Getting to know and appreciate South Africa

Finally some time and also a connection (in the hotel) I can use. The past two days have been very busy and the next ones will be as well. Yesterday and today I can bluntly say I met South Africa. Yesterday we had two fantastic and passionate lectures on South Africa and the BEE policy which has caused white people to leave the country. It is a fascinating topic, I would suggest to anybody interested in culture and organization development to look into it. It is an example of a policy aiming at equality but which poses also a big risk of racism when misused.
Part of yesterday was visiting the Apartheid museum, which I will visit again with Elke next week (I believe). It is quite impressive how the country has suffered and evolved from the colonial time and lately in apartheid, coming out without a bloodshed. The museum features a photographic show on the protests of 1976 which is simply amazing to see. When I go back I shall buy the book. For the moment, I only share the photos illustrating a typical entrance to any public office: whites on the left and non-white on the right. What a scar for this country, let’s hope the new generation will grow with no memory of it and will move on.

Today it got worse or actually better. We met South Africa in its real nature: the townships. There are two mains ones: Soweto and Alexandra. They both played a fundamental role in the end of apartheid, with Alexandra being more pivotal especially in the 1976 protests. It is really another world. People living in tiny places with shared toilets and metallic walls. Up to 25% fighting HIV. Some of us visited a orphanage where 9 out of 10 kids had HIV. Still, people are amazingly friendly and welcoming. Kids (no matter if healthy or not) were happy and smiling. Sometime melancholic, but always extremely proud of who they were and where they live. Look at the photos I have attached. the first gives an idea of where we were, the second of kids and the last is really emotional. A little girl happily waving at me in the middle of rotten barracks.
Life (and the MBA especially) takes people away from humanity. A trip in this reality has brought me back there. I wish I could help more, act and not just talk. The only thing we have come up with so far is to act on financial support for the improvement of Alexandra. I have met people here (and in Belgium) that do more. In the end, there is enough for everybody ... these people in the townships got little of it and are happier than lot of people I know who have more (including me sometimes).

Now, better to stop on a lighter topic ... food! I am still trying to figure out if eating well is possible here. Tonite, we went to Primi Piatti. A chain on pasta and pizza. It was ok, nothing special. Yesterday to a locally known seafood restaurant (name ?! I cannot remember) ... disappointing. The best thing so far has been a spicy lamb dish they gave us at the university and a wine I bought for drinking at the supermarket: Cathedral Cellar Triptych 2003.