South Africa: Blinded by Political Science, Alexandra and Sandton, and Caged Cheetahs

I have now learned more about politics in South Africa than I thought possible.

I don’t really remember much of it, though. China’s a big deal! Zuma’s good with people! And some other stuff!

It was a fire hose class and I could only absorb so much.

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I’m not sure there really is a good American comparison for the disparity between Alexandra and Sandton. A half-hour away from smileys being grilled on the street, there’s a bronze statue of Mandela and an assortment of restaurant far nicer than most American strip malls.

No, that wasn’t jarring. Not at all.

On the bright side, I did get a pepperoni pizza. I missed those.

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More political science today. I think I could distill everything to a sentence, but I highly doubt that sentence will be intelligible.

While everyone else was ranting and raving about the lion cubs at Lion Park (which, to be fair, were quite cute), I watched the cheetahs. Those are magnificent animals, the Ferraris of the feline kingdom, if I’ve ever seen magnificence. But they were caged up, pacing, ready to uncoil at any moment.

Cheetahs are not meant to be caged.