Change and decay...

As the old hymn has it, Change and decay in all around I see...
Well it's certainly more starkly visible in some places than in others.


Only a few weeks ago there was a television programme which showed Louis Theroux visiting the Johannesburg suburb of Hillbrow, getting pictures of the squalor and decay that has overtaken what used to be the vibrant bohemian entertainment area overlooking the centre of the city. I have just come across a site called The Death of Johannesburg at http://deathofjohannesburg.blogspot.com/ whose author shows many pictures of the current state of Hillbrow and central Johannesburg.


I was interested because three decades ago I lived there. I remember that I could stroll in under half an hour from my flat, down to work in an office at the end of Rissik Street, near some of the places he shows around Marshall Street. I can confirm that what he says and shows is correct, and it is reinforced by many of those who have added their comments under the photographs.


Some of them asked for photos of the more prosperous suburbs. Someone else at another site supplies these. See Leaving South Africa - a photo essay at http://www.ianfraserlive.com/leaving.index.html The houses have been fortified, surrounded by high walls topped by razor wire or electric fencing, and protected by armed guards on emergency response. Residents are still frequently attacked or murdered, and feel at risk of being car-jacked and shot every time they drive in or out of their houses or stop at a traffic light at night.

'The past is a foreign country', 'you can't go home again', 'water under the bridge', 'you can't step into the same river twice'. I know. Why am I bothering you you with this information? Consider, 'what's past is prologue', 'coming to a street near you soon', 'similar causes produce similar effects'. Some find less advanced symptoms of this type of physical and social decay already active across Britain, but its progress held back by the less completely corrupt political and bureaucratic systems, and the less than total influence of blacks and criminals and lefties. Don't rely too much on the mitigating influences, they are weakening. The same moral, intellectual and political causes that destroyed civilisation in Africa are at work and will have the same effect in England. Indeed, some of the same people are active in high positions, including one who forgot to mention the source of some of his election funding recently.

I can remember when an American politician said that it was American policy to turn South Africa into just another African country. That's a great success, but it seems that it will involve also turning the United Stated into just another African country. Yesterday, Rhodesia and South Africa, today America ...tomorrow, the world. That may be over ambitious. The Chinese, Japanese and Indians are probably not going to accept Africanisation.

Still, anyone who's seen Africa should have a rough ides of the likely future of this country. The important people, the ones with the best connections and snouts deepest in the trough will be unharmed, indeed they will benefit from the additional opportunities for crime and corruption. It's the rest of us who will suffer. By the way, unless you're one of the apparatchiks who will be provided with armed guards by the state, the option of private security will be much less available to middle class people than it is in South Africa. The laws will prevent it, the left will howl against it; having more money may just make you more of a target.

The decay is proceeding apace. It's not just the people, its the attitudes of the people. A few years ago there was a series of television programmes about someone who went around Britain in the 1920's or 30's using a moving pictures technology which did not catch on. It was interesting to see how much self respect the people displayed. They were neatly dressed, moved with confidence and behaved politely. One episode showed people in a poor area of, I think, Glasgow, dressed in their Sunday best suits, all wearing hats, attending a concert of classical music in a park. It's an amazing contrast with today's populace of slouching hooded yobs, in trainers and track suits, eating and drinking in the streets and scattering their refuse with unconcern. Better not to mention classical music to them.

A friend who visits Britain occasionally commented on the sloppiness and rudeness of the people in the streets of London. He was disgusted to discover that the numerous small grey patches on the pavement were pieces of chewing gum that had been spat out and trampled upon. They've degenerated themselves to the extent that they would be suited to the type of environment that Hillbrow has become. If the public services decline a bit more, so the rubbish piles up and is ignored, that is what more of this country will look like.