Observations
Michael Francis raises the question why are south african’s such violent people. He is a visiting Canadian from a relatively more peaceful part of that generally peaceful country. [see link below]
Why are ‘Saffers’ such violent people he asks? And he presents a generally wide ranging series of examples of violence in a wide social context and raises the probably correct perception, that in a world where people seem to respond to incentives, the fact that few violent act result in any real sanction is a great incentive to ‘bugger thy neighbour’.
I felt it was perhaps a disingenuous piece? Written as devil’s advocate, to prompt a review of ourselves. Nonetheless perhaps the question should be why are human beings so violent towards each other and why are we a dramatically above average violent place.
I felt Mr Francis ignored some realities. As an offshore foreigner he presented useful insights, without necessarily viewing them holistically.
We are a post revolutionary society. The long awaited day arrived but we were soon habituated to the fact that we could now sit anywhere we could afford on the train. The shift to cash as the social determinant rather than complexion raises huge issues: you didn’t have to do anything when you were oppressed black, to be oppressed… blackness was its own qualification.
In a market driven economy, however, effort counts whether it’s the effort of creating patronage, and hence a cronyist access to cash; or the quaintly western view that other forms of effort are more appropriate, it’s still effort; and that raises new challenges and an awareness for many of their absolute impotence.
And this is normal. Transitional medieval European countries had murder rates quite comparable to ours for instance. France remained a violent society for most of the century following their famed Guillotine fuelled revolution albeit on a continually declining curve.
Taking my own neighbourhood as a for instance relative to his argument: In 1996 we had more than a 1000 reported murders. Now even if the recently released numbers were only 10% of reality, they would still have been only 10% of that figure.
Better. I would say that represents the beginnings of a response to the greater focus on reducing the incentives.
That plus a growing understanding of the fact that we are each, notwithstanding any nanny state ideas to the contrary, responsible to ourselves for our actions
blogroid on September 19th, 2010 at 6:17 am
http://www.thoughtleader.co.za/michaelfrancis/2010/09/16/crime-and-violence-in-the-new-south-africa/#comment-140203
