But the saga does not end here … I have always wondered what ‘natural honey’ is .. Is there any other kind?? This seeming contradiction has always niggled in the back of my mind (yes, I lead a sad life I know when these are the mysteries of life for me.) And then, seemingly unrelated to all this, conversation over the dinner table a few nights back, led, amongst a whole lot of other equally interesting topics, to a discussion on food irradiation. The consumer I learnt, can identify those products which have been treated by irradiation by looking for the word ‘radurized’ on the food label – a completely new word for me. Buying honey in the supermarket a few days later, I of course examined the label to see, lo and behold, that this product is ‘radurized’. Now I know that honey is one of nature’s few products that never spoils so why would you irradiate honey?? So I begin to think I understand what ‘natural’ honey might mean. And of course I am now on the hunt to track down some ‘natural’ honey (and also to find out why you would irradiate honey in the first place). On Saturday I am ambling through the stalls at the Craigpark Open Day, enjoying the sublime warm autumn day, the festive atmosphere and the laid back sense of community connection, when I spy some unlabelled bottles of honey on a stall table. I pounce on them and as I start spluttering with excitement thinking about all the questions I want to ask, Roy says to me ‘No dear, it’s not irradiated .. is that what you were going to ask?’ So here is the oracle who can answer all my questions about the mysteries of honey. It turns out that honey is irradiated to get rid of the harmful effects of the pesticides that have been used on the plants from which the bees have gathered their nectar. And if an area is pesticide free, there is no need to irradiate the honey. In the Cape where there are badgers, (who love honey nearly as much as Pooh Bear), this is called ‘badger friendly’ honey. So now at last, Liz at Lancaster provides guests with natural unradurized honey, made by bees which have fed off the nectar of citrus trees at Hilton in the Natal Midlands.

Like Hannibal in the A-team .. I do so love it when a plan comes together !

A customer is the most important visitor on our premises.
He is not dependent on us. We are dependent  on him.
She is not an interruption on our work. She is the purpose of  it.
He is not an outsider in our business. He is a part of it.
We are not doing her a favor by serving her. She is doing us a favor by giving us an opportunity to do so.

I have taken the liberty of changing some of the ‘he’s to she’s’.

Pick what you need but please leave some for your brother

Walking  through the suburbs one day recently I came across a great pavement garden – home grown veges with signs encouraging passersby to help themselves but ‘to leave some for your brother’.  This sure beats lollipop trees, invasive ivy and aggressively brut hunks of stone.  One of my bugbears about suburban Joburg is anti-social pavements which have been  transformed into dangerous obstacle courses, often forcing pedestrians, dog-walkers and child minders and families to walk in the road itself – dangerous and unnecessary. Follow the Prime Media’s Lead SA initiative and start with returning pavements to what they should be – accessible and congenial public spaces.   No access is blocked by this innovative vegetable planting as pedestrians have use of the pathway flanking the pavement garden.  Plus the public-spiritedness of this little patch embodies the spirit of Ubuntu – we can all make a difference.

Healthy and free

What a great idea – watch this space for news of Liz at Lancaster’s pavement garden!

Her doodle  appears today July 11th on Google’s international homepages world wide  and she also receives a family trip to South Africa, offered by the South African Tourism Board.

Sunset time on World Cup 2010 has arrived. Thank you to the world for coming  to our party. We loved having you and are sorry to say goodbye.  … until next time.

I went on a rant the other day regarding the cost of the 2010 World Cup versus all the critical needs South Africa is facing and whether or not the most vulnerable of this country would gain anything from having the World Cup hosted in their country. At that time, I also had some very positive things to say about our hosts for the 2010 World Cup and I wanted to share that side of the coin as well, because it is equally important.

To say that I have been blown away at the hospitality South Africa has shown the rest of the world would be an understatement. I think back on recent Olympics and struggle to remember much reporting in the USA of athletes from other countries. I remember when a Togolese guy won a bronze medal in kayaking and NBC reported it and I thought to myself, “where are all the other fascinating stories like this one…like the Jamaican bobsledding team.” In today’s America, sadly, we have drifted so far towards being so US-centric that we only seem to root for the Americans.

Not so here in South Africa. I’ve been here since early May and each week I have become more and more impressed with the global embrace that South Africans have offered up to the world. On the way to the airport a couple of weeks ago, I heard a radio program that said each day they would focus on one country that would be coming to South Africa for the World Cup, and they would explore not only that sport’s history in soccer, but also their politics, religion, and socio-cultural practices. On the television, I’ve seen numerous programs that focus on a particular country and it’s history of soccer and how the history of that country is intertwined with their soccer history. I’ve seen programs on India, exploring why India enjoys soccer but hasn’t really excelled at the global level… yet. And I’ve seen shows on soccer in Muslim countries. Maybe it’s planned, maybe it’s unplanned, maybe it’s by chance, but it is happening. It’s not just about South Africans showing off their varied and multifaceted culture to their global guests, it’s also about using this opportunity to educate South Africa on the rest of Planet Earth’s inhabitants.

As I moved through my work here in the provinces over the last six weeks, I had a pivotal meeting with the Board members of a rural NGO. They were explaining their guiding program philosophy of Ubuntu. No, not the Linux program. I’m talking about the traditional African philosophy of Ubuntu that essentially says, “No man is an island.”

I found a better explanation from Wikipedia:

Archbishop Desmond Tutu further explained Ubuntu in 2008:

One of the sayings in our country is Ubuntu – the essence of being human. Ubuntu speaks particularly about the fact that you can’t exist as a human being in isolation. It speaks about our interconnectedness. You can’t be human all by yourself, and when you have this quality — Ubuntu — you are known for your generosity.

We think of ourselves far too frequently as just individuals, separated from one another, whereas you are connected and what you do affects the whole world. When you do well, it spreads out; it is for the whole of humanity.

To me, Ubuntu is the acceptance of others as parts of the sum total of each of us. And that is exactly what I have experienced during the lead up to, and the initial days of this World Cup. There is nary a South African citizen that I’ve met on the street, or in shops or restaurants or hotels, that hasn’t gone out of their way to greet me and make me feel like I am home. And I don’t mean that in the trivial, “Oh, aren’t they nice, homey people here… ” sort of way. I mean real, genuine interest and questions. People seriously want to know where I come from. What it’s like where I live. How does it compare to where I am now. What do I think of South Africa. Oh yes, and what do I think of Bafana Bafana… The questions and conversations are in earnest. They are honest. And they are had with enthusiasm and a thirst to know more. South Africans are drinking deeply from the cup of humanity that has been brought to their doorstep. I would never imagine that an American World Cup or Olympics would ever be this welcoming to the rest of the world. And that saddens me for the state of my home country, but it also makes me feel the pride of the South African people.

I have been truly humbled on this trip. And while I have my gripes regarding development here, I cannot say one negative thing about how South Africa has handled its duties as host and hostess to the world. If I could say one thing to sum up being here during this once-in-a-lifetime experience, it would be that I’ve learned the value of Ubuntu, and that when found and offered in abundance, the world is indeed a better place to live in.

So, if South Africa accomplishes nothing more on the playing field, it will still have won as a host country. I am a cynic, no doubt about that. And yet I have to admit, I’m a little teary just writing this because I leave for home next weekend and I will be leaving a little piece of myself here in South Africa. I just hope I have learned enough to bring back a little piece of Ubuntu to my homeland, where perhaps with a little caring and a little water, it will take root as naturally as it does here, in the cradle of civilization. It’s funny, many people in America still ask me, “are the people in Africa very primitive?” Yes, I know, amazing someone could ask that but they do. And when they do, I usually explain that living in a mud hut does not make one primitive, however, allowing kids to sell drugs to other kids and engage in drive-by killings — isn’t that primitive behavior? I think it is. When I think of Ubuntu and my recent experiences here, I think America has much to learn from Africa in general, in terms of living as a larger village; and as human beings who are all interconnected with each other, each of us having an affect on our brothers and sisters.

As the 2010 Cup slogan goes, “Feel it. It is here.” Well, I have felt it, because I am here. Thank you South Africa, for giving me this unexpected gift. I am humbled.

I have posted below, Dr Haniff’s reflections on South Africa, the World Cup and Madiba’s role 
Siyabonga Baba Today I return to the US and it marks the end of the Pedagogy of Action 2010. This year also marks the 10 year existence of the Pedagogy of Action  and for the first time in its history South Africa and the continent of Africa host the world cup. On June 11 as the games opened I felt as though I was in the center of the world – the world came to Africa and it was gleaming, sophisticated,and pulsating.The South African team Bafana Bafana ranked 83rd.in the world on that day hosted Mexico ranked 17th. No host in the world cup has ever lost an opening game.  As one newspaper said the world was in Bafana’s hands. Against all the odds as the continent held its breath ,Siphiwe Tshabalala scored the first goal of the games and led Mexico 1-0 until Mexico tied the game eleven  minutes before  it ended.  A tie seemed like an underachievement , against their better ranked opponent but it was a fair result. Regardless of Bafana Bafana’s performance , the world cup  in South Africa has already been deemed a success and some say maybe the best one yet. It is an achievement of epic proportions. When you look at the crowds you will see sometimes  people holding aloft a sign with an image of Nelson Mandela that says “Siyabonga Baba”(siyabonga meaning thank you and baba a respectful address for an elderly father). Everyone applauds as they see this sign for none of this would have been possible without his will, his vision to forge a nation such as South Africa. 
The Pedagogy of Action must say too Siyabonga Baba for our experience here has been transformative. The 12 students who traveled to South Africa received a surfeit of generosity in all the places they worked and they conducted themselves with respectfulness, never placing themselves above others. Without fail they were complemented everywhere they went, the bus drivers, the tour guide, the workers at the places they stayed, the bed and breakfast hosts, their peers and the professionals at the institutions in which they worked. “Your students they would say are so different”. I am not sure what this means but I would like to attribute this to some of the core principles of the POA (Pedagogy of Action) which have evolved over the last ten years. 
Students must be prepared before they leave, know about the culture , politics and history of the country where they will work. American students must examine their place and perception in the world and know how to manage the hegemony they represent. The POA  is not a ruse to be tourists, the students must be engaged in meaningful work which must be sustainable after they leave. The core principle here is that they must leave skills behind not leave with them. They must reflect on what they are experiencing through discussion, on site papers to be hand written and through the dispatches they have sent to their families and networks. We must meet and reflect everyday about our work, and the difficulties and obstacles they face. They must not return home from Africa with more pictures of animals than people. The core principle is that Africa is revealed through their respectful relationships with people.
They must be a comrade to each other. This core principle has been the hardest one to accomplish and perhaps on my part overly ambitious. I can get them to be great in their work with communities and institutions but they are unable to use the same principles with each other. They are suddenly no longer great citizens of the world but judgmental and often consumed with small inconsequential issues. This has been so for ten years and I consider this one of the failures of the POA. I will accept this failure if it’s the only one I can find and admire them for their passion for the POA, for their extraordinary efforts in trying to fund themselves, for the ways they have indebted themselves and  families for this experience  in their search for meaning  in their attempt to become conscious and relevant citizens of their country and of the world. 
Ke Nako  I could think of no other place to teach citizenship and activism to students than South Africa for it is a living and evolving monument to this ideal. It is hard to explain the meaning  and complexity of South Africa. It is a country 16 years old with all the encumbent problems of poverty, inequality, racial difficulties, lurking xenophobia and yes debt incurred for hosting the world cup. You can at once see the great modern sophisticated airport of Cape Town and the shacks that line the highway as you make your way to the city. Yet every day we worked with people who exemplified Madiba’s ideal  of forgiveness,  never behaving as victims even though each of them could tell us such a story, each heroically working to solve often unsolvable problems,  and loving to us. On June 11th when Bafana Bafana played Mexico, there was almost no traffic on the streets of London, England which was once the center of the world when the British ruled the world. On that day it was not England but Africa which was the center of the world. One of the phrases in the opening of the games is  Ke Nako-  meaning its our time.
This moment would not have been possible without Nelson Mandela. 
Siyabonga  Baba.

Free Nando’s for Mexico – if they lose

Prior to yesterday’s game,  Nando’s  was offering the Mexican football team and their supporters a free lunch if they lost the opening game against South Africa .  The ’small print’ of the ad reads:  “Dear Mexican player, most foreigners think South Africa is rife with bribery and corruption. To live up to your misconceptions, we’re offering you – and your spectators – a free lunch if you lose tomorrow. Just bring  your Mexican passport  into any Nando’s restaurant between 14.00 and 17.00 and we’ll give you a delicious flame-grilled quarter chicken and chips each. Free. 

P.S. If you don’t have a passport, we’re sure someone can arrange one for you.”

Gotta love it !!  Anyway,  sadly for SA , no free meals for Mexicans but good thing for Nando’s !