Africa Day One

When you fly from Los Angeles to London (to Bonn to London) to Cape Town, South Africa, and you've never been to Africa or South Africa before, you don't know what to expect.  For now, Cape Town solves this issue on your drive out of the airport.

Because as you exit the airport, here is the first thing that you see.

This is one of those pictures that doesn't do justice.  I can only hope that you get an idea of what exists there.  This space would be the empty space next to railroad tracks, space that in most countries is considered too noisy and unsafe for anything but empty land.  Instead, people are living in the space directly next to the railroad tracks in "homes" which are small boxes made of wood framing and corrugated metal.  And this is what you see, for now.

I said "For Now" because South Africa is hosting the 2010 World Cup and they are going to clear all impermanent housing out of the view from the highway.  People from the world over will be flying into Cape Town, and they do not want these visitors to see abject poverty.  And when you say "clear" what you mean is that, well, the people will be forced to leave and then a bulldozer will knock down the shacks and improve the view from the highway.

It isn't that the current government does not care about its people.  The current government is building housing for people as fast as they are able.  But they are not able to build it all that quickly, and the number of people who need housing is staggering.  This is the aftermath of Apartheid.  And Apartheid is something that I had to research on this trip, because looking at this country I realized that my casual knowledge of Apartheid was insufficient. 

I took these pictures from a moving car because I was under the impression that I might not see this again.  I knew I would be staying in the literal lap of luxry on this trip.  Fifteen minutes after seeing how those people live, I checked into a hotel room and this was the view.

This is the view from our room at the Cape Grace Hotel. Those condos overlook a marina.

Obviously, we're going to learn more about Apartheid on this holiday.  But for now I just need to point out that under Apartheid it was illegal for a person who was designated "black" or "colored" to live in those condos.  Illegal.  Didn't matter how much money you had, if the government didn't consider your skin "white" then it was illegal for you to live within the city limits.  But at this point I hadn't read much about 

In other words, the reason that people live in "townships" or "shanty towns" isn't what you might think.