Malmö University Abroad with Rebecca Grottschreiber

One big disadvantage of living here is crime and violence. You don’t even know what your neighbour’s house looks like because of the high walls around it. Other properties are protected by electric fences or/and security guards, and besides that you have numerous security gates, locks, alarm systems etc. When I played with a 5 year old girl the other week, we wanted to build a house with Lego bricks. The first thing she constructed was a high wall around the property… When I tell people that I walk to town on my own, they can’t believe it and think I am crazy. They don’t even dare to walk on the streets or to go jogging! People get mugged, stabbed, high jacked, shot – sometimes just for a few Rand (1 Rand = ca. 0.10 Euro) or for nothing at all. Of course, you can prevent a lot by avoiding certain areas, not wearing expensive jewelry and carrying around expensive staff, locking your car when you are driving, only using safe train lines and always traveling 1^st class (some of the black or coloured people I know are afraid every day when they have to get onto the train), not walking outside when it is dark, not walking alone etc.   It is probably desperation, poverty and the big gap between rich and poor that contributes. Besides, the fact that violence was accepted and commonly used as means of oppression as well as in the fight against the regime during Apartheid times.

Sometimes I wonder where the African humanity is… And I realize that for me, the freedom of moving around freely and without fear plays a major role for quality of life.