except people I have asked said church is for either a wedding or a funeral or you must be someone aging (…mother laughed and thought something is seriously wrong with the Swiss).
So when I woke up and pierced through my window, the weather was not agreeing to my adventure as there was snow – carried by strong wind and a bit of rain….. I was not about to freeze myself so I thought I should embrace the day with this message in a form of a song.

Infuriated!

I am at work its midday, I read my normal dose of South Africa news on mail and guardian, then I come across disturbing news: Free State University Racist video. I am livid, I can’t even think – how could such elderly women be disrespected like this by a bunch of out-of-puberty dick-heads?

After taking 5 deep breaths…let me tell you what happened.

On Tuesday a video was distributed showing five black cleaners at a traditionally white men’s residence on the campus being “initiated”. Amid loud laughter, they are shown taking part in races, downing beers and drinking a mixture in which a student had secretly urinated.

The narration on the video begins: “Once upon a time the ‘boere’ lived peacefully here on Reitz Island, until one day when the less-advantaged discovered the word ‘integration’ in the dictionary.”
The cleaners take part in a “boat race” (a beer-downing competition), a dance, a sprint race, a mock rugby practice and finally, they’re given a mixture to drink.
The video shows garlic being put into a dish full of what looks like dog food.
“We know they’re less privileged so we’re adding a bit of meat,” says the narrator.
Another student puts the bowl on the toilet and urinates into the mixture.
The brew is then distributed in plastic glasses to the cleaners.
All five of them spit out the first mouthful, but try to finish it amid loud encouragement from the students.
The video ends with the words: “That, at the end of the day, is what we think of integration.”
This is followed by one of the students asking a cleaner: “What does ’sefebe’ mean in Afrikaans?”
“A black whore,” she replies.


For the video go to click here

ps: i need a shot of vodka,pity i am at work!

Being Informed

….yes….I reluctantly follow US elections, if you missed the recent market slum that affected stock markets all over the world (rather big economies) or did not know that the US is the biggest Official Donor of Aid, then maybe you should follow….as sad as it is when the US sneezes , we all catch a cold!
Now I added this video, shared by Luca, because I was impressed on how informed this guy was about the politics and candidates’ policies for the upcoming elections. I was sitting and wondering weather I would have pulled it off if I was interviewed about South African politics, and even more wondered if youngsters back home realize that the next elections are in 2009 when we have to make informed decisions about our country’s future. We have voted on emotions for the last 3 elections, which was fitting for the last 3 occasions, but now its time to vote on policies and implementation.

Morals, values and democracy

Nice combination, hey…. past weeks I have come across articles from different countries on brothels, prostitution and rights! And I thought I’d say something on the issue as well…the constitution does provide for freedom of expression, although every right has a limitation…. gosh I miss my law classes.

The first article I read talked about a Russian guy meeting his wife at a brothel, how deeply saddened he was to see her there and that this has affected their marriage, apparently she worked there so she could earn some extra-money to support the financially burdened family and he clearly did not see it that way. The moral question is what was he doing there in the first place, why was he so heavily upset that he wanted a divorce…shouldn’t she be as well?

The second article this morning (http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=331504&area=/insight/insight__international/) was about how sex workers protested against the Nicaragua government (second-poorest country in the Americas after Haiti) who shutdown brothels in the area of a city, they were protesting in what they said was a violation of rights. Prostitution for them is a ticket out of poverty and what the government was doing is shutting down their livelihood. The girl who was interviewed talked about how her first boyfriend and some of the men from her hometown recognised her while visiting the brothel/ bar and how ashamed she felt…. It is funny how our society’s perception is that the girl has done something wrong yet the guys coming to purchase her services are immune from guilt…. Just picture the negotiation of the verbal contract when monetary value was placed for the service that was going to be provided to the guy’s needs, must have been on an equal footing yet the human value of that woman is seen to be lesser than that of a guy e.g. if he were to beat her up – she would probably land in jail, he would walk free and the pimp will have his/her commission anyway, isn’t that just regressive! But I must say it has become so progressive that the most taboo topic of society, which I may add has been practised way before any of our time, has become open…well atleast open enough to write about it.

The last article (http://www.thoughtleader.co.za/pierredevos/2008/02/05/real-transformation-requires-protection-of-sex-workers/) writes about how a sex worker challenged the fairness of her dismissal by her employer, who would have thought this would land at the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration, but the case got thrown out as sex work is still criminalized in South Africa.

…. Law in this day and age has been influenced by society trends/changes, where social dialogues take place to accommodate the best solution to our lives, yet sex workers are being punished because of the moral prejudices of the majority of our society, especially countries that have still criminalized it. The question that still keeps on popping to my mind is why is there prejudice against the practitioners and not the clients.

I think gender equality has a long way to go in society still and prostitution is a fraction of it.

1month and 2 weeks Anniversary.

Snow sleighing experience

I went around playing in the snow the other day with some of my team mates, it was actually fun except my feet were freezing afterwards, I had to put them on the heater in the train so that I could feel them again.

It was funny when we arrived and headed straight for the restaurant and realized that I was the only black person there – told Luca that black people need to get out more, it became uncomfortable when people started to stare at us, I kinda felt like an animal in a zoo on display (…and I hate zoos).

But all in all it was awesome, thanks to Luca and Simone.

Diplomacy (sensitive readers should not read this piece!!)

When working for the UN – diplomacy is one great skill you have to possess and if you were not born with it, then you should acquire it fast.

UNFPA deals with reproductive health and rights, gender equality and women’s empowerment as well as adolescent reproductive health. This is a controversial mandate because you go around and tell people to use condoms before sex (…more like tell governments to tell their people), lobby for free access of anti-retroviral drugs for people infected or living with HIV\AIDS, and advice on family planning before jumping into the sac …just to highlight some of the things we do.

In one of our staff meetings I learned about one of the issues that is being tackled – Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), I call it circumcision, but apparently FGM or circumcision are rather insensitive terms and a rather politically correct term is Female Genital Cutting….i mean really – it’s the same difference, but apparently it is culturally insensitive to countries practicing this if you call it in a wrong manner, so despite what you may think about it there is no room for your opinion but an understanding as you are representing nations united.

Hmmm, on that note I think we should have a session that focuses on certain cultural practices such as this one; it would be very interesting to get opinions because usually we evaluate other people according to our own values and practices without ever trying to understand where they are coming from, hence the religious war between the middle east and the west.

Bling…bling… money aint’ a thing!!

I still cannot get over the fact of how expensive this country is, on Wednesday I went to find out how much does it cost to have a hair cut, I’m kinda used to going to a guy who sits under a tree next to the fourways mall and charges me R12 (about 2 CHF), when I got to the train station (…and I am talking about OR Tambo International – domestic section look a like, not downtown parkstation), I asked some west Africans (I have this paranoia that only an African can cut African hair – with exception of north africans) how much it costed and they succeeded in sending me to a shock kingdom by claiming 35 CHF (about R210), all I wanted was a15min shave of all the hair on my head not trim me and make me look like a model!!

I have never cut my hair for more that R20 (about 3, 50 CHF) and I am not about to start now, so I told them I will come back later – never did! So I let Luca shave my head today and he’s a white European… the experiment came out fine actuallyJ

Tolerance

I told you that interaction here is at a highly low level right, and well I’ve even learned to be an obedient visitor and do in Rome what Romans do i.e. get into a train/tram/bus and sit 2m across someone, do not greet (if you do, you’ll probably not get a response), read a book or look outside the window till you reach your destination.

The other day I was in a train from Bern to Geneva, when we left the station the train stopped a bit (technical problem), but after a few minutes we proceeded with our trip and when we got to Palezieux (about 45 minutes from Bern) the train stopped, the driver was talking in French and German and people were leaving the train, I assumed that is where they are all supposed to get off - it looked a bit strange actually that I was the only one left in the compartment and that they lights were suddenly turned off, but I still sat there. When I looked outside the window people were staring at me and some other guy (later found out he’s English) and one old woman signaled to me to get out of the train and come to the other side of the platform, then it clicked that we were supposed to catch an oncoming train from the other platform.

I was upset, that an old woman from another platform had to signal to me to get out of the train, and the people I was sitting with just left and did not even say a word, one could claim they thought I had understood what was being said – but that could have been apparent that I did not especially when you’re the only person left in the compartment with lights off and everyone staring at you.

…..i am really trying to tolerate the culture of ‘mind your own business’ here but you know I would think that the rule needs to be broken if someone is in need of help even though you don’t know them, it wont kill.