Lies, damn lies and statistics

by Lauren Roodt
Am I the only one who chose Rhodes instead of WITS because I was under the illusion that it was a quaint little place with relatively safe surroundings? Whoa, was I falsely informed! The year started off with an explosion of rapes. Now we are moving towards muggings on campus, attacks in town and even more rapes. Things are happening which should be beyond any reasonable human's capability and they are getting worse. Our Student Zone reads three stories on crime affecting our students. What type of message is this sending to future Rhodents?

I have noticed that CPU (Campus Protection Unit) have put up more SOS buttons but are these going to make any difference? Yes, it is very reassuring to know that you can hit a button to call for help when the next sub-humanoid leaps in front of you, but when push comes to shove how many of these attacks happen in the vicinity of the SOS buttons? Not many I recon. "Use in case of emergency". But when does something become an emergency? Is it only once you have been pulled to the ground and pinned down and had the blood sucked from your veins? To refer to Cannibals story "Just because I'm paranoid doesn't mean I'm not being followed...": If one is feeling insecure are they entitled to push these buttons? An ejector button in a space ship is there to be pushed before the aircraft crashes... surely these buttons should work in the same way.

With the rapid swell of crime in Grahamstown I believe we need act before the emergency arrives. There is no use in hitting the emergency button once you have been stripped of all your possessions. Yes, it is stupid to go walking alone at night and perhaps we do put ourselves in places where only the dead would dare walk, but even so we should not have to walk around in fear of what is going to emerge from the next crack in the sidewalk.

But, before becoming hermits who refuse to leave our room we also need to remember that small towns have big impacts. Here, everybody knows everyone- it is then that nightmares become reality because it all hits closer to home.