Journalistic ethics dictate that getting the facts straight means not omitting the icky stuff.
That in mind, I can't really let you go on reading my happy-go-lucky blog about safariing and wine drinking without making any mention of the fact that my travel companion got mugged last weekend.
Wipe that sweat from your brow. He's fine. He only lost about $15 USD. I wasn't there. We're all fine. Everyone's fine.
Graham was alone, it was evening, he was in an area of town pretty far from where we're all living. It wasn't a winning combination.
But Graham is a funny, likable guy and he kind of made the best of the mugging. The stranger, emerged and threatened Graham saying he had a knife and a gang of guys waiting around the corner, though Graham never saw the weapon. Not willing to take chances though, Graham calmly made conversation with the hypothetically armed man. They talked about ex-girlfriends, ethics and all that's wrong with the world. They shared a cigarette. At the end of their long conversation, the mugger, Muwete, hugged Graham, asked if he was alright, and said "we're brothers now." But then he made off with most of the money Graham had in his wallet. He did let Graham keep cab fare home because, you know, it's dangerous out there, and who knows what could happen.
Graham was unlucky to get mugged and lucky he wasn't hurt or even shaken up too badly. But the unfortunate fact of the matter is, luck is only part of it. Crime is a pretty real fact of life in South Africa and the fact that someone was desperate enough to spend the time harassing Graham for a $15 reward is evidence of some major social issues. While this country's GDP ranks relatively high, income inequality is enormous here. A short distance from Cape Town's glamorous city center are massive communities of people living in corrugated tin shacks. Combine that glaring disparity in wealth with hundreds of years of oppression, and the reasons behind social tensions here seem pretty obvious. So while Graham's experience was a lesson to us all to be extra cautious, it was maybe more of lesson about this society.
That in mind, I can't really let you go on reading my happy-go-lucky blog about safariing and wine drinking without making any mention of the fact that my travel companion got mugged last weekend.
Wipe that sweat from your brow. He's fine. He only lost about $15 USD. I wasn't there. We're all fine. Everyone's fine.
Graham was alone, it was evening, he was in an area of town pretty far from where we're all living. It wasn't a winning combination.
But Graham is a funny, likable guy and he kind of made the best of the mugging. The stranger, emerged and threatened Graham saying he had a knife and a gang of guys waiting around the corner, though Graham never saw the weapon. Not willing to take chances though, Graham calmly made conversation with the hypothetically armed man. They talked about ex-girlfriends, ethics and all that's wrong with the world. They shared a cigarette. At the end of their long conversation, the mugger, Muwete, hugged Graham, asked if he was alright, and said "we're brothers now." But then he made off with most of the money Graham had in his wallet. He did let Graham keep cab fare home because, you know, it's dangerous out there, and who knows what could happen.
Graham was unlucky to get mugged and lucky he wasn't hurt or even shaken up too badly. But the unfortunate fact of the matter is, luck is only part of it. Crime is a pretty real fact of life in South Africa and the fact that someone was desperate enough to spend the time harassing Graham for a $15 reward is evidence of some major social issues. While this country's GDP ranks relatively high, income inequality is enormous here. A short distance from Cape Town's glamorous city center are massive communities of people living in corrugated tin shacks. Combine that glaring disparity in wealth with hundreds of years of oppression, and the reasons behind social tensions here seem pretty obvious. So while Graham's experience was a lesson to us all to be extra cautious, it was maybe more of lesson about this society.
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| The Gini coefficient is a number between 0 and 1, where 0 corresponds with perfect equality (where everyone has the same income) and 1 corresponds with perfect inequality (where one person has all the income—and everyone else has zero income). |
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