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OT- moving to South Africa

adatesman

Cast Iron
Joined
Jun 26, 2010
Location
Philadelphia Metro
Seems "Ugly American Syndrome" reared it's head in KPotter's thread about his BIL moving to SA, and I have to say reading the responses makes me ashamed to be an American. No, "Christians, Jews, and Americans" are *not* "on the menu there". Hate to tell you, BigHoss, South Africa is about as far from the Middle East as Panama from the tip of Argentina, and geopolitical strife in the Middle East has little to no impact on SA. Lemme guess... Talking out your ass while never actually been there, huh?

Jeez.... I know the Mercator Projection distorts things on a map, but confusing opposite ends of a continent????

Interesting fact: Slaves in South Africa were not the native Africans, but imported Indians. Which is where Ghandi got his start. History and geography are important, and hot damn do some of the responses in that thread make me embarrassed to be an American.


Anyway, lots of bad info in your (now closed ) thread, KPotter, and best to ignore 90% of it. It 'a no different than any other economically depressed industrial city, and frankly I felt safer in Jburg with the private armed security with a guaranteed response time than I do in Baltimore with "cops might show up ". Yes, there were walls with broken glass embedded on top and razor wire. I see the same thing here in the US every day.

That said, no way in hell I'd move to Jburg. It's basically a sprawling industrial wasteland in the middle of nothing. Other parts of SA, sure. Beautiful country with lovely people, no better and no worse than anywhere else.
 
Yes, there were walls with broken glass embedded on top and razor wire. I see the same thing here in the US every day.
If you're seeing it every day then you're in a pretty lousy part of the US or living next to a prison. Yes, there are pockets in the US where it's necessary but in S.A. there are few places where you don't need it. I'd seriously consider living in one of the western suburbs of Capetown now that my kids are grown but not a chance I'd live in Jo-burg.
 
Guessing you've either not been to Jburg or don't live in Chicagoland. Very similar cities, and I don 't hear one peep from folks here living in Chicagoland about needing armed guards.
 
Anyway, lots of bad info in your (now closed ) thread, KPotter, and best to ignore 90% of it. It 'a no different than any other economically depressed industrial city, and frankly I felt safer in Jburg with the private armed security with a guaranteed response time than I do in Baltimore with "cops might show up ". Yes, there were walls with broken glass embedded on top and razor wire. I see the same thing here in the US every day.

That said, no way in hell I'd move to Jburg. It's basically a sprawling industrial wasteland in the middle of nothing. Other parts of SA, sure. Beautiful country with lovely people, no better and no worse than anywhere else.

As an uneducated idiot on SA, my prejudice would say that most issues are race related, and the entire country is full of nazi's that want to kill all the black people. I assume that the women are pretty hot, since that's how it was portrayed in Die Hard. My takehome from reading that thread was that no, a move to Jburg with a family and children in public school is not a good idea...but it's mostly the city and immediate area....and a majority of the the strife is less from the stereotypical expectation of race, than it is the financial disparity.

Don't worry, most people skip over the ignorance.

But I must ask...since it does sound like a nice country, why not home the family in another part of the same country, and "commute"?
 
Is there a reason to read further?

The purpose of that statement was to provide you with an indication that most people that read form opinions based upon first hand experiences, heresay, and ignorance....in that order. If you had read further, you would understand that I wrote what you quoted above to point out that the first hand experiences of others actually CHANGED my opinion and prejudice of SA. Given the post I quoted however, it is clear you didn't even read my post, and still felt the need to express your frustration, and that makes you no less ugly than those that you condemn. I read all of the posts with an open mind.
 
Sorry Snowman, thought that your reply was from Pumpkinhead. Apologies, and I should be more careful when replying on the phone.

Loveley country, and we had absolutely zero problems driving around aimlessly for 3 weeks, covering 2000+ miles. Around 4pm we started calling around to find a B&B, and were off the road by dark.
We learned a lot about SA by tagging along to the restraints/bars with the B&B owners, and it was a fantastic experience.

Again, sorry for the mixup.
 
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He is going to work as a lead mining engineer the pay is huge really huge, he has lots of experience in underground mining and has worked for the company for 20 years. They are going to provide him and his family 24 hour security and private schools they will be there for 6 years. He will retire after this I believe. He has contacted many collegues who work there and they said the place sucks and crime is out of controll. They have people who pick them up and drop them off at the office. The children will be using the same security gaurds. He was told that everyone of means has there own security detail for the whole family.
 
Not far off the Mark, I'm afraid, KPotter. Which is what you get when abject poverty and opulent wealth are so close together. Not so different than parts of Philly, DC, or LA though. And nowhere near the danger/violence levels during the fall of Apartheid, which is what most people assume is still the case.

And yup, Jburg is in the middle of the mining. And dirty and dusty on account of it. Not where I'd want to be, that's for sure. A bit better north of town, but still dirt farming and dirty. Iirc there's a big reservoir an hour or two north of Jburg where the well off have vacation houses. Not unlike Lake Mead , from what I saw. Depending where the mine is it might not be too bad a commute (nice modern highway).
 
I can't tell if "lead" is "head" or the element. If the element, even more reason to not have the family in proximity. I agree that it's easy to fall into ugly-American mode when talking about moving there, but it really seems to me that if he must bring the family along that having them in a more safe part of the country is the way to go.
 








 
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