Stats don't say everything, and doesn't negate my opinion of the place where I currently live. Most of those murder stats are unfortunately from poor areas and affecting the poor populace. Us in the middle and upper class don't get affected as much by the crime, we live in protective cages, gated communities, have private healthcare, don't use public transport and have 24/7 security.
I'm not saying SA doesn't have crime, I'm saying it's easy to avoid and I prefer it this way vs what is present in supposedly western countries.
Ohh it is. Racially charged farm attacks are in the news, but apart from that, violence is very high in the country. Murder and rape crime statistics are some of the highest in the world. And that is after allegations of corruption and underreporting of crime.
Ironic that you say that second sentence after saying the first :-)
Because that's _exactly_ what we'd say about those other countries. Stay out of the dodgy areas etc, the gang violence etc is typically hyper local and worst in certain neighborhoods.
> Violence wise, I'd rather live here than in places like London or most of the places in America with high thug-culture populations.
If you have a preference for living in higher violence areas, that's your choice, but I don't think many will share that view.
As one other comment had pointed out, the murder rate in SA is about 40 times that of England. It isn't even comparable, so I don't see how one can make a solid argument for "but violence-wise, SA is better despite having an x40 murder rate".
Violence wise, I'd rather live here than in places like London or most of the places in America with high thug-culture populations.