Will you return to South Africa?

[Riekie]

There's a lot of (conflicting) talk about South Africans returning to South Africa. I was just wondering what the reality is. As you know, the forum polls on SAAustralia are all 100% anonymous, so please make your tick.....

[Ladyfingers]

A bit homesick the other day, and then another thread got me thinking about why I'm glad to be here and why nostalgia is overrated.

While I miss my little spots under the mountain in Newlands, and driving through the southern peninsula of a weekend, I have no desire to be an unwelcome alien in my birthplace again.

I don't ever want to be called "eurocentric" or "middle class" as a pejorative again. I am what I am: it's not better that what you are, but it's not worse.

I have no desire to engage in political debate with people whose understanding of global history is either non-existent or so selective as to be dangerous.

I have no desire to fight for the scraps of an economy plundered by selfish, avaricious "Proudly South African" egotists who rabbit on about "opportunity" while they kick the legs from under everyone else using their filthy money to buy protectionist legislation in their own favour.

I don't want to to have sudden pit-of-stomach terror that my girlfriend (theoretical) is taking 15 minutes too long to get something from the shop.

I don't like being told that everything in my country is the best in the world when I am sophisticated enough to see that it's mostly pretty damn mediocre. You can keep Freshly Ground. Please keep them. Far away.

I'd like to (eventually) write a book on the subject of my choosing instead of having to write agenda-driven, guilt-first, hand-wringing tosh.

I don't want to hear about quality of life being so great when I as a 32 year-old can't imagine scraping a salary that allows me to afford a house in a suburb that isn't infested by verandah-fouling vagrants and criminal transients. I may not be rich in Australia, but I'm certainly less poor than I was in SA.

I'd like the driver of the car that hits mine to pay for the repair.

I don't want to have to bite my tongue for fear of "insensitivity" when confronted with cultural values that are themselves as sensitive as a blood-frenzied shark. Ubuntu is a lovely little myth, but the machetes do pop out ever so quickly, don't they?

Call me a materialist, but I'd like to simply own a few nice things (and I now do - my TV is a glorious obscenity) without the contractual subclause "subject to home invasion".

I don't want to share a democracy with a majority of people who believe in a tokoloshe.

I'd like to simply enjoy the scenery without chip-shouldered, kneejerk patriots informing me how amazing it is compared to everything else in the world.

I like to enjoy things for their own worth. SA is status- and materialism-obsessed. A nice meal should be a nice meal, not a rung in some imaginary ladder.

I'm rambling, but that's a few thoughts I had rattling about.

[Eva]

I really enjoy reading your "ramblings" Ladyfingers!