I am pretty sure that if I was to ask any alumni of SAWIP who has had the honour of being on this programme since its induction to write a book about their journey and what they learned during their 6 months on the program, the common response would be “sure, how thick would you like it to be?”  This is no different for me.

 

 

In a few days from now, part one of my book will have come to an end; a part that consists of 3 chapters. Here is a short summary of what the chapters would say:

 

 

Chapter 1. Friends

I have always been lucky enough to have good friends around me, and in March of 2012 this luck sky rocketed. Selection camp for the SAWIP class of 2012 was a weekend were I met 29 amazing students from my and other universities, I met alumni from years past, I met the management team and a number of board members ; all who are people of such quality that I find it difficult to describe. Although the camp was the best part of a weekend, there was not nearly enough time to speak to all these brilliant people, to be honest, not even a month would be enough time. Many friendships started here already.

The next weekend of orientation was a bitter-sweet moment. Bitter in that 15 friends were no longer with us but sweet in that there were still 15 of us and the management team seemed to be less scary. Being more relaxed, friendships grew stronger.

Selection camp, orientation camp and the next 10 weeks of meetings, team activities and discussion sessions prior to DC didn’t just bring people together, it made a group of people a team; a team that is without doubt some of my best friends.

 

 

Chapter 2. Washington DC

6 of the best weeks of my life. From the moment I stepped foot out the terminal in DC till the time I got back onto the plane, the experience was so powerful that it changed my life to such an extent that I still cannot quite comprehend it. The only thing I can say here is thank you to all the following people:

My host family were brilliant and made me feel like a son and big brother from day one; my supervisors and colleagues at the World Bank are all so knowledgeable and passionate about what they do; every single speaker at sessions who we had the privilege to meet and chat to, gave so much insight about topic which are so interesting; the WIP and NSL teams who made the USA trip an even more multi-cultural one; some of the Alumni who spent their experiences and advice with usand the management who worked their hands raw to make the experience a superb one. Lastly and most certainly not least the teamof 2012,uou along with all the other factors changed my life!

 

 

Chapter 3. Growth on return

The 6 weeks in the USA are so busy that you simply do not have time to realize how much you are learning and how fortunate you are to be having the experience you are having. Only when I returned did I realize how much growth had taken place in just 6 weeks. The lessons that I learned while in DC and having reflected upon them when I got home has put me into a position where I am so excited about the future; a future that has already started and one where I will be able to look back at the last 6 months and say “how is that even possible?”

 

 

Part one is finished but part two of my SAWIP journey is about to start. SAWIP has given me so much that part of my excitement about my future is in giving back to SAWIP; becoming a servant of this profound program and helping SAWIP do for other young South Africans what it has done for me

With less than one term left of my undergraduate degree and having to look ahead and figure out the next few steps of life, I have come across a few challenges or obstacles which needed to be figured out. In trying to figure them out, I have tried to look back at my life and see when I had to overcome similar challenges and have actually noticed a pattern.

 

When I stared primary school, I did not have a choice in where I wanted to go, I was told I am going to the local school. At the age of 13 and having to choose where I wanted to attend secondary school, I told my parents where I would like to go, pleaded my case and they decided if that was good decision, I had slightly more decision making power but it was not completely autonomous. 5 years later, I now had to choose if I was going to study, work, take a gap year……………etc. At this point, I had a fairly autonomous decision but was still somewhat influenced by my parents. Having made a few decisions and having them change a few times, I eventually landed up back at university studying something that I felt was good for me. 3 years into my Industrial Psychology degree, I now find myself needing to make a decision that is completely autonomous; it is all me that is going to have to make this one. What a daunting task.

 

Is this decision I am about to make going to be the right one? How will it impact my future? What if I make the wrong decision? So many questions and so few obvious answers; it’s no wonder why the last few months have been so challenging….a challenge that has honestly been quite tiring but a challenge that I seem to coming to grips with. “I know that I am the one who has to make these decisions and I am the one who will have to live with the decisions that I am going to make, but I also know that the decisions will all become clearer in due course. Stepping up to the challenge is rather intimidating but is a challenge that I cannot wait to make because I know that whatever the decision is, I will be moving on up.”

There are countless examples of where the saying ”life is not what it seems” stands true. The more of these examples that I encounter the clearer this becomes. Let me share one of these with you. In a book that I read a while back the author was telling of a time when he was on the train heading home after a long and stressful day at work. Like normal, he was reading his newspaper while sitting in the crowed train, noise was not normally something that bothered him but on this particular day there were two young children running around playing games and causing havoc with other passengers while the father was just sitting there with his eyes closed and head against the window oblivious to the fact his children were making the commute very unpleasant for the rest of the people on the train. The commuter ignored it for a while but eventually after the children had bumped into him again, he turned to the father and said something in the line of “what is wrong with you and your children, don’t they know how to behave”. The father turned to him and gently said “I’m sorry and I apologize for my children, I guess they don’t know how to behave on the way home from a hospital after having their mother pass away”. The commuter was very embarrassed.

 

 

In this example, it is clear that the commuter had a perception about the behaviour of the children and was left feeling foolish when he realized that the situation was far different from what it seemed. In saying that life is not what it seems, then what is it? This is a question that I have been posing myself a lot lately. I have actually reflected with some depth to find an answer but keep returning to the most obvious answer. “Life is what you make it”. Putting this to trial with the story of the commuter, it appears to fit. Although he bad a stressful day, he had a choice whether or not to act the way he did; he allowed the reality his life to be one where he acted out of his ordinary. It can be argued that it was not his fault that he had a stressful day but the fact remains that he made his life, even for just a short while, one where he got upset and did not consider other possibilities. You can choose how to deal with situations. Circumstances may be unfavorable but in the end you choose how to deal with it and in doing so you make the reality of your life. This idea goes both ways. You may not have control over your situation but you have control over how you react to it. Do not react to what your reality “seems”, rather choose to make it what you want it to be.

A question that seems to be floating in the minds of business people today is “how do we become more profitable?” This is a very valid question for people who live and function in the world of business, or who are involved in any form of organisation that needs to be profitable in order to keep doing what it set out to do.

 

Many knowledgeable people would be able to provide many different answers to a question like this, none of which should be taken light heartedly as any solution to a question that is so crucial is of much value. I query whether this is the right question to be asking though, is it really profit that needs to be focused on or should the question be more along the lines of “what can we do that will make our organisations better?” In my opinion it is a one word answer – PEOPLE.

 

People are what keep organisations alive. Even in this age of technology that we find ourselves in today, people cannot be replaced. People are the customers, consumers, and driving force behind every organisation. Think of any organisation, both big and small, which is functioning today and remove the ‘people’ aspect of it, you will be left with an empty entity. To illustrate this I could reflect on my recent experience where I spent an American summer (my winter) in Washington DC where I had the opportunity to intern in perhaps one of the biggest and most influential organisations of the world, The World Bank. The World Bank has a number of particulars to it (if I had to mention them all we would be here all day) but more specifically it has a number of obvious particulars to it namely the 15000 staff worldwide, the millions of people who benefit from what the World Bank does and the billions of Dollars that people receive from the World Bank. If one was to remove the ‘people’ aspect from this organisation what would you have? Remove the 15000 staff members of the World Bank, there is no structure; remove the millions of people who receive aid from the World Bank and then there is nothing for the staff to work for and finally; remove the billions of Dollars that is created by people for people and there is no point of having an organisation like the World Bank.

 

To build an organisation around profit, you are playing a naive game. You have to build organisations around people. The better the people of the organisation, the better the customers for the organisation and in turn, the better the profits of the organisation. Putting profits ahead of people as a focus of any organisation is like putting the carriage in front of the horse, although the horse can push the carriage, it will be a much slower and painful process.

Hello Board Members, Host families, Intern Supervisors, Friends of SAWIP, Management and SAWIP team of 2012.

 

My name is Jason Pentz it and  is such an honour to be standing in front of all you great people, people who have all assisted in changing the lives of 15 students from South Africa over the course of just five and a half weeks

 

As this is our last full day in DC and is a farewell, I find it fitting that I base my speech on the idea that everything in life has a beginning and an end.

 

Allow me to tell you more about myself by going back to the beginning of my life. Slightly more than 24 years ago, my beginning was in Cape Town and is where I have spent most of my life. At the end of my school career I like many South African Students had a decision to make, the decision to use the previous 12 years of my education as the start of tertiary education or to end it there and make a new beginning. If it was up to me alone, I would have made a new beginning and become a full time cyclist. Like most caring and protective parents do, I was encouraged to cycle for fun and go get an education. What a monumental fail that was. That idea of getting a tertiary education stared and ended all in one year. With much effort, I convinced my caring parents that I was going to cycle professionally. After a successful beginning to a cycling career, I found myself traveling all around the world, racing against the greats of the sport and competing in World Championship events. I was living a childhood dream, getting paid to ride a bicycle.

 

About two years into the “dream”, I seemed to come to a cross roads with my life, I was living everywhere but at home, I was meeting all the greats of my sports but never spending time with the people that matter in my life and most concerning to me was that I was doing all of this for myself, no one but Jason seemed to matter. This challenged everything that my parents had taught me while growing up. After a long and hard look at the young man in the mirror, I decided to call an end to my professional cycling career and make yet another new beginning.

 

This new beginning was as a student at the University of the Western Cape. Three years into my Industrial Psychology degree I know I have finally found a beginning that makes sense to me. Having gone through two very different life learning beginnings and ends and having the opportunity to study again, I knew that I needed to make the most of this second opportunity at education that most young South Africans don’t even get one chance at. Along with the realization of my fortune I also knew that I need to give back in any and every way possible.

 

By getting involved at university as a Peer Mentor and student leader, I came across the opportunity of SAWIP for which I applied and was fortunate enough to be allowed another opportunity to create a new beginning. Everything along this SAWIP journey has been a new beginning.

 

Going back to what I said earlier about everything in life having a beginning and an end, I need to quickly revisit and correct, most things – not everything in life have a beginning and an end.

 

Allow me to explain my correction which I am sure my fellow team mates will agree with.

 

Firstly, at our first event as a team which was the orientation camp we all began real friendships. These friendships have turned out to be more than just friendships; they have grown into relationships which I cannot foresee an end to.

 

Secondly, throughout the program in South Africa and continuing in DC, we have been gifted so many opportunities of meeting amazing and inspiring people, we were given the opportunity to develop a deeper and stronger passion to help others, to help our fellow youth of South Africa and to help grow our beloved country. This re-inspired awakening given to this amazing team is something I cannot foresee an end to either.

 

And finally, the learning of new insights that has taken place by each and every member of this team both in South Africa as well as in DC has allowed for the realization that we never know enough. Being aware that there is more to learn forces us to never think that we know it all and that we can end our pursuit on learning.

 

 

To everyone here today, I would like to conclude by speaking on behalf of the SAWIP team. Four months ago we were given the opportunity to meet each other and in so doing we were given the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest student leaders in our country. If that alone wasn’t enough, we were given another opportunity to met some of the most amazing people in the form host families, intern supervisors and SAWIP friends, all who have made this summer a truly unforgettable one. This journey of DC may be at an end, and the journey of the SAWIP 2012 may be coming to steady close but I would like to leave you with a thought of how Winston Churchill would see it.

 

………this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. It is, perhaps, the end of the beginning - Winston Churchill

Thank you.

I came across this saying about 5 years ago and was intrigued about its meaning but didn’t ever seem to gain an understanding of what it meant. A few days ago I heard someone mention this saying which awakened my intrigue again. The insert below is nowhere close to the extent to which I want to understand this powerful quote by Joseph Campbell but think it’s a great start. Here is a short history of the Quote. Joseph Campbell was perhaps the world’s foremost scholar of Mythology. No one was more familiar with the deeper meaning of “Flow your Bliss” than him…he studied many cultures with different myths pointing toward an experience of intrinsic bliss. Bliss is an intuitive feeling and can be easily ignored by our rational mind as it is preoccupied with the success of a personal self… However when we put aside our awareness of the rational mind and explore the feelings of our intuitive mind we may discover we have a special blissful feeling wanting to be expressed… It is the expression of these feelings that can give us intrinsic meaning to our life not available through the success of a personal self… During a blissful experience we are free from the burdensome expectations and awareness of time characteristic of the rational mind…

There are many aspects of the SAWIP program, one is the engagement in dialogue with experts in their respective fields. Each week we have a different theme with different guest speakers. Apart from the guest speakers who are always amazing and knowledgeable, we have SAWIP student lead discussions based on the week’s theme. Every week the discussions are very engaging and always seem to create a better or new understanding of the relevant topics. Today’s student lead discussion was on unemployment and entrepreneurship which I really enjoyed. Not only was it very interesting, but the passion that the whole SAWIP team put into the discussion was very encouraging.

 

From a personal perspective, I really found the discussion today very stimulating. The creativity that filled the room has seemed to stick into my head. Now to put that creativity into action…..

  

Today the SAWIP team spent their afternoon at the Holocaust Museum in downtown DC. I would love to say how much fun it was, but I don’t think fun is a word that can describe the experience.

 

Having gone to the Holocaust Museum (HM) in Cape Town a few years ago and having heard that the DC HM is much bigger I truly thought that today’s visit would be much of the same just on a bigger scale….how wrong I was.

On entering the permanent exhibit at HM, the very first graphic was one of a pit full of deceased Jewish prisoners who appeared to have been burned. This immediately woke me up to the reality of this visit.

 

The 4 floor exhibit took about 2 hours to explore and during the whole experience I seemed to be asking two fundamental questions. 1. What were the German Nazi’s thinking when causing all this devastation and 2. How were these disrespected Jewish people feeling while living and experiencing death through this time? Along with these two questions, I was visiting my own beliefs and trying to reflect on what I would do if I was in either of these two situations. Additionally, an idea that I am really trying to understand is the idea of humanity and what does that word humanity mean. Is it a noun or is it a verb? Is humanity absent from people who carried out these ruthless killings; and is humanity something that was striped from those who were forced into situations of fighting for their lives?

 

So many questions and so many answers that need to be worked on attaining, this is definitely something that I need to pursue not for anyone else but myself. I seemed to question or even lose the faith in humanity today. I know that my current feelings of lack of faith do not reflect my understanding of the good that humans do on a daily basis.

 

I may not have enjoyed what I experienced today but I know for a fact that I am a better off because of it.    

When we are young and still narrow minded, it seems that we take things for granted and very literal. When I was younger, the word ‘home’ for me meant a physical brick building where my bed was, where my family also lived and a place that could keep me safe from “bad” things. I loved going ‘home’ after a long day at school; I loved it when my friends would come to my ‘home’ on the weekends and I especially loved my ‘home’ because my neighbors and I could play cricket and rugby in the back garden.

 

As I grew older and gained a better perspective of life and the real meaning if things I learned that which I described above was my house and came to understand that home is the place or area where I live. At this stage in my life, my home was Cape Town. As a traveled more with my cycling, I seemed to experience the same feelings as before when it came to my home. It was still a place that I loved going to after a trip to Johannesburg or Australia for example, it was still a placed that I loved because it is where my family was and it was still a place that I loved because it was a place where I could socialize with my friends and just be me.

 

Since landing in the USA, I have at times felt the emotion of loss or confusion and it always seem to come back to the feeling of me missing home. With this idea, I have revisited this idea of home and seem to be going back and forth about the meaning and my understanding of what home is. Missing ‘home’ and having asked myself certain question, I come to a new perspective of what home is. For me ‘home’ is not a place or area where I stay, it is not a location that plays host to all my favorite people and things…. Home for me is not a location at all, rather it is a destination that I can embrace while having the love and support of others as well as loving and supporting those around me. It is a destination that hosts everything important, and if those important things are a specific location, specific people or a specific challenge, enjoying it and feeling a sense of contentment is “home”.

It has been almost 4 weeks to the day that I stood on the exact spot that Dr. Martin Lurther King Jnr. stood when he delivered his speech of "I have a dream". I have spent much time reflecting on this moment and today when the SAWIP team met Congressman John Lewis, I had a sudden urge to go read this famous speech again. Its about the fourth time that I have read it and it is something that inspires me more each time I read it. It is something that I encourage everyone to read so here it is:

 

I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.

Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.

But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languishing in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. So we have come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.

In a sense we have come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked "insufficient funds." But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. So we have come to cash this check -- a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice. We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quick sands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children.

It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment. This sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning. Those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. There will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.

But there is something that I must say to my people who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice. In the process of gaining our rightful place we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.

We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force. The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny. They have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. We cannot walk alone.

As we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead. We cannot turn back. There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, "When will you be satisfied?" We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality. We can never be satisfied, as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as the Negro's basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their selfhood and robbed of their dignity by signs stating "For Whites Only". We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.

I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells. Some of you have come from areas where your quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive.

Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed. Let us not wallow in the valley of despair.

I say to you today, my friends, so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal."

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification; one day right there in Alabama, little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.

This is our hope. This is the faith that I go back to the South with. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.

This will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with a new meaning, "My country, 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim's pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring."

And if America is to be a great nation this must become true. So let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania!

Let freedom ring from the snowcapped Rockies of Colorado!

Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California!

But not only that; let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia!

Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee!

Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi. From every mountainside, let freedom ring.

And when this happens, when we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"

 

Today, the 10^th of July 2012 is definitely one that I will jot down as one of the most memorable, not only of my trip to DC, but possibly of my life. Apart from the ever amazing experience of spending yet another day as an intern at the World Bank, the high light has to be short time that the SAWIP team had the honour of going to Capitol Hill and meeting Congressman John Lewis.

 

Prior to arriving at Capitol Hill, I knew some of Congressman John Lewis’ history and knew that I would be in the presence of a man that has played a huge role in the fight for equal rights for Americans, especially the oppressed Black African Americans during the times of the Black American Civil Movement.

 

When Congressman John Lewis walked into the room next to his office in which the team was sitting, we immediately experienced the humbleness of this Great man. He walked around to all of us greeting us and made a point of not leaving anyone out, shook everyone’s hand and then made sure that we all had a seat before he even though of continuing with our meeting.

 

Every lesson that came from what Congressman John Lewis spoke about is something that I will treasure but the most powerful lesson that I took out of what he said today is that ‘man can only be liberated when he has overcome fear’. To put this in context, he spoke about his late friend Dr. Martin Luther King Jnr.

Dr. King Jnr. was so passionate about liberation that he didn’t fear any consequence of the fight to the attainment of it, not even death. Congressman Lewis shares the same beliefs as that of Dr. King and this is evident in his stories of how he was beaten during the Civil Movement as well as in the passion in which he spoke to us.

 

As mentioned earlier, I knew that I was going to be in the presence of a great man but had no idea on the impact that he would leave on me. Congressman Lewis has been arrested 40 times for standing up for a belief; he has walked next to Dr. King during the Civil Movement; spoke at the ‘I have a dream speech’ and has cried in the arms of Mr. Nelson Mandela. This great man has met the best and was beaten by the most cruel and is still so humble and passionate about liberation for all. In many ways, shapes and forms I see and truly feel that Congressman Lewis has done as much good in this world as what the greats like Dr. King and our very own Tata Mandela have done.

 

Today I was WOWed by a great man and realized that if we all only do 10% of the good that Congressman Lewis, Dr. King and Mr. Mandela have done, this world will be a even bigger pleasure to be part of.   

 

It was exactly a week ago that the tired and jet-lagged SAWIP team landed in the Capital of the world, DC. On arrival, we were met by our host families and were whisked off to what we will be calling home for the next 6 weeks. After a brief rest (very brief) we all got our first taste of USA transportation in the form of the metro train or the famous yellow cab and met at "l,the mall". Nope, not a shopping mall, a massive amount of space that is in between all the famous monuments of DC. On this 3 hour walk in what felt like 50C weather and with no sleep, we got to see The White House, The Capital Building, The Lincon Memorial with the huge Abe Lincon statue, USA war memorials and the highlight for me, got to stand on the EXACT spot that the inspiring Martin Luther King Jr. stood when he delivered his "I have a dream" speech. Despite the heat, lack of sleep and 3 hour walk, there was no better way to jump start our experience of the USA. Day two was orientation and the return to some sort of sanity followed by a weekend where we got to have some down time. Saturday evening, the team had the honour of getting invited to the South African Ambassador, Ebrahim Rasool' residence where we met many DC professionals and fellow South Africans who are doing amazing work for South Africa here in DC and the whole of the USA.   Sunday, being fathers day, I was up early with my "sisters" and made breakfast and then went off to hit some golf balls with "dad".   Monday was the big day, our first days of the internships / work exposure (for you Kim). The combination of nerves and excitement that I experienced while on route to the World Bank was something that I will never forget. Walking around the corner and seeing the massive buildings of the "The World Bank" the only feelings I had were humbling ones. The work thus far is great, the people are great and the learning experience is beyond great. Almost done with week one of the work exposure and have 3.5 to go, I am really looking forward to it. With the aim of keeping this blog light hearted, I will end on that note. Do watch this space however, there is so much that has already happened and some amazing people that we have met like Mr. Jake Sullivan, the Director of Policy Planning for the Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton. More on that soon.   Jason

While reading one of my philosophy books a few weeks back I came across a thinker who stated that “something is only good if it is used for the purpose that it was designed for and if it does so well?” This statement took my focus off the book and steered me in the direction of personal and somewhat critical reflection my life’s journey. Before I could reflect however, I had to figure out a practical example that would help me understand this statement. Having a piece of paper next to me at the time, I asked “what is the purpose of this piece of paper?” and the obvious answer was - to write on. It is a good piece of paper because I can write on it. Then I asked myself, “is it therefore bad piece of paper if I fold this paper into the design of a jet and see how far it will fly?” to which I answered no – even though I am not writing on it, there will be some entertainment in doing so which would bring good into my life (even for only a few minutes) as I would experience brief joy of making the jet fly.

 

Having an idea that the above statement is questionable, I applied the statement to my life and asked “is my life only good if it is used for the purpose for which it was designed?” which left me with more questions than answers.

·         Who decides what the purpose of my life is?

·         How do I, or will I ever know if that purpose is achieved?

·         Are all human purposes the same, and how is my purpose different from the next persons?

As I noticed earlier with the paper example, it will be very difficult to find clear and definite answer to such a complex philosophical question. The questions that we can answer without too much confusion are the more simple and logical ones, and in pursuit of answering the question as to what is the journey of my life, I asked the questions that resulted from my original more complex question.

Who decides what the purpose of my life is? Quite simply - I do! As a free thinking, rational individual, I am the one who needs to say what the purpose of my life is by looking at what drives me forward. Those driving forces cannot come from anyone else but myself…..and taking that further, it is me who needs to ensure that my purpose is fulfilled.

How do I, or will I ever know if that purpose is achieved? Yes (or at least I hope so)! I feel that knowing the purpose, the sense of achieving the purpose will create happiness which will provide a feeling or knowledge that “I have achieved my purpose”. The question as to how long that feeling of achievement will take is entirely dependent on the purpose.

 

The question of, are all human purposes the same, and how is my purpose different from the next person, is a question that I feel I could possibly conclude with (without providing a final answer as that too is a near impossible task). “Are all human purposes the same?”, for me, NO!.......and “how is my purpose different from the next person”, well that I do not know but figure that is perhaps what the journey of life to be about. We who were given freedom, rationality and an opinion need to find our own individual purposes, hold onto them with much might and ensure that we find happiness in achieving that purpose.

In saying this, the journey of life for me is finding a purpose and working to achieve it. That purpose is up to each of us to find…

One of the first sessions that the SAWIP team attended was at the Allan Gray Orbis Foundation. This dialogue was very informative but left me having a sleepless night as my brain could not stop trying to find the answer to the question “what is active citizenship?” Till today I cannot provide a concrete answer, but I think all my questioning is getting me closer.

Reflecting on the dialogue and pursuing an answer, this is where I am:

 

 

What is the definition of active citizenship? To be honest, I do not know.

What are the roles of an active citizen? That too I cannot state with much confidence purely because roles change from day to day all depending on circumstance and relevance to situations. What does seem clear to me however is that active citizens all have common traits; these traits are the foundations as well as the structural pillars to what an active citizen builds their actions on.

 

 

Not having a clear definition of active citizenship but knowing that active citizens’ all share common traits, one needs to ask “what are these traits that make active citizens – active citizens?” For me these traits that active citizens share are:

                - Responsibility

                - Ability to make a choice

                - Caring

                - Informed about reality

                - Know who they are and what they can do to bring about change.

- Understand their importance and what they can do to realize change

                - Have a perspective

                - Have a common Vision

                - Awareness

                - Willing to participate

                - Willing to make a contribution

- and most importantly, they are the best version of themselves when working   with and for others.

 

 

Without saying that the following is the answer to the question posed earlier, I think that mentioning all of these traits steers me to a point where I can conclude in saying that an active citizen is someone who steps out of ignorance and makes a conscious decision to bring about change, not just any change, positive change. It also seems critical that active citizens know who they are and know what change they want to influence.

 

 

With this reflection, I challenge everyone to ask themselves “who am I?” and “what change am ‘I’ going to influence today?”

What a journey!!! From the day that I pushed send on my application form to the camps and many group meetings that we have had in this short time, the only thing I can say is WOW!

Wow, what an amazing group of people which I have the honour to grow with,

Wow, what an amazing program structure to take leaders and make them into leaders that are going to grow this young country into something that is beyond comprehension,

Wow, what an amazing group of friends I have made, friends who always show passion for the program and for each other,

and Wow, what a great journey this is still going to be. There are many challenges that we are still going to face but with all these WOWs, there is no chance that huge success will not come from this team and program.

I thank you SAWIP, team and friends for the awesome start to an amazing program. I am honoured and look forward to the months that still lay ahead.