SA has its flaws but it is home
YOGIN Devan writes with intricate fervency and passion, the same passion that makes him a son of the soil, with his roots firmly embedded in South Africa.
So scripting the “Grass is Greener” ( POST, August 9-13) must have been effortless but rather an expression from the heart. It is for all there to see that the grass is not always greener on the other side. We have problems in South Africa just like other countries in the world – rape, murder, drugs, prostitution, poverty, unemployment and a corrupt government.
Zimbabwe has run out of cash. Venezuela has no fuel and citizens are stealing zoo animals to eat. There is no freedom of press in North Korea and men are urged to have a hairstyle like their deranged president. In most Middle Eastern countries, women are treated like chattels. American states have to look out for tornado warnings daily and many Asian countries border on an apocalyptic climatic belt that whips up frenzies of tsunamis, flash floods and mud slides. In Russia people wait in long queues in the harsh winter to buy bread.
Nothing is the same – from the simple soap, to cooking oil, to drinking water. To cloying humidity and plummeting temperatures, and language and culture shocks. It is not a bad idea to go to a foreign country for a prescribed period of work or study, as it is an experience of a lifetime.
No country is immune from the atrocities of the world. Those who dream of some ethnic archipelago can soon find themselves like hermits, perched precariously on the precipice of indecision and loneliness.
Don’t even think of emigrating to the motherland, India, unless you want your daughters plucked from the fields at night – like an eagle swoops on a rabbit. India with it’s mass of humanity, humidity, poverty and filth is incorrigibly retrograde. They will kill you for eating beef.
Just look at what is happening in Charlottesville, Virginia, in the US. In a textbook revolt of SA’s earlier problems, violence has flared. Would you like to live in a country where concealment of firearms is permitted?
In SA we can practise religion freely without fear. Our constitution allows us the democratic right to speak out, even against our president!
While the days of braaivleis, sunny skies and Chevrolet are long gone, we have slowly embraced our all inclusive society despite the daily challenges. We still have many fish in our rivers and trees bearing fruit. We are rich of what the world is poor of. KEVIN GOVENDER
Shallcross