Describe what life would be like for an average resident of Alexandra township, the setting for the movie. Be sure to mention how the lack of infrastucture might affect how a resident might live in specific ways. ie. lack of running water and electricity.
This short response should be posted before class on Friday 22 October
Life for the average resident in Alexandra would be difficult. Crime and violence are commonplace, as the police are hesitant about entering the townships. There is nobody present to enforce the law. In place of a police force, gangs rule the streets. Infrastructure is severely lacking because the townships were meant to be non-permanent, however many resident’s families have lived there for generations. Though many have made Alexandra their home, the township still does not provide running water or electricity to its residents. There is a communal source for water with long lines. One can only bring back as much water as one can carry. A limited amount of water makes daily life difficult. The cramped living conditions with open sewage are a harbor for disease. The animals roaming the streets also contribute to the ease at which illness can spread. Rain results in muddied streets and weakens the already sub-standard homes. The metal sheets that comprise many shacks rust or can be dragged away in a storm. Overall, the living conditions in Alexandra would be unsafe, unclean, and unstable.
ReplyDeleteA solid post Abby. You also might consider the lack of schools and healthcare available to people in the townships which obviously adds to their hardships
ReplyDeleteLife for the average inhabitant of Alexandra would be akin to residence in a hive. Outsiders are wary of the danger within and stay clear, but inside it is a buzzing hub. Shacks are built haphazardly one another like honeycomb cells, atop and aside one another. Generations of families live together. There is a lively camaraderie; neighbors eat together outside, people populate shebeens; in the tightly packed area, there is an unavoidable intimacy. However, despite the feeling of community, living conditions are not kind. Lack of educational opportunities makes upward mobility an impossible dream for most (not to mention the necessity of leaving one’s family at the rare opening of such an option), and healthcare options for its 400,000 people are substandard, nonexistent, or limited to traditional healers. During the rainy season, shacks are flooded. During the dry months, fires consume many homes. Water and electricity are not provided; one must go to a communal water source and bring back as much as he or she can carry. Many residents suffer from “apartheid of the mind” and cannot imagine leaving. Overall, daily life in Alexandra would be a picture of poverty, limited resources, and community.
ReplyDeleteLife would be hard and fast for the average resident of Alexandra. Water, maybe clean, maybe less-so, must be carried in buckets from its source to the home. Car batteries, wires, and hand-held bulbs light the houses of some, but others must rely on flame for light after dark. The lack of a sewage system and general lack of sanitation turns the township into a disease-ridden mess, and doctors are scarce or non-existent. If residents get sick, there is not much for them to do but rely on their friends and family to care for them, but as sanitation is so poor, this could well result in sickness for those caring for the original sick person. No paved roads in the township mean that few from outside the township can penetrate it far without difficulty, and this includes the police. Police cannot keep control in the center-less, shifting, sprawling mass of shacks that are so flimsy as to be washed away by floods. Most residents also have no access to education either for themselves or for their children. This means that those who grow up in the township often build no skills early on to enable them to leave the township and establish themselves elsewhere. Poverty and few jobs to speak of add with lack of education to the mounting obstacles to establishing a life outside of the township. Crime is rampant. Gangs and minor thugs have some amount of control over their corners of the township, and the police do little to fight crime in the township. There is also no one to go to for crimes committed within the township, no local government to enforce laws or punish criminals. Life for most would be a difficult cycle of poverty, ignorance, and violence, with only a small chance of escape for the township-dwellers of the next generation.
ReplyDeleteJohn Heenan
ReplyDeleteThe lack of developed amenities in Alexandra, of the type we take for granted in America, would drastically impact the life of an inhabitant of that environment.
The lack of common infrastructure, including power, water, and sanitation, leave the residents scrambling to come up with alternative sources for these basic necessities. While it might be possible to engineer an electrical system out of a car battery, this solution is (relatively) expensive and presents many hazards, including fire. Similarly, the lack of running water make basic sanitation and cleaning difficult, and the haphazard sources make it impossible to be sure if the water is safe to drink. The sanitation issues would mean that streets are polluted, and groundwater would be easily contaminated. Together, these make living in the township a difficult task.
In addition to the lack of basic resources, the lack of more complex resources, such as medical and police services, further impacts the residents. The inability to rapidly secure quality medical attention undoubtedly results in unnecessary hardship and death. The lack of a fire department means that a small spark can result in the destruction of vast numbers of dwellings. This fire would rapidly consume the sub-code buildings and destroy all of the inhabitant's earthly possession, in some cases taking the peoples inside as well. The lack of a police presence, and a police response, means that crime is rampant and unchecked, further complicating life for the township's residents. This lack of civil service leaves a gap which is filled by warlords, men who step in and "secure" a neighborhood by allowing only crime which they have sanctioned to take place and likely collecting protection money from those living in the area.
Together, the abject poverty and lack of municipal services results in a cycle of poverty that makes it almost impossible for someone to escape the townships, for if they were to try they would be faced with the possibility of leaving behind their family and friends.
Together, these factors create a situation in the township that is very much unenviable, and precludes the development of the region or the people living there.
Life for the average resident of Alexandra township would be difficult. Many live inside of the cramped quarters. Houses are cheaply made out of metal sheets and rust easily due to rain. The winding dirt roads are prone to becoming mud during rain season. Sewage litters the township and is in close quarters to the where people live. There is a lack of running water and people must line up behind a water pump in order to get a bucket-full of water to carry home. The limited supply of water makes it for many things to be done. The township also lacks electricity and makes life difficult on people. Some improvise and use car batteries as a source of power (Tsotsi). During winter and nights the townships get very cold and cannot be heated by electricity and therefore makes sleeping through the night hard. Diseases run rampant due to open sewage, lack of sanitary living conditions, and loose dogs on the streets. HIV/AIDS spread through the community. Lack of health care makes life difficult for people living in the townships because they cannot heal from diseases or receive treatment for HIV/AIDS. The township is rampant with crime and cannot be patrolled by police because of the number of people and lack of knowledge of who and where people are. Therefore, gangs run the townships and many teenagers and kids join these. Many illegal bar establishments have been made and many drink in these. Obviously, alcohol is another contribution to crimes in the township.
ReplyDeleteLiving in Alexandra would be a day to day struggle. Everywhere you turn there would be people upon people. Having any sort of privacy would be nearly impossible. The ability to live in a shack with any more than one or two rooms would probably be considered a more well off person in the township. On top of that, from all sides the elements would constantly wreak havoc on the house. Dirt floors, tin roofs, and thin walls provide for a cold, wet, and generally uncomfortable living environment. An equally more troubling problem is that there is no way to dispose of your trash and no place to sanitarily use the bathroom. This leads to an overall unhealthy and quite disgusting place to live, with a large risk of illness. To add to all of these conditions, there is no easy way to get water since there is no plumbing whatsoever. They need to take it from pumps and possibly walk long distances. In addition, there is not a guarantee that the water is great quality.
ReplyDeleteOne of the worst things, over than the living conditions, is the constant threat of crime and violence in the townships. This violence is so far reaching that it is near impossible to avoid it. With such a large concentration of people and no law enforcement, other than each other, the possibility of crime increases tremendously. On the other side of that is the fact that for a lot of people it is a necessity. Even if you have the morals telling you that violence is crime, for most of the residents it is the only way to survive and keep their families alive. It is a vicious cycle of pain, hunger, and desperation.
In a community ridden with corruption, deprived of basic necessities, and plagued with disease, life is seldom easy. The Alexandra township is no exception. Without running water, reliable or affordable electricity, and access to sanitation or adequate police forces, the people of Alexandra are forced to live in less than desirable conditions. One of the biggest problems in the townships is crime, which is so high because of the cramped quarters and lack of law enforcement. Much like in the movie, it is common for a person to be mugged on his or her way home and the lack of safety in the community makes it difficult to raise children.
ReplyDeleteAlong with just fearing for their lives, the people of Alexandra have to deal with disease and lack of sanitation prevalent in the streets. HIV/AIDS is a major health concern in the townships and is spreading like wild fire because of poor sexual practices including a lack of sexual education for young adults. The result is a spread of the disease that could overtake some African townships in as few as 10 years. Sewage is also a major health concern because the lack of plumbing leaves people with few options when they need to discard their waste. The presence of this disease ridden excrement is the carrier of many airborne diseases and other major health risks. It is only a matter of time until the hazardous conditions of the townships cause them to fall apart and die along with the thousands of people that have passed through there.
Life in a South African township is, as a general rule, extremely difficult. For starters, the infrastructure and layout of townships is lacking and disorganized. The houses, more accurately called shacks, are made of miscellaneous materials, such as pieces of corrugated iron, and usually do not have a sturdy or permanent floor. When the townships flood, as they often do, the shacks become filled with water. Also, the houses are crammed almost on top of each other; there is no structured layout of the townships. This close contact combined with a lack of adequate drainage or a sewage system results in poor living conditions and sometimes disease. There is no running water or electricity, meaning the residents must go to a public well for water and must rely on batteries to power electric devices.
ReplyDeleteAlso, the opportunities provided in a township to further your living standards are limited. There are little to no job opportunities, leading to an increase in crime in South Africa. The townships are difficult to police, especially because there is no order to them (ie. No street numbers, etc) and because the residents are not legally registered (the townships are not listed as their legal residence), so usually the police do not even bother to enter the townships. Due to the lack of physical and social order, gangs and other thugs rule the streets of the townships. There is such a nonexistence of opportunity in the townships that many families often stay there for generations; it is not uncommon to see families building off of or around their family members’ shacks. The result of this is a cycle of poverty that most find very difficult or nearly impossible to escape.
Living in the township of Alexandra is a much different style of living than we experience here in Carlsbad California. The setting of the movie Tsotsi, takes place in the Alexandra where unstable society, disease, and crime are seen all over the township everyday. A lack of infrastructure is serious in Alexandra, no running or electricity is available to the large quantity of people in Alexandra. Education, public safety, healthcare and an effective sewage system are also not present in Alexandra.
ReplyDeletePublic safety is a serious problem within the township and also on the bordering communities of Alexandra. As seen in the movie, police were hesitant to going into the township for a number of reasons. The law enforcement within townships in minimal to non-existent, incidents of crime and violence happen everyday without punishment therefore it continues to happen everyday. Overall, living in Alexandra would be very difficult because of its lack of hygiene, stability, and law enforcement.
Living in a township first off by an extremely un-enjoyable experience. To start off there is no running water and no sewage. This would presumably lead to very bad hygiene. This then would lead to a massive amount of disease. Disease would only be aided by the lack of other essential services within the Townships one of which being hospitals which simply could not exist there for the lack of electricity. As well a lack of electricity and cabling of any kind would prevent most access to the outside world. This would include no land line telephones, no cable TV, and no internet access. Also with a lack of libraries or school the residents of the townships would be all but cut off from the outside world and any kind of education. Also people in the townships would be cut off from essential government services like fire and police. This would mean that crime would rampant with no way of countering it and if a fire broke out there would be virtually no one to combat it. Also without a proper foundation your home would be very easily washed away in heavy rains or at least flooded, destroying most of your possessions in the process. Also without rights to the land the government could bull doze your land at anytime. Also the lack of proper roads would make travel difficult. However, once one left the township one could enter the civilized South Africa and be on one's merry way. There is also culture in the township but it would be a far cry from the culture that the first world or the rest of South Africa has access to.
ReplyDeleteLife for the average resident of the Alexandra Township would be rough. This is a ramification of the large number of inhabitants compared to the amount of land ratio. The Alexandra Township has a lack of running water, electricity, sanitation, infrastructure, education, and healthcare. These many factors coexisting with the townships poor inhabitants to land ratio leads to many issues such as a short life expectancy, a high rate of disease do to the crowded people in an are with low sanitation levels, and a lack of pluming. Also, there is little to no attempt in educating the children of the townships destining them to a future that is similar to that of there previous generation of family. This lack of education limits peoples of the townships choice of profession thus disallowing them to one-day break away from the township and the many ramifications it brings to its people.
ReplyDeleteThe largest problem in the townships is the lack of infrastructure. There is no running water and few even decently constructed living spaces or electricity. The residents of the townships risk, although the risk was much higher during the apartheid days, being forced out of their homes by the government because they do not own the land that they live on. There are few, if any, legal jobs in the townships and moving from the townships is rare. There are few schools and hospitals and so diseases such as AIDS are a serious problem for township dwellers.
ReplyDeleteThere is also the issue of crime. In the townships, there are many different people from very distinct backgrounds who have all been crowded into one place with little economic potential. However, while many of the indigenous ethnic groups of subsaharan Africa are represented, there are few if any whites in the townships. Crime, from drug violence, to theft to murder and rape is a major problem for those in the townships. Many children in the townships are orphaned by murder or disease but in general, everyone is very poor and very desperate, creating a volatile mix, the reason that many anti-apartheid protests came from townships like Soweto.
So many of the amenities that we use in our daily lives to make life easier exist because of availability of electricity and running water. Take these two things away, and the standard of living is immediately reduced to a minimal level. No running water leads to lack of hygiene which leads to disease. Sick people cannot contribute effectively to a community because they are too busy trying to survive as opposed to work. No real power grid means that advanced businesses cannot exist apart from bars or bartering markets. There can therefore be no basis for a free market economy to develop which is a reason for the basis of poverty. There is little interest from the government to refurbish an enormous township of over a million people. With no money, townshippers cannot invest in roads or permanent housing made of bricks or wood. Instead they must reside in little shacks with no central heating, running water, or stable base. These can be swept away in an instant during a flood or fire leaving an already destitute people with nothing in reality. No running water or permanent buildings mean that amenities for a successful life such as schools, libraries, hospitals, fire stations, and police stations cannot exist to better the lives of children and people. No running water means that parks and sports centers can't exist either. Children as a result have no activities to occupy themselves with and resort to gangs as a way to spend their time.
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