Hey Steemians
While I'm always pretty optimistic about life and most things there comes a time when a man reaches his limits and I feel I'm getting pretty close to it. South Africa has gone through some serious turmoil of late in the form of blackouts.
We're running out of electricity
What started out as a manageable 2 hour shut down per day has now escalated to a 7 and a half hours per day and is now insanely disruptive and we've just heard the news that It could be getting worse.
Having a half day or full day without electricity countrywide will have serious ramifications for the economy as we are currently held hostage by the national power supplier whose incompetence, negligence and downright thievery has lead us to this point.
Image source stefanhippler
We were close to running out of water
While not a country-wide issue, the Western Cape where I reside was close to what we referred to as "Day Zero" There was a point where we were about 2 months away from completely running out of water and basically well you guessed it we would fight for the last drop until most of us would be dead. Thankfully we all make efforts to conserve water and with some rain, we were able to dodge that deadly bullet.
While there was a drought it wasn't fully a natural disaster but oversight and infighting from the government that almost lead one of South Africa's biggest cities to practically dry up. Are we in the clear yet? I don't think so, dam levels are nowhere near sustainable for the growth in population and construction and banter has died down on setting up contingency plans like declination and additional or extension of water catchment areas.
While a person could set up their own solar grid and catch or boar for their own water in order to reduce dependency on the national service providers there is only so much the individual can do at this point.
We're running out of money
Our economy has been flat for some time and with the exposure of state capture, the unrest from lack of mining, land appropriation and what I've mentioned earlier the country continues to stumble as it takes both self-inflicted damage and some from outside forces.
A Wits University professor told the Standing Committee on Finance that South Africa would run out of money by 2042. But other experts believe a disaster is much closer than that. Janie Rossouw said that we have around 23 years left before it all goes to hell in a hand-basket, explaining that the “exorbitant” cost of ministries is one of the most punishing features of the national budget.
We can only tax the South African middle class so much and we can only waste so much tax money on useless people and projects that don't benefit the country before the chickens come home to roost.
I think South Africa is a lesson on how you can take a place with enormous potential and smash it by the knee caps as often as you can to keep it from running never mind running at its full potential.
Are we running out of time?
I do love my country and I don't think there is another place like it, but I have to realistic. I'm seeing businesses go down, crime goes up, resources get scarce, our money is worth less and opportunities are starting to dry up too.
There is only so much a man can take before he needs to turn his back on his beloved nation. Has that time come for me? If my nation cannot allow me to achieve my goals and ambitions how can I stay in it?
Have your say
What do you think of the current plight of the country? Can we still turn it around? I know this place is for sure worth saving? Is it time we consider greener pastures somewhere else? Even temporary to limit the strain on a country that clearly cannot support the current demands of its people?
WIll we see a mass exodus of South Africans? Who will welcome us?
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