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Comment by Mandatum | Hacker News Reader

I live in South Africa in a gated community with 24/7 guard patrols and 12 ft high barbed wire fences.

My own house also has blade-topped fences, I have an electronic gate which requires a 6-pin entry pad and a thumbprint. I have 3 dogs, double-plated steel doors and retractable window bars.

Some fucker broke in through the ceiling last week while I was asleep and stole my iPhone and wallet.

The reason we do this in South Africa is because of safety. Home invasions, car jacking, mugging, kidnapping are everyday occurrences here. I know of 3 people who have been killed during one of these engagements and everyone I know knows someone who has died.

If you worry about your kids wandering the streets in America, Canada, New Zealand.. Come to Africa and get some context.

Possessions are meaningless, your health and your friends are what counts. That's something some people learn the hard way in this country.

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Not to be rude, but why do you chose to live there? If you value your health and friends, why live in a war zone.

Most people do not have the luxury of getting up and moving from the third world to the first world.

Agreed, but given the level of security the original commenter described, I'd say wealth is not the issue. Therefore mibbitirc's comment applies.

Most people did not have that luxury during WW2, yet they did. Safety is safety.

Many people did leave the country - there was a large diaspora in the 2000s to Canada, NZ, Australia, and the UK. Many others wanted to but couldn't because they couldn't get visas or they simply couldn't afford it.

I was only able to move the UK because I found out I could get a British passport (so I did) plus my company paid for most of the relocation.

As an American it would be much easier to move to another country, anywhere in the world, than it would be for someone from an undeveloped country.

There are thousands of people looking to get into any country that is considered "safe".

Asylum seekers are being denied every day at borders, whether they're crossing the border into the Southern US, or floating ashore on a raft in Australia.

Your qualifications are meaningless, ask your next 10 taxi drivers where they're from and what they studied. More than half will have a degree from their home countries.

One doesn't necessarily have to move to the safest country, where naturally the competition to get in is higher.

One only needs to try to move to a safer country.

As a species, we've become very tied to our original locations. Stability had its advantages in the early days of agriculture. Today I wish we'd make our borders more porous, legally and bureaucratically.

Why should a remote worker be paid less for the same created value, simply because they live in a "cheaper" country?

If it was as simple as that notion sounds, I wouldn't be here. And believe me I know many of people who have decided to start families in other countries.

I hate my government, the corruption, violence, bigotry.. But this is my home. I love the people, the culture, the food, my friends and family.

I've traveled and I've lived in other areas in the world. But this place is my home.

People wonder why anyone would want to live in the Middle East; Iraq, Afghanistan, the Gaza Strip? Because this is my land, these are my people, my tribe.

I will stay, and I will fight and protest for a better life for everyone in this country.

Sorry I feel this is too offtopic for HN, but I couldn't help but reply.

This is a fantastic, powerful response to the question a lot of us without the context frequently ask ourselves. It must be so difficult to reconcile your love for your homeland, its culture, and your family, with the reality of a pervasive worry that the worst can and does happen with frightening frequency. We take for granted that we can typically feel safe here in the US, and I hope you stay safe and continue to contribute to making your home better for everyone.

It isn't all peaches and cream in the US. You guys have some pretty rough areas too, it's just they're known as ghettos. And of course there's Mexico right next to you, which even I felt unsafe in many areas (and I grew up near Soweto).

What's surprising about certain cities is how close the ghettoes are to rich areas. Most people expect there to be a gradual decline in quality from the rich part to the poor part, but there are often dramatic cutoffs. You can literally take a wrong turn and go from zero crime to "Keep your doors locked and don't stop at red lights or stop signs."

And of course there's Mexico right next to you,

Based on impressions created by Hollywood movies, people I've spoken to in South Africa express opinions that Mexico is some kind of hellhole. Here's a sobering comparison:

https://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=mexico+south+africa

In most measures, Mexico is way ahead of South Africa.

Are things getting better? I can definitely understand this mindset, and I feel like once momentum starts building, people get behind it and start believing in a better tomorrow.

I'd feel a lot more hopeless if things were stagnating or getting worse. I can't imagine being a Syrian right now, for example.

Yes and no. It's better than it was 30 years ago, definitely! Has an entire generation been wasted, and thousands of lives needlessly lost in that time? Yeah.

I think the biggest change we've seen recently is English becoming more popular among the youth. That and technology which brings about education and positive influence from developed countries.

I'm very supportive of subsidized and ultra-low-cost smartphones and laptops. I think a lot of our issues won't be solved in the next 30 or 50 years, but as the world becomes more connected and social issues are democratized, ideas and efforts are spread through passion and action rather than advertising budgets..

Money will eventually no longer run this government and people will start to think for themselves.

Look at China, they employ hundreds of thousands of people to save their public image, they have a walled garden which they pluck and trim to fit their needs. But only half of their country (excluding rural and unregistered jurisdictions) has access to the internet. Is that going to be feasible long-term?

This is why things like Reddit, albeit very American-centric, have such a positive affect on the world. I want to see more countries get their "own" Reddit which is free of corporate interest and censorship. A medium that everyone has access to and uses.

> Are things getting better?

That's not really what it's about for us. South Africans have become experts at making the most out of a bad situation so things are always "good" in a way that's hard to describe out of context.

When you ask if South Africa is improving you have to qualify that with: which class? Anything that the government controls is going backwards. The middle and upper classes, however, have in a way created their own functioning infrastructure.

* The police force is complete ineffective. Solution: build a fortress and hire private security.

* Continuous controlled blackouts because the power infrastructure is inadequate. Solution: buy a generator.

* Hijackings, muggings. Solution: lojack all cars (car insurance now requires it) and don't walk anywhere.

As I said, we make it good.

The South African government has improved the lot of the poor in some ways- child support grants form the basis of a welfare system that protects people from utter destitution. Sadly, as you point out, the public healthcare and education systems are dismal, and the failure of the education system means that human capital is being wasted.

Some things they do means well, but doesn't deliver as much as you would think. Having a single parent with no job, no education and no support means that frequently that money goes into buying alcohol. If you think the majority of the poorest have been uplifted significantly, you haven't been in the streets in really poor areas.

Amazing reply.

Couldn't stop my brain from reading it in a SA accent. :)

Hollywood's white Afrikaans accent?

Okay, here's the deal. Overall SA has a really big crime problem but it's not a complete warzone. It is heavily dependant on where you live. For example, Cape Town is statistically safer than Johannesburg and the area I lived in Cape Town is statistically safer than the areas around it - there are only a few break-ins a month and hell, my childhood home has only been broken into once and that was because someone opened up a 'troubled youth' centre a few streets away.

However, I don't want to diminish what others have experienced - I just want to put it into perspective. It is still a dangerous country to live in. Even though I lived in a 'safe' area I had to travel through 'unsafe' areas to get to friends, family, and work. On top of this the judicial system is a shambles due to corruption and incompetence. Apathy and burnout is extremely common in the police so they don't really care anymore because why should they? They bust their balls off investigating, arresting, etc only to have the court case thrown out because, for example, important court documents go missing and no one is arsed enough to investigate why :/

How did he get over the blade topped fences?

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