Red bus through Johannesburg

The center of Johannesburg being too dangerous to navigate on one's own, we decided to do a guided tour that took us from the wealthy northern finance district to the southern suburbs, through the dreaded center.

Much can be said about Johannesburg history (it is only 150 years old), so I recommend reading about it. It is fascinating.
To summarise it, there was a system of oppression from the white people of the blacks, "colored", Indians, Asians, etc, with strict enforced segregation in which you were told where to live based on the hue of your skin (mixed blood people having to live in other neighborhood than their pure blood parents) and on your language. All this came to a crashing end, with the white people pushed out of power and key positions, and the black ones stepping in with next to no preparation and expertise.
White people fled the country, and those who remained fled to the rich white suburbs that they fortified (literally) to protect themselves.
The center of the city became a no man's land quickly claimed by violent gangs, and the rich north became the new financial district.

So when we took the bus, we expected a lot of history from the audio guide.
What we got instead was quite surreal:
Imagine a dystopian sale pitch born of the 80s starry-eyed capitalistic ideals, full of buzz words and blind-eyes euphemisms.
So as we drove next to gutted buildings, we were told about the gorgeous architecture and brilliant future...
I had to capture some of the most outrageous euphemisms:
-The fact that the inhabitants of 1.5% of South Africa own 30% of its wealth was called "economic diversity".
-People living in slums were "street entrepreneurs" (I couldn't make this one up if I tried).
-The fall of the CBD to gangs was "a serious slump"
-The acid leaking from mining refuses and permeating the ground of the Townships was "a bit of a health hazard"...

As I said, surreal.

I would be dishonest if I didn't say that the efforts of reconciliation after generations of oppression were not mentioned, but always as a done deal, where "South Africa is the only country in the world that managed a transition of power with almost no violence (!!!)", And this said in such an artificially happy voice, you'd think we were being sold adult diapers on tv.

It all strongly reminded me of a very famous line in "Avatar, the last air bender".Read more