At home with the Afrikaners

Interesting story about some things happening in South Africa

At home with the Afrikaners

I don’t think you could call the likes of J.M. Coetzee (as the article states) an “exile” by any stretch of the imagination. He still writes, lecturers at an Adelaide University (where he lives) and does quite well. He’s just taken an opportunity like so many others. Many rugby players have taken this route too, like the two centres who play for the US Eagles (and it’s highly questionable if those two would have made a starting line-up for a SA Super-14 team, let alone the Springboks), Mike Catt who plays for England (and who in his younger days couldn’t consistently make the starting line-up for one of the weaker provincial teams), Pieter De Villiers who plays for France, and Daniel Vickerman and Clyde Rathbone who play for Australia.

If they are to be considered exiles then so am I, and indeed so should all long term expats anywhere. Hell, J.R.R. Tolkein was South African and left for the UK way before SA was a Union let alone a Republic. Was he an exile, too?

I want to make this a seperate post as it deals with the other side of the argument. The article in TC’s OP is a very negatively slanted one. Guy Landry, and millions of other white (and/or Afrikaner) Saffas have a much more positive outlook.

[quote]
A speech by Guy Lundy of Dimension Data Business Solutions

"I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."

Many years ago I was an exchange student in the USA, and every morning in my school, as in all schools across America, all classes came to a halt as the Pledge of Allegiance came over the loudspeaker system and every student stood to repeat these words. I was quite amazed by this display of daily brainwashing in so-called "land of the free". But in hindsight it isn't actually that amazing, because we've all experienced how Americans are just so proud to be American. No matter how big their problems, and heaven knows they've got a lot of them, Americans will still spend hours telling you how fantastic their country is, and in fact, how it is better than, pretty much anywhere else in the world.

What a contrast then, when I later spent a few years in London and I ended up actively avoiding other South Africans. Why? Because frankly their negativity about our homeland irritated me so much! These people who will gladly put new South African flags on their cars and support a whole cottage industry importing biltong and NikNaks to munch on as they cheer on the Springboks at Twickenham, will spend hours telling anyone who will listen just how awful it is in South Africa, how lucky they are to be in London and how they are never going back because it's in such a mess.[/quote]

[quote]… 1986: A state of emergency was declared.
White men did two years compulsory military service.
64 184 black people were removed from “white areas.”
3989 people were detained without trial.
Our economic growth rate was 0.7 percent - today it is 3% (This year it’s running closer to 5%)
64 countries had sports boycotts against SA.
South African wines win international awards every year and we have the longest wine route in the world.
The Kruger Park has the most innovative management of a national park anywhere in the world - and is the world’s most profitable game park.
Eskom is the largest producer of coal-fired electricity in the world and South Africans pay the least for electricity in the world.
South African Breweries is the 4th largest brewer in the world and produces over 50% of China’s beer!
Mercedes Benz C Class, BMW 3 Series and VW Golf/Jetta vehicles for all right-hand drive markets throughout the world are produced in South Africa.
Didata grew from a local IT service provider into a huge, global networking company with branches in 30 countries.
The Cape Peninsula has more species of plants here per hectare than any other area of the world.[/quote]

I edited and broke it up some, but the whole speech can be seen on my blog (link below).

Point is, there are some difficulties, but they are by no means burdened by only the white/Afrikaner population, and there are way more things to be positive about than negative.

bismarck -
Thanks for your comments on the article and what you have added.
As always, I appreciate your comments and input re:SA matters. I make no pretense of having a great depth of knowledge in this area.