Imilender's tour in Sub-saharan africa

When an European is unemployed, he'll mainly just takes it easy. When an African is unemployed, he will go out early in the morning, try to find some economical oportunity to earn some money and then come back home with that money. That results in the fact that you will see several different kind of entrepreneurs everywhere. What however is stricking is that there are only very few beggars. People truly try to make their living by selling something.

I took the picture yesterday. It was a guy he was sewing trousers just outside our office. Unfortunately the picture is taken from quite a far a way, but he is using an old Singer that he actually operates by winding a nob with his right hand. He's just sitting there sewing business mens' (and womens') clothes day in and out. Didn't ask the prices but I doubt if he chargest more than R10 (€1) for shortening pants.

All the parking places also include car wash facilities. For example there is one in the garage of our office. They will charge me R25 (€2.5) for washing my car from the outside, and this is handwash of course. If I ask them to also clean the car from inside, that R10 extra. The price diffence is just amazing when you think what you would pay for the same service in Finland.

Other entrepreneurs include quys selling goods at intersections. They truly to have a market sence. Close to a clothing store, they are selling cloth hangers, during a sunny day they would be selling beach gear, on a rainy day they start selling umbrellas. Toys are of course a very common item as well. When the traffic lights are out, one of these quys might even start directing traffic.

Also close to hardware stores there are always loads of unemployed people with tools like paint brushes in hand. So if you need a tiler or painter, you can just pick a quy from the intersection. Only problem to this thriving entrepreneurship is the crime. I personally at least do not dare to buy much of the items from the quys at intersections as some of them might want to steal you once you open your window. Also I would not dare to take a handyman from the intersection to my home, as you never know if you can trust him. Never the less, they must be able to sell they services to some people, otherwise I doubt there would be so many of them still around.

My appologies for being silent for a while. Have been a bit busy.

Electricity situation at the moment is better. Industries have been able to reduce their consumption somewhat, and Eskom has managed to get some power stations back online. The interesting discussion here is on how to manage the Fifa 2010 world cup, as the power production situation is not expected to improve considerably. The organizers are saying that they have agreed with Eskom that power will be quaranteed to the stadiums and to the regions where the stadiums are, but will the rest of the country be without power at that time?

Security in South Africa is a normal discussion topic and it is the question most people tend to ask as first when you mention you're living in South Africa. Well it is true that there are number of security precautions that have been taken in this country and that one needs to consider. First precaution is your car. Most people have their car's fitted with so called "smash-and-crab" coating for all windows. This coating will protect the windows from breaking if somebody hits them. Also you should never have anything valuable visible in your car and of course one should have the doors locked.

Second precaution is your house. One should either life in a secure estate in which there is 24hours security patrolling the perimeter. If you do not live in such a area, then you will have normally electric fence around your own house, alarms, metal bars in windows and doors etc. Same kind of precautions are around all shopping centers and you'll notice that when you leave many of the shopping centers there is a boom and security guard checking that you have keys in the lock (i.e. that it is you're car). I have just often wondered what they could do should you try to steal a car. Most shopping centers will also have car watchers, i.e. men and women who have been authorized by the shopping center to guard the cars in the parking lot. They will also help customers to load cars, take shopping trolleys back into the mall and guide in getting the car out of the parking spot. They work solely on tips that the drivers give to them, and they actually even have to pay little to the shopping center to get the permission to watch the cars.

Also one needs to take special caution in financial matters. The banks have established several security measures, such as sending random verification numbers to customers cellphones as sms before the customer can do any transactions and calling in to verify that the checks are truly written by the individual. However the villains have also found ways to get through those security measures. What they are doing is that they will intercept the fixed line calls and do sim swaps to access the victims mobile phone. Then the RVN or verification call will end up with the villain and not the victim, and they will get access to the victims bank account. therefore the recomendation is that if you're phone goes dead, call back first and then the operator, not the other way around.

But in the end, once you're aware of certain measures that you need to take, living here is very nice and the probability that you'll end up being a victim of crime is small.