South Africa

Well, Ok...

1. Is South Africa better (or worse) to Europe in terms of infrastructure?
2.Is their still discrimination between white and black?
3.What sport are they most passionate about?

Thanks

1) As south africa is still considered a 3rd world country most people would think its far behind europe... But as anyone who has been with know that johannesburg is 3rd fastest growing city in the world. Yeh there is crime and such but aslong as your careful and dont advetise your belongings you would be ok. The country as a whole is very similar to europe especially cape town. i was very impressed to see it isnt lacking in anything that europe has, apart from internet.. broadband is still considered expensive and exclusive to the rich. But as for general living it just so laid back and easy going that you dont notice any flaws it might have.

2)As someone who grew up there in the time of the change over to a black goverment i really saw how racist it can be, and it was bad in the 90's. For me its calmed down alot, but there will always remain the racisim because now the "dutch white" people are on the reciving end of the black goverments wrath. there will never be a happy medium, there for you will always have trouble, But during my recent time there i went the two townships "tembisa and soweto" and had a great time with no signs of racisim and felt really welcomed. But when you delve into the politics and stuff of the country yeh there still is a massive divide, but as an open mided person i saw past the invisible barrier that has been created and enjoyed the company of the person and not the skin

3? There is 3 main sports of south african culture, them being soccer, rugby and cricket... were as soccer is seen as a "black" sport and the other two see as a "white sport" there is great passion everywere you go. My personal preference is soccer and i found it to be entertaining to go to the FNB stadium to watch a match.

Hi Channel

I don't mean to just barge in.
My name is Kelly and
I just found this BB and I joined because of the travel portion.
I lived on South Africa for 4 years From '78-'82. I was lucky to
live there before all of the changes. Even then I could see them coming
though most thought it never would.
I lived in the small mining town of Evander, 90 Kilometers East of Jo'berg, in the Transvaal.
I found your comments most interesting. Most of the people we knew back then have left. Even the Afrikaner's as most held dual passports. Some were the Dutch, and some were German some British.
I loved living there. Loved all of the things we did while there. We spent many weekends in Blydeport and Krueger National Park.
We visited Durban and Zulu Land and many weekends were spent in Swaziland. Much to our regret, we never did make it to Cape Town.
What part of S. A. did you live in during the 90's?

Kelly

Oh, boy! Wait till you guys meet Tagged Lyricist. Probably misspelled the name, but keep an eye out.

what what discussing my country without me. Rogers right you have to meet me a born and bred lived here my whole god dam life in Johanneburger!

Channel what questions were you gonna answer?

by the way blah blah blah racism f.uck that every where in the world has racism i have black UK friends who love this country because the racism is not as prevelant as it is in the UK. yes the apartheid existed, but here it was given a name, and perhaps too our benifit at a nation because we had to deal with the issues of racism more up fronlty then any where else and a as a half jewish half irish girl living in South Africa all I can say is of course racism exists it exists everywhere.

Oh and my Brazilian friends think that SA is more liberal then Brasil as far as our barriers between race goes. The biggest problem in South Africa is HIV and poverty not race.

Hi Guys & Girls, I don't know quite where to begin, I live in Vancouver, British Columbia via Coventry England & Fishhook South Africa. I am now 49 years old & have never been back home. My dad was in the English navy & we traveled quite extensively. While living in South Africa I was raised by my nanny "madge",on my 16th birthday while living in Canada I receied a birthday card from Madge & now I must be going through mid life crisis & have to find Madge, hopefully she is still alive. My dad past away several years ago but my dear mother is still alive & is 84 years old, mom says Madge would be about 77 years old now. In the card she signed it Madge & family so I am assuming she had children.n I am trying to get more info from my mom about dates, exact location etc..... It is now my only quest in life to find Madge & I will!!!!!!!!!!
Cheers,
Steve Stew

Bocki--

Welcome to A2K.

Probably more people would see your quest if you posted an independent thread in the General forum.

Good luck.

SA
Any Mexicans in So Africa? I am a Mexican American living in the US...AND i really like what you said about racism lyricist....APARTHEID put a really negative blanket over south Africa...I have that country on my top 3 places i would like to visit..i live in the U.S...but I hate flying for long distances..


...S Africa sounds enticing..the US has a lot of glamour and glitz..smoke and mirrors...we work all day ...for 50 years...and then we say, "what was the point to all that?"

18,000 murders a year is nothing to sneeze at. The USA with it's large population only managed 15,000.

Crime is driving many Whites to flee.

Economics as well. Affirmative action forces a company to hire 5 Blacks before one White.

Cool, I'm a South African, and I love it here, I wouldn't dream of living elsewhere, crime and all. I don't think the race issue is so big any more because most racist people during apartheid were given the opportunity to leave by the Truth and Reconciliation Commision (TRC)

Well thats good to hear after all the negative stuff. It probably makes a difference if one is White or Black. Farmers are not feeling too secure these days. If they are not murdered on their isolated farms SA may pull a Mugabe stunt on them down the road.

... and whats with all this name changing? It was bad enough when Salisbury went down the tube. Now Transvaal is gone. What the heck is Gauteng?
Next Potgietersrust will be history. Waterval bo and Waterval Onder?
Better not muck with Umbogintwini! :wink:

There are some progress made for blacks in South Africa, but they are still a long way from "equality." When we visited one of the shanty towns (where only blacks live) in Cape Town some years ago, their ability to progress educationally, in healthcare, and living conditions will be a long time in showing improvement. I saw a few blacks at the university and working at restaurants at Victoria Wharf which is encouraging, but progress, I'm afraid, will be slow. It was also encouraging that our local tour director who is white told us her daughter married a black man.

I would love to visit South Africa again, some day. The climate was just like San Francisco when we visited.

You are right,, South Africa has the climate that Cali advertises!

I am concentrating on the Ashes at present and sticking it to the POMS. However I shall return to slag off on the sheep rooting SA cricket team and springboks. Looking forward to that.

Well, I wouldn't say all black people live in abject poverty. I think there is a huge disparity. Those black people that are extremely rich and those that have very little, at the very bottom. You do get black owned companies, and with Black Economic Empowerment (BEE), many black people in government etc. Anyway, our universities still have qouta's, where it is far easier to get in if you are non-white, which has caused a silent row, when non-whites who wouldn't ordinarily cope, but still get in to univeresity, can't handle and drop out erc.
But in the hope of reaching equality, I don't want South Africa to become like Zimbabwe, will the farmers and land re-distribution etc.

But many non-whites who are not black i.e. indian, coloured etc., went through the same oppression as black people, but do not complain as much, and are not given as much notice

Yes we have many, MANY third world problems

And dadpad......dream on.

And zoofer, South Africa has many regions which differ greatly in climate, ranging from semi-arid conditions to jungles.

Yeah I know about the climate as I spent 20 years there.
Cos' that was before global warming!

bm

This thread looks like it could be interesting!