Excerpts from today's USA Today by Marisol Bello: Alexandra, (Alex) South Africa is where most houses still have no electricity, clean water and the residents still use outhouses. Little change from what Mandela described in his autobiography. Two miles away lies Sandton, swanky homes, gated apartment complexes, the South African Stock Exchange and an Aston Martin dealership.
The disparity between abject poverty and great wealth evident in (Alex) and Sandton is representative of a growing income inequality since the end of apartheid The World Bank says the rich poor gap is among the world's worst.
Alex was a special place for Mandela, but it is one of the poorest and roughest areas of Johannesburg. Here, where people go jobless and no one goes out after dark, (Sounds like a growing part of Peoria, Il., my comment) Mandala's promise has fallen short.
Now that Mandela is dead, residents have little faith the government will help improve their lives. (Mandela's major message was 'self-reliance and hard work'). "Those guys in government respected him," says one resident of Alex. "Now, they will do what they like, and they will cripple us." He continues that the only work he can find pays equivalent of $7.50 US a day. "You can't feed a family on that," he says. "This is painful. South Africa is painful to live here". (Compare with the "poverty stricken" USA where hamburger flippers, waiters and waitress and cashiers who can't compute without a machine, are demanding a minimum wage of $15 an hour or $120 for an 8 hour day, my comments) He sees the opulence in Sandton and wonders, "How can you build such things as Sandton and people in Alex are still living in these conditions?" "Alex is in the middle of the good life, he says. "We are surrounded by food, but we can't eat."
Hope Schock and his tax-payer paid delegation has "time" to visit Alexandria. Plus Obama and his "massive" delegation or delegations takes the time to visit Alex also.
No, I'm not turning into a Socialist but those who teach kids that all of us are "born equal" and have the "same opportunity", are full of crap.
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I need to be more "optimist" I'm told. Well, I may have made some mistakes in my life, you haven't? or didn't receive any of thee brutal publicity I have received, or weren't caught? and have blogged a lot of "pessimistic" factual blogs but I know that the gap between haves and have-nots is growing. With 1.3 billion workers averaging $1.25 a day and in countries like South Africa, 25% of youths are unemployed, world peace is a dream, NEVER to be fulfilled.
Sorry, you optimists. There is probably 5000 years of recorded history to back up my pessimism.
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