|
|
Posted by Toby on 05/07/06 13:06
Thank you all for your information. It's really a shame that I would have to
live and work in Joburg, as I understand that it is not the most pleasant
place to be. My information is also that one can live very decently in
Joburg with some caution, although everyone agrees that even in the
compounds security is a big problem. The poor townships seem to be the
source of most of the murder statistics, just as Harlem is more dangerous
than the classy neighborhoods just across the street...
Funnily enough, speaking of Washington DC, I also have a job offer there,
but I think Africa would be a much more interesting place to work...I am
very spoiled by all my years in Japan, which is just about the polar
opposite in terms of safety. I have to decide whether I really want to gird
my loins again and keep watching over my shoulder, or just stay in Tokyo and
go back into freelance.
What a shame the bureau isn't in Capetown :-(
Toby
<mv@movingvision.uk> wrote in message
news:JggbjSG8F0VEFwgd@movingvision.demon.co.uk...
>>>However it's true
>>>that for a self important Westerner there are many parts of that
>>>continent best steered clear of, but more often due to the bad vibes and
>>>presumption of that type of Westerner, who by a mere caprice of fate was
>>>born into the lucky quarter of the world and is yet to have a clue about
>>>the virtues of those who don't conform to their own trivial concepts of
>>>moral worth. God help us.
>>
>>I can not speak for the others, but I hardly resemble the strawman you
>>built. I spent February of last year in Egypt...a place considered by
>>some not to be a prudent place to visit. I travelled in definite
>>non-tourist style. Also, one of the guys I mentioned having negative
>>comments about South Africa is an accomplishment "non touristy"
>>traveller. He travelled down the Congo River in the bilge of a barge.
>>
>>I have no doubt that one can be treated well in villages of South
>>Africa. I, too, recognize the grace that the people of Africa have
>>after having survived the predations of the colonial powers, in
>>particular your country.
>
> There's no doubt that the colonial period that resulted from the
> geopolitical, economic and military conflicts between primarily France,
> Britain and Spain resulted in all sorts of onerous things. However there
> is a spurious quasi righteousness oft proffered by Americans on the issue
> that tends to selectively view only those elements of historical fact that
> support those attitudes. The fact is that much of those regions,
> particularly in Africa, that fell under the control of European powers
> were not adversely affected in comparison to their actual condition prior
> to colonisation, in many cases life for the general populations where
> immensely improved with respect to law, security and physical well being.
> Its the presumption that America is an innocent party that is again a
> result of parochial triteness. It was Britain who declared slavery illegal
> in 1812 that was a good part of the reason for the Anglo American war of
> 1812. Of all the European colonial powers, as it happens, it was the
> British who demonstrated a degree of social responsibility and application
> of, relative to the period, equality before the law that absolutely no
> other power, including the USA, demonstrated, ever!
>
> Indeed things got very much worse for the Native Americans, who suffered
> near genocide and theft of homeland by your own people after the
> revolution, on a scale that makes Britain's inequities in this respect
> seem almost benign. Consider the fate of Canadian Native Americans in
> comparison. Perhaps the worst incident of inhumanity in our empire was the
> near genocidal treatment of the Aborigines in Australia, an Anglo
> Australian crime of the 19th century that Australians today have hardly
> begun to redress. At least we British did return all those colonies, in
> most cases exponentially improved, where the native populations asked for
> it. The few remaining 'overseas possessions' either had no native
> populations or elected to remain British.
>
> This is a much needed debate on this subject required at a more
> appropriate level of forum than here but I could go on in much detail.
>>
>>
>>As to your point that the US is a dangerous country too, I can only
>>agree. I certainly felt safer on the streets of Cairo than I would in
>>certain places in the US. However, the murder rate is 700% higher
>>(that's seven hundread percent higher--look it up) in South Africa
>>than in the US.
>
> South Africans at least have been restricted to only murdering their own
> countrymen. The Statistics could easily be re-analysed in perhaps more
> meaningful terms to show an almost total inversion of that ratio. Don't
> expect the 'Straw men' of the faux worthy media, let alone Fox et al to
> even begin to consider these implications with the sort of coherent depth
> and integrity that would be compelling to any pure analysis.
>>
>>The original poster asked what the conditions are in South Africa are.
>>To confuse the issue by complaining about attitudes of Western
>>tourists and crime rates in the US does him no good.
>>
>>I don't think I'd take my family there.
>
> There's thousands of white people living in modest Jo'burg homes with only
> ordinary levels of security who have not yet felt compelled to leave. As
> with those sectors of the Los Angeles 'barrios' or the poorer
> neighbourhoods of Atlanta, by far these murders in Jo'burg are focused
> predominately within certain pressurised, dysfunctional and impoverished
> sections of their society. For most visitors to Jo'burg a little judicious
> local knowledge will allow one to function with an acceptable degree of
> safety. Ask the several hundred thousand white families living quite
> normally there today.
>
>
> --
> John Lubran
Navigation:
[Reply to this message]
|