Somehow I got into politics on Facebook. I hadn’t meant to, it just sorta happened.

funny thing is, this all started on Twitter. I was commenting on something strange that Julius Malema had said, when this Sebastian Charles dude butted in and said that I wasn’t allowed to comment on South African issues because I was Dutch. So I checked him out, and this is one of his tweets:

“white people will always be white people: white, pretentious and racist!”

Another of his tweets: ” I kinda feel bad, the imported Persian Rug I walk across every morning to have breakfast on my 507m high balcony costs sum1s AnnualSalary”

Now I wonder what kind of reaction I’d get if I were to say:

“black people will always be black people: black, pretentious and racist!”

or

“Jewish people will always be Jewish people: Jewish, pretentious and racist!”

Looking at his Twitter pic, actually he doesn’t look entirely black. Actually I think he might be what some people call coloured here, and what other people call you racist for saying, because you have to say Koi or San or something. So maybe he’s just scared, and is trying to stay in with the in-crowd before they notice that he isn’t black enough.

I dunno. I’m dutch, and I grew up believing people were equal. Which made me make a post on Facebook, saying:

“Funny thing I noticed about black people in South Africa: All the black people I’ve met who don’t live in shacks or hovels or cardboards boxes, are racists. Makes one wonder if the only way to be economically successful here is to be a racist.”

And really, that’s totally true. But it started quite a debate on facebook.

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Enchanted trees in a magical forest

And then, this gated community at Hilldene. I haven’t told you about gated communities yet. They call them estates, or townhouses. In effect, it’s a whole bunch of houses enclosed by a wall, with guards, and dogs, and barbed wire (actually not barbed wire, but razor wire, a South African invention, as I was told proudly by a security guard).

Plantations estate

They’re like very luxurious concentration camps. The architecture is often quite oddly at contrast with what you’d expect in Africa.

Weird medieval-looking castles behind razor wire

At a place called Inchanga there is an old railway station where they still have working steam trains, so that tourists can go for a little tour through the countryside in them. They’re beautiful!
I was amazed to hear that steam trains had still been in use until recently.

Steam locomotive

That was the end of the old road though, I had to take the highway from there and carry on to Jozi with no more scenic stops.
And now I’m going to hit the shopping malls