Best products from r/southafrica

Mid thirties, white male. I was 14 when apartheid ended.

1.) Our country refers to itself as the rainbow nation. On TV this means people of all ethnicities and all backgrounds jumping around and dancing and waving their arms in the air. In practice, to me atleast, this is reflected in the amazing degree to which most people who interact in South Africa get along. All the different "groups" show great patience and restrain, despite personal frustration, as a collective effort to move forward. As an example, in most of the truly big social atrocities like the genocide against the native americans, the australian aborigines and the jews in Germany, the victims were not around afterwards, and as such forgiveness and self forgiveness might be much easier. In South Africa, victims and perpetrators lived side by side for many years. It took a lot of restraint and it will keep going for a long time. I think younger people, who were born after apartheid ended have a hard time figuring out how to feel about it. To what degree to adopt the feelings of their parents and to what degree to explore the new country that is forming around us.

2.) Sporting emblems, like the national flower "the protea", and "the springbok". Nelson Mandela is probably the most unifying emblem.

3.) The dominant language in South Africa is english. Zulu and Xhosa are both spoken by more people as a first language, but English drives the national debates, business and education. Languages are often seen as mapping on races perfectly which is a pretty big mistake. This unfortunately leads to some misguided policies around languages.

4.) Our constitution is one of the most friendly ones when it comes to minorities. South Africa is home a growing number of immigrants from other african countries. Their is tension between unemployed people in South Africa who feel that the immigrants take their jobs. I believe this is the case in all countries in the world, so nothing new here.

5.) The original french people who came to South Africa fled for their religion. It was a pretty far out place to come to so I reckon people held their religion close to their heart. The african people, as far as I understand, are to a very large extent christian, while to some extent entertaining the non-christian religions of their ancestors, sometimes, in parallel. Our constitution protects all religions. Im not sure all are welcomed equally, although I strive for this.

6.) One of the biggest challenges to our national identity is our government. It is an extremely polarising force. The general ineffectiveness, cronyism and corruption force staunch supporters to turn a blind eye and everyone else to be very upset, and patient at the same time. In the next 10-20 years the children of today will hopefully not feel a particular historic allegiance to the current government, and be willing to evaluate them on their merit.

7.) South Africa was colonized by the Dutch and the British. A large number of immigrants came from France and Germany. There are also a large number of Portugese, Greek and Italian people as well as Jews. Indian people, as well as people of Malay background are also prevalent. South Africa has the biggest Indian population outside of India. South Africa has a long history with Zimbabwe and Namibia as neighbours. South Africa has a very strong history with the UK. We were a colony and fought a big war against the British at the beginning of the 20th century. The bravery and genius of the afrikaner people in this war is seldom discussed and many liberal afrikaans south africans mistakenly feel that they need to disown this wonderful part of our history in order to distance themselves from what came 60 years later with apartheid. For a great book that helps to illustrate this war form a first hand account of a 17year old boy you should read Commando. It is a great way of understanding the mutual respect that the people of these two countries had for one another.

Ok, enjoy and good luck! As you can see South Africans are very proud of our country and we love talking about it :)

I have the Sasol field guide, and I paid a few ZAR extra at the bookstore for the one that has the plastic protective cover (worth it).
That is the throw-in-the-car book, and my first go-to.

(A friend has the Sasol app for iPad, and loves it because of the calls, but he is South African and has a much better mental filter - to me, everything here just sounds cool and exotic and I can't separate them well, so I don't try.)


For the tough IDs though, I also have Newman's Birds of Southern Africa, which is more of a brick, but fantastic for its great comparisons and references on the illustration pages. For example, look at this page, and you'll see what I mean.
There is a Kindle edition, which might be a good thing, because I think the binding on this one is not quite as rugged as the Sasol. Still, it is an excellent book.

Bonus website :)
When illustrations are not cutting it, and I really need to see photos: [BIRDS of THE WORLD, An Online Bird Book: Birds of Africa] (http://carolinabirds.org/INDEX/AF_index_ad.htm). Not perfect, and not comprehensive, but pretty darned good for a quick comparison. Helpful because when you click on, say, a babbler, you get the page showing all the babblers, so you can compare.

I posted this a while ago when someone asked... what can we do to make SA better... I'm tempted to think the lizard people are ****ing up on the world stage on purpose so that we would eventually welcome such a system, when THEY are ready to implement it....

"

How about Kickstarting the development of rule by a computer softwarez. There's good reason a cellphone is called a CELL phone... (Read https://www.amazon.com/Moxyland-Lauren-Beukes/dp/0857660047, great book). Build a system capable of eliminating the entire government, that uses constant citizen voting to determine resource allocation and project priorities. Blockchain and crypto it all, bring in GPS and the phones to check verify EVERTHING. You could even should probably get more voting merits depending on your past social contributions and "good-for-nothings" get their votes taken away until they improve.

Initially politicians can even be coerced into "going transparent" (a la https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Circle_(2017_film), which is a shite movie BTW IMO.... like where's the punch line?) by allowing their every move regarding a project/s to be tracked by the masses 24/7. ONE GIANT DIGITAL BEAST encapsulating Government, Finance and the media, all rolled into one. Everyone will just be tapping in with their phones all day long and their acts will be verified by the users around them, and it all can be followed thread by thread, just like a Reddit. All taxes will be paid in crypto, will be released and TRACKED as it is used. Real Black Mirror type stuff, of course with the potential to be the world's greatest mess as well, but so with any other plan.

Take this current land issue .... how could a system like this potentially deal? The more I think about this question the more I get the impression that the people are led into not wanting land from the government, but land controlled by "the colonists", which will be a total stuff-up under this system IF it was initiated under "one man one vote" coding. If the systems phases in with data and weighting for PAST CONTRIBUTIONS TO SOCIETY ( taxes paid, for instance ) adding more votes, the notion will of "give us all your good land now" will hopefully fail, because anarchy sucks. Those who cried for this land grab will subsequently keep putting in more requests to get voted in, sobering these up into something that might be more do-able that will actually get voted into implementation. The "heavy-voters" might even put proposals in as well, helping things along.

E.g. "You want to own your squatting-stand?... If that land you're on is ex-gov, all in favour say aye...Send GPS....Its yours, congratulations"

E.g. "You want some farm land? To farm on? ( Check crypto balance and past....... beep bap boop ) You have or don't have enough to do this.... Come back later / You can do this.... Here's your choice of available ex-gov land to pick from, based on your $ balance you can pick x hectares...

Eg.. "You want enough crypto to be eligible for some ex-gov farmland... We currently have 9 850 000 jobs available as "block patrol guards"... apply by tapping this button... Beep Bap Boop.... Be at GPS loc tommorrow and tap peoples phones there, introducing yourself as new "block patrol guard" with your phone verification. You will be paid x crypto at the end of each verified shift... When you have xx crypto, apply for training into LEVEL 2 JOB TRAINING.... Continue on this path for yy/mm and you will be able to farm 1 hectare of free land."

​

I ramble on... What's that Queen Song again... heaven something something?/// "

My husband and I are really bad at picking out gifts for each other, so we usually decide what we're going to get together. This year we bought The Food Lab, which is a sciency book about cooking (which we both enjoy) and Pandemic, a co-op board game.

My husband also got me a Kindle for my birthday, so if she likes reading I'd say that or a nice hardcover (or hardcover boxed set) would be a nice gift. Otherwise maybe a cool trip together to a fancy place for a weekend - it doesn't make for an amazing gift-opening experience, but maybe you can buy some small items that represents the trip.

It's pretty hard to give ideas without knowing what your wife likes - the Kindle was probably one of the best gifts I received, but it'd be a shitty gift for a non-reader, for example. Gifts related to hobbies are always cool - for my husband's birthday we went to a cycling place together and he picked out some new gear which was then my gift to him.

copied this from a comment in /r/news


>* Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk

• Uber CEO Travis Kalanick
  
• Pepsi CEO Indra Nooyi
  
• Facebook’s Sheryl Sandberg
  
• Alphabet's Eric Schmidt
  
• Alphabet's Larry Page
  
• Amazon & Blue Origin founder, and WaPo owner Jeff Bezos
  
• PayPal Co-Founder Peter Thiel, Technology Advisor
  
• CEO and co-founder of Blackstone Stephen A. Schwarzman
  
  >Musk, Kalanick and Nooyi will join 13 other members of the President’s Strategic and Policy Forum who are expected to “meet with the President frequently to share their specific experience and knowledge as the President implements his economic agenda.”
  
  Someone please paint a last supper scene with this. PLEASE
  
  edit: names
  
  edit edit: well that blew up.
  
  Sheryl must have been Cheryl earlier in the article, and ninja edited on their site. It was a c/p. Corrected. It sure was, nice ninja edit THE HILL wow, there were a lot of edits actually.
  
  For those who don't know Alphabet is the parent company of Google.
  
  
  edit edit edit: aaaaannd they're rolling in!
  
  
• Sketch by /u/abisco_busca
  
  • and reformatted by /u/son_nequitur
    
• Photoshop by /u/sorry-wtf
  
• Detailed Photoshop by /u/shit_zac_made
  
• Sketch of Trump and Elon together by /u/Magnadyne
  
• Photoshop by /u/okisiroki Bonus! Now with more Kanye!
  
• Well blended photoshop by /u/HandSoloShotFirst

The homelands weren't about international pressure. They were part of Verwoerd's grand vision of separate development long before international pressure became an issue. The idea was that the groups in SA were at different levels of development, and that it was in everybody's best interests to continue separately on their path of development. That was the humanitarian argument for Apartheid that Verwoerd made and many people were convinced. He was a very good orator.

It's true however that the Bantustans were too small to sustain their populations and that Whites were too greedy, effectively taking 87% of the land. But what you perhaps didn't know, was that very early on (in the 1920s if I remember correctly) the ANC was in principle willing to accept Separate Development (Apartheid) if black people were given enough land.

If you're curious about my source for most of this info: http://www.amazon.com/The-Afrikaners-Biography-Reconsiderations-Southern/dp/0813922372

One of my friends worked there as an intern last year. Not sure if she still works there. Did her Master is Political Science. Met her while we went on a summer school to Beijing. The organization is not that big. I bet like 20 people. Check out their Facebook Page for updates.

The Chinese classes are good, but like most University Foreign Language courses you gain a lot more from actually being in the country. They are starting an honours class next year, which will be a first for Chinese in South Africa. Our third year textbooks were: Contemporary Chinese 3 and 4.

The classes are small. People rather go for French or German. In 2nd there were about 15 people in class. 3rd year about 8-10. Which I like.

I always suggest in these type of threads:

"The racist guide to the people of South Africa" by Simon Kilpatrick

It is an funny and easy read that boils down all the stereotypes of all the different people in South Africa. It is not a racist book, it is just very observant of all the major local cultures here. Like all stereotypes, not everybody is like that but you will spot the observations here and there. What I love about the book is that it is very innocent in it's approach and doesn't hold back with the observations. I was offended with Afrikaners section, but on a second thought I was laughing on how the author nailed it.

Bantu Biko once wrote the following words:

> Black Consciousness seeks to show the black people the value of their own standards and outlook. It urges black people to judge themselves according to these standards and not to be fooled by white society who [sic] have white-washed themselves and made white standards the yardstick by which even black people judge each other

I know this might seem irrelevant. However, if you look at the article the author seems to compare African countries to the West and some countries in Asia. This, on its own, is not a problem. However, in such endeavours one cannot ignore the culture, history and what goes on in these countries. For instance, on the Zimbabwe issue, I am currently reading Zimbabwe's Land Reform: Myths and Realities and things are not as simple as this guy makes it seem. They are actually becoming more complicated with the current drought that is facing both Zim and South Africa.


I didn't want to judge this man from this one article so I decided to Google his other articles to get a sense of the type of person he is.

I came across the following:

> There are indeed some "clever" blacks who think they are better; but, in reality, they are simply ignorant

> Successful black people don"t buy books. White people know this. When they plan shopping malls for black communities, they do not include book shops.

> if the "clever" blacks are serious about their claim of superiority, why have they accepted Mercedes Benz as a symbol of prestige?

All of the above statements are just from one article.

African countries have issues, one cannot deny that. For instance, Wizard of the Crow by Ngugi wa Thiong'o
paints a beautiful and scary picture about certain leaders in African states. However, this man obviously still needs to learn about himself and about the continent. I see why he appeals to certain people here though. I see where he is coming from, however, his reasoning worries me.

It's a very personal topic so it's hit & miss to be honest. In particular I've found that it matters greatly whether you're religious or not.

For the purposes of this discussion there isn't a right/wrong there...but you need to get it right because the two involve very different paths to "tranquillity" so to speak. It's a bit like an atheist going to a psychologist that is very christian...it just doesn't work. (and vice versa).

Personally I've found value in the Stoic teachings:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0040JHNQG/ref=oh_aui_d_detailpage_o03_?ie=UTF8&psc=1

(Note - that's more a philosophy book that a 5 easy steps to stop caring thing). You're probably better off reading Marcus Aurelius' meditations first (yes the guy depicted in the Gladiator movie) - which are free...just to get a feel for whether it's for you.

I could never get into Cry, the Beloved Country. I really liked Kaffir Boy, about a little boy growing up in the Alex Township in the 70s and 80s. It's an autobiography but it flows like fiction.

For the history I read a straight up textbook, which was really dry but very informative. When I moved to SA I felt like I knew more about the country's long-term history than most of the people I met, which mattered about as much as encountering a Romanian who was an expert on 1600s America. I read the first edition of A History of South Africa. The link is for the 3rd edition but the 1st edition is what my library had. The 3rd edition is now $0.01 if you're in the US so I guess there's another new edition out.

At that price range you can't go wrong with these that I own:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Sennheiser-HD-518-Circumaural-Headphones-Black/dp/B0042A68R8/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1504274576&sr=8-1&keywords=Sennheiser+518

However, with regards to your ears, I understand why you would want to try them on first. I can guarantee good sound, but I don't know how it will feel on your head. I've owned 2 pairs of HD 202's though and I find the HD518's more comfortable, they are definitely higher quality.

Not exactly what you asked for, but "My Traitor's Heart" by Rian Malan is the best general book about South African history and society that I've ever read. He manages not to be too dispassionate or too involved, and never sounds either too preachy or too bitter which are of course the flavours in which (especially white) South African books of its kind often come in.

http://www.amazon.com/My-Traitors-Heart-African-Conscience/dp/0802136842

Bring back a bottle of wine and some rooibos tea then stop by Out of Africa in OR Tambo and you'll find something interesting to bring back as well.

You should read a book on the history of South Africa so you can gain some context as well. I would recommend this book.

SECTION | CONTENT

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Title | Thomas Sowell - A Conflict of Visions
Description | Thomas Sowell discusses the visions that account for the wide political gulf between conservatives and liberals. http://www.LibertyPen.com
Length | 0:09:43


SECTION | CONTENT

--|:--
Title | The Constrained Vision and the Unconstrained Vision
Description | In this video, I summarise the enduring relevance of Thomas Sowell's masterpiece A Conflict of Visions (1987) and explain some of its crucial insights into modern struggles between social justice warriors and their opponents. I also focus on his discussion F.A. Hayeck on social justice. You can get Sowell's book here: https://www.amazon.com/Conflict-Visions-Ideological-Political-Struggles/dp/0465002056
Length | 0:15:23






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How much would I pay for handling fees for a $350 USD graphics card? http://www.amazon.com/Sapphire-11244-01-20G-Radeon-NITRO-Graphics/dp/B015DXHEAW/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1458780362&sr=8-1&keywords=sapphire+r9+390

And would I save money if I sent it to my dad who lives in the US and he didnt declare its price and sent it as a gift? Thanks

Amazon would be the best bet, I think.


https://www.amazon.com/Logitech-Lightspeed-PowerPlay-Compatible-Lightsync/dp/B07L4BM851

I'm fairly sure them spears have a barb on the end to prevent the fish from swimming off. That part is somewhere in his face! They're going to have to push that out before they cut it off. Lucky he didn't nail his mask to face...

Eish, look at the part that's still in his face:

https://www.amazon.com/Scuba-Choice-Spearfishing-Stainless-Single/dp/B00CM29XPC

Man, the publisher, and author asked not to share this online or pirate it. They are going to have massive legal fees fighting that poes Zuma and his cronnies about this book. Please for the love of ending corruption in SA, go and buy a digital copy.