s on a daily basis, constantly reminding me of the diversity of people who live in Cape Town. I see little Malay children with their teachers dressed in headscarves walking single-file from their bus into the theatre. Or Indian children, coloured children, East Asian children, Jewish children and more. The diversity of field trips taken to the Baxter Theatre each week represents the spectrum of South African society -- especially in such a cosmopolitan province as the Western Cape. The province is now home to some 4.8 million, making it neither South Africa's most populated or least populated province.I feel a sense of disconnect in Cape Town and the Western Cape from events happening in the rest of the country. Hundreds of miles of desert and semi-arid land separate Cape Town from the Highveld, home to the economic and political hubs of Johannesburg and Pretoria. Most Capetonians express perfect content to remain out of the national circle; they have wine vineyards to visit, mountains to climb, live jazz music to enjoy and unspoiled beaches on which to eat a picnic. Why think about the rampant motor vehicle theft, the endless sprawl, the pollution, the traffic and the growing insecurity about the future that defines Johannesburg today? Capetonians do not envy those problems.
But Cape Town is not without its fair share of problems. The summer months just passed brought extensive wildfire damage due to both natural causes and arson. Unfortunately, a surprising source of wildfire arson in the Western Cape includes the firefighters themselves. The firefighter pay structure pays firefighters based on the number of hours worked. Emergency fire conditions permit firefighters many hours of lucrative overtime pay, tempting firefighters to start their own fires in order to earn more pay when work is slow. What would the honest fire station Dalmatian think?
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