Culture Shock

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I’m not too worried about experiencing culture shock while I’m in DC. The American culture is so often incorporated into the ‘Western’ part of South African culture that it would be much easier to relate to than say, a culture in the Far East. Mainstream English media is generally from either an English or American perspective and we constantly receive lessons in American history and current affairs simply through the movies that we watch. I’m not saying that I know what Americans are like or that Twilight is a good reflection of the American psyche - all that I’m saying is that the American culture is well advertised throughout the world and especially in South Africa. South Africans have a better idea of the American culture than the cultures of Kyrgyzstan or Bolivia.

I’m more concerned about explaining some of South Africa’s idiosyncrasies.

There are a few minor oddities such as the use of ‘now-now’ instead of ‘later’ (which is just ridiculous really), serving pieces of dried raw meat at social gatherings, snacking on smoked mielies (corn on the cob) that you bought at a traffic light while on your way home from work (this might just be a Gauteng thing), the fact that Ouma rusks has “dip ‘n ouma” as its catchphrase, or that all taxis have white-rimmed tyres (if you know why please tell me).

Then there are slightly more serious quirks in the South African culture. For example, our society generally accepts that you should be able to pay a security guard a few hundred rands a month and then expect him to give up his life to protect his employer’s fortune. But it is accepted nonetheless, and not only that but the private security industry in SA is one of the biggest in the world, with a private security company even protecting the Brooklyn Police Station at a stage not too long ago. As comedian Nick Rabinowitz rightly declared at one of his standup shows: if Lesotho invades, I’m calling ADT.

The only reason for this anomaly is of course the high unemployment rate. US Consul General, Erica Barks-Ruggles recently explained to the SAWIP 2013 team that the most difficult thing for foreigners to South Africa to comprehend is the high unemployment rate. At the height of the Great Depression unemployment in the USA was at around 25%, South Africa’s unemployement rate has been hovering at that level for the last five years. The extended unemployment rate, which includes people who aren’t actively searching for work, is at around 37%. Compare this to the US unemployment of just under 8% and one can understand how it can be difficult to ponder a functioning economy in which a quarter of the workforce are not working at all.

In any other context it might be easier to explain the sprawling presidential quarters of Nkandla, or why an airbase might be hired out for private events – keep that in mind for your 21^st, Jess. I doubt, however, that it would help in explaining how a government can urge foreign countries to boycott their own goods or how those fighting unemployment and causing it, to some degree, are part of an alliance who run the government.

I hope I can do South Africa proud and show the world that South Africa is actually quite a lekker place. Eish.