Hi Guys,
I was in Johannesburg last week. I expected to land at Jan Smuts airport, but the name had changed to JIA, there were Africans sitting in my bus, what is the world coming to?
Rich Jo burg lives behind secured fencing and drives to shopping malls in cars that automatically lock all doors, hardly venturing out onto the street. The down town areas of Jo burg and Durban are ghetto like areas with gangs of gun slinging hi-jackers and rapists. Our -formally Russian- south African Italian restaurant owner was easily tempted to sprout his deeply racist concepts. Various factions tell us that there is no future for the white South African male. There is still major antagonism between the triumphant and the apologetic, the various racial groups dislike each other in various constellations With the Afrikaner in pole position: simply hating everyone, but at least being honest about it.
Another thing that hasn't changed is the consequential bad hair days the white male population suffers and the African ladies panic about theirs.
Definitely not a relaxed place to be, good fun though was my little trip to Maputo where the first Kentucky fried chicken outlet shouts out the failure of socialism, which is a real damn shame as the rich very obviously and conspicuously get richer and the poor get a lot poorer. And getting poorer when there is very little to get poorer about is no fun. Mozambique is definitely a place to monitor, good place to visit I think, there are some real opportunities now.
Also good fun was my visit to WK, I drove up early in the morning on a Saturday and the first thing I noticed was a little poster announcing the 20th year reunion soccer match led by Adrian de Koning....what chance eh!
I walked about the place a bit and was amused by how absolutely tiny and sordid the cubies were, and amazed at the size of the dining halls, which in my memory were huge and light halls with hundreds of massive tables.
I found the rancid messages me and Anita had scribbled in -then wet - putty.
The whole place has been painted in dirty pastel tints, replacing the cool crispy black and white of former days. It has become neater and more organized. Unfortunately I might add, as the path along the secret smoking trail to seven for instance is now paved and lit. Ma popes road too is paved and full of housing.
Swaziland itself is definitely a play Mobil country it is not for real, things are build and established along pre ordained concepts.......'sissy is a courthousi', and 'sissy is a shopping mall'.
Wk seemed small and insignificant, very isolated...what is it doing there?
the geriatric soccer team consisted of a lightly bearded Adrian, a chubbier version of sech Morojele, Euan keir with a characteristic mr. Bean aura, his wife Shiona and two others; Atul and Keith, some of you may remember from forms two or three. It was great to see these guys, all heading for forty, surrounded by kids, but hardly changed. Not being much of a soccer player myself I niftily managed to leave the task of being utterly defeated by a WK junior team up to them.
I'm off to Central America next week, life is definitely a bummer, and midlife crisis is really hitting in badly
Peter.
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