Rooinek, the economy is improving, no one is disputing that. But that's not a guarantee that every other aspect of life in S.A. is also improving or even that nothing is deteriorating.
And the economic numbers aren't worth a hell of a to the avarage South African either. For example, when negotiations fail and even a massive go-slow cannot get a 6% (or 7 or 8 - doesn't really matter) pay rise out of governemnt, but at the same time cost of living rises by far more than that, year on year, the single digit inflation number is little consolation.
Black people seem to think white people just want to sit around and moan and criticise the current governement for the sake of it. I don't think people realise just how much so most of us really want S.A. to be a huge success. Some are just more willing to stick it out than others. Some (like myself) stick it out for a long time, but in the end it takes one small event to push you over the edge and make you decide "this is enough, I don't have to deal with this."
Now, with regards to expats seeing the country in such a negative light. Imagine coming back after a year or two, and seeing things like:
- the potholes that were on the roads you used to drive every day - busy roads in johannesburg - are still there.
- the traffic light on the corner of Hendrik Verwoerd and Hunter, that you reported in november 2004, is still missing a number of bulbs, despite the fact that there has been numerous accidents at this particular intersection in the meantime. (I sincerely hope this has been fixed since the last time I was there).
- chaos on Jo'burg's roads are worse than before (after driving in London, where there are many more cars, Jo'burg is a shock) and traffic officers are more bribable than ever.
- the newspapers tell me that govt. ministers get away with more and are less acountable than ever.
- power cuts are now so regular that some companies are forced to plan their productivity around it.
- Telkom, who cannot even dream of coping with their own workload and growth, wants to lay off how-many-ever-thousand employees, despite being the most profitable telco in the world. Meaning you and I are going to wait even longer for our phone to be installed.
- the reliability of cellphone networks are worse - Network/connection errors, dropped calls, getting through to someone's voicemail when their phones are on and available are far more common
Can you see how it's natural to think that things are deteriorating? These things are in your face, every day - no way to avoid it. To make matters worse, for the average middle class South African who left a year or two ago, coming back has another unpleasant suprise: nothing that affect our lives have changed for the better. Simply that. There's nothing more to it.
Considering the excellent economic growth, and the massive number of unemployed people who could be put to work fixing and building roads, the deterioration in road conditions far exceeds the roadworks done in the same time.
There's no shortage of money in S.A. to fix things. Theres' no shortage of idle hands either. Somehow government just continues to prove themselves incapable of making this work properly.
) 
Oh by the way I don't think aproval or opposition American foreign policy actually is actually based on 'left' or 'right'. The places you pull this stuff out from 
