Good Slice in Good Hope

Comments

1. Global Granny

   July 10, 2010, 12:56 pm

   “…Beware car jacking and smash and grab theft, they say. Don’t stop your car…”
   Ack! Still the same ol’ racist (yes, RACIST for there’s no 2 ways about it) claptrap, I see. Still the fear-mongering drivel from guidebooks, etc. (no doubt all spewed from folks of a certain pale hue).
   Please people! I was there in 2005 – a single solo 60 yr. old lass – backpacked my way for 6 weeks across the entire country, from Johannesburg all the way to Cape Town. Hopping about via the ubiquitous, jam-packed min-vans (the only pale face in sight). Even spent the night with a charming family in Soweto.
   All with nary a single threat to my precious vanilla life and limb (shoot, my surname’s even “Kruger”!)
   Indeed, the guidebooks warned of dire horrors for such recklessness, and sadder still, every blessed pale face that I met, shuddered and repeatedly admonished me that I’d surely be robbed or killed along the way!
   UTTER NONSENSE.
   As a traveler, the crime in Johannesburg, etc. poses no more a risk than in any other urban area of the world. I don’t foolishly skip through the streets at night in downtown Seattle (with gobs of sparkly jewelry and spiffy technos hanging about my neck), and likewise wouldn’t dream of doing such in J-burg, Durban, nor Paris or Copenhagen for that matter.
   Sorry to rant here, but that I’m still hearing such nonsense about RSA just makes my (yes, descended from mis-guided bigots) blood boil.
   Seriously, such persistent fear-mongering about the dangers of traveling in RSA only perpetuates the (hopefully final, waning) vestiges of the evil “A” word.
   Please people. As travelers it is up to us not to fall prey to such media fear-mongering. As the author here (thanks, Pete!) once again proves – don’t swallow such claptrap out of hand. Go there yourself. Take the usual sensible traveler precautions that you’d take in Chicago or New York, and trust that you’ll find that (like anywhere else on the Planet), the vast majority of fine RSA folk will threaten you only with bright smiles and the warmest of friendly hospitality.

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   July 10, 2010, 8:24 pm

   The system of Apartheid was designed to entrench white minority rule and racial segregation
   in South Africa. It was characterized by highly racist economic inequality and by large-scale
   social engineering to ensure the subjugation of black South Africans who make up 80% of
   the country’s population. Although the Apartheid system only existed formally from 1960 to
   1990, it was build on a legacy of 200 years of white colonial rule, and rested on strong
   foundations of racial exclusion and economic exploitation, which had been established by
   successive generations of Dutch and British colonists. Popular resistance to colonialism and
   Apartheid was led by the African National Congress (ANC), which was formed in 1912 and
   banned by the Apartheid government in 1960. Apartheid was declared a crime against
   humanity by the United Nations, and a large-scale international campaign developed to
   isolate the South African government and support the ANC and other liberation movements.
   One of the key features of the Apartheid system was the racial organisation of the state, with
   the security institutions similarly organised – the South African Police and judiciary were
   dominated by white officers at the senior level. South Africa under Apartheid was notorious
   for the brutality of the security forces and the widespread violation of human rights. Over the
   30 years of formal Apartheid (1960 – 1990) an estimated 78 000 people were detained
   without trial by the police, because of their political activism against Apartheid, and 73
   deaths in police detention were recorded. In the last years of the system, security forces
   were responsible for high levels of torture, extra-judicial executions, and disappearances of
   pro-democracy activists.
   The enforcement of racist and unpopular laws created a profound crisis of legitimacy for the
   criminal justice system in South Africa. In many respects, the police played a military role, by
   crushing popular protest in South Africa’s de-facto civil war, as well as being deployed in
   support of white regimes against independence struggles in neighbouring states. Under
   successive Apartheid governments, the police, intelligence service, and the military vied for
   political dominance and greater slices of the national budget. By the late 1980′s, the
   Apartheid state was in severe crisis, forcing the police, the military, and the bureaucracy to
   devise joint strategies to defeat the liberation movements, and an integrated National
   Security Management Systems (NSMS) was established to oversee the successive ‘States of
   Emergency’ that were declared after 1985. By 1986 the police and the army began to
   implement their counter-revolutionary strategy, with the aim of destroying the ANC and its
   allies, and restoring initiative to the state. The strategy entailed establishing a firm police and
   army presence in the townships and suppressing protest and or resistance; ‘taking out’
   leadership through mass detentions, trails, harassments and assassinations; re-establishing
   intelligence networks; the ‘counter-organisation’ of communities through setting up groups
   with links to the security forces, the use of vigilantes; and the alleviation of socio-economic
   grievances through the upgrading of selected trouble spots… nearly 30,000 people were
   detained in 1986.
   The period of repression further cemented the alienation of the police from the majority
   black population. Police officers were not just unpopular; they were the targets of abuse
   and violence from pro-democracy quarters

3. Philippine Travel Guide

   July 10, 2010, 10:13 pm

   The food looks good and you really went all the trouble just to get a hold of it. And good to hear that it’s not at all dangerous to visit alexandra

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   July 16, 2010, 2:26 am

   HOW NICE THE FOOD IS