January 9, Monday

January 9, Monday  

Checking out of the hotel this morning and taking a flight back to Sandton.  Found out that a young Australian woman who went bungee jumping here on Dec 31 actually fell out of the harness and into the river, a 111 meter fall.   You saw from the pictures I posted and how fast the river flows.   Unbelievably she survived, despite some broken bones and ribs.   If this accident had happened in Canada or the USA, the company would have been immediately shut down until an investigation could be run.   Not here !   Business as usual.  

The other interesting thing, not sure I mentioned it before, is that everywhere you go, there are signs indicating that you are entering/participating/etc at your own risk and that they are not liable for any loss or injury.   You don’t get to sue anyone;  how refreshing !   It is a “buyer beware” system.

While I’m waiting at the airport, I’ve decided to add some notes from my conversations with South Africans, both white and black.  Still very different views from a narrow spectrum of the population.

Black guide who gave me the tour of Johannesburg:  

-       While we were driving through the rich part of Johannesburg:  “Why are whites hiding behind high walls?   Do they think we are all thieves!   They are living in prisons of their own making.
-       When I asked why the buildings in downtown Johannesburg were so dilapidated, and had obviously been nice high-rises at some point, he blamed it on the slum lords who owned the buildings but did not maintain them.  I also mentioned how sad it was that people who lived in them just through their garbage in the streets and did not have pride in where they lived.   After the previous generation had worked so hard to get them equality, the new generation did not seem to appreciate it.   He just said “Yes, it is sad”.
-       The new government is providing housing for the poor $ black who still live in shacks or dilapidated homes and cannot afford to buy their own homes. (This while he was showing me the poor sections of Soweto).   He also showed me the new sections of Soweto where life has obviously changed for the better for millions of people.
-       At the museum in Soweto the emphasis was on how the blacks had fought apartheid, in part to obtain a better education system for their children.   Not sure that this has worked out as planned.  Read on to see the white South African point of view.
-       The quality of living for most black people has greatly improved since Apartheid.

South African farmer, father of two teenage sons:

-       The government is more corrupt now than it ever was.   Every service that you want requires a bribe, otherwise you wait for months, and even then may not obtain what you asked for.
-       The police are corrupt as well.   One of his neighbours ( ? ! )  never pays his speeding fines, he simply bribes the officer who stops him, since it is less expensive.   The police officer in his community stops him on a regular basis to obtain his payment.   Just before Christmas, the police officer showed up at the neighbour’s house …. to get his Xmas bonus !
-       The education system is seriously degraded.   The subject matters taught in schools are not up to standards;  in fact, standards are lowered to increase the percentage of students who succeed in their exams.   I mentioned that I had just heard on the news that 70% of students in the region had received a passing grade (SAT equivalent). He said Yes, that is true, but you only need 30% out of 100 to pass!   {Newspaper article confirmed: “To pass matric, students had to achieve 40% in their home language, 40% in two other subjects and 30% in three subjects.” }   Since the grade schools and high schools are no longer teaching subject matter at a high enough level, South African universities have also had to lower their standards and foreign universities no longer give accreditation for courses / degrees obtained here.  He cited a case where as long as you have passed one of the (let’s say 30 possible different levels of ) high school math courses, you are given credit.   But that may have been an equivalent of only grade 3 math !    He has to pay to send his sons to private schools and then send them out of the country for their university.   
-       If you need to be hospitalized in SA, don’t go to a public hospital, you will die!   You need to pay to go to a private hospital.
-       Getting a government job or high paying job depends on who you know, not necessarily what your qualifications are or what degree you have.   The results are that:   Doctors do not meet universal standards, teachers are not qualified,   people who hold engineering jobs don’t necessarily have the engineering qualifications, etc.
-       Electric failures are common.  Again he says because they are run by unqualified people.
-       The SA government is buying many of the big farms, splitting these up into smaller units and passing these on to people who do not know how to farm (read black people).  Within 3 to 5 years, the majority of these farms are literally worthless; everything that could be sold has been sold and the land has been left fallow.   Kind of reminds me of the dictum that says “give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime”.   I guess they need to implement some type of on-the-job training before they give them these farms. 
-       He said he used to have metal fences around his ranch but the blacks kept stealing it to sell as scrap metal, so he has gone back to wooden fences.
-       According to him, blacks are far worse off than they were during apartheid.  (HIS WORDS, NOT MINE !)
-       He is obviously fed up and has already started looking into immigrating to another country.

Same country, different points of view,  just like everywhere else in the world;  it depends on which side of the coin you find yourself.

On the plane ride back to Johannesburg, I met a Swedish teenager who had just spent his holidays volunteering at a lion rehabilitation program:  www.africanimpact.co         You don’t have to be a student to volunteer, it can be a working holiday !      

Before taking off on every South African Airlines flight, they spray an insecticide called “Permethrin” all over the plane and all passengers obviously breathe it in as well.   I just checked the internet and found out that it is best used to spray clothing.  They also indicate that skin absorption is very low.  No mention of what happens if you breathe it in.  Air Canada uses it as well when flying back from countries where malaria or dengue fever exist.

Someone told me that eating Papaya in all its forms has great healing powers (fruit, dried seeds, leaves).  I checked it out on the internet = “In traditional medicine, papaya seeds are anti-inflammatory, anti-parasitic, and analgesic, and they are used to treat stomach-ache and ringworm infections.”    I think Reg told me about the ground up seeds last summer.

Arrived back at the airport and took the Gautrain back to the hotel in Sandton.  Very tired, and only get one night’s sleep before leaving for my Kruger Park excursion.   Had enough time to shower, change the clothing in my back-pack and go to sleep.