Is South Africa a Wonderful Country?
By Marius Bezuidenhout

On return from Scotland after 5 years.

Why did I come home? Well because it?™s home. We didn?™t want to be 40, sitting on the porch in our comfortable home in Scotland thinking, ?œWould it have made a difference if we?™d gone home??

On return I realized all the positives about South Africa: The opportunities, family, weather, nature just to name a few.

Unfortunately I also noticed the negatives:

Crime, service delivery and rampant disregard for the fabric that binds a society together ??respect for the rule of law. The one thing that I miss about Scotland is the ?œcosmopolitan-ness??of it. We think we are diverse here but in reality we grew up within a few hundred kilometers of each other and are separated by a language and color, although both fences are falling down slowly. In Scotland you have South Africans working alongside Indians, Pakistani and African- Vietnamese-Americans. And the only thing that binds you is your language.

I do feel that I am making a difference in South Africa; I pay my taxes in full and on time. I talk up the country, in a balanced way, whenever possible to other South Africans living abroad. I support various CSI initiatives, at home and professionally. But I haven?™t adopted an Aids orphan and don?™t work at a soup kitchen every day. I try to live my life with my eyes open and without the rose-colored glasses.