APOLOGY
While I toured through countries north of South Africa, at home
much happened to our computer networks. Our own Computer Centre
switched over to a new file server (new network address) and
even a new email program (MS Outlook Express). I formerly used
Pegasus Mail on the old server where all my email files were
stored. Thus I am not able to browse through any of my old
email, address lists, etc. Hence I am not able to reply to any
messages earlier than yesterday (14Oct98). Please forgive me and
have patience with what has become very frustrating. Luckily, my
old email address could still be saved through an alias.
INTRODUCTION
We were three people -- Basjan Crous, a retired civil engineer
and owner of the LandRover -- Adriaan Bosman, a chemistry
lecturer at the Technicon (polytech) of Pretoria -- and me.
Basjan has done the whole tour on a previous occasion. Adriaan
has never been outside the borders of South Africa before. I
have been twice before to Zimbabwe (26 and 6 years ago) and once
to Mocambique (26 years ago).
We toured through 5 countries: Zimbabwe, Mocambique, Malawi,
Tanzania and Zambia (back to South Africa through Zimbabwe). On
the "first leg" we traveled together with another group to do
some missionary work in Malawi. We left them after five days to
complete the second leg of the tour. We travelled more than 8000
kilometers (5000 miles). Some roads were so bad that our
average speed on them was about 10 miles per hour. We often
encountered potholes as big as bath tubs! The shock absorbers of
the LandRover will have to be replaced.
ABOUT SHOCKS OF A DIFFERENT KIND
I already had the experience of an "environmental shock" when I
toured for two months through Brazil and Paraguy some ten years
ago. The same with Basjan. Thus I was mentally prepared for this
tour, even though three of the countries completely unknown to
me. But with Adriaan it was different. It was his first
experience of a "environmental shock". The effects of the shock
only begin to appear when you are back at home. After a day or
so you become incredibly tired in body and mind. Adriaan told me
yesterday that after three days and nights of solid sleeping he
still feel exhausted.
Why do you get an "environmental shock"? All 5 your senses are
blasted for 24 hours a day (awake and asleep) with foreign
signals. It is impossible for your mind and body to act upon all
of them so that you become like a drifter without any anchor.
Your mind is thrown into a rapid of "becomings" because there
are so few familiar "beings" you can identify yourself with and
thus cling onto them for some rest. In order trying to keep head
above water, the ensueing mental swimming makes you very tired.
Obviously, you may succumb to drowning by ignoring your
overworked senses and thus becoming like a sleepwalker. The
following is an example.
At a trabeller camp near Iranga (Tanzania) I was fortunate to
observe the passengers of two "overlanders". Each "overlander"
had about thirty passengers as tourists of the outbacks. (An
"overlander" is a sturdy truck transformed into two decks -- the
lower deck is used to store equipment and the upper deck serves
as a bus with a canvas for a roof.) The passangers of the one
overlander were at the beginning of their tour through central
Africa. They were full of zest. The passengers on the other
overlander were near the end of their tour. Some of them were
already acting like zombies - learly not trying to swim mentally
anymore.
While observing them, I began to think about Learning
Organisations and Team Learning as one of the five disciplines
to open up to a LO. An organisation is like a continent such as
Africa. The various departments in it is like the various
countries in that continent. In team learning different
specialists have to work together like people from different
home countries touring together though other countries. Thus
when a person participates for the first time in team learning
within an organisation, that person experiences an
"organisational shock" just like the novice tourist experiences
an "environmental shock". Some novice team learners may even
become zombies during the team learning episode if it continues
for too long a time.
BORDER CONTROLS
In Europe there is no more border controls between countries
like Germany, France and the Netherlands. But Africa thrives on
border controls (immigration and custom). Except for South
Africa's own border control, the border controls between the
other five countries are very interesting. Ordinary people on
foot move freely in streams between the border posts. But
whenever a vehicle (passenger or freight) and thus possible
value is concerned, the ugly paper monster (and all the bribery
it demands) lifts its head. It took us on average 2 hours to
cross a border on both sides. The officials often tried to make
life very difficult for us because we were not willing to bribe
them.
The reason why South Africa behave differently, is that it is
far more developed in all walks of life. Thus there is a netto
flow of immigrants to South Africa seeking a better future. Our
own population (the last cencus was a fiasco) is roughly 40
million. In less than four years the immigrants from north our
border has increased to 8 million (official figures), or 15-20
million (estimates by people who travel often in the country) or
30-40 million (guesses by pessimists who is involved with the
country as a whole, for example pilots, surveyors, etc.). This
process cannot be stopped effectively by border control. But it
has to be stopped otherwise South Africa will immergence into a
pitiful banana republic. What shall we do?
ABOUT INTERNATIONAL ORGANISATIONS
Jan Smuts, former prime minister of South Africa and also father
of the philosophy of holism, had the insight that South Africa
forms part of Southern Africa through the more than a thousand
Banthu ethnic groups south of the equator. Unfortunately, his
political opponents (apartheid politicians) accused him of
having imperialistic ideals. If we carefully study all his
speeches covering 50 years of public service, his insight of
Southern African states entering into a confederation may be
formulated in the terminology of Learning Organisations. Let me
explain how.
All the countries south of roughly the equator have a Banthu
culture as substrate. Those north of the equator and to the west
of the Sahara have a Negro culture as substrate while those to
the east of the Saharah have a Hamitic culture as substrate. The
Sahara is a barrier because it is a desert. But what is the
barrier at roughly the equator? I have named it the "ebola
corridor" because of the terrible diseases (for humans and
animals) in the tropical rain forests along the equator. (Check
the weather reports on BBC world TV which shows rain falling
there almost every day.) This barrier stretches from the west
coast across to the great plains of Kenia in the east. Ebola
fever is one of these terrible diseases - disintergrating the
internal organs of the human body into a bloody mess. AIDS is
another disease which, unfortunately, has escaped to the rest of
the world as a result of globalisation.
The "ebola corridor" is the only natural barrier in Southern
Africa and actually defines roughly 70% of its border. Thus all
the countries of Southern Africa like Angola, Congo, Namibia,
Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Kenia, Malawi, Tanzania, Mocambique
and South Africa form a natural organisation, whether they like
it or not. For example, I have carefully noticed the origin of
imported goods all along our tour. If they were not imported
from other continents (America, Asia and Europe), their origin
was from another country in Southern Africa, usually South
Africa. Nothing was available from Western, Northern or Eastern
Africa. There is really no natural barrier inside Southern
Africa which can act as a border.
The fundamental problem of Southern Africa is threefold:
1) Because the countries had different colonial histories
(Belgium, Brittain, Germany, Portugal, Holland) which are recent
and recorded, it is difficult for people in these countries to
realise that they have historically so much in common which
dates back into the previous millenia, but which has never been
recorded. Thus, although they form naturally an organisation of
states, they are not aware of it. Furthermore, their
opportunistic politicians will never try to make them aware of
it as Jan Smuts once tried to do it. They will lose too much.
Jan Smuts lost much, even his fight against apartheid. But so
great was his insight that he even accepted this loss in the
spirit of a true leader, knowing that the distant future will
prove him right.
2) There is even less realisation that they will have to emerge
from a natural organisation to a Learning Organisation in order
to function effectively. (This is what is happening now in some
sense in Western Europe with the formation of the EU.) The
complexity of Southern Africa is simply too vast to manage
otherwise -- more than 1500 languages, more than 25% of the
world's fauna and flora -- for example, the small region around
Cape Town, smaller than Luxembourg, has more flora than all of
Western Europe. The envy and ambition among the Southern African
leaders is a sad sight for sore eyes. For example, before the
release of Mandella, Mugabe of Zimbabwe was the leader of all
the States of Southern Africa allied against apartheid South
Africa. Now Mugabe is trying his best to unthrone Mandela as the
actual leader of Southern Africa since 1994.
3) A LO cannot function without personal mastery. The status of
primary, secondary and tertiary education is shocking in
Mocambique, Malawi, Tanzania and Zambia. Let me explain. We have
traveled through roughly 500 villages, 50 "towns" and 5
"cities". A village has only one road (the national road going
through it) with all the houses and shops stretched alongside
it. A "town" has also a few other roads, but no communication
(even telephone) with the outside world except the national
road. There was no shop in any of these villages or towns which
offered anything for sale based on literacy such as pens,
stationary, periodicals, papers and books. Only after 6000 km I
have seen the first computer in Lusaka in a bank! Most of the
education seems to happen orally. We have stopped at a number of
schools. Some of them seems to have been built by donations from
abroad and thus have black boards. But there is not a chalk mark
or chalk dust to be seen. I will soon give more attention to the
topic of chalk.
The only effective way to create a bright future is by
learning -- learning individuals and learning organisations.
People in Mocambique, Malawi, Tanzania and Zambia will stay in
their countries when they know that they have a bright future in
their country. But their dream of paradise is South Africa. So
they try to get to South Africa by all possible means, even by
walking. So deperate are they that those from Macambique have to
walk through the Kruger National Park which forms a large part
of the border between South Africa and Mocambique. They know
that thousands of them will be caught and eaten by lions and
leopards -- yet they do it. As a consequence many packs of lions
and solitary leopards in this park have also become victims of
AIDS and TB, thus posing a great ecological threat.
When they eventually arrive in South Africa, their dream becomes
shattered. To make an upright living there, they have to be
educated. For example, more than 50% of South African
matriculants (after 12 years of schooling) are jobless. The
general unemployment figure is 45% (illegal immigrants
excluded). This situation was caused by the sanctions leveled at
South Africa during the last decade of Apartheid. Up to the
sixties SA's growth rate was in the order of 10%. Then as the
cry for sanctions increased, it dropped through 5% for the
seventies to negative figures in the eighties. As the growth
rate dropped, the birth rate among the workless increased (if
people cannot work, then **** is the major other thing which
they still can do).
What is left for these immigrants with their shattered dreams?
They still have to live. Thus they revert to crime for a living.
All South Africans (white, yellow, brown and black) become their
victims merely because they are South Africans - owners of those
riches once dreamt of. They become role figures for South
Africans who also have it difficult. These people never built
sturdy houses because they have no security. Thus shacks in
informal settlements have grown in less than 5 years to the
worsest in the whole world. These people are thus the ideal
stooges for organised crime -- organised far more from countries
in Europe, America and Asia (using South Africa as their basis)
than by South African people -- the very countries who crippled
South Africa by their sanctions.
Will it affect you abroad? Do not fool yourself -- globalisation
cannot be stopped. You may prevent most of the people and
products of Southern Africa to reach your countries. You have an
excellent natural barrier in the oceans. But you cannot prevent
all the people or all the produce to enter your countries. Some
of them will eventually become the carriers of terrible
diseases. Aids was the first example. (I suspect that some
bio-engineered seed crop will be the next one. Here in Southern
Africa as the cradlle of diversity it will surely mutate or
hybridise despite all the careful screening in your countries.)
How many examples do you need before you will realise that
Southern Africa froms part of the globe and that its problems
will become your problems, come hell or high water? First world
countries act if only they need to be part of the globe as a
learning organisation. They act very much like the high ranking
managers of any organisation which is not a learning
organisation. They command and the subordinates must jump.
Please wake up before it is too late. You can do two things.
Firstly, contact your local government representatives and
insist that they have to work out a New Deal for Southern Africa
just as had been done for Europe after WWII. South Africa is by
way of its three hundred years of colonial history and
development the obvious leader of Southern Africa. For example,
we three tourists were hugged by natives in these other
countries whenever they learnt we were Afrikaners, the only
white tribe indigenous to Africa, but the most despised people
now in South Africa itself because of apartheid. The last couple
of years we have seen many advertisements for Afrikaners as
managers in all walks of life in the other countries of Southern
Africa. Few of them go there, but tens of thousands of them
emigrate to countries like Australia and Canada. Why? Because of
the immense reverse discrimination against them in South Africa.
Will you sanction South Africa once again to stop this reverse
apartheid when your conscience becomes alive?
The second thing which you can do, is to buy goods produced in
Southern
Africa. Fight with the manufacturers over prices and quality as
best as you can, but in the end, buy from them. Do not buy raw
materials, but go for anything which has value added in a labour
intensive manner. You can make use of South Africans as agents
to find out what is available. You can also contact the
embassies or consulates of the countries which I have mentioned.
Southern Africa needs your currencies. For example, the currency
of Tanzania is the shieling. When it became independant roughly
forty years ago, a shielling was worth close to one US$. Now a
thousand or more of them can be bought for a dollar. Why?
Tanzania import more than what it is exporting. Were it not for
South Africa's export of gold, diamonds minerals and coal, we
would have been in even a worse position because of our much
weaker agricultural potential.
South Africa do not have by far enough resources, even qualified
people, to do anything else than show the way. You will have to
make South Africa strong and work through it to make Southern
Africa strong again. The time for running way from the problems
which colonisation has created in Southern Africa has reached
its end. You cannot run away any more. Please help Southern Afri
ca to become a learning organisation.
FROM CHALK TO A LIFE OF QUALITY
Chalk is made from gypsum (preferably) or lime. Mocambique,
Tanzania, Malawi and Zambia with their geology of sandstone,
norite and granite, are very poor in lime deposists whereas
South Africa has vast deposists of it. Calcium and magnesium are
macro nutrients for plants. Thus most of the plants in these
countries are from families resistant to calcium and magnesium
defiencies and capable of growing in very acid soils. But the
agricultural crops derived from the Western World are very
dependant on lime and magnesium. Thus these crops give low
yields in these countries. Unfortunately, because of the
colonisation era and clever dealers telling African farmers to
be smart, these crops have replaced most of the traditional
crops. All along the roads small batches (barely enough for one
meal) of potatoes, onions, tomatos and maize (none originally
from Africa) are offered. They are usually so small that I could
cover anyone of them with my one hand.
This lime and magnesium deficiencies have many major
consequences. Far less (and clearly stunted) domesticated
animals (cattle, goats and chickens) can be seen than in South
Africa's own rural areas because calcium and magnesium are very
important nutrients also to husbandry. (Hens in these countries
do not lay more than 5 eggs before they begin to breed.)
Furthermore, lime is needed to stabalize the foundations of
roads for wet conditions. Without lime (or cement as a better
substitute) the roads will soon be ruined into one long stretch
of potholes. Travel in a bumpy LandRover on them like us and you
will soon become aware of it. My back is still aching as I am
writing to you.
The physiological effects of lime and magnesium deficiencies are
also devastating on humans. For example, breast feeding cannot
be sustained and bone fractures occurs readily and do not heal
correctly. At Dodoma in Tanzania we saw a few 500ml cartons of
long life milk (imported from Denmark) for the price of US$ 3 ea
ch, the monthly wage of a shop worker. The price for dried milk
(a well know brand imported from Switzerland for breast feeding)
were US$ 6 per 500g tins. Fresh milk was nowhere available,
except in Zimbabwe.
Calcium, together with sodium, aluminium and silicon, are the
major constituents of glass. South Africa itself produces so
much glass that empty bottles have become a major pollutant
here. But in Mocambique, Malawi, Tanzania and Zambia the deposit
on a 300 ml bottle of Coke is often more than the Coke in the
bottle itself. Another example, 99.99% of all houses in villages
and towns have holes for windows rather than glass planes.
Remember than even lenses (spectacles) are made of glass. We did
not see one single optometrical practice during all of our
journey in these countries, except for one in Lusaka and a
couple in Harare. Only in two shops a few cheap lenses imported
from Asia were offered at very high prices. But plastic sun
(dark) lenses dumped by Asian factories are offered by the tens
of thousands, about 1000 for each pair of leather shoes offered.
When we went to the mission itself we took 300 Bibles (in the
Chichewa language) with us. Most of the few Bibles which the
people there did have with them date from colonial times (before
the fifties) and were in English. Luckily one member of our
other missionary group with the name of Tjaart took a box with a
couple of hundred used lenses along. (He works in Pretoria at
the Trans Oranje Institute for visually disabled people.) The
first Sunday after a most memorable service, he invited the
people to come and find by trial and error a set of lenses which
might help them to see better. I will never forget what then
happened.
I saw old people crying with tears of joy when they eventually
found a set of glasses which enabled them to see clearly once
again the letters of their old Bible. I saw young children
staring with amazement when they saw that these old people were
still literate, even though reading English hesitantly like a
kid.
I bow to the missionaries of an era long ago who did a good job,
who knew like the prophets of the Old Testament that people had
to learn and be healthy before they could read the Scriptures
with success.
Thank you for your attention.
Best wishes
--At de Lange <amdelange@gold.up.ac.za> Snailmail: A M de Lange Gold Fields Computer Centre Faculty of Science - University of Pretoria Pretoria 0001 - Rep of South Africa
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