Health and safety

According to the US government, Namibia’s crime rate is Critical. Indeed, security firms appear to have a thriving business: uniformed guards are at every ATM, electronics (=cell phone) store, and high-end retail (e.g. safari outfitting, glasses), not to mention the main entrance and every building on the Polytechnic campus, 24 hours a day. When you park a car, you’re often asked if you’d like it kept under surveillance – at $N1 as an average tip, this is a bargain (<0.15 US$). Many stores have locked gates at their entrance, and a salesperson “buzzes” suitable customers inside. Houses have tall cement walls with concertina wire or electric fence on top. Our door has 3 locks (US embassy requirement, checked out personally by their security officer). The problem is property crime and theft, not (thankfully) risk of bodily harm. Actually, the problem is economic inequity. Based on average income, Namibia is a developing middle-income country, but with one of the highest variances in income worldwide (even worse than the US in GINI index). In a place where many people have little to lose, they’ll use an opportunity to take from the rich. Unemployment is high (we’ve heard various “statistics”, but likely over 40%), and, as evident by the compensation for car guards, many positions are poorly paid. Visitors are urged not to be easy targets – don’t carry iPods in outer pockets of backpacks or walk with a purse late at night across dark bridges. Well – undoubtedly the same advice would apply to most US metropolitan areas!
Namibia also has an extraordinarily high per capita rate of auto accidents. A deadly combination of break-neck speed, poor vehicle maintenance, intoxication (“We drink beer in Namibia because water’s too expensive”), and large animals that can leap 2-m fences and cross the road. The Namibian newspaper regularly shows mangled remnants of vehicles that have burned, flipped, split, or otherwise reached a bitter end. Driving sober, slow, and in daylight, we hope to avoid this fate. We are also now driving a Combi – the southern African version of a VW van – which we purchased for dirt-roads, camping/ sleeping in the rear, and hauling anticipated visitors from the States. In Namibia, one drives on the left hand side of the road, with the driver’s seat on the right hand side of the car: the biggest initial problem was turning on the windshield wipers instead of the turn indicator!