The world looks like this from here.

                      

Alexandra township in the foreground with Sandton (Africa's richest square mile in the background) photo provided by iStockhttps://www.istockphoto.com/photo/license-gm1197085689-?utm_medium=organic&utm_source=google&utm_campaign=iptcurl

Ever wondered why and how it is that some parts of the world are so destitute, conflict ridden with seemingly no hope in sight? Ever wondered further what it must be like to live in those areas of the world? Well, I am not a resident of a war driven nation, but I am a citizen of a nation where gated well-heeled neighbourhoods contend with sprawling urban informal settlements. Where increasing urban decay and poverty is countered by growing commercial nodes far from the pothole infested slums that used to be central business districts. Interesting right? how on Earth can a nation with 45% of the world's gold have a 69% (as of 2021) youth unemployment?  

The world looks like this from here. The rich and poor don't live in different sides of town. Here, women and men migrate across town to work in "Kitchens" and people's backyards. A few fortunate have the opportunity to reside in "staff quarters". The history of this place is plagued by colourism, suffering, racial segregation, and white supremacy of a minority. In this part of the world, connectedness is more valuable than a university degree, heck even a PhD graduate is a waitress in an eclectic coffee shop on the side of the road connecting any of the gated communities with local strip malls. Here, you will find a single mother of five cleaning sidewalks while a cardiologist married to a CEO is catching branch with her girls from the Pilates class.  

Here, the government has one of the largest dispensations of social security systems in the world. In fact, here, we are the only nation in the world where it is possible to get free basic education, a funded higher education, free government housing,  water, electricity and access to the largest HIV treatment system on the planet. Great right? Not so much. 1 in three women has been a victim of rape. We are the rape capital of the world. Kindly mind that this is only based on reported cases.

Here, electricity power cuts have been named Load shedding. See while government is busy dispensing 'wonderful' healthcare, educational, national infrastructure facilities, services, and garnering investor interests, we grew so much as a nation that the national grid could not keep up. So, because some of our citizens happen to be forgotten by government in catering out some of the abovementioned services, they opt to provide such to themselves. 

Here, a sub section of the minority group that ruled the nation for the past 300 years, have since broken away to form their own "nation-state' in the country. We aren't really having it; they are just the black sheep of the nation. Here, fathers, uncles and brothers were shot and killed for merely demanding fair pay from rich and well-endowed mining institutions. Here, a child of a domestic worker sits in a lecture hall of a prestigious institution that historically catered to the child of her mother's employer, who happens to be in the same room, pondering about where internationally to take his soon to be completed degree. 

Here, we are often referred to as the rainbow nation, diverse and united. We are one of the relatively few nations in this part of the world to have been colonized, dispossessed of land, history, heritage and yet not a single coup in sight. We are the most protest rich nation in the world. A truly incredible African miracle indeed. The world looks like this from here. It is two nations in one, while another side of town seems like the dusty streets of Kinshasa, the other resembles the paved tree lined streets of Melbourne. The World looks like this from here.