This guy could easily have been running for his life. I exaggerate slightly, but the level of crime was very palpable in South Africa. It will take time, I am sure, but establishing safety and freedom of movement in South Africa will only serve to increase tourism, trade, and general economic cooperation and inter-community development.
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The staff at the hotels, the one in Durban in particular, were very wary of us walking around by ourselves. In some cases, they even escorted the female members of our congregation through the streets on simple errands (buy stamps, go to the pharmacy).
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In Pretoria, in a certain entertainment district, people were paying guys loitering on the street to NOT damage and/or steal their vehicles. It was kind of like purchasing security by buying the criminals. I suppose if you can’t beat them….
My name is Michael Sean Gallagher. I am a Lecturer in Digital Education at the Centre for Research in Digital Education at the University of Edinburgh. I am Co-Founder and Director of Panoply Digital, a consultancy dedicated to ICT and mobile for development (M4D); we have worked with USAID, GSMA, UN Habitat, Cambridge University and more on education and development projects. I was a researcher on the Near Futures Teaching project, a project that explores how teaching at The University of Edinburgh unfold over the coming decades, as technology, social trends, patterns of mobility, new methods and new media continue to shift what it means to be at university. Previously, I was the Research Associate on the NERC, ESRC, and AHRC Global Challenges Research Fund sponsored GCRF Research for Emergency Aftershock Forecasting (REAR) project. I was an Assistant Professor at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies (한국외국어대학교) in Seoul, Korea. I have also completed a doctorate at University College London (formerly the independent Institute of Education, University of London) on mobile learning in the humanities in Korea.
