America is loosely called an advanced democracy, the oldest democracy in the world. It seems that one of the by-products of living in an advanced democratic society is that social “issues” are what we would call sub-issues of sub-issues and the real issues are tackled superficially. To give an example, a couple of us SAWIP students were privileged to attend the Campus National Progress Conference during week 4 of our DC experience, a day of seminars for American students living across the country. One of the speeches, at the high profile event hosted by President Bill Clinton, was on race. The speaker was unfortunately more concerned with shouting out her frustrations with an ill-described study than addressing the real issues of socio-economic prejudice and voting rights limitations that indirectly discriminate against African Americans. The conference turned out to be more like a democrat propaganda machine than an academic or even passionate discussion of American social and economic issues.

Fortunately, our evening SAWIP discussions and leadership day provided the insight that was lacking at the CNPC and also allowed for discussion among the team of many different issues including affirmative action, reconciliation and other topical controversies. We were able to draw comparisons between the American Civil Rights Movement and post- Movement as well as the South African struggle and democracy in the past 17 years. Of particular interest was our visit to Anacostia and a discussion of black envy in America and oppositely the South African “Begging to be Black” issue.

Week three of DC ran smoothly after a busy weekend in New York city. My highlights included a conference at the Wilson Center on Sexual Violence in the Congo, some great SAWIP discussions and watching the sunset from on a roof with George Washington University students.

Our SAWIP theme this week, entrepreneurship, is mostly outside of my immediate field of interest and knowledge but, coincidentally I attended a conference on BRICS at the Woodrow Wilson International Centre for Scholars which tied in nicely with the topic and the SAWIP conversations during the week.

BRIC is a concept originally proposed by O’Neil of Goldman Sachs in 2001 to describe the powerhouse developing economies. At the end of 2010, with much controversy, South Africa joined to complete the acronym BRICS. This group of developing countries is had to define but it is generally accepted that BRICS is a learning community focused mainly on economic development but also grouped because of their geo-politics.

To summarize the discussion by the scholars in the panel at the Wilson Center:

What is the point of BRICS? Talking about political agendas and prepare an alternative to Western response.

What is the role of China? It is impossible to consider only economic development when defining BRICS. It is necessary to consider a variety of geo-political and social factors. Becoming a global power is also about more than economics, it requires a scale of global involvement that includes an interest in human rights. China can be a model for the opening of economic markets but it has a way to go with democratic systems as well as intellectually and psychologically.

What unites the BRICS countries? “Corruption and mild anti-American rhetoric.”

We were privileged to have a SAWIP panel discussion with 4 entrepreneurs on Monday night. The conversation, even for a non-entrepreneur, was inspiring. Perhaps the easiest way to remember the conversation is to summarize the panel’s “Tips for Entrepreneurs”.

1. Money is not enough of a motivator.
2. Have a great idea and become an expert.
3. Know how to write, speak and use rhetoric and persuasive language.
4. Have a foundation, some skill which focuses you.
5. Build an interdisciplinary team that you can trust and that you enjoy spending time with.
6. Do it young, before the risks are too great and you have a mortgage.
7. Recognize when its not working, don’t flog a dead horse.
8. Never assume anything. If you want to be successful make sure you tuck in all the corners.
9. Do a careful risk analysis. Identify the things that could kill the company, develop PR responses and avoid the risk.
10. When investing, ask this question- how can I succeed regardless of who wins the success lottery?

The quote of the night has to be “Training an entrepreneur is like training an F15 pilot. It costs you about $30 million because every one has to crash a plane. And, it’s also a selection process because not everyone comes out alive.”

As a SAWIP team we were also privileged to meet Sandra Taylor for a discussion on Corporate Social Investment and Social Entrepreneurship. It was inspiring to hear how a person with passion for social development could make a difference in the corporate world and not be deterred by race and gender-based discrimination.

So far, all of my blog posts have been topical, intellectual or philosophical. This is for those friends and SAWIP supporters who want to know the fun we have been having after hours, once work, curriculum activities and meetings are done.

Last night Dinika and I took the Metro to U Street for a free movie screening. The community around the Harrison Field show a different outdoor movie each month to raise money for the Harrison Recreation Center. We were given free popcorn and had some interesting discussions about energy conservation while sitting on the grass and enjoyed some of the movie- Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian, which was completely appropriate for DC.

Some of the other interesting things we have done include visiting the famous Air and Space Museum, wandering around the National Gallery of Art which hosts the only Van Gogh in the Western Hemisphere, and having drinks on the roof of the W hotel (which, even in $ terms, was rather expensive). Adams Morgan is a quaint area boasting a variety of more bohemian stores and pubs. This is where Matt and I had our first falafels, a type of vegetarian-humus-vegetable meal which tastes delicious late at night.

When it comes to food, there doesn’t seem anything comparable to the variety and portions of American food. Du Pont circle hosts a quaint coffee and pastry shop as well as Shake Shack, a lively burger place we visited with the Irish. Favourite fast-food so far includes Ben’s Chilli Bowl, Subway and, of course, Star Bucks. My office is on I street, about a block away from the White house and right above FrozenYo, which is constant temptation for me and my fellow SAWIPers who come visit. One of my favourite lunch time spots is on the White House grass watching the anti- nuclear protester, Concepcion Picciotto, 65 (who has been there for 30 years and never once met a president) and the sniper on the top of the presidential residence.

Reading newspapers is part of DC culture so every morning everybody reads the New York Times and the Washington post. A rightist (in my opinion) newspaper called the Washington Examiner is given out free on the metro. It’s always enlightening to check out the war propaganda which is deceptively moving. This picture is of a full page advertisement in the Examiner on 16 June.

DC in the summer is a real haven for interns, so every second person I meet is an intern. This makes for great networking. Last week I invited the other 2 interns at my office for happy hour after work and, just by word-of-mouth, about 12 people joined us.

Tonight I’m due to have my first country-club experience watching the pre-July 4^th Fireworks at Columbia Country Club. My host mom, Kathie, warned me about the blonde plastics I might meet but I’m confident that I will fit in perfectly with all the cotillion alums and pastel polo golf shirts.

Baseball- Nats v Orioles

We have now been in the USA for 2 weeks. We have barely had time to sleep and so many exciting things have happened that it would be hard to even list them all.

Our SAWIP theme for week 2 was Democracy. This topic was particularly interesting to me as a law student. My recent research project was presented on voting rights for non-citizens and looked closely at the interaction between voting rights and democracy. At our Idasa panel on Monday night, experts in the field, Eric Robinson (National Endowment for Democracy), Jon Elliot (Human Rights Watch) and Dr. Chloe Schwenke (Africa Bureau of USAID) provided some insight into the concept of democracy. Perhaps the quote of the night was “Democracy is like love- it’s hard to define, but you know when you’ve found it”.

Democracy is a fluid concept especially with the rise in International migration and globalization. The rights and obligations that come with citizenship are no longer as clearly defined as they were in the past. This means that democracy no longer means the practice of resident citizens voting for their local and national government. It must encourage the participation of others, especially non citizen residents. This concept is in line with the idea of street democracy which allows for those who are part of the community, who pay taxes, who send their children to local schools, to participate in the decisions that affect their lives. This definition of democracy means that citizenship and voting rights are not the only facets of democracy. We must consider a complete package of rights and obligations including freedom of speech, ease of government transition, distribution of power and the quality of public debate.

We spent the weekend in New York meeting with the South African UN delegates, visiting the New York Stock Exchange and touring the city. My highlight was the visit to the UN where the poor tour guide was overwhelmed with questions about the lack of a female Secretary General, the lack of representation for Africa in a permanent seat on the Security Council and the ANC’s non-voting seat in the General Assembly in the 1980’s. Interestingly, Ban Ki-Moon was sworn in for a second term as Secretary General just last week (on June 21) so perhaps he will be able to change the Security Council composition.

16 June 2011- The South African Ambassador, Ebrahim Rasool, hosted a special youth day event at his residence on 16 June 2011 with the theme- Economic Freedom in Our Lifetime. Special guests at the event included the Deputy Minister of International Relations and Cooperation, Marius Fransman, and the President of the Africa Society, Bernadette Paolo.

A panel of students and a panel of young professionals talked about education, politics and a variety of issues that both America and South African youth face. As one of the speakers for the event, I presented the closing address.

“When we talk about economic freedom we could be talking about free markets and trade freedom and private property rights or investment freedom or freedom of economic choice or freedom from want.

One of the key ways to promote economic freedom is to spur economic growth. We all know that the gini coefficient for South Africa paints a dire picture of the second highest income inequality in the world. Because of this, it is doubtful if GDP is a good indicator of our economic growth.

Today we have talked about the other indicators of economic growth. We have talked about increasing the skills of the youth. We have discussed education as a key focus area to promote economic growth. We have discussed modern communication as a form of education and skills training. We have networked and learnt about networking. We have discussed community and built bridges between South African and American youth.

It is particularly important to tackle the issue of economic freedom as youth and for youth. Unfortunately, unemployment among South African youth is particularly high. 70% of the unemployed are between the ages of 18 and 35.

Education is important because it promotes economic growth but also has vast social benefits including vibrancy/diversity of economic activity, a more tolerant and better informed citizenry, stronger social criticism, better communication and enhanced democratic processes.

In order to reap these benefits we are obliged to promote better education in schools in the second educational sphere, where most previously disadvantaged schools lie, which continues to perform badly despite massive funding increases. If opportunities are created for scholars from the second sphere they will begin to take higher paying jobs and benefit the economy and themselves.

When we talk about education, we should remember that education is not only the formal, in-class experiences of those who are privileged to attend university. Education includes practical training and skill-enhancing opportunities such as the one we are enjoying at this very moment, courtesy of the South African embassy on this special day.

As we move towards a more social understanding of economic growth we have to acknowledge that access to services, health levels and cultural harmonization are all factors that contribute towards economic freedom.

In closing I would like to read a quote from the African Youth Charter which is known to both the South African and American youth here today. South Africa signed the charter in 2009- ‘Africa’s greatest resource is its youthful population and through their active and full participation, Africans can surmount the difficulties that lie ahead’ “

After the event we were treated to a real South African braai and conversation with the guests. What a wonderful way to celebrate Youth Day.

I’d heard all sorts of scary things about the SAWIP selection camp from various alumni of the programme and, to be honest, some of it turned out to be true. When you put, as Kim Williams described, thirty three “strong leaders with similar capabilities but in [different fields]” at a campsite in Glencairn, add a competitive element and very little sleep, some fascinating things happen. The good thing is that those ingredients are bound to create an incomparable think-tank and, the weekend was a great networking and learning experience.

Legal Aid is provided to people across South Africa who require advice on civil matters and cannot afford to pay for the services of a lawyer. At Stellenbosch University, 28 of us final year law students consult at the Legal Aid Clinic under the supervision of admitted attorneys and candidate attorneys. Because I already spend time at the clinic daily, it seemed natural that I would record most of my SAWIP community service hours there.

The Independent Electoral Commission appoints officials in every ward to organize the voting station, conduct the voting, count the ballots and report the results to the head office. On Wednesday 18 May 2011- Municipal election day I, as a party agent, was privileged to observe the ballot counting at a particular Stellenbosch ward. The chief electoral officer of the ward, a woman, efficiently and tirelessly led the team of officials from 5am to 11pm on voting day. She was, as a DA party agent pointed out, the exact example of transformational leadership- the type of woman that people are increasingly looking to for community leadership.