Yesterday at Camps Bay Beach there was a girl in line at the ice cream shop who was sickeningly thin, her hands were shaking, and she was talking on the phone about washing her hair. I don't know that I've ever actually heard someone say "well, today I washed my hair then..." - really?? I thought that was just cliche?! Then the 'cute girls' blocking the side walk to make a grand entrance into the fancy car that pulled over to pick them up. Crazy platform heals and loud giggles.
I haven't yet decided why this bothers me - but I have a few suspicions:
- it's unnecessarily impractical - huge platform heals to hang out by the beach? but whatever - this is a minor thing, I used to be impractical when I was young for the sake of looking cute
- the bigger probability: poverty ABOUNDS here - extreme poverty - showing off wealth seems all that more obnoxious when people are begging - why draw that kind of attention to your wealth? why make it so clear that you're a 'have' among 'have nots'?
- priorities - I don't know how these people live - perhaps they have so much excess that the displays of wealth are a drop in the bucket - but likely they are spending money on this instead of other things that I would think are more 'important' - but we can all do more to spend or money toward helping others - I'm no saint there for sure (I'm a one for the common good, three for me kind of girl...)
I don't know... Cape Town is captivating, it holds my heart and always has - but I miss Oregon. I miss the lack of pretense, the lack of judgement, the earthiness of the people. These types are in Cape Town too - I have met them, I must find out where they hang out :)
No comments:
Post a Comment