Hello friends,
How’z it going? As we’d say in South Africa.
Oof! Christmas is one month away, ooo yes, I forgot I don’t have to buy any presents, I am going through a brief Hindu phase. I am not even feeling like Christmas is coming because…
- It’s summer.
- There are no Christmas lights on the streets like they are in Europe right now. Maybe there will be. I have associated Christmas lights to cold weather for some reason.
- The shopping centres don’t seem to invest a lot in Christmas lights or in the Christmas spirit.
- If maybe I watched T.V or listened to the radio more maybe, I’ll hear how I can spend money on the Christmas deals.
- More Black Friday deals are coming through on my email.
The rains have come several times now so we should have some really good crops and produce that will last until late autumn I believe.
So, we have a dilemma in South Africa. Six-point seven million people unemployed, I have recently spoken to a coloured boy and an Afrikaner boy. The youth are desperate. People here feel stuck and see the life that they dream of so far from their reach that those that can are considering seeking opportunities abroad. I no longer talk about my adventures abroad so much; I feel selfish. I don’t want to take them to that dream. This makes my reason why I do what I do even stronger now.
I told them, “Look, affirmative action needs to go for the sake of all; Indians, coloureds, South African Africans and whites.” Once as a nation, we let that go, we just have to trust. It’s like trusting god. They smiled with the hope that they’d see that day soon. A very broad smile, which was a sign of faith. This, to me, was a sign that the work I am doing will bring change. It doesn’t end here. I don’t think companies are paying people their worth, and not just companies, any person employed for a matter of fact isn’t getting paid their worth, and it all starts from the bottom. There are very few people in South Africa that live the elite life, and they are the ones who possess power and the key to change things in this country.
You know I’ve seen and heard some crazy things in my last seven months in South Africa, some really unfair things. Sorry, South Africa. If we don’t begin to uplift this country as a nation, not just South African Africans; I mean all of us together as well as letting go of the past and just starting fresh; equality for all, then, my friends, South Africa will keep moving forward like a snail while other countries have reached maturity. Our issues, frankly, are so stupid that we haven’t even begun looking at the major shifts and the role we play in the world. We’re playing each other for years and nowhere near the bigger picture.
How much proof do you need? I am sitting in front of you through this piece of writing, a woman who’s come from a home with domestic violence, parents who’s worked hard to keep a family close to a middle-class upbringing, living in a segregated area during Apartheid, lived in a patriarchal society, lived in four other countries, faced racism in South Africa and abroad, faced xenophobia that comes with being an immigrant. Here she is, the woman who was unemployed for over a year until getting her first job in South Africa over eighteen years ago, served with a gun to her head in her first full-time job until she had to say, let’s walk out on this country because this time, if you choose to stick around you might be dead and besides it will take three years or more to get another job unless another Indian is willing to help you.
Who are you kidding South Africa, it’s no secret anymore? White people are helping white people; South African Africans are helping Africans, Indian are assisting Indians, and the coloureds are assisting coloureds. There are a very tiny, in fact, a minute percentage of us trying to help all people in this country. I am being told that it is the only way out of the system of inequality in this country right now. So why do we want to call back the other South Africans who are way better off living abroad?
They are safer there, and they’ve chosen the reasons for themselves to stay there.
I think we’re in a space that everyone below forty-seven years old can say that “We had no idea what the hell was going on in this country because we all were masked and played via our circumstances.”
Those who are over forty-seven years old and more (depending on the race they were from) had also lived a life where the circumstances created forced them to row on. So, what are you left with? An old generation that will hardly get employment, some went overseas, and others are pensioners.
Now that the past has become so dull, we’ve created reverse apartheid which has taken this country backwards. I still ask is this all we can invent?
- CAT scan
- Oil from Coal
- Heart transplant
- Kreepy Krauly
- Prately’s Putty
- Dolosse
- Q20
- Retinal Cryophrobe
- Speed gun
- Smartlock Safety Syringe
- Shark Shields
- Cyber Tracker
- Ubuntu
Here’s the full list with the description of what it solves https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_South_African_inventions_and_discoveries
I was looking mainly at the sections post-apartheid. These are my findings.
The origins of most of the inventors had British ancestry and access to better education. There were 14 inventions made post-apartheid from the year 1995.
Some of these inventors don’t live in South Africa anymore.
So, South Africa, where are we heading? Your country, your choice, and where do you want to see yourself in this world?
An eye for an eye is making everyone blind. The people in this country hasn’t moved past the past to be able to have a strong position in the world. There are so many people (so many millions of people) in South Africa who want to be someone else because there is no one making room for them to be who they are truly meant to be.
Related posts
The catch 22 in South Africa and the 6.7 million and more who are unemployed
Real parents don’t create a void in a man and their child’s heart
Domestic Violence in South Africa now and how apartheid used violence as an instrument
The 23 successful suicides a day in South Africa while 460 attempt to take their own lives
Yours sincerely,
T. Dench Patel
Thank you for the comments and support. Thank you for offering to donate if there was a donate button on here. I prefer not to take donations. You can support by either purchasing one of my books (Paperback or Kindle), The South African: True Colours, The South African: Roamer or my children’s book Light. These books can be found on Amazon mainly and other sites in your country.
The audiobook for The South African: True Colours is available on iTunes, Apple and Audible. The South African: Roamer and Light will be released soon.
Note: Do keep referring back to this site as much as possible, as I grow, a more profound perspective may form and so I will always come back to each of these articles to reevaluate them.