A Postcard from South Africa
By Brandon Ray JGSM '10
Issue date: 3/8/10 Section: Features
Dear Johnson School,
It was a difficult decision to decide to leave Ithaca and study abroad for the last semester of the MBA, but if my experience at the University of Cape Town's Graduate School of Business so far (and my glowing tan) is any indication, it was the right one for me. Don't get me wrong-I miss you guys a lot, and I've had to find ways to relive that Ithaca experience right here in Africa. Instead of Cornell hockey at Lynah Rink, I've taken a liking to cricket. It is surprisingly quite straightforward, as opposed to my preconception about its convoluted rulebook. Rugby, I'm convinced, is the more complicated of the Commonwealth sports. Thursday Sage Socials have been replaced by Friday "braais," Afrikaans for barbecue. And skiing at Greek Peak has been supplemented by Saturday surfing at Muizenberg. I still haven't found a replacement for The Palms, though there are a few lead contenders on Cape Town's Long Street.
But my real motivation in coming to South Africa in the last semester was to test the business knowledge we've spent the last three semesters accumulating. Though the cloistered business school halls of the UCT-GSB seem worlds apart from the endemic problems that give Africa the moniker "Dark Continent," and though the upscale seaside suburbs of Camps Bay and Clifton seem more Riviera than Africa, Cape Town is still inescapably African. A short drive to the nearby Khayelitsha Township where two million people live in poverty is a stark reminder of the inequality in here.
According to the 2009 United Nations Human Development Report, more than 50% of South Africans live below the poverty line; by the Gini index, the widely accepted measure of income equality, South Africa sits in the bottom bracket of income distributions worldwide. Only Angola, Namibia and Botswana have larger gaps between poor and wealthy individuals on the African continent according to 2009 figures. Meanwhile, the South African Revenue Service (SARS) reports that of the 49 million residents in South Africa, only about two million are taxpayers, with the the rest falling below minimum income levels. As a result, social programs languish underfunded.
It was a difficult decision to decide to leave Ithaca and study abroad for the last semester of the MBA, but if my experience at the University of Cape Town's Graduate School of Business so far (and my glowing tan) is any indication, it was the right one for me. Don't get me wrong-I miss you guys a lot, and I've had to find ways to relive that Ithaca experience right here in Africa. Instead of Cornell hockey at Lynah Rink, I've taken a liking to cricket. It is surprisingly quite straightforward, as opposed to my preconception about its convoluted rulebook. Rugby, I'm convinced, is the more complicated of the Commonwealth sports. Thursday Sage Socials have been replaced by Friday "braais," Afrikaans for barbecue. And skiing at Greek Peak has been supplemented by Saturday surfing at Muizenberg. I still haven't found a replacement for The Palms, though there are a few lead contenders on Cape Town's Long Street.
But my real motivation in coming to South Africa in the last semester was to test the business knowledge we've spent the last three semesters accumulating. Though the cloistered business school halls of the UCT-GSB seem worlds apart from the endemic problems that give Africa the moniker "Dark Continent," and though the upscale seaside suburbs of Camps Bay and Clifton seem more Riviera than Africa, Cape Town is still inescapably African. A short drive to the nearby Khayelitsha Township where two million people live in poverty is a stark reminder of the inequality in here.
According to the 2009 United Nations Human Development Report, more than 50% of South Africans live below the poverty line; by the Gini index, the widely accepted measure of income equality, South Africa sits in the bottom bracket of income distributions worldwide. Only Angola, Namibia and Botswana have larger gaps between poor and wealthy individuals on the African continent according to 2009 figures. Meanwhile, the South African Revenue Service (SARS) reports that of the 49 million residents in South Africa, only about two million are taxpayers, with the the rest falling below minimum income levels. As a result, social programs languish underfunded.
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