Evening News
Good evening everyone.I'd like to thank everyone again who has made a comment and also those who have offered to help with hosting and maintenance et cetera. I woke up this morning irritated with crimexposouthafrica.co.za and I am now glad to say that I am not the only one.
I'd also like to thank Tinus de Jager at SABC news for his email. It is the SABCs viewpoint that "any such coverage would give credence to something that, at the time of writing this, had no credence at all". I agree totally and appreciate their stance.
However, I have already started the ball rolling on this blog, and I am happy to say that the number of positive comments today is much larger than the '113 tourists' Mr Watson claims he has turned away from South Africa. Hopefully, those 113 will see that there are many more South Africans who will give any tourist a warm welcome.
I am not through all of the comments yet, but I am getting there. I am also pleased to note that there are people as far away as Japan and New Zealand who support what this blog is doing.
If any of you are tourists who have changed your mind, let me know. Comments are WELCOME. Also, please check out the links on the right hand side of the main page. Here are the real South African web sites with credible information. There is also a site for you to contact if you want to really DO something.
Cheers
Addy
posted by Addy @ 7:58 pm
10 Comments:
Every country is full of crime...before I returned to SA, you could not walk a park in Frankfurt without a gas pistol. Lufthansa told the Jamaican goverment that if they didnt stop the Crew bus robberies..they would discontinue flights..in 1986!!
Tourists know allabout South America...Peurto Rico...we just have to step up police protection in tourist areas!
This guys website should be flooded with angry insulted south africans
The criminals in SA must be smacking their lips in glee waiting for all the lambs you are trying to bring to the slaughter for them. Maybe since foreigners are softer targets, the criminals will focus on lynching them instead and leave ordinary South Africans alone. So I say bring on the suckers!
I don not agree with Neil's site, I am a South African studying in the US and is in daily contact with news back home. Despite all the crime SA is still the best place to be. I was also a victim of hijacking in Cape Town, but life goes on, I might be now in a very secure environment in the US but I can't wait to be back in Cape Town. Don’t give in to these criminals, by sensationalizing their crimes, you just propagating their efforts. Chasing tourist away just makes the situation worse. Why not make it difficult for criminals to stay, we should expose them and drive them out….
A South African in Ohio
Anonymous #2
Either your post is twisted satire, or it is so utterly lacking in reason that I would completely ignore it if I didn't fear someone might be taken in by the idiocy.
It's got to be satire.
South Africans love to create a false sense of security and herein lies the danger.
Australians, Kiwis and many other Nations have a completely different style of living than South Africans do. For example, here in New Zealand I can hop on a bus or a train or a taxi and I will know that it is safe, reliable and clean. I also know that the taxi driver won't have cardboard for brake pads or that he won't be steering with a gun in one hand and a monkey wrench in the other - I can already hear you say that they are upgrading the taxis etc. - yeah, yeah .. they have been promising this for the last 8 years. Just as they promised that the Gautrain will be completed by 2010 (and you know that a media release a few days ago announced that it won't be anywhere near completion) or that shanty towns will be erradicated by 2006 .. LOL.
Australians and Kiwis can roam the streets at night, especially in the city centres .. what is going to happen to unsuspecting tourists during the FIFA WC in 2010 ?.. In South Africa you can't roam the streets in the city centres without being harrassed by beggers and street children carrying knives (or are you quick to forget how many tourists have been stabbed in Cape Town's city centre by street children or how many delegates were attacked in Durban while they were attending a conference). It is normal for us to do as we please and to walk where we want to here. Most tourists won't even know that you can't drive around with your window open and that you must hide your back-pack/bag under your car seat or else you are a target. In New Zealand I throw my back-pack on the seat next to me, I drive with my windows wide open and I don't bother locking the doors .. it is habit. Do you expect foreigners to know this ?
South Africans compare the 1995 RWC to The soccer World Cup and say if we pulled it off then we can do it again .. ha ha ... the crime rate was much lower back then and the infrastructure had not deteriorated to the point that it is now - why don't you tell the people that cities like Cape Town and Johannesburg have weekly black-outs ? Why don't you tell us about the major traffic problems you have over there because money hasn't been spent on road infrastructure since the days of apartheid or the sprawling shanty towns that are in dire need of infrastructure ?? The Rugby World Cup can't even begin to compare to the logistics of The Soccer World Cup - catch a wake up and smell the coffee ! South Africa was better off in 1995 compared to what it is now.
Here is another wake up call - you can't expect to use an event like the Soccer World Cup to learn how other country's deal with issues. When South Africa bid for FIFA, the country also said LOOK we are ready and we can do it .. not LOOK maybe we can learn something from it. South Africa is beyond dangerous, maybe not to you or your fellow Saffers living in Wonderland but it is dangerous for the people visiting the Country, especially for the people who come from Countries with a different sense of security and lifestyle .. that thought never crossed you mind - did it ?
I am willing to bet that you haven't even given a thought to the 20 MILLION (Australia's entire population) people who earn less than a Dollar a day in South Africa. All you see is Gautrain (which is costing 20 billion Rand) and new stadiums (which is also costing billions) etc. The money should be spent fighting crime (paying policemen more - isn't that why they are just as corrupt as the criminals ?) and uplifting the poor. So please remember this when you are watching the Soccer Cup in 2010 and I am willing to bet that we are going to hear some horror stories coming out of SA in 2010 .. gentlemen place your bets !!
HI Adam
There is no direct email link to you, but I would like to sponsor your domain name registration.
Please contact me at drboden@klic.com.my
Thanks
Nick
Hi Guys,
Yes we can always find some statistics in other newspapers talking about crime overseas but it does not compare. We live in abnormal circumstances and the money that could be used to fight crime and AIDS is used to bring the World Cup to SA!! Where are our priorities??
People are starving and cold and desperate and there is moral decay. All of our money and resources should be aimed at changing this and building a healthy NEW South Africa for all. Not grandstanding a world cup and distracting the government with rubbish. Let them focus on the important issues. Tell Thabo to get his head out of the rest of Africa and focus on his home where his people need him!!
I am currently visiting Australia and I can tell you that it is damn hard to make a living here. We have it easy in SA when it comes to opportunities but there is one thing here and it feels amazing. You can walk around at 1am in a park and sit on a bench and close your eyes and noone will touch you :-) That is something truly priceless that we just don't understand. We need that.
Yes Watson's site focusses on the negative. But whatever is on the site sadly is TRUE. None of us can deny that. And very little so far has changed! Maybe his broadcast on the negative will get people talking because most of us go through life each day in Joburg not listening to the news so that we can cope!
It is indeed most unfortunate that Neil Watson's site has become necessary to highlight the shocking degredation of our beautiful country South Africa!
The crime and grime is a daily reality and growing worse with every unemployed refugee crossing our borders, in the hopes of a better life.
While one has sympathy with them we already have masses of our own people who need to be uplifted, housed and educated without taking on refugees from other countries where corruption and mismanagement and wars are endemic!
The minority pay for the majority here, and we are reeling under the addition burden!
Brutal robberies with accompanying torture are committed frequently with little more than material goods like cell phones and electronic luxury goods being taken. If genuine poverty was the reason - as we are supposed to believe - more basic items like food and clothing would feature on the list. Often nothing is stolen in these hienous crimes, and more often still, nothing is done to bring the perps to book.
The commando units have been disbanded leaving the farming community soft targets for the criminals.
The list goes on and on.
Do we want tourists?
Yes of course we do!! BUT, when we are told that everything will be done to protect them, while we the citizens live in constant daily fear are we supposed to believe those in charge?
When the Minister of Safety & Security says those whingeing about crime should leave the country - should we believe them?
When article after article refers to the lack of interest shown by the police force when crimes are reported, should we believe them?
When the police do in fact catch the criminals, dockets go missing or warders assist with jail escapes. If that isn't enough we then have prisoners unleashed on the community to re-offend, just because of overcrowding or someone having a birthday and feeling magnanimous - the same person who enjoys 24/7/365 protection - paid for by the taxpayers... Should we believe them?
Please, those of you have left South Africa for whatever reason, DON"T tell us what a wonderful country we have, without taking the above into consideration.We are here - you not!
Don't tell us every country has crime - we live here and South Africa is the issue where crime is out of control.
Where else in the world does the police station have protection supplied by a private security company??
We have beautiful countryside, but no longer a country to be proud of in the true sense of the word.
COME HOME and live the lives we live on a daily basis - when the CITIZENS are safe, so will the tourists be.
You can add Hong Kong to your list of far flung South Africans offering support. I was truely sad to see the crime-expo SA site.
Keep up the good work.
Neil Watson works for an Insurance company. What's the best way to sell insurance?? Through FEAR!!
Where does the R3 you are charged per SMS on his site go to????
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