South Africa
To my fellow South Africans and citizens of this beautiful rainbow nation.
This phrase is one you may have heard lately: “South Africa is no longer a safe and desirable destination for us to live in”. I ask why? What motivates our people of South Africa to say this? Is the crime, is it the economy, is it politics, is it our power shortages? If so I ask that you would please take a step back and realise that the grass is not always greener on the other side.
Yes we do have our problems, but so do all countries. By emigrating from South Africa, you may be escaping South Africa’s problems, but don’t fool yourself because you will be met by new problems on the other side. If crime is your concern and the motivation behind your emigration, it is understandable. We do after all have the second worst murder rate in the world. Although the US has the highest amount of rapes, we have been burdened with the title of “rape capital of the world”. These are problems difficult to defend but they still do not place us on the tip of the crime knife. The US are ranked number one for car theft, the UK second and France third, we do not appear on the list until ninth place. This shows that first world countries are faced with problems too, we are not a first world country, and therefore we have space for improvement.
Enough with the negative stuff, all aboard the SA “good news’ roller coaster. True statistics show that murder rates are declining and that this year has had the lowest murder figures since 2002, rape figures have also decreased 8.8% over the last year. The government has also emptied out their piggy banks and have put 9.7 billion rand towards crime and safety in South Africa and have recruited 11.000 additional policemen. They are putting in a tremendous amount of work to fasten our country for 2010.
If there is one thing the light of hope is shining upon, it is our economy. There has recently been an economic uncertainty in international
This phrase is one you may have heard lately: “South Africa is no longer a safe and desirable destination for us to live in”. I ask why? What motivates our people of South Africa to say this? Is the crime, is it the economy, is it politics, is it our power shortages? If so I ask that you would please take a step back and realise that the grass is not always greener on the other side.
Yes we do have our problems, but so do all countries. By emigrating from South Africa, you may be escaping South Africa’s problems, but don’t fool yourself because you will be met by new problems on the other side. If crime is your concern and the motivation behind your emigration, it is understandable. We do after all have the second worst murder rate in the world. Although the US has the highest amount of rapes, we have been burdened with the title of “rape capital of the world”. These are problems difficult to defend but they still do not place us on the tip of the crime knife. The US are ranked number one for car theft, the UK second and France third, we do not appear on the list until ninth place. This shows that first world countries are faced with problems too, we are not a first world country, and therefore we have space for improvement.
Enough with the negative stuff, all aboard the SA “good news’ roller coaster. True statistics show that murder rates are declining and that this year has had the lowest murder figures since 2002, rape figures have also decreased 8.8% over the last year. The government has also emptied out their piggy banks and have put 9.7 billion rand towards crime and safety in South Africa and have recruited 11.000 additional policemen. They are putting in a tremendous amount of work to fasten our country for 2010.
If there is one thing the light of hope is shining upon, it is our economy. There has recently been an economic uncertainty in international