Hasta La Gadget!

Opening a coconut is easy as pie — if you have superhuman jaw strength.

Kap Te’o-Tafiti, a performer at Hawaii’s Polynesian Cultural Center, just showed us his simple, efficient way to husk a coconut in mere seconds — no sharp tools necessary. All you need is an impressive set of pearly whites.

Reddit aptly dubbed him “the Polynesian Old Spice guy,” and after watching the video below, you’ll totally understand the comparison.

Te’o-Tafiti, cultural ambassador for the PCC’s Samoan village, throws caution to the wind, ripping away sections of coconut husk using only his teeth.

It’s “one of the oldest and most convenient ways of getting to the edible parts of a coconut,” he told the Huffington Post. He also emphasized the need for a strong jaw and healthy teeth.

Te’o-Tafiti has been performing at the Polynesian Cultural Center since 1988, and “uses his teeth a lot for ripping coconut leaves, removing bark from branches and other daily tasks where a knife isn’t easily available,” a PCC representative told The Huffington Post. 

Apparently, the feat only hurts if you use a particularly tough coconut, or if something goes wrong — like ripping out a tooth — according to the PCC. Yikes.

Coconut husks are hard and fibrous, so many Polynesian cultures traditionally remove them using a sharp stake lodged in the ground, another method Te’o-Tafiti demonstrates in the video. But unless you live in a tropical paradise, you’re probably not even used to seeing the husk. Most mainlanders are more familiar with the darker brown inner shell — you know, what coconut bras are made from.

And Te’o-Tafiti has an awesome way to open that part of the coconut too. With a swift hit of his machete, the shell breaks perfectly on the seam that runs down the center, forming two perfect coconut cups from which to drink the coconut water inside. (Eat your heart out, Vita Coco.)

Te’o-Tafiti only breaks out his incredible talent on special occasions, like for videos with over 1 million views, so it’s not something you would typically witness at the center, which promotes and educates visitors on traditional Polynesian cultures. 

For those of us without superhuman jaw strength, the center advises leaving the coconut husking to the professionals. But if we did try it, we’re pretty sure it would look a lot like this adorable attempt by one of Te’o-Tafiti’s biggest fans.

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Kenneth Kaplan, University of the Witwatersrand

“RFK in the Land of Apartheid: A Ripple of Hope” was recently screened at the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) with filmmaker Larry Shore on hand to discuss the film. The documentary chronicles American Senator Robert Kennedy‘s visit to South Africa in 1966, recording many historical moments around his short visit, including the defiant meeting with then African National Congress (ANC) President Chief Albert Luthuli, then under a banning order. Known by his initials, “RFK” was part of the famous Kennedy political clan. He was assassinated in 1968.

The speeches Kennedy gave at the universities of Cape Town, Stellenbosch and Wits may have faded from public memory or may no longer seem relevant. However, by recovering these images, the film succeeds not only as a record of the racial segregation of this society and the former “whites-only” universities at the height of apartheid, but acquires an added poignancy with the recent student protests and ongoing calls for the transformation of the entire education system in South Africa.

Kenneth Kaplan, who teaches directing and writing in the Film/TV division at Wits University in Johannesburg, interviewed Shore, who is a Professor in the Department of Film & Media Studies, Hunter College, New York.

Why did you choose to focus on this particular event?

I was a junior high school student in Johannesburg in 1966 when Robert Kennedy visited South Africa. Although I did not attend any of the events, I followed it closely in the liberal Johannesburg English-language newspapers like the Rand Daily Mail and The Star. The visit really amazed me, as it amazed many others. In high school and then at the University of the Witwatersrand I became really interested in American history and politics, which included an interest in the Kennedys.

I remembered the visit when I left South Africa in 1973 for the US and afterwards. My MA included a good dose of US foreign policy, and policy towards Africa and apartheid South Africa in particular. So I think I was always interested in US-South Africa relations and the connections between the two countries. I also teach about this stuff as a professor at Hunter College in New York. This carried over when I became interested in documentary films.

I also liked the story because it opened up doors to other interesting stories that deserved to be told, like those of Albert Luthuli and the National Union of South African Students (Nusas), to name just two. I am very grateful and pleased that the film has been well received by South African audiences although my original primary audience was the United States. I always believed that it helps to tell a story about a foreign country to an American audience if it has an American connection. Robert Kennedy was that connection.

What impact did the visit have and how did it shape relations between the US and South Africa?

As a filmmaker you don’t want to overdo it or make more of it than is right. It was only a moment – but it was an important moment. I do think that the visit did have an impact in South Africa. It was the first time anyone important had come to the country from the outside world and said they were on the side of those who opposed apartheid. And it was someone important – a Kennedy and brother of President John F Kennedy, who was popular in South Africa. He was not just a famous American.

South Africans were interested in American affairs and they believed Robert Kennedy was going to be the next president. And you had the feeling that this important person was going to do something about it when he went home. Or at least tell the world what was happening in South Africa and maybe something would happen. Like the famous speech he gave at the University of Cape Town, his visit was a “ripple of hope” and it was felt across the country.

His visit with Chief Luthuli was a big publicity boost for the ANC, which in 1966 was in the depths of the deepest repression with Nelson Mandela on Robben Island and Luthuli banned to Groutville (a small town in the province of KwaZulu-Natal). The visit to Soweto and RFK’s meeting with various black South Africans was a lift for black South Africans.

It also was a source of encouragement for white liberal organisations and individuals within Nusas, liberal politician Helen Suzman and others. I think that the visit to Stellenbosch University helped lay a few seeds for what later became the verligte (enlightened) movement among Afrikaners. I don’t think the visit changed US policy towards South Africa directly at the time, but it was one of a number of things that began to bring attention to bear on South Africa – what was going on there and what could be done about it.

What might we know about you and your life that you think led you to make this film?

Well, as I said before, I have always been interested in US-South African stories. Certainly a part of that is because I am a South African-American. I have lived most of my adult life in America but I grew up in and have a lot of connections to South Africa. I kept that connection during my years in the anti-apartheid movement in the US and after the end of apartheid. When I became convinced that it was a good story, and would make for a good film, I realised that, as someone who understood and had lived in both countries, I was well suited to make the film.

What are some of the creative challenges you faced making the film?

I think one of the most difficult things about making a film about someone as famous as Robert Kennedy is to avoid hagiography – putting him up on a pedestal and making the visit appear more important than it was yet at the same time not denying its significance. How to find the right balance was a major challenge in making the film.

As with any documentary like this, I also faced challenges deciding what interviews not to use. I had lots of terrific interviews with important and interesting people but I had to leave some of them out and make tough selections.

The text above has been edited from an interview conducted by Kenneth Kaplan with Larry Shore following the recent screening of “RFK in the Land of Apartheid: A Ripple of Hope” at Wits University.

Kenneth Kaplan, Lecturer in Directing & Writing in Film/TV, University of the Witwatersrand

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

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Given how we’re still quite far away from Apple’s usual September affair, it’s no surprise that the iPhone 7 rumors that keep piling up don’t always stack up with one another, nor do they always make sense. While some of the more “wild” speculation have been offloaded to the iPhone 7 Plus, or Pro, this latest batch of photos give … Continue reading

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Gina Porter, Durham University

Mobile phones have become ubiquitous in Africa. Among younger users, basic phones are most common. But more pupils are accessing smartphones that can connect to the internet – and taking them along to school.

Phones are often used in school whether they’re allowed or not. Although they can enable valuable access to information, they also bring new responsibilities and dangers. It’s remarkably common for classes to be interrupted by both pupils’ and teachers’ phones. Access to pornography as well as bullying and harassment through phones is widely reported.

We have conducted a study of young people’s mobile phone use in Ghana, Malawi and South Africa. Our findings emphasise the central place that mobile phones occupy in many young people’s lives. Before the mobile phone arrived in Africa, few people had access to landlines. The mobile phone represents far more of a communication revolution in Africa than in richer countries.

Researching phone stories

The study, involving a group of university researchers from the UK and Africa, was funded by the UK’s Economic and Social Research Council and Department for International Development. It covers many aspects of young people’s phone use, from generational relations to job searches and health advice. Use in school has emerged as a leading issue, echoing concerns around the world.

We conducted more than 1,500 face-to-face interviews and focus groups with young people, teachers, parents and key community members across 24 locations – eight in each country. These varied from poor city neighbourhoods to remote rural hamlets.

We followed this up with a questionnaire to about 3,000 young people aged between nine and 18 and 1,500 young people aged between 19 and 25 in the same 24 locations.

The survey of children aged nine to 18 years shows that mobile phone use is much higher than ownership figures might suggest. Ownership of phones was lowest in Malawi, the poorest of the three countries. Here only 8% of children in the survey owned their own phone, compared with 16% in Ghana and 51% in South Africa. Nonetheless, in Malawi 35% of children said they had used a phone in the week before the survey. In Ghana the figure was 42% and in South Africa it was 77%. Children often borrow phones from each other, their parents, other family members and neighbours.

Children’s use of phones

Some pupils, particularly in South Africa, use their phones to access sites like Master Maths for help with homework. But the positive benefits mostly seem to be limited to mundane tasks such as contacting friends to check on homework or using the phone as a calculator. Much information from pupils and teachers was more negative: academic performance affected by disrupted classes – due to teachers as well as pupils using their phones – disrupted sleep because of cheap night calls, time wasted on prolonged sessions on social network sites, and harassment, bullying and pornography.

Class disruption from pupils’ phones used to be mostly from ring tones when calls were received. Now, for those with smartphones, messaging on WhatsApp or checking Facebook have become common classroom activities. Teachers’ phone use in class can be equally disruptive, as some teachers admitted. A call comes in, or they make a call, and whether they step outside or take the call in class, the end result is that the lesson is interrupted and – as more than one told us – “You forget what you are going to deliver.”

In Malawi, 60% of enrolled pupils said they had seen their teacher using a phone in lesson time during the week before the survey. The corresponding figure for Ghana was 66% and for South Africa 88%. Pupils are rarely given such an opportunity to comment on the behaviour of those in authority over them but even if not all were truthful, these figures are of concern. Many head teachers also spoke about the problem of teacher phone use, saying they found it difficult to regulate.

Other problems include disturbing levels of pupil bullying and harassment. In the survey of enrolled pupils who use a phone, 16% in Ghana, 28% in Malawi and 55% in South Africa said they had received unwanted, unpleasant or upsetting calls or texts. This was almost equally true for boys and girls.

Distribution and viewing of pornography is also widespread, as older boys were often willing to disclose. A few – even primary school pupils – mentioned sexting.

Promoting responsible phone use in school

Many head teachers have asked us how to promote responsible phone use in school. Here are some suggestions:

Pupil phone use: It is important to have a clear school policy on pupil phone use, to inform parents about this and to explain the reasoning behind it. If the school has decided to allow pupils to bring their mobile phone to school – for instance, because of travel problems – but not to use it in school, then pupils could be required to put a name tag on their phone and deposit it with a staff member, using a register, before school begins. In this case parents or carers must be given a phone number for urgent messages.

If the school allows pupils to use mobile phones in class as calculators or to access the internet, pupils and their parents could sign an “acceptable use” agreement each term. This would promote effective use of class time and their own and other pupils’ safety.

Pupils also need reminders not to publish personal information on the internet and to tell their teacher, a parent or carer if they access any information that worries them. Parents must be encouraged to help their child follow the school’s guidelines. Asking them to sign an acceptable use agreement together with their children will help.

Teacher phone use: Teachers’ mobile phones should be switched off and left in a safe place during lesson times. If teachers are using their phones when pupils are banned from doing so, pupils may become resentful. Staff should not contact pupils from their personal mobile phones or give their mobile phone numbers to pupils or parents. This would help teachers maintain sound professional practice.

Gina Porter, Senior Research Fellow, Durham University

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

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