The Visit of a Lifetime

Writing this almost brings tears to my eyes…First Lady Michelle Obama and Archbishop Desmond Tutu, read that again please, spent the day with Grassroot Soccer Cape Town this past week. I MISSED DESMOND TUTU AGAIN! Am I cursed? Yes, probably. I will meet him; I have to. All right enough about me, in any way shape or form, it was amazing press for GRS and the fight again HIV/AIDS and I send out a big kilo across the ocean. Additionally I applaud Michelle Obama for the work and awareness she is creating on this Young Africa campaign trip. While they were visiting GRS, Desmond Tutu and Michelle Obama had a unique opportunity to connect with the youth that Grassroot Soccer works with and also participate in some of the practices including Risk Field, a personal favorite. I believe they also visited our South African partner organization, Love Life.

I know for a lot of people, they look at this initiative and wonder what exactly it has to do with fixing the existing problems our country is facing, but I believe if you think about the impact she is making by empowering the women and youth in other nations, that it will come back five-fold if we can manage to find the patience.  Education and empowerment are the keys in helping our country and the world move forward. The Black Eyed Peas said it well, “One tribe, one time, one people, one race. It’s all one blood, don’t care about your face. The color of your eye or the tone of your skin. Don’t care where you are, don’t care where you been.  There’s one tribe y’all, we are one people.” Shakira echoed it nicely when she said “This time for Africa.”

www.grassrootsoccer.org/2011/06/24/first-lady-michelle-obama-and-archbishop-desmond-tutu-meet-with-grassroot-soccer/

Where in the world is Kristin update:

I am currently back in the United States again and I am on the job hunt this time. I am looking for something interesting that will tie back into all of the work I have put in over the last five years, help me put some roots down, but allow me to educate, spread my knowledge, and help my community.

In May I was on an impromptu trip to India (you wouldn’t believe how difficult it is to get a visa to India in two weeks) with my soccer trainer Paul Gibbons, Coerver Coaching, and West Ham United’s International Academy for a couple of weeks to scout talent that could be brought back to West Ham and trained. While we met incredible people and kids, we did not find any one that met the standards we were looking for. We did, however, share our skills and knowledge in hopes that upon return we will find the first big Indian football star. Also, most importantly I rode an elephant on the highway in Delhi and went to the awe-inspiring Taj Mahal. More Indian-related blogs to come.

I was then invited on a trip to Botswana to work with Gibbo again on a soccer/environmental protection initiative, unfortunately we lacked the funding to get me over there, so that will be put on hold for me for the time being. I look forward to finding more out about it and the potential to get involved. Gibbo is also working on a project in Durban, South Africa (he’s got quite a bit going on around the world) that I would love to get involved with as well. We will just have to wait and see on funds and where I can really fit in to help out. 

We Are All Affected

Because of my work with Grassroot Soccer, HIV/AIDS has moved to the forefront of my attention and I honestly believe it might be following me around (in a different sense than you might be thinking). The other day I randomly received an email from my mother asking me if I wanted to go to an event where UNAIDS experts would be speaking in Riviera Beach. I just got home from South Africa where I was working for an international non-profit in the AIDS field! What are the chances that I come home and there is an intimate discussion with UNAIDS (United Nations Joint Program on HIV/AIDS) experts right in my very own backyard?

So who was the mystery UNAIDS expert? It was none other than Dr. Djibril Diallo the Senior Advisor to the Executive Director for the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS. Maybe no one really cares except for me, at least it seemed that way considering maybe 25 people showed up, but it was an incredible opportunity to meet and listen to someone speak who is working to mobilize support for the UNAIDS initiative of prevention, treatment, care, and support. I still cannot believe so few people were in attendance; I mean he flew down to tiny, little Riviera Beach, Florida to speak to us personally! Oh well, I am not going to complain too much because it did provide with the opportunity to speak with him one on one and introduce myself. Dr. Diallo also served as the Director of the United Nations New York Office of Sport for Development and Peace so he had heard of and worked with Grassroot Soccer in the past. Grassroot Soccer has partnerships with a few different United Nations entities including UNHCR, UNDP, and UNAIDS.

So why Riviera Beach? This is the part that confused me too. Well, believe it or not, according to the CDC more than 4,000 HIV/AIDS cases are diagnosed in Florida alone every year, which gives Florida the 3^rd highest HIV/AIDS prevalence rate in the U.S. after New York and California. What surprised me even more was when I learned that the metropolitan areas from West Palm Beach to Boca Raton raked FIFTH in the nation. I am not making any of this up; it comes straight from Florida Department of Health. Does any of this surprise you? It certainly surprises me. I traveled halfway around the world to help and educate people about HIV/AIDS only to return and find out that I live in an area that needs a pretty good amount of help and education itself.   

The World Factbook on the CIA’s website is by far one of my favorite tools for getting information about all different countries in the world. So according to the statistics found on the World Facebook, the U.S. is ranked 64^th for HIV/AIDS prevalence rate (I may have already given this information in a previous blog, but I find it to enhance this discussion as well) and South Africa is number 4. So it was probably a good thing that I was helping over there, but it doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t consider AIDS a huge problem here. It is all how you look at the information. Yes, our prevalence rate is low. This can mostly be attributed to a much larger population than say Swaziland, the country currently carrying the largest prevalence rate. However, when we examine the number of people currently living with HIV/AIDS we hop, skip, and jump right on up to number 9 and that would most likely be due to our availability and ease of access to ARVs. I would also again take into account that we have a much larger population than many of the other countries listed around us. I must quickly mention though that South Africa holds strong at number 1 in this category and that probably not because of availability of drugs; it just happens to be extremely overtaken by the spread of this disease. Finally just to throw it in there, the United States hangs around number 18^th in the world for number of deaths to HIV/AIDS and it has a little something to do with that big population syndrome we have once again.

So there is the quick comparison to help you understand where this disease is lurking and also to prove that it is right here in our own neighborhoods, not just in some far away land we know little to nothing about. I urge you to take action; it doesn’t have to involve getting a bus and converting it into a testing center, it can be as simple as putting on that red ribbon and educating someone about the dangers and the existence of this disease or even donating a few dollars to a local charity or HIV/AIDS organization. While we think that maybe it doesn’t affect us because we are not gay or a minority, it affects all of us. As long as AIDS is being passed along and killing people, we are paying for it. If you have no compassion and cannot feel for those who are infected and directly affected by this pandemic, at least consider this side: the lifetime cost of living with HIV/AIDS is $618, 900. This means that if we do not do anything to fight this disease, funding from HIV/AIDS in the future will be $12.1 billion a year and that is $12.1 billion that could remain in tax payers hands or could be allocated to our education system or whatever else may interest you. So in some way or another, we are all affected.

For HIV/AIDS testing in the Palm Beaches:

·      Compass, Inc.

·      Comprehensive AIDS Program

·      Glades Health Initiative

·      Drug Abuse Foundation

·      PBC Health Department

·      Families First Palm Beach County

·      United Deliverance Resource Center

For HIV/AIDS care resources in the Palm Beaches:

·      Compass, Inc.

·      Youth Line

·      Children’s Place at Home Safe, Inc.

·      HIV Pastoral Care

·      Hospice of Palm Beach

·      Integrated Healthcare Systems

·      Minority Development and Empowerment

·      Planned Parenthood

·      Latin American Immigrants & Refugee Org

·      Palm Beach County HIV CARE Council  

Keep On Reading

Hi All,

While I am back in the United States, I know, booorrrring, I have not stopped learning and reading about Africa and the HIV/AIDS pandemic. So for the time being I am using the Google Nuggets to keep up with what is going on currently surrounding HIV/AIDS (which I will use to keep you all updated) and I am reading a book called There is No Me Without You by Melissa Fay Greene, which discusses Ethiopia and how Ethiopia has been affected by this disease. So far I have found that it gives some very good in depth information surrounding the subject as well as ties it nicely into a story that keeps your attention. I highly recommend it and if anyone in my area is reading it at the same time I would be happy to set up a small book club. Below I have provided a link to that book as well as a few other books I have found rather informative. Happy Reading!

Put Some Shoes On

Can some one please explain to me why it is that Afrikaners small and large do not wear shoes in public places? In the mall, in the parking lot, in the grocery store. I wouldn’t be surprised if they just didn’t wear shoes to work. Could you imagine a guy in a suit waltzing into work without any shoes to complete the ensemble? In my mind shoes have become a very necessary part to completing any fashionable look (and unfashionable looks). I mean people have entire closets dedicated to shoes. Maybe we need to lend some to these South Africans.

Maybe it is a cultural piece I am missing? It can’t be because they can’t afford shoes, because I regularly see people get out of very expensive cars sans shoes, or could it be that now they can’t afford shoes because they spent all their money on that car? Trade down, my friends, trade down. In order potentially come to terms with this very strange phenomenon, I have decided to look into the historical and current trends of shoe wearing, mixed in with a little germ action.

So we all know that the primary purpose of shoes is to protect your feet, though some may argue that stilettos do little if anything to protect your feet. For me they mostly destroy my feet, which is why you will rarely see me wear them. Anyways back on topic, did you know that the earliest evidence of protective covering for the human foot date because almost 40,000 years? Wow, that was a long time ago, so why haven’t South Africans picked up on their use yet?

Okay I am no scientist and I have not done any experiments or studies around this, but I am quite aware that most floors, parking lots, etc. are pretty dirty and quite germ infested. Hmmm, apparently there was some study done that recently identified a myriad of dangerous and health-threatening germs carried unknowingly on your shoe. So here is my conclusion, again you don’t have to agree with it because I am not an expert…but, if there are dangerous and health-threatening germs on your shoes, which you are trekking into your house, then I would guess that if you are walking around barefoot, there is a pretty good chance you are just sucking those germs up right then and there, no need for transference into your house. Oh, so maybe the South Africans are protecting to floors of their homes, or maybe they are still transferring them just without shoes. 

Alright in the study discussed above these are the germs regularly found on shoes according to Suite 101: “Escherichia coli (E. Coli) - causing symptoms ranging from severe stomach pain accompanied by diarrhea to kidney failure and potential death in 1 out of 50 victims. Klebsiella pneumonia – a gram-negative bacteria that can rapidly destroy lung tissue and in 25 to 50% of patients will cause death. Serratia ficaria – causing gallbladder empyemas and sepsis as well as biliary infections. The study also found that the transfer rate of bacteria from the shoes to uncontaminated tiles ranged from 90% to 99%. Given that most home flooring includes porous wood, throw rugs and carpet; direct transmission is virtually certain.” I’ll stop there with all of this disturbing information, but do note that there is more. Okay so while this started out a way of understanding the lack of shoe wearing I see here, I may have uncovered that even us people who wear shoes may want to consider taking them off upon entrance to our homes. Sorry.

Now, moving along to current trends of shoes, the most recent is the concept of barefoot running. Apparent benefits are that of better balance, posture, less joint stress, and more muscle tone. Barefoot running can be exactly as it sounds, running without shoes, or it can be running with a new type of foot covering with “barefoot technology” that matches your foots natural arch and contours without adding any additional support or cushioning. I’m not exactly sure I would enjoy running without my Asics, but I guess I can’t knock it until I try it. Almost coming full circle, from barefoot to shoes to barefoot, but I don’t think that the barefoot running idea will force people to ditch their other shoes, so that really leaves us still in the shoe category.

While mostly out of my research I have decided that shoes should be disinfected and removed upon entering a house (the Japanese have always had it figured out), I still believe that all South Africans need to start wearing shoes and putting them on their children. Just doing what I can to try to save some shoeless Afrikaner at a time. 

The Results Are In

Ok, now I need you to think hard…back to the time around the strikes when I talked about the concern for the matrics of the current seniors. For those of you who tried to think and still couldn’t remember the matric is more or less the Senior Exit Exam, similar in concept to the S.A.T., except it makes or breaks your chance of passing your final year of high school. If you don’t pass you have to endure more schooling in order to get the equivalent of a high school diploma. Anyways there was a lot of concern around the teacher’s strike because we were getting close to testing time for the seniors and no one was in school, plus the kids had extra time off this year for the World Cup; not a good combination for a winning matric record.

Well since I know you have been waiting in anticipation, matric exams results are out! And guess what? Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga announced triumphantly on Thursday morning that “it’s a whopping in increase in the matric pass rate.” Hmmm, so much concern and then an increase in the pass rate. Fishy if you ask me. Then again, no one is asking me, so it is necessary to say that it is also being questioned by education specialists. This year they experienced a 67.8% pass rate, beating the 2009 rate by 7.2% with increases in all 9 provinces. This is only the 3^rd time that there has been this large of a pass rate since 1994. Apparently this significant of an increase can be attributed to the efforts the government has put into improving the education in South Africa. Just throwing it out there, but it couldn’t possibly be that we are trying to make a case for S.A. to keep stepping up on that international platform, especially will so many eyes still looking here following the World Cup.

According to an article published on Friday by the Sowetan, the real pass rate is 57 percent, as opposed to the 67.8 percent announced on Thursday by the department. Oh, but don’t worry, there is a rebuttal. “During a live interview on Radio 702, Chief Director of National Exams, Dr Nkosinathi Sishi, maintained that the 2010 matric pass rate is 67.8 percent. ‘537 543 candidates wrote, 364 513 passed. If you divide those two numbers, you will get the same figure of 67.8 percent,’ Dr Sishi said.” Apparently the newspaper had used the number of students enrolled in place of the number of students who wrote exams. I’m still not to sure about all this. It seems to me that something needs to put in place so that you cannot accidentally calculate a much higher percentage or much lower percentage. Also it is sad that so many students did not write exams. Shouldn’t that number tell us something?

Okay, okay, here are some additional reasons why there is difficult making sense of all of this. In Umalusi’s (quality assurance body) standardization process, raw marks are altered, however, the public and higher education admissions officers are not told of the magnitude of adjustments to original marks. Also Umalusi said that several subjects, those key for further schooling (math, science, etc.), are operating on a reduced curriculum (whatever that means, but it doesn’t sound good) and that reduction is not clear. Additional the so-called “site-based assessments (marks awarded by the schools themselves) tend to inflate the results and finally the L.O. course (life orientation) has serious problem with marks that came out too high making it a difficult to attempt to standardize the marks. I really wish I understood this whole matric thing just a little better so I’d understand the arguments.

Here is the clincher and the part that gets me. While these results show an overall increase, the statistics have zero indication about what is happening in the townships and rural schools. These being the schools that we at GRS work at. Doron Isaacs, coordinator of Equal Education, a Cape Town-based NGO stated “The real inequality in our education system, which is so stark, is not being put before the public.”

If any country in Africa has a chance of bettering their educational standards, it is South Africa. But the important part is to make sure that they don’t just up the standards for those already receiving quality education, which would just continue to increase the gap between the rich and the poor in this country. Sometimes the severe differences between the urban areas and the townships here blow my mind. It is similar to going from a developed Western country to some of the lesser-developing countries, or even a failed state in less than 1 km.

Anyways I don’t write this because I have all the answers. I just write so you can think about it. We shall await the technical report, which will apparently really clarify all this. We shall see. But now a word from Jacob Zuma. "To those matriculants who did not make it, we urge you not to give up. This doesn't mean the end of the world. Many people have been in a similar situation that you are in today, and they emerged successful after another attempt. We want to celebrate with you soon when you have emerged victorious after this setback, we are fully behind you all the way," said the President. For any of you who have seen the comedic works of Trevor Nolan, I hope you will find this comment slightly amusing. 

BRICs or BRICS

I love the inquiry made by CNN on whether or not South Africa should be considered an emerging economy on par with the BRICs (Brazil, Russia, India, and China). Should BRICs become BRICS? If you think I rewrote the same thing again, recheck capitalizations. Even more than I love reading CNN point of view, it brings me even greater joy to read the general public’s discussion on this subject.

The BRICs are the current markets that contribute to a third of the world’s GDP growth and more than a third of the world’s population. With China and India’s 2 billion + people and their growing middle classes, they are becoming the drivers of global consumption and proving to be the places to be or consider to be if you are in the business of selling anything. These countries led the global recovery following the economic fallout and then even better, at least from my athletic point of view, two of these countries secured positions as hosts to upcoming World Cups and Olympic games.

Maybe I only find any of this interesting to me because I am currently living in South Africa, but still it is definitely a point to ponder. Over my four years of college I had regularly seen the BRICs with the capital “S,” with a double “I,” or a capital “M” at the end. This signifying that South Africa, Indonesia, and Mexico, sat right on the edge of joining these other four emerging markets, all of which have good arguments. Did you know that Indonesia is one of the 4 largest countries by area? Oh, and so is Denmark. Think Greenland. So South Africa…the hosts of the 2010 World Cup and apartheid. Very interesting mix. Though to be fair, from living here, I am not sure it is okay to still completely hold the apartheid thing over their heads. While discrimination and racism still exists here, they are a far cry from 1994.

So Senor Jacob Zuma, president of South Africa has been invited to the next BRIC summit in Beijing the April. While many are in favor of South Africa’s rise on the world stage, some question it’s small fraction in population compared to other BRIC nations and the fact that it’s economy remains approximately ¼ of that of Russia. South Africa: -2. On the other side of things, South Africa does have a comparable equity market to that of Russia around $718 billion. Okay South Africa: -1. But, back to the other side, Russia is the only major energy exporter of the BRIC nations and unfortunately that does not help South Africa. Now, South Africa: -2 again. Okay, but South Africa sits in a position of serious importance on the continent of Africa, with 25% of all of Africa’s GDP. S.A. is also a top producer in the world for commodities like gold, copper, and platinum (every girl’s dream) and a producer of oil from coal and natural gas (that sounds like energy exports to me). Whoo into the positives, I’m giving South Africa: 2. That energy discussion has me slightly confused.  

Okay enough of the economic talk, lets discuss how South Africa is not only a powerhouse in Africa, it also works to combine the current divide between east and west. It is a liberal, democratic country, with a strong sense of history and culture (which I think could be slowly disappearing with its westernization), and from the World Cup a pretty strong infrastructural system in place. I mean I don’t count all those dirt, bumpy roads you have to take to get to their national parks and reserves; just the forty billion different highways running in circles around Johannesburg.

Okay time for the world’s commentary. One person says, “the answer is no, Africa is just a doomed continent.” Very eloquently said and obviously a well researched position. Another, “but yes, we still all ride giraffes to work and walk around with nothing but underwear made from reeds.” While this may be true for him, I currently ride an elephant most days, though when I am late I grab my cheetah. Instead of underwear made of reeds, I prefer butt-flaps made of animal hide and a coconut bra. Proud Africa responds, “YES!!!!!!!! SOUTH AFRICA DESERVES TO JOIN BRIC! SO IT SHOULD BE CHANGED TO BRICS! SOUTH AFRICA HAS DONE A FINE JOB WITH WHAT IT HAS…CONGRATULATIONS TO SOUTH AFRICA.” Wow, here we have some serious excitement. Okay and finally my favorite. “This is a joke, right? (S.A. being added to the BRIC economies) The Africans are still living in Jurassic Park. They have no abilities in all the crucial areas to be an economic powerhouse: No technology. No mass skilled labour. No financial (spelled wrong in her response) and marketing prowess. No nothing, except a lot of brawns to win Olympic medals in the events where brute force is the name of the game.” Oh, sweet sweet Sharon, you are so right, which is why I am sitting in Africa reading CNN.com and posting my blogs, checking my Facebook, uploading all of my work to Google Docs, and updating the office calendar in Google Calendar.  They also have no financial prowess, okay, so that would explain why I see the big four accounting firms everywhere I go and all the major financial firms. If I were you I would look out for those brawns because they most likely can out run you and beat you down with their pinky fingers.

Come on people, get it together. Maybe in addition to getting education for all, we need to consider re-educating some of the Western populations. Or, better idea, let's take some of the Western education and give it to those who cannot currently get an education. It might go farther. 

Education for All

Over the past 3 weeks I had an opportunity to travel through 3 different African countries and have 3 totally different experiences. While those experiences will be documented in my travel blog (because I was traveling), I wanted to take an opportunity to discuss some of the very interesting African people I met along the way. I bring this up because almost every person that I got into conversation with that was African in decent, fascinating, smart, and really sort of blew me out of the water.

My first day in Tanzania, amid the heat, the stress, and the craziness, I sought solace in an internet café where I met a 22-year-old Rwandan girl, whose family moved to Tanzania about 6 years earlier. For those of you who may have spent your life living in a hole, it is important to know and understand that Rwanda is a small East African country that was plagued by genocide ending in 1994, which at the very least claimed the lives of 800,000 people or as much as 20% of their population. It is a nation that for many years was classified as a lost cause, but in recent years has tried jump up on the world stage, finding some semblance of stability.  Through a quick blossom of friendship, I learned that this girl was heading for a job interview in Dar el Salaam with one of the major banks there. After talking I learned that she was just looking for a job at the time, but really wanted to eventually move into the non-profit sector and do something a little more meaningful. She really wants to give back to her fellow Africans and to the communities that need it the most.  Learning this piece of information even threw me off a little because of all of the stereotypes that exist about Africans.

On Zanzibar Island, off the coast of Tanzania, floating in the crystal clear waters of Ningwe, I met a man from Tanzania, who works as a non-profit lawyer in Dar Es Salaam and got his Master’s from a university in Johannesburg. We enjoyed a long conversation discussing the differences among African nations and people. We then met his friend, also Tanzanian, also working in law around the cause of HIV/AIDS, another friend from Botswana, and a third friend from South Africa working and living in British Columbia, Canada. In Swaziland, while reading a poem carved into a stone column explaining that while we all may look different on the exterior, deep down we all share the common bond of being human, I met a man from Zimbabwe. He was working for a John Hopkins medical hospital/project in Swazi. He did his medical internship in Texas and got his medical degree from a school in South Africa. Again we had a nice discussion about a bunch of different African nations and the people (a common theme). Finally in Clarens in the Free State of South Africa, I met a group from Joburg and together we enjoyed champagne and rang in 2011. This group included two sisters who grew up between Lesotho and Botswana, completed undergraduate degrees from universities in the Northeast of the United States and now lived in Joburg. One of the sisters, with a background in Chemistry, was working on starting up her cosmetic company (she explained that she was having fun, but was slow to start making money), while the other one got her Doctoral degree from a school in London in Economics and was working at a university in Joburg teaching economics. Her husband grew up in South Africa and studied at Dartmouth and began working with Morgan Stanley upon graduation and still works with them today. Quite an interesting, intelligent, and diverse group of people if I may say so myself.

There are so many people who believe that Africa is a lost cause and it is because of the people. Yes, I have actually seen that comment on different news articles I have browsed.  Luckily, I have had been blessed enough to meet and see for myself that if Africans have the means and the opportunities that they are just as capable as anyone from a Western country. I am not going to lie, for me it is really intimidating to meet a well-educated black person. The first time this really happened for me was when I met the inter-port student from Ghana on Semester at Sea. He was one of the most well educated and articulate 20-year-olds I had ever met. Something that fascinated me was that you could throw any question you had about his country and its history, etc. and he knew the answer. I am pretty sure if you ask me or most other Americans questions (I know this is true for me because it happens all the time) that we will not know the answer.

The Ghanaian boy, Rwandan girl, Tanzanian man, Zimbabwean man, the Sesotho (of Lesotho) sisters, and the South African man come from a families that were financially stable and economically able to send them to good schools throughout their lives and provide them with educational opportunities that will propel them ahead in life. Sometimes I believe that is what is really comes down to. Education. This is something that Nicholas Kristof, columnist and blogger for the New York Times constantly touches on, a deep set belief of Greg Mortenson who is working to educate those in remote villages of Afghanistan and Pakistan in order to foster peace and a cause that Queen Rania of Jordan works to promote.  If you haven’t heard of Nicholas Kristof, I highly suggest you google him and read some of his columns, if you haven’t heard of Greg Mortenson then again I highly suggest you pick up his books: Three Cups of Tea and Stones into Schools. While you are educating yourself of the education of the world, it would also be a great idea to sign Queen Rania of Jordan’s One Goal Petition that was started and rolled out during the 2010 World Cup in order to fight for education for all. Currently “There are 69 million children out of school across the world. That's more than all the children that are primary school across Europe, USA, Canada, Australia combined. The world has the opportunity to ensure that every child has an education, and the chance to beat poverty.” Anyways as Nike says “Just do it.” It will take 2 minutes of your time.

So the question still remains: Can Africa move forward? While my interesting friend from Stone Town in Zanzibar has his doubts, I think that he along with all of the other Africans I met along the way prove that with the right opportunities, healthy family lives, dreams and strong educational background, that Africans do have the means to head right into the 21^st century.