h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

WA - Every single person I know who has been to Cape Town has said 'it was beautiful, but I was mugged' Or 'I was mugged'. So I'm aware that it's not safe. But I don't want to go anywhere 'safe! I could get a job in NZ or Aus no problem. But I don't see any point in emigrating to somewhere basically the same as where you came from.

One of the reasons I want to go to South Africa is because it's a half way point to the sort of medicine I really want to do - which is Redcross/MSF/Oxfam/VSO sort of medicine.

But I don't have the experience to work for the big non-christian aid agencies, and the Christian aid agencies only want, er, Christians, which I'm not. Though I did think of joining a church to find some contacts in Christian Aid agencies.

So I'm going to South Africa as a half way point to going somewhere more dangerous!

I'm also not going to Cape Town, (well I will to visit, but not to live) or any of the big cities, and will be living at work. So I do know that I won't have to go out at all at night if it's dangerous.

(A junior Doctor and nurse were recently taken hostage at a hospital 5 miles from where I live, by a junkie demanding morphine. It would be my first choice hospital if I worked in the UK! So these things can happen anywhere)

*as an aside the Dr (female) was back at work the next day, and 4 months later the nurse(male) is still on sick leave with 'stress'. I don't know what that says about the differences in 'sickness culture' between doctors and nurses. I think that Dr's generally feel that they should be ashamed of themselves if they're off sick, unless they're inpatients.

[Hati]

[RNick]

I think there are precautions you can take to reduce the damage of being mugged... Not carrying cash, making sure your valuables are at home instead of on your person, etc. Then all you have to worry about is a knock on the noggin.

Lovely photogs, all! I especially liked the captions on the slideshow. And Hypatia does not look like a troll. So what was that tree, anyway, if it wasn't a lilac?

Happy Birthday, Hypatia!

The tree was a Wistaria. A very venerable and magnificent one. I say, but it's not wistaria-coloured....

Indeed. I live in Birmingham which has a fairly high crime rate and walk anywhere I want at night because I refuse to live in fear on crime. I reckon in South Africa I'll just have to actually take the precautions most people take in the UK.

Most people wouldn't walk home through dogey areas after dark and I do all the time. I also get public transport when I finish work at 11pm where most of my (female) friends would definately get a taxi. Mind you I never have more than £10 cash on me and I always have a cancelled credit card (you know from when you cancel your cards but find your wallet five minutes later) so I'd have stuff to hand over.

And that plant's a Wisteria. As in Wisteria lane on Desparate Housewives.

I love wisterias. Sadly, they don't grow in this climate.

There are plenty of remote communities in Australia to our shame that need Drs and are in dire circumstances ......which brings me to next point by the way Australia is not the same as England (yuck> just ask some of the hundreds who try immigrating each year only to return within six months.... we ceased being a colonial settlement quite some time ago........ I would hazzard a guess that New Zealanders would also take exception to having their marri culture compared to that of England also

Ok. But it's more similar to the Uk than Africa!

That is a lovely wisteria... I've seen that tree here in the States, actually - now if I could only remember where! Probably Washington State.

No actually talking to my many south african friends who have lived in both England and Australia they found England to be more culturally similar to South Africa. As for flora both South Africa and Austrlia share many speicies though our fauna is definitely different. The fact that all three nations share an English heritage and speak english is one thing but saying Australia is more like England than South Africa is like saying earth is more like Venus than Mars because its closer

[GDZ]

While the countries are very different, there's definitely a similarity between countries settled by European nations. England and America, for example, have more in common than England and Japan. The Europeans did most of the expanding, so there's not a lot of examples to choose from, granted. And depending upon how oppressed the people were that did the settling, the governments are more or less democratic.

Ah, Lentilla, you've summed up Imperialism right nicely, you have. Now, if only I could get my students to be more forthcoming.

I think what Z was alluding to was the idea of living and working in a community where white folk are not the majority group, and with all the exciting cultural differences that that scenario would throw up for an Englishman. Whilst there are a few places in the UK where the indigenous white folk aren't the majority population, they are pretty few and far between - probably no more than 10 electoral wards (population say 8-10,000 each) in the whole UK where that's the case.

Z, what about Medicins sans Frontieres, Doctors Without Borders? If you want to practise close to the edge, surely that would be the laudable direction to go...

National identity is a much debated topic in this country as we are a multicultural nation that has seen different waves of immigration English, Dutch, German, Greek, Slavic, Vietnamese, Turkish, Indonesian and now Chineses,Middle Eastern and Northen and Southen African.... they have all infuenced the nation as a whole in many diverse ways from say our food through to our use of land. For the most part we live in harmony despite what the media would have you believe. As a seventh gerneration white Australian I understand our English past but I feel a stronger connection to the aboriginal people and culture of Australia (possibly more so because I am a bushie) that understands and lives in harmony with this nation.... such as there are not four seasons in Australia but six very distinct seasons, that this environment is one of the most fragile and delicately balanced as the driest continent on earth and so the ecological decisions we make need to have even greater consideration given to them.

Also we here in Western Australia are tied more to our Asian neighbours such as Indonesia, Vietnam, China and Taiwain though if you go to the east they tend to identify more with the Americas and Europe than we do in the west.

I am not sure why but it really raised my hackles when you just lumped us in a basket with England so now that I have assurged my need to culturally assert our individuality as a nation I will get off my soap box.

We have wistaria here in Southern California -- including a festival to honor a century+ old vine (planted in 1894) in Sierra Madre. It eventually grew to cover the house and crush it, but the festival is a very popular destination anyway.

http://www.sierramadrenews.net/wistaria.htm

Santra, I hope the kids can save that youth center -- they get the short straw in too many cases, these days; they need a place they can call theirs.

[SG V]

(, SC)

[LMN]