What do we want from our life?

The American elections are quite interesting to outsiders for a change. Usually as a non-involved party, the endless primaries and the actual elections tend to be terrible yawn affairs. It’s normally time to cancel all newsletter subscriptions from the US. Not this time around.

It’s good to see some of the younger generation engaging in the debate for a change. This has been brought about by a young and exciting candidate, Barack Obama. The big question mark one has is whether America is ready for a black president. Regrettably it seems that the woman candidate has already missed the boat. That was, of course, the other question, whether America was ready for a woman president — but that’s now academic.

With the youth discussing the candidates and in particular Obama via Twitter, I thought it might be a good idea to get his book and see what he had to say for himself. The introduction got me hooked, especially when he talks about what he has found the average American wants out of life.

During his various electoral campaigns, Obama travelled around a fair bit and spoke to his constituents. He compiled a shortlist of what most people of any race, region, religion and class were looking for in their lives. When one reads this list of hopes and wants that he has compiled in this, his second book already, it seems the American people want the same as everybody the world over.

Among this list of very humble wishes are such basics as that those who are willing to work should be able to find a job that pays a living wage. The people he spoke to felt that if they were ill, they shouldn’t have to file for bankruptcy. Children should be able to go to good schools and attend college without the parents having to go into huge debt.

The people also felt that they would like to be safe from crime and protected against terrorists. They wanted clean air and clean water and, when older, they spoke about retiring with dignity and respect.

This list of very humble wishes made me contemplate anew the debate that is raging in South Africa at the moment. This is not a new debate. It seems that every decade or so, a new bunch of South African citizens decide that their home country is no longer a safe place for them and they pack their bags and leave. I have lived through several waves of this with many friends, some of them now happily living all over the world.

Current turmoil is again encouraging those who can to look for greener pastures. As has been the case in the past, the people prepared to stay heap all sorts of abuse on those leaving, and vice versa.

However, looking at the list of wishes that average Americans have, which they believe will enable them to live a contented life, I find that most of these are not attainable if one lives in South Africa.

There are no living wages to be had for the average South African. If one is ill, there are certainly no state benefits one can claim to help out when earnings dwindle. Children in general do not have access to good schools, and college is beyond the means of the average South African citizen and definitely not free.

And as for crime! My UK buddies couldn’t believe that my daughter, who survives life in Pretoria, has had her car windows armour-plated. She and her husband do not stop at traffic lights at night for fear of being attacked. They live in a security complex with electric fencing and security guards and their next-door neighbour in the complex was a victim of an armed robbery a month ago.

So far, she has been held up in an armed robbery that was interrupted by a friend with a gun, otherwise she might not be alive today. One of her husband’s uncles was murdered in an armed robbery and her brother-in-law hijacked and shot in his face. He is lucky to be alive. I pray for their lives every day.

Every person we know in South Africa has either been attacked or has a family member or friend who has been murdered or “only” attacked. My daughter and her husband hope to leave by the end of the year. They both have businesses in South Africa that are doing well and which will need to be left behind.

What is the pact that a government has with its citizens? The citizens work hard, pay taxes, have children whom they educate and prepare for adulthood, and then they retire. For this the government, paid by said taxes, has certain obligations towards its citizens.

When the government cannot deliver on those obligations — basic services such as clean air and water, electricity, schooling and good hospitals, or a safe environment — surely the citizens are entitled to decide to leave? It’s like saying that you should stay in a job even though the company you work for is mistreating you. Nobody in their right mind would put up with that, if they had a chance to change the situation.

Those South Africans who actually maintain that life is no better in other countries are delusional. They are so used to the crime that they don’t notice it any more. They think it’s just a matter of time before everything will be fine. The loudest people who maintain that South Africa is OK are the ones who have the money to live in fortresses, send their children to private schools and have no idea how the rest of the population lives. If one can call it living.

But it’s not even the problems of crime and violence or power failures in South Africa that are persuading its citizens to leave. It is the idea of a Jacob Zuma presidency that is the final straw. Zuma, with his “honest sidekicks” such as Tony Yengeni — who is probably destined for high office; maybe even the new minister of finance because he knows about money — will finish it off.

It’s not easier for people to leave. It’s the hard option. My own family emigrated to South Africa from a post-war Germany. My father just couldn’t find a job in textiles and the Frame Group signed up skilled people from all over Europe to manage its then growing empire of factories. Well, do I remember that first day in school when I did not understand one word of English and I watched my mother trying to shop for groceries using sign language …

It’s tough leaving one’s homeland and getting used to how things are done in another country, never mind establishing one’s basic personal infrastructure such as doctors, dentists or psychiatrists. There is also the task of finding and making new friends, establishing businesses and finding jobs. It’s almost a more difficult option than staying behind and living with the turmoil.

But when I tell people in the UK how I used to live, they look at me as if I am from another planet. I lived in Cape Town, obligatory barbed wire around my property, and we had power cuts before the rest of South Africa. I know about sitting in traffic because the traffic lights are down, or driving from one petrol station to another to find one where the pumps work. Or about the money our businesses lost because the office and workshop closed down without power.

Not only South Africans know that even more troubled times are ahead. The BBC showed a documentary this month called No More Mandelas, which was also picked up and shown by an independent broadcaster in South Africa. It became obvious to South Africans that the rest of the world knows it too.

The programme discusses the fact that the leadership has drifted away from what Nelson Mandela promised his country. Regrettably, the first act of Mandela has had no comparative second act in Thabo Mbeki, and the third act under Jacob Zuma promises to be a further slide downhill. Perhaps there are no more Mandelas, but one wonders what the people of the country would do for a Barack Obama? Regrettably Jacob Zuma isn’t one.