Southafrica - one place - two worlds
After a flight of 12 hours I finally arrived in Cape Town on Wednesday morning together with Hedi and Claudia, who are employees for the “Kindermissionswerk”, the NGO I am working for. We checked into the Hotel, which is stunning beautiful (the owners are a supporter of the Zip Zap Circus). We drove a little bit through the city, which looks very European.
Directly on the first afternoon we went to Khayelitsha, probably the poorest township in Cape Town. We saw a dancing program for HIV-positive children, which was great. After the program we drove the children back home into their township.
We continued to drive and after about 15 minutes were thrown back in the “developed world”. It was quite a shock to see the poor and the rich living so close together. I have seen lots of poverty before, especially in Haiti (where the slums are much worse), but in Haiti you have poverty, broken roads and street children everywhere – so before I get from one extreme into the other I always have a long flight in-between. Here in South Africa you have only 15 minutes. It makes you question a lot of things.
Why is it still that way many years after the Apartheid? Why cannot more wealthy persons sponsor a child in the township? Why does the world have money to pay millions for the soccer world cup but not to support those people?
Many years ago we Europeans came here, stole their country and forced them to work for us. Now, many years later, we give them freedom and equality - > to live our lifestyle. But they have never learned our lifestyle.
Our way of thinking straight and forward having a goal in mind – this is what our parents, our society taught us. But no one taught it to them, so how should they know when their parents and their grandparents didn’t know. They used to live in the bush before we invaded their country. The only thing they had to think about was to get enough food everyday and to get along with nature. Nowadays you see lots of big advertising signs next to the poorest people – so it’s natural that they also want all of these things – that creates greed, which again creates violence.
Our system doesn’t work in Africa, if we don’t start to teach it to young children.
But if we would start doing that (which would be the only fair way), there would be a break in our system. People in developing countries would get a good salary, so prices in Europe would rice drastically. But as I said, I think that’s only fair. I know many people in Belgium that buy new shoes every month, new clothes, new cars, …. Why? Because the media is telling you that this is the only way to be happy and to be someone.
But isn’t the only way to really be someone to do something with your life that has a deep sense in it? Like helping other people?
Another project we visited is the Zip Zap Circus. I have put pictures on the blog yesterday. Brent (white South African) and Laurence (French), who worked in circuses as well in younger years, started it 17 years ago and they have been helping so many children to get out of the poverty and have a goal in life. To reach that goal, they have to work hard – they learn it at the Zip Zap Circus School. Many of the kids come from townships and without the circus, it could well be that they would be part of a gang and shoot each other in the streets. But instead they are now traveling through the world performing their acts on the trapeze, the trampoline, by joggling, …
Anne said,
November 1st, 2009 at 22:54
Hi Alice,
Hoffe, dass es dir gut geht und du viel erlebst!!
Dein Text ist echt super geschrieben und ich finde, du hast vollkommen Recht mit dem, was du da schreibst!!!
Wir sollten alle mehr darüber nachdenken!!
Liebe Grüße nach Südafrika und noch viel Spass und gute Fotos…
Anne
Stephen Malagodi said,
November 2nd, 2009 at 05:02
Quite right about the juxtaposition. In 1989 my first trip to Zimbabwe (Rhodesia), it was 9 years after the civil war. I found the Black Zimbabwean attitude toward me, White American, quite natural and without animus, rather as it is in Haiti.
The next year in SA was shocking in that there was a complete chasm between White and Black. One could go from Khayelitsha to an indoor shopping mall with Lord and Taylor etc. in 10 minutes.
I remember one such experience, going from a township with people buying fresh butchered meat, fish and vegetables in open air stalls ~buzzing with flies of course~ and then being in a mall where the food fare was Kentucky Fried Chicken.
This was 3 months after the unbanning.
That there is still poverty and violence less than 20 years later is not surprising.
A similarity between Haiti and Zimbabwe worth noting may be that in those cases, there was a successful and violent war that resulted in African self-governance. In SA, there was a successful but political transition in which the Whites sought to maintain their economic power and because of the political settlement, they have.
I would be interested in your feelings about Haiti vs SA, not just on economics, but on human relations.
And, of course, the photos.
Hein said,
November 5th, 2009 at 10:12
Liebe Alice,
gute Beobachtung, treffende Beschreibung mit wenigen Worten und klasse Fotos.Ich freue mich, dass Du den Begriff des linearen Denkens aufgegriffen hast. Ähnliche Unterschiede gibt es zu den kulturellen Welten des Hinduismus und Buddhismus mit ihrem zirkularen Denken. Westliche Werte einfach exportieren zu wollen wie Coca Cola funktioniert eben nicht. Und ich glaube dass auch Menschen des christlichen Abendlandes die Herkommens-Voraussetzungen fehlen,um östliche Lebensweisen oder Religionen zu übernehmen.
Liebe Grüsse, bis bald
Hein