It's no secret that countries, states, and cities want a picture perfect image when they may be the home to some popular events like the Super Bowl, the Olympics, and the World Cup. In 1996, the city of Atlanta initiated the removal of 15,000 public housing residents in order to make room for Centennial Park (www.ryanvande.com). More recently, the City of Detroit initiated a city wide "clean up" for the homeless, placing them in shelters, prior to Super Bowl XL in 2008. Now, the government of South Africa has displaced thousands of the impoverished people from Cape Town in order to create a postcard image for those tuning in to see the World Cup.
According to an article printed in The Washington Post, thousands of people found themselves being forced to relocate into an area of Delft, Cape Town, nicknamed Blikkiesdorp, which in Afrikaans means "tin-can town." Blikkiesdorp is a temporary relocation camp made up of over 1,000 one room, iron corrugated, shacks, that are about 193 square feet in size. Typically, one shack houses five or more people and four units share one bathroom.
Blikkiesdorp has a high crime rate, the living conditions are below poverty level, and the living environment extreme; many of the residents use duct tape to hold their roof and walls together during high winds and/or rain. Conditions like these are breeding grounds for diseases but the site is so far away from the city itself that it makes finding transportation to medical clinics extremely difficult. The children rarely go to school because of transportation and the security on the site is ridiculous; guards patrol frequently with K9 dogs and the entire site is surrounded by barbed wire.
South Africa's government had $450 million to spend on a new stadium but can't seem to find the funds to provide these people, whom they have uprooted from their own living quarters, with adequate living space. This is not a situation that should be "swept under the rug." There is no such thing as a "picture perfect" anything; everything has a dark side and Blikkiesdorp exploits the underlying issues that still remain 16 years after the end of apartheid; this time its a segregation of class more than it is race. They have been placed in what may as well be a concentration camp and left there; but left there until when? The South African government says that the money it has put into constructing the new stadiums and new businesses in the Cape Town area will provide more jobs, raise living standards, and open up more opportunities. It sounds like a bunch of empty promises made to pacify the situation. The truth is that the government placed its image over its people and that is something that will never change any where. The lower class will never matter to the upper class in any country unless we all come together and demand change. Sounds like we're in need of a revolution. What do you think?
For the complete story and more images, please visit www.washingtonpost.com
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