I presume you mean the previously advantaged soufafricans??
It has surprised me how most of the kids of this sector have headed overseas with no encouragement. Not that I disapprove. This is constructive stuff which produces informed and (mostly) balanced souls.
For those who are highly employable the world should be competing for their skills, no matter who they are. The international employment opportunity is bigger now than it has ever been.
No not specifically Richard, though I guess it’s not hard to think that.
Speak to anyone anywhere and the zeitgeist is largely the same: abject despondency. And anger. Or delusion. Those who can leave have less to moan about, other than the spectre of our falling state and all it’s concomitant dismay. For the rest trapped in the downward spiral it’s nothing but hope, vasbyt, misery and spent nerves and that is based on discussion I have with people on the street - which I actually do, believe it or not…I ambush citizens, but I do find most S.Africans very open and ready to talk.
I think the sense of desperation is quite high.
As a parallel have you ever gone to the EU for an extended period, say 3months or more, and noticed how feral you are, noticed how watchful, how ready for conflict, battle ready? Most people in civilised countries are not looking over their shoulders, unless MI6 is after them, or latter-day Crays. That wild quality has an effect on you, living here we hardly notice it, in fact, we may even relish it. In fact, it may be more ‘natural’ than being safe. All you have to do is look at the grotesque visions doled out by Nordic Noirs to see that a theory which proposes “humans are wired for the full spectrum of experience from safety to peril” and that in their world danger is absent so it’s exercised through the imagination, ie, it’s still needed…but i digress.
Point being we must never underestimate the hurt of being boiled slowly. The youth are always ready to jump, they also have less to lose, coz the older geezers are holding down the fort, and keeping their stuff till then…and, older people are more complicated, or more complex. Just look at this discussion, and look at videos put out by the CRA; I love both, but in as much as it has the perseverance, patience and strength of mind of the mature it also suffers from the lack of “you must be joking” zeal of youth. I often get the feeling we’re just standing around inspecting and discussing the threadbare screws holding fast the last deckchairs of the Titanic.
“Perhaps we should have used nails instead?”
“They used steel screws.”
“Ah”
“Brass is best.”
“Yeah, but all the brass was spent on the band cheering up 1st class.”
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Oh yes, I have absolutely noticed that. In Berlin I stayed in a hotel in Kreuzberg, which is more or less in the middle of the place, an extremely multicultural part of the city. Full of Grafiti. My brain was screaming at me all the time, YOU ARE IN A BAD PART OF THE CITY! No, it was quite safe, even nice.
Out and about in NL on a Saturday, the GPS tells me to walk down this foot/cycle path, which goes UNDER a highway… brain is going crazy… this is where you get ROBBED! Nope… just 2 or 3 other pedestrians and a cycle or two… it is Saturday after all…
@plonkster
hehehehe 
I was in the EU in 2019, walking at night down a cobbled street wondering the same, is this sketchy, who’s that oke in the trenchcoat, then it dawned on me that I was probably the most dangerous person around 
No need to go to the EU, just go to countries around us, Moz Namibia even Zim. Been travelling for work extensively until the WHO declared we cannot. Way safer everywhere else, Nono of this rabid political stuff to be smelled there.
Locals are curious if somewhat curious mostly. There are verboten places for sure, but nowhere that you will normally find yourself. Jus do not drive anywhere after dark, not even in rural SA or cities for that matter.
Groetnis
Wait, what, nee maggies just hold on.
How else will we get our “danger fix”?
How will we keep our instincts and reactions honed to a knife’s edge?
We need this man, we need it … not.
I see this headline this morning, but don’t have an account. Does anyone know what this is about or have a different source?
Hectic.
Closest I could find - but read this in any event, the new mayor of Cpt, “hy issie bang” …
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Another report:
However, don’t think there isn’t crime. Someone I know got robbed on the train in NL of everything they had on them, and a colleague in the UK told me how much crime they’ve experienced lately. Knife attacks/robbed at knife point are quite common. Bikes got stolen at the offices. Saw a physical altercation between a shop attendant and shoplifter and an upmarket chain. And this is just one person’s experience in about two weeks.
If you stay in a safe upmarket area in SA, you should be pretty safe, statistically speaking. But don’t go walk in the Cape Flats and think that it is the same thing.
At least in my experience we seem to overestimate the danger of SA, because we apply the rural stats to the suburban. And overestimate the safety of the first world, because we again compare their stats to our rural stats.
That said, I’m not naive to the dangers we have here, and the failing state. But I have many family overseas, and a lot of colleagues. What I’ve found is that those that go over for a year or two but plan to come back (i.e. just the experience) don’t find it utopian. However, those that go to emigrate, they find it awesome in general. I do think it is a bit of a mindset. If you go to stay, your will probably end up convincing yourself it is better than it really is. But if you go just for the experience, you probably don’t integrate that much, so maybe experience it a bit worse than it needs to be.
Valuable advice I’ve received: If you want to leave, that is fine, but you need to want to go somewhere as well.
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Since we know that Crime and Poverty often goes hand in hand, I can add another subjective data point. If I compare the number of beggars I ran into on the streets of Groningen in 2017 (zero), vs around 2019 (one), and I compare it to the number two months ago… there are practically 5 or 6 of them permanently begging in the same spot now, quite similar to our traffic-light people.
Seems to be a thing in USA as well. A friend told me he has recently walked in a park area of San Francisco and felt more unsafe than he ever felt in SA. Heroine junkies sitting right there on a park bench as you walk past, shooting up.
And he’s been in USA for more than a decade at this point, sounds like it changed a lot the last year or two.
Yes, I was in San Francisco briefly a few years ago and there were parts that felt very creepy. Lots of homeless people etc. I was told that it’s because of the very mild winters, apparently homeless people migrate there from other parts where the winters are much colder.
Anyone ever visited Hollywood and the Chinese theater area. It does not look like in the movies I can tell you!
USA, from reading up with me wanting to go trucking there, I killed that idea, is taking more and more strain on just about all levels.
Putin Ukraine and Europe, clusterf…k heading their way now that Putin is expanding his moves in Ukraine, knowing he can cut them off anytime, having curbed the flow already.
My point, the grass is not always greener on the other side.
And as I like to believe, SA can not really get much worse, only better once the ANC is voted out.
Our Cpt Mayor, Hill-Lewis, a sterling example of younger politicians leading the drive.
@TheTerribleTriplet Did you listen to that whole interview?
… And for the first time, instead of running up a credit … we will now, if you want it, we will actually EFT you cash at the end of the month for the power you sell us.
Same vid, different time:
The intention is very much to roll that out to households next. We want to check that the payment system can work, that we can send you cash at the end of each month for the power you sell us. Once that system is up and running … we can then start rolling that out to private homes as well.
CoCT is just going ahead, inviting National Government to sue them.
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Jip, he is going forward, come what may. All I want to know is, will CoCT pay for and install, for free, the bidirectional meter, or is that my cost to be able to sell back to them?
Cause if this happens, they install the meter for free, then I must seriously look at a Solis and some more panels. 
Cause when they get it right for keeps … then I won’t need batteries anymore either.
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So I’m considering a Fronius and more panels once I have a roof open again. Any reason why you’d save the money and get a Solis? My plan would be to pop the Fronius on the output of the Multi to have some extra inverting capacity when the sun is out and not loose it when the grid goes down. Might even move some panels currently on MPPTs to the Fronius.