Howzit? Howzit!

Back in Jo’burg. Again. Land of opportunity. Land of malls. It’s like southern California the way everyday commerce revolves around the malls in this city. Sandton City, Rosebank, Cresta, Clearwater and other malls seem to dominate social activities.  Most of the restaurants are in the malls.  Many of the grocery stores are in the malls.  There are flea markets in the malls.  Even liquor stores are in the malls.  Go to the mall or go home.

Anyway, I am lacking in recent posts, but I simply haven’t had time to write nor much of interest to write about.  I’m hopeful this will be the last trip for a long while as I am tired of airplanes.  With travel for work and vacation, the end of next week will mark a six week stretch during which I will have slept four nights in airplane seats against only five in my bed at home and flown 42,212 miles (across United, Delta and Southwest… bummer).  Strange way to live.

On the upside, spring is arriving in SA.  Today it’s a sunny, clear, crisp Saturday.  There are some noisy Hadada Ibis in the garden.  Dawn breaks at about 6:15am and I’ve been able to get back to running in the morning, which is good for my health and sanity.  I ran 4mi this morning, then walked another 3mi hitting a couple shopping centers to complete some errands.  There’s Beijing 2008 Olympics coverage on the TV and the South Africa v Argentina rugby match will be on shortly, so I’m getting a much needed sports fix.

Hopefully, I will be posting more regularly going foward.  Thanks for the patience, iyakubonana (Xhosa) and totsiens (Afrikaans).

(Il)logical Routing

I’ve been to South Africa four times this year with a fifth trip planned for this month. It’s been an interesting time and I’ve learned a fair amount about emerging market business, politics and culture. Still, the first thing most people ask when I tell them where I’ve been traveling is: “How do you get there, anyway?” Weird. Few start with questions about game parks or Jo’burg’s tough reputation or weather; those questions come later.

Most of the time, people go straight to the process and wonder about the state of global air transportation. So, to lay it out for all, here’s my experience thus far.  First, I’ve not done it twice the same way.  I’ve flown into O.R. Tambo International Airport on South African Airways and Delta Air Lines, and will soon add Air France to that list, but the routing has been different each time:

• DEN ATL DKR JNB -> JNB DKR ATL DEN (9710 miles / 15620 km)
• DEN IAD JNB -> JNB DKR IAD DEN (9590 miles / 15440 km)
• DEN LHR JNB -> JNB LHR DEN (10290 miles / 16560 km)
• DEN JFK DKR JNB -> JNB DKR JFK CVG DEN (9590 miles / 15440 km)

Coming Attraction!

• DEN JFK CDG JNB -> JNB CDG JFK DEN (10670 miles / 17180 km)

Flights from the US almost invariably stop in Dakar, Senegal.  Flights from Europe go straight through.  The eastbound trans-Atlantic flights are overnights, the westbound are daytime flights.  Southbound flights from Europe to Jo’burg are usually daytime and northbound at night.  Trans-African flights are typically the same as the Europe legs, heading south in the day and north at night.  But there are exceptions: the trip I made through London had overnight flights for 3 of the 4 legs.  Best to have a neck pillow and get used to sleeping in coach airplane seats if you need to fly like this often.  And plan to spend a minimum of 24 hours in transit which can stretch to well over 30 hours if you have bad connections (like my next trip which will have no less than 18.5 hours of layovers for the round trip).

The best?  For me, it has to be United Airlines to IAD and South African Airways from their, racking up miles on Star Alliance the whole way, but the tickets aren’t necessarily the cheapest that way, hence the variety of routes and airlines.

*UPDATE 23.Jul.08* Umm.  Yeah.  So going via CDG is not so great if you have the itinerary I had, which included a MASSIVE layover at JFK on the way home: took me 36 hours from aircraft door close in Jo’burg to door open in Denver.  Suboptimal to say the least.

A Perspective on Africa

This weekend I am returning to Johannesburg for my fourth visit of 2008. Hopefully, this time will be no different than in the past, but one wonders what might be different with the recent and on-going xenophobic violence. I generally don’t blog about politics (particularly when it’s politics outside the US), and I won’t pretend to really comprehend what’s happening in South Africa right now, but I will say that it’s a real shame.

From my superficial perspective, South Africa appears to be a country that’s really trying to change, embrace diversity and elevate the entire population. The people are genuine and friendly and the outlook is bright.

So before going all alarmist, consider that the situation there, now, is not unlike other recent incidents of this nature elsewhere when troubles were initiated by a relatively small group of individuals attempting to push their agenda through vigilante means:

• 1992: Los Angeles Riots following the Rodney King verdict which, inexplicably, included racially motivated attacks on Korean immigrants
• 2005: France Civil Unrest following the deaths of two teenage immigrants in a poor Paris suburb which included violence in poor, ethnic neighborhoods across France

While the reasons and back story for these incidents are different, they have the common thread of the people taking matters into their own hands when the government fails to recognize and diffuse tensions. This is the challenge of an open, democratic society.

For the uninitiated, the thinking on the current South African unrest is probably: “Eh. Typical. This is Africa, right?” To those that know better, this is an often unfortunate consequence of progress. If you look at the 250 year time line of America as it made it’s way from a racially divided, colonial economy up until today, you will find a history marked by violence every step of the way. In the beginning, Europeans must have viewed America as a wild, violent country (some still do, I suppose) much like Americans often view the developing world today.

Tagging South Africa specifically, and Africa in general, as an uncivilized, dangerous place is over-simplifying the situation. Recognize the colonial era for the super-majority of African nations ended within the last 100 years. As recently as 1914, only Ethiopia and Liberia were sovereign nations, with independence coming for over 80% of Africa since 1960.

From my perspective, Africa as a whole seems to be doing as well, or better than, America did in its first 50 years of independence. Infrastructure is going in all over the continent; the economies are vibrant and growing quickly; the people are energetic. And despite all the obstacles of poverty, disease, weak education systems and volatile political systems, Africans are figuring it out and doing so very quickly.

I love living in America and I’m proud to be an American, but we should should look, listen and learn before speaking. If you have the opportunity, I encourage you to visit and experience the region for yourself as it will be enlightening, I guarantee it.

End of soap box speech. I’m already planning my next post and I assure my miniscule readership that it will be a bit more lighthearted. Thanks for indulging a rare diatribe on my part.

Jo’burg Running

As part of what’s becoming a recurring theme, I bring you some information on running while traveling for business. This time, my footfalls occurred in Johannesburg. I made a pair of trips to South Africa between late last month and earlier this month. Both times, I stayed in outlying western neighborhoods: Fairland and Northcliff. This part of Jo’burg is mostly residential and very green. It’s also rather hilly which provides for some pretty good work outs when you figure in the already high elevation of the area.

While in Fairland, I generally stayed within the residential area near my B&B which is bounded by Seventh Ave and Ninth Ave to the north / south and Smit St and Weltevreden Rd to the west / east. This is a pretty quiet area with fairly wide, low traffic streets. I didn’t stray too far primarily because none of the streets are straight and with all the hills, houses and trees, spotting landmarks is challenging (and remembering all the street names is tricky). Plus, I wasn’t sure if it was a good idea to be out and about despite various people I met insisting it was perfectly safe: the day after my arrival a shootout occurred nearby between armed security forces and home invaders which resulted in the tragic death of a 12 year old girl named Emily Williams. Needless to say, I kept my eyes open.

The next trip, I ventured out a little further while staying at a different B&B in Northcliff. This neighborhood shares its name with the rock outcropping it has been built upon and around.

After a little planning and scribbling some street names on a scrap of paper, I began exploring to the south of my B&B, each morning climbing further up the maze of switchback streets leading to the top of 1,807m Northcliff (aka Aasvoëls Kop). Eventually, I ended up with a route I call Northcliff Out n’ Back which includes about ~150m of vertical to reach the top (plus the same going back down). This is a great run, if you like hills, and the views from the top are fantastic. Give it a try if you find yourself in the area.

Jo’burg Mornings

For the past six mornings, I’ve woken up at sunrise and listened to the sounds of unfamiliar birds. Noisier. Bigger. More tropical. I’m in Johannesburg, South Africa this week and next (then most likely back again for a while longer after going home for a week). I’m here for business, but I won’t waste any time describing that. Instead, I’ll just comment on a few things I’ve learned thus far.

For starters, it’s a long trip: nearly 9,600 miles and 24 hours total travel time from Denver if you go on Delta (which is via Atlanta and Dakar, Senegal). This is about twice what it normally takes me to get to London. It’ll be a bit longer going back even as we’ll be flying against the jet stream. Africa is a a big place… it took as long to fly from Dakar to Johannesburg as it did across the Atlantic from Atlanta to Dakar. I guess that shouldn’t surprise me, but it’s nothing I’ve ever thought about until this past weekend when I made the trip here.

Johannesburg is a study in contrasts, both surprising and stereotypical at the same time. Jo’burg (as the locals call it… or sometimes Josey) sits at an elevation in excess of 5,500′, which was unexpected. Unlike Denver where the elevation doesn’t seem to moderate summer temperatures and 100+ is common, summer here usually means upper 70s. Very pleasant and not very humid. Obviously, it’s summer here as I’m some 1,800mi south of the equator. Winters are similarly mild. The city was founded in the 1880s as part of the Witwatersrand gold rush, not unlike Denver’s founding in the 1850s. There are literally hundreds of thousands of transplanted trees and the terrain is rather hilly to the west of the city center: it reminds me a little of Redding, CA.

I was also surprised by certain similarities between here and America. I’ve eaten burgers and pizza more than once each. The newspapers are written in American English vs UK English (spelling, vernacular, etc). I turned the radio on the other evening and out came The Fray’s ubiquitous song “Over My Head”. With the current exchange rate of about 7.6 South African Rand to the US Dollar, prices for food and fuel are both close to what you see in some of the less expensive parts of the US.

But Johannesburg remains caught in its post-apartheid “recalibration”. The division between “have” and “have not” seems to be distinct. This is not to say division along racial lines as there appear to be plenty of people of color in the “have” category. Rather, it’s whether or not you can afford a car and a home in one of the areas that used to be predominantly white before the lifting of apartheid. And hired help: I’m staying in an upper middle class area, certainly not the top echelon, but still everyone seems to have a gardener. So high levels of economic disparity remain.

There’s also no mass transit to speak of other than the pervasive mini-vans shuttling people around, so acquiring and getting to higher paying jobs appears to be part of the challenge. No one seems to be out much at night, especially during the week: most shops close by 6 or 7pm and restaurants by 8 or 9pm. Apparently, this is driven by safety concerns. In fact, most restaurants in are in malls which I suppose is to take advantage of security at those locations where there are often toll booth-style gates to access parking lots and there are folks patrolling lots on foot watching for car break-ins.

Still, despite the challenges, South Africa (and the continent in general) is on the grow. Infrastructure projects are occurring everywhere you look, improving communications and transportation dramatically. It’s also a great mixing pot: there are 11 official languages recognized in this country alone and many more that are unofficial. Each day, the people I’m working with speak in English, French, Hebrew, Afrikaans, various Indian dialects and a variety of Bantu languages. Bantu is a family of over 500 (!) different languages which are spoken primarily in the southern part of Africa. Lucky for me, English is the common ground or I’d be in deep trouble communicating.

I am staying in a B&B since there aren’t many hotels in this area. The proprietors are a Rhodesian woman (Rhodesia is now known as Zimbabwe) and a German man. The place is very nice and very large. It sits on an acre right in the Fairland part of Jo’burg. However, it has a 10-12′ stucco wall around it with concertina wire strung around the inside edge. There’s a big steel gate securing the entrance. I was given a remote control for the gate upon my arrival as part of check-in (not quite the same as a card key for a hotel room door). Augmenting the physical security is a Pekinese and a pair of gorgeous female Rottweilers. Very secure, but something I’m unaccustomed to. BTW… the B&B is called Rockridge Manor. If you’re ever in need of accommodations in Jo’burg, I can highly recommend it.

So far, the other guests have included a German man and another American. Next week will be a couple more Germans, yet another American and apparently a production crew from an Indian film studio. Should be interesting. Having three American guests in two weeks has been unusual lately: the proprietors said visitors from America dropped off radically after 9/11, but have finally begun to pick up again.

Today is Saturday and I have some work to do, but tomorrow I’ll have an opportunity to explore a little, get some authentic African food and perhaps find some more to write about.