Hi Guys,
This is very off-topic, but I just wanted to give you a bit of insight
to our life here in Johannesburg, South Africa. On Saturday morning at
03:00, whilst my fiancee and I were asleep, we awoke to an ungodly loud
crash as our glass sliding door in the room next to our bedroom was
smashed.
Two black men entered and made their way to our bedroom. It was the most
frightful, awful few seconds as I was realising this happened while
trying to wake up. Luckily, I could close our door in time, but it did
not have a key, so we had to hold the door closed with our hands. We
remained quiet / calm (well, on the outside, in anyway) amidst the
threats (they wanted to have the door opened, which usually results in
rape and death around here) and with us not giving way, were expecting
bullets to fly through the door (and us) at any moment. For the second
time, but somehow more acutely this time (compared to when we were
hijacked in 2005 with two guns against our heads), I had to make peace
with the fact that we will most likely die. This is not a good thing to
truly, really experience. Don't think they kill swiftly here without at
least raping the woman and torturing the men.
I think our quiet insistence made them unsure of what to expect when
they open the door, and ultimately made them less insistent to enter.
For a while, my fiancee held the door on her own while I found and
loaded my (inherited) single-shot shotgun, which I would have had to use
if they did enter, but which would have been a very big problem since
there were more than one of them, and I had one shot at a time. I am
glad it never came to that, and ultimately they left, but not before
taking what they pleased from my house, most expensive of which were two
Apple Powerbook 17" computers. I cannot explain the gut-wrenching fear
we experienced as two helpless people trapped in their bedroom with
violent barbarians literally pushing against our body strength to come
in and have their way with us. People see things like these in the
movies, and they think they will be rambo, but wait until you are in
such a situation.
I am shocked anew at the complete disregard here for life and property
in the South African (and, very often, the rest of African) culture.
This is not a racist statement, it is a statistical observation based on
me being subjected to at least eight acts of crime in the past seven
years. There is no attempt at subtlety, they break in and break and do
as they wish - as if it is their right to do so.
The continuing violent crime against the white minority here is
tantamount to genocide, it seems to be getting worse and worse. Some say
this is society is now the product of the Apartheid-era undoings, but as
a young white South Africa who had absolutely nothing to do with that, I
am still subjected to this barbarism. You face an enemy who does not
reason, does not feel, and has nothing to lose - an animal.
To give you context, we live in a town-house complex with electrical
fencing around, and guards who patrol every hour. Yet, they directly and
easily came to us in this way. And we are just average people, and
people on average die when this happens - and it happens daily.
Anyway, I know there aren't any other South African members on this
list, but wherever you are, I would not wish this experience upon my
worst enemy. If you live in the sort of place where you don't need to
create a prison for yourself, please go out and have a safe,
incident-free evening walk for us over here...
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