The South African Image, the WWW and Google
The other day I was having a conversation with a colleague of mine (he’s from Sweden and is living here in London) – being an open plan office everyone soon joined in. We were having a casual chat about holiday plans for the year … and I was enthusiastically suggesting that he go to South Africa for his next holiday – listing all the amazing and wonderful sights and experiences! His reply: “Well, sure … as long as I can take a gun.”
This sparked a heated and google-fuelled discussion amoungst the office as we looked up crime stats for SA. Sadly, everything they found on the web pointed to South Africa being one of the top 3 “most dangerous countries” in the world. The rape/hijack/murder stats were not encouraging. We were up there with Columbia.
I tried to explain that it’s really not as bad as they think. I was just home in September – and sure, we have crime (let’s not gloss over the facts) – but stats are easy to mis-interpret. I was quick to jump in with the info that Graeme had posted recently … and yet to no avail.
As a South African living abroad I am positive about SA – both present and future. However, it’s very difficult to promote a positive image of my home when there is still such negative information and attitudes floating about.
It makes me wonder about the power of the internet and the WWW – sure there is loads of information available – but how accurate is it? Are we being fooled into believing everything that Google delivers as “truth”?
The stats that everyone was reading re SA were 5 years old – but no one bothered to actually look at the source of the information. They just accepted it at face value. Have we stoped questioning and thinking for ourselves … and are we letting “Google” do it for us?
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I agree with you that for many it’s much easier to assume that everything on www is accurate and it’s just too much trouble to do some homework and verify most of what we read. And Google has made everything so much easier – although all Google does is find the stuff for us – we need to determine how valid all this stuff is.
But I also believe that SA Tourism and Brand SA should be a lot more pro-active about getting a balanced view out. Between ex-SA’s who take any opportunity to bad-mouth the country (usually based on things which happened to them 12 years ago), to inaccurate and outdated info about SA, it’s no wonder so many have negative perceptions about our country.
Maybe they should be spending some of their budget on righting misconceptions first before they entice people to visit. Because no matter how beautiful your pictures of Table Mountain are, visitors won’t come if they believe that their lives could be endangered.
I recently had Canadian and British cousins visit us over the Christmas holidays, and the only reason they agreed to come was because my uncle convinced them that it wasn’t as dangerous as they believed. Once they were here they were amazed at how exaggerated their fears were and now can’t wait to come back for another visit.
Simone – check out http://www.homecomingrevolution.co.za
There are up to date stats and decent “feel good” stories from people that have gone home.
It is worth remembering that SAffas are their own worst enemies overseas. It is not Google that is telling the world SA is a bad place, it is providing the evidence that people want to see because it supports their belief based on first hand conversations with South Africans that seem to only want to tell the world how bad the country has become – AA, crime, Zimbabwe etc. They forget about the resourceful, generous people, the friendly faces, the wonderful lifestyles etc.
Keep looking and you will find the stories about the philanthropy of SA businesses – one of the highest corporate social responsibility contributing countries in the world, the Angels of Soweto – unemployed people that formed security teams to protect the people of Soweto at night to get home safely and to the taxis without being mugged – the efforts of local businesses and communities to step in and help each other when local govts fail. The initiatives of teams like Highveld Radio etc – these are the people of South Africa – they make up the nation. We should be proud to be part of a society that looks out for each other. We should not be letting a minority of people hold us to randsom. It would be an injustice to the majority of our society. Meeting these people alone makes it worth a visit to SA. The scenery, the sunshine and the beaches – that is just a bonus.
Also check out: http://www.sagoodnews.co.za.
And this link is to an article about the latest Markinor poll which indicates that two thirds of South Africans are happy with the way that the country is shaping up.