{"id":2140,"date":"2011-12-29T23:32:19","date_gmt":"2011-12-29T23:32:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/cop17durban\/?p=2140"},"modified":"2011-12-30T00:07:15","modified_gmt":"2011-12-30T00:07:15","slug":"what-do-apartheid-cop17-and-poverty-have-in-common","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/cop17durban\/2011\/12\/what-do-apartheid-cop17-and-poverty-have-in-common\/","title":{"rendered":"What do Apartheid, COP17, and Poverty Have in Common?"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Timothy Damon ’12<\/p>\n

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Durban - A more modern slice of Africa<\/p><\/div>\n

The answer: South Africa. Apartheid and COP17 may both have ended, but the effects of racism still continue to this day and climate change has only begun to manifest its seriousness. Poverty and unemployment, old problems, yet reign, as does the constant impact from HIV\/AIDS.\u00a0 It was against this backdrop that I experienced South Africa during the three weeks of our Mosaic. It was a trip that has left me with much to digest, but my reflections thus far have led me to see the country as a unique microcosm of the broader world, one in which the tension between addressing immediate and long-term needs is acutely felt and one where humans continue to struggle over the weighty decisions that will shape our collective futures.<\/p>\n

It would be impossible to relate to you, the reader, the full extent of my experiences \u2013 the people, the places, the revelations. Rather, I shall provide as faithful a synopsis as possible, with more attention given to the third week, which we spent in the Valley of 1000 Hills. For more detail on COP17, please see some of my previous blog posts.<\/p>\n

I should begin with the admission that I was skeptical about our plans for after COP17. They did not seem very relevant to the academic purpose of our trip and it had already been a very intense two weeks. Nevertheless, here is a case exemplifying the benefits one can reap from motivating oneself to go the extra mile and by seeking out new connections where none seem at first to exist.<\/p>\n

As much as Africa had a strong presence at COP17, the conference was certainly not \u201cAfrica\u201d \u2013 the major city of Durban could, minus its weather, be mistaken for any number of cities in America from the superficial vantage point of a temporary visitor. The nature of the meeting\u2019s content also kept us focused on the international scene, with little chance to pause and foster a meaningful sense of place.<\/p>\n

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The small Makaphutu Children's Village, as seen from the surrounding hills<\/p><\/div>\n

The Valley proved a remedy for both of these \u2013 and much more. Staying at a small retreat center away from the city provided us a deeper perspective, while volunteering at two children\u2019s villages (Makaphutu and Lily of the Valley) let us see firsthand the struggles many South Africans face from a combination of poverty, unemployment, disease, and, yes, racism (ending Apartheid was only the beginning \u2013 true reconciliation seems not yet to have come). \u00a0Here I saw the people who are most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, and yet who have the least ability to combat it or even to understand it. It was one thing to talk about \u201cvulnerability\u201d in a college classroom or conference hall; it was entirely another to hear it, see it, smell it, and touch it \u2013 especially when the one \u201cteaching\u201d you is an AIDS orphan or a local minister who has to decide how to allocate a very limited quantity of donated food and clothing items to the members of his entire community (a task I was actually enlisted to help with while running deliveries \u2013 having to decide who eats and who doesn\u2019t, heartrending is still an understatement). This puts a face on the challenge of balancing the need for rapid economic development with the need to mitigate climate change and transition to a sustainable way of life.<\/p>\n

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Food Distributions - Too little for too many<\/p><\/div>\n

In the end, people were extremely grateful for a few deliveries, some cleaning, and a couple coats of paint \u2013 what seemed to us like a minor contribution was to them a praiseworthy accomplishment; the former perspective from Western standards of plenty, the latter from South African standards of poverty. It not only shows how even a little good can go a long way, but also how much more we need to do to help them. Thus, it is even more disappointing to see the way our country endeavored to successfully lower the ambition of climate action during COP17 \u2013 2020 is too late for action, at least the kind of action that will help the people we met.<\/p>\n

Overall, I would say the third week gave me a valuable dose of realism concerning climate change and development, thereby complementing the COP17 experience well. I can see clearly the difficult position of South Africa, caught as it is between the stages of developing and developed countries \u2013 they are better off than most of Africa, yet they still need much more development for their people and will need to find a sustainable way to do it. And all of this is further complicated by its history of racial struggles and contemporary political problems. My experience in South Africa was \u2013 not to be clich\u00e9 \u2013 life altering. I am sure this visit will not be my last, as I continue to maintain a connection of some kind with Makaputu and Lily. It is even possible my career will take me there to work on climate change and development. Whatever the future holds, it will be on a path influenced by this experience and all I have learned from it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Timothy Damon ’12
\nThe answer: South Africa. Apartheid and COP17 may both have ended, but the effects of racism still continue to this day and climate change has only begun to manifest its seriousness. Poverty and unemployment, old problems, yet reign, as does the constant impact from HIV\/AIDS.\u00a0 It was against this backdrop that I experienced South Africa during the three weeks of our Mosaic. It was a trip that has left me with much to digest, but my reflections thus far have led me to see the country as a unique microcosm of the broader world, one in which the tension between addressing immediate and long-term needs is acutely felt and one where humans continue to struggle over the weighty decisions that will shape our collective futures.
\nIt would be impossible to relate to you, the reader, the full extent of my experiences \u2013 the people, the places, the revelations. …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":839,"featured_media":2149,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19446,40558,42301,1857],"tags":[760,34192,2520,1567,40552,42724,1470,2874,1433,25668],"class_list":["post-2140","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-environmental-justice","category-climate-change-politics","category-climate-change-mosaic","category-student-research","tag-apartheid","tag-cop17","tag-developed-countries","tag-developing-countries","tag-durban","tag-hivaids","tag-poverty","tag-south-africa","tag-sustainable-development","tag-timothy-damon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/cop17durban\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2140","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/cop17durban\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/cop17durban\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/cop17durban\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/839"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/cop17durban\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2140"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/cop17durban\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2140\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/cop17durban\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2149"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/cop17durban\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2140"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/cop17durban\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2140"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/cop17durban\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2140"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}