jovvijo
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To an extent yes.
Many of my American pen pals know we have electricity and normal housing but still seem to think that giraffe wonder the street and that we have to watch out for hippos in the lakes.
Interestingly though, my Japanese pen pals believe that we live in a society pretty much like theirs only with less technology and a hell of a lot more guns!
Now where'd they get that idea from? |
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General Proud
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stop teasing me! just cause you guys don't have a pet lion, don't get jealous.
p.s. there is a party at my place tonight, hut no 145879, bush 7, mountain range 4. if you can't find it, look for the big fire and giraffe on the spit.
alternatively, my smoke signal number is 3 small puffs, 1 big puff and 7 medium puffs. |
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english guy 1985
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in the UK, that is certainly not the perception of SA
however one negative perception that many here believe about South Africa is that since the end of apartheid the country has become very wild and dangerous and lawless, with really high gun crime and gruesome murders etc
how true that is I dont know because I never been |
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Vango
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Yes many people think that because of ignorance.
On the other hand South African city dwellers are also ignorant to the fact that many South Africans in rural areas DO live in huts and DO have no electricity. Many people in the sqatter camps (oops, sorry...informal housing sector) also do not have electricity and live in corrugated iron "huts". While lions do not roam our streets, there are remote parts of South Africa where lions may roam free and if we extend the picture to the rest of southern Africa, many people face daily danger from crocodiles, hippos, elephants and even lions in northern Botswana, northern and eastern Zim and many areas in Mozambique and Zambia. In 2002 one of my British clients was attacked by a leopard while on safari in Namibia. People I know in Nkomati Town had to chase elephants out of their vegetable garden. I have seen elephants at night walking the streets in Vic Falls Town and a friend has chased some buffalo down Vic Falls' main street one night (he probably wouldn't have done it had he been sober).
In todays news: 9-year-old caught and eaten by lions in the Bray district.
South Africa is a land of contrasts. |
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MB1810
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Well in Joburg it's Lions, but in Bloemfontein it's Cheetah's and in Pretoria it's Bulls (blue ones). LOL
Who cares, ignorant people who do believe that should not even be taken notice of. |
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Tsepo
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People like that are known as Americans. They even think the same of their northern neighbours,Canada. |
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shell answer man
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That's funny...have you heard of our president over here? George Bush? He probably does believe that, yes. He believes a lot of pretty strange things. |
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kiki68
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they certainly do! and at least SA is sometimes in the "good" news. i come from Kenya and people don't believe i live in a house, have a job or speak better English than they ever shall.
i think its outrageous that Africa is only seen through news of hunger, poverty and war, or worse, thru the discovery channel as tho we on the other side of Saturn |
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wtg_ib
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yes we do(lol) same as some believe that we people in Australia ride kangaroos to school & work & all live in the outback
PS SA= south africa???
PPS send me a lion steak please next time you run 1 over in your driveway please(lol) |
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bean
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we have no electricity most of the time. I dont have to think it, I live in it. |
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Bear
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some ignorant people do. |
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Alf Garnett 8
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Has it ever crossed your mind that maybe this is what South Africa projects to the outside World? |
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Brice B
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We all have oil wells and ranches and wear cowboy hats and boots here in Texas. Ok, maybe not, but there are a heck of a lot of us that say "y'all". |
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whiteman
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i don't, i watch the discovery channel. |
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SAgirl
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Well i wouldn't deny that we don't have electricity |
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poepies
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Well I don't blame people outside Africa to think that, and before you stop reading listen to my point.
I don't know who of you have traveled overseas. Switch on the TV and look for a program about Africa. (Not even South Africa...) What do you really see?
- Hungry people (and 99% of the time it is black children)
- Nature programs, where a lion is busy doing its hunt
- Violence in Townships
- As Vango said, "in the news today, a 9 year old gets eaten by a lion"
- Programs on HIV/Aids (who do they show, black people)
- Celebrities adopting our babies (mostly black babies), in poor areas, promising them paradise
- Black people in Zimbabwe fleeing on foot
- In movies made in Africa, you see the desserts, people hunting with arrows and bows, maybe gunman, living in huts, lions walking and preying on the children of the village, barbaric deeds...... (This is what the film producers hi light to the outside world......)
People, this is what the other countries see! They see mostly black people, (no wonder they ask about white people), they don’t see our build houses, they don’t see the healthy people. When Oprah for instance visits SA, you don’t see her between white people? What do you expect?
And for WRRRRR’s attention: Black people (obviously not you) also stay in safe rich areas. And also black people (again unlike you) travel abroad! You sure as hell are no ambassador for this country. You are unfortunately one of those dumb poor men demanding his wife to do everything for him while you sleep with 10 other women…., now the people outside Africa wonders where the AIDS problem comes from! Mmmm….? (Don’t worry, it happens to all of us…) |
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Reb Da Rebel
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Yep, and those are people whos minds roam too far from their own comprehension, whos lights are basically dimmed (in the head) and live in their own heads (which can denude them of oxygen and brain activity)... |
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-One Love-
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the ones in boxes do. why, i was even asked if i had a pet elephant...by the same dude who asked if platypuses were real...damn, and he's australian.
general, if i don't find any of those dinges can i look for the menorah? yaaay, party time! you better have a good stock of kosher wine...mmm |
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cakes4africa
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Lions and tigers are synonymous with Africa ! One person asked me if it was true that we had Kangaroos in Cape Town. That´s a new one. We forget, of course, that we invented the zebra crossing !! |
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Southloving
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I live in the U.S and im a doctor but i promise you its really suprising how highly educated people think about u.2 Doctors actually asked me if we do prectical on lions and when i tell them about my country they think im liying but i met a 14 year old that is well educated about S.A and i was really supprised. So most americans might think that |
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Bull IV
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Another 13 years of ANC rule and they will become correct in their thinking. |
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WRRRRRR
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Some of our peope do live in huts....many have no electricity.
See the country and know the truth!
Of course, the rich whites who are the INTL travelers have done a very bad job of communicating, the variety of lives in S Africa telling the truth and advising the world of the site of their crimes. Maybe they were ashamed of their riches in light of the abject poverty surrounding their ill gotten gains?
The good news is that it is improving now as Africans travel, undo the tremendous errors and other damage of their "fellow citizens" to tell their own stories about South Africa. Better now than never. |
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slcmillard
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you mean that's not true? |
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