Festival has been and gone and life returns to normal. Before Festival, I heard some worrying that numbers would be down with all the negative publicity about water failures and so on.
Festival has been and gone and life returns to normal. Before Festival, I heard some worrying that numbers would be down with all the negative publicity about water failures and so on.
Despite the quiet feel of this year’s Festival, it is gratifying to see reports that attendance was actually up on last year. Could it be that the country as a whole is becoming inured to reports about water failures, potholes, municipal incompetence and general government failure?
A view from outside
As I write, I am in Johannesburg, visiting a research lab near the Wits medical school. I took a walk around the Johannesburg Hospital, and it is decrepit beyond description.
A giant escalator, no longer functioning, is full of trash and blocked off from the public by a large frayed chunk of chipboard. The streets are filthy, and many manhole covers are missing.
There are gaping holes for other reasons, like collapse of concrete covers over stormwater drains.
Street lights heading up towards Constitutional Hill have been stripped of wires.
That things are worse somewhere else is not cause for complacency. It is actually shocking that Africa’s biggest, wealthiest city should be in such terrible shape.
What makes it worse is the stark contrast of relative opulence in the vicinity of the Wits facilities, many of which are remodelled out of mining magnate mansions and in relatively good shape.
To add insult to injury, as we walked around the hospital, we had to dodge high-end cars being driven by administrators and doctors on their way home.
The Johannesburg Hospital itself is a monument to the idiocy of apartheid-era urban planning. When it was built, only two people lived within walking distance of the new edifice – Harry Oppenheimer and the Wits Vice-Chancellor.
Now there are more student residences close to the hospital but it is so shabby that it is doubtful that anyone would go there out of choice.
Environmental angle
What, you may be wondering, does any of this have to do with the environment? The urban environment is our habitat.
If we care about wild animals living in pristine nature – whether in preserved wild places or parks – should we not care about how people live? People are social animals with a strong herd instinct.
If a few set the pace for a particular approach to society, everyone else tends to follow. Peer pressure in our society sets many against caring – fixing any of this is not what we do.
Even elementary things like putting trash in a bin is too much. Those of us who do not like that have to counter this by showing we do care. Not just by talk, but in what we do.
That is why the recent clean-up campaigns are so important. If we can reset the 'normal' from being uncaring to being caring, the human species will be back in a desirable habitat.
Selworthy/Taunton Road – Gowie Dam cleanup
Please come and support local residents in Somerset Heights on Saturday 25 July 2015 at 10am.
The dump at Selworthy / Taunton Road (next to Gowie Dam) has been misused and there is rubbish and plastic strewn around in the bushes.
We really need your help as all this litter attracts unwanted visitors and is a health hazard.
Please bring your own bags and gloves and help us get the area surrounding the dump cleaned up between 10am and 12.30pm.
For more information, please contact the organiser, Jenny Brand, on truter6gmail.com
Find us at Makana Environews online: www.grocotts.co.za/environews
Contacts for Makana Enviro-News:
Nikki Köhly: n.kohly@ru.ac.za, 046 603 7205 |
Jenny Gon: j-gon@intekom.co.za, 046 622 5822 |
Rachel Ibbetson: g14i5652@campus.ru.ac.za, 079 951 3005|
Nick James: nickjames@intekom.co.za, 082 575 9781 |
Philip Machanick: p.machanick@ru.ac.za, 046 603 8635 |
Tim Bull: timothybull05@aol.com, 046 622 6044, 076 289 5122
