Some Museums and Speakers

On Tuesday of the first week in Joburg we went to the Hector Pieterson museum. He was the first student killed by the police in the 1976 protest. His sister cam out and talked to us about the experience. It was crazy to actually be hearing from the woman herself. Very surreal and humbling.
Today was the apartheid museum. It was a really good museum. The person who designed it also designed the Holocoust Museum in D.C. The pictures were out of this world. They depicted so many different aspects of Aparthied. I wont waste time trying to explain it all. You really have to go see it.
We also had two speakers comes this day. The first was a very kind man whotalked about the difference between the ANC and COPE. THe ANC was the liberation party and COPE is a new break away party from the ANC. Some of the leaders from ANC wanted their own power and as a result made their own party. The general concensus is that a lot of poiticians are in politics because it is a living. If you can play the game you can have a good life. As a result the people tend to get neglected. Although the speaker on this division was hard to understand and I was very tired what he said was significant and interesting.
The second speaker Dale McKinley was out of this world. He was very intelligent and knowledgeable and portrayed what he wanted to say in the a very coherent manner. Thank god. He talked about politically South Africa is deracialized but socio-economically the poor aren’t any better off and the rich still have the power as per usual. He talked about theimportance education, organization and keeping things local. Big governments are necessary but not always very effective. Participatory is the way to go. He had concrete ideas for actions that can be taken.