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| Riots on Campus! |
| 04.29.04 (3:29 pm) [edit] |
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Wits University (pronounced 'Vits'), the school in Johannesburg that we're studying at this semester, has been experiencing some of your old- school South African protests these last few days. There hasn't been much violence, but a lot of window- smashing and vandalism. One kid even said that if the police were to try to interfere with their demonstration, many in the group were willing to die for their cause (I'm not sure about that...).
The whole thing started last week when the school gave out letters informing people that their financial aid would be cut by up to 50%. Everything really blew up on Monday when about 3,000 students boycotted classes to express their outrage on the main campus square. The protesters started running into classrooms to knock over desks and tear up exams, hoping to provoke more students into ditching. There were riot police on scene the whole time, and at least a dozen people were arrested when things started to get out of hand.
The scene has calmed down a little by now, but supposedly no agreement has been reached and the class boycott is set to continue. The Student Representative Council president told the crowd that had gathered around the center of campus: "We told them we want a full package of financial support. We will stay here until the walls of this building collapse."
This issue, like every issue in South Africa, has inevitably become one of race. Whites are still granted more aid because of Dutch church organizations and crap like that, so you can't really blame the the black students for being pissed in the end. Anyway, as with every significant issue of race or otherwise in this country, an unrestrained public demonstration has come about to address it.
Ultimately, the finance issue is being blamed on the University's Vice Chancellor by the students, while the school is saying the it's the Government's fault for reducing their funding. Overall, the situation very much resembles what has been going down with college tuition Stateside - now if we could only get those worthless American students to stand up and revolt...
¡Viva la Revolution!
Commandante Fitch
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| Week Summary |
| 04.25.04 (7:41 am) [edit] |
Sorry for the extended downtime; things have been kinda hectic around El Ranchero de 5-1-2 lately.
Our loosely- planned and under- funded adventures through Africa have been put on a temporary hold, as Justice and I have been forced to settle down to begin post- production on our documentaries. Our second G5 has arrived, giving us a top- of- the- line machine for each project, and our collective hard drive space has nearly reached a terabyte (940 gigs). I think our raw computing power now rivals any other outfit on this whole continent...
My room has been converted into a time- lapse photography studio, and I am shooting week- long sequences of growing plants as an added visual element for my film. The consequence is that the whole apartment now reeks of fertilizer, but I'm getting used to it...
Justice, meanwhile, has finished up with election coverage and is also starting to hack away at his raw footage in Final Cut Pro (President Mbeki, by the way, was re-elected with a 70% majority). Anyway, he should be posting a full project update will still frames and all in the near future.
In other news, Justice's father has dropped into Johannesburg for a little visit. He's just settling in now, but is probably going to accompany us on a few of our excursions within the next few weeks. It looks like Swaziland will be one destination, both for vacation and to get a little footage for my film. Assuming we can find an internet cafe, this blog will then have seen action in five countries.
As a final item on our list, I celebrated my 20th birthday yesterday. First time I've ever represented April 24th outside of the States, which was nice. Had some seafood, a few drinks... Definitely high up there in the D. Luke Fitch Birthday Hall of Fame. Well, I think that's a sufficient entry to top of this list of excuses for our week- long absence from tBlog, which means my work here is done. Peace out, until next time.
DL Fitch
Sovereign Grand Inspector General
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| Day 76 - Project Status Check |
| 04.17.04 (5:58 pm) [edit] |
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It's been over a month since I posted any detailed info on my (still untitled) documentary, and the film has seen quite a metamorphosis since then. Although the underlying themes of the project remain the same, just getting out and shooting footage has resulted in much of the film clarifying itself to me. It's reached the point where I think I can post a breakdown of the basic objectives for this production:
(If for some reason you would rather read the full 10- page version of my project proposal, click here.)
For years, the problem of world hunger has been associated with a simple solution: increasing the world's food production. This way of thinking has resulted in a relentless capitilization and expansion of America's agriculture, and the trend continues today. But the reality is that people are not hungry in Zimbabwe, Afghanistan, or Guatemala because the world suffers from any form of a shortage.
In fact, the problem very much the opposite - people are starving because there is too much food in the world today. The massive industrialized farms of America and Europe have driven the cost of food so low that developing countries - including all but four on the African continent - can no longer profit from their agricultural production. There is enough food on the planet to provide every person with 4.3 pounds per day - including a pound each of vegetables and meat - but millions of people living on less than a dollar a day can afford none of it.
 
The reality is that 24,000 people die every day from hunger- related causes - not because there is no food for them to have, but because that food is being controlled by the wrong people and they are not given access to it. I personally feel that there are solutions out there that can address this problem, but no one has supported them with an argument that is convincing enough to inspire any sort of change. This is the largest goal of my film.
Obviously the WFP is not the party that is responsible for the situation, but using them as the central subject in the film gives me access to a broad range of people who are affected by this man- made crisis. The method is proving very effective, and I am confident that the film will create a very compelling portrait of the world's food markets. Now if I only I could think of a good title for it....
DL Fitch
512 Blogmaster
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| Elections 2004!!! |
| 04.14.04 (2:07 am) [edit] |
My movements in Cape Town have been as swift and stealth as a Ninja. As usual, contacts for the music production side of the Collective have been falling into my lap: everyone from the staff at this lil' net cafe to homies hangin on the corner want to get down on the [i]"Josie Tapes."[/i] I'm planning to move this way with the Laptop and the mobile studio sometime in May to complete the Cape Town recording sessions; I am also having great success in organizing a venue and local artists for the Cape Town booking in what is shaping up to be the Southern Africa Tour. More details to come....
All of this is really dull in comparison to the big moves that I am making in the production of my doc [i]"Song of Savior."[/i] Today is the third democratic election in the History of South Africa, and the people are hyped. The polling stations have lines out the door, and I am anticipating an overwhelming response to the camera. Part of this response most likely will be a number of police and IEC (Independent Electoral Commission) officials telling me I can't shoot anything on the premises. There is a lot of energy being put out in effort to keep everything peaceful and democratic, and IEC officials told me on Wednesday that "people just aren't themselves in front of a camera, we have to take extreme precautions as to make sure that things do not become hostile..." Although a lil' hostility would add a little excitement to my film, I am down to preserve the concepts of democracy and free safe elections for everyone. In an effort to gain a lil more insight into the perspective of the oppressed, I am headed out to one of the largest townships in the Western Cape, Langa, to document the elections from that angle. Meanwhile, Luke is on the other side of the country in Soweto doing the same.
Tomorrow I have interviews with prominent theologians in the Liberation Theology movement, and will be grilling them on their role in the modern democracy, and what they think South Africa needs to see before the people are truly free.
Maestro Just.Ice.3
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| Back in Jo'burg |
| 04.12.04 (4:33 pm) [edit] |
Well, we made it out of Zimbabwe alive... Something people had said would be a lot harder to do than it actually was. Our two- week trip came out to be a huge success, even if I only got an hours' worth of footage. I suppose for a 40-min project, an hour's not bad... and at least another five hours are still on the way, which will be pooled with the five that I've already shot in Lesotho. Anything more than that would start to become too much to handle while editing, so I think things are working out real good.
Anyway, I'm gonna work out a more complete update on my documentary and post it with some stills from the rough footage in a day or two. For now, I want to recap the rest of our Zimbabwe trip, particularly the 512 Collective's first live appearance in the country.
 
The audio turned out pretty bad so I'm not gonna bother posting any of it; even turning down the levels in the camera couldn't compensate for me being so close to the speakers. However, these stills should be able to convey at least a little of the crowd's energy. It was probably the most receptive audience I've seen at a 512 show since rocking at the Lion's Den in Manhattan more than a year ago.
The club in downtown Harare was packed by the time Justice hit the stage, in the midst of an MC battle between representatives of each of the city's major ghettos (an MC battle in Zimbabwe terms consisting of someone yelling into a mic to hype the crowd while his DJ changes records). The set was short but the crowd loved it, even lifting Justice into the air after he was done.
 
During the course of the night, I had people coming up to me saying, "Man, I've been going to shows at this club for years now, and I've NEVER seen a white person - you gotta give me your number!" It was pretty funny, but also suggestive of how fucked up Zimbabwe actually is. The people are all great, but the Government is a disaster - people won't even say 'His' name (Mugabe, the President). It's like a third- world 1984 or something. Everyone is effectively controlled, and Mugabe and his party keep winning because people are too scared to vote against him.
We stayed in the richer part of town, which is where pretty much all the remaining whites in the country have congregated to. You will also see plenty of black people driving the BMWs, however, and that's been the triumph of Mugabe - for the most part everyone is just as poor, but at least some blacks can be rich now too. It's a sorry situation that has come about in numerous countries throughout this continent, including South Africa, but is particularly pronounced in Zimbabwe.
Economically, the country these days is a disaster - we would buy taxi rides and food with thick wads of ten or twenty bills. The only money with any real value is being printed with an EXPIRATION DATE. Who the hell makes cash that will expire? It's crazy. I don't even know how it would work, but I guess whoever gets stuck holding that bill in December is just shit out of luck. I found a Zim penny on the street at one point, and did a little math - if you had a stack of them a kilometer high, the value wouldn't even equal $1 US. That should give you an idea of how bad their inflation is...
Anyway, I'm showing a few symptoms of malaria, so I think I'll go to sleep now... (I was taking Quinine all through the trip, but supposedly the bacteria is becoming pretty resistant to anti- malarials). We'll see what happens, but hopefully you'll hear from me again soon.
DL Fitch
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| Update From Zimbabwe |
| 04.08.04 (4:06 am) [edit] |
Yesterday the World Food Program took Justice and I about 250 kilometers out of Harare to within a few miles of the Mozambique border. When we finally arrived at a tiny village down miles of dirt roads, we came across a massive temporary food distribution center. A bunch of huts constructed from sticks and old food bags had been set up in an open field, and they were giving out food to more than 2500 people. The drive took four hours each way, so we had a limited amount of time to film the distribution, but what we did shoot definitely made the whole trip worth it.
In other news, Justice is lined up to perform at a Reggae and Hip-Hop concert in downtown Harare - probably the first American to rock a Zimbabwe show in quite some time. It should be quite interesting to see how the crowd will react, but I think it's looking to be a pretty live event. We'll post some audio and pictures from the show when we get back into Johannesburg on Saturday.
DL Fitch
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| In Zimbabwe |
| 04.06.04 (6:46 am) [edit] |
The 512 Collective has secured touchdown in Zimbabwe, and we are now posted in the capital Harare. Everything here is going much better than the US State Travel Warnings would suggest - but before we really get into the details, here's a breakdown of what it took just to get this far:
Saturday, April 3rd: Leaving Maputo at (almost) the crack of dawn, we jumped on an 'express' bus for the 9-hour ride up the Mozambique coast to the small town of Inhabane. We then hitched a ride from one of the Irish Embassy's Land Rovers for the last leg of the journey, which took us into the small village of Tofu on the beaches of the Indian Ocean. A dinner of crab meat and curry was promptly devoured, and we hit the sack soon after that.
Sunday, April 4th: Another morning departure found us driving out of Tofu in a minibus - really just your average Toyota van, and the staple transport of Africa - packed way over capacity with 25 people (imagine opening three cans of sardines, then dumping the contents of two of them into the third and resealing the lid). We then had to charter a rickety old wooden sailboat to cross the Inhabane harbor into Maxixe, where we were deposited at our bus to the coastal town of Vilanculo just minutes before it hit the road. A severe tire blowout delayed our arrival until late afternoon, but the bus didn't flip so I can't complain...
Monday, April 5th: With a full 38 hours on the road ahead of us, we set out at 4am for the Vilanculo bus station. We were told walking was a bad idea and "Only the thieves are out at four in the morning," but we didn't have much of a choice and set out in a pack with two other Americans that had joined us for the day's journey. The walk was tense but uneventful, and we arrived at a small, 1970s- era rust- bucket of a bus, our home for the next 10 hours.
Although our route followed the main highway through Mozambique, it was a narrow and poorly- maintained strip of gravel and asphalt that didn't even compare to the backroads of my homeland in New Mexico. The bus moved slow, and would frequently stop so passengers could talk and conduct business with other people along the road. At one point, we came across a boy standing on the roadside with a goat, and the bus pulled to a stop. After a brief conversation with him, our driver handed over 200,000 meticash ($8 US) and the goat was hoisted up onto the roof to join us for the rest of the voyage into the junction town of Chimoio. When we finally arrived, we transfered to one minibus and then another, and promptly found ourselves standing on the Zimbabwe border. Customs and Immigration were remarkably easy, and within an hour we had arrived at the Mutare train station and were waiting for our overnight ride into Harare.
Tuesday, April 6th: The 10-hour train ride ended a few hours ago in downtown Harare, and we've now settled in at a nice backpackers hostel in the city. I visited the World Food Program offices this morning, and they're taking me out in the field to start shooting tomorrow. That gives me some time to hit the pool this afternoon...
I could go on and on about our adventures of the past week if I had the time, but I really don't so I'll have to leave it at that for now. This is DL Fitch in the political and economic disaster that is the nation of Zimbabwe, signing off... stay tuned for our next episode.
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| Bloggin' in Mozambique |
| 04.01.04 (12:13 am) [edit] |
Well, we made it into Maputo without incident, although the train ride took about three times as long as driving would have... But that's all in the past, and we got two weeks of solid adventure ahead of us now. Aside from our severely depleted bank accounts, everything is set for the most intense spring break you guys could possibly imagine. Mozambique has been called the Rio de Janeiro of Southern Africa, with some quality nightlife and great beaches. It's first thing in the morning of our first day here, but we should be able to confirm those reports in about 24 hours time... We'll have consistent Internet access as long as we stay in the city, so I'm gonna go eat and hit the beaches now, and I'll fill you in on the rest of our plans within the next day or so.
DL Fitch
512 Executive Ambassador
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