First - I have just posted some pics to two old blog entries - one titled "Random Thoughts" from the first week I was here, and another called "The Weather and The Joys of Being Outside" from my 2nd week. You can see campus and the Rhodes Memorial on those posts now.
The crime here is a real problem, as I've mentioned before. There were 15 muggings on table mountain park this weekend alone. That's where I was hiking Saturday, though despite the difficulty of the trail we were on, there was a steady-stream of people on it though fewer near the top (perhaps due to the perfect weather that day?) We are going again this coming Saturday, in a group. This is another reason why one should hike this mountain with locals. They know the trails, where is safer, and that it's best to be in a group. And of course the ever-changing weather and unexpected rain makes it a dangerous mountain if someone is unaware.
Other big local news was a group of women mugged on a high-end golf course - apparently they ran screaming and the muggers didn't make off with anything except a few clubs... The local rock music radio station encourages people to report crime on a regular basis. Someone who was on bicycle was mugged on a trail not far from campus last week. That was just a bit higher up the mountain than the Rhodes memorial I went to both Friday and Monday.
It is understandable that there would be high crime here (
especially muggings) with the huge discrepancy in incomes. Apparently 30% of the population here (which is better than much of the rest of South Africa) is
un- or under-employed (like 1-2 days a week at most, not enough to live off). Only 30% of the people make enough money to pay taxes. The government wants to remove all non land-owned shacks by 2015 and have people living in "real" houses - it would be great if that happens. The low income housing places here are not what we would call houses - though they do have electricity and running water (which is major recent progress). These neighborhoods are surrounded by corrugated metal lean-
tos as well. I'm told the neighborhoods are not as bad as the outskirts that can be seen from the highway. You can enter them on tours - I hear it is quite informative and people are friendly, and it's a good way to buy local crafts as well.
It is just amazing to hear what this country has gone through in the past 200 years, or the past 20 years - either way it is more than I could imagine. Today at afternoon tea a prof was speaking about how they used to boycott the government by refusing to go to class during college days, and the whole college would have to shut down for months at a time - and this was in the 80's. Apparently parts of the country had their own governance, too, and you needed a passport to travel within South Africa. My host spoke of a time in the late 80's when police came on campus, and in the fussing that was going on ended up putting a tear gas canister on top of the physics building. That day he was supposed to do a lab outside, and had to abandon it and take the students back inside when they saw the police presence. Apparently the police were not allowed on campus for a very long time.
Everyone here seems to have grown up in a very different situation too - from close-knit Muslim communities, to impoverished black communities, to privileged upper-class white communities. Some people speak of all the places they went as children, others speak of not being able to go places because they were "whites-only". Some lost their family homes due to re-settlement, while others were barely even aware of how the other-half were being treated.
Anyway - enough grim thoughts for the evening... Let's focus on the positive. People here LOVE their city, and are so proud of it. The mountain seems to tie everyone together, and once people come here they don't seem to want to leave.
