Flying and Flying

I definitely took advantage of the in-house entertainment. Things I watched included Wall-E, CSI: NY, Family Guy, and Mythbusters. There were options for international television and a variety of music. Food was good for airline food and they kept us refreshed with drinks and snacks. Edwin continued taking some unbelievable pictures of the skyline as were flying. We were definitely touching the sky at this point. As it turned dark, we are able to make out civilization through the street lighting outlining cities and towns. We can clearly make out roads and how towns and cities are connected to each other.

            Finished watching Book of Eli. Excellent movie. The flight attendants served us breakfast. I have been able to watching the sun slowly, but surely, rise as we fly. It is absolutely stunning. I can now clearly make out mountains and general landscape. It is unbelievable to see the sun this high. It is really unique. It’s going to get so  bright in the cabin that I might have to put the window shade down. I am about forty minutes away from Dubai. Getting closer to Cape Town. I am going to continue watching Robin Hood.

            We finally have arrived in Dubai and it’s amazing! As the plane began its descent, we could begin to make out the city of Dubai. All the buildings looked to made out of marble. Each section of a community seemed to have several houses and a mosque that served the families within those homes. I could see a lot of cars driving by and was able to see their highway. It was paved and it looked very similar to highways back home. To hear the captain, say that it is 27 degrees Celsius out in Dubai made me truly realize that I am not home anymore. As the plane began to descend, my ears began to hurt terribly because we were declining in altitude. Once the plane landed, the pain resided.

           

            Dubai is amazing. The terminal looks absolutely beautiful. The stores look so well-maintained and the architecture of buildings look well-detailed and something I do not see in America. There are so many stores and restaurants. There are also so many people shopping in those stores, one could misinterpret the area for a shopping mall instead of an airport terminal. Every store seems to be well-thought out in design and nothing seems to be cheap laying around in the airport. It was very tempting to buy different items by the way they are displayed and by the number of people in the checkout cart. We continued to walk across the terminal, in awe of the entire scene. At the same time, we were heading towards our gate to the second leg of the journey. We eventually found a place to sit and switched off going to the bathroom, refreshing ourselves.

            Once Edwin and I were done, we were trying to decide where we wanted to grab something to eat. We had about an hour and a half to kill before boarding time. We had seen a really cool shop called Pinkberry earlier in the terminal. We ended up walking back over to check it out and buy something. The place sells yogurt and smoothies. Edwin and I ended buying a yogurt cup. One great thing about it is was that we got to pick six toppings we could put on the yogurt. I had picked raspberries, kiwis, and strawberries. And then I saw that they had a topping of Captain Crunch. The attendant serving me the yogurt suggested I put it as a topping and I could not resist. To round out the toppings, I had dark chocolate flakes sprinkled on top. I used my credit card for the first time abroad to pay for the yogurt. It was very refreshing to eat and it really rejuvenated me for the next leg of our journey to Johannesburg. 

The Start of the Journey

Well, I can’t believe it. I’m sitting here thousands of feet up in the sky heading over to Dubai. Finally heading to Cape Town. At about year ago, I was just preparing for my Cape Town interview and now a year later, I’m flying over for two months. I am very excited and even more anxious to get there. Edwin is sitting next to me watching Toy Story 3. Pretty good movie. And speaking about good things, Emirates is so far exceeding my expectations. The attendants are great. The entertainment options on the touch-screen televisions on every screen will keep me busy for 12 hours. I don’t know if I can access the Internet from up here. They have a spot for an Ethernet cable but I left my cable in my checked baggage. I guess I just got to blog on Microsoft Word and upload these posts later. They have a port to charge my laptop so I can use my laptop and write for a long time.

            Airport hassle was a breeze. I woke up around 3:30am back in Waltham and my dad, mom, and I grabbed all my bags to drive to JFK International Airport. I was asleep for most of the time. I had awoken 15 minutes away from the airport and my parents were telling me there was traffic near Hartford due to some accident. But once we passed that we just had to deal with some morning rush hour traffic but we did not hit the brunt of it.  We passed by Citi Field and Yankee Stadium on our way. We eventually found the Emirates terminal and my dad dropped off my Mom, my baggage, and I in front of the terminal as he went off to park the Sequoia.

            I was thinking of waiting until Edwin arrived but I decided I wanted to check in my bags. It was very convenient and the process was done quickly. Since I had purchased my tickets online, the online check-in line did not have anyone waiting and I basically walked up to the attending lady. The only thing she asked for was my passport. She gave me boarding passes for each of the flights I would be taking to Cape Town and labeled each of my checked baggage. She asked me to place each bag on their scale and everything seemed to be within their requirements. Once she gave me all the necessary paperwork, I had to proceed to bring my checked luggage off to the side for it to be scanned and carted off to the plane. The bags went through their high-tech scanners without an issue, which was a relief. There were looking at the monitor for a long time for some red baggage they scanned, trying to figure out something in particular inside it. They immediately put it off to the side and proceeded to open up the bag to do some further investigation. Thank God that my bags did not have to go through anything like that. Because my bags were locked, they would basically be forced to rip open the lock if it came to that.

            My first flight was set to board at 10:20am. Since Edwin had not arrived, my parents and I decided to walk downstairs and eat some breakfast. I tried to use the Internet downstairs but I was restricted within the airport. My family and I sat at an eatery for a little bit, taking pictures and talking about the trip in general. I realized that I did not want to sit down, but explore, because I will be sitting for a very long time on the flight. I ended up finding an Au Bon Pain on the other side of the airport mall and near that was a McDonalds. I was sold on the Mickey D’s so we decided to move over and grab some food from there.

            Edwin finally arrived at around 9am. I helped him complete his check-in, which again was a breeze. Once he went through the same procedures I did, his family and mine went downstairs again to hang out until boarding time would occur. We took several pictures and it was good take pictures out of Edwin’s new camera. 14.1 megapixels. Sick. We’re just going to end up taking hundreds, very possible even thousands of pictures with that camera to keep everyone back home updated.  

            Boarding time indicated 10:20am but we decided to head over to the gate at 10am. We have to go through a stringent security checkpoint before reaching the gate. Beyond that point, we could not be with our families. We hugged. We kissed. We said our goodbyes and Edwin and I were officially off to the airport races. There were no issues going through the security checkpoint, which made the process very smooth. I could still see my parents from the beginning of the checkpoint and I continuously waved to them from a distance until we had to continue walking. As soon as I put everything back in my bags, I immediately grabbed my fedora and put it on. I was looking forward to finally putting it on. The journey felt like it actually started.  After putting our personal items in the proper places in our carry-on bags, we walked over to our gate, A5. The gate had not officially opened yet and Edwin and I proceeded to go on a photo spree. It was an early indication of how much pictures we will be taking throughout our journey.

            At about 10:30am, passengers began to board the flight. They called our section first and we began to walk the boardwalk to the plane. As we were entering the plane, it was eerie. There was nine people staring at each passenger. I think they were watching our demeanor and our facial expressions. If they had a suspicion about someone, they immediately stopped them and checked their paperwork. For NINE people to be looking at you at the same time was strange but I knew that it was for my safety and the added security is a blessing. Edwin and I got through the stares without being stopped which was a relief. I give credit to my fedora. How you going to stop a guy wearing a fedora? As we reached the entrance to the cabin, major newspaper were sprawled out for us to pick and read during the flight. Newspapers ranged from U.S. Today, New York Times, and Wall Street Journal. Just from this compliment told me that flying with Emirates would be great, even if the flight is over 11 hours. As we started to take off, Edwin and I held a prayer case with a coin with a prayer from Saint Christopher, the patron saint for travelers. As we held on to the case, we watched one of the flight cameras as began to take off from a seat televisions. As it reached the final runaway, the plane sped up and the plane took off. Watching us lift from the window, looked unbelievable and the buildings we could clearly make out became tiny objects. JFK looked cloudy and a little foggy but once we reached our current altitude, the sun was shining. It was a sight to see. 

Spaza News

I came upon this very interesting website called Spaza News. It is a website specifically catered to spaza shop owners. They release a newsletter which is distributed to spaza shop owners in certain parts of South Africa. The newsletters are highly educational and useful to spaza owner to learn proper business practices. It offers advice and it is very informative. I definitely want to contact the people that run the newsletter to talk about potentially expanding their publication to Monwabisi Park. This would be a great goal to complete for my IQP.

Here is the link to the website:

http://spazanews.co.za/

Project Description

Here is the description to the project I will be working on in South Africa.

The goal of this project is to strengthen spaza shop business operations and consumer services by helping the Triple Trust Organization extend and adapt its Shop-Net program to Monwabisi Park. Spaza shops are a vital aspect of neighbourhood life, offering residents easy access to groceries and other essential consumer goods while providing community-located jobs and income to shop owners and workers. The small scale of operations, limited training of operators, and logistical barriers to obtaining and easily handling goods leaves many spaza shops operating at less than optimal efficiency. Shop-Net helps spaza shop operators save on the cost of operations by becoming members of a wholesale purchasing cooperative, and offers opportunities for strengthening entrepreneurial abilities through educational workshops and networking with other spaza operators. This project will document the nature of spaza shop activity in Monwabisi Park and explore with shop owners their needs and priorities for business development and how these might be met through Shop-Net. The project will also develop practical responses to one priority spaza need and make recommendations to TTO for further program development, including regarding the regional Shop-Net warehouse planned for September 2011. 


I was really interested in this project because of its impact to the community. Spaza shops are extremely essential to the survival of many families in Monwabisi and people depend on the spaza shops to provide their basic goods. The project also interested me because of the implementation of a wholesale distributor. I interned at BJ's Wholesale this past summer and I got a chance to learn about how a wholesale club works so I thought I could make a great contribution to this project.


After our first PQP meeting and a couple meetings with my team members, it looks like everyone is highly interested in making a difference and it reflects on the enthusiasm I see. The workload has started to pile up but I am really looking forward to tackling and researching the project this coming long weekend. 

PQP/ID 2050

It is exciting to think that in 7 weeks, I will be in Cape Town. But before that, there will be extensive amount of work preparing for the trip there. I was emailed the projects for this year and all of them are highly interesting. The group has been asked to rate level of interest of each project and state reasons for the top projects that interest you. All of them will be great to work on but a couple them popped out to me initially because I felt like I could make the best contribution and I have the appropriate background tackle really tackle and analyze the project. Tomorrow, I will be finding out who will be in my team and what project the professors I have assigned me to. From there, we will be off running setting the tone for a busy and enriching term researching and writing our IQP proposal.

Things to Do in South Africa

There was a lot interesting things they highlighted in the article. I would have to check this out in more detail and hopefully I will get a chance to see some of these attractions in Cape Town!

http://www.tripadvisor.com/Attractions-g293740-Activities-South_Africa.html

Ignoring Help

It was unbelievable to think that people would not treat themselves if they had AIDS despite the fact that treatment was available, close by. Even scared, I would try and find some way to get to a treatment center because my desire to live would outweigh the fear of a community finding out I am treating myself for AIDS. The groups that come to offer treatment come from far away and are inspired by stories of the need to save AIDS patients. It can be frustrating for the health care workers to see the sick ignoring a life-saving treatment right under their noses. When many of the adults work for nothing or are unemployed such free services to benefit their health is mind-blogging that they would pass over it.

Voting/Healing

The first vote Mandela casted in his life was for himself. It is an achievement that he was able to run as a candidate and had the freedom to cast a vote in his own country after years of rights suppression.

Mandela realized near the end of the book that it was not the only oppressed that needed to heal from the struggles but it was also the oppressor themselves. This type of inspiration came from the fact that he did want to be fighting for black or white people but for the cause of the common man. The oppressed may become freed from unjust rules but the oppressor has released themselves from small-minded thinking that takes time to recover and adjust.

People's Forum

There was another instance Mandela looked to the history of the success of other leaders to shape the way he acted. Mandela’s People’s Forums were inspired by the forums President Bill Clinton used reach out the voters and hear their concerns.  This types of meetings truly represented a democracy of the people.

Mandela & Winnie

Even though it seemed to be a mutual respect to break ties with his wife, Mandela must have been disappointed that he could not live up to the responsibilities of being a husband and father. Winnie was such a strong support for him and understood the situation when he had to leave for long periods of time, hide, or be imprisoned for decades. Winnie was an incredible wife and her loyalty to Mandela was unbelievable. “She married a man who soon left her; that man became a myth; and then that myth returned home and proved to be just a man after all.” (Mandela 600)

World Support

To have a majority of a country supporting your cause is amazing but to have the world’s support is something else. Attending a concert in Wembley in his honor must have been overwhelming for someone who had just been released from prison. Even though he had been prison for so many years his fight for freedom and the end of apartheid and oppression in South Africa had spread throughout the world.

Doing What's Best

I completely supported Mandela’s actions of secretly meeting with the government to discuss a truce and the future of South Africa and its people. People would have perceived his actions as conceding to the enemy but his actions were necessary if any progress was to be made to win rights. It was a big risk on Mandela’s part, but it was worth taking.

Sacrifice of Prison

Being in prison completing changed the dynamic of the movement. Mandela was abruptly moved off the map in terms of the movement. He was still the face of equality and freedom, but he was limited by prison and could only consult from there. Mandela and others were able to create a High Command in prison (which was a major achievement within itself) to help consult current senior ANC officials. It would have been impossible to influence and coordinate movement of the entire ANC organization from within prison so the High Command stuck to consulting the ANC. High Command could only influence problems within Robben Island. The High Command not only was a group of people that consulted and fought for the rights of prisoners, but they also were educators. They were able to teach the young prisoners about the ANC. Mandela and other members of the High Command did not use prison as a time to sulk and regret but made the best of their dire situation to make a change, however long it took.

Despite being subjected to the strict rules of prison, Mandela and others in prison figured out ways to communicate. Communication between groups of people kept everyone up to date of what was going on outside and it formed a kind of bond in prison that they were altogether for this struggle. The chance to help each other out for the cause of freedom outweighed the risk with getting caught communication with men in the other sections of the prison.

Not only did Mandela have to make a sacrifice in prison but also his family. Winnie and Zindzi were often harassed and had to deal with the rude policeman who often questioned them and raided their homes without warning. It must have hurt Mandela in that he did not want his actions to affect people negatively, especially his family. It is a sacrifice fighting for a cause bigger than family and that affected an entire nation.

The Journey of Trial

Mandela and the other prisoners have to deal with not only the humiliation of prison, but also the poor treatment by prison warders. To urinate on a prisoner today would call for the immediate resignation of that person along with possible criminal charges for mistreatment and negligence. The way Mandela stated the warders’ actions seemed to be that they often did this to prisoners which makes the situation even more disturbing.

It was unbelievable to read that Mandela and the other captives seemed to be having a good time despite going through a capital trial. They laughed, stayed positive and event messed around with the Special Branch officers. I was laughing out loud when I the officer read the note he took from the prisoners and it said “Isn’t Swanepoel a fine-looking chap?” First of all, it was funny but it was even more amusing because I would never expect prisoners being determined if to be sentenced to death are fooling around and are in high spirits.

It would have been very difficult for Judge de Wet to allow a death sentence to occur for Mandela. The worldwide attention that trial had generated created a pressure against death. Representatives from London and the United States were passionate enough to write letters and even march in support of Mandela.

Nobel Peace Prize

I was shocked to hear that Chief Luthuli had won the Nobel Peace Prize. I had assumed that this struggle in South Africa was just an internal conflict oblivious to the West. But such recognition puts the South African struggles on the map. The award represents a type of hope that the efforts of Chief Luthuli will eventually climax to freedom and equal rights for all South Africans. It was ironic that the award was for peace and the ANC had been moving towards a violent approach. I can relate to this to how Barack Obama had recently won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2009. He had not achieved peace yet in places like the Middle East yet but his efforts to make amends with Muslims around the world and his ability to bring people of various diversities together. Like Chief Luthuli, it was ironic that even though Obama had won the prize, the U.S. was fighting in two wars half way across the globe.

Shift to Sabotage

Mandela was very risky in switching to a position of violence directly after the Treason trial, in which they were working hard to confirm that the ANC was a nonviolent organization. When a person quickly switches a position on an issue, often times the legitimacy and the trust of that person can be lost because it becomes unclear where the person stands on a topic. But going through the struggles of the Treason Trial, Mandela had come to realize that their non-violent has not accomplished or progressed them in their movement to end apartheid. And Africans were dying, often times protesting peacefully. If they were to stick to a non-violent approach, Mandela believed freedom could be achieved, but probably not in his lifetime.

Switching to a violent approach for the ANC officially makes Mandela fighter. It was interesting to see that Mandela did not want to be blindly violent but researched and analyzed guerrilla tactics from leaders like Mao Tse-tung and Fidel Castro. It shows that Mandela wanted to be an effective leader by learning from the trials and errors of other leaders.

Often times when a organization takes a new approach to tackling a problem it is often a trial and error method until they know what is best for them. But for the ANC’s case, they had done enough research to realize that if they were going to go with a violent approach, it would be through sabotage. Sabotage reduces the chance of loss of life and it did not an army of people to accomplish this task. If the ANC went with some type of war to terrorist acts, supporters of the ANC may rescind their backing of an organization that has started to become reckless. An approach of sabotage allowed staunch supports of nonviolence to slowly ease into this approach by convincing that this type of violence causes the least harm to human life but is still highly effective.

Unjust

It is assumed that laws are made in order that crimes are reduced or bad behavior is lessoned but in this case apartheid has allowed African men turn to an occupation of crime. If one looks at the underlying cause of the inspiration to turn to crime, the laws of apartheid create boundaries of unjust and immoral rules that encourage Africans to commit crimes. It is unfair to think to the legal system in which people turn to for protection are hindering men to lead good lives.

It was amusing to read how Milton Mkwayi was threatened to get arrested when he was already arrested and just got separated from the group. And Milton was refused enough times that he technically escaped from the trial for him. It just shows how the policeman were arresting people without proper information/motive. The police were obviously unorganized. If the policeman does not even know who they have under arrest, that fact justifies they are unlawfully arresting South Africans.

It was already difficult enough that they were arrested and had to prepare a trial in a jail. But they also have to deal with all the racially-motivated rules in terms of food and location of sleeping quarters. Mandela and the other prisoners had to deal with an unjust system from many angles.

“Under apartheid, a black man lived a shadowy life between legality and illegality…” (Mandela 267). When the rules of government become unreasonable or unjust for the common citizen, it forces men to resort to breaking the law. Living underground for Mandela sounds like a criminal instead of a civil-rights activist.

Strikes in South Africa

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/africa/2010/08/20108265325707917.html

With over a million workers on strike for wage disputes, hospital patients, especially HIV and AIDS patients, are not receiving consistent treatments. The government needs to get this under control before violence gets out of hand. 

Engineering Without Borders

Went to an EWB meeting for the first time earlier this evening. I was recommended by friends to come to the meeting. I had always had a thought of getting involved in this club but I never got a chance to. The club had a presentation about their summer trip to Guatemala. They did a water assessment in a village in that country. It is a interesting club that can a fulfilling experience to take part in.

Reflections on Purchasing Tickets

Purchasing tickets was a strenuous process. I learned a lot of things I will remember to use when I travel abroad in the future. Here are some things I learned:

• The direct website can have just as good flights, if not cheaper flights, as airline saver websites such as Expedia, Orbitz, etc.
• Buy your tickets as early as possible. I had thought that the price for tickets would go down once the World Cup in South Africa was over but it just continued on a steady increase since June. I was looking a round-trip prices of around $1200 and I should have realized that is a great price to travel internationally.
• If you have any questions, just call the airline/website directly. It’s better to hear/clarify certain questions you have than look on the website and create you r own interpretation of a rule.
• Expect the flight prices to change ALL THE TIME. It really is disheartening to see flight prices fluctuate across the board.
• Research the range price to travel to your destination. You can realize how low can a round-trip price and recognize when a flight is way to high.
• Be aware of time zone changes when flying internationally. Make sure that you are arriving on the day you want. You may not realize it but you could arrive one day later or earlier than expected. I was lucky enough to book tickets in which I will arrive and leave Cape Town on the exact days listed.
• Yapta.com; I thought this website had the most straightforward and cleanest interface in searching for flights. But in the end going direct to the airline is the best way to go.
• Don’t book flights on the phone. The prices online are cheaper than what the customer service representative is looking at on the airline system.
• Be aware of baggage fees. In this time where airlines are starting to introduce fees for services that previously were free could expense you a big bill. This could be a major factor in picking your flight.
• You can pick your seats on a flight once you book the flight. I was a little confused in booking the flight because I thought they would prompt me before I purchased a ticket to pick my seat.
• If ambitious, try and fly as group. Groups fly for less. 

Finally purchased tickets!

Prison

"A nation should not be judged by how it treat its highest citizens, but its lowest ones - and South Africa treated its imprisoned African citizens like animals" (Mandela 201). Not only does the arrested have to deal with the pain of prison and the legal process but the unsanitary conditions at the prison could make a person go insane.

A Changed Man

When the chiefs in the Transkei reprimanded him for talking back to the police, he realized that he was a much different man from long ago. If he had stuck to the status quo and stayed with the Transkei he would never had the confidence to bravely challenge the injustices around him. Mandela changed from a man who was passive and did everything was told to a stubborn political firebrand who refused to abide by rules and order that were unjustified and unmoral.

A Democratic Future

The charter written up reminded me of the Declaration of Independence. It laid an outline for a democratic South Africa. With statements such as the people governing and equal rights for everyone, it was obvious that the charter was well-thought and was a clear identity of the ANC.

Justification for Violence?

Mandela is troubled by the lack of progress of the ANC's efforts and questions if the organization should shift to a violent approach if and only if they are met with violence. If the police are attacking members when they are nonviolently protesting their method of resistance is completely ineffective. Mandela should be able to fight back if violence is released upon him.

Unprofessional Judgement

Reading that the magistrate made his decision if Mandela's client was coloured or not by the slope of his shoulders is mind-blogging. To be straight-forward, how stupid can he be to make a decision based on the judge's instinct? A case is made based on the evidence and testimony provided during the trial. And because of the judge's blind decision-making Mandela's client's life is changed forever.

Great Plan

It was amazing to see the ANC offer political lectures to its members under the plan M-Plan. That really proves to me that the ANC is a legitimate group. Its purpose is not only to bring people together just to have a large group of supporters but for these group of people to be educated in the organization's purpose and what role they place in the situation surrounding each one of them. Often supporters join a group because everyone else is and it is just the main leaders who have the goals and visions of the group. If political lectures like these are people are more understanding of the cause and realize why such concepts as nonviolence are the best options.

Cheap Travel Expense

http://www.meritline.com/showproduct.aspx?ProductID=27250&SEName=happy-outdoor-travelling-air-pillow&source=dealnews

The items are just 99 cents and would be real useful when traveling to Cape Town.

Prison for Life?!

Mandela has technically been in a prison his entire life. With whites trying to define his potential and control his life, Mandela is fighting to be free to do what he wants and to be treated equally. It is heartbreaking to see how the government would bend the rules in anyway in order to maintain control. It makes it difficult for the ANC to cause changes when the government is arresting leaders on bogus charges which takes months to years to clear up with lenghty trials. "Banning not only confines one physically, it imprison's one's sprit" (Mandela 144).

Indemnity

This word was mentioned in the Autobiography of Nelson Mandela several times so I thought I should point out the definition of the word.

Indemnity: Protection against future loss

Apartheid

I now understand why it is recommended there is separation of church and state within government. Malan’s implementation of apartheid was based on “religious underpinnings by suggesting that Afrikaners were God’s chosen people and that blacks were a subservient species”. It is an outrageous belief and it seems like such a vision was created in order to religiously justify apartheid. 

Interesting

I was surprised to find that there was a high enough population of Indian people in South Africa that they formed their own youth congress to challenge the discrimination they faced. I had assumed that the struggles of Gandhi in India and Mandela in South Africa were separate fights in which either were not aware or had deaf ears to the oppression in other continents. But both leaders were aware of their struggles and looked to each other, Indians and South Africans, to work together to fight injustice. 

Interesting Article from CNN World Recently Published...

http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/africa/08/02/independence.africa.colonialism/index.html?hpt=C2

Great Quote

“Many people will appear to befriend you when you are wealthy, but precious few will do the same when you are poor.” I really like this quote because this can be a really good indicator of a friend’s character. When someone is wealthy, often the person is not looked at as a human being but a materialistic object to be used for one’s own pleasure. 

A Growing Anger

Living with Jongintaba, Mandela’s knowledge and experience widened. He was immensely exposed to Western culture, religion, schooling, and leadership from meetings of the regent and his court. It was in these meetings where Mandela witnessed various speaking styles and the regent’s emotionless response to many charges that were made against him. From such meetings was Mandela able to develop a growing flame of anger against Westerners attentively listening to the stories of Chief Joyi. Opportunities like this were rarely bestowed upon a kid who formerly lived in Qunu. His time with Jongintaba was a period of countless learning and observations.

Witnessing Reverend Mokitomi stand up to Dr. Wellington and not be punished for his courage showed Nelson that it was possible to stand up to the white man. Such incidents like this would get Mandela more comfortable for standing up to the white man or authority in general and changing his transformation from a passive person who obeyed everything authority instructed him to do to an active resister of injustices within society. In a culture where a black man refusing to obey a white man is rare and “illegal”, Mokitomi’s actions may have looked incredible to Mandela.  It illustrated a lesson that authority will yield if one stays firm on the ground. Believing this principle made Mandela sacrifice certain paths in order to uphold a “moral principle” (Mandela 52).

Mandela worked so hard to have a successful academic career. He had opportunities to study from prestigious schools. Mandela was brought up by a mentality that receiving a B.A. was the only way to get respect and guarantee leadership skills. But as he was at Fort Hare, he realized that there was more to academics in being a leader on the fact that “Walter Sisulu had never gone past Standard VI” (Mandela 69). Mandela soon realized it would take more than education to stand up and receive respect of the white man. “ “Education is all well and good,” Gaur said, “but if we are to depend on education, we will wait a thousand years for our freedom.” ” People like Gaur helped mold Mandela’s revolutionary ambitions, bringing him into the political arena. An education did not teach how to handle racial oppression, something Mandela dealt with everyday.

Mandela's Unique Childhood

Mandela was destined to disrupt the norm as his birth name stood for troublemaker.  This term would later characterize his stubbornness and willingness to stand for what is right.

It is often said that a person’s actions reflect experiences in one’s childhood. In Mandela’s case his father was a leadership inspiration, even compelling Mandela to “rub ash…into my hair in imitation of him” (Mandela 5). Mandela’s father’s death opened the door for Mandela to become a son of Jongintaba, a result of the chief returning a favor for getting him in such a high position.  

As a child, Mandela also obtained a strong sense of community and bonding with fellow African people. Considering aunts as mothers and cousins as siblings allowed Mandela to care about others strongly; a person that would be able to unite a group of people or yet, a country.

Throughout Mandela’s youth and early years as a man, he often regarded the “white man not as an oppressor but as a benefactor”. Mandela did not have much interaction with white people as a child; well, he did not have a negative experience with white people. I would feel readers would expect such a experience to have happened to him which would carry on to his rebellious ways when he is older.

Mandela did not have a typical childhood in which most of his peers ended up uneducated. He was lucky enough to be chosen to go a British school. He was able to combine his strong sense of African culture and philosophies and culture of the British.

World Cup Success!

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/south-african-tourism-recognizes-pr-success-of-2010-fifa-world-cup-99482364.html

Mandela's Growing

Living with Jongintaba, Mandela’s knowledge and experience widened. He was immensely exposed to Western culture, religion, schooling, and leadership from meetings of the regent and his court. It was in these meetings where Mandela witnessed various speaking styles and the regent’s emotionless response to many charges that were made against him. From such meetings was Mandela able to develop a growing flame of anger against Westerners attentively listening to the stories of Chief Joyi. Opportunities like this were rarely bestowed upon a kid who formerly lived in Qunu. His time with Jongintaba was a period of countless learning and observations. 

Mandela's Youth Notes

Mandela was destined to disrupt the norm as his birth name stood for troublemaker.  This term would later characterize his stubbornness and willingness to stand for what is right.

It is often said that a person’s actions reflect experiences in one’s childhood. In Mandela’s case his father was a leadership inspiration, even compelling Mandela to “rub ash…into my hair in imitation of him” (Mandela 5). Mandela’s father’s death opened the door for Mandela to become a son of Jongintaba, a result of the chief returning a favor for getting him in such a high position.  

As a child, Mandela also obtained a strong sense of community and bonding with fellow African people. Considering aunts as mothers and cousins as siblings allowed Mandela to care about others strongly; a person that would be able to unite a group of people or yet, a country.

Throughout Mandela’s youth and early years as a man, he often regarded the “white man not as an oppressor but as a benefactor”. Mandela did not have much interaction with white people as a child; well, he did not have a negative experience with white people. I would feel readers would expect such a experience to have happened to him which would carry on to his rebellious ways when he is older.

Mandela did not have a typical childhood in which most of his peers ended up uneducated. He was lucky enough to be chosen to go a British school. He was able to combine his strong sense of African culture and philosophies and culture of the British. 

Try Using Trip It.com

http://www.tripit.com/trip/public/id/78C320FF57A3

Where in the world is Matt Lauer?

So the other day I was watching the Today Show and they had mentioned their annual segment called Where in the world is Matt Lauer? If you have not heard of this, the lead anchorman of the Today Show, Matt Lauer, travels each year to five locations around the world and exposes viewers to the culture of the city/country he travels to. I wondered if he had gone to Cape Town and when I went on the Today website he had in fact gone in 2007. They had several very interesting video clips. The link to the website of all the Cape Town videos from the Today Show is:

http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/29306526/

Lauer did a good job of covering many aspects of the beautiful city of Cape Town. One of the residents summed it up by saying it could be 2 AM and you could go hiking up Table Mountain or go down to the beach and surf or walk in the city. It is truly a unique city.

Here are two videos that were my favorites which you would find useful. The first video highlights the city of Cape Town in terms of how it is moving on from its rough past of racism to a bright future with events like the upcoming World Cup. In the second video, Matt discusses with the other NBC correspondents about language would be really useful when in the city. 

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Purpose

Hey! It's great that I have finally got to start this blog as soon as summer vacation began. I created this blog in order to highlight my preparation for my IQP trip to Cape Town, South Africa this B Term. I hope that people related to this trip and in future trips of Cape Town can look to this blog as a resource to see my experience of the IQP process and how they can relate. This blog will also serve as my summer journal that our group has been asked to write throughout the summer. I hope to write on this blog from now until the end of B-Term. I hope you enjoy the content!