Cruel, Crazy, Beautiful World

For those of you who grew up in the 90's, the title of this post would mean that you now have Johnny Clegg's catchy hit song from that period stuck in your head. For those who have no idea what I am talking about, you are either too young or too lazy to just Google it. Shame on you! Anyway, I was lying in bed last night thinking about our country and the things happening in it and to it. Every day we get more news about corruption in government, or the fact that the Guptas were playing their own personal game of Monopoly with South Africa, or (unnecessary) fuel price hikes, or more strikes, or crime on the rise and so on. With the way things are going our national animal shouldn't be a springbok, it should be a rottweiler and our national anthem should be 5 minutes of gunshots, sirens and screaming.

I agree, this is not exactly a optimistic view of our country, but before you browse away looking for a passport and visa out of the country, or pictures of fluffy kittens or the nearest bottle store, bear with me. Yes, the country might be in chaos, and it might be ruled by people who think proper governance is something that comes as a cheap toy in a cereal box, but actually we still live in a beautiful place. We have the Big 5 (if you don't know what that is, why are you even on my blog), we have breathtaking scenery and we have a rich cultural heritage. Think about it, almost every week you read about floods in various parts of the world unceremoniously moving people's houses from one spot to another, or earthquakes knocking out power and playing dominoes with buildings, or typhoons/hurricanes/tornadoes/Justin Bieber causing chaos and completely ruining people's lives. Whereas here in South Africa, natural disasters tend to pass us by. A few years ago we had our very first tsunami warning. A massive wave was set to hit Durban and wipe out houses and businesses and cause death and destruction. Instead a large amount of surfers showed up and surfed a swell that was only marginally larger than the standard variety. Gauteng has recently experienced a few earthquakes which rattled windows and startled poodles, but nothing strong enough to cause any actual damage.

Let's face it, even the rest of the world acknowledges that we tend to be relatively free of any major meteorological or geological catastrophes. Look at any disaster movie where our planet is shown from space. The rest of the globe is encased in ice or submerged in water, but the continent of Africa is still there, sticking out of the ocean as proudly as a hippo in a bathtub. So relax, crack open a beer or pour a nice chilled glass of wine. As crazy as things seem, we are not all going to get washed away by the next cataclysm.....