Jo'burg photos!

Morbyd

Morbyd

Moderator
OK, I've been too lazy to make a page on my website for these Johannesburg photos from my trip last week, so I'll take the easy way out and post a few on here, seeing as I promised to share and all.

Sweet little girls from an "Africa night" party they held at the conference
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A monument to people that died during a massacre at a 1976 education protest in Soweto. That's when the freedom movement in S.A. really gained steam.
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Pilanesberg National Park
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(cool how these monkeys stood guard at even distances along this dam!)
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(the national animal - springbok)
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(me and the giraffes)
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Up close at the Lion Park
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The central square in downtown Pretoria. Nice town.
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Me & my colleagues on Mandela Sq in Sandton (a Jo'burg suburb)
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Sunset on a lake an hour's drive NW of Jo'burg
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Great trip. Lots of great impressions. What fabulous people and such a feeling of hope and progress. Having known very little about S. Africa, I was amazed at what a modern, developed place it is. Little difference between there and Europe or the US (aside from that most everyone is black), and what little differences there are (the remaining shantytowns, crime problems) are being totally erased, and quickly.

I've got video too but that'll take a while to edit. I'll probably post more photos on my website.... maybe even this weekend!
 
bripmon said:
Those are greats pics. I can't believe how big that lionness is!!!! 8O
Click to expand...
The Lion Park was cool... you got to get a lot closer to the lions than at the big nature park (Pilanesberg) that we went to, or another place where we saw them in enclosures.

It's pretty freaky when you've got one walking within a meter of your car... there are signs warning you not to roll the windows down all the way!
 
Nice photo's Morbyd, although its interesting that you saw so many impressions of hope and progress. Karen and I have just come back from two weeks in South Africa (Kruger and Capt Town) and we got a very different impression.

It is indeed a beautiful country but I felt it is in real danger of being overwhelmed by its social problems. The vast majority of Cape Town residents live in the townships on the Cape Flats and these are growing exponentially with the exodus from rural areas to the major citities. We were told that unemployment runs at around 69% and as a result most of the township residents live a truly hand to mouth existence.

While rich South Africans (both black and white - although predominantly white) get higher fences, bigger dogs and more security guards, the lot of the average South African seems to be worsening.
 
That's interesting. Johanneburg seems to be prospering quite well in comparison. We saw whole new neighborhoods being built to re-house the people in shantytowns in Soweto (which made up a very very small percentage of overall housing there).

The homes in the townships in Soweto are now 80% electrified. Crime in downtown Jo'burg has been reduced 40-80% (differing accounts) after installing CCTV cameras. All around Jo'burg we saw these developments of new homes which look like they're for middle-class blacks.

Jo'burg is the financial capital of S. Africa (all Africa, to be honest) so maybe it's different than in CapeTown. I did hear that unemployment is around 25% there but I also saw a lot of people out on the streets selling random things so I'm sure the unofficial economy is quite large.
 
Now BBS has me worried that we got some totally sheltered view of S. Africa. :(
We tried to get out and talk to people... I hope we weren't totally tourist-blinded. :?
 
I think the fact that Jo'berg is the financial capital must make a difference. They are trying to get 'Mandela Houses' put up in the two townships in Cape Town but progress is really, really slow.

Crime was a big worry at night, but not so much during the day - we did see a lot of people selling stuff on the streets and the best conversation I had on the whole trip was with a 13 year old street kid. He sat outside the window of the bar we were in one lunchtime and we talked about football (premiership and South African) for an hour. He had no shoes and literally was dressed in rags but his English was perfect and he knew his football. His big hope was to play for South Africa in the 2010 World Cup. The manageress of the bar started her shift as we chatted to him and she obviously knew him, as she had a quick chat with him and gave him the remains of her large Mcdonalds drink to finish :(

A strangely sad but uplifting experience which kind of summed up our time in Cape Town.

I hope the country can grow but the other big fear is of an entire generation being lost to AIDS and the social and economic implications this would have for the country.
 
What fantastic pictures, they truely are stunning 8)

And it seems Nitefly isn't the only one with cute dimples ;)
 
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