The past couple of days have been mainly spent in the car and in our lodgings. We fired up a delicious braai in our Airport Beach Backpackers north of Durban consisting of sausage, beef shnitzel, and beef/lamb patties. This upcoming Tuesday is National Braai Day so we are preparing for it. We will be in Swaziland but supposedly the tradition carries over.
Next Morning we drove to Richard’s Bay. We dropped our things off at the airbnb and travelled to the beach were we discussed wedding plans while walking along the shore.
Back in the AirBnB, we become close with another host, Isobel. She had TEN dogs, four cats, three birds, and quite a few koi fish in the backyard pond. It was a rough night's sleep with the incessant barking.
Over banana bread and tea with milk, Isobel explained to us about South Africa from a different perspective than we had previously seen in museums and in public. Speaking quite openly, she laid out several facts that are generally unspoken truths in South Africa. Yes, she says, there was discrimination and racism for many years. Yes, there was mistreatment of certain peoples, but it can be justified to some extent. The blacks and colored simply were not capable of living healthy lifestyles, let alone managing a country. Only behind closed doors can someone have discussions of the prophecies of the white government of what would become if Apartheid ended has indeed rung true. Unemployment rates have skyrocketed, the currency (South African Rand) has plummeted in value, crime has risen, and whites are now persecuted. Rape, murder, and corruption is rampant in every region of the country. For obvious reasons, white folks are fleeing the country, mainly to Australia, New Zealand, UAE, and America. All of these predictions were the justification by pro-Apartheid government for the forced segregation on non-whites.
Even worse, the HIV/AIDS epidemic here is significantly worse than anything the US ever saw. In South Africa, over 7 million people are currently affected by the deadly disease, accounting for nearly 20% of black adults. While it is the largest total number of infected citizens, at 26%, our next destination Swaziland has the world’s highest HIV/AIDS rate.
The situation in South resembles that of Israel in many ways. To be sure, in Israel it is way more complicated than in South Africa. Prior to the arrival of Europeans, there were indigenous people living off the land. While Jews came to Israel not necessarily as colonialists, but escaping Europe and its anti-semitism, it was not quite the same for the British and the Dutch who arrived to South Africa. On the surface though, it is easy to make a comparison.
In both places the indigenous peoples suffered rather poor living conditions until Europeans (in Israel, Jews immigrated from other places as well) arrived and developed the countries. Driving through the streets of Tel Aviv or Cape Town, nearly every street name and building is named after the Europeans who built or designed it.
From a civilization perspective, it is undeniable that the newly arrived immigrants took the countries to new heights, albeit leaving those who were living there beforehand behind. On one hand, both countries became powerful forces on the world stage, both economically and militaristically. One the other hand, one can not simply ignore the mistreatments and injustices that have occurred from both sides since then.
I would like to clarify that what has been written is not necessarily our opinions on various matters, simply observations taken on our travels. Also, as someone reading this can see, this blog is not written in any format or design. Each post is not discussed prior to writing it. The intention of this blog was not to be particularly insightful or creative, but merely to share our journey with those closest to us. It is impossible to put everything on paper, but at least by documenting it we can draw back on our experiences and compartmentalize certain interactions and findings.
If anything we have written is not correct or written in a way that offends anyone, we apologize. Certainly that is not our intention.
Keep enjoying our adventures! Stay Tuned for Eswatini...
yes... (said after every sentence by many liSwati)
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