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Thread: To stay or go.

  1. #1
    Site Caretaker Dave A's Avatar
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    To stay or go.

    Two stories on Carte Blanche tonight, back to back, was not exactly a highlight for this country or for me.

    The first was the Panorama segment on South Africa. Perhaps not as bad as it could have been - I'd read the transcript and new what was coming. Still, less than light viewing and a rather sharp reality check.

    But the next story hit me hard. Maybe because my sense of patriotism was on the back foot just at that moment. Maybe.

    The segment on the rape of Jamie Paterson hit me right between the eyes.

    I felt the normal empathy for the fact that this girl and this family had been through a horrific ordeal. But we know this is a pretty regular event in South Africa.

    I could relate to the matter of fact way you have to respond to crises such as these in the moment.
    Derek: "I'm just amazed you could deal with all this happening."

    Jamie: "It's not easy but what other choice do you have?"
    Perhaps the thrust of the story is a girl and a family that have managed to cope. But that isn't what really got to me.

    The big blow was this:
    Derek: "Whether we talk about it over dinner parties or brood about it silently what has happened to the Paterson's encapsulates just about every one of our thoughts and fears. Is the situation getting better or worse? Is it worth the trade off of living in this beautiful country despite the dangers? Should we stay of go? And not all of us have the luxury of that decision."

    Alan: "We've had house breakings. We have had smash and grabs. There's nothing new. If they had taken things again we would have said 'Oh God, again'. This was very different, this was gratuitous awful violence."

    Jamie: "That is what is so sad. I was so full of optimism before and I had planned my future in this country. I'm not going to stay here. I'm not going to stay in a country where I don't feel safe."
    Matter of fact. Got to go. Like the No more Mandelas story, even more powerful on TV than in transcript.

    This is not even a decision for Jamie or this family. It is the only logical thing to do.

    Right now I feel like I'm living in a foreign land and the only thing keeping me here is inertia.

    Why stay?

  2. #2
    Silver Member Graeme's Avatar
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    Why Stay

    Do you ever get the feeling that they actually WANT us to go?

  3. #3
    Moderator IanF's Avatar
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    Jon Qwelane

    Most of the time Jon has a different but understandable point of view.
    Batten the hatches of escape
    18/02/2008 08:56 - (SA)


    Jon Qwelane

    It galled me no end to learn that last year some 338 South Africans wrote and passed the citizenship test enabling them to become Australian citizens, increasing even more the 5 036 South Africans who took up Australian nationality between 2006 and 2007.

    The news evoked deep reactions within me: anger at differing levels and, finally, meek acceptance that the current Constitution allows this type of "twee-gat jakkals" scenario to happen, and that as a country we must do something about it.

    Any number of people, particularly skilled people, leaving the country perhaps for good is usually bad news. Those emigrating are usually highly skilled: doctors such as cardiac surgeons, teachers, nurses, engineers, mining artisans and others.

    South Africa spends millions of rands training such people to equip them with skills: in the days of apartheid, university education usually cost parents almost next to nothing compared to now; the state subsidised the bulk of the students' learning - the expensive and grandiose lecture buildings and laboratories, the lecturers' and professors' salaries were all borne by the state.

    Indeed, for a certain privileged racial group all schooling up to matric was state-subsidised and compulsory.

    What all this says, notwithstanding the predictable howls of protests such as "black children burned their schools and their books" and also said "liberation before education", is that the country spent billions of rands to educate and train potentially useful people for the export market.

    I remember one visit I made to the United Kingdom in 1987 when I sat down to dinner in a room with at least 50 young doctors, trained at the universities of Cape Town and Wits, and was told there were more being expected!

    Angry

    This week's news that Australia, New Zealand, Canada and America had now joined the UK as nations harvesting the best of our local talent angered me.

    Why can't the government batten the hatches of escape and make such people pay back to the country what they milked from it? Why won't the government tighten the laws to make it harder for people to leave before paying back what the country invested in their education and training?

    And why can't the government make it doubly harder for those who had forsaken their citizenship for "greener pastures" to regain their residence rights? All these are quite attainable, with appropriate amendments to the constitution and immigration laws.

    But then again, it should be up to people if they want to play the eternal role of scavengers. Vultures, as an example, rarely go out to kill for their own food but will wait until their next meal falls to the ground either from being too old, exhausted or severely wounded.

    We must admit that the government, instead of tightening the laws and the constitution to force people to stay against their wishes, ought to create conditions which will make this an attractive proposition for people wishing to stay and build their lives here.

    In other words, get seriously tough with eradicating crime and conditions which create fertile fields for crime and criminals to flourish in. That includes eliminating such ill-considered schemes such as BEE for pals, unconditional affirmative action, and telling the truth when claiming to create "a better life for all".

    But I am afraid all those cannot happen in the dark like nefarious plans: get Eskom to give us light, which I suspect is the newest reason people are scuttling
    News 24
    Now I get worried they support BEE but don't want the skilled guys to leave. This just shows confused thinking and if he is confused and always has intelligent comment what chance has the ANC got.
    Conclusion is who knows?
    Only stress when you can change the outcome!

  4. #4
    Site Caretaker Dave A's Avatar
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    We must admit that the government, instead of tightening the laws and the constitution to force people to stay against their wishes, ought to create conditions which will make this an attractive proposition for people wishing to stay and build their lives here.

    In other words, get seriously tough with eradicating crime and conditions which create fertile fields for crime and criminals to flourish in. That includes eliminating such ill-considered schemes such as BEE for pals, unconditional affirmative action, and telling the truth when claiming to create "a better life for all".
    Bingo! There's the punchline and he's spot on the money. I just think he's gone about it this way to drive home the point.

    This isn't driven by temptation, what we're seeing is essentially a form of eviction.

    Of course, throwing up the barriers to exit would be the ultimate sign of failure. It would no longer be leaving a troubled country, it would officially become an escape.

  5. #5
    Platinum Member Chatmaster's Avatar
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    Well at this stage I am staying, my wife certainly has no interest in moving anywhere, but I am saving to buy my own island one day and convince her to move.

    What gets to me the most is the fact that government seem to be ignoring their failures and every time there is noise or complaints about their total failure they blame it on somebody or something else. Their latest strategy is to avoid the failures and state all their successes, sigh...

    For as long as they avoid taking responsibility I guess go is a very big reality we are facing if we wish to live life to it's fullest.
    Roelof Vermeulen (Entrepreneurship in large organizations)
    Roelof Vermeulen| Rock flaps south africa

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    Well at the time of the rugby world cup one of the commentators mentioned that Fiji may in fact declare a public holiday because they did so well...this got me thinking about a world where we actually KNOW how to enjoy ourselves...anyhooo off I went to google the possibility or emigration to Fiji and lo and behold they are in fact in a middle of a military coup or something or other...result is that I decided to live only in the present.
    Regards

    Debbie
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    Gold Member twinscythe12332's Avatar
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    As one of the younger generation, I must honestly say that I go on what I hear. This country is a beautiful land, but at the same time it can be quite hellish. everywhere, there will be rape. everywhere, there will be crime. But when it comes to the point where almost every one of us can say " I know someone who was raped personally" or " I have been a victim of crime, " you do have to sit back and think about your chances. the education system is there to put us in a position whereby we are skilled. To attempt to give us an upper hand. To teach us to know our options, and more so, how to realise opportunities when they arise. In a time where our voices are snuffed out, our cries for help ignored, how can anyone tell me I am a coward. vultures may be scavengers, sure. but a vulture is also an opportunist. animals die while they thrived. instead of sticking to something stubbornly, they will go to the food source. I am south african, that will never change. I bear the mindset of a south african. I was watching a news article on TV the other day, paying attention to it... then I realised there was a barbed wire fence in the background. It just made me think: Is this what I really want to get used to?

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