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| Driving through Khayelitsha |
November 5, 2010
The Not-So-Beautiful Side of Cape Town
The last few posts focused on the visually stunning setting of the Cape Town area. However, the city is not without its blemishes, and at least one book has stated that it is perhaps the most economically unequal city in the world. We see this first hand every time we go on shift at the orphanage. Our drive from the comfortable Cape Town suburb of Observatory to the Baphumelele Children's home takes us past miles and miles of the ramshackle shanties of the township of Khayelitsha. The main road we take into the township is completely littered with trash; we've been told that this is the residents' way of protesting their living conditions to the government. If you think this cutting-off-one's-nose behavior is drastic, you should see the road on its worst days. In a more extreme form of protest, some Khalyelitsha residents will take to burning vehicles. On our last shift, we drove past a city bus that had been stormed by protesters and then destroyed.
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wow, that is something. We see it on TV but to be there
ReplyDeleteand the answers are so difficult to find. I am sure that there are areas in Detroit and Cleveland that are not too unsimilar; and this country is probably going in the wrong direction. Honest government helps but that is unlikely to happen anywhere anytime soon. You just hope you are lucky enough to be born smart, or is it, smart enough to be born lucky?
ReplyDeleteWow, it never gets easy to see something like that. My first trip to Panama when Josh was a baby I remember driving into the city from the Airport past miles and miles of cardboard houses. On that same trip we were entertained at one of the fanciest parties I have ever attended in a Penthouse overlooking the mouth of the Panama Canal. That particular juxtaposition of poverty and wealth has stuck with me to this day. Mike's right, answers are too few and far between. Lucky enough to be born smart OR smart enough to be born lucky. Either one beats the alternative. Thanks for sharing all sides of the picture
ReplyDeleteHarsh and devastating to see such living conditions up close. It must also be difficult to see such extremes just a few miles apart. Hope for upward mobility must be slim to none in Khayelitsha? If only all that anger,frustration and protests (without destruction or loss of life) from these people could bring about some positive changes in their neighborhood and lives. If only...
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