Kill the Robot!
After much nagging by my dear Terry I'm going to try to add a new component to my updates. Whenever I find something remarkable, crazy, interesting, befuddling or otherwise notable while blundering my way around South Africa I am going to try to explain it to you all (hopefully with pictures attached). My aim is to try to impart some of the more interesting nuances about South Africa to you all. And as an added bonus since I'm not from these parts I haven't yet become jaded when it comes to some of the "normal" things that occur here that either make you laugh or just shake your head in amazement...
So for part one I have chosen to highlight one of the unofficial South African past times/hobbies/national sports. While it is common knowledge that games steeped in British tradition like rugby, cricket, and soccer are popular here to the point of distraction a little known past time here is killing robots. For those of you not yet introduced to the South African vernacular, robot does not as you might think mean one of those little gear box machines that has been created and programmed by humans to relieve them of their work load. No, here robot means traffic light and I can only guess that it is so named because if you squint at it just so as you flash by in your car it may possibly resemble a very sad B grade science fiction version of a robot.
The rules of the game are quite simple as there really are no rules except that in order to consider yourself victorious you must have flattened the robot (street lights are an acceptable option as well) in question with your car, or if not entirely flattened it must be teetering at a precarious angle. Generally speaking, South Africans are rather proud of their cars; if you are here for more than a few days you will begin to note that an inordinate number of cars on the road are the products of the proud German tradition of auto making. This being said, they would not generally be inclined to bash them into a metal pole, but if you introduce a tot or 12 of whisky into the equation suddenly it becomes quite a sport to nail and obliterate unsuspecting and/or cheeky robots. Depending on the severity of the knock some robots will stop functioning while others continue working at a very horizontal angle, and as long as the lights are flashing (regardless of the angle) you must obey them, it can make intersections more fun...
But don't worry, the resources that go into replacing and resurrecting said robots does not go entirely to waste because the native South African population is a very enterprising group. If a robot goes more than a few days with out being repaired (it usually takes a week to 10 days) you will quickly start to notice that pieces are being removed and recycled probably in some township somewhere. If I had to guess, if I drove for more than 30 minutes a day here in Johannesburg I would say that I would probably manage to find a dead robot every other day, what a sport!
So for part one I have chosen to highlight one of the unofficial South African past times/hobbies/national sports. While it is common knowledge that games steeped in British tradition like rugby, cricket, and soccer are popular here to the point of distraction a little known past time here is killing robots. For those of you not yet introduced to the South African vernacular, robot does not as you might think mean one of those little gear box machines that has been created and programmed by humans to relieve them of their work load. No, here robot means traffic light and I can only guess that it is so named because if you squint at it just so as you flash by in your car it may possibly resemble a very sad B grade science fiction version of a robot.
The rules of the game are quite simple as there really are no rules except that in order to consider yourself victorious you must have flattened the robot (street lights are an acceptable option as well) in question with your car, or if not entirely flattened it must be teetering at a precarious angle. Generally speaking, South Africans are rather proud of their cars; if you are here for more than a few days you will begin to note that an inordinate number of cars on the road are the products of the proud German tradition of auto making. This being said, they would not generally be inclined to bash them into a metal pole, but if you introduce a tot or 12 of whisky into the equation suddenly it becomes quite a sport to nail and obliterate unsuspecting and/or cheeky robots. Depending on the severity of the knock some robots will stop functioning while others continue working at a very horizontal angle, and as long as the lights are flashing (regardless of the angle) you must obey them, it can make intersections more fun...
But don't worry, the resources that go into replacing and resurrecting said robots does not go entirely to waste because the native South African population is a very enterprising group. If a robot goes more than a few days with out being repaired (it usually takes a week to 10 days) you will quickly start to notice that pieces are being removed and recycled probably in some township somewhere. If I had to guess, if I drove for more than 30 minutes a day here in Johannesburg I would say that I would probably manage to find a dead robot every other day, what a sport!
posted by Genevieve Berardino | 5:10 AM
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