South Africans in London

Warning: this post is a borderline rant.

As many of you may know, there is an embarrasingly high number of South Africans living in London at the moment - most of them in SW London, notably Wimbledon, Putney, Southfields and Richmond. Quite frankly I don't know who is left in SA between the ages of 20 and 35. I live in the SW area, which is lovely, don't get me wrong, but is also very disconcerting because it has become some wierd almalgamation of London and Johannesburg all rolled into one. It looks like London, it smells like London, it's got London weather and London buses... but hold on... everyone speaks South African. I have yet to meet a person of any interesting nationality in the SW.

Then there is the London-SA attitude: SA has gone to the dogs so we have to live in London. But hold on, it's really cold and miserable here and we hate the food so let's open stores all over town that stock Proudly South African products at 3 times the price. But that's not enough either because we are lost without our favourite food chains, so lets import that Spur Taste for Life, Mugg & Bean, and of course Nando's. Hmmm, now we don't like living among strange nationalities so let's all move to the same area and stick to our comfortable groups. Oh and we have to make sure that we gripe about how much we miss home, hate London and are stuck because we can't go home because there are no jobs for white people.

If you miss home so much then go back, and contribute to our economy and growth. Stop complaining and open yourselve up to a new experience for a change. Meet new people and maybe you'll see London for what it is: an exciting melting-pot of interesting places, people and culture.

I'm making a big effort from now on to be approachable, get out and meet non-South Africans and be positive about home, because we have a bad reputation here.

posted by Cat Murray @ 12:39