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Think twice about going back!


Praetor

Question

I am new to this forum and I am in the early stages of planning to emigrate to Aus.

It will take me about 2 years of study and 1 year of preparation to make the move, as I am in the legal profession which is not the easiest of fields within which to emigrate.

I have never travelled abroad (save for visiting 3 african countries) and have no idea what the circumstances are like in Aus (or anywhere else in the world for that matter).

I have never thought of emigrating until about a month ago, I always said I would stay in SA and switch off the lights as the last person here! That has changed very drastically recently!

I hope this will motivate some people over there, wat op moedverloor se vlakte sit en wonder of hul moet terugkeer, om vas te byt.

I have a good education with 3 degrees, and I live in a town adjacent to Johannesburg. I know nobody in Aus and I have no family there. I earn a decent living these days after starting out with nothing, and we have been living comfortably for the last 2 years after going through a hell of a financial struggle to get on our feet.

I have reached the point where I am prepared to give up all of that for the opportunity to move to Aus.

I am scared Sh**less of the change as my wife has no tertiary qualifications and I will in all probability be the only breadwinner.

Just to explain how the crime situation here has deteriorated:

I live in an upper middleclass suburb, and I would not be classified as "rich" by any standard.

However, after having a burglary about a year ago, while we were asleep in our beds, despite an alarm system with armed response backup, our daily life sounds like this:

Our home has a 5 foot wall with electric fence surrounding it, as well as an automated gate.

We have a sophisticated alarm system with a radio link to an armed respone centre.

Both the electic fence and the alarm system have battery back-ups in the event of a power failure which happens often these days.

We have motion sensors in the garden overlooking our driveway and the windows of our bedrooms, as well as between the ceiling and the roof, which we always keep switched on with a remote control.

We have burglar bars on all the windows, and safety gates on all the exterior doors.

When I go to bed at night I close all the windows, bolt my garagedoors from the inside, lock all the outside doors (the gates are always locked) lock the door between the garagedoors and the house, as well as the door between the western side of the house and the kitchen.

Then I lock the safety gate between the living area and the passage and bedrooms, as well as the solid door adjacent to the safety gate.

Then I switch on the remainder of the motion sensors in the house, and take my firearm out of the safe and put it on my bedside cupboard, with a torch.

Then I place my mobile panic button on my bedside cupboard and pray that we will be safe for the night.

This I do every night of my life in Johannesburg.

If I sleep out my wife and children do the same, but then the kids sleep with my wife in the main bedroom and they also (additionally to the above) lock the safety gate and wooden door between the main bedroom and the passage, and my wife also activates the motion sensor in the passage, and puts her firearm on her bedside cupboard.

We sometimes feel like trapped animals!

Dont think I am arrogant for urging you to stay in Aus without having any idea what life there is like.

But do you want to live like we do?

I think not

Vasbyt en wag vir ons

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Thanks really sick, was it a white school or black school Kapoen?

Was Roseland Primary School in Newlands, I believe it is predominantly black. The problem is that type of behaviour spills over in to all the schools. In Polokwane where I live, children from one of the technical High schools attacked fellow students while wearing uniform! When the principal confronted them they pulled the race card and everything disapeared

Edited by Kapoen
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Was Roseland Primary School in Newlands, I believe it is predominantly black. The problem is that type of behaviour spills over in to all the schools. In Polokwane where I live, children from one of the technical High schools attacked fellow students while wearing uniform! When the principal confronted them they pulled the race card and everything disapeared

Ah yes - the race card...

Schools and universities are becoming a microchosim of the country. Everything is blames on the apartheid government and racism.

I'm pretty sure I read somewhere that Nelson Mandela spent 27 years in prison so that kids could treat each other and adults with absolutely no respect, so that they could have the freedom to behave like pigs, and get away with it...

This makes me sick.

L

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So in the 70's and 80's they burnt their schools down with the excuse that they did not want to learn Afrikaans. Now they have been getting what they want for the last 14 years, but despite that they are disrupting classes and committing all sorts of atrocities. Even worse, instead of dealing with what is actually happening inside the classrooms, the teachers are striking because of their right to privacy being infringed by the cameras??? What's next? This is sickening.

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So in the 70's and 80's they burnt their schools down with the excuse that they did not want to learn Afrikaans. Now they have been getting what they want for the last 14 years, but despite that they are disrupting classes and committing all sorts of atrocities. Even worse, instead of dealing with what is actually happening inside the classrooms, the teachers are striking because of their right to privacy being infringed by the cameras??? What's next? This is sickening.

And to think that I (and many others) gave up two years of my life to defend the country against these barbaric terrorists...

Edited by Biltongboer
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I've been reading all the posts on this topic. I am at the point of now having to make the decision to take the job-offer or decide to stay. It's great to finally have the choice, but it's not an easy one. But on the other hand, think with YOUR BRAINS and not your heart! Just read this and: wow-bang! :D the decision is so obvious! Forget the family, the friends, the nature (thats being destroyed anyway), the braais and the biltong. Make a decision to stay alive, spritually and physically!

How many nights I've been woken by gunshots in the field behind our house? The security company is shooting, the criminals are shooting, someone else might jump in too, then you think "I should buy a gun!" then all the debate starts about having a gun in the house with small kids and how the baddies will steal it from you and use it against you or someone else and blabla bla...

Then I drive home from work, only to curse 17 times because some idiot pedestrian crosses a busy intersection without even looking left or right, or a damn taxi stops dead center in the middel of a T-section.

I hate my life at this stage. I have great kids, a wonderful wife, even a good job, but I have limited joy! All these people that I love are also my responsibility! I try to make things easier for them, but I am only one man. One hated, previously avantaged white male. It steals my joy to always be on the lookout for a scaley bastard, always locking my car, screaming at my wife and the kids because they left the door open. Never trusting anyone I deal with. Before I open the electric gate I first look around to see if someone is standing around, who might jump in while I'm driving in. When someone rings the doorbell, I get nervous and always remind the kids to NEVER EVER open the gate if they don't know who is there.

Our youngest daughter is 2 years old, and she plays with the button of the gate's remote. :blink: This really tests my health! She plays in the yard, and I have to keep telling her to stay away from the barbed wire, it could hurt her!

When I am in town with my 8 year old daughter, I cling to her and I distrust everyone who looks at her. You never know if the evil bastard believes he'll get healed from AIDS if he jumps on a virgin.

Aaagh. How did this happen? How is it possible? What my forefathers did was wrong, but this is not making it right?

Edited by Biltongboer
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I guess you've made up your mind Biltongboer :lol:

Edited by Rissiepit
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I guess I have, haven't I? My mind has done the thinking, but the heart is struggling with all the emotions involved...

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I'm sure that's what most of us have and still are struggling with. Not an easy thing to do at all but it is comforting, to an extent, to know that so many people are going through exactly the same thing. And if so many have already done it successfully, what prevents us from doing the same?

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I am motivated by what Mark Twain said:

"Twenty years from now, you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover."

I'd rather make a mistake, acknowledge it, and come back with my hat in my hand if needed, rather than one day say "I wish I had left for Australia when I had the chance"...

In this case, it's almost ;) literally a case of leaving the harbour and catching the tradewinds...

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BOB mate, we are coming! (Ou pel, ons kom! )That is how I grew up. I went to the war in Angola and now that I have kids of my own, I feel like I am living in a warzone (unarmed) Sorry, We are living in a warzone- more peopleare killed per day than in Vietnam war!!!

When your 4 year old child asks you what to do when criminals get in your house(and you are living in Fort Knox) and you know that they now come in the day(lift your gate and bash down your front door) when you are at work and your children are home with the Nanny, its time to go!!!

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Kannidood, Dankie vir jou ondersteunende woorde. Ek het begin bates verkoop(huis en besighede) - rentekoerse en NCA Act maak ons klaar en dit voel soos dood in die familie want my ouers is alles in ons en ons kinders se lewe en ek weet nie hoe gou ek hulle sal kan saambring nie. Gelukkig wil hulle saamkom, ons byt vas! :whome:

Ons kom!!!

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Kannidood, Dankie vir jou ondersteunende woorde. Ek het begin bates verkoop(huis en besighede) - rentekoerse en NCA Act maak ons klaar en dit voel soos dood in die familie want my ouers is alles in ons en ons kinders se lewe en ek weet nie hoe gou ek hulle sal kan saambring nie. Gelukkig wil hulle saamkom, ons byt vas! :whome:

Ons kom!!!

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En ons wag vir julle. as julle hier kom en het enige iets nodig, vra net. Hier is altyd iemand om te help en raad te gee. Is dit nie wonderlik nie?!

Sterkte met alles en voorspoed.

Hel ek voel so jammer vir die wat nog so wroeg met die besluit om te emigreer of nie. Weet nie wat is daar om oor te wroeg nie want die skrif is teen die muur....julle sal moet weg daar of anders...........

Edited by Kannidood
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It will take me about 2 years of study and 1 year of preparation to make the move, as I am in the legal profession which is not the easiest of fields within which to emigrate.

I hear you! I am also an attorney and have sent off my documents fto the University of Queensland for assessment of my academic qualifications. From your post it appears that you are "converting" from SA? Is that the case, and if so, which institutions are you studying through?

Any advice you could give would be much appreciated. (I don't need to requalify for our immigrartion application as we are gouing on my husband's points, but I will need to earn an Ozzie salary when we get there and as I have 2 young children, it would be easier to study here with a nanny/maid to help ease my load.)

Lucy G

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No point in going if you only intend returning. Stay strong, as all good things take time to nurture

Edited by Jon Green
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Yes yes, I'm one of the dummies who decided to come back. Don't do it!!!

I was in Oz for two years (Sydney and Perth) and somehow let my brother convince me that things aren't that bad back in SA and that my mom couldn't live without me.

Last year I was burgled twice and had my life threatened in the street while walking around in Centurion. During one of the burglaries my cell and wallet were stolen half an arm's length away from my bed. Glad I didn't wake up coz I probably wouldn't be here today if I did. Nonetheless, it changes your life.

Since then I've sold everything I had and was planning to go back to Oz at the end of this year. Fortunately I got a job offer with 457 sponsorship last week and I should be in Newcastle (NSW, not KZN) by next month!!

So yes, to repeat what everyone else has said... If you're thinking about it, have a coffee and get over it. Things are getting worse in SA, not better.

D

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Dear Praetor,

I am at the stage where I tend to remember only the good things about SA and your post is therefore an eye-opener for me.

Just want to let you know that my husband did the conversion exams as a legal professional and he did it within a year from SA. It's tough, expensive and long, but if you are determined, it is do-able. If you are in trademarks / IP, you can even try to get a job on a 457 without doing the conversion exams.

Good luck!

Pippa! X

Hi Pippa

I saw this post and noticed that you are in Brisbane - perhaps your husband will be able to answer my latest post regarding requalifying as a Queensland legal practioner from SA?

Lucy G

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It will take me about 2 years of study and 1 year of preparation to make the move, as I am in the legal profession which is not the easiest of fields within which to emigrate.

I hear you! I am also an attorney and have sent off my documents fto the University of Queensland for assessment of my academic qualifications. From your post it appears that you are "converting" from SA? Is that the case, and if so, which institutions are you studying through?

Any advice you could give would be much appreciated. (I don't need to requalify for our immigrartion application as we are gouing on my husband's points, but I will need to earn an Ozzie salary when we get there and as I have 2 young children, it would be easier to study here with a nanny/maid to help ease my load.)

Lucy G

Lucy, The University of Southern Queensland in Toowoomba (USQ) offers a law degree online. You don't get much of an education but you do get the papers!

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I am motivated by what Mark Twain said:

"Twenty years from now, you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover."

I'd rather make a mistake, acknowledge it, and come back with my hat in my hand if needed, rather than one day say "I wish I had left for Australia when I had the chance"...

In this case, it's almost :lol: literally a case of leaving the harbour and catching the tradewinds...

Jeez Biltongboer - I can't believe you just said that! (you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. )

My 'grandmother-in-law' always used that saying and whenever I told my husband that I regretted doing something, he used to say: Rather regret the things you've done than what you haven't done" - that always got me through a lot of difficult decisions.

And I have been struggling with the decision to go to Australia, because we lived in NZ for a year and came back, so I know how difficult it is to emmigrate and it's a bit of a case of 'Once bitten....' - but in my head I know we have to go, it's my heart I've been sruggling with; and that statement just made it so much easier for me!!!

My friend asked me just this past Saturday, "Why are you going again?", and my honest gut answer to her was actually that "my husband and I love adventure, we are both 'Saggitarians' and we'll never be able to sit still for very long in one place, we need to 'explore, dream and discover'.

Of course we are doing it for our children too, but for ourselves, discovery and adventure is not a bad reason to go either. :)

And from someone who's 'been there' and 'done that' and have come back, IMHO, it really is just a matter of integrating yourself into the life there, and to get into a daily routine as quickly as possible. You have to push through the hard times and create opportunities for contact with other people. You miss the familiarity of SA, but I am sure if you give it enough time, you will feel familiar in your new home. :D

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