Kristin Palitza - Freelance writer - editor

In the News

Kristin Palitza — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 12:12:31 +0000

Last month, I was interviewed about freelancing in South Africa by British media magazine Press Gazette:

Postcard from Cape Town, South Africa

With freelance journalist Kristin Palitza

Why South Africa?

Initially, I came here on a year’s sabbatical, to volunteer in a township day care centre for HIV- positive kids and AIDS orphans. That was eight years ago. I became extremely interested in socio- political issues, ranging from health to education, poverty, housing, water/sanitation and food security. So I started writing about these topics for German as well as South African newspapers.

Honoured

Kristin Palitza — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 13:03:13 +0000

In November 2009, I was given the International Federation of the Red Cross Good News award for humanitarian reporting in Africa. It was awarded to me for a feature article I wrote for the Mail & Guardian, called 'Gardening for Life'.

The best thing about the award is the prize: A working trip to Malawi early next year, to report about a food security and a gender-based violence programme.

Orange River Blues

Kristin Palitza — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 06:51:00 +0000

This month, I am working on a media kit to inform journalists about the Orange-Senqu River Commission (ORASECOM), which was established by the governments of Lesotho, South Africa, Botswana and Namibia to create enviornmental sustainability of the Orange River basin.

It's a big and exciting initiative that aims to tackle a wide range of environmental issues, inlcuding the protection of the basin, optimal use of the river, Southern Africa's water footprint, job creation and climate change. Some major funding organisations, like the European Union and GTZ, have pooled their resources to support the initiative.

I am producing a fully-fledged media kit that will help journalists to report in-depth on the work ORASECOM is doing. It will include everything from fact sheets, press releases, an info booklet, a brief history of the commission and an overview of the many projects that are happening to conserve the river. Hopefully, we'll see some interesting reporting come out of this.

Threatened Wildflower Wonder

Kristin Palitza — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 08:52:07 +0000

Once a year, in the African spring, a dry and barren area in South Africa's Northern Cape, called Namaqualand, turns into a lush and luminant carpet of wildflowers. Tourists come from all over South Africa, Europe and even Japan to witness this natural spectacle.

But nobody knows how long we will still be able to experience the phenomenon. Environmental experts warn that changing rainfall and temperature patterns caused by climate change will soon diminish the vastness of flowers of Namaqualand, which is one of the world's top biodiversity hot spots. Already, many of the 1350 different flower species that can be found here are either rare or threatened by extinction.

Last weekend, I drove up to Nieuwoudtville, Namaqualand's bulb capital, to observe the flower spectacle. I spoke to various ecologists, botanists and climate change experts to find out about the true state of affairs of the flower kingdom and how long we will still be able to enjoy the phenomenon. The article will be published in The Weekender this Saturday.

Reporting on Poverty

Kristin Palitza — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 09:56:40 +0000

Panos, an international media organisation, asked me to produce a poverty reporting toolkit for Mozambican journalists. The 20-page manual will be used as a training tool for junior to mid-level reporters in various media workshops in and around Maputo.

The toolkit gives journalists useful tips on how to report sensibly on poverty-related issues, find interesting story angles, understand and scrutinise the effectiveness of poverty policies and hold governments, international organisations and NGOs accountable. It also has an extensive resource section with useful contacts and background information.

I hope the toolkit will contribute to creating a league of reporters writing interesting, in-depth articles on a wide variety of poverty-related issues, economic growth and sustainability.

Book publishing

Kristin Palitza — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 07:11:57 +0000

I have been commissioned to conceptualise, edit and produce a book for the HIV/AIDS & the Media Project, a fellowship programme run by the Department of Journalism and the Perinatal Health Research Unit (PHRU) of the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg.

The book will include journalism (print & broadcast) and research based on work people have produced during fellowships with the Project between 2003 and 2009. One big section of the book will look at the role of the South African media with regard to HIV reporting, while the other main section of the book will be on specific HIV-related themes, such as stigma, traditional medicine, orphans and vulnerable children, etc.

This is an extremely exciting project. We are currently in the conceptualisation phase and I can't stop my mind from strategising and thinking up new ideas for putting the content together. The official book proposal is almost written, and we already have interest from a first publisher to look at it. I'll let you know when to look out for it on the bookstore shelves next year!

Portraying life

Kristin Palitza — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 11:48:27 +0000

Humanitarian organisation Catholic Welfare & Development (CWD) is celebrating it's 40th anniversary next year and have therefore asked me to write 40 portraits of people involved with the organisation. Over the next few weeks, I will be interviewing people affiliated with CWD on various different levels - from Archbishops, to directors, board members, staff, counsellors, community workers, volunteers and beneficiaries. Travelling to interviews will bring me to different locations: poor townships like Delft, Athlone, Gugulethu, Elsies River on the one hand, and well-off suburbs like Constantia, Rondebosch and Riebeck Casteel on the other.

So far, a number of people have shared very personal and beautiful stories with me. There is a woman who was molested as a child and found strength again thanks to CWD counselling, a pastor who went on tour through the United States to gather donations for the poor during Apartheid and a Congolese refugee who managed to heal his trauma through CWD youth art classes. Those are just a few examples out of the many beautiful stories that have come out of the interviews. CWD does indeed have reason to celebrate.

WEF - Widespread Economic Failure

Kristin Palitza — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 12:18:30 +0000

Last week, I covered the World Economic Forum (WEF) on Africa, which took place here in Cape Town. There was much talk about the global financial crisis and steps countries should take to manage or avert it. What was exchanged were mainly platitudes. My favourite one: ‘the crisis is not a challenge but an opportunity’. Yeah, right.

Many economists had suggestions for how the African continent could deal with the crisis. African countries should focus on a regional approach, diversify products and markets, reduce spending and avoid incurring new debt, they said. On the surface, this made perfect sense. But, of course, the minute one digs a bit deeper, one hits hard rock.

What wasn’t mentioned was the multitude of international instruments and trading agreements that are all tailored towards keeping Africa a) dependent and b) in debt. They will ensure the West’s access to Africa’s wealth of natural resources, and not only that. They will also foster perverse situations, such as the export of raw materials (valuable but cheap) used to manufacture products in the West, which are then resold for lots of money to Africa. Isn’t that just too clever?

Visually, the conference drew an interesting picture, too. Almost without exception, everyone was dressed in black suits (no blue, no brown, no beige). Even many of the journalists who covered the conference wore suits, which is highly unusual – journalists are infamous for being casually, and often badly, dressed. And almost everyone was male. The world changes very slowly if at all.

Goodbye Brenda

Kristin Palitza — Mon, 11 May 2009 08:34:52 +0000

It was the 5th anniversary of South African music icoon Brenda Fassie's death, and her family and friends came together in Langa township, outside of Cape Town, where Brenda grew up and went to school, to remember her.

The Queen of African Pop, nicknamed by her fans Mabrr, died on 9 May 2004 after she fell into a coma from a cocaine overdose.

It was an emotional but celebratory afternoon, with Brenda's older brother and one of Brenda's childhood friends movingly recalling her life, school girls from Langa High School dancing to Brenda's songs and her brothers' band, The Fassie Brothers, performing on stage.

Pandemicking

Kristin Palitza — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 19:22:27 +0000

The Arch had us all charmed at the opening ceremony of the 4th South African AIDS Conference in Durban today – eloquent, funny and thoughtful as we know him – but he also had us enthralled with his outspokenness.

“I came here somewhat heavy-hearted about recent developments,” Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu told an audience of about 3,000 conference delegates, referring to South Africa’s refusal to grant the Dalai Lama a visa to enter the country.

What he didn’t say, but what was apparent to all, was that South African health minister Barbara Hogan didn’t share the stage with Tutu, as planned and announced in the programme, because she had criticised the ANC’s decision and might now face disciplinary action. Ironically, Hogan is said to be, at short notice, on a trip to China.

“At last we have a minister who behaves like other people when we face an epidemic of that kind,” said Tutu, lauding Hogan, while indirectly lashing out at her predecessor Manto Tshabalala-Msimang. “What has happened in the recent past has shattered me, and I salute our minister of health for [supporting the Dalai Lama],” he added.

Thanks, Arch, for being so frank and telling us what’s in your heart.