Two crew members killed
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jayloveserin — 14 years ago(March 08, 2012 02:33 AM)
A guy I worked with was from South Africa and he has been carjacked TWICE and shot during the second. He has buckshot scars across his back and left South Africa as a result of his ordeal.
This guy is the only SA citizen I have got to know. I know a lot more americans however, so there is a personal comparison to be drawn from experience. I'm not saying SA is more dangerous than lets say Compton L.A. or wherever there are gangs on the streets, just offering another perspective from real life people I know.
If you go into urban areas that are rife with gun crime and violence then it's a given you may become a victim, regardless of geography. -
tdippies — 12 years ago(February 05, 2014 08:06 AM)
Obviously there are areas that have more crime than others. The area you live in, and the amount of security you have (alarm system etc.) will also determine how much you are a victim of crime.
I've lived in South Africa for 21 years and I've never been carjacked, my car has never been stolen, and I've never been a hostage or have been in a violent confrontation. The only crime that I've been a victim of was theft, someone stole my cell phone and my motorcycle helmet. That's about it.
Now that obviously doesn't mean that there is no violent crime whatsoever. A friend of mine had his house broken into twice. Some people are just unfortunate and are victims of crime, where others never even experience it at all.
And yes sorry, Gerard Butler is Scottish and not American, but he's still very biased (based off of that article I read and if those quotes were actually accurate). -
Koko_BG — 14 years ago(March 23, 2012 06:55 PM)
Who are you trying to fool? You prolly live in some rich suburb, gated estate or you have turned your house into a fortress and pretend "RSA is not dangerous" or you're just ignorant enough about the rest of the country. Maybe you were high on Tik while typing this BS.
And claiming that Gerard Butler (who is scottish and btw has an accent which is not american) is 'one of those Americans that runs down the street and shouts "Africa is dangerous"' simply because he briefly mentions what has happened to his co-workers is beyond stupid. You gain more stupidity points with the suggestion that "they were on set and a set of lights fell on them.. and they died".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crime_in_South_Africa
Crime is a prominent issue in South Africa. South Africa has an extraordinarily high rate of murders, assaults, rapes (adult, child and infant), and other crimes compared to most countries.
RSA is now #10 in the world for Intentional homicide rate per 100,000 citizens. Between 1994 and 2009, the murder rate reduced by 50% to 34 murders per 100,000 people.
Rape capital of the world: More than 25 per cent of South African men questioned in a survey published by the Medical Research Council (MRC) in June 2009 admitted to rape; of those, nearly half said they had raped more than one person.
South Africa also has a high record of car hijackings when compared with industrialised countries, typically characterised by a lower rate of car ownership. A South African insurance company, Hollard Insurance, stated in 2007 that they would no longer insure Volkswagen Citi Golfs manufactured in the previous two years as they were one of the most frequently hijacked vehicles in South Africa. Certain high-risk areas are marked with road signs indicating a high incidence of car hi-jackings within the locality.
Since apartheid rule ended in 1994 and Nelson Mandela and the ANC were voted into government, over 3000 White farmers have been murdered on their farms.
One incident involved a farmer being stabbed 151 times using various weapons such as a garden fork, panga, shovel, sharp knife and a brick. -
tdippies — 12 years ago(February 05, 2014 08:11 AM)
First off, I live in a pretty crap house in a crap neighborhood. My house doesn't even have an alarm system, we have 3 dogs that's it. I don't live in a gated community or in a fortress.
Secondly I never disputed that there were NO crime in South Africa. Obviously there are a lot of crime here, but anywhere in the world you will find crime happening. You really don't have to start giving my statistics from wikipedia (which is also laughable) because I live in South Africa, I see what is going on.
My problem with that article was it made it seem as if everyone here is a victim of crime and he will never get back home because he will die here in SA.
"We filmed in South Africa not the Sudan, which isn't safe. Two of our people died there while filming." - The entire article is biased and wants to create the impression that if you come to South Africa you will die when in fact the two crew members died in a car crash (that happens all over the world, you know).
Please, don't attack me and put words in my mouth. -
Mikethelegacy — 13 years ago(April 29, 2012 10:15 AM)
I know a guy from South Africa that left for the very reason of violence.
I live in Pittsburgh and also found it funny to hear him say this when asked why he turned down a job in Philadelphia:
"I left South Africa because I was tired of worrying about being shot at, why would I move to the US and worry about the same thing."
God I love that.
He is a white South African and lived in a nice town and went to University. It is STILL worse than any area in the United States. I'm not trying to knock on your country, because it's very beautiful from what I've seen, but you can't just ignore the violence that goes on. I'm the first to say that if Philadelphia and East LA were wiped off the map, America would be a better place
haha -
tdippies — 12 years ago(February 05, 2014 08:16 AM)
It's up to the individual. I know people who would never in a million years want to move to the US every year a bunch of schools have gunmen shooting at children and you have airplanes flying into towers if you want to compare countries, do it properly and don't ignore the shortcomings of your own country.
South Africa has crime, a lot of it, yes. So does a bunch of other countries. We don't have busses blowing up in the street, we have carjackings and we have armed robberies. Tit-for-tat.
If you think South Africa is 'dangerous', wait till you go to a North African country. There's a reason why they didn't film this movie in Sudan where the story actually takes place, so let us all not forget that. They came to the safest country in Africa. Maybe it's not the safest country in the world, but compared to other African countries we South Africans are very lucky. (And Hollywood since they have an African country where they can film in without getting their heads chopped off on CNN). -
alan_cx — 14 years ago(February 27, 2012 03:00 AM)
Black people dying is less news worthy than while people dying to western news organisations.
Cant remember where, its was years ago, but I saw a table which showed the news value of death. So, from a UK perspective something like, 1 Brit death = 3 US deaths = 10 European deaths = 50 Indian deaths = 1000 African deaths. It was even said that 1 UK white death was more news worthy than 1 UK black death. Obviously all that changes depending on the home market. Sick, I know, but is does make some sort of warped sense if you are in the business of selling news. (What am I saying? We all now know how the likes of News International act, so this should be no real surprise, right?)
If one wants to be kind, then I guess the reason the OP bought up race is because he/she might have felt that the deaths on this shoot might have not been widely reported because the victims were black and perhaps not American. -
the-infamia — 14 years ago(February 27, 2012 09:47 AM)
Pretending to care about african(s) is nothing more than a hip fad. This thread had few honest answer and could persons pretending to be insulted because they think thats politecaly correct thing to do and few hurt by proxy they have nothing in common with.
I dont understand why News International had to be drawn in to this. Is it Murdochs fault that no-one cares about africans?
Pile of bodies in some dark jungle is kinda like yuck but one dead american is a call for war, from any westerns point of view. -
fox-fairandbalanced-news — 14 years ago(February 27, 2012 03:52 PM)
"Pile of bodies in some dark jungle is kinda like yuck but one dead american is a call for war, from any westerns point of view."
umm no? honestly i am american and i have to totally disagree with that. it's not based n any PC bull, i honestly do not feel much compassion for my fellow americans. we are fat, loud, obnoxious, self serving, greedy xionist beep and i feel much worse about the state of children's lives in africa than anything any single american has to deal with.
and news international and murdoch are associated because they make money from death and destruction, with no moral qualms about doing so. they make money off of human misery, don't even practice actual journalism, and somehow they are just absent from the situation? NO. their proopaganda is what drives american isolationism, and the feeling that we are better than anyone else.
"best country in the world? really? that's like being the prettiest Denny's waitress. that may be true but you still have a long way to go to be considered any good." -
redfern1985 — 14 years ago(February 28, 2012 06:34 AM)
America the best country in the world? lol. How can you be the best country in the world when you don't even have free health care? A pretty basic human right that many other countries provide. I wouldn't even put America in the top 5 countries I'd want to live in and I've lived there. I'd rather live in Australia, New Zealand and a handful of European countries who all furnish their citizens with health care, a better standard of living, whose crime rates are significantly less and who don't brainwash their citizens with a false sense of entitlement and arrogance based on their nationality. The only people who think America is the best country to live in is Americans and that's because they've never bothered to travel anywhere else based on an ignorance that no matter where they go it could never possibly be as good as America. Thus the scope of their opinion is very limited.
America the best country in the world? Yeah? Based on what? -
ajstewie — 14 years ago(April 01, 2012 12:25 AM)
"How can you be the best country in the world when you don't even have free health care? "
Not giving free healthcare is exactly what makes America better than whatever socialist country you live in. If your government gives everyone everything for free then what would drive you to improve yourself and make your life better? Free healthcare or free anything is NOT a human right. Just like anything else it costs money and taxpayers have to pay for it. Get a job leech! -
tdippies — 12 years ago(February 05, 2014 08:27 AM)
So you're saying human rights don't exist? If you're poor and you are sick, you don't deserve to go to a hospital because you're poor?
If you're poor that means you don't have to go to school and get a good education, just because your parents don't have enough money?
Really, I advise you to get up in front of your computer and YOU go educate yourself. You know that Eleanor Roosevelt, the wife of FDR, was a huge supporter and a commission member of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights?
Health care should be available to everyone, irregardless of how much money you have. The United States is way too occupied with 'money'. It's just a piece of paper. You obviously have no compassion for other people and sit in your house worrying which console to get next, or which new flat screen tv to get. That's what sets other countries apart from the US. No matter how much money the US has, it's still a beep place with a lot of beep people in it. You included. -
MickyIrish — 13 years ago(April 05, 2013 02:56 AM)
Fox Fair its refreshing to hear that your not, well for lack of better words, a brainwashed moron that is so damn proud to live in a country that actually had one of its most influential states vote in Arnold Schwarzenegger as its Governor. I'm sorry but it was funny as a joke but when that joke became a reality it was the day the rest of the world completely lost any faith that they may have still had buried deep inside for America. I too would not be proud of a country that has allowed itself by majority to destroy itself. Its a known fact that in countries such as China and Japan, American History has been Integrated into the schools curriculum for the simple reason to educate the abundant historical inaccuracies and claims America has made and that its only a matter of time before the country will self destruct to the point of no return.
Sorry but needed to be said you can't argue this especially when the embarrassment of Bruce Springsteen's 'Born in the USA' was mistaken as a song that represents American pride and how great a country it is when it was clearly (If anyone took time actually listening to or reading the lyrics) a message of all that is wrong with the country itself. -
dmdrosselmeyer — 12 years ago(September 19, 2013 10:30 PM)
There are 49 states other than California.
Given, American politics are absolutely banal and it is by no means the greatest country in the world to live in (though there is such a vast variation from region to region I'm not sure you can really generalize the American experience). I'd argue it's destroying itself through its modern incarnation as a pseudo-plutocracy more so than by majority though. We invented the political machine, and have had nearly two hundred years to perfect the art of creating the illusion of choice.
Though, the original point is that to categorize everyone living in North America between the borders of Canada and Mexico and between the Atlantic and Pacific coasts as "Americans" and imagining all of us as superficial Schwarzenegger supporters is just as annoying as the people who are actually like that. The United States of America is the fourth largest country in the world in terms of area, with 50 states, at 3,794,101 sq mi. Europe is a continent of 50 countries with a total land area of 3,930,000 sq mi. Is it accurate to claim that we should lose faith in Europeans because they drink tea, have beep up teeth, and cook terrible food? The UK is a very influential European country