We made it to July. Mediachannel is still here thanks to your support. We will continue our efforts to find support and partners because major fundraising campaigns like the one we just ran is so time consuming and sometimes feels like a Begathon. We know that we have many readers and supporters around the world. Rory O’Connor has been in Korea at a conference on Citizens Journalism while I was here in the South of Africa. Here’s my latest report. I know most bloggers and websites focus on the intrigues of American politics, but there is a world beyond the boundaries of the American Empire that we need to know about it and even learn from.

DURBAN SOUTH AFRICA, July 1: “Seek Ye First The Political Kingdom” was the advice offered by Ghana’s Kwame Nkrumah back in the l950’s as he led Africa’s march to independence from European colonial rule. To his credit, he understood the limits of political power too when he later condemned Neo-colonialism as the highest state of capitalism warning that societies could be liberated politically but not be free because of more covert forms of economic and political intervention.

Today we seem to be in a battle between new “neos:” the neo-conservatives on the right and the neo-liberalism that the left condemns. I am not sure how helpful these labels are in explaining the deeper forces that are entwined with cultural, racial and media influences that the old school of Marxist influenced eco-determinists missed.

I have been in South Africa for the last week and am leaving after a final screening of my film IN DEBT WE TRUST in Johannesburg on July 4th, our independence day. All these years later, many of us are increasingly DEPENDENT because of mounting debt and the debasement of our democracy that makes it hard to feel like we have any say at all in an elite dominated world.

I came to a film festival which often felt more like a cocktail party festival. (Some of those parties were called Zimtodi. and took place in a a restaurant named after Havana with pictures of Che Guevara and Fidel Castro on the wall. Che’s image is on their T Shirt too. The Cuban Revolution is now an icon in a Casino and Entertainment Center. It testifies to its symbolic popularity even now, even in a country that was once a bastion of right-wing Anti-Communism. You may not remember that it was the Cuban military that defeated the army of apartheid in a key battle in Angola, an event that helped puncture the old South Africa’s sense of invulnerability. Now you can have a tasty and expensive meal a room dedicated to a Cuban guerilla leader.

I have been shuttling between events, screenings, and even Durban’s Fashion Week with its supermodels and souped up designers. The trip has given me a new exposure to the stunning contradictions of wealth and poverty that define this land, but also an opportunity to speak with filmmakers from all around the world—movies from 77 countries are on display—old and new South African friends, and some keen observers and critics of the local order.

I took a trip to this “beloved country” and realized what a trip in another sense that South Africa has become. As you track the progress (and lack of it) in this still new democracy that so many fought and died for over the centuries, you can see certain forces at play perhaps more clearly that in the US with its far more complicated range of interest groups and perhaps more shadowy forces at play.

The changes since my first visit back in the Sixties are stunning, There is a “rainbow nation” at work here with far more racial intermingling than in most of the States. even in New York. Durban is a mosaic of Indians descended from coolie laborers imported by the British to slave in the sugar cane fields, a mix of Whites, from English speaking and Afrikaans speaking backgrounds, and blacks of mostly Zulu heritage. These very different cultures live and work side by side but even in post apartheid South Africa, racial groups often live separately although economics is now as much of a divide as race once was.

The “struggle” was not that long ago even though some in the upper crust have chosen to forget some of its lessons, vision and values. The post Mandela African National Congress had a policy conference this past week that seemed to be more of a power struggle between the supporters and opponents of President Thabo Mkeki. Mbeki is a centrist challenged on the left by youth activists and members of the unions and Communist Party. Outside of China, South Africa is one of the few countries with an active CP which remains aligned with the ANC.

Mbeki sees the ANC as leading a “national democratic revolution” while it is the CP’s task, he said, to create a Socialist Revolution which seems very remote to me with large corporate enterprises dominating the economy and the culture. To the Socialists he promised he would not intefere in their revolution if they didn’t impose their demands on his. Consumerism is the communism of the people today.

An article in the Sunday Times described the ANC conference as “devoid of celebration and comraderie, the meeting is a deadly serious power struggle.” The paper described an “icy” atmosphere with a class struggle dividing a movement which was once seen as a “big church” open to all. On one side were well-off businessmen and government officials; on the other other township residents. The head honchos came in fancy suits in their BMW’s; wile township residents came by bus in track suits and woolen caps.

There was also a report that there was a rise in the number of millionaires in the country with 5703 newcomers in the past year.. The World Wealth Report says this country—still plagued by dire poverty—has 48, 586 dollar millionaires. The number of the superrich has doubled since 2004 when Nelson Mandela was elected president. In that year, there were fewer than 25,000. More than a third of new millionaires are women.

Some at the conference were beneficiaries of Black Empowerment deals that have enriched an elite of black South Africans; others live in communities where unemployment hovers between 40 and 60 percent depending on which figures you believe. On the other hand, economic growth in South Africa has been high even if there is a debate about who is benefiting from the prosperity. There were reports that the left has moved some of the movement’s priorities in their direction but it remains for the government to implement what is decided. That reminded me of the fierce pre-convention battles that always occur before our political conventions on platforms and issues, only to be forgotten when political races turn into popularity contests.

I know and respect Thabo Mbeki even though I don’t really understand some of his policies including his AIDS stance. There was a lot of hype at the film festival for Ben Cashdan’s “Mbeki Unauthorized” that was commissioned by the South African Broadasting Corporation, the country’s public broadcaster which has so far refused to show it. The film was far more balanced than I expected and showed Mbeki as a complicated figure, brilliant but flawed.

One Afrikaner who I spoke with, and who is not a Thabo supporter, said she came away from seeing it liking him more. The archive material in the film documented his long involvement and often brilliant bridge building work that he led to topple apartheid. It also raised questions about his mecurial personality and skills of political manipulation. I should disclose I was invited to his inaugurations and am not in the hate Thabo club. Compare him to George W Bush and he comes off pretty well. I covered the ANC closely when I produced the South Africa Now series,

ON MY ISSUE

I showed In Debt We Trust three times to largely packed theaters. I started the screenings by asking the audience felt that IN DEBT WE TRUST is relevant here? And guess what? The audience almost to a person said it is, Afterwards people raised questions and shared their experiences. I came away feeling that we now need to promote the film internationally. (All ideas are welcome.) We will post information on that on stopthesqueeze.org which for which I write a free newsletter.

I was told about a new consumer protection law in South Africa and the many organizations concerned about the issue that may want to show the film. What I saw was that this a global problem and is slowly becoming a global issue. The organizers of the Festival did too, writing “the debt issue is an increasing global problem as more people buy into America’s false dreams.” I wonder: is it America that is to blame or is it our globalized and hyper-charged capitalist system controlled by a small number of financial institutions?

I found some people here willing to work with us in getting the film out. In this country, incidentally, blowing up ATM Machines or stealing them whole has become almost a sport. There is a large crime problem that makes everyone insecure and prey to “the crooks” as they are known who terrorize the population. I was told that private security companies have been hired to protect police stations and even the military.

Crime is a product of the massive inequality here as well as the government’s failure to combat it.

LINDA WINS ANOTHER ONE

Back at the Film Festival, I am happy to report that fellow Linda Hattendorf, who edited In Debt We Trust, won the best documentary prize for her wonderful film The Cats of Mirikatani. I was asked to accept for her because she was at other festival. I was delighted to do it but because of a confusing introduction, many people thought I won and spent the night congratulating me. I accepted of course—with a wink and a nod. (I did win the same prize two years ago for WMD: Weapons of Mass Deception.)

Go to the Durban International Film Festival website for more on the many amazing films: Http://www.cca.ukzn.ac.za.

I am off to Johannesburg tomorrow and back to the USSA from the RSA at week’s end.
Not sure if I will have time to blog or even breathe if next week is anything like this past has been.

I hope you find this reporting on South Africa interesting because I certainly do.

Your comments welcome.

And PS, personal congratulations to David Milliband, who I knew as a kid when his father was my professor in London. He was just named Foreign Secretary in The UK, the youngest person in that post in 30 years.

You can reach me at dissector@mediachannel.org