The Return

So I've been back for no more than a few hours (not even touching on a day yet), and the first thing I see is that some disgruntled person has gone into the Belgian Palace of Justice and shot a judge and a clerk. I was stuck in traffic all the way home. And having just parked my car outside my apartment, I was ticketed for not having had time to go through all the bureaucratic crap to get a parking permit yet. I nearly ran into a police patrol car who shot out of a small side street without even bothering to look. Oh yeah... the lady at the passport control at the airport was not very nice at all.

Why do people always ask me if it is unsafe in South Africa? The petty crimes can happen anywhere. The mid-level crimes can also happen anywhere but mostly in big cities (Paris, London, Brussels...) and the big crimes... well that kind of stuff can also happen anywhere. What about those crazy killings in China recently? China... China... Wait... Isn't that a communist state, where the state controls the hearts and the minds of its people? Don't they have some of the strictest security forces anywhere in the world? Aren't people supposed to be quite afraid of going afoul of the law since the punishment is so much the more intense? Yet... Hmm...

At least the passport control guys in Cape Town International Airport smiled and cracked jokes with you after flying for a whole day. Smiling doesn't exactly cost much, and since you are supposed to welcome people to your country to spend money, or in my case to pay out of my backside in taxes, you can at least try... Right?

Great... Oh well, at least I can dream.

Image Source: Krypton Zone (c) 2010 Entertainment