Class Structures

One of the saddest things I noticed around Cape town were the many, tightly packed shanty-towns where most of the poor black people lived. Apartheid only ended a little over 10 years ago here (in 1995) and there is still MUCH work that needs to be done for these people to have more power and better lifestyles. These shanty-towns had homes made of scrap metal pieces that were tiny, just thrown together and practically attached to their neighbors. I would have loved to have gone in one and talked to the people and seen more inside of these places, but I guess it's not necessarily the safest thing to do. It's so sad to see white people living in huge extravagance like we Americans or even nicer than many Americans with many of the black people living in horrible poverty. Hopefully with time, things get better for them.

Shan's husband, John was reading a book called "The White Man's Dilemma" that sounds really interesting - I'd like to read it. It talks about the problems of what many white men do to try to help these sorts of people in the situations they are in. For example, that giving money can actually be worse off for people who are destitute than maybe going in and doing education or something like that. I don't actually know what the book says, but that's kind of the feeling I got. I have many torn opinions on these matters and on the class structures, etc all over the world, but it really struck me here in South Africa.