Wednesday, April 6, 2011

THOUGHTS ABOUT SOUTH AFRICA

South Africa as it is now is a new country; it’s been about nineteen years since the end of apartheid and the ratification of a new constitution.  South Africans boast about having the best constitution in the world, and they may be right, at least theoretically.  It was written with the realization that for South Africa to succeed as a country, it must truly be for all the people, and all must participate.  In reality, existing problems preclude a quick transition into the free, productive, peaceful, commonweal-minded country that was envisioned.  These problems include (but are not limited to) the following:
    1. As of March, 2011, South Africa has the greatest income disparity in the world;
        the rich are getting richer, and the poorest are getting poorer.  In the last year ( I             believe), we went from having ten billionaires to twenty-four.
    2. There is rampant corruption at all levels of the government.  It seems that most            people running for office do so to enrich themselves rather than serve the people.
        Here is a quote from the Minister of Transport as he unveiled a new national                traffic intervention unit of “super traffic cops:” “Road safety in South Africa is             essentially about eradicating deaths, crashes and bribery.”
    3. HIV/AIDS.  Twenty to thirty per cent of all South Africans are now HIV +
    4. Unemployment -- now at 26%
    5. A bad public educational system, including more than 30,000 unqualified
        teachers, some of whom couldn’t read at a 4th grade level.
    6. A hangover of prejudices, biases, and ways of thinking from the time of white             supremacy and apartheid, not officially and overtly, but very real.
    7. A sense of tribalism that makes it hard for many to think of themselves as
        South African rather than Xhosa or Zulu or Venda, etc.
    8. A vast inequality of access to resources: water, fuel, electricity, sewers,                 government services, etc.

South Africa is a fairly large country.  Someone told me that if you were to eliminate the 3 or 4 largest U.S states, and the 3 or 4 smallest U.S. states, and pick randomly nine states from the remaining states, their area would approximate the area of South Africa..  South Africa is composed of nine provinces (roughly equivalent to U.S. states).  Their names are: Eastern Cape, Northern Cape, Western Cape, Free State, Gauteng, Northwest, Kwazulu-Natal, Limpopo, and Mpumalanga.  The country is large enough to have some variety of climates.  Winters are generally mild, while summers are hot in the low desert areas and nicely warm (70s and 80s F,) in the high country and coastal areas.  I should add that within the outline of  South Africa, there are two independent countries that are completely surrounded by South Africa: Swaziland and Lesotho.

South Africa has much natural beauty.  It has mountains, lakes, rivers, forests, jungles, savannahs, deserts, plains, and two oceans.  It has cities and suburbs, small towns and villages, farms and ranches, populated and unpopulated areas.  It’s known for its large animals: elephants, lions, rhinos, hippos, buffalo, giraffes, kudus, and others, but it also has hundreds of species of other animals.  It abounds in birds, flowers, and trees of all sorts.  South Africans like to pride themselves as being the most “European” or “Western” country in all of Africa, and this may be true culturally in the cities, but within a one or two hour drive from anywhere in the country, you can find yourself completely away from “advanced culture,” perhaps among people living as they did 1000 years ago, or perhaps in a jungle without a hint or a sign of “civilization,” or perhaps on a savannah where all you can see are the grass, the trees, and the animals around you, and not another human being in sight.

We live in Gauteng province, in the high country.  We came in July, in the middle of winter, and I never had to wear more than a sweater to work.  Summer just ended for us, and I don’t think we had more than a day or two when the thermometer got up to ninety or more.  We live in a semi-rural area, in the neighborhood of Everleigh, which is sort of a suburb of Boksburg, which is a suburb of Johannesburg.  Gauteng is the smallest of
South Africa’s nine provinces, but it has more than 50% of the crime in all of South Africa.  So far, we haven’t been victims of crime of any sort.

In a sense, crime is big business here.  Most houses have all their windows and doors covered by ironwork --business for the ironworker.  Most properties are ringed by high walls -- business for the mason.  Most wall tops and gates are wired for electricity -- business for the electrician.  Most homes (and businesses) have internal security systems -- business for people who install such systems.  Many (perhaps, most) homes and businesses hire security services to respond to the internal security systems and to patrol the area -- BIG business for security services.  Interestingly, I’ve been told by a number of people that the majority of people hired by the security services are ex-convicts.

Since we came here last July we (the clinic) lost phone service twice because thieves cut down and stole the phone lines along the street to sell for scrap copper.  After the second time, the phone company refused to put up any more lines, so we had to go to wireless digital technology,   In the past week or so, there’s been a rash of manhole cover thefts; they’re worth about $ 250.00 each, but I don’t know how much the thieves get for them.  Most car thefts are done by hi-jacking, and there are a lot of them.  Most street hold-ups are for cell phones and the money people carry.  Many of the crimes seem to reflect a kind of thinking that does not consider the good of the community as a whole.

There can also be humor in crime.  Consider these excerpts from stories in the latest local newspaper.  In a story headlined “Alleged bank robbers escape from prison,” a police spokesman said, “They allegedly dug through the wall of their cell and cut one of the window bars.  They then made a rope using their sheets to climb over the wall and escape.  We are still investigating how they managed to escape.  We tried to hunt them down but failed to find them…It is the first time we have seen this kind of an escape in our prison…This is the third escape  from this prison since January this year.”

I didn’t mean for this to be a “downer” kind of blog; I merely wanted to help all you who read this to get a better idea of what it’s like to live and work here.  We’re happy and contented and fulfilled with the work we’re doing and the people we interact with.  We invite you to be adventurous; come visit us and have a great experience.    T & C Marcy