A city that never sleeps

Time flies, every day comes with opportunities and new experiences. For the previous weekend we as the SAWIP team visited the “city that never sleeps” (New York City) as described by its dwellers. Prior my trip to NYC I did not have anything to expect, I just told myself I will see when I am there what the city has to offer me.

The glowing, huge, attractive and amazing advertising boards of the time square in Manhattan was the best thing or creativity of marketing I have ever seen in my entire life. Just the idea of having numerous adverts in one place helps the product makers to lift up their standard to counterbalance with the competition of marketing. I would define time square as the center of Manhattan Island, it is the place where the world meets, surprisingly you would see a family walking and exploring at 4:00am.

As a young South African we only hear or see these popular places from the media. Being there physically was a great honor for me, also seeing the memorials such as the 9/11 memorial it brought back the pain and sorrow that the Americans had to go through after the tragedy. America as the whole is a book of stories with many chapters and many characters. From this book of stories some of them are exactly or more/less what we have experienced as South Africans.

Part of our schedule during our visit was to attend a session with the South African Consulate. This was interesting as the gentlemen (SA representatives in the UN) told us what they do at the UN as the South Africa’s representatives. What was disheartening was that, they say most young and bright South Africans do not want to be South Africa’s representatives to the UN. There are few of them representing the country. That must be a big challenge to them because maybe the work load is overwhelming for them as they are growing old. They edged us to make sure that we do join programs that may lead us to be the South Africa’s representatives to the UN.

At school I once conducted a research about the Kyoto Protocol, which was an idea of reducing the effects of global warming by the UN, and then it was a privilege hearing about the progress of the protocol from the horse’s mouth. It was much better asking about personal opinions,about the effectiveness of the protocol in person.

SAWIP is still teaching us great things that we all need in life. One of those things is independence. During our visit in NYC each individual took care of his own catering. No one had to buy you and bring you food. We were the drivers of our own ships. This is an important aspect of life, to be able to use your money efficiently enough and not to be carried away with material things that will leave you without a penny.

While in DC………………………………………………………..