Vignettes from ICP 2012

The 30th ICP (International Congress of Psychology) held in Cape Town at the Convention Centre turned out to be a great place to meet former colleagues, to stretch one's psychological imagination - the programme went to 350 pages - and to marvel at the international scope of psychology. There were  five and a half thousand registrants from many different countries attending dozens of parallel streams - an amazing experience. There were disciplines I'd never heard of - like psychological physics and there were so many papers in neuropsychology, one could've probably ended up passing Neuropsych 301 by the end.

I chose to go to presentations connected with Human Rights issues and also some of the keynote debates and lectures:

• There was a so-called Controversial Debate between Mark Solms (who describes himself professionally as a neuro-psychoanalyst) and Barbara Wilson - a rehabilitative neuropsychologist. I have a huge respect for Mark Solms - he is a brilliant lecturer, has actually founded a new discipline which has brought him world recognition and has done amazing things on his Solms-Delta wine farm - and here comes the but - he started off the debate by telling Professor Wilson that he was frightened of her handbag!

The End of Textbooks?

If Nnenna Nwakanma had her way there would never be another school textbook scandal in Limpopo (where books for 2012 have still not been delivered) or anywhere else in Africa.
She was the keynote speaker at a technology in education conference - e/merge 2012 - which was launched yesterday at the University of Cape Town and is being held online for 2 weeks. I went to the face-to-face launch yesterday evening. It was a cold rainy evening but that wasn't the reason why there weren't very many people there. Most of the participants were sitting at home or in offices in other parts of South Africa, Nigeria, Uganda and 18 other countries in Africa and beyond. This included Nnenna who was speaking from her home in West Africa. She talked of having a dream which would revolutionize teaching and learning throughout Africa. You have to have a lot of confidence to reprise Martin Luther King's "I have a dream" speech. That is exactly what Nnenna has in spades. To that she added a very different, awe-inspiring dream of universal literacy, electrification, large-scale internet access and massive bandwidth which would facilitate learning, communication and social networking in the remotest parts of our continent. Even I, who have never twittered a tweet or placarded a facebook wall, and who prefers reading a book to reading a kindle, could see that this would revolutionize all our existing institutions of education.

"The Way" - el Camino de Santiago

People had told me to watch this movie, knowing that I had walked the Camino - the pilgrimage in Northern Spain. I'd brushed aside the recommendation - why would I need to see the movie when I'd been there, done that?

Martin Sheen with his son, director Emilio Estevez

I LOVED this film! First of all, who wouldn't want to go walking for 90 minutes with the world's favourite U.S. President, Josiah Bartlett (alias Martin Sheen)? Secondly, its almost 10 years since I was a pilgrim and these days I can't even walk for an hour without feeling some pain or other. The main reason I went at the time was because my sister-in-law had died the previous year - she was someone who loved a day's walking - and it had brought home to me how short life is.

The ANC's London Underground

It was a fun evening yesterday hosted by the Centre for Conflict Resolution to launch a book written by Ken Keable. Who is he? you might ask, as I myself did. It was the other speakers that attracted me - Ronnie Kasrils, Pallo Jordan and Aziz Pahad - all of them at times London-based struggle luminaries. Well, it turns out Ken Keable is a British working class Communist who played a role in our liberation! In the late 60's and early 70's when the activities of the ANC had been reduced to almost nothing in South Africa - the ANC leaders and activists were all in exile or in prison - about 30 young pink-pigmented left-wingers were recruited by Ronnie Kasrils into our very own International Brigade. Most of them came from the Young Communist league or were trade-unionists, or students at the London School of Economics. He even managed to recruit Trotskyists from the International Socialists!

Ronnie Kasrils

It was very much a Boys Own kind of evening - 60 and 70-year-old men regaling us with tales of adventure and derring-do, false-bottomed suitcases and leaflet bombs being tested on Hampstead Heath. It wasn't all youthful fun and games however - a couple of them were arrested, tortured and imprisoned. The whole story was a complete revelation to me. I can't wait to read the book. Its called: "London Recruits: The Secret War Against Apartheid."

Counsellor Number One

One of the programmes the SABC aired to mark the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II was Andrew Mars' 3-part film about her life. In it we discover that on a daily basis she receives government and parliamentary documents to read or sign, delivered to Reader Number One (that's her!) in a red leather briefcase. And every day she duly reads and sifts through them. We also get a glimpse of an extraordinary and unique arrangement - a weekly update and informal discussion that the Queen has with her current Prime Minister. We see her with David Cameron. The 2 armchairs are arranged at an angle so that they sit almost face-to face, mostly she listens, asks the odd question, and makes empathic responses to the items he seems to think might be problematic. It is completely confidential, apparently wide-ranging and private except for the presence of a corgi or two. I don't think she's supposed to give advice and most of the Ministers interviewed said that in all the time they met with her, she never ventured a personal opinion. However some of her Prime Ministers have said that she makes the odd helpful suggestion or is able to link someone with somebody or reflect on what happened on previous occasions in the past. Sound familiar? Basically, the Queen gives the PM a weekly counselling session!

Tony Blair said that at times of great responsibility or pressure, these weekly meetings were very helpful. David Cameron mentioned that it forces him to focus on what's important. Whatever you may think of the British monarchy, or the policies of the many Prime Ministers to whom she has duly listened, this sounds like such a wonderful way to support a world leader - every country should have a Counsellor Number One!

Looking for the stillpoint of 'NOW'

During the Freedom/Mayday weekend I was at the Fynbos Estate on a Mindfulness/Biodanza retreat. Not really my 'thing' - the stillness stuff - but I love Biodanza, so I knew I'd be moving some of the time and there would be music. It was led by Lisa Firer and Simon Whitesman - two of my favourite people so I was curious about what it is that they are so passionate about in these two practices. The idea for this combination of activities seemed to come from a poem by T.S. Eliot:

At the still point of the turning world. Neither flesh nor fleshless;

Neither from nor towards; at the still point, there the dance is,

But neither arrest nor movement. And do not call it fixity,

Where past and future are gathered. Neither movement from nor towards,

Neither ascent nor decline. Except for the point, the still point,

There would be no dance, and there is only the dance. 

Do you really understand this? Well, I didn't. I'm not even sure if I do now. It seems to have something to do with being in the present moment. And it's true - when I'm dancing, I'm not often thinking of anything else other than moving to the music.

We were supposed to be able to achieve this "still point" by paying attention to our breathing.This was very boring and I fell asleep a lot.

The Apartheid Archive

The apartheid archive was conceptualized and initiated in August 2008 by 22 core researchers located at universities spanning South Africa, Australia, the United States and United Kingdom. In June 2009, about 50 academics and researchers met at Wits University to set up the Apartheid Archive Project. The idea was to record details of everyday experiences of apartheid in the lives of ordinary South Africans in order to document, interrogate and acknowledge how racism impacted on everyone, and thereby fuel the transformation agenda in diverse ways. It would show how traumatizing racism is for the victim and how complicity affects the perpetrator/beneficiary/bystander(to use Gillian Straker's all-encompassing term for us whites). By so doing it is hoped that these experiences can be psychologically integrated instead of being disavowed.

Initially the accounts were written by the participants, their colleagues and friends. Everyone was asked to write about their earliest and/or significant experiences of racism under apartheid and how these affected their lives. They now want to broaden the accounts to include many different kinds of South Africans and you can submit your own story online. A number of research articles have already been written based on the archive.

Take a look at this extraordinary account of probably fairly ordinary behaviour of white adolescent boys (cited by Tamara Shefer in South African Journal of Psychology, Vol. 40(4), 2010. p390):