South Africa's Load Shedding

Things are moving along, though at a slow pace due to my regular schoolwork, on plans for my trip.

I got my passport about a week ago, and I'm now fully immunized for what is recommended for people staying in South Africa. Luckily, I avoided having to get some of them because I will be in Cape Town (where malaria isn't a problem) and because I'll be in urban areas, as compared to rural ones. More precautions have to be taken if traveling to rural areas, but Cape Town sees a lot of tourism, and I feel confident that if something were to come up, I could deal with it there.

I met with Ozayr this week who was helpful in creating a list of things I have to do/buy/think about before my trip. He suggested getting an ISIC card, which is for students traveling internationally, that offers good discounts at things like hostels and restaurants. I looked up the discounts offered for Cape Town and found some ones that I will probably be taking advantage of while there.

I also met with Myron Orfield from the Law School. He also gave me a good list of things to think about, especially relating to private vs. public efforts to deal with racial segregation in Cape Town. The issues he raised will be good things to talk about with University of Cape Town professors and government officials while I'm there.

I've taken to reading South African and Cape Town news online. It's kinda scary, things I read, but I take into account that of course the bad stuff is going to make the headlines, just like here. Besides, a lot of what you read about there - robberies, break-ins, murders - goes on up here in the Cities, and some of it even on campus. I'd say at least once a month we get an e-mail from the U reporting a crime on campus, usually an armed robbery of a student at wee hours of the morning. I mean, I guess it goes to show that you can find crime anywhere; you just have to be careful and use common sense to avoid those situations.

One thing that I've been reading about has been the nation's electric load-shedding. For thosewho don't know what that means (I didn't until I researched it), load-shedding is the power companies' way of dealing with increased electrical demand while not having enough resources. Instead of having to build a new plant just to handle the peak hours, the power to certain portions is cut. Basically, certain parts of the electrical grid are literally switched off for portions of the day - those portions don't have power at all during the switch-off. Usually it's about a span of 2-4 hours, during the middle of the day when power demands are highest, and it's usually planned ahead of time so the residents are aware. However, I've heard that reports are often incorrect or aren't released until the load-shedding has already started. Places like telecommunications companies, financial institutions, and hospitals generally have their own back-up supplies of power.

The frequency of load-shedding has picked up since January. I believe I read that Johannesburg (the economic capital of the nation) generally has switch-offs of 2 hours, three times a week. Eskom, the power company that supplies 96% of South Africa's power, doesn't see a true end to load-shedding until 2010, when it plans to have enough new power plants built, but there is speculation that the company won't even be able to make it that far. The company blames the federal government of South Africa for Eskom's inability to keep up with demand because the government has not offered funding.

Currently, work is under way in several of South Africa's townships (shanty-towns) which I will be studying during my trip to supply power to the homes there. Eskom and the government claim that the power troubles plaguing the nation now will not interfere with that electrification. In my opinion, it should not, because I'm sure that the electricity the townships use is minimal compared to the rest of the country. These are very poor citizens: they don't have things like refrigerators or air conditioners, things that drive up electricity consumption. They definitely don't have these things now, because they have no way to power them with electricity. And I don't expect that suddenly having electricity would cause many of them to acquire these appliances, simply because they can't afford them.

Something I found interesting regarding the load-shedding is that South Africa is the 6th-richest nation in the world in terms of coal reserves. However, it exports its best coal and only uses lower-quality coal for its own purposes. That's hard to understand for me, being from the US, where we certainly keep the best of everything we produce for ourselves. Also, South Africa has no plans to switch to other more efficient forms of fuel just because it expects its coal supply to last at least another 200 years. This is interesting to me because of the whole coal debate - coal is the dirtiest fuel typically used for energy production. I wonder how SA's strict dependence and reliance on coal will pan out in a world where clean fuel initiatives are constantly increasing. Finally, load-shedding has impacted South Africa's economic viability quite extensively. The mines there, especially in Johannesburg, which was founded on gold mining, have suffered because they're frequently unable to extract due to a lack of power. This has helped to drive up the value of precious metals, such as gold and platinum. Here in the US, the skyrocketing price of platinum has increased the theft of catalytic converters from vehicles. The platinum found in these necessary car components is worth about $100-200, and thieves are stealing them to sell to scrap collectors. It's really interesting to me how electricity problems in SA are increased petty theft here. It really goes to show just how globalized the world really has become.

I want to buy my flight tickets ASAP, but I keep putting it off because I never know when it is really the "best" price. It's kinda like buying a house or stock - you never know if this is the best price you're going to get or if it will get lower. Also this weekend I need to put together a more detailed itinerary, day-by-day: what I'm going to be doing, and where and when I'm going to be doing it. It's going to be a lot of work but it should be good to get a better idea of where I'm staying and where I'm going to be doing my research during my trip.

On that note, I should probably get to homework. Lots of it this weekend. Thanks for reading, and as usual, feel free to contact me about any of this. Thanks!

Really?

So this is what waits for me on my Google homepage today....Really?



I'd write more but things are crazy busy this week... as usual. Updates soon!

Mentors, segregation, homeless, foreclosure

And so continues the process of preparing for my travels to Cape Town.

Ozayr has agreed to be my mentor for my trip. I'm really happy about this as he's very knowledgeable about South Africa having grown up there and extremely helpful. My sister Julie also recommended that I speak with Myron Orfield, who she had as a professor here at the U's law school. He is also the head of the Institute of Race and Poverty at the U, and he studies many of the issues that I want to research in Cape Town - segregation, revitalization, housing, etc. Looking at his work on the website, it's really interesting. There's a ton of information about the Twin Cities area - maps showing standardized test passage rates of segregated high schools, percentage of school children eligible for free lunch, race by area of high crimes... basically a lot of stuff that I find interesting. (I wrote my junior paper for high school on the topic of racial segregation in public schools.) I spent quite a bit of time perusing the information online for the IRP and it's SO what I'm interested in. Speaking to Myron should be helpful in terms of establishing the framework of my research. In other words, clarifying exactly what I'm going to be doing: what questions I am going to ask and how I am going to do it. I plan on meeting with him soon, hopefully in the next week or so, as well as with Ozayr.

I found out that at least one of my fellow architecture students that I mentioned in my last post will be coming to South Africa after her work in Malawi. It's not for certain yet that she'll come to Cape Town (she may go to different cities), but if she does it will be fun to show her around. Also, another girl I know from soccer back in Winona is there now studying at UCT and will be there when I arrive, so hopefully we'll meet up.

It was my mom's birthday today, so I called her to wish her a good one. We talked about my trip, and that I might be missing some important family events (seeing my niece who will be born in May if my brother and his family come to Minnesota while I'm gone, my sister's graduation from law school, a family get-together on the Fourth). Of course I'm sad to maybe be missing these. My mom said that while it's unfortunate that I may have to miss these significant things, that this is the opportunity of a lifetime. Yes, I realize that, but it was good to hear her say that herself. When I first told her I won the fellowship, she was concerned about me going completely alone to South Africa of all places. (A few years ago she was extremely concerned when I drove to Indianapolis completely alone because she was worried for my safety.)

Today my group from my housing class met to work on the project. The project involves going around a St. Paul neighborhood (we have the Sunray - Battle Creek one) and evaluating foreclosed homes. We have to rate each house's physical quality for things like foundation, doors/windows, roof, siding, etc. The information we collect is going to be used by the City of St. Paul, so that's cool. Anyway, it was crazy some of what we saw. Some of the houses were in VERY rough condition. One even had the front door off its hinges and literally hanging wide open. We could see into the interior of the house. It was crazy. I'd be willing to bet that house has seen some drug activity.
Many of the houses have sat empty since they were foreclosed upon, but others have since been repurchased and are now occupied. I found it really interesting because this isn't stuff I saw growing up in Winona. Plus, the fact that these houses are completely empty and have been for years - but so many homeless go without shelter; it is a sad irony. I recently read that the number of foreclosures in many metropolitan areas in the US outnumber the homeless. That's crazy! It is a crazy epidemic, foreclosure, and it leaves the question - what is to become of these houses? They have been unoccupied, even during a huge housing boom with record sales. Now that the market is in strong depression, their chances of being repurchased and occupied are even lower. Something is going to need to be done with these houses - it's going to come down to a huge need for neighborhood revitalization. That's one of my huge interests... and it's exactly what I'm going to be studying in Cape Town.

I have a million more things I could write about, but I'll save them for my next post.

Thanks for reading! Feel free to leave a comment or contact me about this all at any time.

I'm officially going to Cape Town!

I just found out yesterday that I was selected as a recipient for the Metropolitan Design Center travel fellowship for which I applied back in February.

I AM SO EXCITED!

The jury recommended that I get a passport as soon as possible, so I ordered one today. It was kinda weird - it just seemed a bit unofficial when I was in the post office. I wrote the passport fees into my budget for the application, so I hope that I am able to get them covered since they are rather expensive. I should get the passport anywhere from 2-6 weeks.

The jury also recommended that I select a faculty mentor, and specifically suggested Ozayr Saloojee. I e-mailed him today requesting his support. He is great: I spoke to him when I was working on my application because he grew up in Johannesburg, South Africa (which is where I was originally thinking of going). He was super helpful, friendly, and knowledgeable, so I hope he agrees to be my mentor.

Some fellow architecture students (none in Studio II) will be going to Africa this summer as well, right about when I will be there. They're going to Malawi to assist in the designing of a school there, but some of them may travel individually to other parts of Africa after their commitment ends. I am trying to get some of them to come visit me in Cape Town. I think it'd be a ton of fun.

I am seriously so excited. I have a lot of work to do between now and the time I leave, and I am stressed about it. But it's going to be so worth it. Seriously, when again will I have a chance like this? Probably never. This is going to be awesome.