City of Gold

The best thing about Johannesburg, South Africa, is leaving it. I had the misfortune to be born there, and the good sense to leave it as soon as I could. Unfortunately my father and sister still live there, despite my many enticements to leave.

There are beautiful things about Johannesburg: the perfect weather, endless blue skies and sunshine, the thousands of birds. At heart though, the city remains an overgrown mining town, inhabited by people chasing the dreams of gold. The empty ostentation of luxury cars and gated mansions is sharply contrasted by the many shanty towns that don’t even have sewerage or running water. The cultural life of most is lived in shopping malls.

Of course going there to be with my father who is in icu in a coma doesn’t help up the enjoyment stakes of being in Johannesburg – parents in a coma suck no matter where you are in the world.