The data dilemma

Are you addicted to your smartphone? Are you reading this on a mobile device right now? Have you totally learned to take data for granted the way I have in the US?

For the average South African, a smartphone is a huge luxury and data plans are prohibitively expensive. So I found one tech start-up here that's trying to work with that.

Most tech start-ups you hear about, especially in the mobile world, are focused on going more advanced, more hi-tech, more hi-def, etc. Cinemo, on the other hand, is trying to develop something super low-tech. By simplifying streaming and reducing the resolution of videos to the smallest file possible, the Cinemo app is allowing South Africans to watch videos on low-end cell phones for the first time. For a lot of people, that could mean much easier access to media.

Here's a video I made about it.

Watch this video on News24.

Wine tasting

Guess how much it costs for a flight of six delicious wines at a beautiful, idyllic vineyard in the winelands outside of Cape Town. Two dollars!

If that didn't make you salivate, check out the pictures.

(You should see a photo slideshow here. If you don't see it, update your Flash settings or click here.)

Two potrayals of townships

Here are two musical portrayals of South African township* life.

The first, by Dr. Malinga and DJ Vetkuk, is a song I've actually heard played whenever I've been into a township. It seems to be extremely popular. It makes township life look pretty festive, if a little difficult.




The second song is by the controversial Afrikaans rap/rave group, Die Antwoord. The band has an international cult following and they are known worldwide for being really freaky.

A month ago I would have just thought this was a weird song starring some creepy people, but my time in Cape Town has taught me enough about South African gang culture to pick up on some of what they're talking about here.

The American flags scattered throughout the video have little to do with the actual USA, and more to do with the biggest and most notorious gang in Cape Town who call themselves "The Americans."

You'll also hear references to the "26's," "27's," and "28's," in this song. Those are the three major prison gangs in the area.



*Townships are a communities on the outskirts of South Africa's major cities. Townships have their roots in the days when the laws of this country dictated who could live where according to race and/or social status. Those laws are gone, but the communities, and the systematically created racial divisions largely remain. Townships can be nice, middle class communities, but oftentimes townships have third world conditions. Some townships near Cape Town are especially notorious for gang violence and drug trade.

South African New Jerseyans

Ain't globalization funny?

Living in the US, it's so easy to start thinking that there's nothing outside the borders of our country. We turn on the TV and see American actors, we get our coffee from an American chain, we shop (for products made in China) at American stores. I end up spending so little time thinking about other countries while I'm in the US, that when I do travel abroad I always feel surprised and a little guilty when I find out how much time the rest of the world spends thinking about us.

I arrived in Cape Town shortly after the country's first Burger King opened just down the street from my office (past the McDonald's and KFC) and a month later, people are still lined up out the door waiting to try their first Whopper. I have had conversations with South Africans about Paula Deen, Kim Kardashian, and Sarah Palin.

"Yeah...when I hang out with you guys I feel like I'm in a TV show," our Australian friend, Erin, remarked to me and my fellow Yankees the other day, when we were talking about the presence of American media overseas.

Yet, for the ubiquitousness of most parts of American culture, it's always interesting to find out which things don't make it overseas. A South African I talked to could quote Jon Stewart, but had never heard of Stephen Colbert, for example.

How different would life be if the majority of the media you consumed was produced internationally? When I turn on my little TV here, on one channel "Master Chef: Austrailia" will come on, followed by the American sitcom "Two Broke Girls," followed by a very intense and emotional-sounding Afrikaans drama series. The commercials in-between will often advertise American or other international products but will be voiced by a South African.

I spend a lot of time pondering this stuff, so it was a little surreal, but not necessarily surprising, when my boss spun around in his chair on Tuesday and asked me if I wanted to go take photos of a new Broadway show that had just arrived in Cape Town: "Jersey Boys."  As is often the practice with Broadway, the producers of the show shipped the concept overseas, but hired a local cast. So the show I saw was the same script, music, choreography and technical design as one might have seen on in New York in 2005, but it was performed by South Africans. So I was a Californian journalist, sitting in a Cape Town opera house snapping pictures of South African performers in a New York production which tells the story of an internationally famous singing group from New Jersey.

For the most part, the show seemed to be well received, though I did notice I was the only person who laughed at a line in the play about a 1960s model Cadillac. "It's a great car! It gets almost eight miles-per-gallon." Since they use neither miles nor gallons as forms of measurement in most parts of the world, that joke gets lost in translation.

Most of the rest translated though...even through the South African actors' slightly awkward-sounding attempts at New Jersey accents.

See the rest of my photos from the production on News24.

The climb

Today is Wednesday and yet my legs are still tired from the events of Monday.

Blessed with a beautiful, sunny day and a day off from work for the national holiday Youth Day (commemorating the Soweto uprising in 1976), my comrades and I decided it was time to do something outdoorsy: conquer Lion's Head.

Lion's Head is a very steep rock (seen from the top of Table Mountain in this picture)  that protrudes out of the earth from the center of Cape Town.

It is, indeed, as steep as it looks.

The hike begins on a relatively flat trail, but one quickly finds oneself having to climb ladders, chains, and enormous boulders. It's a good thing I wore relatively stretchy pants. If I been faced with such a rock climbing challenge by myself I probably would have sighed and turned back saying to myself, "Oh well, it simply can't be done."

But I wasn't by myself, in fact, being a holiday, there were quite a few people around to witness my lack of rock climbing skills. While I kept pausing to divert my thoughts away from the image of tumbling to my rocky demise, I was being passed on the trail regularly by young kids, their white-haired grandparents, and Graham, who was making the ascent with a bottle of wine in one hand.

A sympathetic boy no more than about 11 years-old, who was scaling the rocks with the nimble-footedness of a mountain goat, reached down to give me a hand at one point.

We did eventually make it to the top. Unfortunately, Graham's wine was warm by that time.

(You should see a photo slideshow here. If you don't see it, update your Flash settings or click here.)

The Garden

South Africa's Western Cape is full of natural beauty, so it isn't very surprising that Capetonians are pretty proud of the scenery. One place that is very treasured by the locals is the Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden, a lush, beautiful park just on the other side of Table Mountain. It so happens that Kirstenbosch Garden is celebrating 100 years this July, so I jumped at the chance to make a video about the anniversary for News24. It took a few weeks to find a day when I could get to the Garden with my video equipment when it wasn't too rainy, but last Wednesday I finally made it. Cherise, Kirstenbosch's senior horticulturist, was very helpful in telling me about the Garden's history, and showing me all of the prettiest spots for filming.

Watch the video on News24

The post about food

I wasn't really sure what the food would be like in South Africa before I came here. I had never heard of a "South African" restaurant, and guidebooks don't delve too deeply into details about the country's cuisine. I realized quickly when I arrived here that that probably has a lot to do with the fact that "South African" food is a lot like "American" food; that is, it includes a little of everything. Like the US, South Africa spent a long time as a colony of another place, and much of the society is made up of people who immigrated here from a variety of places, and all that is reflected in the food.

Like any former British colony, South Africa seems to have a fondness for fish n' chips and spongy desserts described as "puddings." But the cuisine is far more international than just that. In Cape Town I've eaten wood-fired, thin crust pizza, great sushi, dirt-cheap Indian food, Turkish meze sampler platters, Thai curries, American style  burgers, French pastries and fresh Greek salads. Usually I scoff at the idea that good Mexican food can be found anywhere outside of Los Angeles (illogical, I know) but the grocery store here even carries guacamole and salsa that aren't too shabby.

Only when I have stepped into the super cheesy tourist magnet restaurants have I eaten anything claiming to be "African."

There is one food item that I have seen consistently in almost every single restaurant in Cape Town, however. One food that seems to unite all forms of South African food.

That thing is butternut squash.

I have eaten more butternut squash in the last four weeks than I think I have eaten in my entire life. I have eaten it in pasta, on pizza (surprisingly great!), in salads, in sandwiches, on veggie burgers, as a side dish, as a soup, and as a main course served whole and stuffed with other vegetables. For the occasional meal when I don't eat butternut squash, it's usually just because I've grown tired of it and pick the rare vegetarian menu item that isn't butternut-based. 

I like butternut squash, but whoa...South Africans LOVE butternut squash.

The odd thing is, they don't admit it. I've asked several people if butternut squash is the national vegetable or some kind of mascot for the ANC political party, but the most insight I've heard from anyone seems to be, "Huh, yeah, I guess it is pretty popular."

No one seems to admit, though, that the orangey vegetable seems to be about as popular in South African restaurants as plates.

I guess there's a chance I've gotten this all wrong and I've somehow gotten a very skewed impression of Cape Town dining, but I don't feel that bad about it--mostly because I know that Capetonians have a hilariously skewed view of American food too. There are no Starbucks here, they only just got their first Burger King, you can't get black or pinto beans anywhere, but on every other street corner of the city, one American chain is very popular and as a result is bearing a disproportionate amount of the responsibility of representing American food to South Africans: KFC.

A lot of things, but most importantly, penguins

 

The winter solstice is just around the corner here in the Southern Hemisphere. In South Africa, that has meant chillier weather and quite a few rainy, overcast days.

Sunday, however, we were blessed with sunshine and clear skies, so it was a lovely day to take a trip around the Cape Peninsula. Shannon helped arrange a little bus tour for us to travel down around the areas south of Cape Town. We started with a stop in Hout Bay, a little fishing community.  In Hout Bay we found colorful boats, a man who yelled at tourists for trying to take a picture of his sea lion friend, and a little open air market where Shannon convinced me to buy the first real souvenir I've bought in this country--a funky wooden thing with safari animals carved all over it.

From Hout Bay we continued south. The road is the windy, twisty kind that curls around sea cliffs and provides beautiful, but occasionally terrifying views. When we stopped to take photos at one of the overlooks we actually witnessed a pretty nasty collision between a reckless driver and an ambitious cyclist. The cyclist was hurt--hopefully not too seriously--but it was a relief to see his fellow bikers were well prepared with first aid supplies, and an ambulance arrived fairly quickly.

A little shaken we got back in the van to continue, at a reasonable speed, down the windy road.

Cape Point, is the southwesternmost point in Africa, a little comma hanging out into the ocean. It turned out to be a beautiful spot for a stroll hike up to the lighthouse and a lunch by the water.

 

Cape Point also has an abundance of "rock dassies," curious little rodents with round butts, pointy teeth, and no fear of humans.

 

From the Cape Point we got to the main attraction of the day's journey, Simon's Town. Simon's Town is where penguins live. Did you know there are penguins in South Africa? There are, and they're adorable.

 

They're called African Penguins, but sometimes they're called "Jackass Penguins" because the sound they make is, literally, just the same as the sound of a donkey.

 

They're clearly sweet, so it's obviously not because they're jackasses.  

 

The Egg

I may have mentioned before, but my short time in South Africa has really piqued my interest in ostriches. They are amusing, alien-like birds that are a continuous source of fascination. This week I had ostriches on my mind yet again.

Shannon, through her internship, dined with some government officials last week. As a parting gift she was given a decorative ostrich egg, bearing the emblem of the South African government.

Or, at least, she thought it was a decorative egg.

Upon closer inspection when she returned home, she discovered the egg made a juicy sound when shaken. It had not been hollowed-out before being decorated. It was just an enormous, fresh egg.

Graham had heard that ostrich eggs were known for their amazing strength. If dropped--Graham thought--an ostrich egg would not break. Graham was incorrect. He dropped Shannon's egg and it cracked and began oozing a thick liquid.

Alarmed, Shannon refrigerated the cracked egg, but a day later we had all grown curious and concerned about it. Seeing no other alternative, we assembled in Shannon's room to finish the deed and cook the egg.

Graham was partially correct in his assumptions about the egg's strength; cracking the egg all the way open took some force. The shell was about as dense as a china teacup. Upon cracking the egg we all screamed twice--the first time, upon seeing the weird, leathery membrane separating the shell from the gooey insides, and the second time when we saw the yolk, which was deep yellow in color and bigger than a grapefruit--kind of the stuff of nightmares for an ex-vegan like myself.

I learned on our safari adventure a few weeks ago that cooking an ostrich egg is equivalent to cooking two dozen chicken eggs at once. We can attest to this. Shannon would have needed a huge wok to cook the egg's contents properly--even in her largest frying pan, the scramble was almost overflowing. It also took a long time to cook.

In the end, the scrambled ostrich egg filled an entire serving bowl.

Our error was that we conducted this experiment right after dinner and were all too full to really enjoy much of this army-sized egg portion.

Now that I know what to expect, I'll plan on feeding an entire banquet the next time I have access to one of these things. Another valuable lesson learned.

Cape Town's jazzy youngsters

The first story I pitched for my internship was to cover a local showcase of high school and college jazz bands. I decided to do the story as an audio slideshow since I knew there would be some great opportunities for sound and and photos. Cape Town has a long history with jazz and it was fun to mingle with some youngsters who are keeping up the tradition.

Have a look:

Graham got Mugged

Journalistic ethics dictate that getting the facts straight means not omitting the icky stuff.

That in mind, I can't really let you go on reading my happy-go-lucky blog about safariing and wine drinking without making any mention of the fact that my travel companion got mugged last weekend.

Wipe that sweat from your brow. He's fine. He only lost about $15 USD. I wasn't there. We're all fine. Everyone's fine.

Graham was alone, it was evening, he was in an area of town pretty far from where we're all living. It wasn't a winning combination.

But Graham is a funny, likable guy and he kind of made the best of the mugging. The stranger, emerged and threatened Graham saying he had a knife and a gang of guys waiting around the corner, though Graham never saw the weapon. Not willing to take chances though, Graham calmly made conversation with the hypothetically armed man. They talked about ex-girlfriends, ethics and all that's wrong with the world. They shared a cigarette. At the end of their long conversation, the mugger, Muwete, hugged Graham, asked if he was alright, and said "we're brothers now." But then he made off with most of the money Graham had in his wallet. He did let Graham keep cab fare home because, you know, it's dangerous out there, and who knows what could happen.

Graham was unlucky to get mugged and lucky he wasn't hurt or even shaken up too badly. But the unfortunate fact of the matter is, luck is only part of it. Crime is a pretty real fact of life in South Africa and the fact that someone was desperate enough to spend the time harassing Graham for a $15 reward is evidence of some major social issues. While this country's GDP ranks relatively high, income inequality is enormous here. A short distance from Cape Town's glamorous city center are massive communities of people living in corrugated tin shacks. Combine that glaring disparity in wealth with hundreds of years of oppression, and the reasons behind social tensions here seem pretty obvious. So while Graham's experience was a lesson to us all to be extra cautious, it was maybe more of lesson about this society.

The Gini coefficient is a number between 0 and 1, where 0 corresponds with perfect equality (where everyone has the same income) and 1 corresponds with perfect inequality (where one person has all the income—and everyone else has zero income).