Driving back through Wupperthal I was again surprised with the beauty and tranquility of the place. Something that struck me was how the quaint houses are all overlooking the small veg patches across the road and I could not help but wonder what went wrong in the modern city of today. Why is it that land had to be given up for more houses, businesses and factories, valuable land that were producing food. Land that would space us apart somewhat and land that would help to recycle the organic wast we produced, but most important, land that would give communities a sense of purpose and pride. We have allowed councils to make decisions on our behalf of how our towns should be structured and never have we questioned the "authority" of city planers and architects who left us with a legacy of gray, unattractive, miserable, grid-lined cities, fit only for paid slaves to live in.
God, I don't know how most people can't see how ugly Cape Town really is. We have been relying to long on the table and the bay to hide this mess and then they think they can dolly it up with a god-awful stadium and long overdue highways and bypasses that would not have been needed if people would choose to live and work and produce the bulk of their food and basic needs inside their communities.
But as long as we allow capitalism and consumerism to run unchecked will we slowly turn our world into a wasteland, sucking dry all resources to wastefully dispose of cheaply made unneeded goods and to poison our soils with the production of cheap and good looking food grown in record times, wrapped in harmful artificial packaging. Convenience, convenience is written all over everything we do, but what happened to real peacefulness, or friendliness or happiness. What happened to our communities and our sense of social well being.
Today I have to admit that I am poor, poor in my soul because nothing I do can satisfy me, as it all ends up being for one purpose alone and that is to be able to pay the bills at the end of the month and if I am lucky I can venture here into this incredible beauty knowing that one day we will all live like the Wupperthalers out of choice or because we will be forced by economic collapse due to rising prices as resources are becoming more scarce and harder to come by.
Sorry for the moment of philosophical venting but when I am meandering along endless Karoo highways I can't help but think about these things. I guess it is the fresh Karoo air and being able to stand back from it all that allow me to clearly see the error of our ways.
