I am so confused with this country - Not Cycling

[AttieSlabbert]

Went back to SA beginning of the year for 4 weeks! Booked everything on line - from flights to car rentals - everything. Never confirmed anything. Hearing all the negative stuff about the incompetence in SA, I was a bit worried to say the least when we landed in Johannesburg. Went to the domestic flight check in with the print out- NO PROBLEM everything in order. 2 more flights later - in Cape Town- car rental -- didn't confirm for about 4months. What now? Got to the desk - saw an envelope with my name on behind the lady. No problem. Everything went smoothly. After the 4 weeks I can not say 1 negative thing about SA. I know I don't live there, but I can only speak from my last experience.

[Guest colonel]

a friend went to Aus

2 days - adsl installed

10 minutes car registered in his name

clean parks with kids playing

Interview on Thursday - started work on Monday

...and we have the cheek to call Aussies arrogant!! ...and this whilst we are the Rainbow walk on water folk??

To get my British passport issued in SA: 5 working days from handing in the
form at the British consulate in Pretoria.
To get my SA passport  issued in SA after handing it in at the DoHA offices in
Pretoria: 4 months.
To get my firearm licenses after having handed in the applications 8 months ago: still
waiting.
To get my police clearance for my PDP: 3 months (was 5 working days 8 years ago).
To get my leased line installed by Telkom: 4 months.

It's easier to buy your passport and drivers license' date=' steal a gun and tap into your
neighbour's WiFI point...
[/quote']

 

 

Yop same thing with my British Passport I got it in a week and they knew what they were doing when I went there.

[Hog_]

Saffa, for what it's worth: Me & the fiance are getting married in January, the honeymoon is in Canada. First Vancouver then Toronto. Right now we're leaning towards Vancouver, but we'll decide where to move to after checking the place out.

 

I've managed to get involved with a company in Toronto already, and I'm doing regular freelance work for them, so I'm pretty sorted when we go over.

 

Bottom line = I'm gone soon. Just hoping the property market gets back on it's feet in the next 1,5 years, otherwise I'll have to consider holding on to my place for a while.

 

 

 

[jmaccelari]

 

 

Mbeki is much like a bicycle wtih one wheel.....USELESS ... but it could be worse' date=' some of our politicans are like bicycles with no wheels ..... 

[/quote']

That's an insult to any unicyclist!!!

 

Apology required...

 

[Delgado]

I make no excusses for crime' date=' it sickens me and has affected my friends and family deeply, however.

 

The vast majority of crime in this country is committed by black people, because the vast majority of people in this country are black, so that kind of stands to reason. Also the vast majority of black people are poverty stricken and still suffering the effects of some 350 years of oppression.

[/quote'] A wise black prophet once said "Emancipate yourselfs from mental slavery for none but ourselfs can free our minds!"

[Slowbee]

I make no excusses for crime' date=' it sickens me and has affected my friends and family deeply, however.

 

The vast majority of crime in this country is committed by black people, because the vast majority of people in this country are black, so that kind of stands to reason. Also the vast majority of black people are poverty stricken and still suffering the effects of some 350 years of oppression.

[/quote'] A wise black prophet once said "Emancipate yourselfs from mental slavery for none but ourselfs can free our minds!"

 

 

[Icycling]

Lost my SA pasport in Hamburg Germany - 3 Hour latter had a new 1 SA embasy!

 

 

 

Bringing up time lines like that is so completely stupid of course in you own country things take longer - more demand

[Icycling]

So the british embassy is 4 and a half days slower

[Icycling]

But even not so long ago about 2 years I at the last minute found out that 1 free page in a passport was not enought for the Dutch consolate to issue a Visa. Went to home affair got a tempory passport within 48 hours. I think it was the next day. Show if it is urgent things happen.

 

 

 

Thank goodnees for the last minute!! That the only why things get done.

[bob_the_builder]

Looks like a story out of SA... you'd be wrong

 

"A 12-year-old boy...is accused of having raped an eight-year-old girl"

 

http://www.news24.com/News24/World/News/0,,2-10-1462_2317547,00.html

 

[AttieSlabbert]

When we went to SA beginning of the year, there was a problem with the mail and our youngest couldn't get his  passport. The Liaison office received it and the guy at the liaison Office in Taipei drove to us and gave it to us personally.  Service!!!!

[Icycling]

Yes their is Doom and Gloom all over the world.

 

 

 

I travel often overseas and always look forward coming back to RSA. Come to think of it the only place I had my wallet stollen from me was in the USA!

 

 

 

Bottom line is we are all going to die anyway - may as well in enjoy the quality of life we get here is RSA (eating out - I sure the best food in the world, climate excellent, beaches, game parks etc) is great.

 

 

 

If that means quality over quanitity I will live and die with that - When it is time to go I just hope it is quick and pain free!

[Bateleur1]

Quite interreseting.  Almost all our friends have left already.  They are in the US, Holland, England.  We have three left here and of them two have completed their applications for Aus and are awaiting feedback.  Can't see why they won't get approval.  So 1 left. 

 

Myself, I don't know.  I have dual citizenship.  I have registered my two girls with Austrian embassy now.  I am sorting out all paperwork required that should we leave we can go quickly.  However, I am not yet planning on going.  We are a close knit family on this side which for me is very important. So in theory, I will be here for a while longer.  But in the same breath I am not happy with the way things are going here.

 

Then I am also being pressured at the moment by work environment to drop my foreign citizenship of face retrenchement.  I just told the parties involved to take a jump.  I have been "treated unfairly" several times in the past few years because of AA.  I will NOT close my doors in Europe to proof "loyalty" for a goverment that want to discriminate against me. 

 

Should I be retrenched tommorow and battle for some or other odd reason to find a work in this country, I will be out of here in 24 hours.

[Pickled]

Lost my SA pasport in Hamburg Germany - 3 Hour latter had a new 1 SA embasy!

 

 

 

Bringing up time lines like that is so completely stupid of course in you own country things take longer - more demand

 

 

 

Point taken, however, my wife is an EU citizen, she went to the local embassy in SA. Completed paperwork, all the biometric stuff at the embassy. Now they do not make the passports in SA, they get made in the EU, Security and all that... And how long did it take, 6 days. From paperwork, to transfer of data, to printing to shipment to SA, 6 days. And yes it is the same printing guys that print for the EU contries locals.

 

 

 

I am not saying that the grass is greener, that may be the case, but I do think that it rains more and thus why green.

 

 

 

The thing with immigration is that you need to decide what you are willing to live with. The UK rains like no where else, Dubai is a giant sand castle, Aus has a drug problem in schools, the US and the natural disasters. Which problem are you happy to live with and there you have it.

[AndreZA]

The UK rains like no where else' date=' Dubai is a giant sand castle, Aus has a drug problem in schools, the US and the natural disasters. Which problem are you happy to live with and there you have it.[/quote']

 

THe UK it rains too much, Dubai is waaaay too hot to cycle, Aus is full of idiots and the US is even more full of idiots. NZders are a bit to comfy with their sheep. So that leaves........

 

 

[bob_the_builder]

 

The UK rains like no where else' date=' Dubai is a giant sand castle, Aus has a drug problem in schools, the US and the natural disasters. Which problem are you happy to live with and there you have it.[/quote']

 

THe UK it rains too much, Dubai is waaaay too hot to cycle, Aus is full of idiots and the US is even more full of idiots. NZders are a bit to comfy with their sheep. So that leaves........

 

 

 

China?