Some Quests on Our Quest

On our South African adventure, we are on a quest to hit all the Captonian sites. We have found that Cape Town is full of sub-quests. We found that finding a decent drink of beer in the town is a quest in itself; rugby is a quest upon which many embark; diamonds are the ultimate quest that started this country; and, we met someone fighting the quest for creative liberty, or more broadly, social justice. Here is our story:

The locals drink wine for taste and beer for purpose. The wine here is good, as we mentioned. You can find a wide range of variety, and of a decent quality. The beer, on the other hand, is gold and comes in glasses that are big enough to fill the largest bellies (possibly because there are plenty of large bellies to fill). The populous seems to be after quantity over quality, making it very difficult to find a hop. In fact, when I asked a bartender, do you have any hoppy beers? He said, 'hoppy?'" I then defined a hop as, "a flower added to beers such as IPAs, and other ales to give the beer a slightly bitter taste and floral smell" and he said, "I don't know what you're talking about". Enough said. However, we continue to strive for a decent beer, but we are not holding our breaths. Wine will do.

At a friend's suggestion, we heard that we couldn't miss a rugby game. Therefore, we bought some tickets. In the spirit of the cultural experience, we thought we might ride the train over to the stadium. The fact that it was rush hour didn't help the already chaotic nature within the train station. Honestly, we were scared. One taxi ride later, we were watching the local, first place Stormers beat the last place Lions pretty easily. The multiple scoring game provided significant excitement within which Jessica and I could gain a new education about the sport. So organized, yet so chaotic! The only pre-educatoin we did was about the colors of the teams. We didn't want to be caught wearing the away team colors! The fans reminded us more of 9ers fans than Raiders fans. In other words, it was a very "wine and cheese" kind of crowd. While they were excited that the team won, it doesn't seem like their lives would have been different if they lost. We felt safe and had a great time, but we both wore the local blue just in case.

Did you know that mining drives the South African economy. There are several other components of the GDP, but without mining, South Africa would be a different place. Like the California Gold Rush in 1849, Africa had its own diamond rush in the early 1870s. Specifically, the South African Karoo, was the center of the diamond rush. Side note: Now, that same area is the source of a local fracking debate (Americans certainly know all about that fracking thing!). We are sure that you all know the story of De Beers, how they cornered the market and drove demand through such tactics as propagating the idea of a diamond engagement ring in the 50s. However, did you know that Cecil Rhodes (benefactor of the Rhodes Scholars) was the founder of the de Beers company as we now know it? As Cecil Rhodes started buying all the mines around him, one of the mines that he bought was really well known and affectionately called "The Big Hole" owned by the De Beers family. In effect, De Beers sold out early, but gave their namesake to the future diamond empire! The Oppenheimers went on to run the De Beers company and make it so profitable. We were enthralled. Jessica was distracted by all the sparkles, while Jason couldn't stop looking at the early diamond cutting machinery and mined rocks. Fun fact: did you know diamonds used to be cut with a mixture of diamond dust and olive oil. Now they use the completely unromantic lasers.

The next morning, we had to wake up EARLY! Jessica had to drag Jason out of bed at 8:30am just to get to a coffee date that HE set up. By 9:30, we were chatting with the satirical artist, Brett Murphy. Recently, his gallery published a painting titled "Hail to the Theif" with an Leninistic image of the South African President, Zuma. The controversial part was the fact that Brett drew Zuma with his penis hanging out. This could be read in a number of different lights. Zuma has had 713 criminal charges brought against him and the only thing keeping him out of jail is his political connections. If he doesn't win the next parliamentary election, he might end up with a 15 year sentence, like his bookkeeper. Brett's gallery threw this particular painting in with several other very powerful and deep paintings like a playful 1-liner. The National media, and leading political party strategists chose this simple piece of art to rest at the soul of a political battle drawing lines in the sand about everything from race to the freedom of speech. Brett was in the middle of a massive political battle that put him on the receiving end of everything from subpoenas to death threats against him and his family (including 2 daughters). There is a lot of violence here in South Africa, so death threats are even more scary than they might be in the US because someone really might act on them. A local religious leader went so far as saying that Brett should be stoned in the streets. While we were full of suspense listening to Brett tell his tales, we also stopped to think about what this means about South Africa as a country. On the one side, our American mindset thinks, "how can anyone even argue against the freedom of speech?" On the other hand, at least Brett was never sent to jail. South Africa really is a developed country. In the aftermath, a South African court ruled the art piece as "pornographic" so Brett, nor anyone else, can ever display his art in the public forum. The gallery settled their dispute with the government and Brett's painting was sold for ~$20,000 (mostly going to the gallery). We wish Brett good luck as he may or may not continue his quest for political justice in South Africa.

With a safari planned in the near future, we may not be posting for a little while (no internet). So, we will catch y'all again soon.

Love,
Jessica and Jason