South Africa

South Africa
Cape Town and Indian Ocean, September 2002

I was invited to speak at an international conference on so-called arms trade offset deals in Cape Town, South Africa. (An "offset" is a double-contract obligating the buyer to purchase weapons from the seller, and obligating the seller to either undertake some or all of the production in the purchasing country or to buy some other products from that country, thus "offsetting" all or part of the value of the arms purchase. In case you are curious, click here for my paper ).
I took my daughter Anne along . After a 14-hour direct flight from Atlanta, we arrived on a Saturday morning at about 7am. We picked up the reserved rental car and drove to Gansbaai, about two hours east of Cape Town. Cape Town is surrounded by beaufiful mountains. The mountains in the picture below are not covered in snow. Instead, they are literally draped in clouds, outling every curvacenous contour. I have never seen this phenomenon before.

Near Gansbaai lies a small village, De Kelders, nestled along Walker Bay. The bay is famous for its multitude of Southern Right Whales and, sure enough, within five minutes of arrival we spotted whales and calves in the bay.

From time to time, a whale would thrash its tail or breach the water. Unfortunately, all I caught on film was the whale splashing back into the water. (A big problem with digital cameras is the shutter delay between pressing the shutter and recording the image on the chip.)

Our home was Anlo Guest House, here seen from across the street. Food, drink, hospitality, and fellowship were excellent. The many pets made for additional merriment (especially the young, playful bulldog whose toe-nipping earned her the nickname "bin Laden"!).

The living room of our house was well-appointed and utterly relaxing.

A study of daughter Anne and a wood sculpture.

Beautiful wild flowers right next to our house, with a view on the ever-present mountain ranges.

Of course, we needed to test the waters. Combating jet-lag with physical activity, we went on our first dive in 59-degree (Fahrenheit) waters.

We saw several species of (small) shark (one called, oddly, a puff-adder, like the snake), sucker fish that suck themselves securely to the kelp in which we dove, an octopus that emitted a cloud of "ink" as I accidentally disturbed it, a dozen species of sea anemones, as well as three species of nudibranchs, including the grey one in the picture below. Normally, nudibranchs are brightly colored but here, all three species we saw were uniformly colored (two white, one greyish-brown).

The diversity and density of the underwater wild life was a complete surprise. Given the frigid water temperature, we had not expected to see much at all. Good reason to come back here and explore. Hereunder a fish, called klipvis, with beautifully colored eyes. I actually meant to photograph an anemone when this fellow rushed at me "Hey, what are you doing on my rock?" he seemed to ask. But, then, maybe he just wanted his picture taken.

The next day, Sunday, we drove to Kleinbaai, a small fishing village ...

... but famous among underwater photographers, videographers, and shark researchers. It is a top-level destination to go diving with the Great White Shark. The outfit we chose, Marine Dynamics, is run by Andre Hartmann and his crew of able men and women. The Swallow , pictured below, is one of their boats. Note the shark-diving cage on the back of the boat.

Dani, a professional protrait and wedding photographer from Tel Aviv, Israel, and his assistant, Johannes, pose in front of the shark-diving cage. It is round, about eight feet high and accommodates two people.

The cage is tied up to the boat. The floats hold it at sea level and person #1 is lowered into the cage.

Air is supplied from the boat ...

... and then the second diver joins. Meanwhile, to attract sharks, bait is prepared, the water is chummed, and the the great wait for the Great White begins. Will a Great White swim by to get the bait? If so, the idea is to take a big breath, descend into the cage, and observe and take underwater photographs. But we had no luck on the first day. There were sharks, but not close enough to see them close-up from within the cage.

Since the sharks weren't biting, Johannes has a lunch-break bite himself. Note the Nikonos underwater camera in his right hand and the weight belt draped across his shoulder (you don't want to float out of the cage when the Great White comes to visit).

Next day, Monday, we were luckier, counting a Great White roughly once every half hour. Every diver saw a Great White close-up from the surface and from underwater.

Still, there was much "empty" time, killed by endlessly photographing endless scores of sea gulls ...

... and sea gulls ...

... and seagulls ... oops, no, here's a Great White again, carefully making its way to the bait.

One person on board had the wonderful job of recording every shark siting -- and otherwise enjoy the private pleasure of other "thrills."

Another Great White, this time really close to the bait. Little is known about the animal's behavior. Obviously, it is a top predator, needed as much in the sea as top predators are needed among terrestrial animals. The Great White's prey include penguins, seals, and turtles. In contrast to Jaws, Spielberg's worst disservice, shark attacks on humans are rare and accidental. (Flapping your extremities on the water surface does make you look like a turtle! Sharks will take a bit of humans on the water surface, but I have never heard of any unprovoked shark attack on a careful scuba diver.) The Great White shark is apparently a solitary animal, rarely seen in pairs or groups.

Finally, Anne and I got our hour in the shark-diving cage and got to see two Great Whites. Regrettably, they didn't stay around for long to have their portrait taken! One lurch for the bait, and off they go.

This shark caused more of a commotion. It appears that he lunged for -- and missed -- the bait. He then made off REAL fast. Our new friends, Dani and Johannes, got "luckier." Their shark also missed the bait and slammed right into the cage and then rattled the cage, dragging his 14-foot body along the cage's steel bar. Dani couldn't resist -- and stuck out his hand to touch the animal.

After the day's events, Dani, the Israeli photographer, was kind enough to invite us over to his digs to share his 10 rules of taking photographs. While my laptop computer runs some of my sample photos, I take notes, ever the dutiful student.

Next day, on Tuesday, Andre Hartmann took us out to Dyer Island, home to a massive seal colony.

Among the kelp forest, thousands of seals played their fanciful games. On the surface, it's hard to tell which is seal and which is kelp.

We suited up and did a backroll off the boat, descending to about 18 feet (6 meters). Ever been to a kindergarten full of hyper-active, non-stop 6-six olds? Hundreds of 'em?

Seals.

Seals, everywhere. Hundreds. They swim right at you, look in your mask, do summersaults, swim circles around you ... you just have to laugh out loud, and be careful not to swallow water.

Why, they even nip playfully at your snorkel and your fins. They are not aggressive, just extremely playful and curious about their new, clumsy play mates. Johannes told us that he had a white slate that he put on the ocean floor to photograph (to adjust the pictures' so-called white balance). But before he could take a picture, a seal grabbed the slate and made off with it! Then the seal lost the slate, and another seal grabbed it in mid-water. Poor Johannes kept chasing the seals and his slate. I don't know if he ever got it back. The fin-nipping seal picture below requires a bit of explanation. I sat on the ocean floor with plenty of weight. However, the swell from the incoming waves was strong enough to toss me all over the place. So I had the task of not only sitting tight, focusing the camera on the fin, waiting for a seal to take heart, and then the wiggle my foot long enough and for the seal to hold on long enough to overcome the digital camera shutter delay problem. Well, the seal and I made it! In almost all the seal pictures, you see how the sand was stirred up from the wave action, making it very hard to get clear photographs.

The next day, Wednesday, we packed and moved to Cape Town -- to prison, actually! In light of the Enron and similar corporate accounting scandals, it must surely rank as the height of irony that the Graduate School of Business at the University of Cape Town is located inside the (former) Bridgewater Prison. Steel doors and steel bars are still in place.

Even the cell blocks are intact.

Offices and classrooms are behind prison doors such as the one below. Note the heavy iron hinges and locks for a second door. And note that the door features an OUTSIDE lock.

The Student Placement Programme is, however, a (digital) joke. Still, it can't hurt reminding students where unethical behavior may take them. Still, this poster actually does hang on the wall inside the cell block.

Wednesday night, and all day Thursday and Friday were the actual conference days. Participants came from all over the world. Hereunder, South African Julius Kriel (left), a self-described former arms trader and arms industry and government consultant, talks amicably enough, over a glass of excellent South African wine, with Prof. Paul Levine of the UK, a mathematical economist who, among other pastimes, writes arms trade models.

Guy Lamb (left) of the Centre for Conflict Resolution at the University of Cape Town talks with Prof. Geoff Harris, an Australian, who now teaches in Durban, South Africa and who is producing a volume of essays on alternatives to war and violent conflict.

Prof. J. Paul Dunne (left), is an economics professor at England's University of the West (near Bristol) and visiting professor at the University of Cape Town (UCT). He and I co-authored a recent book ( Arming the South, Palgrave, 2002). Prof. Dunne was co-organizer of the conference. My daughter Anne chats with keynote lecturer, Prof. Ann Markusen (right), of the Hubert Humphrey Institute at the University of Minnesota. Ann Markusen is also a member of the US Presidential Commission of Offset Trade.

The conference concluded Friday night with a special dinner at Cape Town's Africa Cafe. The evening begins with a traditional handwashing ceremony before tasting dishes from all over Africa. What a treat. Another treat was that the gentleman washing his hands here is Murray Leibbrandt, chair of the UCT's economics department and a well-beloved, good, old friend of mine from our joint days as graduate students at the University of Notre Dame.

Festivities in progress ...

The next picture captures Prof. Ann Markusen telling an economics joke. An economist is commissioned to go and study a cannibalist island's market economy. The economist finds that sociologists' brains fetch a measly market price (converted to 1996 US$) of $25/pound. A chemist's brain fetches a much steeper $125/pound. But an economist's brain goes for $500/pound. With fearful pride the economist asks why the going rate for an economist's brain is so high. "Because," comes the reply, "it takes so many economist brains to collect a pound of them."
Another version has it that the price is so high because economists' brains are "new and unused." --- Who else pokes so much good-natured fun at themselves?

The evening at the Africa Cafe concluded with singing, drumming, and dancing.

In the next picture, only the coffee pot is out of character ...

Following the conference, Anne and I had a chance to visit the Cape Town aquarium, conveniently located directly across the street from the conference hotel (the Breakwater Lodge, next door to the Breakwater Prison). Here, Anne poses in front of the kelp tank and ...

... here she is INSIDE the kelp tank. Cape Town hosts one of the few aquariums in the world where visitors can dive (with proper diver certification of course).

Anne had a bag of fish food along and was mobbed by a swarm of fish so thick I could hardly get a clear shot at the commotion.

An interesting perspective was to photograph PEOPLE from inside the tank! This couple and their young one enthusiastically appreciated my photographic attention.

The view from the outside in.

A red stumpnose fish took a liking to me.

There's a second tank open to divers at the aquarium. Here the rule is: keep close to the side walls and keep close to the ground!

Why? There nothing but a hawksbill turtle inside, right?

Wrong. It's the shark tank, populated by four female and one male ragged-tooth (or Sand Tiger) sharks. Zaid Manchest, our dive guide, said that from time to time a fish or two go missing in the tank, so you'd better hold your head low. On Sunday's the sharks are hand-fed to gauge just how hungry they are. We dove Saturday -- pretty close to meal time. (Actually, sand tigers are judged to be relatively non-aggressive toward divers.)

A two-some.

A closer look.

A study in light.

Zaid Manchest dives almost every day with the sharks. He knows them well. Believe it or not, but we saw it with our own eyes, here he gently reaches into the shark's mouth and pulls out a loose tooth. He turned around and presented it to Anne -- what a souvenir!

After the tooth-pulling dentistry, Zaid turned and pointed to something behind me. I had this weird, undefined feeling ... turned around ... and said to myself "Ah, well, I might as well take a photograph."

To gauge the size of the sharks, here's Anne in front of the tank. They were a good 2 meters (12 feet or so) in length, weighing perhaps 200 - 250kg (400-500 pounds).

After the dives, a hot shower in the rain on the aquarium roof. The shark tank was a balmy 66-degree Fahrenheit, but the kelp tank temperature hit a low of 55 degrees.

Anne and Zaid Manchest ...

... who then took Anne on a tour of Cape Town and the surrounding area. The Atlantic side ...

... and a view of False Bay side, seen from Table Mountain.

Generously, Zaid also gave us a behind-the-scenes tour of the aquarium. Here he explains the computer system that monitors the water level in each and every tank in the entire aquarium.

The aquarium raises its own seahorses in a prep-tank.

A collection of scorpion fish (yes, they are highly poisonous) is also kept. One rule of diving is that fish life either moves away from or does not move away from divers. When it does move away, you have nothing to worry; but when it does not move, there's a good reason it isn't afraid of you! Scorpionfish are an example, so keep your hands off them. They are beautifully colored and camouflaged to blend into the reef. This one here, however, sits in a prep-tank, easy photographic prey.

The penguins were surprisingly active, preening themselves and hard to get a good picture off. But after a while, at least one of them stood still long enough.

A different species of penguin.

A sea anemone.

This stingray obviously was eager to play. It came up and poked its nose right through the water surface to greet us!

A tank full of majestically undulating jellies. Jellies, also, are cultured in the aquarium.

A clear shot at the subject, but I forget to write down its name.

For a good look at its underside, a sea star does me the favor of hanging upside down on the aquarium glass.

A (poisonous) lion fish.

Finally, a giant spider crab, perhaps 2-3 feet in diamater.