General Discussion

I've been to both countries and in them a VAST majority of the people endorse knocking them off or locking them up. Most of this derives from the reaction of people who live in poverty. When you live very close to the edge you really can't afford to give the benefit of the doubt to criminals and both of these countries had very serious crime problems.

When I lived in Africa a number of years ago I was standing in line at the cash register of a grocery store. The woman behind me let out a scream and began shouting "LESHODU" which is thief in Sesotho. A young man who had been standing behind her had tried to pickpocket her wallet. He bolted out of the store with a crowd hot on his heels. They quickly nabbed him and began committing a first class beatdown. The laughing joyful crowd (in Lesotho everything is an occasion to laugh) dragged him into the store and awaited the police. On one hand I felt sorry for the guy because he was clearly poor himself. On the other hand if he had succeeded in absconding with her money her children would have had nothing to eat that week. "There's nothing to eat" has a totally different meaning for the 2 billion who live in poverty than it does for a bored American teenager staring at the open refrigerator. Let's hope we don't reach that level of desperation here.