So a British soccer journalist for The Guardian newspaper has posted a blog saying she is terrified about coming to SA for the World Cup next year because of the high crime.

Louise Taylor’s post is bound to get patriotic hackles up (and there are reams of comments on the blog) but she does have a point. Read the blog here and see what you think.

It seems to me perfectly reasonable that a foreigner would be nervous about coming to SA and this journalist is no ignorant chop.

She’s done her research and this is what her fears are based on. Just like when I read about Colombia, I think to myself:  “Jeez, that sounds so dangerous. I don’t ever want to go there." Well, Colombia and South Africa have pretty much the same rate of murder and violent crime — and now we know that the cops in SA are fiddling the crime stats to suppress the reporting of violent crimes.

And Taylor’s not going to be here as a tourist sticking to the main routes but as a working reporter, she will have to be all over the place chasing the story. As a freelance journalist who must work alone these days (rather than with a photographer) there are many story ideas I just shelve as it won’t be safe for me to pursue them.

As an ordinary citizen, I wouldn’t walk across the park (about 200m) next to my house by myself as you never who’s lurking in the bush and there’s only one beach in the whole city I go to by myself or with my young daughter during the week as it has full-time security and life guards.

So Louise, I have this advice for you from a fellow female hack who happens to be a South African: Bring yourself a large, imposing male photographer because unless you know where you’re going or are sticking to the suburbs, South Africa is very dangerous for lone women.

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There’s only two things you need to know today:
1. Here’s the oddest story you’ll read all year: that stats show that the UK has more violent crime than SA. True’s Bob! Hard to believe, I must say, and I think our gun-toting culture may be a more fatal form of violence than the knife-happy British version. There’s also the suspicion that a lot of SA crime (especially rapes) go unreported but nevertheless read the figures in the story at The Times and decide for yourself.

2.  If you have kids under the age of 10 you’ll be interested to know (and impart to your mini palaeontologists) that the fossils of three new species of dinosaurs have been discovered in Australia, including a meat-eater larger than door-opening velociraptor in Jurassic Park. Read the story here at News24.

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