Are things really that bad in SA?

It's the little things I don't miss about SA. I look out my window here and don't see burglar bars.
 
Ninja said:
Where in Europe? How come you have so many South African "friends" who bombard you with propaganda?
Click to expand...
What has where got to do with it? Would I have less SA friends if I lived in France, and more if I lived in the UK?
 
The Voice said:
It's the little things I don't miss about SA. I look out my window here and don't see burglar bars.
Click to expand...
I think many South Africans are able to ensure that they don't look into burglar bars when they look out of their windows.
I could probably zoom into a backyard of a middle class suburb in Cape Town, using Google Earth, and if the resolution is good enough see that windows are not completely covered in burglar bars. Look out the part where there are no bars. Or move to a top storey bedroom where there are no bars.

By the way, there are burglar bars on the courtyard windows of where I currently live. In Europe.
 
Bassist said:
I get bombarded by messages from friends on Whatsapp and FB, just showing how nice lifestyles they are living. Photos galore.

They are not necessarily rich. And most don't live in The Boord or Constantia. But they have struck some formula for being successful in SA. It has a lot to do with networking, the right attitude, and some luck.

They have jobs they can go to and evenings they chill in Kloof street, barefoot, in frokkies, bearded, and drive hip cars. They have friends with holiday homes and they get the best women. They have qualifications (or not) and can travel to Europe. It seems they always get help somewhere from someone, especially good leads for business, specials, deals, or taking care of their dog while they jet around the world.

They live the best lifestyle in SA, in Europe they would not have been able to afford such a lifestyle.

Discuss. What is their secret formula?
Click to expand...

You would probably say that I live such a life (in USA and Europe though). However, I never post anything about it on social media, ever. Why would I want to make my friends who can’t afford my lifestyle envious?

However, I do know someone whose ex-husband posed with their daughter outside Disney land, but never actually went in.

There are plenty of expert fraudsters on social media. One really has to question their motives for posting. Even when it’s actually true, it’s usually just half the story (E.g., someone building a fictional version of themselves without the negatives as a coping mechanism).

As for those posting their reality quite innocently (and quite obliviously in my opinion), they’ve probably just made good decisions in life - something that is surprisingly difficult to do (the mental process for making good decisions is usually the same process that breaks down one’s comfortable, but nonsensical world view).
 
cguy said:
You would probably say that I live such a life (in USA and Europe though). However, I never post anything about it on social media, ever. Why would I want to make my friends who can’t afford my lifestyle envious?

However, I do know someone whose ex-husband posed with their daughter outside Disney land, but never actually went in.

There are plenty of expert fraudsters on social media. One really has to question their motives for posting. Even when it’s actually true, it’s usually just half the story (E.g., someone building a fictional version of themselves without the negatives as a coping mechanism).

As for those posting their reality quite innocently (and quite obliviously in my opinion), they’ve probably just made good decisions in life - something that is surprisingly difficult to do (the mental process for making good decisions is usually the same process that breaks down one’s comfortable, but nonsensical world view).
Click to expand...
Yeah so what's stopping many of us who leave SA, from making the same (good) decisions?
 
Bassist said:
Every person? How?

Why settle for their bones? Find and create your own feast. That is what those successful people do who I've been talking about.
Click to expand...

only 20 cents of every tax paying rand goes towards things like education, health, infrastructure, etc. the rest is sunken into salaries and debt and its getting worse.

everyone needs to eat, requires transport, needs electricity, needs a roof over their head, etc.

the ineptitude of the anc increases the difficulty to acquire these things exponentially, causing people to hustle just to survive instead of strive towards success.

yes there are people that are successful, but not as many as their should be and not as successful as they can be.
 
I updated my list now, based on the last comment:

Here is the updated table of characteristics I have gathered so far, for those SA success people:

Characteristic​
Need loads of money?​
Need lily pond upbringing?​
1. friendly, positive, charismaticnono. some people are born a p*** but it can be learned to be nice to other people
2. resourceful, outgoing, helpful, innovativenono. you can become resourceful by listening.
3. physically attractivenoyes. Some people are born beautiful, others ugly as hell.
4. youngnon/a. But you can't change your age.
5. knows many friends, have a huge support network, both career-wise and private/socialnono. but being nice to people would help build a network from scratch.
6. very witty and street wisenono
7. able to make "correct" life decisions based on their personal contextsnono, but you probably need proper parenting.
8. does some form of active sportmaybe, depends which sportno, unless you are born paraplegic.
9. strong mental energy. "Get up and go" attitudenono
10. travel a lot, even if on a tight budgetsomewhat. But if you have lots of friends (see above) you can stay over with them or share transport costs if travelling with them.no
11. socialise with other people to maintain/expand their network, instead of staying home and playing games / watching Netflix.nono
12. Raise their standards and expectations, instead of lowering them just to be able to feel "successful"maybeno

Let's grow the list or narrow down. We are getting closer to the magic formula successful people in SA use that allow them to stay on in godforsaken Africa!
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top
Sign up to the MyBroadband newsletter
X