The other day I had lunch with some of my boyfriends relatives who have now relocated to Canada.
Seeming to be big advocates of my home country they encouraged us to think about going back. After the encouragement subsided we moved onto a discussion about the country of Canada itself. Around the table everyone started discussing what they didn't like about Canada...the crappy tourism industry, the boring people, etc. I smiled and nodded not wanting to debate with a table of South Africans. The problem was I couldn't help but feel a little bit offended and confused. The next day we met up again and the conversation seemed to continue between my boyfriend and the South African turned Canadian. He said he didn't really like Canada but it was the best option for the kids, if he could stay in South Africa he would.
On our way home bokke and I started to discuss it, I suddenly got a bit angry and erked. I mean I do understand why a family would move out of a place like Johannesburg in the name of safety and a brighter future for their kids I completely do. But what really REALLY gets me is that you see these South Africans doing everything they can to get out of South Africa only to relocate to places such as Australia, Canada and England and COMPLAIN! First of all, I am very patriotic when it comes to my country which may explain why i'm bothered so much and secondly I dont think its fair for South Africans to pick Canada apart once they've arrived. After all, they have gotten a successful job, a nice home and a great future for their kids. They are accepted and treated very well. If Canada isn't all that great and South Africa is better, please go and dedicate your energy and your time back in your home country...make it a better place...because leaving and taking your education and money with is only making the country worse. Canada accepts anyone with the education and finances with open arms into it. It's these very people that are taking those finances and smarts directly out of their country that desperately needs it and putting it into a country reaping with it. I understand when you have a family you do what's best for your kids...but I just find it extremely unfair that these people who are fighting so hard to get into a country like Canada feel as though they can bash it.
I am appreciating and falling in love with South Africa more and more every day but at the end of the day I know where I want to call home for the rest of my life. Canada has it's problems but they're problems I want to invest my money and time into because it's a country I appreciate and love so much. Those that come from South Africa should do the same for their country if they love it so much...move back if you adore it so much, if not then don't go bashing my Canada after you have decided to call it home! Make up your mind people!
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Friday, August 15, 2008
A day in Hillbrow
Yesturday I ventured out of my "safe-haven" aka Bryanston to the depths of Hillbrow to Home Affairs for the collection of my common-law visa...talk about a reality check in the worst way.
Venturing down the N1 with two of my boyfriends labourers in the back of the bucky we made our way down towards central Hillbrow, also known and the Central Business District. We first stopped at the Refugee center to drop off one of the labourers, a Zimbawean looking for refugee status here in South Africa. There wasn't a single white person in sight...all you could see for kilometers was a line up of hopeful foreigners waiting not so patiently to get their stamp. Disappointed and frustrated our young friend knew he would have to come back in the morning and camp for a few days with everyone else. It was disturbing and sad to think of what these people are going through...no home from the Xenophobic attacks, no place to go except a line-up where hopefully they would be lucky to get the correct paperwork that allows them to stay.
Hopping back into the bucky we went to the other Home Affiars office where the more priviledged and wealthy get to go and stand in a smaller, less frustrating line under a roof. After an hour we discovered that the lawyer we payed a very ridiculous price to was not only overcharging us to stand in this line up, but the whole trip was pointless...the lawyer had to be there in order for me to collect my stamp. I left empty handed and very angry. I had to remind myself that I was lucky because: a) I had the money to pay someone to take care of my troubles and b) I didn't have to camp out in a line up because I had no home and no money and no country that wanted me.
Needless to say Hillbrow was an experience. Let's hope that the SA government decides to help these foreign individuals out that have no home because of the closure of refugee camps and the hate crimes they will find against them if they go back to their previous townships.
Venturing down the N1 with two of my boyfriends labourers in the back of the bucky we made our way down towards central Hillbrow, also known and the Central Business District. We first stopped at the Refugee center to drop off one of the labourers, a Zimbawean looking for refugee status here in South Africa. There wasn't a single white person in sight...all you could see for kilometers was a line up of hopeful foreigners waiting not so patiently to get their stamp. Disappointed and frustrated our young friend knew he would have to come back in the morning and camp for a few days with everyone else. It was disturbing and sad to think of what these people are going through...no home from the Xenophobic attacks, no place to go except a line-up where hopefully they would be lucky to get the correct paperwork that allows them to stay.
Hopping back into the bucky we went to the other Home Affiars office where the more priviledged and wealthy get to go and stand in a smaller, less frustrating line under a roof. After an hour we discovered that the lawyer we payed a very ridiculous price to was not only overcharging us to stand in this line up, but the whole trip was pointless...the lawyer had to be there in order for me to collect my stamp. I left empty handed and very angry. I had to remind myself that I was lucky because: a) I had the money to pay someone to take care of my troubles and b) I didn't have to camp out in a line up because I had no home and no money and no country that wanted me.
Needless to say Hillbrow was an experience. Let's hope that the SA government decides to help these foreign individuals out that have no home because of the closure of refugee camps and the hate crimes they will find against them if they go back to their previous townships.
Thursday, August 7, 2008
Race Slang
After much internal debate and frustration I have come to learn to sit in silence and keep my big mouth shut when it comes to race slang.
I have met some pretty great people and can say I've made some good friends....they are smart, intelligent, kind people...but we have one thing that seperates us and makes us differentiate in opinion and thinking...that's our upbringing. They have been raised in Africa, me Canada.
Canada, and the Canadian educational system takes pride in claiming "our home and native land" to be one big happy multicultural family. As kids, we are raised to cringe at words such as "nigger" while white South Africans are raised with words that meet the equivalent such as "kaffa" and "munt"...that are said in a family home just as "hello" is...and that's no exaggeration.
After a month here I felt angry and frustrated at how so many educated, kind white South Africans can walk around saying these words like they are not hateful and terrible. When I heard them I heard colonialism and apartheid and I just wanted to get angry. My boyfriend, who feels the same as I do about the words sat down with me and made a very very good point. While he admitted the slang to be as wrong as it sounds he asked me to take a closer look at my "race friendly" country I call Canada. While a cocasion Canadian knows better then not to make a degrogatory comment towards an afro-Canadian, they will still turn around and put that hate towards a Canadian Aboriginal...or more recently in the West, towards an Asian...suddenly, I realized that words such as "Indian" and "Chink" flowed out of a Canadians mouth just as swiftly as black slang out of the mouth of a South African. "What"...my boyfriend said to me, "is the bloody difference?". A little bit dumbstruck I sat for a moment and realized he was right...many Canadians are total hippacrites...as we send our money over to Africa and cry elephant tears over World Vision commercials, we forget more and more about our own issues in our own backyard....and most of all our issues up North on the reserves.
None of these words are right, they take away self-confidence from an individual...they cause war and hate crimes...no race slang should be validated...because when vocalized it has just as much damage as an ak-47. Now, I'm in no way validating my new friends choice of vocabulary, but i'm not validating my Canadian friends as well...and most of all I'm not putting myself on a pedistool saying i'm perfect. We all have to watch what we say, because every country suffers from a form of harsh racism.
I have met some pretty great people and can say I've made some good friends....they are smart, intelligent, kind people...but we have one thing that seperates us and makes us differentiate in opinion and thinking...that's our upbringing. They have been raised in Africa, me Canada.
Canada, and the Canadian educational system takes pride in claiming "our home and native land" to be one big happy multicultural family. As kids, we are raised to cringe at words such as "nigger" while white South Africans are raised with words that meet the equivalent such as "kaffa" and "munt"...that are said in a family home just as "hello" is...and that's no exaggeration.
After a month here I felt angry and frustrated at how so many educated, kind white South Africans can walk around saying these words like they are not hateful and terrible. When I heard them I heard colonialism and apartheid and I just wanted to get angry. My boyfriend, who feels the same as I do about the words sat down with me and made a very very good point. While he admitted the slang to be as wrong as it sounds he asked me to take a closer look at my "race friendly" country I call Canada. While a cocasion Canadian knows better then not to make a degrogatory comment towards an afro-Canadian, they will still turn around and put that hate towards a Canadian Aboriginal...or more recently in the West, towards an Asian...suddenly, I realized that words such as "Indian" and "Chink" flowed out of a Canadians mouth just as swiftly as black slang out of the mouth of a South African. "What"...my boyfriend said to me, "is the bloody difference?". A little bit dumbstruck I sat for a moment and realized he was right...many Canadians are total hippacrites...as we send our money over to Africa and cry elephant tears over World Vision commercials, we forget more and more about our own issues in our own backyard....and most of all our issues up North on the reserves.
None of these words are right, they take away self-confidence from an individual...they cause war and hate crimes...no race slang should be validated...because when vocalized it has just as much damage as an ak-47. Now, I'm in no way validating my new friends choice of vocabulary, but i'm not validating my Canadian friends as well...and most of all I'm not putting myself on a pedistool saying i'm perfect. We all have to watch what we say, because every country suffers from a form of harsh racism.
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
It gets better...
The Sunday Times last weekend quoted a secret report that Mr. Mbeki accepted 30 million rands (US$4 million at current rates) from a Germany arms company and gave 2 million rands (US$280,000) to Zuma and the rest to the ANC.
Mr. Mbeki's office has dismissed the report as nonsense.
“The truth will be revealed,” Mr. Zuma said, to chants of “30 million! 30 million!” from the crowd. He later launched into the anti-apartheid song that has become his trademark — “Bring Me My Machine Gun” — and the crowd sang along.
“Our president is the target of a political conspiracy and we are convinced that the conspiracy is led by the state president (Mbeki),” the head of the influential ANC Youth League, Julius Malema, told the rally.
Accompanied by loud cheers, Mr. Malema warned the country's judges to keep their hands off Mr. Zuma and demanded that Mr. Mbeki stand down immediately and let Mr. Zuma take over.
“If you touch the old man, you must touch us first. Nobody will arrest Zuma as long as we are alive,” Malema said. “Before you get to him you must kill the youth of this country. We are prepared to die for Zuma.”
(Taken from the globeandmail.com, August 6, 2008)
It's after reading an article like this that one can't help but wonder if these new "leaders" have forgotten all about Madiba's (Nelson Mandela's) morals and principles when running a country. The ANC is no longer proving itself to be a reliable party...in fact, it is daring to lower its standards to the ruling parties of the apartheid days: days full of illegitimacy, ignorance and scandal. Sadly all my eyes are seeing these days is a feirce sprial downwards from a country post 1994 that once proved so much potential and harmony, a country that proved to the world peace can come about through negotiations and compromise and most importantly HONESTY.
Mr. Mbeki's office has dismissed the report as nonsense.
“The truth will be revealed,” Mr. Zuma said, to chants of “30 million! 30 million!” from the crowd. He later launched into the anti-apartheid song that has become his trademark — “Bring Me My Machine Gun” — and the crowd sang along.
“Our president is the target of a political conspiracy and we are convinced that the conspiracy is led by the state president (Mbeki),” the head of the influential ANC Youth League, Julius Malema, told the rally.
Accompanied by loud cheers, Mr. Malema warned the country's judges to keep their hands off Mr. Zuma and demanded that Mr. Mbeki stand down immediately and let Mr. Zuma take over.
“If you touch the old man, you must touch us first. Nobody will arrest Zuma as long as we are alive,” Malema said. “Before you get to him you must kill the youth of this country. We are prepared to die for Zuma.”
(Taken from the globeandmail.com, August 6, 2008)
It's after reading an article like this that one can't help but wonder if these new "leaders" have forgotten all about Madiba's (Nelson Mandela's) morals and principles when running a country. The ANC is no longer proving itself to be a reliable party...in fact, it is daring to lower its standards to the ruling parties of the apartheid days: days full of illegitimacy, ignorance and scandal. Sadly all my eyes are seeing these days is a feirce sprial downwards from a country post 1994 that once proved so much potential and harmony, a country that proved to the world peace can come about through negotiations and compromise and most importantly HONESTY.
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