SOUTH AFRICA TRIP: DAY 3 - JOZI TOURISM

Justine put together a vigorous schedule. We started off at the old gold mine around which Johannesburg is built. The city has heaping piles of the rock that was taken out of the ground lying all around its environs. It's difficult to fathom how deep into the earth they went - we went down several levels, but there was an order of magnitude further into the rock that the old mine went (it's filled with water now). At the end of the tour, they show you the smelting process. I think the mine tour was definitely arranged before all of the inflation-induced gold speculation began because they let you hold and take pictures with a gold bar which is now worth around $450,000.

HAKUNA MATATA: From there, close-by, is the sobering apartheid museum, which is on the level of the Holocaust museum in its effectiveness. Much of the experience is a deserving hagiography of nelson Mandela. Churchill, speaking on the first half of the 20th century, remarked that Kemal Mustafa, Ataturk, was the century's greatest leader. But Churchill could not have known what the second half of the century would bring...Mandela. I search in vain for some clue as to the life event that fathered this statesmanship. I must conclude that, while some are born great, others become great, and some have greatness thrust upon them, in this case, all three are true. The world would be better off if all of the iconic Che merchandise marketed for teenage rebellion and an archaic populism, instead bore Mandela's image - a symbol of true defiance, but also humility and ultimately mercy. An evolutionary figure rather than a revolutionary, in love with the possibilities of the future, not the jealousies of the past. We followed with trips to SOWETO, Mandela's home, a museum to the student riots, and finally the gorgeously graffitied decomissioned power plant. This was a perfect cap to the day - everyone in SOWETO was in a festive mood, Zulu gumboot dancers dancing with a gaggle of Dutch fans in their creamcicle wigs.

OH AFRICA: the apartheid museum gift shop is sparse, foregoing sales of the posters of moving images from the years of conflict and colorful anti-apartheid signs for a tame book shop. Most bizarrely are prominently featured t-shirts and mugs that read "WHITES ONLY". Who would buy such a thing? Who has the temerity to hand the black cashier this item for purchase? Bizarre.

WORLD CUP TIP: If it's a winter cup, DO NOT GO TO NIGHT GAMES, especially in a dreary plateau city like Rustenburg. The US vs. England game looked unbearable. That's a day of driving to see nothing and to freeze. Stick to day games and warmer climes. I'm convinced the weather is behind the weaker showings by traditional Mediterranean powers like Italy and France - their fans didn't show, and their players are soft and prefer a temperate climate.

JUSTINE'S TIPS ON SOUTH AFRICA: The townships are rough. Ads on the overpasses are all for abortions, HIV testing, and funerary services. Fresh graves are dug daily in the fields abutting them. Shanty fires are rampant in the endless rows of scrap metal stitched homes. And if anyone tells you to show up in hillbrow at midnight in your WHITES ONLY t-shirt, it's either a joke or a death sentence - Hillbrow is a drug and prostitution den run by Nigerian gangsters. District 9 was banned in Nigeria for its insensitive depiction of just such a gangster but South Africans think it was accurate. Unfortunately, it's believed in South Africa thaat the US's own hip hop-led celebration of the inner city gang culture has kindled similarly warped dreams among south african youths. My own experience was that everyone was in a generous mood. Still, KEEP SMALL CHANGE HANDY TO TIP THE UBIQUITOUS PARKING ATTENDANTS...and rent a car no one would think to steal in the first place.