Scared, depressed and concerned. Anyone else?

alloytoo said:
This is arguably the biggest decision you'll ever make, and it's certainly I know we tried to cover all our bases. We did it the hard way, I didn't have a job and had to find one in the middle of the GFC.





Lifestyle is difficult to quantify in monetary terms. The reduction in stress levels is priceless.
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I can vouch for this. Reduction in stress has an amazing effect on a person. People told my quality of life will go down. They have no idea.
 
noxibox said:
If the media is balanced between good and bad news then where are all the reports about the people who were not victims of crime that day? All the stories about children playing outside, walking and cycling to school, travelling on public transport and miraculously surviving? To say that the content of news does not have influence directly contradicts what we know about human psychology.
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I find this "Freudian slip" to be quite interesting actually. That you would consider something so normal as traveling on public transport and not being attacked, or walking and cycling to and from school without incidents to be good news; instead of what the rest of the world would call it, which is the neutral state of affairs. You could have come up with any number of true good news examples. New schools being built, old grannies saved from a burning building by heroic firefighters, or something like that.
You mention the human psyche, would you say that the underlying psychological factors that would cause you to make this slip, is the conditioning of living in such a violent and crime infested society?

I mean no condescension at all, it is an honest observation and question.

Besides this FS, I completely agree with your post and the media's effect on people.
 
SoulTax said:
I find this "Freudian slip" to be quite interesting actually. That you would consider something so normal as traveling on public transport and not being attacked, or walking and cycling to and from school without incidents to be good news; instead of what the rest of the world would call it, which is the neutral state of affairs. You could have come up with any number of true good news examples. New schools being built, old grannies saved from a burning building by heroic firefighters, or something like that.
You mention the human psyche, would you say that the underlying psychological factors that would cause you to make this slip, is the conditioning of living in such a violent and crime infested society?

I mean no condescension at all, it is an honest observation and question.

Besides this FS, I completely agree with your post and the media's effect on people.
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Agree!
Some good news recently mentioned on MyBB was about Sa getting most of the SKA bid,
but this is SA, we are happy just to find our cars where we parked them..
 
AstroTurf said:
The average for an African state before it goes to hell is 30 to 40 years. Is it worth keeping her here or should we just up and leave to the rainy island?
At least my wife and daughter can go without hassles.
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I left SA for reasons that are completely unrelated to the politics but I can say now that it was the best decision for me, as well as my daughter.

I'm not knowledgable enough to engage in political discussions with 90% of the people in this section so don't ask me to take on the specifics of the differences, but I can honestly tell you that when you are on the outside looking in, you can objectively see the mess that is looming for the country.

I love SA but I will never step foot in the country again. Sad but true.

Anecdote: I was on holiday in Turkey with my daughter and we were in a shuttle en route to the hotel. She was silent as she looked out and took in the scenery. When we got to the hotel she asked me why people there have such strange decorations on their windows. After some prying it turns out she was talking about burglar bars. The realisation that her innocent and safety are so protected in our new homeland was awesome.

Anecdote 2: we have an outside room (called a schuur) where we keep non perishable foods, an extra fridge and the bicycles. After a big grocery shop one week we discovered that someone had stolen 2 big packs of meat from the fridge. My little ones only comment was that they must have been really hungry to do that and maybe they should have taken some veggies too.

That kind of generous naïveté and incomprehension of crime is exactly what I will never give up for her sake.
 
mooks said:
Anecdote: I was on holiday in Turkey with my daughter and we were in a shuttle en route to the hotel. She was silent as she looked out and took in the scenery. When we got to the hotel she asked me why people there have such strange decorations on their windows. After some prying it turns out she was talking about burglar bars. The realisation that her innocent and safety are so protected in our new homeland was awesome.
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I have a friend that recently moved to NZ and one of the things he noticed was that the houses looked a bit odd, then he realised its because there were no burglar bars or even fences.
 
Griz said:
If you daughter is worth her salt she will be eligible for bursaries. Thats very ignorant to say she wont be given one. All the big companies give bursaries to all races - except government ones of course. Then there are also study loans (NSFAS) etc which are available to anyone.

WRT government, yes they are stupid but what can you expect - none of them have any qualifications besides being 'struggle veterans'.

If you work hard there is a lot of money to be made in SA compared to the EU and similar. South Africa ain't no nanny state - if you dont work you starve.
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And this is what Malema followers plan on changing. Those companies are usually white owned.

I was one of those positive about South Africa types, but spending 3 months in Europe has opened my eyes, I am really lucky to have the option to emigrate and will do so in a few months time... even though it really does hurt to leave.
 
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mooks said:
Snip
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With a little one on the way, and my reasons for leaving being almost in line with your anecdotes, I cannot agree more. No amount of explaining could ever describe how much your eyes are opened once you are on the outside looking in. The type of life I can give my child(ren) outside of SA, is something that I would not trade for all the sunshine, braais, boerewors, biltong, pap, nature reserves, coastlines, mountains and people that SA has to offer.
 
alloytoo said:
Available on rainly islands. Check!

The sad reality of moving is that you leave people behind.
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Exactly right. I miss my friends the most, as I have spent many years with the same close knit group. There are lots of close acquaintances but only a handful of truly close good friends that I could call to hide a body, so to speak. I wish I could get them all out of there, most of them would want to leave, just don't have the means to, or the will to. But I trade those close friends happily for my child(ren)'s future. Not that I lose them entirely, because we still keep in contact. At least long distance friendship is much easier than long distance relationships :)
 
SoulTax said:
Exactly right. I miss my friends the most, as I have spent many years with the same close knit group. There are lots of close acquaintances but only a handful of truly close good friends that I could call to hide a body, so to speak. I wish I could get them all out of there, most of them would want to leave, just don't have the means to, or the will to. But I trade those close friends happily for my child(ren)'s future. Not that I lose them entirely, because we still keep in contact. At least long distance friendship is much easier than long distance relationships :)
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At least we live in the age of global communication.
 
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