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.
Question
Praetor
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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Marius
Yup, no life to live like that. We all had some of that. We actually got broken into 2 days before our container got loaded, all the stuff was packed already and they helped themselves to TV and other
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