I was surprised with good news yesterday: I received official approval of my PhD research proposal. I was also surprised at the relief I felt when I saw that my proposal had been approved.
I submitted the proposal in early May, so I’ve been waiting on pins and needles almost four months. My adviser let me know that World Cup 2010 would delay the process since all state universities in South Africa were required to adjust their schedules to accommodate the World’s largest sporting event. But that didn’t make it any easier to wait and wait and wait.
I’ve struggled with proceeding very much with my research because I’ve been afraid that I might need to make some major adjustments to my project framework; and I think struggling with the pressure/desire to move forward (to actually get something done!) but not wanting to go too far is the pressure I felt float away when I received this news.
I was confident in my proposal because I had worked hard on it, refining it several times to meet the guidelines. Also, I had a few qualified friends make helpful comments that improved it’s quality. And my adviser, who is supposed to know about this kind of stuff, said it was a very good proposal.
However, since there was so much riding on the “whims” of people I don’t know and my adviser had “warned” me that it’s almost automatic for the committee to return proposals, even good ones, with some recommendations to improve the document, the delay was causing me to feel some uncertainty that my work would be satisfactory.
So, I was quite happy to get this notation at the bottom of the evaluation form:
Aanbeveling / Recommendation
That the proposal be approved.
Evalueerder / Evaluator: Prof. CJP Niemandt
Crucifixion Friday in the Old City
Many Christians from around the world were expected to flood the city for Good Friday, and they did. In fact, since Passover and Eastern and Western Easter falls on the same weekend this year, the city seemed particularly crowded. In expectation of the large crowds the Israeli government implemented new access procedures at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, which created a lot of tensions. Flags like the one below could be seen throughout the Christian Quarter.
The flag is aimed at the Israeli authority’s efforts to control the crowds, which at times ended up communicating to those wanting to be near or inside the church that they were not allowed to worship. Obviously, once the new arrangements were announced, someone(s) went into action to highlight the Israeli actions and paint them as negatively as possible. However, being in the area today, I must admit, one could easily get a very negative impression without the presence of the flags.
Here are the police controlling access to the church:
The police were standing behind barricades, allowing people to enter in very small numbers. At one point, tensions were so high that the riot police were called in:
I was told that things escalated to the point of blows being exchanged. I did not see that, but I have no reason to doubt it.
It seems to me that the Israelis are in a no win situation here: If they don’t control the crowds, there is a real possibility of a stampede or worse, and they will be accused of shirking their responsibility for public safety. If they do control the crowds, they are accused of preventing pilgrims from worshiping.
History indicates that during times like these, the various Christian groups that have authority within the church facility can’t manage to get along without violence, so I’m not sure what I would advise them to do.
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