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Old 07-19-2011, 09:34 PM
 
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Hello,

I will soon be living in Sydney, Australia with my my wife to be and will be engaged in a venture that involves sometime in Sydney and some trips to South Africa. I am wondering the following about Australia and South Africa:

1. Although there are some similarities, what are some differences in terms of culure and psychology between Australians and White South Africans?

2. If you had to choose would you rather live and start a business in Sydney, Australia or Cape Town/Durban, South Africa ( that is if your venture did not spending time in both places)?

3.Which country has more economic growth potential in terms of entrepreneurship and investing?

Thanks
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Old 09-21-2011, 09:15 AM
 
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In my experience Australians tend to be a bit louder and more outgoing than South Africans, who are a bit quieter and more inhibited (there are exceptions of course!). I would strongly suggest you settle in Australia if you have the option, though. South Africa is headed for some very tough political and economic times and you do not want to be a white person living in a rising tide of black African nationalism (think Jews in Germany in the 1930s).
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Old 09-21-2011, 09:56 PM
 
Location: Victoria TX
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White South Africans are virtually all bilingual, English and Afrikaans, and most of them speak Afrikaans as their first language. Afrikaans is not an African language, it is a dialect of Dutch.

In fact, South Africa was the last country in the world to have TV stations on the air. The Pretoria government resisted the introduction of TV, because they thought most of the popular programs would need to be imported, would be in English, and would result in English replacing Afrikaans as the predominant language. TV came in, I think, 1975.
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Old 09-22-2011, 01:07 AM
 
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Don't forget the racial laws in place at the time. TV would have exposed white and black working together as equals. Not the message the White Aparthaid government wanted to promote at the time.

South Africans a little more free spirted these days than Australians whose lives are very regulated. There are certain similarities between the two. I love Cape Town and whites that I spoke to when there a few years ago in business claimed they were doing well.
Depending on the business but from an all round perspective I would probaly go more for Sydney.
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Old 09-22-2011, 09:39 PM
 
Location: Victoria TX
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Quote:
Originally Posted by the troubadour View Post
Don't forget the racial laws in place at the time. TV would have exposed white and black working together as equals. Not the message the White Aparthaid government wanted to promote at the time.
Radio Highveld, in 1975, was playing Diana Ross, so I don't think that was much of an issue. In 1975, it would have been easy to weed out and ban TV shows that shows objectionable levels of black participation in society. Language preservation was more of an issue, since there were virtually no Afrikaans or Dutch language popular TV shows globally available, so everything would have been English. On Radio Highveld, the DJs would switch back and forth, English to Afrikaans, every few words, like giving the time in English and the temperature in Afrikaans, construction delays in Randburg in English, and an accident in Hillbrow in Afrikaans, without missing a beat.

Last edited by jtur88; 09-22-2011 at 09:55 PM..
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Old 09-24-2011, 10:15 AM
 
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Economically, SA is growing at a rapid pace because of the new "black diamonds" that have emerged since the inception of affirmative action. Officially there are 50 million South Africans with approximately 40 million black, 4 million white, 4 million coloured and about 2 million Indian (these figures don't include the illegal immigrants from neighbouring African countries like Zimbabwe and as far as Nigeria). If you want to invest in SA, Durban is not as much of an economic hub as Johannesburg is. More poverty and unemployment in Durban & Cape Town than Johannesburg. It all depends on what business you plan to venture into as well? You may want to research more into which area of SA you would like to start up within. Just remember that there is a huge issue with crime throughout the country so you have to watch your back all the time and make sure you have 6 foot walls with electric fences around your home. Keep valuables locked up etc etc. It is a diverse country which has massive growth potential.
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Old 09-25-2011, 02:07 AM
 
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Do you mean south africans as a whole or just boers?
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Old 09-25-2011, 02:32 AM
 
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Funny the white south africans I have met don't speak Afrikaans as thier first language. I think they have all been anglos as some of them even have english passports through parentage. I can say the 3 I have met here in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil all have said crime is so through the roof there that they feel much safer here walking the street.
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Old 09-25-2011, 11:27 PM
 
Location: The western periphery of Terra Australis
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If you're talking about White South Africans you have to distinguish between the Boers (farmers) descendants of the Dutch settlers, and English South Africans. Although there is some overlap they are two distinct groups within the white community in South Africa. I've heard it is mostly the Anglophone South Africans (who principally or only speak English) that are migrating to other countries like Australia due to them being marginalized (I'm sure the same is true of Dutch South Africans).

From the ones I've met they seem somewhat similar to Australians. The accent may sound a bit similar but is very distinct in other ways. They tend to be more religious than Australians, on average, tend to be easy going but some of them are a bit sensitive about racial topics. Many tell stories of how bad things are in South Africa with the crime and the government.

There's been an increase in Black South Africans migrating here as well (although not as much as some other African nations) which tend to be culturally quite different to White South Africans. The situation there is probably like what would have happened if America had stayed segregrated until the mid 1990s, which is what happened with Apartheid.
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