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Sunday, 26 April 2009

  • Elections

    Sometimes it is easy to get negative about South Africa, but there are times when I am reminded why this country is still worth it. Last week, a few days before the election as I was driving back to Johannesburg I saw many signs that democracy in South Africa is still alive and well. On the radio, various political issues were hotly debated, meanwhile outside every single public space seemed to be covered with political posters, even the occasional car or pedestrian were sporting political slogans! People everywhere from wealthy suburbanites to cleaners and security at the university could be heard discussing political issues: as I drove into campus I could hear two security guards loudly debating the merits of their favoured candidate.

    When Wednesday, Election day, finally dawned there was an universal sense of excitement in the air. Voter turnout was extremely high, yet the election process itself went smoothly for the most part, and queues moved quickly. People seemed proud to vote, and I was proud to cast my vote too. When the final results were released today, the ruling party had, as expected won a massive percentage of the vote, despite the many mistakes and scandals of recent years. For the moment however I do not feel negative about it, I may not agree with the results but it is clear that everybody took their vote and their right to free speech very, very seriously. That is not a sign of a democracy in trouble! In a few months the euphoria will have worn off and it will be back to negativity again. But for now I am enjoying the festive spirit that seems to be in the air.




Tuesday, 31 March 2009

  • I promised in the previous post I would be back, but I lied and refrained from updating in weeks and weeks. However, I miss Xanga now, so I think I'm back for real now! The past few months  have been very busy for me, the Politics courses and French classes are taking up a lot of my free time, as are my responsibilities in church, my family and to the few friends that I have. My habit of procrastinating when I should work takes up the most time though! Still, putting an hour on Xanga once a week shouldn't be too much to ask! And the hard work is paying off, recently I got yet another degree (my second, I'm working on degree number three right now).

    I look forwarding to reading and commenting on all your blogs again,
    Much love,
    François

Monday, 02 February 2009

  • A Quick Update

    I haven't updated in three months, so after much begging, pleading, and finally threatening by certain individuals I am finally updating my blog again! Hopefully I will be a bit better at this during the New Year.

    During December I went on holiday to Cape Town. The experience was amazing, and I am beginning to consider studying at the University of Cape Town for a year or two.

    My plan for this year is complete my Honours degree in Political Science to match the Honours degree I already have in Economics. Hopefully tomorrow I will be allowed to register for that course. I am also continuing with French classes this year, and it looks like it is going to be quite hard.

    Well, this is just a brief note to let everybody know I am still alive. It's midnight now, so I'm a bit too tired for a long post. I've also put up some holiday pictures I took with my cellphone if anybody is interested.

    Until my next post (soon!)
    Much love,
    François

      

Monday, 03 November 2008

  • Election Time

    I can't believe another season of my favourite TV show is about to come to an end. Soon, I will experience that deep empty feeling when the familiar characters and story lines come to an end, and I have to find some new form of daily entertainment. And this season has been truly spectacular indeed! Tomorrow, I'm going to stay up all night to watch the last episode.

    I am talking of course, about the US elections. I'm not even an American, but I have followed every event in the finest detail: I've read every quote, followed every scandal, studied every poll and I've read every editorial (and concluded that most editorial writers are morons).

    As people soon head to the polls, here are a few concluding thoughts. First of all, I'm sure it was traumatic to have an election that lasted well over a year. But I have to congratulate the American people on taking their elections so seriously. This election has been fiercely (sometimes brutally) contested, and while that is sometimes a little unpleasant it also means that democracy is working. Don't get me wrong, there are a lot of flaws in the American electoral system, the candidates, the issues and the policies, but the world's oldest democracy remains an example for the rest, at least so far as how passionately people feel about it.

    Secondly, do go and vote and take your vote seriously. American elections are often decided by razor thin margins, and the result *will* have an impact on your (and my) life. Even if you don't live in a swing state, your vote will add to your candidate's victory and the mandate he has to govern is all the stronger. Neither candidate is an idiot or a force of evil, regardless of what many people think. I see some serious merits and flaws in both the personality and policies of both candidates, but both candidates also have some excellent strengths and ideas. More importantly each candidate presents a very different view of what the world should be like, and how that should be implemented. Ultimately you will have to vote for the candidate that best represents your view.

    That said, I am firmly of the opinion that Obama is the better candidate, at least as far as non-Americans are concerned. Firstly, Obama is widely adored across the world, especially in Europe and in Africa. Republicans have had nothing but contempt for Obama's international popularity. Seriously guys, how is being popular in other countries a bad thing? Those hundreds of thousands of cheering Germans, and other Obama supporters worldwide are a good thing. It means they are more likely to support American issues and less likely to strap explosives to themselves. The world supports Obama not because he is a celebrity, but because he offers intelligent, well-thought out, moderate foreign policy.

    I'm not sure if I agree with Mr.Obama's economic policy (another aspect that has an important impact on the rest of the world). But Mr.McCain is offering tired old Republican economic orthodoxy, which as events of recent months have shown, is rapidly becoming obsolete. Americans and the World need a new way of thinking about economics, and while I don't entirely agree with Mr.Obama, at least he is proposing something different.

    On other issues, well, they have no effect on me and so Americans need to make their decisions about that on their own. Good luck!



    Much love,
    François
    (This will be the endorsement that seals the election. Soon world domination will be mine! Mwuahaha!)

Sunday, 02 November 2008

  • The Three Phases of Studying

    Part of the reason why I have not updated is because I am lazy. More recently I have been busy. With the end of the year approaching I have been writing essays and preparing for my final exams. I am only writing two exams, but they will be very tough.

    Fortunately, four years of being a student has prepared me for this and I now have all the skills necessary to excel! Not quite. Four years of being a student has made me a master of procrastination, spotting questions, and being all round cynical about both the effort I am going to put in and the marks I am going to get out of it.

    Studying for an exam can be divided in three distinct phases:

    In the first phase, I am eager to do well in the exam. I promise myself that I will spend weeks studying for the exams and get top marks. This time is mostly spent playing computer games and studying the first part of the work over and over again, mostly because it's easy!

    In the second phase (which I am now moving into), I realise that memorising every last letter in my textbook is not a viable option. I start looking at my class notes and exam breakdown and study only the important sections that I know will be in the exam: unimportant "background" sections are now ignored.

    In the final phase (the evening before the exam) I realise that I haven't even read through half of the work. The last few hours are a frenzied reading through of the remaining work. I quickly attempt to memorise (if only partially) those sections which I think (or hope, or guess) will be in the final paper. The most productive studying is often done 15 minutes before the exam starts as I walk to class! During this phase sleep is rare, and what sleep you have is troubled. The stress steals days of your life. You wish you didn't need sleep or could study in the shower.

    Point is my bad time management makes exams much more stressful than they need to be. But in the end I do fine. I just wish I could skip forward to the end now! Better updates will be coming soon (as soon as I am done with the exams!).

    Much love,
    François
    (I didn't even proofread this post! I wonder if I can study that section on optimal tax rates before I go to bed... or look at funny pictures on the internet. Bleh!)

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