Zimbabwe in Cape Town

America has the great luxury of having two huge Oceans isolating it from the strife of the developing world. South Africa, as the most developed nation in Africa is not so lucky. It faces massive unemployment, rising inequality that is even worse that the US (an impressive task), and rampant crime; all of these worse since the end of Apartheid. Meanwhile it has to deal with an influx of immigrants from even more impoverished nations hoping to fight for the bottom rung of the South African ladder. Because it is hard enough for South Africans themselves to get employed; unemployment is 40% (to put this in perspective, the peak of the Great Depression saw 25% unemployment), there seems to be much xenophobia and fear of immigration. Luckily this is nothing a soaring nation like America ever has to deal with.

Oh, wait.

More on that later. But I had first hand experience of this yesterday as I attended a chic Cape Town Press Club lunch with my family's good friend, Peter Soal. He invited me to this great event hosted at a beautiful hotel at the Baltimoresque V&A Waterfront, hardly Langa. Speaking was an asylum-seeking ex-opposition MP in Zimbabwe's Parliament, Roy Bennett. He had been thrown in jail and treated horrendously for bumping another MP from Mugabe (Zim's authoritarian "democratically elected" "President") party, ZANU-PF. It's probably not a coincidence Bennett has been extremely vocal in criticizing Mugabe.
After finally being released last year, he has been seeking asylum in South Africa because of his legitimate
fear of further persecution. Much to his (and the Press Club's) chagrin, he was denied asylum by the government. The reason for this is not the merits of his case. Instead, it seems it has to do with the precedent this would set for the two million or so refugees from Zimbabwe seeking asylum in South Africa.

During his speech, he made a impassioned plea for South Africa to stand up to Mugabe and not only open its warm womb of stability to not only himself but other Zimbabweans fleeing oppression. This was a plea well received by Cape Town's intelligentsia, myself excluded -- well not from the fact that I received it well...you get the point. To me it was great to hear about Zimbabwe -- a country I lived in for two years when I was a little tyke of about 6 or 7 -- first hand and it reminded me of how a country I had know only for its immense natural and human beauty had been driven into a ditch by Zimbabwe's ruling government.

Yet, what it also reminded me of was what I was told by a sweet old lady on a minibus to Langa: "All the countries in the world have so much to learn from each other." People often seem to think problems with immigration, poverty, education, unemployment and destructive regimes (I'm looking at you, Canada) are issues that only afflict one country in the world, their own. Yet, these are all issues countries across the globe struggle with despite nationalistic pleas insisting that each nation is an island, with nothing to learn from others.

I have a cheap pen bic pen in my hand right now.

The need for a writing instrument is a common affliction. There is a perfectly good reason why everyone in the world doesn't have to manufacture one for themselves. Yes, I know what you are thinking, heartless capitalist rational self-interest. Touche. But the point is that capitalism does the same thing that global citizenship does. It looks at our common problems and addresses them so that our common desires (be it cold hard cash or less human suffering) are met.
I'm not certain how to deal with immigration and instability issues be they in Mexico or Zimbabwe. Perhaps it has to do with recognizing the human cost of the immense poverty and instability. However, there this is not easy when your own country must deal with its own problems. Yet, being in a Catch-22 when you want to help other nations while simultaneously needing to provide for your own people is something every nation has in common.

When we pool our resources together and learn from each other as that sweet lady on the minibus suggested, it seems the pen is mightier than the sword.*

*Sorry, anyone that knows me certainly is aware that I can never resist a bad pun.