Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Across the World

I was recently thinking about the time I spent in South Africa--the experiences I had working in impoverished communities there vs. San Francisco. Not surprisingly there are many differences, social, economical, political, and historical, but there are also a few important similarities.

I spent much of my time in South Africa working in the Nyanga and Masphumalele townships outside of Cape Town. One striking similarity, was the degree of economic and social inequality that exists in Cape Town as well as San Francisco. While the former is on a much larger scale, the spectrum of wealth and poverty in Cape Town is very similar to that of San Francisco, and for that matter, most major cities in the United States. Living in the Nyanga Township, people face many of the same problems seen in the San Francisco Tenderloin--lack of adequate housing and health care--persistent violence, pervasive drug use, and the abuse of women.

I have seen people smoking tic (methanphetamine) on the streets of Masphumalele, and I see patients struggling with their meth addictions everyday in our clinic. I have heard the horrible stories of women being raped and contracting HIV in Nyanga and our patients being raped and abused in the Tenderloin.

These two countries have some of the greatest disparities in wealth in the world--yet the United States is always seen as "different" or "paramount" to African nations. I think some self reflection is desperately needed.

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