Wednesday, November 28, 2007

The Two Issues

So before I go on and on about how cool South Africa is, I had 2 areas of concern and I will answer them for you, less you have the same concerns.

RACE RELATIONS
How are the race relations? Better than almost anywhere I have been. Better than the US. Better than the UK. Better than Brazil. The whites get a lot of credit for giving up power relatively peacefully. The blacks get a lot of credit for being patient and not trashing the country for a quick gain. The races don’t mix a lot socially, but it is much more a wealth thing than a race thing. Wealthy blacks, whites, and Indians mix freely at dinners, restaurants shops, etc. In shopping centers and malls, everyone mixes freely. Even in the white Africanner Wine Region (the area where apartheid was most powerful) blacks work in the wine tasting areas along with whites. It was a very pleasant surprise.

SLUMS
We have all seen the slums on TV. Most of the slums are still there, but the government is trying to improve them. They have seen the result of Zimbabwe, and so they can’t spend more money than they have, but they are working in good incremental steps. For example, most township slums now have electricity delivered (many reinforced shacks have TV Satellite dishes). If there isn’t indoor plumbing yet, then there are public facilities spread all around the settlements. As they can, they pave the road in the townships, and rebuild the shacks along that road with small houses with bathrooms and real walls.

In short, South Africa is improving and, more AMAZINGLY, the people are patient about it. There is no storming off to seize the white’s houses or farms, like Zimbabwe. The government appears to know that the country has to continue to pull together in order to make improvements for everyone.

That said, they also do improvements in the cities (Johannesburg and Cape Town). I think they lived through white flight before and are trying to make sure everyone fells welcome.

It was eye popping and wonderful. I feared the worst.