South African woman vents to me about America

[dano]

One of my doctors is from South Africa, she's smokin hot and has a really pleasant personality also. Her picture is on the front page of her website. She's not bad considering she has 2 kids.

http://meyerclinic.ca/

[ladislav]

I know she doesnt want to be associated with the west. The west isnt just a geographical location. South Africa is just as "western" as Canada and Australia. It just so happens to be in Africa. Yes, Australia is part of "the west" also. So what.

The Dutch/German/Flemish descendants who formed an Afrikaner ethnic group are not like Canadians. They are very much part of the African tribal system and they have severed all ties with the West. Plus they were isolated and ostracized by the West as well. They went their own way in the 1600-1700. As early as in the 1700s one of them proclaimed-" I am an African". So, there you go!

Also, many Afrikaners do not speak English and do not want to be part of the Anglosphere. They are also not Dutch or citizens of Holland or Belgium or Germany. They were the ones who built the country, who fought the Brits and declared the war on the British Empire. They formed their own language and culture based on the African soil and wish to remain distinct. And definitely, the Black South Africans with thier tribal culture do not want to be part of the West. The ones who are Anglo are the descendants of the British settlers in some provinces. Maybe these wish to be the West.

America/ CN/Oz have been allied culturally, economically and militarily with each other. Not the Afrikaans speaking S. Africa. Totally isolated and cannot easily be pigeonholed into some convenient classification.

Here is a S. African dating site:

http://www.southafricancupid.com/

See what a salad bowl of races that is.

Are you saying that there are no British descendants there who have influenced the culture?

As far as I know, many of the Afrikaaners there are bilingual. Many Afrikaaners and British intermarry without any problems whatsoever.

I dont see the relevance of a military alliance between oz, england, canada, usa.

Either way, the country was founded by westerners. Then the British came (more westerners) and brought them back into contact out of isolation.

Their laws, AFAIK, are based on old Dutch law. Is it based on some non-western system???

It may have been disconnected from the fold for a while. Nonetheless, it is still a westernized country.

I know what you mean. Yes, it does look like a Western country and in many ways it is while in many ways it is not. I guess it is somewhere in between and what you may consider the West, what S. Africans consider themselves and what the world considers them all varies. Would one also consider Portuguese speaking Mozambique as the West? Or Namibia?

I like this Wikipedia article:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Western_world

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anglosphere

[Adama]

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/c ... re_map.png

I am guessing that South African woman is crapping in her pants right now! lol

[travel_man]

Would one also consider Portuguese speaking Mozambique as the West? Or Namibia?

I think what makes South Africa the west - and not Mozambique - is that South Africa set about becoming a nation and society with a western identity, run by a European-based population. I don't think the Portuguese settlers in Mozambique had the same ambition to turn the colony into anything like a European-based society. So I guess that's why South Africa is considered the west, even despite the much larger black population, whereas Mozambique is not.

As for Namibia, I believe it was at one time a virtual colony run by South Africa, and before that, Germany. Don't know that much about it, but I know it's very sparsely populated, mostly black, and probably lacked enough European settlers to build a functioning nation along western lines.

[BellaRuth]

We have a lot of South Africans living in my town, not sure why.

One of my friends is a South African male, my brother-in-law is South African and so is my tutor at university. They all left due to the violence over there but all miss their beautiful country.

Really lovely people, every last one I've had the pleasure of meeting has been funny, friendly, intelligent and easy-going, but NO difference between them and your nice regular person here in the UK, from what I can tell. Make of that what you will. They settle in very well here too and have no complaints apart from the weather (oh, and the drinking culture, although they join in fairly quickly!). I've asked them about cultural differences and they've said there were none to speak of, which is the reason why they chose this country to settle in (but Polish immigrants have said that to me too, so could be debateable). My tutor in particular said he has travelled all around the world and the Brits are the most similar to South Africans in nature so he feels more comfortable here in comparison to other countries (he found Eastern Europe too cold for him, personality-wise, for instance). And my brother-in-law is very settled here, having being married to my sister for 8 years now. He says if it wasn't for the weather and the economical issues he would feel pretty much the same as if he was in SA. So I guess SA must be Western culturally, as there's no doubt the UK is.

If the UK, Australia, Canada, France, Germany etc. are Western then IMO the South African whites are too, and I can't imagine the ones I know arguing against this (unless they were told this meant they were like Americans, which is another thing altogether). If you think all of these 'Western' countries are the same as America you are making a big mistake. They may have more cultural similarities than America and Mongolia but they are all still very different countries with different cultures and histories of their own that churn out different results.

Anyway, interesting to hear her views. I've yet to meet a South African woman who is unfeminine.

[Adama]

We have a lot of South Africans living in my town, not sure why.

One of my friends is a South African male, my brother-in-law is South African and so is my tutor at university. They all left due to the violence over there but all miss their beautiful country.

Really lovely people, every last one I've had the pleasure of meeting has been funny, friendly, intelligent and easy-going, but NO difference between them and your nice regular person here in the UK, from what I can tell. Make of that what you will. They settle in very well here too and have no complaints apart from the weather (oh, and the drinking culture, although they join in fairly quickly!). I've asked them about cultural differences and they've said there were none to speak of, which is the reason why they chose this country to settle in (but Polish immigrants have said that to me too, so could be debateable). My tutor in particular said he has travelled all around the world and the Brits are the most similar to South Africans in nature so he feels more comfortable here in comparison to other countries (he found Eastern Europe too cold for him, personality-wise, for instance). And my brother-in-law is very settled here, having being married to my sister for 8 years now. He says if it wasn't for the weather and the economical issues he would feel pretty much the same as if he was in SA. So I guess SA must be Western culturally, as there's no doubt the UK is.

If the UK, Australia, Canada, France, Germany etc. are Western then IMO the South African whites are too, and I can't imagine the ones I know arguing against this (unless they were told this meant they were like Americans, which is another thing altogether). If you think all of these 'Western' countries are the same as America you are making a big mistake. They may have more cultural similarities than America and Mongolia but they are all still very different countries with different cultures and histories of their own that churn out different results.

Anyway, interesting to hear her views. I've yet to meet a South African woman who is unfeminine.

Thank you.

[TRADER1972]

Here's another vent sent to me by another immigrant female. Again, so true!


"Hi Winston,

I came across your site today and I have to agree with all that you say.
I am a 26 yr old White South African woman married to an American man. I have been in USA for 4 years.

I will give you my perspective as a non-western woman.

The first thing I found was the jealousy and competition among everybody. Every time I go out I get dirty, mean looks from other women/girls - and my husband has noticed that.
Women are so jealous of each other - and the jealousy is even among the men!

American women are very feminist. They are very masculine and loud, and refer to me as a "girly-girl" instead of seeing that a they should also be "girly-girls"
I get tired of being told that I need to gain weight, when it is they who need to lose weight, but of course it is not "ok" to say so - yet it is "ok" for them to critisize me for being thin.
They are very anti-men and don't understand that men and women have different roles.

I am amazed to find that women go out in their pajamas! I won't even check my mail-box in my pajamas let alone go shopping in them!

Americans constantly ask me silly questions such as "So, if you are from South Africa why are you white?"
And "So do you have lions roaming around?"
"So - you have computors over there?"

They also seem to find it difficult to understand any accent other than their own.

Before coming to USA I thought Americans were much more intelligent than this....I am amazed at their ignorance.

They have no concept of what goes on in the rest of the world and nor do they have any interest.
They are very insecure people who think that if they own enough it will somehow make them a success.

I did not expect America to be this way. I really am unhappy here, and not only I but my husband is as well, even though he is American. If we had the money we would move far, far away from this superficial country.

Thank you Winston, I am glad that you have discovered how much better foreign women are, and I wish you all the happiness in the world."

As an American, one thing I despise about most Americans is their ignorance about the rest of the world and lack of interest, as stated above.

[Winston]

Here's another rant about America from another woman from South Africa in my guestbook.

http://www.ultraguest.com/view/1200586414

Name Charlotte Pellen
Date 2011-10-14
Location click picture for more information
Message I came in the United States in September 2000, my firts impressions that American people were so weird, strange; even the way they do things it just you are afraide but i understand that each country in the world has its own culture. Back home, i thought America is the best country in the world, people are smarter than anyone in the world but when i hang around with american people they are the worst ignorant, retarded, insecure, close-spirited smilie people in the world in their daily life that even they ask the worst stupid question ''do you have food in your country?''. The main problem is American don't travel outside the United States to see what is going, they think the world is America, noooooo!!!!! For American women, they are masculines, aggressives, ignorants(not all of them) they don't respect their men, they are over-the-top, overweight and materialists. I don't mean to insult but this is the reality of american life and plus everything here is limited. In Gabon is different from the US where Gabonese people know the value of culture, children respect parent, we have a huge family, we help each other like we are in cooperative to be successful later in the life. Gabonese women are good wives and very maternal. We don't eat anyhour, we have a regular time for it. The United States is a diverse country where each nation came to put its dishe to make a diverse nation.

[ErikHeaven]

How are you brother? How is the job search going?