DISCLAIMER by Anne Lapedus Brest ©.
21 February 2023 South Africa.
South Africa could be one of the best countries this world has ever known.
A land of great beauty, we have incredible resources/minerals, a first class climate, wide expanses of land, a wonderful and hard-working people, wonderful game-parks where people flock to from all corners of the globe, but sadly this is not the case and we are seen as the land of lost opportunity.
People are leaving South Africa by the ‘boatload’, as it were, despite well-meaning friends and family telling them that the Grass is not always Greener on the other Side.
People would rather freeze in parts of Canada, or risk the San Andreas fault , struggle with being a new immigrant, struggle with leaving beloved family, have to re-sit exams of the profession they were in for many years, face the roof-top shootings by crazed individuals in the US, rather than stay in South Africa.
I know that no country is perfect, and crime, unfortunately is rampant everywhere but maybe to a lesser extent.
I’m sure many holes can be picked in what I have written, some of my points may seem trivial, but all added up together, it does tend to make the grass on the other side seem to be greener, even if it is not…
I have not touched on anything to do with Government, politics, race or creed, and I have also not mentioned many issues, I have purposely steered clear of them - so please take out of this what you wish, or don’t wish.
THE GRASS IS NOT ALWAYS GREENER ON THE OTHER SIDE.
VERY TRUE ---
BUT
But the grass on the other side is a SAFER grass.
And it may not be greenr, but it is FUNCTIONAL..
It may not be greener as such, but they don’t have power outages for 6 hours non-stop
No annoying and very constant water interruptions.
Pavements are usually beautifully kept, flowers often growing making it beautiful
You can drive your car without ducking and diving the potholes
You can have the pleasure of going to “Town” or the CBD, and see beautiful buildings, elegant post offices, High Courts, historial buildings, with flowers growing outside, rather than decay and rot.
Your child can attend University without fear of it being trashed , toilet seats broken, graffiti, and rioting on campus..
The grass may not be greener, but you have a bright and happy future for your children, a safer life, “a besere leb’n (a better life) where a G-d forbid rape makes front page news as it is not the common everyday , every minute, every second happening.
Where you don’t keep receiving depressing facebook Photo attachments “Death of Johannesburg” “Death of Sandton” which throw you off kilter for days.. Downtown Sydney, Tel Aviv, Toronto, Montreal, London , Los Angeles, including beautiful Cape Town, are cities to be proud off, classical buildings with their windows intact.
You can open your car window without worrying that your cell phone will be snatched out of your hand.
You don’t drive along and see the poor traffic lights having been CUT maliciously to take the copper wiring out of them.. so dispicable.
You don’t have to tolerate because of load-shedding, the poor traffic lights inoperative.. and it’s a circus, nobody knows who goes first and some just push in regardless..
You can sit in a movie with your handbag/purse on the floor and not worrying about it being gone when the movie is over
You can enjoy the good, solid infrastructure, drive on good roads without potholes at every turn.
You wont be in junk status
You wont be living in GP “Gangsters Paradise” where violent and constant crime is rampant
It is a grass where muggings, rape and murder statistics are not the norm..
It’s a grass where people respect the rules of the road and don’t brazenly drive through red (‘Robots’) traffic lights, killing and maiming people who actually had the right of way.
It may not be greener, but you don’t find people on the right of you cutting you off so they can turn left.
It’s a grass where healthy boundaries are in place, and where rules of the road are respected,
It’s a grass where litter is thrown into litter bins and not onto the pavements (although my Irish friend tells me he walks around a park in London picking up peoples’ litter! )
The grass is not always greener but the ‘ M’ word MAINTENANCE is a priority. Without maintenance everything eventually crumbles..
THE GRASS MAY NOT BE GREENER
BUT
The chances are you wont encounter the violent crime plaguing us here today
You will have a first class service delivery where post offices are effective and you can send a parcel from here to Timbuktu and know it will arrive safely.
It is a grass where teachers are not stabbed by pupils In the classroom
Where people are not looking over their shoulders 24/7
Where people don’t live in fear of their lives.
Where corruption is not the order of the day
It a grass you can walk on, and sit on , without being robbed at gun-point
Where you don’t have to clutch onto your bag all the time for fear it will be snatched.
Where can wear your rings and your bracelets without fear of them being ripped off you.
Where can leave a supermarket without being followed home and robbed at gunpoint
Where You don’t get carjacked.
Where you have to lock your car door, your house door, your security door
Where you don’t have to make sure you have security bars over every window.
Where You don’t open your security gate to drive into your home, only to find you are being followed in and robbed of your possessions
Where Home Invasions are not the norm.
Where GREED is not the order of the day.
This post is copyright, and It cannot be hacked, added to, subtracted from, or changed in anyway whatsoever.
Thank you.
Anne Lapedus Brest
ex Dublin, Ireland. Living in Sunny South Africa since 4th Feb 1961
Contact details.