{"id":604,"date":"2016-12-13T09:42:45","date_gmt":"2016-12-13T09:42:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jonelkon.com\/?p=604"},"modified":"2016-12-13T09:42:45","modified_gmt":"2016-12-13T09:42:45","slug":"house-shopping","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jonelkon.com\/jnlk\/house-shopping\/","title":{"rendered":"House Shopping"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is not a decapitated dog<\/em><\/p>\n

Turns out Number 1 Son (who is also Number 2 and 3 son as he is in fact the only son. He is also Number 1 Child as I have no other. I mention this because I will be calling him Sunwun throughout.) needs a new house. Not that the old one in Oranjezicht is falling down or anything, but relocation became necessary when a concatenation of unavoidable events required that Sunwun, from being one of a pair, became a single. This is not something I choose to go into here, though I will certainly fictionalise it at some point in the future, when it has stopped hurting.<\/p>\n

So roped into the process as the indulgent parent, I went, accompanied by Number 1 Daughter of Sunwun, to inspect a house to rent in Hout Bay.<\/p>\n

Hout Bay: Pronounced, dear Brits and Yanks, \u2018Hote\u2019 or, if you are in the mood to anglicise it, \u2018Howt.\u2019. \u2018Bay\u2019 is pronounced Bay. \u2018Hout\u2019 means wood. So this place name joins the ranks of the daftest and least original names in the world. For example, \u2018Cape Town.\u2019 Being the Town that is situated on the Cape. Great name. In fact the whole province is called \u2018The Cape\u2019 which is spectacularly boring. Why \u201dTable Mountain\u201d \u2013 it looks like a table\u2026What was the original Khoi or San name? And the best example, \u2018South Africa\u2019, because the country is in the south. Yes, of Africa.<\/p>\n

Uh, wait a minute. \u2018Wood Bay?\u2019 Huh?<\/p>\n

Once a precious little fishing village, the town is a few miles south of Cape Town on the M63, a journey of about 40 minutes along one of the most awe-inspiring roads in the world. Once the hump between Table Mountain and Lions Head has been surmounted, the road swings merrily along the Atlantic seaboard on the right, mountains on the left past some of the prettiest beaches you can imagine. It\u2019s the African Cote d\u2019Azur, much more physically grand than the French version, and with cheaper food. Bigger mountains. Bluer ocean, with whales.<\/p>\n

Hout Bay has gone from a period of white middle class expansion to a sudden stop. The expansion halted. Stopped. Started to reverse. Because with a suddenness that threw all the balls into the air, a squatter camp appeared just off a roundabout and right near the main road.. Called Imizamo Yethu which means \u201cthrough our collective efforts\u201d, this raggedy corrugated-iron and scrap wood township houses around 20,000 mainly black or \u201cColoured\u201d (mixed race) residents on about 44 acres.<\/p>\n

And so the preening middle-class white residents proceeded to lay eggs and allegations, mainly to do with the increase in the crime rate.<\/p>\n

So yes, there is crime in Hout Bay. Apparently. I wrote about how the ice cream parlour lady faced three gunmen a couple of weeks ago, and all the white smart houses have fences topped with electrified wire. Signs proclaiming \u2018Armed Response\u2019 and \u201924 Hour Surveillance\u2019 are attached to each gate. The roaring of horribly betoothed hellhounds permeates the air.<\/p>\n

And yet \u2013 and yet \u2013<\/p>\n

The house on xxxx street is a typical bourgeois South African bungalow. Spread over a hillside, with a sparkling swimming pool and Khoi Carp pond, surrounded by razor wire and electric fence, \u201cthree bedrooms, , and thoroughly modern state-of the art capacious kitchen and dining room, this is a home built for entertainment and luxurious living. Your comfort and safety are assured in this exclusive part of Hout Bay\u2026At only R25,000 per month\u2026\u201d (Estate Agent\u2019s description)<\/p>\n

\u201cVery nice\u201d, said Sunwun daughter.<\/p>\n

\u201cVery nice\u201d I agreed.<\/p>\n

The next day we had another appointment, this time to view a house for sale. Only R2.8 million. \u201cSo cheap!\u201d said Sunwun. This time daughter was not present; she had gone off to Summer Camp to be indoctrinated into some arcane religion or other.<\/p>\n

The appointment was rather convenient, as we had been invited to a \u2018Braaivleis\u2019 \u2013 barbecue \u2013 by a dear old flame of Sunwun, an Italian of delightful dottiness and a streak of purest power, who lived in Hout Bay. The viewing was at three, giving us plenty of time for lazing by the pool and doing splashy things, chatting in the 29 degree sun or hiding from it, with a small crowd of adults and kids with a distinctly Italian flavour. Just a bunch of friends by a pool in South Africa, 2016.<\/p>\n

So we did that, and what was going through my head was this: actually what is the difference between 2016 December Cape Town and 1990 December Cape Town? Could I transport this lot back in time to pre-apartheid SA and notice any difference? Apart from the iphones?<\/p>\n

No.<\/p>\n

In 1980 if you\u2019d asked me what the difference might be in 2016, were Apartheid to have been peacefully dismantled (and who would have believed that could have happened?) I would have painted this word picture:<\/p>\n

A beautiful suburb of Madiba City, Tambo Bay, in the world heritage country that is Azania. The sun sits up there like a fat ginger cat on fire. Below, the Townlet is a thriving community, having a Sunday the way a gourmet has each course at a Michelin restaurant. The streets brim with bright-coloured peacockery, friends wander from restaurant to bar to caf\u00e9 to home to the swimming pool\u2026<\/p>\n

In this fantasy world the garden would be filled with a jolly chatty crowd of all colours \u2013 and none of the individuals in the crowd would think for one moment about the colour of anyone\u2019s skin. Just, as MLK said, \u201cthe content of their characters\u201d. There would be all the genders. All the sexualities. The conversation would be about arts, about the Just Society, about how to distribute wealth. The main topic would be how to counter climate change. Not how much everyone hates Mr Zuma. There would be no electrified fence. There would certainly be no squatter camp\u2026<\/p>\n

I said this to Sunwun whose response was, with a tinge of annoyance, \u201cmuch too soon! You still see everything through the lens of race!\u201d and I guess that\u2019s true. All of us, all who grew up in the Apartheid era, are damaged. Wounded. Our minds are forever tainted. \u201cMy daughter, your granddaughter \u2013 \u201c he continued, \u201cshe doesn\u2019t see race. She just sees people.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd appreciate, \u201c he added, \u201chow far we\u2019ve come. All those lovely people at the barbecue hate racism as much as you do. That\u2019s progress, that\u2019s evolution. They are proud to be South African. And their children will take that to the next level\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

So yes, he\u2019s right. Evolution away from something so perverted, so abnormal as Apartheid has to be slow.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I just wish it would bloody hurry up.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The house for sale was the direct opposite of the rental property of the previous day.. While it had the same space, the (totally algaed) swimming pool, it was grubby and shabby and neglected. There was no electrified fence. \u201cWhat\u2019s the point?\u201d the lady of the house asked, \u201cWe keep windows and doors open. They can see in. They can see we\u2019ve got nothing worth stealing.\u201d<\/p>\n

We asked her why she had no dog. \u201cThey just throw poisoned meat over the fence,\u201d she said. \u201cSo we don\u2019t bother.\u201d<\/p>\n

Depressed, we went into the shopping area to seek out Perroni beers as requested by our host.<\/p>\n

Suddenly I felt as if I was in Africa. The streets full of all races, all classes. An atmosphere of bustle and business. When smiles erupted on children\u2019s faces, the world lit up. I felt totally safe. My son greets people, any people, with a charming brotherliness that gains instant love from strangers. By the time we track down some Perroni I\u2019m feeling strangely high, stupidly happy.<\/p>\n

I love this place. I love its present, and I love its future.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

In my LAST letter, which will probably be tomorrow \u2013 depending on jet lag issues, I will sum up\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is not a decapitated dog Turns out Number 1 Son (who is also Number 2 and 3 son as he is in fact the only son. He is also Number 1 Child as I have no other. I mention…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":605,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-604","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-thoughts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonelkon.com\/jnlk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/604","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonelkon.com\/jnlk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonelkon.com\/jnlk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonelkon.com\/jnlk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonelkon.com\/jnlk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=604"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/jonelkon.com\/jnlk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/604\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":608,"href":"https:\/\/jonelkon.com\/jnlk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/604\/revisions\/608"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonelkon.com\/jnlk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/605"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonelkon.com\/jnlk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=604"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonelkon.com\/jnlk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=604"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonelkon.com\/jnlk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=604"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}