Kiosk In This Issue MONARCH COUNT 13,400 IN THE SANCTUARY ON 11/26/13 Through Dec. 20 Kiwanis/Firefighters Toy Drive See page 3 for drop-off points • Through Dec. 23 CPOAMC Toy Drive Drop Toys at PGPD or Winterfest - Page 4 CCS Finals- Page 7 Big tourist- Page 19 other sites (see article inside) • Fri., Dec. 13 Portrait Demo Pacific Grove’s Carmel Visual Arts 6:30 PM, $20 620-2955 • Sat. Dec. 14 Arthritis Foundation’s Jingle Bell Run/Walk 7:30 AM - 10:00 AM Lovers Point Park 831-620-1699 • Fri.-Sat., Dec. 13-14 Times Half-Off Sale Dec. 13-19, 2013 Your Community NEWSpaper Vol. VI, Issue 14 ACS Discovery Shop 10 AM-6 PM, 372-0866 • Sat., Dec. 14 Part One of Three Santa Fly-In Carmel Valley Village Proposed 10:30 AM, Free 601-6518 Mandela’s Death Sparks • Water Bond Sat.-Sun. Dec. 14-15 Model Train show Memories for Cameraman Upstairs Act of 2014 American Tin Cannery Part I: Winnie Mandela Free to the public Hearings set on • By Marge Ann Jameson Sun., Dec. 15 multi-billion-dollar “Flamenco Hoy” The year was 1989. Bob Pacelli was a television cameraman, an unsure occupation Golden Bough Theatre bond act in which the competition was fierce and huge news organizations jostled for footage. 7 PM, $24/$20/$12/$7.50 The Central Coast is not the only He’d worked with a number of Bay Area television stations, including KRON and a local 622-0100 area facing a water crisis. The entire Spanish-language station. It was a close-knit fraternity. He had worked with a woman • state of California faces drought and named Savannah Foa, who called him in Pacific Grove one day and asked if he would be Sun., Dec. 15 the effects of climate change on access interested in a job with the United Nations High Commission on Refugees (UNHCR). Holiday Open House to clean, affordable, reliable drinking He was on his way to Geneva, Switzerland. Peace of Mind Dog Rescue “One day I’m buying groceries at Grove Market, and three days later I have a UN 615 Forest Ave., 4-6 PM water. 718-9122 California voters have not passed a passport and I’m in Geneva,” Pacelli recalls. He left his wife, Clemencia, in Pacific Grove • water bond since 2006. While the Leg- to pack their things for the move. Wed., Dec. 18 islature has been working on one since Gentrain Lecture: Magic and the 2009, it has been postponed twice due Nature of Human Observation to concerns that it is a flawed proposal. MPC Forum 103 at 1:30PM Another proposal has been put Free forth, and on Tues., Dec. 17 a hear- 831-646-4224 ing has been set which will focus on • the looming water crisis and what the Sat. Dec. 21 proposed water bond could do about it. from 6:00-8:00 p.m. or Besides the legislators scheduled to give Sun. Dec. 22 opening remarks, including Assembly- from 12:00-2:00 p.m. member Mark Stone which represents Creche collection our area, there will be testimony from: First United Methodist Church of John Ricker, Director, Santa Cruz Pacific Grove; 915 Sunset Dr. County Water Resources Division; Dave (the corner of 17 Mile Drive.) Stoldt, General Manager, Monterey Pen- • insula Water Management District; and Sat. Jan. 4, 3:00 PM Richard LeWarne, Assistant Director, Lecture: The Devil’s Cormorant Environmental Health Bureau, Mon- Pacific Grove Museum terey Department of Health $5 (Free to Members) There are two proposals, one in the • Sat. January 11 Assembly and one in the State Senate. PGHS Pool Reopening Ceremony Assembly measure: AB 1331 (Ren- 1:00 don) proposes $6.5 billion for the water An uncertain future: Young refugees boarded a plane in Tanzania bound for re- • bond. patriation in an unsettled South Africa. Photo is a still from footage shot by Bob Language names every single wa- Pacelli on behalf of the UN. tershed in the state, including the Central Coast Watershed. And the California Inside Conservation Corps “shall be used His first assignment with the UNHCR was to document the repatriation of hundreds whenever feasible.” of South African people who lived in refugee camps in Tanzania and Kenya. It had been There is an allocation in the pro- attempted – unsuccessfully -- earlier to return refugees to South Africa, people whose 100 Years Ago in Pacific Grove .......... 6 posal of $1 billion for hydrological fight against oppression and racism fomented by the apartheid government had resulted Animal Tales regions identified in the California in their being labeled as criminals. Some faced prison and worse if they returned. But this & Other Random Thoughts .............. 20 Water Plan including $58 million for time, the UNHCR had a plan: On board were to be young people who had been born in Cop Log ............................................. 5 Finance ........................................... 15 the Central Coast. the camps and had lived there all their lives, some of them as old as 27 years. They had Green Page ...................................... 19 The sister measure, Senate mea- no criminal records for subversion or violence and had a better chance of not being turned Health & Wellness ........................... 12 sure: SB 42 (Wolk) proposes $6.475 away at Johannesburg. A foot in the door, so to speak. Marriage Can Be Funny ................... 17 billion for the water bond, with $1.5 Apartheid was being dismantled in South Africa. Bowing to internal and external po- Otter Views ...................................... 22 litical and economic pressure, the codified oppression of black natives and colored people Seniors ............................................ 14 billion to the Department of Water Sports .................................. 17 and 13 Resources for regional water manage- was crumbling, but not without fierce resistance on the part of many white citizens of South ment plans including $85 million for the Africa. A worldwide boycott of South African goods and services and the refusal of major Central Coast. companies to do business there was having a crippling effect on the South African economy The hearing set for Dec. 17 will be- and was weakening the government. But it would be two more years before apartheid laws gin at noon and is scheduled to finish at were repealed and it was not until 1993 that a multiracial transitional government was 3:00 p.m. with time for public comment. See WINNIE MANDELA Page 2 Page 2 • CEDAR STREET Times • December 13, 2013 PWINNIE MANDELA From Page 1 Skillshots The first refugees to be repatriated were young people who had been born in refugee camps and had never seen South Africa. Photo is a still from footage shot by Bob Pacelli on behalf of the UN. approved, and another year (1994) before elections were held. And what to do with these refugees? Pacelli was handed a UN passport and a manifest, and was flown to Tanzania with his huge and heavy Beta camera and related equipment. He was shuttled to a rickety 707 and he started filming. The plane quickly filled with refugees and their meager belongings, and they were airborne for the four-hour flight to Johannesburg. Pacelli worked his way forward to the cockpit and was unsettled to see wires hang- ing from the controls. He asked the pilot if he had ever made the flight before and if he was confident they’d make it. The pilot answered that he’d made the flight but had been refused landing. But this time he had a plan. They only had enough fuel to make it to Johannesburg and could not be turned away. Winnie Mandela was the darling of the anti-apartheid movement. Brave and out- spoken, the wife of jailed ANC president Nelson Mandela found herself in a leadership position during her husband’s incarceration. She had been jailed for the cause herself, and later would serve in various positions in the transition government and the post- apartheid government. She was more of a firebrand than was Nelson, and traveled with bodyguards. This was a time before serious, criminal accusations overtook her, too. When the refugee plane arrived in Johannesburg, Pacelli – the lowly cameraman – was sent off the plane first and was handed the paperwork for the passengers. He found himself the sole representative of the UN and tasked with getting them through customs. He rolled the film. After a few battles with airport authorities, he handed in his paperwork and, continuing to film, found himself walking backward and filming, the iconic action of many news camerapeople. He kicked open a door behind him, backed through it, and tumbled over none other than Winnie Mandela, who caught him in her arms. Everyone apologized and dusted themselves off and Pacelli continued his assignment, none the worse for wear. Later, he said, he had to “file” the film in two versions – one with the natural sound track and one with his voiceover, explaining the action in the film. And it was his and Clemencia’s wedding anniversary, Dec. 12. The phone calls to Geneva and to Pacific Grove had to be routed through Kenya because of the boycott. Fast forward to October, 1999. Pacelli has worked for the UNHRC on projects in Food Donations Mean Library Fines Forgiven Eritrea, Somalia and Sarajevo. He has filmed Southeast Asian refugees and boat people. From December 2 through 31, bring non-perishable unopened food items for dona- He’s back on American soil. tion to the Monterey County Food Bank to the Monterey Public Library, Bookmobile, Mrs. Mandela has been divorced from Nelson Mandela. She was a member of the or Pacific Grove Public Library and have library overdue fines forgiven.