Comment by bradrn | Hacker News Reader

Comment by bradrn | Hacker News Reader

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I’ve never lived in South Africa, but I have two South African parents and have visited the country several times, and can confirm that the parent comment is exactly correct. SA can come as a shock if you’re not expecting it: even just driving from Cape Town airport to the central city, the view abruptly switches from tin shacks as far as the eye can see, to houses (which in comparison are mansions) surrounded by barbed wire and electric fences. And it’s the same no matter where you travel. And this is in one of the more affluent and safe cities in SA — ‘safe’ as in, you’re not actually risking your life if you walk on the street in one of the more touristy areas. Definitely an amazing country to visit, but the inequality is utterly extreme.

EDIT: Here’s an example of what I mean. [0] is a Google Street View of a bridge near Cape Town International Airport. On the one side: tin shacks. On the other side: a golf course, behind middle-class (I think) housing.

[0] https://www.google.com/maps/@-33.9675053,18.5735234,3a,60y,2...

Every day millions of South Africans walk in the street and don’t die. The touristy areas are safer than elsewhere. There isn’t just random non stop killing in the streets.

By this stupid statement, if 1% of the population was killed every day, you could still say it is safe for a while.

Safe doesn’t just mean “not killed”. There are many kinds of victimization.

By your logic if 0.000000001% of the population was killed while going for walks each day you could say going for a walk was literally risking your life.

Obviously these things operate on a scale and I’m not saying that there is zero risk. I was addressing your hyperbolic binary view of things. Saying that going for a walk in South Africa is risking your life is complete nonsense.

Source: I’ve lived in Johannesburg (most “dangerous” city in SA) for 30 years and have been an avid walker for most of these. In fact I “risked my life” for an hour just this afternoon, it was lovely.

The intentional homicide rate is 7x USA’s.. Which is 7x my country’s (52x).

Sounds dangerous.

To other readers: Not necessary to travel to SA to confirm truth of this description. A few minutes “driving” the roads with Google Street View will suffice.

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