Size does matter!

John Hannigan is a nice guy, he’s also my line managers line manager, so basically I’m going to say that, but he is really a decent guy, Is that enough can I stop now? Anyhoo, John has one very interesting trait, He thinks that any place in South Africa, is exactly two hours away from anywhere else in South Africa.

Honestly, Durban to Kokstad is two hours as far as he believes, Kokstad to Johannesburg also two hours and so on, which leaves me to believe one of two things:

A: John has a mastery of time and space, and he can bend the fabric of space and time (Yes I swapped them) to ensure that he is always two hours away from any destination that he chooses to travel to, this is an obviously subtle rouse to ensure people don’t get suspicious to his manipulation of the fabric of life,

or B: His grasp of the geography of South Africa isn’t fully up to scratch.

Either way it brings up a very interesting aspect of life in South Africa, mainly, IT’S HUGE
Honestly, it’s massive,

It’s times like this that words aren’t really enough, it’s very difficult to describe the feeling of driving through this environment and knowing that you ain’t in Kansas anymore, although if we replace Kansas with Clonmel it may be more apt.

I once complained that I had to drive to Durban airport and back, which between the jigs and the reels (might have been quicker if I hadn’t danced so much) took me seven hours, which is a work day roughly, I mentioned this to a South African who laughed quite heartily in my face, explaining that it is nothing for a South African to drive for fifteen hours on one journey.

From a size perspective, South Africa is 17 and a third times the size of Ireland, and I’d roughly estimate that has about 12 times the population maybe more. Of course that all brings it’s own problems. If theres no work in Kokstad and there is plenty in Cape Town, then what are you gonna do?, you obviously will go to Cape Town, but how do you travel the 1,513km to get there? Fly? Probably not an option considering costs, you could try and drive there, but as is testament to the Joe Bloggs South African’s mechanical skills more cars and jeeps are passed on the side of the road then you’d see in your average demolition derby (You have a demolition derby?, Nice), the way a lot of the local people operate with the vehicles is, drive them till they won’t drive anymore, then get them back working and drive them till they won’t drive anymore then (See step one), this is a pretty arduous way to go 1,500 odd km, but whats the alternative option?.

Thumbing, yes, thumbing is an option, but that’s one of the key reasons why HIV/AIDs has spread so relentlessly, people, especially truck and long distance drivers travelling the length of South Africa and to a certain extent Africa in general, stopping off, acquiring HIV through a number of ways and carrying on, decades ago rodents were to blame for this, but this time with this virus, it seems we sowed our own seeds of destruction.

So you get to your destination eventually and you start work, your not coming home every weekend, I would doubt that people even travel home on a monthly basis, its just too big and too awkward to get anywhere, If I have a job interview in Cork, I can get a bus or a train, mainly because Ireland is comparatively small and I can afford it, but if Cork was a three day drive away and I had no money, it’s just another major obstacle for anyone who is trying to get out of their state of poverty, if the work isn’t local, which it generally isn’t, you have to travel huge distances, if you can get to your destination then your stuck there more then likely, which means even if you do get a foot on the ladder it is to the detriment to seeing your family and friends, and this applies to tens of millions of people who just want to work, but the job may as well be in Birr for the amount of effort and will power it is to get to it. Of course there are buses but the cost of utilising them and the frequency of them makes them generally a non option considering the majority of people who find themselves in this predicament.

After rereading I realise that once again I am meandering quite a bit but the point I’m trying to make goes back to people saying things to me about, “If they wanted to get out, they’d get out of their situation”, it’s just not that simple, even if you have the drive and will to see beyond the sprawling poverty that surrounds you completely and has done so since birth, if you can go and somehow using the limited services, find a job somewhere, you still have to get there and that isn’t just your normal Irish, pain in the backside, butterflies in the stomach first night moving into college digs or house, it’s a destination that’s a three hour plane journey, but you can’t afford the fee, you may be lucky enough to own a car and if so your in the 10% that do, and even if you do, the chances are it won’t get you there, or you could of course put your life in your hands and thumb the 1,500 kms, now considering in Ireland how frowned upon thumbing is due to the dangers, I can only surmise that it’s slightly more dangerous to do so in South Africa, often referred to as the most dangerous country in the world that isn’t at war. If this all somehow works out and you manage to complete your journey without being beaten or raped or abused in some way, your now basically abroad for all the time you see your family.

It’s crazy that even the size of this country has such a profound effect on it’s inhabitants and deals another hammer blow to keep them in their slums and deprives them of opportunities that we take for granted with a smaller country and a much better public transport system, I also find it quite amusing that I had to travel to the other side of the world to finally appreciate the 46A.