Tish11

Why am I here? Your country needed my skills and yes you are I right, I figured its not a bad idea to gain the experience. It could have been any country really.
I am sure not every black person in SA sees you as a white racist same way not every white person in england shares similar beliefs as BNP.

My point, this state is no different from anything I've always known about SA and yes I hope the country recovers.

Campbells

I think there has been several posts on this forum saying exactly that, SA has not changed at all, just the reversal of races really.

Would be interesting to hear your views on salaries in UK compared to South Africa.

I would imagine that it would have had to been more attractive financially in the UK to make you leave SA or as you say, not another country ? what was the deciding factor that made you chose UK as a country to pay for the skills that are needed and if I may ask, what are those skills ?

It would also be interesting for other members and readers of this forum to hear how you feel you are being treated in the UK, for example, have you experienced any racial situations ? Are people very accepting that you are from Africa?

Have you felt threatened at any time during your stay in the UK ?

Have you found the UK to be more efficient than SA and if so in what way,

By comparing the UK to SA what would you say is on the top of the list for SA to make itself more attractive for people to consider it as somewhere to reside.

Cheers.

PS: What you think of the Brit contribution to international cuisine ? Fish n chips

Rubicon

I stumbled across this site and regret the time wasted in scanning the smug, self satisfied detritus posted by some of the pysdo-intellectual zealots that haunt this place.

Do you have the keyboards propped up in front of your ironing boards at the ready and drip your voltile onto your bedsheets as you press them in readiness for your next Klan meeting?

Given the smugness and absolute certainty with which you profess to know all about SA, I wonder why you haven't left. Given the inordinate and inescapable levels of crime- why are you still alive?

This forum should be about advice and points of view, not your extremis bitterness. Your reality has been polarised by your own perceptions and are seemingly thereafter reinforced by such. In simple terms you are pathetic sabre-rattling halfwits.

bruce67

Enter "Rubicon" stage left.... let the show begin

(welcome to the forum by the way)

Bruce.

TouristTrap

School is out, it seems.

Tegwyn

Truly TT. Ever notice how bile gets produced when the nail hit the proverbial head. Delighted to hear that Rubi is putting the ironing board to good use.

Campbells

Stumbling around on the net can waste a lot of time.

Would that be Klan, clan or tribe?

FYI Rubi, we did leave. Obviously for you the crime levels are acceptable.

Maybe you can get Mbeki to write a letter to the BBC and complain that people are viewing their opinion freely.

BTW, welcome to BE and thank you for sharing your opinion with us. Hopefully you are going to post more than this single contribution of your intellect. Perhaps the degeneration of the South Africa section of BE is due to single digit posters that seem to just pop-up ( stumble over ) and then just disappear after posts such as yours.

Daxk

I see Rubicon is cross!!
I wonder what irrevocable step was taken to bring about this nice turn of phrase and there are some nice ones,
Sabre rattling. in Exremis, At least the poster is literate.
Pray, Rubicon, give us some advice and points of view.

TouristTrap

Do you think he/she is wagging its finger?

Tegwyn

Donner and bliksem and all that!

Campbells

Eish

TouristTrap

Zapiro's a GENIUS!!!

Tegs, more thinking P.W. and HIS rubicon speech

Tish11

Atleast we agree on this point, except its not the reversal of races, instead every race is going through the same problems. Crime, BEE(not all black people benefit), unemployment etc. These have always been there but now everyone is affected in one way or another.

For an engineer, I dont think it pays any better to be in the UK. But then again other people may argue that salaries in SA are likely to be pumped up by the BEE effect. When I left SA which is about 6yrs ago, I think i was doing relatively okay.I think the money i earned then was enough to provide me with a lifestyle i struggled to maintain once I moved here. Thankfully, I had done my little research so I expected that I would have to compromise on various things, e.g accommodation
And the benefits of these compromises have kept me here longer. It meant i could save up the pound to do other things in SA. For someone like me, with strong intentions to go back the exchange rate does work to my advantage.

To be honest with you, just the idea of experiencing a different country was good enough. I thought it was a good opportunity. Why the UK? The company i worked for in SA was founded in the UK and when they recruited me they promised opportunities to go work abroad and thats were my interest began. After failed attempts to gain a transfer through the company, i decided to do it alone. The first company I spoke to was UK based and the guy hired me on the spot. Plus at the time I knew more about UK than I did about Australia or New Zealand both of which were potentials and yes the strength of the british pound made the decision a lot easier.

I think people in the UK are generally tolerant of other races. But then again you still come across ignorant people every once in a while. I am just never bothered about other people's racist attitudes so I dont generally pay attention to such individuals.
If someone doesnt like me because of my skin, i ignore them and move on to the next person who is willing to accept me.

Nope, I havent. i live in some tiny village and when I first moved here people didnt really talk to me but then after a few jogs and a couple of trips to the farm shop they start to smile then comment about the weather the next thing they know all your business. I must say though, it took 2yrs for people to warm up to my scary face. I dont think it has to do with racism though, I just think as an African sometimes people dont know how to interact with me. I could be wrong, I have no idea why it look this long.

I dont think anyone has ever tried to make a comparison because there's none. One country has a well established economy while the other is emerging. Its like saying, have you found India to be more efficient?

i actually tried it out for the first time about 3 weeks ago...wrapped in paper and all on the Brighton Marina. i wouldnt say I'd do it again, it was too greasy but hey, I enjoyed it.

Campbells

Hey mate,

I really enjoy your exchange. Further than that I believe you are the kind of success story that needs to become known in South Africa. In the short that you have written of yourself you obviously had a very tough youth and although I can not talk from experience I can only imagine the hard time it was for you as a black kid in SA.

You must have fought very hard to educate yourself and been determined to study hard to become an engineer and take it further than that and to go and work overseas in that field into an area that other black people may feel running back into the hands of the oppressors ( the colonials).

Did you study at WITS in Jo’burg ?

I hope that your living in the UK for six years has offered you hope that not all white people have or had the same racial tendencies as the apartheid regime.

Ah, the Brighton Pier, I know it well. I took my wife ( South African) there in 97 and we loved the Brighton Lanes. The history and the whole atmosphere. I remember we were having coffee at Carnaby St and just people watching. I remember looking at the clothes and the style and thinking , poor South Africans as the exchange rate was about R14 to one squid. I recall looking at a Camel coat which was about £120 which was crazy in Rand terms plus the fact that we never really had much need to wear such heavy clothes in Jo’burg. But still being on holiday and converting to Rands was scary.

We went to Ronnie Scots which was something we had wanted to do for a long time and we went for dinner before the club at a small Italian restaurant and the cheapest bottle of wine was £40 so you can imagine.

When I referred to the efficiencies I meant for example, London. If you buy one of the off-peak travel cards for about £6 you can ride the underground tubes and buses the whole day up to midnight. Really gave me the feeling that London was your oyster for the day and of course there is just so much to do. Just moving the sheer mass of people that the public transport does in London ( and other major cities) is the kind of thing that when I went back to SA I really felt was lacking. Public transport infra-structure for example.

Of course pre 94 with all the music boycotts against SA whenever I travelled to Europe I would always try to base my travels around the concert calendar. One of the highlights was seeing Sade at the Royal Albert Hall, saw her before that in the Alter Oper in Frankfurt. She originates from Nigeria as you probably know. I saw Deacon Blue at the Brighton Centre in 92 which was an awesome concert.

I remember my wife and I went out one night in Brighton and we wanted to see some live music, we ended up in this basement club in the Mews. It was a kind of student hang-out. When we got there the band were on interval and when they got on the stage I thought, gee these are kids ( some of them must have been late teens) and when they struck their first note I was just floored. I mean they were like Shakatak kinda groove and seriously professional but these young kids and I thought, yeah, the competition in London in the music scene you gotta be good.

Anyway, gone way off topic. Thanks for your interesting posts. Maybe you should consider writing a book or something once you get back to SA as you certainly have the right foundation for a good read.

Cheers and I hope the weather is cheering up there for you. I know that the UK in the spring can be beautiful.

Cheers

Tish11

. Public transport in London is brilliant even though Londoners complain about it sometimes, I guess they need to visit SA to appreciate what they have.
But as soon as you move out of London its not that easy to travel, where I live there's only 1 bus every hour which turns up atleast 99% of the time. Great!!
When you consider the amount of money Transport for London pours into the infrastructure then you understand why it is so efficient.
Ken Livingstone wont just urge everyone to use public transport and implement congestion charge while he drives around in a Jag. He will actually use the same public transport.
The difference with our politicians is that most of them dont even use the services they provide and therefore not affected by any inefficiencies.
I loved the Netherlands and the whole cycling culture...It would be great if South Africans adopt the same culture...its cheap. The only major investment is buying a bike. But then SA is HOT, I cant imagine cycling in that weather.

The country side is totally awesome during this time of the year.