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10 | denis beckett<br />
a masters student named David Perlman turned up. David was<br />
the son of Ina Perlman, who later started Operation Hunger<br />
and oversaw its growth to the biggest charity in the country.<br />
David later emigrated and acquired two canadian doctorates,<br />
greedy, but while he was The Star’s literacy teacher he was a<br />
real star. When he was ill or writing exams or whatever, I stood<br />
in for him, which was a treat. Watching a bunch of tragically<br />
grateful middle-aged illiterates progress from letters to words,<br />
and one-syllable words to two-syllable words, and eventually to<br />
simple sentences, was a humbling and inspiring experience.<br />
a couple of months on, the machine-room committee came<br />
to their meeting strange and stiff, no overalls, all formal. alpheus<br />
Sunshine Matjeka, their Buffalo Bill, was in a suit and tie. a big<br />
agenda was on the way. at least it did not seem hostile.<br />
Sunshine cleared his throat several times. Then out it came:<br />
Machine-room know they are lucky people not like cleaners.<br />
Machine-room have been to school a little bit not like cleaners.<br />
Machine-room are shy to ask if please the company can give<br />
lessons for better english.<br />
I think you guess what happens now. a lower-intermediate<br />
course starts, an avalanche of new requests flows in, and half<br />
the black staff are on one or another course. In theory lessons<br />
were half in company time and half in employees’ time, but<br />
practice and theory lost contact. a newspaper is not a shop or<br />
office, starting at 8 and finishing at 5. While the machine-room<br />
slept, the editorial department (and its messengers, for this<br />
purpose) hopped. Some people got an hour off work and some<br />
arrived for work hours before clock-in time.<br />
Once in a while, a foreman muttered about hands<br />
disappearing while pressure was high, but complaints were<br />
few. for some, promotion followed, one fellow way more than<br />
anyone else, but he became a tragedy and he’ll bother me for<br />
life. Would he have been better off remaining a messenger, with<br />
a uniform, a routine, an income, and a perpetual gripe that he<br />
had really been cut out for better? It wasn’t right that he went<br />
on and up until he had no ground beneath his feet.
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