The Death of Johannesburg Blog

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Maronite Pride

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http://deathofjohannesburg.blogspot.com/

From the same guy who has made the "Why South Africa is Crap" blog.

I think it's pretty good, every time he goes into the jungle he has to bring with him two armed friends, one to watch the car and one to watch him while he's taking a picture. Good work I must say, he’s blog really shows the destruction of an area that was once such a thriving area.
 
Absolutely ghastly, shocking!!
If I didnt know it was JHB I would think it's a poor African Country, like Nigeria, Kenya, Tanzania :eek:
 
Wow I live in Cape Town and i've never seen what those dodge areas look like. Real eye opener. I noticed there's hardly any people though, where are they?
 
Shanty towns are mostly found in developing nations with an unequal distribution of wealth, such as South Africa (where they are often called squatter camps), the Philippines, Argentina (where they are referred to as villas miseria), Venezuela (where they are known as barrios), Brazil (where slums and shanty towns are known as favelas), Peru (where they are known as pueblos jóvenes) and Bulgaria (occupied mostly by marginalized gypsies).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shanty_towns

And it seems some of you have never been to a squatter camp ... you folks should really get out more out of your comfort zones and see how the vast majority of South Africans live.
 
Yes, but these areas (hillbrow, sunnyside) werent always "shanty towns", they have proper buildings that have degenerated, what made them degenerate? (some options: moving out of people to suburbs, crime, careless landlords, illegal immigrants, african culture)
 
I didn't know Hillbrow is representative of Johannesburg. :confused: The nice thing is if you go to any first world country you would be able to get pictures like that if you concentrate on one specific area. There is not one country that hasn't got a "poor" side to it. This guy is sad.
 
PearlJam said:
I didn't know Hillbrow is representative of Johannesburg. :confused: The nice thing is if you go to any first world country you would be able to get pictures like that if you concentrate on one specific area. There is not one country that hasn't got a "poor" side to it. This guy is sad.
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To be fair that isn't just any part of Johannesburg, its the CBD.
 
Creed, Hillbrow isn't that far away from RAU, depends on how you drive there.

The Joburg CBD isn't quite as bad as the pictures of Hillbrow are though, they seem to be trying to do something to make the CBD better.
 
lilDeath said:
Absolutely ghastly, shocking!!
If I didnt know it was JHB I would think it's a poor African Country, like Nigeria, Kenya, Tanzania :eek:
Click to expand...
South Africa has what's known as a dual economy - in fact few countries have such a wide division between the wealthy and the poor.
squirrel said:
Wow I live in Cape Town and i've never seen what those dodge areas look like. Real eye opener. I noticed there's hardly any people though, where are they?
Click to expand...
As a tourist its the first thing you notice flying into CapeTown International and then again when you're driving into town.
 
its around 2km's from RAU
I stay 10 minutes walk away from the Esselen street pictured there, though i haven't gone in that direction for at least 10 years.. the damage happens when businesses leave the area, they pull out their security guards and stop looking after the buildings. The new businesses that replace them don't last long, then no-one wants the space, so the squatters move in and its all over by then. In the CBD there are still some decent areas, look around the banking buildings, where telkom is, parts of Newtown.. nice clean areas, certain parts of Braamfontein as well (Civic Theatre, Constitution Hill), not looking too bad, but thats due to the university and businesses putting resources together to pay for security guards to keeps criminals away, and they clean the streets at the same time!
I think the influx of immigrants into the Hillbrow area has spawned this culture of 'this isn't my land/home/space so I don't need to look after it' and the non-existent municipality isn't doing anything either. Is there a way out? Not unless lots and lots of money gets thrown into those areas by big businesses, but that place is in such disrepair that thats just not going to happen :(
 
bwana v.14 said:
South Africa has what's known as a dual economy - in fact few countries have such a wide division between the wealthy and the poor.As a tourist its the first thing you notice flying into CapeTown International and then again when you're driving into town.
Click to expand...

Think I shouldve worded myself better. I was referring more to Hillbrow. I've been inside places like Khayelitsha
 
icyrus said:
To be fair that isn't just any part of Johannesburg, its the CBD.
Click to expand...

It's not the CBD, it is Hillbrow. I drove through the CBD last week and it wasn't what is portrayed in the pictures
 
I enjoy driving through the CBD about once a week back from Randburg, been doing it for years as well. The improvement in that time is marked.

I must say that I drive through Hillbrow every so often too, the degeneration is frightening, but It's not as dangerous just DRIVING there as people would like you believe.
 
bwana v.14 said:
As a tourist its the first thing you notice flying into CapeTown International and then again when you're driving into town.
Click to expand...

Bu those are squwatter camps, most people acknowledge those. this blog is about inner city deterioation. Which we dont have nearly as much of in Cape Town I am shure.

And the point is that Hillbrow used to be a nice place before immagrants were allowed to over run it. Did you see the police raid on TV, they arrested about 510 people, 470 were illegal immagrants.

However I am very shure that this blog is baised, seeing as it is the same guy who does that other terrible blog. But it is still happening and everyone knows it isnt going to go away. unles they really are doing something, so anyone know what hte government is trying to do? the raid was a nice start..
 
PearlJam said:
I didn't know Hillbrow is representative of Johannesburg. :confused: The nice thing is if you go to any first world country you would be able to get pictures like that if you concentrate on one specific area. There is not one country that hasn't got a "poor" side to it. This guy is sad.
Click to expand...
Maybe the blogger is lamenting about how it 'used to be'? :rolleyes:
 
rasputyn said:
but It's not as dangerous just DRIVING there as people would like you believe.
Click to expand...

Have to agree with u. I drive thru hillbrow everyday. While the place looks bad, there are some better areas. And its a place full of everyday ppl like u n me, its not like every person standing on the street is waiting to rob/murder/rap/hijack u.. this seems to be the image some ppl want to project
 
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