Something of an adventure

I haven't blogged in forever and I feel liberated. Not from blogging (I quite enjoy that), but from having so much free time that being able to blog regularly is a given.

I am on the last leg of my tri-city journey and am about to return to my rather dreary home town tomorrow, East London.

A month ago, I left in the midst of an ear infection and a lot of stress related to my career and where I seem to be not going very fast. I was freaking out about doing nothing with my life and seriously thought I might turn into a huge failure. Which has not been the outcome a month later so I do feel more positive than I did.

So a bus trip to Durban and a quick visit to the boyfriend, and a plane trip from there to Joburg and a Gautrain ride to Sandton, and I was there, in the big city. Johannesburg has always held a certain appeal for me, which, paradoxically, is out of tune with my usual beach-bumming, nature-loving vibes. It may be because I was born there and I feel rooted to the place, but more so, I think it's because in Joburg, stuff actually happens. There is a tangible energy about the city that I am quite addicted to - every day brings a new event, an exciting launch or a big party, and every night is filled with adventuring around the concrete jungle.

I headed to Joburg for a week-long internship with legendary journalist, Allister Sparks. Mr Sparks needed someone to do some research as well as help sort out his archives for him, and so, to cut a long story short, I headed to Rivonia for the opportunity of a life time. Not only is Mr Sparks an incredible writer, journalist and political and economic analyst, he helped to create awareness about the liberation struggle and the evils of Apartheid, and did not stop at anything to expose the wrong doings of the NP government.

I spent a week with this incredible man, learning what it takes to be a journalist. I was in awe of him most of the time and tried my best not to sound stupid or ask silly questions, but I learned that there are no silly questions, and that, once we have answers for our many questions, the important thing is to question the relevance and the meaning of said answers for the lives of those around us. In the case of a journalist, spewing out the facts is not the answer to covering important topics for the public - Twitter and other social media do this for the public at the drop of a hat. Rather, the role of a journalist is to interpret the facts, analyse the date and report to the public the MEANING of such information.

He suggested that rather than studying Journalism (which he didn't), one should take up a BA or BSocSci with Economics, Politics, Philosophy and Classics as subjects. According to Mr Sparks, The New York Times is the best paper in the world (with a talented staff of over 1000 reporters, how could it not be?) and croissants are the best and easiest meal for lunch (we ate these every day, accompanied by fig jam and loads of filter coffee).

I anticipated being in awe of Mr Sparks and the seemingly-endless list of his achievments (Nieman Fellow at Harvard, Editor of Rand Daily Mail, author, journalist, Pulitzer nominee amongst so many more), but I did not expect the level of kindness and interest he showed me. He sought my opinion and genuinely cared about what I thought about things, and was more than willing to help me and my fledgeling career out in any way he could. In all honesty, I was very heartsore to leave his home at the end of the my week with him, and we have made plans to meet up when he visits the Eastern Cape this year.

Mr Sparks taught me the importance of clear, rational thought, and the beauty of being in the right place at the right time. I learned more about the state and role of the media, my country, Apartheid and myself in the week I spent with him than I did in four years of studying journalism at varsity. Not only did I leave my job with him feeling more informed and aware of the stories of our collective past, but I realised how little our generation truly knows about the events horrific pre-1994.

Perhaps if everybody spent a week with such a great person, or at least a week researching South Africa's history, we wouldn't turn so easily to our racialist, prejudiced profiling of one another. We could all learn a little about why South Africans interact the way we do, and why our generation needn't carry the inheritance of racial hatred that our ancestors burdened previous generations with.

PS. For those of you who are not sure who Allister Sparks is, Google or Wikipedia him.

Here are captions for the pictures above:
Above: The books Allister Sparks has written, at the launch of his book on Desmond Tutu (with Bono and the Rev. Mpho Tutu) and the headline about the death of Bantu Steve Biko, which Allister ran when he was Editor of the Rand Daily Mail (And Helen Zille was his "star cadet" on the paper).