Across the road a wiry group of youths sculpted by scanty food and occasional manual labour lounge against the frontage. All wear eye-sets – chitinous, intimidations reeking of testosterone.
South Africa
Awareness 7 – Mandla Alone
Delicately it probes one of the open access fields, bouncing a disguised connection request. Immediately there is a rustle of activity: stealthy digital legs stalking – A spidernetic mutabot or some other insectificial tasked with embalming unwary code for the attention of its hacker master.
Awareness 6 – Into the Township
The murder rate is well above the national mean – 0.015% per annum. That’s nearly six people every week. 85% of them are young black men. But, though proportionately fewer, some of the murders perpetrated on women are particularly horrific.
Awareness 3 – My Cybernan
“It’s illegal to remove ID, but it’s not illegal to go un-wearing after twenty-one.”
Awareness 2 At the Hospital
Thuli begins to sob, even more intensely than before. What on earth is happening to me? she wonders.
Awareness 1 – The Accident
Glimpsed in the headlights, a child darts for the edge of the road. Thuli brakes, and the car slews – she hears a soft thump – and begins to spin. Helpless, she resigns herself: a limbo of thought in which she avoids imagining the bone-rending impact to come.
Word on Westlake #4
Thank God! Lockdown has moved down to Level 2 with Level 1 on the horizon! What started off in March as an anticipated sprint through what we thought would be a three-week Lockdown, actually evolved into a gruelling marathon.
Lightwalker 