Land of contrasts
Trip Start
Sep 18, 2006
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61
79
Trip End
Mar 19, 2008
Cape Town,
South Africa
Tuesday, August 7, 2007
I spent a while in Cape Town - getting drunk, being hungover, visiting the sights. Esther, Tam and his family were in town for much of the same time so I spent a while with them. We did the Stellenbosch wine tour, visited a national park full of blooming flowers, went up to Table Mountain (I wanted to abseil down but it was unfortunately always too cloudy). Nice, pretty place with a lot to do.
This is an incredibly beautiful country with a lot of problems. The cloud of apartheid still hangs thick and dark, but many issues such as corruption and incompetence can be attributed to those in power today. And unfortunately many social problems can be attributed to those they most affect. These few weeks have given me a new-found admiration for African women, because of all the shit they have to endure from African men. Many of them are fucking animals. Drunk, violent, lazy, huge attitude problem and no sense of family responsibility. Not all are like this, maybe not even most - many are decent, friendly people. But a lot are. Alcohol is a huge problem - many men spend practically all of their own and their family's money on it during the course of the weekend. Most feel they are poor only because of Apartheid and there is nothing they can do to alleviate their situation, so why bother trying? Also, of course, that because of Apartheid, they expect something for nothing as recompense. Parents usually won't ensure their children go to school after a certain age (around mid-teens) and if the mother dies, there's no chance the father will raise his children himself - he'll pass the buck onto a female relative. Many frequently beat their wives - I think it may even be legal to do so. The country has astronomical crime rates - the vast majority of South Africans I met have been mugged at gun or knife point at least once. I've been to places in Asia where the people have been as poor as they are here, but never witnessed such widespread, appalling behaviour.
For their part, there is a certain duality in the racial attitudes of most white South Africans I met. To a man they criticise Apartheid for the damage it has done to their country, its people and economy. They also love Mandela, for through his preaching of peace and reconciliation they were saved the backlash in 1994. Such is his influence still that many fear his death. Despite this, most whites commonly use racist terminology, such as 'nigger' and 'kaffir'. Whilst shocking and offensive, this is much more understandable than when used in the West; the reason being the crime rates perpetrated by blacks. A joke someone told me rings very true: 'What's the difference between a tourist and a racist? About three days'.
Of course, there are plenty of sociological reasons for the high crime rate - corruption within the government and police force, less police focus on white areas, high drug and alcohol use, mass unemployment. The most interesting explanation I was given dates back to an anti-Apartheid slogan: 'No freedom, No education' whereby a dispruptive attitude to education was encouraged and adopted amongst the youth. The ANC were trying to make the country ungovernable and once this was achieved an anarchic atmosphere prevailed; a mindset that proved very difficult to alter. The country now suffers a generation of indisciplined yobs who are busy spawning little brats in the mould of themselves.
Would I come back? Well, I don't really enjoy being scared when I walk down the street. Asians may sometimes be annoying and frustrating but are very seldom threatening. For all too many black Africans, agressive and violent behaviour is a way of life. The country is stunningly beautiful though so I would have to say yes. Only once my firearms license comes through though.
