Passing Home Affairs Woes on to the Next Generation

I have been chronicling bits of my home affairs frustrations here and here (still no progress on the ID book, by the way). Now there's a whole new person to fumble through the system.  Fun home affairs facts with a new baby:

- The jury is out about when and whether double barreled surnames are allowed, but according to the Randburg supervisor on the day that we went, unmarried parents cannot register the baby under a double barreled surname; they must register it under the name of the father first, and then apply to have it changed (grumble grumble. Why?). So, this is what we did. Lord knows how long that will take. Double whammy, because her well meaning father registered her with my last name as a first name (meaning we also had to apply for a first name change - or my surname would appear twice). I wonder if it will be sorted out by the time she's in college?

- Abridged birth certificates don't have both parents name listed! 

- We applied for an unabridged birth certificate under the old name (on the assumption the name change would take Forever). This is supposed to take 6 weeks. That was 10 weeks ago. 

- To get a US passport, you need an unabridged birth certificate. After Much Hysteria from Grandmother, I'm petitioning the embassy to grant her US citizenship on the basis of other documentation; we have a meeting with them coming up in a few weeks time, will see how it goes.  I'm quite optimistic that they'll be sensible and efficient, in marked contrast to home affairs. 

- Grandmother and her Much Hysteria made me realize how far I've come since my first days of Home Affairs woes. I wonder if any research has been done on dysfunctional systems and zen?  

- Every expat in the world probably has to dealt with this. Family at home wants to meet new baby. Paperwork to let new baby travel takes awhile. It's hard not knowing what and how long and whether. I figure, if I can make it through this round of guilt, I'll be better equipped for the rest of motherhood.

- People in my situation shouldn't plan to take Baby to the US for the first 9 months, to be on the safe side. 6 months is pushing your home affairs luck. Remember, there are lots of steps involved in the process. 1. Register the birth and get an abridged birth certificate, 2. Apply for an unabridged birth certificate. 3. Wait. 4. Take this to the embassy to register the birth, and apply for citizenship and a passport. That's *without* a name change tossed in the mix. 

- The passport section of Home Affairs is rocking. She had a temporary passport from the time she was a couple weeks old, and a  full one well within a month. That's why we're going to India before we go to the US (sorry Grandma, life's not fair!). 

One more way the world is unfair

The Wits campus is a bit of a fortress. When people in South Africa talked about opening the doors of higher education, they certainly didn't mean it literally. As a visitor, you can drive onto campus in a couple different places. The nice attendant at the boom gate gives you a slip of paper, and away you go.  There's only one walking entrance for visitors, however; at Senate House. You must show a photo ID, and tell them where you're going. The process takes significantly longer than driving, and security occasionally calls the person you're going to visit. And the reason the security folks gave me for the measures were because there had been computer thefts on campus. Really. Who takes computers and leaves with them on foot? And not in a car? Really? 

Where to have a baby in Jozi

Okay. Last mommy blog post, and then we'll be back to the regularly scheduled programming. 

Genesis was amazing. If i have another baby, I'd like to do it in Johannebsurg just so I can go back. It's just a birthing centre, that various health professionals work out of; slightly different from hospitals. It was a fabulous place - the focus is on natural births (though they do emergency C-sections), you get a big, comfortable, private room, with a big bath, shower, chest of drawers, music, garden, etc. The food is good, the staff are *incredible*, and the experience is, all in all, unbeatable. Oh, and it is fully covered by medical aid, without payment upfront, or any paperwork.  And they have a full contingent of related services, from breastfeeding support to antenatal classes. I can't say enough good things about it. 

It's the only place I've ever had a baby, so I can't comment first hand on the places, but I do know people who've chosen other locations:

- Brenthurst and Park Lane. I'm lumping these two together, because they seem quite similar (though Park Lane has a 'stork's nest', which is handy). They're clinical. There's good quality care. C-section rates depends on individuals involved; no particular support or opposition to natural birth. You have to pay for a private room. It's generally functional, and not terribly unpleasant, but not an enjoyable environment. The bigger downside is that it seemed impossible to find any information about how much it would cost and what insurance would cover.  The paperwork headache seemed substantial and thankless.

- Joburg gen and helen joseph. Public hospitals. In general, these have gotten positive reviews from friends who had uncomplicated births and aren't looking for bells and whistles. In Johannesburg, service seems often as good or better in public hospitals than private ones, and c-section rates are actually quite low, since most births are attended to by midwives. Lack of capacity, in an area that's generally over-medicalised, has perks. If my insurance coverage weren't as good, I'd give it a try - I was more worried about the unknown than quality of care. I didn't want to have to learn how to negotiate a difficult system while in labour. Downsides reported is that they're a bit crowded, and you need to sort out all the extras yourself. 

Where to go for baby shots

There are certain things that, no matter how long I've lived in another country, I never seem to understand quite as well as my country of origin. Examples: taxes, retirement savings, and health care systems. I didn't understand how much I didn't know about the health care system in South Africa until having a baby. The pregnancy and delivery lessons are for a different day. For now, the check ups.

I've taken the baby 5 different places now for her vaccines, and have now settled on Genesis, the clinic where she was born. Reviews:

- Meldene Medicross. It was advertised online as a public clinic, but in fact, you do need to pay, and was actually the most expensive of the places visited. The nurses are nice, but people weren't terribly clued up - I called to ask if I needed an appointment for vaccinations and was told no; when I showed up with the baby, I was told yes, though accommodated anyway. Otherwise, the place seems fine.

- Parkhurst public clinic. The wait was just over 2 hours, not bad, and there is a separate 'well baby' area. The downside was there was almost no communication about the baby's general health - more of an assembly line setup. For shots, it would have been fine. However, I was told that since I didn't live in the area, I couldn't come back, and had to start the baby's file at the clinic closest to where I live. If i lived the area, I'd probably go back.

- Bez Valley public clinic. I went twice, once at 11 in the morning, once at 7, and both times was turned away and told to come the next day (after nearly a 2 hour wait) because the crowd was so big. Others in the queue told me that this is a new state of affairs, but this is decidedly the most over-crowded place I went to. May be that I tried to go once on a week with a public holiday? Avoid at all costs.

- Yeoville public clinic. The lines are long, but they move fast if you arrive early. The wait was under 2 hours. The downsides are that the baby must wait with all the sick people, staff are far from friendly, and the xenophobia makes me irritable. On one hand, a good way of connecting to the 'hood. But with a 2 month old baby, just not quite what I was looking for.

- Genesis. The private clinic where she was born. A woman comes Thursdays and Fridays to give vaccines; you text her in advance, and she gives you a time slot. She's incredibly knowledgable, and visits for vaccinations have basically made a visit to the pediatrician unnecessary, because she's so thorough.  It's not cheap, but it's also not much more than health insurance rates.

Conclusion: Private care, in this case, doesn't cost much more than public (if you have insurance). If you don't, the Yeoville clinic was probably the best of all visited so far, but coughing up the extra for Genesis is worthwhile. I see all my principles slipping away with the arrival of the baby....

Conflict of interest in action

As most people living on the east side of Joburg know, there is a particular dip in Observatory Avenue, near the Bez Valley park, where it's rather difficult to keep to the speed limit. The hill is steep, there's not much but park on either side of the road, it's quite a distance to the next traffic light - it's an ideal spot to go zOOm, for drivers who are so inclined.

Of course, Joburg metro discovered this, and sets up camp there pretty much every day speed trapping. I don't know anybody with a car who hasn't gotten at least one fine there.  It was a particularly strategic place for the police to set up camp, because a bunch of undergrowth from the park came right out to the road, making it impossible to see them from either direction.

Today, city parks went on a pruning spree. The whole roadside has been cleared, up to the fence. A rather disgruntled crew of metro policy were gathered in a nearby parking lot, no doubt trying to decide what options were available. I wonder how traffic patterns will change....

Garbage Gutters

One of the top objections many people have to Yeoville is that it is dirty. The Dad fusses that it is 'unsightly', and the Yeovue News (when it was still around) used to bemoan the littering that took place. On one hand, it's hard to argue with facts. There is trash on the streets. When Pick-it-up doesn't make an appointment, there are piles of garbage on the street corners; and the day or two before garbage collection, the park usually looks pretty grotty.

The other day, The Dad made a comment about how it must be possible to fix it - he came up with a few technical suggestions, like placing big dumpsters on street corners. or distributing more bins. I objected, seeing the refuse problem as reflective of a broader issue of a too-high density area with lots of squatted buildings, all around poor service delivery, and high levels of poverty, all of which contribute in various ways to the garbage in the streets.

But more to the point, I'm curious about why this garbage doesn't particularly bother me, when other people have such a strong reaction to it. I see it more as a reminder of the work all of us need to do to make the world a better place than a problem to be fixed, as such. Coincidentally, I remember feeling similarly when landing in Mumbai 15 years ago...exchange students from all over were so upset by the garbage on the streets, which I just kind of filed away.

I see lots of reasons why cities need a good refuse disposal system - public health is important. But why are bags of garbage on the streets unsightly, when kids out of school a weekday aren't? Or racially segregated neighborhoods? Or all the cars coughing out pollution? Or the high walls and security systems in Houghton? Or the inability to see the stars because of all the light pollution? I'm not saying I love having garbage around; but I'm relatively confident that with a good development plan, management, and resourcing, that can be sorted out without too much trouble. I'm more upset about the high walls, which seem harder to solve, and on the whole, more damaging to public health...

The ID saga continues

Feeling unusually hopeful on last week Wednesday, I called Home Affairs to check up on the status of my recent ID book re application. More on the saga here and here. I always start with the toll free enquiries line, and move from there. Bad news.

Once again, my application has been sent from Harrison street, and not received in Pretoria. This is a process that should take 2 days, and it's been over 3 months. Call center conclusion? I should go to Harrison street, figure out how they are sending my application, obtain 'some kind of tracking number or something' and then find out what went wrong.

I mull on this advice for a day, check with a friendly immigration-lawyer-friend to see if he can shed any light on the situation, and Thursday, I call Harrison street directly, in hopes that I won't have to go there in person. There are 3 numbers listed for the office on the dha website. Between Thursday of last week and this Tuesday, I spent 11 hours (count them, 11) calling them (automatic redial on skype), and nobody picked up.

So this Tuesday, I called the cell phone of the regional manager. She was polite, helpful, and sounded like she knew what was going on. Apparently, what is taking so long is that they must confirm my permanent residence permit. Issuing my permanent residence permit took 6 weeks, and confirming it has now taken 11 months, but nevermind. I should go to the first floor of Harrison street, and ask to talk to the supervisor of the ID section, who used to be (but is no longer) Thandi.

Once again, hoping to save myself a trip to Harrison street, I phoned, and this time, miraculously, got someone to give me a direct number to the ID section (I feel like this is a heavily guarded state secret). I am told that the applications generally take 3 months to reach Pretoria, and I should phone back next week Thursday. I've had the 'phone back next week Thursday' conversation with DHA many times before. I think it's the Home Affairs equivalent of 'don't call me, I'll call you'. I feel rejected. And may have to trek back to Harrison street one of these days. At least when my belly enters a room 3 steps before I do, I get some sympathy standing in the queues.

Wrong about e-tolling

Yesterday, I had the good fortune of having dinner with a lovely woman named Jane, who happens to know as much as anybody out there about E-tolling. I'm still not exactly sure why toll roads happen to hit a nerve that other moves towards privatization don't, though she had some insight (it feels invasive. It's in-your-face. It's visible). But, I'm happier with it being a focal point at the moment for citizen mobilisation.

People need a victory. Civil society at the moment is disillusioned and disempowered. Successes, from whatever surprising corner they may come from, are important for building momentum in other spaces. Someone else at dinner pointed out that as soon as the month long postponement was agreed on, there was an immediate spill over into wage negotiations, with workers demanding higher increases. It's pretty cool if people really are feeling a sense of power coming from this.

It is about solidarity. If one person can't drive on the road because of the user fees, that's one person too many. Nice to hear the sentiment articulated. I'd rather it be applied to water, electricity, and education....but as others pointed out, when that was happening 10 years ago, the world was a different place, and if people weren't in a place to make it happen then, maybe they are now, and that's good.

It's not just about people being gatvol with middle class taxes....it's about people being gatvol with government getting things wrong; and that's good. Frustration about corruption, no transparency, circumvented decision making processes....that's all good for the country.

One step at a time. It does seem like frustration with crummy public transport would be a better target than frustration at road tolls....but that doesn't have an opportunity, a moment, and a target.  So there's not much space for a win there. On tolling, there is. And by the way it's looking, it really will be a victory. Unused gantries will sit along the road and remind everyone that they can keep government accountable.

How public are any south african schools?

Being the neurotic planner that I am, I'm thinking about schools for Blob. I was feeling quite smug about living in Yeoville, where there are bunches of spectacular schools in walking distance. After having lunch with someone at a conference who is providing me with all sorts of baby advice, the smugness has turned to trepidation.

Boy, was I naive. Coming from small town America, I assumed public = you don't have to pay. You register the kid at registration time, the kid shows up when classes start, and twice a year you get hit up for the costs of extra music lessons or sports trips. Ha! Says The Dad. Apparently, public in South Africa means the state pays some base subsidy of the teacher's salaries. But 'good' public schools pay their teachers much more, and school fees make up this difference. Gosh, what a spectacular way to entrench inequality from the youngest possible age.

I always assumed Blob'd go to a public school (more diverse, still good education, less snooty)...but now I'm wondering. I did a cursory comparison of a good public school (king edward) and a good private school (sacred heart) both within walking distance of home, and they appear to charge comparable fees (R30,000/ year. Are they NUTS?! How can that be normal?), and from a cursory glance, they don't seem to have tremendous differences in socioeconomic makeup - if anything, the private school seems slightly more progressive. What to do...?  Seems like all other parents just suck it up and pay - maybe I should too, but it gives me the moral heeby-jeebies.

Anyway, I'm irritated at the claim that a school is public when fees are higher than lots of peoples total incomes. I feel like a fabulous constitution is being cheated. And, South Africa spends a higher portion of its national budget on education than any other country in the world....how can it be so grossly mismanaged?

I think every public servant should have to send their children to public schools, and use public transport. I bet both would improve more quickly (any time I say this in public, people look at me like I've grown a third arm. Is it really such an odd suggestion? It seems like a no brainer....).

The toll roads of Johannesburg

Everyone in Gauteng is weighing in on e-tolling - at least, everyone who uses the highways. There appear to be two camps emerging. One who thinks that middle class South Africans are already over taxed and pay far too much for everything service related and this is just another way of raiding their wallets, and one who thinks people should cough up, that it's inevitable, and that there are more important things to scream and shout about.  Both, it seems, miss the point.

It's undeniable that in general, private car ownership levels (everywhere in the world, and South Africa particularly) should be much lower. Right now, instead of people paying for the cars they drive, people feel the affects of climate change, and that's a crummy system. I'm all for making cars (and various other manifestations of the petrochemical industrial complex) unaffordable for most people. But that's not what the tolling system does. Gauteng commuters aren't going to give up their cars because they have to pay to use the freeways. They're just going to grumble a bit. Everyone will insist it's because there isn't adequate public transport, but mostly people don't know what public transport there is. As The Dad says - no middle class South African takes public transport.

The new tolling system isn't going to change this. It's not going to create financing for transport (since, allegedly, most of the money involved is going to Austria). It's not going to do anything to combat the environmental and social damage that private cars cause. As far as I can tell, the real problems are:
- corruption (from lack of transparency to South Africa's wealth being shipped off to Europe)
- a development path that is increasingly privatized and exclusionary, moving the country closer to the military industrial complex and farther from social inclusion and environmental sustainability

But you find these two things in many, many moves by government these days. Why single out toll roads? We could just as well scream and shout about banking regulations, various government decisions around equating 'progressive realisation' with 'privatisation'; the list is long. The unions are being opportunistic my hitting on an issue that will get a rise out of a pretty wide swath of the middle class; but I'm afraid they're just making a point of flexing their muscles within the alliance, instead of actually working for meaningful change.

Why is Home Affairs Like a Volvo Repair Shop?

Out of morbid curiosity, I checked the progress of my most recent ID book application at the Home Affairs call center yesterday. In an experience of de ja vu, I was told that my application was sent off from Harrison street a month ago, but has never been received in Pretoria. I should go back to the Harrison street office, and figure out what happened to it (for those of you who missed it, this is the same fate my other 2 applications met with, and I was always told first to wait - and wait, and wait - and then to reapply). Apparently, they should be able to 'explain to me their system for sending things to Pretoria', and give me tracking numbers. My optimism on this front isn't high. I asked if I couldn't just re apply in Pretoria, and was warned off with stories of terror should I get issued 2 ID books.

Meanwhile, The Dad has been having problems with his Volvo. It's the second time in as many years that he's had to replace the radiator. As an oldish used car, it needs a fair amount of TLC....but you generally don't plan to keep replacing the same parts. There is also a recurring oil leak, something funky that keeps springing up with the coolant....We have lurking suspicions that some of these ongoing problems are not being helped by the skills of the Volvo repair folks. They have generally been nice about charging at-cost for parts (when they've been defective but out of warranty), reducing labour costs, etc. Which is nice, though only helpful if the underlying problems eventually get solved.

So what we're both finding that the more incompetent the service provider is, the more tied you end up being to them. I can't leave Harrison street out of fear that if I go to some more organised Home Affairs office, my application is already irredeemably screwed up (and in fact, nowhere else will accept an application from me until things are fixed at Harrison street, because documentation on all my mis-sent applications is on the central Home Affairs system). Similarly, he can't go to any other more competent service center, because he would then have to fork out a fortune to fix all the problems caused by the first incompetent repair folks...whereas now, at least he can work with them through what's going wrong. And we can compare notes of our ongoing sagas. 

Personal finance in Joburg

Preparing not to work for the next 6 months has obviously required a fair amount of time getting my financial house in order. In doing this, I read personal finance blogs from time to time. Most of them are American (is that jut where bloggers are? Or where money is? Or some combination thereof?). It seems like most personal finance blogs have, somewhere in their archives, a guiding manifesto - 10 key points to follow, a list of easy ways to save, etc. Inevitably somewhere on these lists is 'make sure you never ever pay a penny in bank charges;' it always irks me, because it's undeniably good advice - and totally not an option in Jozi. I'm sure in the big picture, American banks are no less evil than South African banks....but they're certainly far more consumer friendly (and there are lots of friendly, local cooperative alternatives - Farmers and Merchants State Bank in Wayne, I love you!).  This is one of the few times I think the entitled view of a foreigner might be helpful ;)

Choosing a bank in Joburg seems like a choice between exploitative and evil.....One of my most frequent gripes is about bank charges (which, after groceries, utilities, transport and telecommunications is usually my highest monthly expense. It's considered normal to pay a fee to deposit money in your own account, which probably pays you no interest. Really. Free deposits are a perk your high monthly fee might cover). I find something fundamentally wrong with the fact that I pay a bank R80 a month for the privilege of using and investing my money - but the worst part is that I have no choice!

Apart from small scale, informal stockvels, there aren't formal cooperative savings banks. Nobody, it seems, apart from the big, nasty corporations, has access to the financial infrastructure of the country. I've heard analyses on why from various people who should know, and it always seems to boil down to a very unsatisfactory amalgamation of the highly regulated industry, history, barriers to entry, old boys club, tight connections with mining, neoliberal development paths, etc....all true, I'm sure, but that doesn't make it any less lousy, or any less fixable. Making financial services pro-poor seems like a no-brainer if  you're trying to boost equity.  As things are, banks are hugely exclusionary.  Before I got a grown-up job, I stuffed cash under my mattress; it was a better deal than a student bank account (though, completely impractical)! I don't quite understand why nobody else is outraged.

If The Dad and I open a joint bank account for tiny blob, maybe I'll try and disinvest, and just do all my banking from the  US...

Rates bills

It's no secret that the city of Johannesburg has had an ongoing billing screw-up of epic proportions. I suspect I'm benefitting from it....but it makes me feel for the people (who must be out there somewhere) on the other end of the billing stick.

Every month, I get my rates bill in the mail. My "current charges" each month are anywhere between R5 and R20 a month. Really? I know my flat was cheap, but....maybe there's some minimum threshold to owe rates?  Or maybe some neighborhoods (like Yeoville, where banks won't give you a bond to buy) are exempt? Either way, my monthly bills appear arbitrary, and nonsensically small.

But, the plot thickens....Every month, I tell myself I'll pay up when my "total due" goes over R100 - because really, making a payment for R17 isn't worth the bank charges. So, every month I get a bill that has a total amount outstanding, the current charges, and then the charges that are 30 days, 60 days, and 90 days overdue. Each month, the amounts that are 30 and 60 days overdue accumulates to around R40, and I get a menacing notice saying the City of Joburg is concerned with the arrears on this account, and an immediate payment is required to avoid cut off of all services and legal action.

The catch is, no matter how long I go without paying, the amount that's 90+ days overdue stays at 0. Either the city is very forgiving, has a very short memory, or realises that collecting R5 in rates isn't worth the printing cost of the bill. All in all, I'm probably cheating the city out of about R150 a year by not paying. But it seems bizarre that they just quit asking! And if they do get their house in order and decide to collect the last 5 years of back rates I owe them, it still wouldn't break the bank.

Add it to the list of things I wish I understood; maybe it's time for a field trip to City of Johannesburg's billing office; anybody know anybody who works there?

Spontaneous Pool Party

Yesterday, I was snatched by friends for a spontaneous trip to the swimming pool. I'm pretty amazed that I have friends that can supply, at precisely 6 minutes notice, a maternity swimming suit, beach towels, lawn chairs, umbrellas, and entertainment for little girls of varied swimming abilities. The Roosevelt Park swimming pool was my Johannesburg Discovery of the weekend. In the midst of gripes about home affairs and power cuts, it was a nice reminder that this city has an impressive array of public facilities that are exceptionally well maintained and well run. I just forget to take advantage of them sometimes.

The whole place was spotlessly clean and well maintained, it wasn't too crowded, everyone was very friendly, there were enough shady and sunny spots on the lawn to make everyone happy. And it was free!   These little hidden spaces are part of what makes this city wonderful.

Home Affairs

I'm thrilled to be a permanent resident in South Africa, and have the opportunity to get a South African ID book. When I applied, PR status was granted in absolute record time (it took about 6 weeks), and since that was the first permit I had applied for in a few years, I was starting to believe that things at the Department of Home Affairs were improving. My first experience with Home Affairs was in 2005 (prior to that, I had gotten permits while out of the country). A study permit reputed to take 30 days to issue, took almost 2 years. Since then, there has generally been gradual improvement with each subsequent application.

I've always managed to deal with home affairs with relatively good humour; it's part hazing process (weeds out the chancers; you have to really, really, really want to be here to get through it), part collective cultural experience (like complaining about Telkom), part participant observation research for my PhD. That said, when I went in to Harrison street last year in June to apply for an ID book, I wasn't heartbroken by the thought that it could be my last time in that building. Ha!

Since then, my application has been lost three times; I am now tied to the Harrison street office, because apparently once one application is lost, you must reapply at the same office or risk having a duplicate emerge some day (and, as the helpful call center lady said, you really really don't want that). Some office in Pretoria that processes permanent residence ID applications was moving in June last year (and possibly still is). Nobody knows if or when it will function. Neither the online feedback system nor the ministerial hotline have elicited any response. The call center tells me I must go back to Harrison street and reapply for the 4th time, even though there's no indication that my last application ever existed (I'm told that the reference number is 'impossible', even though I have a receipt with it!).

What could it be?  Some racket with the guys who take passport photographs (I've gone through 8 of them now)? Really bad luck? I'm planning to go back for another round of fun on Friday.

I'm also willing to bet my unborn child will get a US passport before I have a South African ID.... (I hope I'm wrong!)

Power Paradox

This afternoon, just in time to prepare dinner (of course), the power in my flat went off. This caused slightly more running around than usual, since the person who usually has the keys to the trip switches was away....but at least it's not winter, when power cuts mean freezing in the dark.

In the end, a call to City Power was needed. On the whole, service from City Power is impressive. I may not like having to call a "customer care center" when I have a power cut, but they sent a vehicle around in about an hour. Everyone was efficient and professional; after checking our meters and establishing the source of the problem was outside the building, we had lights back on in about half an hour.

I spent that half an hour watching the rain, and chatting on the stoep to the head of the neighborhood community policing forum. Knowing nothing about electricity, I asked him why our building is on two different grids (power to the whole building never goes off, it's always either to units 3, 6, 7 and 9, or the rest of the flats). This seems odd, and one grid definitely has a more stable power supply than the other. He couldn't explain to me why our building would be on two grids (though, it's quite convenient that someone in the building usually has power), but he *did* point out that the reason my flat experienced more cuts than the other half of the building was because of the illegal hookups of the building across the street.

I don't generally have a problem with illegal hookups - power costs a fortune, and in a rare failure of the South African justice system, there seems to be a lot of hesitation around considering most public services human rights....this whole gray 'progressive realisation' area. Particularly in this part of town, most buildings that have illegal hookups already have several layers of quasi-informal tenancy, ranging from spaces that are slum-lorded to those that are permanently squatted. Illegal hookups are obviously a small part of a much larger picture, and I'm pretty sure the neighborhood isn't going to benefit by making sure the guys across the street don't have power.

That said, if it's a chronic problem throughout the winter (as it was last year), it will become quite obnoxious; if I don't want to report them, what can I do? See about lending them a good electrician? Try to get on a first name basis with the City Power crew, since I'll be calling them out on a weekly basis? Look for a place to live that has natural gas?

What Glaeser says about Indian cities

Edward Glaeser went to India, and wrote about basic services! He makes

a moderate, and only somewhat facetious, libertarian progressive proposal. Unless a government manages to provide clean water to its poorest citizens, it should refrain from any new barrier to international trade, complex nationalization scheme or draconian zoning laws.

Throughout, he makes a bunch of references to western urban planning a century or two ago, which is a no-no in my book, but I like the link he makes here and there between basic service provision, and larger transformations of urbanisation and governance. I'm finding this particularly hard to come by here, with people talking about decentralisation and public services like they're happening in different countries. All the discussions about 'governance in post-conflict DRC' would be much more interesting to me if they talked less about political parties, and more about clean drinking water.

The secret society of mayors

When I say I'm studying urban governance, it's automatically politicized. Expected conversations are about power, and politicians, and there is a great deal of suspicion about sharing information that could be sensitive. Everything is steered carefully away from touchier aspects of governance, like the way resources are distributed, and the way decisions are made. When I say I'm studying public services, I get some kind of wild-card exemption from politics that is apparently granted to the 'technical sectors.' The health, and water, and education budgets are laid out on the table, and before anyone blinks, we are well into open conversations about the way resources are distributed, and the way decisions are made....Even in academic literature, in writing about the administration of public services it seems like mentioning power (and people) are optional. Am I missing something? Is there some special thing people who govern urban spaces do that has nothing to do with resources? I'll start keeping an eye out for a secret handshake.