While listening to a panel discussion about the state of South Africa during the recent Woodrow Wilson event I couldn’t help but think that these world renowned leaders within economics have no clue about what is happening in South Africa. Listening to them set the scene of modern day South Africa made me feel nauseous.

It’s the same old same old story of the outside world projecting a grim view of the future of South Africa. Extreme unemployment running rampant, lack of infrastructure, tight labour laws, rampant poverty etc. seem to be the daily lexicon of outside economists describing South Africa. What many people from the outside fail to realize is that South African’s are not ignorant of their problems. In fact we are probably the foremost experts as well as our own biggest critics.

We haven’t swept the issue under the carpet hoping for it to be forgotten by society. We haven’t tried to hide behind the fact that we are a fairly new country with a constitution that has basically set the gold standard. South African’s know that we are a developing country.

The rest of the world seems to believe that we haven’t broken out of our shells yet, and that we are still in denial standing precariously on the edge. I was in a bookstore yesterday browsing around doing what I do best; reading as much as possible without having to actually pay for a book. I came across a book that told stories about the state of Africa with the foreword by Chinua Achebe but written by an American. My thought process was pretty simple at this stage. Chinua Achebe equals fairly respectable accurate depiction of Africa. As I read through the book and came across South Africa, what I found was utterly disappointing.

South Africa’s political instability threatens to undo the good of its past. Another African miracle looks to be on the horizon.

What could he possibly mean? Just like the outside panelists this author clearly had a single minded view of South Africa and that was it. The nauseating feeling I had while listening to the speakers came back with a vengeance while reading about South Africa. South Africa seems doomed to be constantly compared to first world developed countries even though we still have millions of people with no access to water. Those who criticize South Africa both inside and outside must learn to stop marking South Africa against a rubric for developed countries and Start marking South Africa’s like a developing country. To build an optimistic generation is no easy task. It requires patience, dedication, diligence, will power and the belief from the generation to defend their country when it needs to be defended and acknowledge the faults of the country a faults are apparent.

An optimistic generation is not one in which the standards are set by those who know nothing about the country. It is a generation that is willing to set its own standards because we know our country best. We know what’s needed and we are willing to improve our country.

I bear no ill will on the panelists. But I just wish people would do their homework more and appreciate just how wonderful our country is, defects and all.