Before it's too late...

Today was an amazing day again. We spent the morning learning more about the history of South Africa and learning a little bit of Xhosa, one of the native languages here. After that we got to visit the top of Table Mountain. Luckily we were able to take a cable car there rather than spending two and a half hours climbing to the top. The sights were breath taking. It made me wonder, do the people who live in Cape Town still revel at the beauty of the world around them or do they become so desensitized to it that they don't notice? Also, are there ways in my life that this has occurred? Are there things back home that I have taken for granted, things that I should be reveling at every day but fail to because I have yet to notice how amazing and special they are? These are things that I will probably never know the answers to until it is too late, I can only hope that I am able to appreciate them before that time comes.

This brings me to the topic of my paper. Each week we have to write a reflection on what we have learned or experienced the previous week and how that has affected us that week, here is mine:

            One of the biggest differences between the United States and South Africa, or The Twin Cities and Cape Town to be more specific, is the way that the police are perceived. In the Twin Cities, the police are respected and even admired by some. In Cape Town, the police are not respected in the least bit. This is very surprising in some ways, but in others, after thinking about it, it is to be expected.

            The Twin Cities in general has been established for many decades and has never had any major experiences like that of their counterparts in Cape Town. This has contributed to the differing perspectives between the two police forces. In Cape Town, the people have recently been through a huge conflict in which the police were responsible for a portion of the fighting. Because of this, the people of Cape Town do not trust their local police.

That is not the only reason that the people don’t trust the police however. They are also severely over worked and underpaid which contributes to the negative perception that people have of them. According to Jane, many times when the people call the police in an emergency situation they may not come for hours because of how overworked they are and how short of bodies they are. There are many times when they are in the middle of one call when another arrives and they are not able to go to the second call until the first is finished. This can often take a long time. There are also times when there are more calls that continually stack up and make this problem become steadily worse.

I realized this all because of the armed response company signs outside of many homes in Cape Town. Initially I thought that the armed response companies were just used so that people felt extra safe, like the alarm systems that are used in the States. After thinking though I realized the connection to apartheid. I also think that the fact that they are so overworked and underpaid is a part of the apartheid legacy. The people in the government right now have been abused in one way or another by the police and therefore also have negative feelings toward them. This past resentment could possibly affect the management of the police department today. Either way, it’s a sad time when the police department gets robbed and is forced to hire an armed response company to protect.

After this thinking and realizing, I have come to be grateful that there is a group of men and women in my home town and state that I can rely on to protect me. I am relieved that I am able to trust that they will be there and do what they can to keep me safe and to offer justice for wrongs committed. I am also thankful that there are so many police officers that the young kids in my neighborhood and town can look up to. So many kids dream of being police officers when they grow up and without these people to emulate, these kids could turn to others who are not as ideal to become their role models.