Battlefield Contractor

The scale and area of ​​the wine estate made Lin Rui and the others unexpected. With the increased security personnel, there are various signs that the Duke of the secret society should arrive within a week or a few days.

After Lin Rui and Zhao Jianfei discussed it, they finally chose to observe closely. Although it is impossible for them to enter the roads and buildings inside the wine estate, they can be forcibly remembered through drawings. Both Lin Rui and Zhao Jianfei believed that before the Duke of the Secret Society arrived, they had better conduct an on-site reconnaissance, at least to know the surroundings of the manor.

Zhao Jianfei took them to the area. They were deliberately dressed casually, pretending to be tourists, and were taken by several local guides with cameras and other tools in their hands.

"This place is a rich area in Cape Town. Racial discrimination has always been a very important issue in the history of the world, especially in South Africa. There is a picturesque small valley 15 kilometers south of Cape Town. At the other end is one of Cape Town’s busiest ports, as well as many wealthy areas, hotels and rural areas.

And there is a poor community between the rich areas. You can see the dense tin roofs there. The temperature is often as high as 30 or 40 degrees. The temperature in the rooms under the tin roofs over there is almost suffocating. Villas with swimming pools can be seen everywhere in the wealthy area separated by the woods. "Zhao Jianfei said in a low voice. "Many communities have already clarified the idea of ​​separating the rich from the poor at the beginning of the design. Usually, there are two completely different worlds separated by a net or a tree. The rich here are usually white, and the poor are usually black. "

Standing here, Lin Rui can clearly see the gap between the rich and the poor and the environment. In some places, the mansions and slums are separated by a wall or a road. It may seem that the poor are only one step away from the high-end residential areas, but in reality, this may be the gap between the rich and the poor that has not been bridged for generations. 23 years after apartheid ended, these invisible walls are still strong.

At the foot of the mountain, there is a small piece of permanent structural housing built by the South African government, which is slightly formal. Lin Rui pointed there and said, "Is there a slum area?"

The tour guide nodded, "Yes, these houses are mainly provided for black people who were born before 1994 and were deported and persecuted by apartheid. However, due to the limited number of houses built by the government, and the number of newly born slum populations in recent years With the increase and the continuous influx of migrants, most residents of slums still live in shanty towns with informal structures.

Some of the informal buildings in the slums are transformed from containers, and some are simply built with wooden boards or iron sheets, covered with plastic sheets on the roof, and pressed with discarded tires or stones, which can be regarded as a safe place to live. Informal buildings are densely built from the foot of the mountain to the top of the mountain, forming a continuous slum structure.

The deprivation of space that occurred during the apartheid period prevented blacks in slums from enjoying fair public resources such as housing, employment, education, and judicial rights, and thus lacked the ability to participate in urban social reproduction. Increased poverty caused blacks in slums to be reduced to the bottom of society. origin of.

From November to the next year each year, mainly men, and a small number of middle-aged and elderly women mainly rely on fishing or working in fishery enterprises for their livelihoods. In winter, with the exception of a small number of white men engaged in gardening and gardening, most black men have difficulty finding jobs. Black women mainly work as babysitters in white areas and provide housekeeping services for the rich, such as cooking, cleaning the room, bringing children, and walking the dog.

Because the jobs of these people at the bottom are seasonal and quite unstable, more than 50% of black male youths are unemployed or unemployed, and they can only rely on government assistance to make ends meet, and they can even wander on the streets and rely on begging. Barely make ends meet. Among these unemployed people, some people join local gangs, relying on theft and robbery, or go to the nearby Table Mountain Marine Reserve to sneak abalone to earn a living. "

"The situation there is terrible?" Crazy Horse asked.

“Of course it can’t be compared with the rich areas here. In the slums, most of these shacks do not have running water, sewers, lighting and electricity, and lack toilets, garbage disposal and other public health facilities. Here, safety and privacy are almost inferior. Existence, crime problems are also rampant, fires, forced evictions and other problems are also very common.

Because this town is located on the peninsula extending from Cape Town to the deep Atlantic and Indian Oceans, and close to the trade wind belt, it has strong winds all the year round and was once named "Cape Storm" by Western colonists. High winds have made Bay Town a hardest hit by fire. Due to the lack of municipal facilities, dozens of large and small fires occur in the slums every year. After a big fire, the victims often wailed everywhere.

In addition, the simple housing structure of slums is usually difficult to withstand storms. When the weather is bad, many black people choose to hide in the church on the mountainside, wait for the wind and rain to stop, and then return to their homes to repair the slums that have been damaged by the wind and rain. Because of perennial poverty, frequent unemployment, and harsh natural environment, these lower-class blacks with the same ethnic background formed a mutually supportive social network.

Although the living environment is extremely harsh, thanks to the peculiar compassion and mutual help spirit of the black people, when members of the community are unemployed or encounter livelihood problems, they can generally get help from their relatives and friends, thus temporarily helping them. The era of apartheid is over, and it will gradually get better. "The black tour guide replied.

However, Lin Rui could see the helplessness in the eyes of the black tour guide. With the increase in the population and scale of urban slums, in the absence of necessary social management and public services, the limited social capital and space resources of slums cannot effectively avoid and restrict social problems such as crime and fire. The above is in a state of disorder and out of control.

"The wine estate is in front. We can't go any further. It's private territory." The black tour guide shook his head. "There are bodyguards. If they enter without permission, they will probably shoot."

Lin Rui nodded, "No problem, we're here. But I want to ask you another thing." As he talked, he stuffed the black tour guide with some banknotes.

"Happy to help, what do you want to know, sir?" The black tour guide nodded.

"That place, yes, that's what I just said, the building in the slum area, help me ask if anyone is willing to rent? How many of us plan to rent there for a few months." Lin Rui nodded.