My Hero in JHB.....

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dalkill
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My Hero in JHB.....

Post by dalkill »

Jeremy Clarkson's views on Jo'Burg (the Sunday Times).....


I dare you to visit Johannesburg, the city for softies.
It’s the least frightening place on earth, yet everyone speaks of how many times they’ve been killed that day

Jeremy Clarkson


Every city needs a snappy one-word handle to pull in the tourists and the investors. So, when you think of Paris, you think of love; when you think of New York, you think of shopping; and when you think of London – despite the best efforts of new Labour to steer you in the direction of Darcus Howe – you think of beefeaters and Mrs Queen.

Rome has its architecture. Sydney has its bridge. Venice has its sewage and Johannesburg has its crime. Yup, Jo’burg – the subject of this morning’s missive – is where you go if you want to be carjacked, shot, stabbed, killed and eaten.

You could tell your mother you were going on a package holiday to Kabul, with a stopover in Haiti and Detroit, and she wouldn’t bat an eyelid. But tell her you’re going to Jo’burg and she’ll be absolutely convinced that you’ll come home with no wallet, no watch and no head.

Jo’burg has a fearsome global reputation for being utterly terrifying, a lawless Wild West frontier town paralysed by corruption and disease. But I’ve spent quite a bit of time there over the past three years and I can reveal that it’s all nonsense.

If crime is so bad then how come, the other day, the front-page lead in the city’s main newspaper concerned the theft of a computer from one of the local schools? I’m not joking.

The paper even ran a massive picture of the desk where the computer used to sit. It was the least interesting picture I’ve ever seen in a newspaper. But then it would be, because this was one of the least interesting crimes.

“Pah,” said the armed guard who’d been charged with escorting me each day from my hotel to the Coca-Cola dome where I was performing a stage version of Top Gear.

Quite why he was armed I have absolutely no idea, because all we passed was garden centres and shops selling tropical fish tanks. Now I’m sorry, but if it’s true that the streets are a war zone, and you run the risk of being shot every time you set foot outside your front door, then, yes, I can see you might risk a trip to the shops for some food. But a fish tank? An ornamental pot for your garden? It doesn’t ring true.

Look Jo’burg up on Wikipedia and it tells you it’s now one of the most violent cities in the world . . . but it adds in brackets “citation needed”. That’s like saying Gordon Brown is a two-eyed British genius (citation needed).

Honestly? Johannesburg is Milton Keynes with thunderstorms. You go out. You have a lovely ostrich. You drink some delicious wine and you walk back to your hotel, all warm and comfy.. It’s the least frightening place on earth. So why does every single person there wrap themselves up in razor wire and fit their cars with flame-throwers and speak of how many times they’ve been killed that day? What are they trying to prove?

Next year South Africa will play host to the football World Cup. The opening and closing matches will be played in Jo’burg, and no one’s going to go if they think they will be stabbed.

The locals even seem to accept this, as at the new airport terminal only six passport booths have been set aside for non-South African residents.

At first it’s baffling. Why ruin the reputation of your city and risk the success of the footballing World Cup to fuel a story that plainly isn’t true? There is no litter and no graffiti. I’ve sauntered through Soweto on a number of occasions now, swinging a Nikon round my head, with no effect. You stand more chance of being mugged in Monte Carlo.

Time and again I was told I could buy an AK47 for 100 rand – about £7. But when I said, “Okay, let’s go and get one”, no one had the first idea where to start looking. And they were even more clueless when I asked about bullets.

As I bought yet another agreeable carved doll from yet another agreeable black person, I wanted to ring up those idiots who compile surveys of the best and worst places to live and say: “Why do you keep banging on about Vancouver, you idiots? Jo’burg’s way better.”

Instead, however, I sat down and tried to work out why the locals paint their city as the eighth circle of hell. And I think I have an answer. It’s because they want to save the lions in the Kruger National Park.

I promise I am not making this up. Every night, people in Mozambique pack up their possessions and set off on foot through the Kruger for a new life in the quiet, bougainvillea-lined streets of Jo’burg. And very often these poor unfortunate souls are eaten by the big cats.

That, you may imagine, is bad news for the families of those who’ve been devoured. But actually it’s even worse for Johnny Lion. You see, a great many people in Mozambique have Aids, and the fact is this: if you can catch HIV from someone’s blood or saliva during a bout of tender love-making, you can be assured you will catch it if you wolf the person down whole. Even if you are called Clarence and you have a mane.

At present, it’s estimated that there are 2,000 lions in the Kruger National Park and studies suggest 90% have feline Aids. Some vets suggest the epidemic was started by lions eating the lungs of diseased buffalos. But there are growing claims from experts in the field that, actually, refugees are the biggest problem.

That’s clearly the answer, then. Johannesburgians are telling the world they live in a shit-hole to save their lions. That’s the sort of people they are. And so, if you are thinking about going to the World Cup next year, don’t hesitate.

The exchange rate’s good, the food is superb, the weather’s lovely and, thanks to some serious economic self-sacrifice, Kruger is still full of animals. The word, then, I’d choose to describe Jo’burg is “tranquil”.
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Re: My Hero in JHB.....

Post by Scorpion »

Got the e-mail, yesterday - I love it! :twisted:
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Re: My Hero in JHB.....

Post by Family_Dog »

Good to read something positive like this! And, of course, Klerkies is even better than Jo'burg, but we never tell anybody that! :)


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Re: My Hero in JHB.....

Post by Mud Dog »

Things are not quite as tranquil here as J.C. makes out, but I do believe that we way overplay it. Yes it's bad in comparison to a decade or two ago, but so is it almost everywhere else, we're just not used to it and we cling to our old value systems from the days of "braaivleis, rugby, sunny skies and Chevrolet" (Toyota was'nt big yet then), Nationalist government, a functional criminal justice system and the death penalty.
The global village syndrome has exposed us to all the good and bad external influences and put us on the fast track to conformity and emulation. Corrupt and inefficient governance has'nt helped either, but the truth is that this is still a good place to be, not quite a paradise, but not yet the anus of the world either.
Depends on your outlook really, negative sentiment breeds a negative environment, and vise versa.
My opinion.
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Re: My Hero in JHB.....

Post by Mud Dog »

Good to read something positive like this! And, of course, Klerkies is even better than Jo'burg, but we never tell anybody that!
You also trying to save the lions, Eric? :D
When your road comes to an end ...... you need a HILUX!.

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Re: My Hero in JHB.....

Post by Family_Dog »

Nah.... Trying to keep my ol' ometown to myself, that's all! But don't tell anybody...!

Where else can I ever find the following:

* One STop street between my home & my place of work (1Km)
* 3 major Hospitals within 1Km of home (closest is two blocks away)
* Hypermarket two blocks away, central to my home & the office
* Suburban Business centre - ditto!
* Dentists, Doctors, Chemists within 1Km
* My favourite Hardware Store - since closed down (WAHHHH!!! :cry: ) two blocks away
* 4 Pizza places within 1Km
* 4 Bottle Stores within 1Km
* Coffee Shops, Restaurants within 1 Km
* Traffic jam comprises five cars in peak hours, resulting in a 30-second delay in commuting to & from work
* Receiver of revenue - Far Away!!!
* Parking problems? I don't understand?
* Sunshine when it is raining everywhere else :)

Life is tough - Africa is not for sissies!


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Re: My Hero in JHB.....

Post by Mud Dog »

* 4 Bottle Stores within 1Km
* Receiver of revenue - Far Away!!!
:lol: :lol: :lol:
Sounds like you have it made! :D:
When your road comes to an end ...... you need a HILUX!.

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Life is like a jar of Jalapeño peppers ... what you do today, might burn your ass tomorrow.
Don't take life too seriously ..... no-one gets out alive.
It's not about waiting for storms to pass. It's about learning to dance in the rain.
And be yourself ..... everyone else is taken!
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