Khayelitsha
Just outside the airport of Cape Town, more than a million people live in Khayelitsha. I met a few. Makes you wonder how come God treats us with such kid gloves.
Just outside the airport of Cape Town, more than a million people live in Khayelitsha. I met a few. Makes you wonder how come God treats us with such kid gloves.
wonderful pics .
These children are adorable.
Yes they are. And they live in as close to hell as you could get on earth. I think we must do something about this.
Okay, but as you know many of the ways that people and governments try to address poverty are little more than conscience appeasement for those doing the giving. As such, the “help” does not address the underlying issues, and often exacerbates them. So what is the Hebraic way of reaching out here?
P.S. I’ll be spending a couple of weeks in Ethiopia at the end of this month,… so I am especially interested in this discussion. I just ordered a book called “When Helping Hurts” to try and get some perspective here, but it seems that most discussions get bogged down in ‘material allocation’ strategies while neglecting the deeper ‘spiritual’ issues.
To do effectively, needs understanding of the history and origins of these people.
Their present location and plight are mainly the result of an ideological (terrorists) political strategy. Similar to what ISIS (terrorists) is currently executing in Europe.
The strategic influx / infiltration of indigenous nationals into the Cape started in the 1980’s, but it was exploited by illegal immigrants to the extend that in 1992, there we an estimated 2 million illegal immigrants in the Western Cape (with a total of 10 million in the rest of SA in total). Taking into account the 30 + million of local inhabitants that died from HIV / AIDS between 1984 and 1998, reducing the indigenous population from 80 million to about 44 million, adding in protracted / excruciating / untenable bereavement, the emptiness left was thick as a tarpit.
Yet … the humans lived, laughed and multiplied.
Bottom-line: Their plight is the result of interference. The truth is that the Country is wealthy enough to manage these situations. The problem is that careless, albeit well intended intervention may, as happened in Ethiopia, worsen the long-term situation.
Thank-you. Taken to heart. It would appear that spiritual help or the development of righteousness is the primary need – materials concerns are derivative…. as it is everywhere. Now, to balance this with James’ admonitions in his epistle.
Yes, spiritual needs are important, but then no one can disciple a stranger and as far as I could see, there was only ONE WHITE WOMAN who ventured to even be part of the community. What does that say about us? Would you move there if God called you?
Pieter, AND ALL, THANKS FOR WRITING THIS INFORMATION; AND TO EVERYONE, I AM NOT SUGGESTING AT ALL THAT YOU DO THIS: HOWEVER, I HAVE A GRANDDAUGHTER AND GRANDSON-IN-LAW THAT MANAGED TO EARN ABOVE THEIR BARE LIVING EXPENSES, and ADOPT TWO BOYS FROM ETHIOPIA, TO THE TUNE OF ABOUT $50,000. THE PARENTS ARE 32 AND 30 YEARS OLD. THE BOYS ARE SUPPOSED TO BE OF JEWISH DESCENT AND BIO BROTHERS.
I SAW THEM DURING THE THANKSGIVING DAYS. ACTUALLY THEY CAME WITH THEIR FAMILY AND GOT ME TO TAKE ME TO AUSTIN. THE ADOPTED BOYS AGES ARE 9 AND 7. MY GRANDDAUGHTER HOME SCHOOLS THEM, AND THEIR THREE NATURAL CHILDREN. THE SEVEN YEAR OLD HAS A SEVERE STOMACH DISORDER, AND IS ON A SEVERE DIET, OR ELSE!!
SEVERAL FAMILIES ARE ADOPTING THESE CHILDREN ACROSS THE U.S.. THESE BOYS WERE LEFT ON THE STREET, THE YOUNGEST WAS AN INFANT. THE OLDER ONE IS DOING WELL, AND PLAYS ON SOCER TEAM.
I KNOW THAT I WROTE SOME OF THIS PREVIOUSLY, BUT I AM PLEASED TO KNOW THAT NUMEROUS FAMILIES ARE ADOPTING SOME OF THESE CHILDREN. I KNOW THAT I PERSONALLY COULD NOT HAVE TAKEN ONE IN EVEN WHEN I WAS THIRTY YEARS OLD! THEREFORE, I AND MY HUSBAND DID NOT ENCOURAGE OR HELP THEM IN THIS ENDEAVOR. AND SEVERAL THAT I KNOW ABOUT HAVE BEEN “GREAT TRIALS AND TRIBULATIONS TO THEIR ADOPTED PARENTS. iT APPEARS THAT OFTEN THE GOV OF THESE THIRD WORLD COUNTRIES LET ONLY THOSE WITH KNOWN HEALTH DISEASES AND DISABLITIES BE ADOPTED.
. THIS GRAND-SON-INLAW IS A MUSIC MINISTER & SONG WRITER, NOW IN A BAPTIST CHURCH. HE HAD HIS TIME OF GREAT SORROWS WHEN HIS PARENTS DIVORCED & “LFET HIM ON THE ST. AT 16, WE MET HIM AND TOOK HIM IN UNDER OUR WINGS TO HELP HIM GET AN EDUCATION. AND GET STARTED IN HIS MUSIC FIELD. HE IS AN AMERICAN AND WHITE, AND MUCH GOD GIVEN TALENT. HE IS GREATLY BLESSED, AND WE ARE, TOO. HE IS ONE OF 14 GRANDCHILDREN OR SPOUSES, AND NOW TEN GREAT- GRANDCHILDREN. FOR MY DECEASED HUSBAND AND ME.
While your analysis highlights some of the problem, one must not overlook the incredible corruption and violence of the ANC after Mandella. Consider the genocide of White farmers, the exorbitant expenditures of public funds on private luxuries (the President is currently purchasing a 4 Billion Rand airplane) and the local incompetence rampant throughout the BEE. This might have begun as an historical issue, but today it is very much a political one.
Skip, You are so on target on this, and the movie on Nelson Mandela that showed in the U.S., must have cost as much as the new president’s plane. They made Mandela a total saint, and many people I know, declared him ONE. Very few of Americans or anyone living, have much knowledge of the world and its political issues. Not on this earth, are we able to know all, and sing the part of Amazing Grace, that states in part, ” once I was blind, but Now I Can See-“–
-Be blessed today in all you do! What a glorious life all of us have had–compared to most of the people living now and throughout history! That is for all people on Skips’ post, too.
The Isrealites had the wilderness test of scarcity, then they were given the test of affluence in the Promised Land. The churches in the U.S. are in midst of a ‘fire by plenitude’, and we are dropping like flies.
Centuries of colonization—this is part of what ails the world when we speak in terms of our personal ethnic collective experiences, knowledge and cultural up-bringing.
663 million people live without clean water. I’m sure people have their charities but just in case you’re looking for one. charitywater.org
100% goes to providing water. My meager donation is at work in Malawi.