Kurt Schoonraad
words by Kurt Schoonraad
The first time I was aware of it was about 10 years ago. On my first visit to the U.K. I was in a pub somewhere in London and was watching the news with a few South African friends. At first it was the simple recognition… “oh look guys, its home!” Then a second or 2 later, images, of what would be standard backdrop for “Ross Kemp on Gangs” popped up on screen. I was horrified. There on International Television were images of my hometown, my suburb but places I have never seen before. Pictures of hardship and poverty I didn’t know existed. How does the media do it? Seeing that confused me, in fact it shocked me.
It was like somebody showing me magnified pictures (x1000) of my mattress with all kind of creatures crawling around. You can’t believe, right there under your nose is a whole eco system you didn’t know about. What I am getting at is, how does the world see us South Africans? Are we the crime loving mongers, bend on crime, raping and pillaging as we go along? Or are these just images the sensationalist media needs to create to sell newspapers or advertising space? With just a few days, literally, left before the biggest competition in the world starts on our shores, we are concerned about how the worlds press influences opinions about us. No matter what you see on CNN or BBC, here are a few things you MUST know about us:
We all and I mean all of us South Africans love to braai (barbecue) at least 2 times a week. We all operate on African time. Which is slightly different then GMT. I.e. we have a term “now now” which means later on. Let me make an example “I will come around to your placenow now.”
Often confused with “immediately” but it means I will be there sometimes before Tuesday. We also have the term “just now”, which means slightly later on the “now now” i.e next week, next months, next year!
We love pap (maize meal) often associated with a braai mentioned in number 1.
We call traffic lights “robots” (yes like star wars). The word “lekker” means good, nice, fantastic, cool, anything positive and can be understood in all 11 official languages all over South Africa.
All South Africans believe that the “stab proof vest” is a bad idea.
The point I am trying to make is: for the most part we are a big bunch of softies. Really keen to make a good impression and have some fun at the same time. We are like the new kid in your school – just very keen to be part of it all.