Botswana transportation, laws, life

I wanted to talk a little bit more about yesterday before I talk about the music festival. On our way back from the cultural village yesterday Karabo asked me to hitch hike with him and pay a quick visit to his sister in Game City. I learned a lot on our journey which got me thinking, citizens of Botswana do not have a large mass transit system so they rely on hitch hiking. Cars will just randomly pull to the side of the road to pick up strangers and charge five or ten pula for gas money. This is something that has been outlawed in my state and will continue to be seen as dangerous. I asked Karabo why they are able to do so and if there is a lot of crime that happens in these instances and if girls are more at risk. He informed me that girls are actually preferred and that it is very safe no matter the gender. I found this hard to believe until he went more in to depth and explained how everyone in their culture relies on their neighbor or in this instance their fellow citizens. I found it funny that a man or woman driving a benz or BMW would pull over and pick up a random person but then it hit me. Botswana has outlawed guns; their police cannot even use or possess fire arms and in their country cable is a luxury which most cannot afford.

The news they do broadcast is positive, inspiring and represent an open door policy type government. The one thing I do not miss about the states is television, time wasting, boring, over emphasized. People in Botswana will read week old papers if they cannot afford them just to know what’s going on in their country and around the world; they even send them to their families in neighboring country. I read an article the other day which stated how the president was suing the newspaper and Titus asked me if this is possible in the United States and I believe freedom of speech protects people from stating anything they want however I have never heard of a U.S. president suing anyone during office. I am not saying freedom of speech is a bad thing but to many things occur behind closed doors in our country and all we are left with is to trust that person judgment. With guns outlawed there is hardly any violence, less fear among the people and more trust as law abiding citizens in their country. I admire their honesty and respect for one another. They also believe it is a MUST to know thy neighbor, by neighbor I mean anyone around them. If they were to sit on a bus it is their duty to know the person next to them. An example of this our teacher used was the movie Open Water when a couple is left at sea because no one accounted for them while they were scuba diving, she explained how this would never happen in their society because someone would speak up and make aware than the whole party was not accounted for.