While things fall apart

Read "Middlemarch"?

Well, HELLO!

The longer I postpone writing this [ostensibly — but rarely] monthly newsletter, the harder it seems to return to it. Self-consciousness, stage-fright… call it what you will. (I’m also conscious of how cacophonous most people’s inboxes are so feel a tad leery about adding to the din.)

Anyway, here goes!

---

For much of the pandemic, South Africa felt achingly, impossibly faraway . As travel restrictions have been ditched and covid-19 has moved towards endemicity, there’s been a dramatic change: I’ve had the surreal, intense (and, at times, wrenching) privilege to have been back in my mother country three times over the past year.

It hasn’t been only family (and biltong) pulling me back. I’ve also very recently begun a post-graduate diploma in sustainable development at Stellenbosch University¹, which I’ll be doing part-time over the next two years.

A climate finance expert who presented a lecture during my introductory module shared this Antonio Gramsci quote which rather aptly (I thought) sums up where South Africa — and frankly the world — is right now:

The crisis consists precisely in the fact that the old is dying and the new cannot be born; in this interregnum a great variety of morbid symptoms appear.

---

In situ:

Day 2 of being a Stellenbosch student. Unfortunately, I fooled no-one into thinking I was a boer from the plaas (I think because my shorts weren’t short enough?).

---

As far as morbid symptoms² go, it’s been hard not to fixate on a few recent articles covering:

• Plastic: “Microplastics Are Filling the Skies. Will They Affect the Climate?” (from the rather excellent Yale Environment 360)

• PFAS: “Inside the Race to Get Forever Chemicals Out of Raincoats” (from TIME/Bloomberg)

• Poop: “Plans to stop raw sewage being pumped into the sea off Cape Town” (from the plucky GroundUp)

Also, the WHO’s January statement on booze (“No level of alcohol consumption is safe for our health”) was rather sobering. Eek.

---

I’ve been finding immense comfort, joy and amusement in reading Middlemarch (I’m just over halfway). George Eliot was such a droll doll! Her occasionally convoluted sentences have taken some getting used to, but wowser — I’m in total, enraptured awe. Eliot must’ve swallowed a dictionary before embarking on writing this. Here are a few of the delightful words I’ve had to look up:

• “Nodus” (a problem)

• “Plumpers” (people who vote for one candidate)

• “Pinfold” (an enclosure for strays)

• “Megrims” (low spirits)

• “Accoucheur” (a male midwife)

Nick Cave and Seán O’Hagan’s Faith, Hope and Carnage (thanks, Tre!) as well as Pema Chödrön’s When Things Fall Apart and The Places That Scare You, have all recently offered wisdom and solace too. And Finuala Dowling’s extraordinary latest novel, The Man Who Loved Crocodile Tamers, was one of my absolute favourite reads of last year.

---

Evidence Nkuna, our brilliant guide, leading us on a walking safari.

In May, I had a glorious visit to Singita’s Kruger National Park concession, which is home to Singita’s Sweni and Lebombo lodges (as well as to a terrific number of mountain mahoganies and Lebombo euphorbias³ — two of my faves). Over on Medium, I’ve reflected on the sheer magic of walking through this gorgeous patch of Kruger, while, for Singita’s blog, I’ve written a guest post about doing a hugely fun cooking class at the Singita Community Culinary School.

---

Lastly:

• Weeks after I listened to it, I’m still slightly haunted by Pig Iron, an intensely poignant and utterly gripping podcast about the death (and precarious life and complicated friendships) of a freelance photojournalist murdered in the South Sudan

• The latest season of the ever-riveting “… If You’re Listening⁴” podcast from the Australian Broadcasting Corp. delves into Russia/Ukraine and bristles with Matt Bevan’s trademark wit, humanity and insight

• The Tom Daley episode of Desert Island Discs in which the Olympian discusses his dad’s passing

• Nolan Investigates Stonewall, from BBC Ulster, is a pugnacious dive into the non-profit Stonewall’s tentacular lobbying efforts and offers some fascinating perspectives on gender identity

---

You’ve made it to the end of the latest (and much belated) edition of Dispatches from Alexander Matthews. Thank you, as always, very much for reading! Replies are always appreciated (especially if they feature book/podcast/recipe recommendations, life updates, juicy gossip or venison droewors).

1. Feel free to tease me about jetting between Cali and the Cape twice a year for studies in sustainability of all things; I’m painfully aware of the irony (that carbon 🐾!).

2. I’ll spare you the gripes about living without power for up to nine hours a day.

3. And lions and leopards! 😻

4. You can’t go wrong with any of the seasons, but if there’s one other you can’t miss (if you’re interested about climate change and policy, that is), then season six — “Australia, If You’re Listening” — is a must.