Cape Town

Was in Cape Town for a meeting in January of a resarch consortium of the Mental Health and Poverty Project, a four country study of the link between mental health and poverty in Africa http://workhorse.pry.uct.ac.za:8080/MHAPP Cape Town is paradise - mountains, sea, clean air and wonderful food.... but poverty and the burden of history are the shadows that hang over South Africa like the clouds on Table Mountain. Paradise is only paradise for the privileged by wealth or race. The enclaves of privilege remain in the once whites only neighbourhoods with their villas protected by high walls, electric fences and guard dogs where we stayed in luxurious Bed and Breakfasts. These neighbourhoods remain largely white, as do the professional elites. This will change as the new generation comes into its own but for now apartheid remains a living memory, leaving Cape Town for me full of ghosts.