The haves and have-nots

I finally realized the obvious - why I felt uncomfortable going to expensive places here. Normally I like to pamper myself, a nice spa treatment, a fancy restaurant and so forth. But here, it just feels wrong. I can't stand seeing signs indicating that someone poor will not be let in, or knowing that I was only let through the gate without question because I am white / look wealthy. I don't like going to a restaurant where I know that 3/4's of the city's population can't go, and I don't like the disparity between the waiters and the diners. In the US, so many waiters are working students, or other such people moving ahead in life - here they are the poor - but not the very poor - at least they have jobs. There is over 20% unemployment, and about 25% of the people live in the equivalent of shanty-towns. Some live in worse: "unofficial settlements" where there isn't even running water. Then there are the $20 million mansions. It's disgusting. I'm happy to be living amongst the 'middle class' and forgoing comforts that I could afford here. I know I'm here to help those who do great things. It doesn't feel like enough, and I feel strange every time I post photos of lovely settings without showing the daily reality of life here...

Taken from various pages online:
58% of adults have not graduated from high school
20% of the population has HIV
40% live below the poverty line
over 100,000 'informal dwellings' are serviced by the city (have water/electric)
7% of households have no access to save drinking water
The population has grown by about a million in the last decade (from ~3 to 4 million people) - mostly blacks from other parts of southern africa looking for work. 58% of the unemployed were black as of a decade ago - I can imagine it's only gotten much worse. (Compare to a 3% unemployment rate for whites)
10% of the city's GDP and employment is from tourism
rape, theft, and violent crime are serious issues - no one in middle or upper class lives without bars, gates, electric fences, barbed wire, and security systems (usually most of those things)

Powerful, short videos:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7YV32qz2HJg&NR=1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IzOmjXpUFG0&feature=related

Cape town is also one of the most multi-cultural cities in the world, and one of the most beautiful. It has a complex history that colors everything even today. To read more: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cape_Town , and a very different view:
http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/destination/news/newsid=1179174.html (perhaps evidence that the "cape flats" are, as I've been told, though very poor, not as dangerous as the more mixed areas, and slightly above poverty line areas)