Fall- A Time for Education

View of the mountain from UCT while waiting for Bus

My first semester consisted of courses in both the politics and social development departments: Conflict in Africa, Peace and Conflict Resolution, and the Peace-Development Community Nexus. (My favorite part of the social development course was that 50% of the readings were from USIP!) The semester ended in early June and I received high marks so I am enjoying ‘vacation’ before classes resume on July 25^th.

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Two Highs: (1) Utilizing my Davidson degree and writing a paper on al-Shabaab in Somalia (half of my resources were from Ken Menkhaus!) (2) A Class stimulation to mediate the conflict with Gbagbo in Cote d'Ivoire 

 Low: Spending the final days of warm weather studying inside the library or computer labs!

At the moment, my winter ‘vacation’ is being spent researching thesis topics and finding a supervisor for my dissertation. I’m leaning towards looking at how the public and private sectors should engage the informal economy in post-conflict settings and whether or not its contributions to economy growth outweigh its inefficiency, distortion of competition, and limits on productivity.  (If anyone else has suggests or a better topic concerning transitioning/ post-conflict societies please feel free to send it my way!!!)

In addition to seeking learning opportunities inside the classroom, I have been able to attend some interesting Rotary lectures (including someone from the South African Defense Force) and documentaries in the past few weeks.

With Pierrinne at Encounters

-          (1) John Pilger’s The War You Don’t See about the role of media in depicting war. Let’s just say that as an American in the audience, in a foreign country, I felt a little attacked! A group of us went out to dinner afterwards to ‘process’ the portrayal of Obama and the US military. It was interesting feeling when I realized that I would be more open to the criticism if I had watched the film with an American audience.

-          (2) The Encounters International Documentary Film Festival showed Robert Mugabe: What Happened? about the Zimbabwean dictator. I found this film particularly interesting after a class discussion in which two Zimbabwean students had contrasting opinions —one held the view that Mugabe is a violent dictator who should be prosecuted for his crimes and the other was proud of him as the 'only' Africa leader willing to stand up to the West. The film portrayed him as a master of propaganda and a leader willing to change both his rhetoric and actions at any point in hopes of self-preservation.