Capetown, Sout Africa

[Japher]

What should we know about this place? My wife's brother is looking at moving there. It's a big move, from L.A., so any advice would be awesome. Are there any Poly Tubbies there? If not, why not?

Mods, please add an h to my title... anywhere you deem it appropriate. Why the hell can't we edit titles any more?

[Wezil]

What should we know about this place?

It's spelled "South Africa"

[SlowwHand]

There has been some racial discord there in the past.

[Ben Kenobi]

Is your wife's brother black?

If not, he might run into trouble. It's not exactly a garden spot.

[Theben]

Apparently the men and boys like to rape women a lot and don't think too much about it.

[SlowwHand]

So...tell him to enjoy.

[Dinner]

What should we know about this place? My wife's brother is looking at moving there. It's a big move, from L.A., so any advice would be awesome. Are there any Poly Tubbies there? If not, why not?

Mods, please add an h to my title... anywhere you deem it appropriate. Why the hell can't we edit titles any more?

There is a very high crime rate there. When I lived in Sacramento there was a large South African white population there which had left because of a lack of opportunities after the start of black majority rule plus there was an extremely high crime rate. One of the highest murder rates in the world. The idea of forcing companies to hire blacks might have sounded good but the reality was there were not enough qualified black candidates to fill the positions the government demanded so companies suffered. The running joke was the last white person to leave South Africa should turn out the lights.

[Mint]

Cape Town is one of the most stunningly beautiful cities in the world. Crime statistics are skewed because they count crime in the low-income suburban townships, where your brother-in-law will most likely never go. The Western Cape province in general has much healthier race relations than the rest of South Africa. The surrounding area, which includes wineries, nature reserves, mountains, beaches, forests, etc., makes for lovely day- and weekend trips.

[MikeH]

The running joke was the last white person to leave South Africa should turn out the lights.

Yeah, you still get quite a lot of racism from white South Africans.

[chequita guevara]

Oerdin

[dannubis]

I have been there. S-t-u-n-n-i-n-g-l-y beautiful. Still a lot of extreme poverty among the black population though leading to higher crime rates in certain areas...

[kittenOFchaos]

Cape Town is one of the most stunningly beautiful cities in the world. Crime statistics are skewed because they count crime in the low-income suburban townships, where your brother-in-law will most likely never go. The Western Cape province in general has much healthier race relations than the rest of South Africa. The surrounding area, which includes wineries, nature reserves, mountains, beaches, forests, etc., makes for lovely day- and weekend trips.

Very true.

As is the fact that many white South Africans...well, they're very South African, which means blunt to the point of rudeness, butch and many are very racist/patronising about blacks and what they're capable of.

To make use of a quote from Lawrence of Arabia about leading Arabs against the Turk and applying it to South Africa post-apartheid...

"It is better for them (black South Africans) to do it satisfactorily, than for us (white South Africans) to do it perfectly".

Of course the black South Africans would be less qualified for many positions, education and employers had shut them out, so yes you're going to get some incompetence for a while, but over time, if education is opened up these people will be replaced with the best qualified candidates. White South Africans did a terrible thing in their country and in some respects should be glad it didn't result in an all out civil war.

I loved my visit to South Africa, but it was really still sickening to see beautiful towns by the coast and then in the hills large shacktowns where black people who would service these towns would live. It was also very encouraging, particularly around Cape Town to see how much of these shacktowns were being turned into small houses, but the more time we spent there the more we saw how much there was still to do.

Apparently only Brazil has a greater disparity between rich/poor than South Africa...a very good place if you're well off, terrible if you're poor.

[Traianvs]

Very true.

As is the fact that many white South Africans...well, they're very South African, which means blunt to the point of rudeness, butch and many are very racist/patronising about blacks and what they're capable of.

To make use of a quote from Lawrence of Arabia about leading Arabs against the Turk and applying it to South Africa post-apartheid...

"It is better for them (black South Africans) to do it satisfactorily, than for us (white South Africans) to do it perfectly".

Of course the black South Africans would be less qualified for many positions, education and employers had shut them out, so yes you're going to get some incompetence for a while, but over time, if education is opened up these people will be replaced with the best qualified candidates. White South Africans did a terrible thing in their country and in some respects should be glad it didn't result in an all out civil war.

I loved my visit to South Africa, but it was really still sickening to see beautiful towns by the coast and then in the hills large shacktowns where black people who would service these towns would live. It was also very encouraging, particularly around Cape Town to see how much of these shacktowns were being turned into small houses, but the more time we spent there the more we saw how much there was still to do.

Apparently only Brazil has a greater disparity between rich/poor than South Africa...a very good place if you're well off, terrible if you're poor.

Actually, South-Africa has now surpassed Brazil in terms of wealth disparity. It might be encouraging to see shacks turned into small houses, but bear in mind that according to a study dating a few years back, for example 9 million people received access to water, while at the same time there were 10 disconnections. Much of the investments made by S-African government for the benefit of the poor have proven unsustainable, in part due to massive debt and severe power constraints of the new reformed institutions, who were left powerless after whites handed over their monopoly on 'political power'.

Because the ANC sold off the country to private and foreign investors during the closing apartheid negotiations with De Klerk and his white government, pretty much all amenities have been privatized. For obvious reasons, many people can't pay the bills. Privatization and cutbacks in social spending left the poor with little bargaining power.

It's a sad state of affairs, but the white capitalists were smart back then. Instead of holding on to tenuous political power, they let blacks parade as figureheads while pulling the strings anyway.

[Heresson]

You should know about boer wars