terça-feira, 15 de dezembro de 2009

First Impression

Immediately on landing at Johannesburg, I am hit by a wall of “2010”. Everywhere you look there are billboards, adverts and sponsors proudly proclaiming that the World Cup is coming to Africa. There appears a real willingness among the residents to show off all the best parts of their country to the world. Everything is geared towards “Twenty-Ten”, new train lines are being hastily constructed to reduce the reliance of the car, the highways are being expanded to six lanes to cope with the increased burden they’ll have to support in June, but most of all, security is of the uppermost importance.

For the tourist, this is fantastic news, assuming your willing to pay the extra rand for the benefit. So keen is everyone to avoid the bad press that would follow any tourist trouble that you almost feel forbidden to do anything even vaguely dangerous, which includes taking public transport. So I in backpacker mode, trying to keep costs to a minimum felt obliged to take a taxi from J’burg to Pretoria for the princely sum of 350 rand (about £30), and even that had to be haggled down from 450. The very thought of me even considering any other option horrified the locals- “You can’t do that, you’ll be robbed”, they warned. 

Whether this is just a veneer of concern for your wellbeing that vanishes as soon as you leave the confines of the airport remains to be seen, but certainly as first impressions go it was a positive, albeit a more expensive, one. How deep that 2010 veneer runs will be interesting to note as my African adventure meanders on…

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On another (more British) note, as my Lufthansa flight started to descend into Munich, the captain cheerily informed us that the current temperature in the Bavarian capital was -5°C! Did nooo get an agenda about that, kitted out as I was with about 4 pairs of shorts but nothing more than a light jumper on the keeping warm front.

domingo, 13 de dezembro de 2009

2009: The Year of the Graduate

With an ever-increasing number of school leavers flooding off to university, but with graduate opportunities seemingly fewer and farther between, the graduation saturation point must be fast approaching. This year alone, up to 40,000 new graduates will still be unemployed come the turn of the year. Yet the myth is still peddled that a university education is the key to unlocking the gateway to everyone's dream job. However, the reality is somewhat starker. Rather than a degree throwing off the shackles of working in the service industry or going from temp job to temp job that provided essential funding for further education, that same degree begins to appear like a millstone around the graduate's shoulders as he still finds himself going cap in hand to recruitment agencies, willing to take whatever they offer, but this time saddled with burdensome debts.

Tony Blair's Labour Party was famously ushered into power on the back of a manifesto that screamed “Education; Education; Education”, and in their 12 years in Government there has been a substantial rise in both the number of universities and the number of people choosing to pursue further education. Although we haven't yet reached the magic figure of 50 percent of school leavers choosing the university option, that reality is not far off.

However, surely it is now time to rethink this blind pursuit of providing university for everyone. Today, we have built up a perception that without a degree, you are almost a second class citizen, and anyone that works with their hands rather than with a computer must be inferior. Conversely, those in possession of degrees feel they must be on exorbitant salaries. But with almost half of young people now going to university, degrees are becoming increasingly devalued. Now, rather than making you stand out from a crowd, a degree has almost become a minimum requirement for job hopefuls- and an expensive one at that!

So 2009 has seen 260,000 new graduates pouring out onto an already over-burdened job market. Thousands are competing for one or two positions within companies that often reward the efforts of applicants by not even providing them with the common courtesy of a generic rejection or an acknowledgement of receipt. Thus, the hopefuls are left in limbo wondering and waiting before the slow realization dawns on them that they have been unsuccessful once again. The whole process can be demoralising, especially having worked for three or more years to reach this point, our bright young things having their dreams dashed and knocked back on an almost daily basis.

The culture has to change.

University should return to being a place of academic excellence rather than merely an expected norm. The derogatory stance towards manual work has to change to a point where it is considered a viable alternative to academia.

2009 has been the year of the ox: apt given the thick skins that this year's graduates have had to develop.