This is a township close by to where I live… It is a place that every time I pass by the words: "This is not acceptable" are in my mind, as a reminder of the reality we live in; a reality where some have everything and the majority have nothing.
It is a reminder for what I stand for and what needs to be done to provide these people and many like them the basic human rights.
A month ago I went to see some public schools in an area near by; first, I started with a school that 90% of the children are children to single parents whom are in great poverty. I had a long chat with the Principle of the school who shared with me the problems he is facing with running the school in terms of the budget, the curriculum, the facilities and so forth. In a nutshell, his student have no real chance to make a living in this world as they are doomed to continue the cycle of poverty. Then, I drove 10 min to the other side of the city and entered another primary public school. At first, I was sure it is private school because in comparison to the school in the other side of the city, this school looked like 5 stars hotel. The school had a swimming pool, sport courts, Computer labs, Science lab and so forth. I can only imagine how the private schools look like in South Africa.
It was really difficult to process the idea that in one small city, you have such a huge gap between the haves and the haves not; gap that would determine the future of these kids where some get a chance to live and the others get the chance to do nothing but survive.
In South Africa the gap cannot be ignored - it is everywhere - you can directly see the townships, the poverty, the helplessness and at the same time, you see the wealth, the possibilities, the opportunities that are only available for the few.
The thing is, it seems that we all got used to our current economic status whether we are the ones that have or we are the ones that have not. At first, it didn't make sense to me; I couldn't conceptualize how come everyone accepted this life that we currently live and why there is no apparent change coming up. It took me years to find the answer of why humanity became numb where we do not question the system anymore; the answer to such big question is very simplistic - the source of the problem is within the rotten education system we all grow up with.
The schooling system in this world has becoming a pipe through which our mind is shaped, designed and mold into a robotic human being with no integrity.
In the blogs to come I will specify the statement above and for now, please invest the time to watch 'The Greatest History Lesson' by John Taylor Gatto
Picture taken by Joana Jesus.
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