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Deadclown posted:Cape town has the mountain (and the nice views of the mountain) but (un)fortunately Johannesburg has the jobs and the money. Wasn't that a line from some terrible Leon Schuster song or skit or something? True, though.
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Nov 4, 2014 07:19
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Original_Z posted:What do you SA guys think about Orania? The community is pretty fascinating, and I wonder how locals actually view it. Apart from what Atomd said, Orania, and the Volkstaat concept more generally, is a marvelously, fantastically absurd idea that a bunch of idiots fervently believe can be turned into reality. The government even funded a task force to investigate its feasibility back in the 90s, as a conciliatory measure towards Afrikaner nationalists (right-wing crazies). It turns out that to create a homeland for the descendants of white colonists to live peacefully apart from other races requires evicting members of those other races.  Strangely enough, a government acting under a constitution that guarantees equality to all its citizens wasn't too keen on forcibly removing some of its citizens so that others could reenact the Hitler youth. Even Orania had to be built on a ghost town, and it emerged some years back that it wasn't such a ghost town after all. They've had to pay compensation to the small Coloured community who they kicked out of their homes back in the 80s. Anti-Hero posted:How's the internet in SA? The problem with the internet (other than being a long way from everywhere), is that in the 90s, the government sold the phone company (Telkom), which had a complete monopoly, to foreign investors. Those investors, unsurprisingly, proceeded to milk South African phone and internet users for all they were worth. I guess it's getting better now, though.
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Nov 21, 2014 18:38
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mrgoodtrips posted:I may find myself in Lesotho in the near future. It would be a long-term stay. Any experiences or knowledge you can share would be greatly appreciated! I don't think I could tell you much that you can't look up online, but hey: It's mountainous. 95% of the country is higher than 3,000m above sea level. It's really poor, much poorer than South Africa. Expect low levels of infrastructure and a lot of begging. There's only one road into the country that regular cars can drive, and that's on the western side (although they are currently paving Sani Pass, the previously 4x4-only road on the east side of the country). I don't think there's any rail, and while Maseru has an airport, I doubt there are that many flights. Maybe check out Wikitravel and get yourself a guide book. http://wikitravel.org/en/Maseru http://wikitravel.org/en/Lesotho There's lots of useful info in those, and some hilarious contradictions: Lesotho is so safe, much safer than South Africa. So safe you have to drive through every red light at night to avoid car jackings.  (Do these even happen much any more? I thought the advent of GPS trackers more or less eliminated them.) Anyway, it's quite beautiful (although I suspect the Drakensberg escarpment on the eastern border is the most beautiful). If you're up for a rugged adventure, you should have fun.
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Feb 25, 2015 18:16
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