The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

The Good: 

The name of this blog comes from a man named Rob.  Rob works at Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University (NMMU).  This past week at NMMU there was the inaugural African Green Campus Initiative (AGCI) conference.  Luckily I had the amazing opportunity to attend this conference. Although only South African universities attended, it has the potential to grow into a very large international conference made up of students from every African country who share a desire to live green.  Anyway, Rob was a common fixture at the front of the conference room where we met every day for countless presentations and programs.  He was quite the comedian and always had us all laughing at his witty humor and random jokes.  At one point he decided to read off several quotes by John Wayne who he mentioned had been in several movies such as "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly".  Regardless of the fact that it was in fact Clint Eastwood who was in the movie, they were still very funny quotes, and hence the inspiration to this post.

Beyond the entertainment that Rob and others provided at the conference there were many other moments that made me quite grateful for the opportunity given to me.  First off it was great to just get some time to interact with students.  Since I arrived in South Africa on the last day of classes and will leave the day after classes start, there has been little time for me to sit down and interact with students and see what they are like.  I had a blast talking, laughing, and learning with them.  One of the things I learned was how different protests in the U.S. are from protests in South Africa.  The students I went with explained that in South Africa when folks protest, they dance and sing.  They are passionate, mad, happy, and excited all at once.  They form big circles or squares and let their bodies say just as much as their words do.  While the students at the conference never protested anything they did constantly burst out into song and dance, which is something I have never experienced before.  A woman named Des, who works in Campus Operations at UWC and sponsored the UWC delegation, explained to me that in the morning on the way to work whole buses full of folks will be singing and dancing on the bus just as students were now as we made our way from place to place during the conference.  I was confused how they all knew the words and moves to these made up dances.  She continued to explain that one person starts and the others just know what to do, that it is just a South African thing, and ingrained in their culture.  I could see a few students who did not grow up in South Africa standing just outside of the dance circles, taking relief in the fact that I was not the only one who would not have been able to keep up with the improvization that was taking place.  Overall, it was just fascinating to learn more about the culture of South Africa and how the express themselves and their passion through dance and movement as opposed to relying on the strength of words, as is common in the U.S.

UWC won many awards at the conference including best green initiative for chipping their own dead trees and branches instead of letting outside organizations take the wood.  UWC then returns the woodchips to the many gardens on campus.  UWC also won the overall most green campus, best presentation, and received countless praise for our display in the lobby.  The award for best presentation came with a check for 10,000 Rand to be used for green initiatives on campus, and I can't wait to see what they do with it.  UWC also won best female dress in the green fashion show, a fashion show where folks modelled clothes made entirely out of recycled products.  Thankfully UWC didn't submit a male model or else we might have won the best male model, and best dressed male & female awards, leaving nothing for other schools to win.  I am joking of course, the awards that UWC won could have gone to any number of schools that were there since they all had done amazing work.  I must also give a shout out to Kaitlyn Wells, one of my former Mac RA's at BGSU for teaching me how to make flowers from paper since I was able to make some pretty sweet additional items out of cans and paper to add to the dresses and push UWC over the top.  I can sleep easy at night knowing that I can always fall back on my skill of taking recyclables and turning them into something not can or paper shaped.

The Bad:

While there was a lot of great information being shared at this conference and a lot of students becoming more aware of the need to live green, there were some clear issues.  First off, for a conference about sustainability the conference wasn't very sustainable.  At almost every meal one would find that the only drink option was bottled juice.  Also students would take to go containers of food back to their rooms to eat instead of sitting down and eating.  This meant students unnecessarily using styrofoam containers.  Bottled water was also very present at this conference.  Finally, all conference delegates left to do a community outreach project in one of the local townships.  When we arrived we were given about 15 minutes to explore the Red Location Museum which celebrates the efforts of countless leaders during the Apartheid period and remembers the terrible suffering that took place.  After those 15 minutes we did about 30 minutes of trash clean up and then proceeded to wait over an hour for the bus to return.  In other words, a lot of fuel was wasted having the bus drive back and forth for such a short time spent in the township.  I wish we could have been given more time to learn and explore the museum or have had the buses simple wait for us.  In addition we were all given bags filled with useless high quality paper guides and books about NMMU.  Yes some were related to the conference and sustainability, but some were also just promotionary material for NMMU.  When I attended a NEAUCRH (North East Affiliate of University and College Residence Halls) conference at SUNY New Paltz our program guides were made from cereal boxes and were printed on the backs of old flyers, hand outs, and notes.  In other words, other conferences where the main focus isn't sustainability have managed to find ways to be more sustainable than the conference I was at.  Regardless it was still a worthwhile experience and a great conference for NMMU's first attempt.  I just hope that they learn from the comments and feedback they receive and strive to make a conference about sustainability more sustainable.

The Ugly:

Before I go any further I just want to comment that I do not believe all South Africans hold the opinion of the man I am about to talk about or believe that the conference delegation knew this is what he was going to speak about. 

So on the last night of the conference there was an absolutely beautiful banquet where awards were given out and much laughter was shared.  However, it was also the first time in my life that I felt like I was not welcome.  The man who made me feel that way was a supposed champion of AGCI and had been asked to give one of the key note addresses of the night.  He talked about the need to go green and made some good points, however I also found him to be quite ignorant and damaging to the cause of AGCI.  Among the points he raised was the idea that Americans hate foreign ideas and that they would not be a part of anything that was not their own idea and that if South Africa wanted to accomplish anything they would need to do it on their own.  While I do agree that the U.S. Government may tend to be very hesitant at times to put support behind an initiative founded in a foreign country I did not think that I needed to remind him that the former South African government also refused to distribute treatment to help those with HIV/AIDS because they had not been the ones to develop it. While I know enough to realize that the opinion and stand of a nation's government is not the opinion of all those it governs I am not positive that this speaker fully understood that concept.  I believe that due to his ignorant generalizations he was therefore jeopardizing the goal of AGCI and arguing against points made just earlier in the day; points which called out for a global response to climate change only achievable by everyone working together.  After all, the point of AGCI isn't to address climate change only in Africa so that Africa can be the last continent standing, but to join as many people together to learn from each other and tackle the issues that Africa and the world is facing.  However, all countries face many of the same issues surrounding the need to reduce waste, clean up the environment, find alternate sources of energy, and many other things.  Therefore by reinforcing the idea that climate change needs to be tackled alone, without the others who won't help, does nothing to solve the issue.  Countries should not act like school children and ignore those who they don't get along with, but never stop emphasizing the need to work together, regardless if they don't exactly see eye to eye the whole time.

As I was saying, this speaker made me truly feel as if I didn't belong since from his speech it would appear that he would see me simply as an American.  Not as a person, not as catalyst of change, not as part of the solution, but simply as part of the problem due to policies of the government in which I live.  I'm not sure that he even knew if I was an American since I can easily pass for a Cape Townian, that is until I start speaking, but I wish he did since the simple fact that I travelled to Africa and attended this conference all in the name of learning disproves the speaker's believe that all Americans refuse to learn anything that is not an American idea.  Luckily the UWC students I was at the table with knew better than to take what he was saying to heart.  One actually was very embarrassed by what he was saying and asked that I not tell anyone about it.  I do apologize of course for not being able to stay quiet about this issue but I just believed that I had to share this and that hopefully someone will read it and get something from it since I write this blog as much for me as I do for others.

Overall I am just glad that I do not share this man's ignorance since if I did I would never return to South Africa having believed that all South Africans share the beliefs of this one man.  It is true that he was possibly making generalizations, but it did appear very convincingly that he was talking about all Americans and not just the U.S. government.  I also hope that the speaker can open his eyes to the world around him and realize that the world is becoming a global community and that no single country can solve the world's problems alone.  I hope one day that this man can travel to the U.S. and visit college campuses and see the work that is being done.  Currently there are countless students all doing their part to combat climate change, and you can bet that it includes learning from everyone in the global community.  This experience has certainly made me appreciate the opportunity my career path has given me to work with students since they truly are the future and the hope for a brighter tomorrow since they seem to realize more than anyone, and certainly more than this speaker, what is needed to save this planet which we call home.  Basically the point of this section is to emplore everyone to not judge everyone by the actions of a few, whether it be the actions of a government or even a terrorist organization.  Either way we must always do our best to suspend our judgements and speculations about a person until we actually get a chance to sit down and learn who that person actually is.

The Interesting:

I know there is no forth word in the title of this blog but I still wanted to discuss briefly one other point.  I find it quite amazing how large a role religion plays in the lives of some South Africans.  For example, on the bus we took to the conference a prayer was said before we left and movies with religious undertones were played.  Also while driving around Port Elizabeth after the conference I saw a shop called "God's Own Shoe Store."  I wasn't quite sure what to make of that store, I'm still not, but it is interesting to see how religion plays such a major role here, which is something I am not used to at all back in the U.S. unless I travel down south.