More Kaapstad

I'm rolling along here in Kaapstad, the Afrikaans name for Cape Town. I am sitting at what has come to be my preferred internet cafe-cum-bar. This morning I had to head back up to UCT to pick up photocopies of research that I did at the manuscripts and archives division, and the rest of the afternoon was spent dealing with the prosaic -- laundry, starting to think about packing, and my ongoing, and largely futile, efforts to teach myself Xhosa. I am not good with languages in the best of circumstances. Trying to pick it up in dribs and drabs from a book and without guidance is a Sisyphean task.

Otherwise I am just killing time until we head to a braii this evening.

Last night's sundowners took place at the Camps Bay squash club. Doug and his friend (and I guess my new friend) Graeme had just joined and we went to the Member's Only bar for dinner and drinks looking out over the multimillion rand (hell, multimillion dollar) houses and the ocean, where one of Cape Town's nicest beaches is located. After the sun went down, the sky produced a purple and ink-blue sheen that came over the palm trees and looked like a Corona commercial.

One addendum to my talk about Western Cape politics the other day -- it is clear that the Democratic Alliance (DA) is going to fight these municipal elections with everything that they have, and their themes will be dealing with crime and corruption, delivery of services, and integrity. They have posters everywhere on the lightposts, some in Afrikaans, some in English, none in any of the African languages, despite the claim on one of the most common posters that the party is "vir al die mense," ("for all the people."). The ANC's efforts have been slower to start, although last weekend they held a massive rally at Athlone Stadium in honor of the anniversary of the party's founding and to kick off their own election campaign. As of now, the DA posters outnumber those of the ANC by a factor of at least 10-1, and the other parties have a negligible presence.

I cannot help but wonder if the DA's approach to crime is not at least somewhat demogogic. You would never know it, but crime rates are down massively over what they were in the late 1990s, and Cape Town has far from the gated, walled, armored, under-siege feel that Joburg does. The DA thus is trying to instill fears of crime that are actually far worse than the crimes Cape Townians face on a regular basis. This is not to say that Cape Town does not face some of the same criminal issues that mush of the country faces, but it is to say that for me it is telling that a party clearly appealing first and foremost to as many whites as it can is using crime (as opposed to corruption, which seems like a more legitimate, if also overwrought, issue for them) as one of its main wedge issues.

In any case, for now, I am more concerned with our braii. Last night it seemed that we had lots of volunteers to bring salad, fewer to bring the meat and beer so essential to a successful braii. Hopefully this is all sorted by now. When a man wants boerewors, lettuce just does not get the job done. And while I like South Africa's juices as much as the next guy . . .

Hambla Kakuhle! (Is that right? Wait, what is it if you are addressing a group? Oh, damnation.)