The Black Informant | African American Commentary, News and Community Building

Yup! Saw it! My mouth is still gaped wide open! Amazing! Is is too late to change citizenship?

My wife and I have been talking about possible places we could move if things got really bad out here in Cali (we’re certainly getting close). Going international is something we have thought about, but this documentary put South Africa right up there for us. We’ve already checked out housing over there and I am still shaking my head just over the prices. I just need to know more about the political climate and the general stability of the country. My wife and I will certainly be doing our homework in the days ahead.

OK I’ve not seen the documentary, but I’ve lived in Jo’Burg until May of 2008 and it is NOT a place I would ever like to live again. The crime is terrible and the poverty horrifying. You basically live like an animal in a cage behind razor wire and electric fences. Yes, it is cheap to live there because the poor work for pennies.It is a country of contradictions, most of the people are beauful and it is a colorful conuntry full of song. However, reading the local paper and listening to the news is enough to give you anxiety and nightmares. I lived in a nice community, heavily guarded just outside Jo’Burg and my neighbor was shot dead in the driveway in front of his children. This happens in the USA, but it is so much worse in SA. My husband was working in SA, so I did volenteer work with children who had lost both their mom and dad to either crime or HIV and the conditions were heart wrenching. I won’t go into the rapes that happen of these kids and the barbaric lack of response and quiet approval.

Underneath SA’s luxury SUVs, beautiful homes, and great wealth lurks an evil underbelly. It is amazing where people will live and the blinders they will wear over their eyes just to have more luxuries.

Have you been to some of the other cities like Durban, Port Elizabeth?

You are not the first one I heard describe Jo’Burg that way.