South Africa from Australia – My Reasons for being in Sydney
// May 28th, 2008 // My Life
I wrote this email to a friend of mine back home once he mentioned the whole leaving South Africa to Australia. Many people are doing this journey and mine was purely to travel and see new places. Now looking back it may be something else:
Many people since ive come over here have mentioned the whole getting away from crime and for your safety… its a logical thought progression, moving to australia and then bombarding everyone with mails about how great it is. Initially this all started as a new adventure, a new beginning and possibly opening some doors to travel a bit more and see the world while we’re young. I never moved because of the crime, goverment or anything else…. but now im here, i realise the situation i lived in. Looking from outside the bubble i realise what a mess we live in. Even with all the safety factors, i think the travel stress, the pressure we put ourselves under to be earners, richer, hard workers as south africans is nuts.
Okay, so yes, my salary is a whole lot better here. But life is so much better. Everyone is happy, because nobody has stresses. There is no hype to have the latest GTI or to afford a holiday house in ballito. Those are stresses for so many in SA, not to mention the stress of SA under the factors of crime, safety, politics rioting etc etc. The structure that this goverment has built in Australia makes life easy. Its easy for me to live, and fun. For instance, i just moved into a house which for me is just perfect. I have a beachfront which i can compare to miami’s florida beach, but on a far smaller scale. Somewhere i can get away to easily after the days work or on weekends. Similar to durban’s beachfront except durban you cannot live there: its dirty, its crime ridden and not as beautiful.
Then with all of that, i can be in a corporate environment in 30 minutes on an express bus to work in North Sydney. Suddenly i can come to a place where i have all the opportunity yet i dont need to stress myself to have to drive a GTI to work, i sit on the bus with all the other 20 – 30 year olds, on a bus system which is dead on time, in a traffic system which flows because people abide by the rules. There is no negativity amongst the australians about goverment, lifestyle or anything else. That results in a life stress free and most positive people. And when life is stress free the office becomes an awesome place where we can get to work, drink coffee at 8am in the morning and i can watch the ferries come over the harbour. In actual fact i can take the ferry to work from Manly where i live, catch two trains and be at work at 845. On that ferry i can listen to my ipod or talk to strangers, everyone is so friendly! Because i have flexi time thats not a problem. Just work a little later, and get back onto a bus which will take me home safely, quickly if i want.
What SA had was opportunity, opportunity to be an entrepreneur and grow a business. THe systems and infrastructure in construction, IT or whatever field you want is lacking, so business who can get goverment contracts or contract to a monoploy like vodacom, telkom or anyone of those would flourish. But what is a flourishing business earning millions, when all the money in the world couldnt find happiness in SA.
Like you said, its not our problem to fix SA. yes people like us help, hard workers who invest in SA like we are/were are needed. However there are not enough of us, and too many damaging society for us to be effective. You only live once, and im not gonna stick around to be a hero. Its sad, because the flair and culture of us South Africans is unqiue, im sure. You dont see that here. I watched the sharks game here, and the passion, the craziness that is Sharks supporters, or just South Afrcans in general doesnt exist amongst australians really. But perhaps i havent been here long enough.
You’;ve travelled and know what other places are like, sydney is a city where one could settle, start a great family and lead a superb life. Thats something worth investing in. Its pointless investing in a life which is a continual struggle. Then you never reach a point of happiness, or if you do, its not for long, because there are a hundered systems or people that will disappoint you.
thats my 2cents. or 98 cents. sorry long rant. but i feel you bru. I feel the pain of being a south african, because now im sitting outside the bubble going, wow, what a struggle.
Very well written article. It almost makes me want to leave and makes me sad at the same time. I have just recently moved from JHB to CPT to get away from the crime and stress in JHB and I find that it is better in Cape Town, but not by much.
I sold my home and converted everything into cash. I will rent in CPT for a while and see how it goes. If it does not get better then I will also leave.
Good choice and well done. I hope you have a greate live in AUS.
Regards
Neil van Wyngaard
I’ve just returned from 2 weeks in Sydney and share your sentiment
Wow courts, that didn’t take long at all hey.
I appreciate your point of view completely but I feel somewhat belittled as a successful South African man choosing to stay here. It’s as if you are saying that people who stay don’t know better, “Shame if you knew what you were missing you’d leave.” sort of thing. I do not what I am “missing”. And I choose the pressure, stress, barriers and lifestyle.
I feel like in SA I am actually living a realy life full of living, risks and chances as well as successes and happiness. I am happy by the way! I don’t want a cushy life right now, if you know what I mean.
I agree 100% with almost everything you said, I just think that you mistake choices for lack of choices. I respect what you are doing, you were presented with a choice and made one. But now you are doing what you have bitched about other immigrants doing for so many years. You are telling everyone here who has stayed how silly they are, how much better it is everywhere else and how crap it is here. (with two sentences about our unique culture).
Just be careful, it’s still early days there and things seem to be the image of perfection. Scratch the surface a bit and see what you find. No country is perfect and you might have a bit of shock-blindness at how different things are there compared with here. Not necessarily better or worse.
Thank you for taking the time to write this as it definitly is worth reading for anyone thinking about Oz. For me this was well timed.
All you’re really going to have is different type of problems. But the amount of those problems/frustrations and shear force that they will exert on you will be the same as it was here in SA, you just need some time for the “honeymoon period” to be over, that every person gets when they move somewhere new. Take it from the dude that has moved a LOT!!
You can’t run away from problems, instead you just have to give them horns and try and create a life that is as perfect as possible wherever you are.