The grass is not greener
SICK of crime, corruption, poor service delivery and ANC policies? Troubled by Malema’s anti-Indian rants?
Perish the thought of packing for Perth, Pondicherry or Paris to seek a better future. The grass is NOT greener on the other side.
Almost weekly I come across people desirous of applying for an Overseas Citizenship of Indian (OCI) card. They cite concern about political and economic turmoil.
Then there are those who are gatvol and want to join friends and relatives who have already emigrated to Australia, New Zealand, US, UK and Canada.
Emigration is a costly affair. Acquiring citizenship runs into millions of rand. Not everybody can be lucky enough to win the “Green Card Lottery”, an annual lottery run by the US to allow 50 000 people a chance to get a permanent resident visa.
South Africa is a relatively cheap country – the cost of living is far lower than most Western countries. Often, from a financial perspective, it doesn’t make sense to emigrate.
South Africans must be prepared to swop a large, comfortable house with swimming pool worth R4 million or R5 million in a middle to upmarket suburb in Durban or Johannesburg for a modest two-bedroom apartment in a low-income suburb outside London.
Forget the luxury of a domestic worker, nanny, cook and gardener Down Under and in New Zealand. Husband and wife – and even children – must be prepared to become maids and do the hard manual labour of scrubbing floors, doing the laundry and ironing.
In large American cities, it costs anything between R200 to R400 an hour – yes, an hour – to hire a maid for part time work. This makes hiring a helper, even once or twice a week, prohibitive for most.
Thus unpaid household work takes up a substantial proportion of people’s waking lives, so much so, that they are too tired to entertain visitors at a family braai – oops, I mean barbecue – over weekends.
Yet, back in South Africa, before you can even say “charcoal, chops and sausages”, friends or relatives would be invited over for an afternoon of fun and feasting. Never mind that rape, robbery, senseless murders, the Guptas, state capture and Zumafication continue dominating the headlines.
Despite political corruption and high levels of crime in South Africa, there would still appear to be a greater degree of enjoyment of life’s simple pleasures.
Many who emigrated from South Africa will not tell you this, but the reality is that they lead the lives of exiles. Their children quickly become colour blind in the choice of marriage partners (nothing terribly wrong with that, given the population dynamics in the newly adopted country) as well as culture bankrupt.
They look wistfully at the country they vacated and placate themselves – over yet another double Jameson and ice – that they had made the correct decision to leave each time there is negative television coverage about South Africa.
Few will be honest enough to admit that at the end of the day, even the lushest pastures will not bring happiness because the mind is not contented.
They struggle to make up for the craving for the land of their birth by indulging in mod-cons, newfangled gadgets in the kitchen, by becoming social butterflies and concealing their natural accent with an adopted twang. But they will not tell you how the little memories of home bring a lump to the throat and a few tears to the eyes. Like how during the current Tamil month of Adi, so many of those who quit our shores for good will be yearning for sour porridge and mixed vegetable curry with slivers of dry fish.
A few ex-pats have had the guts to head back home – with their tails between the legs. Often they will mask the fact that they had been pining for home or could not cope with the high cost of living by giving an explanation that they sacrificed the better life overseas to come back to take care of a sick relative.
In many cases men who long for home are dissuaded by their proud and pompous wives who choose to think “overseas” is always better, bigger and brighter. Hence they eke out their twilight years in a sorry state of homesickness.
While a shrinking rand is to blame for the economic woes of many of those who have moved to Western countries, India too poses several difficulties for migrants, despite the relatively cheaper cost of living.
The OCI does not grant the holder Indian citizenship. India does not allow dual citizenship. Hence those who believe that acquiring an OCI is a passport to escape to a safe haven when things get too hot in South Africa, must think again. The OCI is a multiple entry life-long visa to visit India. It does not give the right to vote or own agricultural property.
While a South African in the middle-income bracket can live fairly comfortably in India, the rand is fast losing buying power against the rupee. There are also many other irritations such as the shortage of clean water and frequent power cuts.
Unless you are retired, you must be exceptionally brilliant or possessing of scarce skills to land a job in India. You must compete against a working population of at least 500 million.
English is widely spoken in major cities and towns. However, being able to speak an Indian language such as Hindi, Tamil or Telugu will guarantee greater acceptance among the locals. Good reason to regret dodging vernacular classes.
One of the first things somebody I meet for the first time in Tamil Nadu will ask me is whether I can speak Tamil. My smattering of fanagalo Tamil has won me many long-time friends.
Food in India is different from what South African Indians have become accustomed to. In India, a curry is not a dish with an abundance of gravy. The word “curry” is generically used to describe a variety of spiced dishes. Also, curry powder is not representative of India’s food as a whole, for the simple reason that India is a country of regional cuisines, not a single national one.
If you cannot stomach a near staple diet of idli, dosai and sambar in the south and puri, potato and chicken tikka in the north, then you will be undernourished on the Asian subcontinent. Also remember that lamb in India refers to goat meat. Sheep mutton is hardly eaten throughout India.
Yes, rampant crime and corruption create a mood of doom and gloom in South Africa, but no country is really crime free. Thali snatching is not uncommon in Chennai. Pick-pocketing is an occupation for thousands in the streets of Mumbai. Delhi is India’s rape capital.
It is only the constant desire for more that is preventing us from being truly content with what we already have in South Africa.
Our weather is generally excellent. Our natural resources are a cause for envy even among many Western countries. You can drink the water right out of the tap almost everywhere. Our private hospitals are world class. The beauty of South Africa’s flora and fauna is priceless. The landscape outside the city limits often resembles God’s canvas.
The political shenanigans cannot last forever. Something has to give. Weren’t the racist Nats booted out by the ANC? It is not inconceivable that a morally-challenged ANC can be replaced by a ruling party that truly upholds law and order, provides decent jobs, proper education and affordable health facilities.
Look harder – perhaps there’s nothing actually
wrong with your grass; you just aren’t looking at it with thankful eyes.
Nurture and nourish what you have within your grasp now. What you think is greener grass may actually be artificial lawn.