More rules to the SA race game - Story for Journ

A story I wrote for an Online Writing assignment for Journalism 1:

Nestled on the slopes of Table Mountain stands one of Africa's top higher education institutions, the University of Cape Town (UCT).

Over the past century, it has produced distinguished graduates such as the late Professor Christiaan Barnard, a world-renowned heart surgeon, as well as Nobel laureates such as Sir Aaron Klug and novelist J M Coetzee.

UCT is a prestigious and internationally recognised institution, but what has tainted its reputation somewhat is its insistence on applying a controversial race based admissions policy. At the heart of the problem is the management's widely held belief that "race is a proxy for disadvantage".

To stand a realistic chance to study for the MBChB degree at Cape Town, white pupils must get at least 90% in five matric subjects, 80% in the sixth and 80% in a national benchmark test. African pupils, on the other hand, who get 70%-79% in six subjects and at least 50% in the benchmark test, stand a good chance of securing a place.

Vice-Chancellor of UCT, Dr Max Price writes in an article entitled “Is there a place for race at a university?” that he “does not dispute that policies using race or disadvantage will reduce the number of white students gaining entry. But we must not forget the context in which white students still currently have accesses to higher education”.

An example of such a scholar is first year medic student Zanré Nell, who is currently studying at the University of Witwatersrand. Nell applied to UCT in 2009 with 9 distinctions in subjects such as Science, Mathematics and Biology. She was also the leader of various committees and sports. “I thought I would have been easily accepted into UCT, I felt rather rejected” says Nell.

In opposition to Price, and in support of students like Nell, Professor Neville Alexander, director of PRAESA, wrote an article in response to Price entitled “We’ll pay the price for race cowardice”. He mentioned that having such a policy would be a “disastrous moment in the history of higher education in South Africa”. Nell echoes Alexander; “When I was rejected, it felt like I was in the old South Africa. UCT need to eliminate the issues of the past”.

In a Sunday Times article entitled “UCT urged to scrap race criteria” Alexander rebuttals to Price’s comments stating that the admission points score should be the same for all pupils. "I don't believe in this nonsense of race. It's silly and unnecessary; we need to find a better alternative” says Alexander.

Perhaps Alexander is right, but looking at it from a black student’s point of view, the situation proves to provoke sympathy for both sides. Lusanda Zibaya, a medical student at UCT says the race-based policy is “merely a way to try to assist those smart kids who come from disadvantaged areas but have done significantly well considering their educational circumstances”.

South Africa has toiled for over a decade at becoming a democratic, non-racial and multicultural country. However this cannot happen overnight. Of course, UCT cannot expect a calm response from people when they use race as a proxy for disadvantage; it essentially perpetuates racial identity. But by selecting more black students, UCT is certainly taking the step to transform society and erase the stereotypes that black people are disadvantaged.

Keeping the peace on the Jammie stairs

Nevertheless, where is the line drawn? New students are still required when applying for admission, to classify themselves according to race. Consequently, Nell and many others feel that by ticking the “white” box, they lessen their chances of getting a seat in a lecture theatre.

Debates continue, but it is hard to tell when the day will come that students like Nell and Zibaya will not feel disadvantaged to one another in any way.

The crux of the matter remains; when will South Africa and its education system finally put the bitter issue of race to past and back out of the race game entirely?

(See live debate on UCT campus or televised debate on ETV for full coverage of the debates)

Finally - "The Bucket List"

I started a lame list of about 5 things I wanted to do in the next year or so when I was in Grade 8. Over the next few years though, it became a bit longer, and I started completing some of them. Eventually I decided to add things to it. I suppose I liked the idea of having some dreams and goals written down. I have been fortunate enough to complete some of the things and once that started happening, it seemed to me easier to just add more.

 
So, here is my list that I have spoken about in the last million posts :) It is ridiculous and virtually impossible of completing, but its here. Maybe all of them will have a bullet next to them by the time I kick it :) Happy reading

Things to do before it’s too late

• Send a message in a bottle
• Keep a diary for a few years
• Make friends for life
• Backpack through Europe

Watch as many Best Picture Oscar winning movies as I can

Get myself to the 2012 Olympics in England (fail :(

Learn to wolf whistle

Succeed at something I’m not particularly good at: running/swimming

Learn to cook a proper meal, not just egg on toast 

• Campout in my garden
• Have a big 18^th birthday with all my friends, and a grand 21st
• Spend a year away from home
• Use public transport by myself
• Get kicked out of a club

Create my family tree

Run at least a half marathon with my dad: Entered: Two Oceans 21km April 2012

Experience weightlessness; skydive, and Bungee jump 

Watch the “top 50 movies of all time”

Read the “top 50 books of all time”

Get another tattoo and piercing

• Sing karaoke, really loudly. And sing normally in front of people.
• Spend a night in a tree house
• Get something published

Ride an elephant in Thailand

• Meet someone famous (Hansie Kronje, Johnny Clegg, David Hasselhoff!)
• Stay in a really cheap, dingy hostel
• Jump off the Orlando Towers in Soweto
• Go on a barge through England
• Say a big speech in front of a big crowd
• Have a holiday romance
• Work as a waitress at least once
• Be a bartender
• Go to a strip club
• Stand inside the Colosseum 
• Go on a road trip with friends

Ride in a convertible with the top down

Sit at the Li River in China

Learn how to dive from a diving board

Learn how to play a song on the guitar

• Learn another language after school: French, Rhodes, 2011
• Be completely and helplessly broke
• Have a snowball fight and make snow angels
• Gamble at Monte Carlo
• Paintball till I look like I’ve been beaten up

See the Sistine chapel

See the Imperial Palace in Japan

Get smashed on tequila in Mexico

• See my name in print
• Stand in a seriously ancient city

Swim with dolphins

Walk down Miami Boulevard

Go to the Pamplona Bull Run

Climb Mt. Kilimanjaro with Greg

• Bake a cake

Go to the La Tomatina Valencia – Tomato throwing festival in Spain

Get over myself & eat spicy food in India, fish and chips in London and drink coffee in Costa Rica

Be in Australia/New Zealand for Anzac day

Take my mom out for a spectacular dinner

See every bit of my beautiful country

• Go on the best road trips with the best people: The Vaal (Katz), Gtown runs (Palesa and Mom), CT (George and Matty), Mpumalanga (Matty and I)
• Go on a cruise
• Complete matric, and go to Rhodes

Become a journalist, and go on to be a great photo-journalist and photographer

White water river raft

See the rose-red city, Petra in Jordan

• Notting Hill Carnival, and see the blue door from the movie.
• Go to a wedding (and dance to cheesy wedding music)

Keep in contact with all my friends from school, university and Gap.

Go on holiday with Megan

See the Hollywood sign

Take Greg to an awesome rock concert

Tango in Argentina and Samba in Brazil

• Take photos, of everything
• Come home when the sun is coming up
• Drive the Garden Route and the Winelands through Stellies

Speed-datefor fun

Plant a tree

Go to a Mardi Gras

Visit the Holy Land

Walk the Great Wall of China

Walk the streets of Tokyo after dark, and see a sumo wrestling match during the day

Go to Auschwitz

• Fall in love – helplessly and unconditionally, give my heart to somebody who is worth it.
• Attend at least one major sporting event

Keep on dancing

Go to Summerfest (Wisconsin)/ Bonnaroo (Tennessee), TOMORROWLAND, the biggest music fests in USA

• Go on a blind date
• Go on a real, amazing date

See Vancouver, Canada

Do the Santiego wine tour in Chile

• Have a roommate/house mate (Rose 2009. Greg 2012)
• Make a completely embarrassing video... and put it on the internet

Walk within the Amazon

See Mt Fuji and take a ride on the Shinkansen Bullet Train in Japan

Visit the Eternal Spring Shrine in Taiwan

Run to the top of the Statue of Liberty and the Eiffel Tower

Go to Earthdance (Cape Town), Splashy Fen (Drakensburg), Ox Braai (EC) &Oppie Koppie (Limpopo)

Scuba dive in the Great Barrier Reef

Experience real traffic in Calcutta

Lose more money than I can afford at roulette in Vegas.

See the Buddha statue near Po Lin Monastery in Hong Kong

Never EVER go to an old age home.

Go up in a hot air balloon

Be in at least one production on the west end, even if I’m just an extra

Smoke a freshly rolled cigar in Cuba

Go to the Glastonbury festival and Bestival festival in  the UK

See the Taj Mahal

Sit at the Milford Sound in New Zealand

Donate to a charity, anonymously

Swim with dolphins

View a cherry blossom in Japan in April, spring time

Take the road to Mandalay River course in Burma

Go skinny dipping at midnight in the South of France

Be an extra in a film

Go to the heart of Bali in Indonesia

See a Sonya Tayeh dance

Go to the Dubrovnik Summer festival in Croatia

• Spend some time in university being completely healthy and treating my body well (ha) DONE :)
• See the Sydney Opera house
• Ride a mechanical bull

Drink beer at Oktoberfest in Munich

See Vietnam

Shower in a waterfall

Go to the Hagia Sophia in Turkey

See a soccer match at the Maracana stadium in Brazil

• Attend a Soccer World Cup match
• See a play at the Shakespeare Globe and the West End
• Go to the Grahamstown Arts Festival

Go to Waldon Pond in Massachusetts and read a book while drifting in a canoe

• Eat strawberries at the Wimbledon tournament
• Ride a camel
• See the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona

Own a room with a view

Have a school reunion, 2018

Watch an orchestral performance in Vienna

• Get high in Amsterdam
• Finish a 2l beer in Germany

See an Opera

Walk through the underwater tunnel on Sentosa Island in Singapore

Go to Burning Man, in Nevada

• Teach/help someone to read (Inkwenkwezi 2011 plus more)

Photograph an endangered species, to capture the fragility of life

Go to the source of the Nile, to witness a humble beginning

Get married and have a family

• Climb the great pyramid of Egypt
• Drink Jagarmeister in Austria

See a match at Soccer City Stadium, Soweto

• Cross a country

See Les Calanches – the mountain in the middle of the sea near France

• Visit Robben Island

Write a letter of gratitude to Nelson Mandela

Knit a scarf

Go to a gay pride festival

• Stand at the Berlin Wall
• Go to the heart of art and culture - Florence
• Party with the Greeks on a Greek Island
• Have a ride on the London Eye
• Go to the Henley Regatta
• Visit Rozski

Lie on Copacabana beach in Rio

See a Lunar Eclipse

Sit deep within the country side of Scotland

Stand at the North or South Pole

Go to St. Petersburg, in winter

Visit the birthplace of Van Gogh, in Zundert, Holland and Monet in Paris

Drive the Great Ocean road along Australia’s southern coast

Go to the Rio carnival

• Eat a lot of bread in Paris, and snails.

Own my own house, and spend time making it a home. (Make love in every room with the person I end up owning it with)

• Also, have great, life changing, crazy, adventurous, slow, fast, fun, loving and mind-blowing sex - with the right person. (A bit explicit, but its a life experience)
• Go to the Oxford Cambridge boatrace

Uffizi Gallery in Florence

Go on a long, thorough safari in Africa

• See the Mona Lisa in the Lourve

See Anne Franks house in Amsterdam

Witness the serpent coming down the steps at Chichén Itzá in Mexico (during autumn or spring equinox)

Do the Lewis and Clark trail in West America, Portland

Experience complete solitude at the Skeleton coast in Namibia

See the Neuschwanstein Castle – where Sleeping Beauty’s castle got its inspiration

Do the Otter trail

• Kiss the Blarney Stone

Go to the Caribbean, Bahamas, Ibiza and Bermuda islands

San Juan Islands between Washington and Canada

Catch a cab, shop and try to walk in NY City

Visit San Francisco, Chicago, Los Angeles, Texas

See the ring road, the only ice free landscape in Iceland

Walk through the La Mezquita columns in Spain

Sand board in Dubai

See the Niagra Falls

• Write on the John Lennon tribute wall in Prague
• Be someone’s mentor
• Go to the top of Table Mountain
• Visit and appreciate the Tate Modern

Do the Inca trail up Huayna Picchu in Peru

Watch Africa’s wildlife mass together after the rainy season in Kenya at Masai Mara

• Buy a Venetian mask, have a toga party and ride a gondola in Venice
• Have a picnic under the Swiss Alps
• See the Stonehenge

Learn to surf in Australia

See the White House

See the view of Corcovado in Brazil

Tiptoe through the tulip fields in Amsterdam’s Keukenhof gardens

See Ayres Rock in Australia

Torres Del Paine National Park in Chile/Argentina

Camp under the stars at the Kruger Park

See a show at the Moulin Rouge and see Notre Dame

Volunteer overseas

• Take a photo holding up the leaning tower of Pisa
• Paint canvases, lots of them, of whatever I want

Stand at the Amalfi coast

Go to as many World Youth Days as I can

Go to the Salzburg Festival and appreciate where classic music came from

Go back to the UK to work and live in London for a while

Do an exchange year from Rhodes

Dream job(s):Travel photographer, commercial/studio photographer for a fun commercial magazine, photojournalist, magazine editor.

• Backpack-travel (without a plan)

Set foot on every continent and put my feet in every ocean

Live in a country that doesn’t speak English, and learn the ways of life from the locals (Holland 2014, make it happen)

Make a record of everywhere I go (travel blog etc) and then publish something about it.

See the 7 natural and manmade wonders… plus every other wonder

Natural

-          Mt. Everest (Nepal/China)

-          Great barrier reef (Australia, Queensland coast)

-          Grand canyon (Arizona, USA)

-          Victoria falls (Zimbabwe)

-          The harbour of Rio de Janeiro (Brazil)

-          Paricutin volcano (Michoacán, Mexico)

-          The northern lights (Norway, or any northern, cold country)

Man-made

-          Hanging gardens of Babylon (Euphrates, South of Baghdad in Iraq)

-          Statue of Zeus at Olympia (Athens, Greece)

-          Temple of Artimis at Ephesus (Turkey)

-          Mausoleum at Halicarnassus (Turkey)

-          Colossus of Rhodes (Greece)

-          Lighthouse of Alexandria (Egypt) 

•    Pyramids of Egypt (Cairo)