South Africa 2025

Utisci

Johannesburg I Soweto smo obisli kombijem uz stajanjem samo da bi obisli Mendelinu kucu i napustene rashladne kule nekadasnje elektrane. Razlog je bio dvostruki: nismo imali mnogo vremena obzirom da je za Johanesburg odvojen samo jedan dan. Drugi razlog je vise iz bezbednosnih razloga; vodic je objasnio da nije preporucljivo u pojedinim delovima biti van vozila pogotovu ako ti je boja koze – bela. Tu dolazimo do par interesantnih obzervacija:

Impressions

We visited Johannesburg and Soweto by van, with stops only to see Mandela's house and the abandoned cooling towers of the former power plant. The reason was twofold: we didn't have much time since we had only one day for Johannesburg. The second reason was more for safety reasons; the guide explained that it is not advisable to be outside of the vehicle in certain areas, especially if your skin color is white. This leads us to some interesting observations:

Kriminal

Stopa krminala je izuzetno visoka. Ograde mnogih kuca, kako stambenih tako I komercijalnih pa cak i skola, nadogradjene su bodljikavom zicom. Kako je vodic objasnio, stopa kriminala u vreme aparthejda je bila daleko manja nego sada. U to vreme, vlasti nisu tolerisale kriminal. Sada, krivi se trenutna korumpirana vlast.

Crime

The crime rate is extremely high. The fences of many houses, both residential and commercial, as well as schools, have been topped with barbed wire. As the guide explained, the crime rate during apartheid was far lower than it is now. At that time, the authorities did not tolerate crime. Now, the current corrupt government is to blame (according to the guide).

Siromastvo, narkomanija...

Primecujemo da ima mnogo beskucnika. Drugo, ima puno naselja, slamova, improvizovanih baraka bez higijenskih uslova, bez struje i okruzena djubretom. Ne znam da li se “stanari” tretiraju kao beskucnici ali, ne vidim da mogu da se tretiraju i kao neko ko ima stan. Dosta ima i narkomana na ulicama (po objasnjenu vodica)

Sada dolazimo do “interesantne” situacije: Juzno Africka Republika je bogata, demokratska, zemlja (zlato, dijamanti...) sa visokom stopom kriminala, narkomanije i siromastva.

Nesto mi pade na pamet poredjenje. I druge bogate I “demokratske” zemlje kao recimo Amerika imaju slican problem: criminal, narkomanija, beskucnici. Dok, zemlje koje ne slove kao “demokratije” i ne bas bogate, nemaju takve probleme (Kina, S. Koreja...) Nesto tu “ne stima”.

Poverty, drug abuse...

We noticed that there are many homeless people. Secondly, there are many settlements, slums, makeshift huts without sanitary conditions, without electricity, and surrounded by garbage. I don't know if 'residents' are treated as homeless, but I don't see how they can be treated as someone who has an apartment. There are also many drug addicts on the streets (according to the explanation of the guide).

Now we come to an 'interesting' situation: South Africa is a rich, democratic country (gold, diamonds...) has a high crime rate, drug addiction, and poverty. Something occurred to me in comparison. Other rich and 'democratic' countries like America have similar problems: crime, drug addiction, homelessness.

Meanwhile, countries that are not considered 'democracies' and are not very rich, do not have such problems (China, North Korea...) Something here 'doesn't add up'.

Saobracaj

Primecujem da je saobracaj dobar. Putevi su dobri i nema guzve. Mozda je utisak pogresan jer smo uglavnom isli u sred dana tj ne u vreme odlazaka na posao i povratka sa stog. Ipak, u poredjenju sa recimo Indijom, Kinom, Vijetnamom, Egiptom, Turskom...da ne nabrajam dalje, izgleda odlicno. Mozda ima manji broj privatnih vozila sto je opet povezanom sa rasporedom bogatstva.

Traffic

I notice that the traffic is good. The roads are good and there is no congestion. Perhaps the impression is incorrect because we mostly travelled in the middle of the day, that is, not during peak commuting times. Still, compared to, say, India, China, Vietnam, Egypt, Turkey... not to mention others, it looks excellent. There may be fewer private vehicles, which is again related to the distribution of wealth.