The Africa Question

Whilst it has been awesome to chill out in CT and to partake in many of the things we have been missing for the last three months is has also made me realise how good we have it. CT is a great city and by African standards it is very well off, but it has some major problems which, to a certain extent, follow you like a cloud, casting a shadow over many of the finer things CT has to offer. I’ll give you just one example that has hit me in the last day or so. The end ofapartheidd was certainly a great time for South Africa and the transition from the old to the new was a huge success compared to other African handovers such as Uganda and Zimbabwe. I would have loved to be able to walk away from Robben Island all warm and fuzzy but the current problems seem so insurmountable, at least in the short term , that it's hard not to be affected by the undercurrent of disillusion and a fear for the future of Africa. As our guide, a political prisoner himself, told us, it's not going to get truly better until our children are running the show. I also spoke to a South African guy who has been living in Australia for 30 years and he was telling me that he hated how Australians think that they are somehow responsible for creating the country we live in. He said It's true that we are part of a society and as individuals we can shape the coarse of our country but most of us haven't spent any time or effort creating the lucky country and if we were born into almost any other society we would be just as screwed as the next soul. Food for thought and certainly food for prayer...

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