Arrive Alive futile?
Despite the millions spent on the Arrive Alive campaign, many are still falling victim to deplorable car-accidents on South Africa's roads.
American R'nB diva, Ashanti got more than she bargained for on her trip to South Africa when her 20-year old cousin, Quinshae Snead, was killed in a road accident hours before the artist was scheduled to perform.
Every holiday season we witness the death toll on South Africa's roads sky-rocket due to the likes of the 17 year-old drunk driver who had stolen his mother's car only to rear-end the car Ashanti's cousin was driving in, resulting in her flinging to on-coming traffic.
What beats me is people know the dangers of drinking and driving, but they still do it.
This horrible incident comes at a time when South Africa has been getting an enviable list of American performers every year. The likes of hip hop star Ludacris and Alicia Keys have not only gone back to the United States to raise awareness about the plight of poverty and Aids in South Africa, but they've also played an important role in educating Americans about the positive side of things, with Ludacris particularly passionate about spreading the message that there's more to South Africa than what people see on the Discovery Channel. However, this incident is disheartening, and can only take us two steps back.
The sad thing though, is that I found myself sighing with relief that at least Ashanti's cousin wasn't murdered.
Crazy Monkey actor, Brett Holdin, wasn't as lucky, he was found dead and naked with his friend, with bullet wounds at the back of their heads in Cape Town over the weekend.
awkward silcence at 01:50
4 Broken Silence:
You know, I have been thinking about Arrive Alive for about 5 years. I don't think it works. I think, it should be an on-going think, every month, every day, every week, the campaign must run. To drive safely must become part of our culture, drinking and driving, sadly, is in our culture, hell I do it, my friends do it.
But,,, I think the spatial location of where people live, work and play is too large, and thus you have to drive,,, so I propose, that the means of transportation need to be improved, que 24 hour bus system. That way there is alternative to driving drunk.
Just thoughts, maybe the gautrain will help a bit, maybe. I am sure when it comes into full effect I will use it all the time, hopefully it will run 24 hours.
Thu Apr 20, 04:31:00 AM 2006
Hey Lebogang.
I agree with you to a certain extent. I know a lot of black guys do this. When I was in Mzantsi in June I was in a position where the only way I could get home was if I got into this drunk guy's car.
But where I don't agree with you is when you say it's part of our culture. The way I see it is that it's just a sign of a lack of discipline.
I feel that we tend to say that about a lot of unacceptable things to make them seem unquestionable. I mean 100% Zulu Boy's appeal to culture to having sex with his rape accuser is a great case in point.
When I was in high school, dreadlocks were not allowed, but when I was in about Standard 6 it was the upcoming 'in thing.' A group of girls defied the teachers saying that it was African culture.
Even though we the rest of us knew that this is utter rubish (dreadlocks are Jamican, rastafarian, and in the case of Mzantsi are more of a hairstyle if they don't indicate your belonging to certain SUBculture) we didn't say anything.
Those poor teachers really couldn't say or do anything to discipline kids who were breaking school rules because any such move would have been and offense to our "culture"!
Thu Apr 20, 10:17:00 PM 2006
Wait.
Not to start an 'argument' persay, but when I said culture, I was not implying our inherited culture, as in, ethnic,,, I was refering to 'mordern culture',,, which is not always based on fact, but on 'commonality' (if such a word exists),,,
for example, the your dreadlock story, it was kewl, it was fashionable (probably still is), it was/is part of the culture that we live in now, the mordern culture, not that my grandmother's father was dreaded,,, nahmean,,,
so in terms of drinking+driving, it is something we do, not because we it's in our culture, it's because we do it, and in most cases more than once, we survive it. Should anything worse happen, whilst drinking and driving, it's okay for as long as you live to tell the tail. It is not the smartest thing to do, but it is something we do.
I don't think, fighting drinking+driving directly actually works, nothing you can do about that, but you fight the reason why it has to exists, which has to do with habit. If people are to get drunk, hell south africa is a heavy drinking nation (and that is in our culture through all groups), we have to come up with a plan that will stop them from driving afterwards.
Drinking, that we won't stop, when you are drunk ironically, the consequences of drinking+driving are ,ahem, 'blurred', so 'law enforcement' deterrents don't work, hell there is like 4 police cars per 200Km at 4am at night.
This leads to that 'whole' 24 hour buses, which we don't have. I do believe if the bus was an option, there would less fatalities on the road from drunken driving. Most importantly an enficient plubic transport system, this we don't have, too.
Fri Apr 21, 08:26:00 PM 2006
I definitely agree with you on the 24hr bus suggestion. A lot really has to be done about the transport system- drunk driving aside. I know from some very reliable sources that members of the Transport department will be in Singapore this coming week to learn a thing or two. The transport system here is really exemplary, and i hope that Jeff Radebe and his people do take away some valuable stuff.
Sat Apr 22, 10:20:00 PM 2006
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