d’Afrique du Sud
I went to pick up my new passport yesterday. There are a few things about it which I don't understand.
Firstly, the English/French-only languages throughout (Afrikaans is now completely removed). Wikipedia claims that "The South African passport [...] lists the other official names of South Africa on an inner page". No, it doesn't.
Then the Coat of Arms - which compared to my previous passport from '95, has quadrupled in size on the cover. That's nice, but it's the old Coat of Arms. The new COA was introduced and adopted on 27 April 2000 (6th Freedom Day) - I remember that pretty clearly. I didn't have much of an opinion on it then, but I do like it now. It was designed by Iaan Bekker, a director of advertising agency FCB South Africa, whose Cape Town branch I was still working with at that time. The COA Corporate Identity Manual (PDF) is an interesting read.
A national coat of arms, or State emblem, is the highest visual symbol of the State. Take a minute to consider the important events in your life - birth, marriage, death [WHAT?] and school certificates, your passport - they are all endorsed by the Coat of Arms. Your smallest coin has it on one of its sides. When away from the country seeing a plaque of it on the embassy signals a home away from home.
According to a Government website, the new Coat of Arms "reflects Government's aim to highlight the democratic change in South Africa and a new sense of patriotism". Well yes, then make it so. The only thing French about me is my descendant surname. I can't remember when the new passport took effect, but I'm guessing before April 2000 which might be an explanation.
Third - whose face is the watermark on every page? He looks like a Chinese Dynasty emperor.
I don't know, anyway. My previous experience with my temporary passport application for Ireland (which as it turns out wasn't required anyway) left much to be desired. Yesterday was a breeze. I was obliged with two photocopies of my passport, thankfully returned a smile to the girl on the other side of the window, and made my way back out into Trafalgar Square. Which is home to the most dismal excuse for a public Christmas tree I've ever seen (sorry Norway!).
I then realised afterwards that a smile - or even look - of acknowledgement is something you rarely receive here. Everyone's so desensitized: between four shops on my way home, I didn't receive a single "thank you" or any attempt at eye contact when being handed my receipt. Maybe if you're lucky you'll exchange a glance with an eager-to-please Eastern European fresh off the plane. The tube is another good example. An old lady smiled at me the other day when I sat down, I was so shocked I forgot to smile back.
I've lately taken account of the things that I'll probably not see or do for a long while again, if ever. There are many things about London that I'll miss, but fortunately the overpopulation is not one of them. That, and especially the pessimistic ex-pats. If you don't care about SA then why do you still devote so much of your energy to it?
London has offered everything I've wanted but it will never be a place to call home. I packed two years of my life into a 30kg box and sent it home this morning.
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23 Comments
Target practice is a national sport. ;) It probably belonged to an ex-pat.
2 posts today! You’re knocking yourself out ;-)
Yeah, I don’t get the deal with Cape Dutch (*cough* I mean Afrikaans) not being ‘there’ anymore. ‘Apartheid’ is an Afrikaans word, and the oppressed generation (who are in charge now) have every reason to do this. Oh well, give it 50 years.
To get to your previous post, I attempted (lamely) a comic… see it at my URL forward-slash comic.
Merry xmas everyone!!
Dames, it’s so sad to see you go. I completely agree with your observations about London, it is an unfriendly place at times, but in a way you can understand that everyone is kinda just trying to get by… it stood out more to me when I first arrived than it does now. Getting jaded myself, I guess :)
The watermark face is apparently Mandela – maybe he’s smiling his usual smile that turns his eyes into a stereotypical China man ;)
I found this out when I asked an overly suspicious bank clerk what they were looking at while twisting my passport this way and that under the special light when I went to change address with my bank.
I must say though, that I tend to find the reception received from store clerks usually pretty friendly, but probably because I smile and force joviality into the transaction when handing the goods over.
Best Christmas tree must be the NY tree – Americans and their over commericialisation. Prague has a nice tree in the Old Town Square with a VERY traditional layout of stalls, etc around it, very nice :)
Chris: If that’s the case then he’d been eating one too many mince pies with extra thick cream (like in the M&S ads), ‘cos he’s looking porked out too.
Xmas last year in Germany was awesome, it’s really genuine and traditional like you say. I’d never experienced that before and am glad I did. The way you describe, Prague is similar. It must be an exciting place to be over the festive season – I’d be extremely jealous if I weren’t going home! ;)
30 kg? What’s in there?
Lol @ Germany!
Why does everyone think Londoners are so unfriendly? I deal with LOADS of English people everyday and most of them are fine. But you know, Jam me into a tube train with a bunch of strangers and I’ll be the last one to strike up a conversation – and I’m a Saffa.
You got the overcrowding part right though. But I love London and think that if I ever return to SA I’ll feel like I’ve taken my foot off the pedal of life. Cape Town, whilst it will always be home, would be a ghost town compared to the pulse of London.
PS. Can’t believe you’re going dude! Yet another person to add to my list of ’see once a year’ friends.
well said. my time in london ends in 12 days, and although i love the city, i agree with you big time. BEAUTIFUL blog too. do visit mine sometime. cheers.
Yeah… Londoners are quite unfriendly. However; being an ex-saffa now living in New Zealand allows me to understand that I’d much rather have unfriendliness than murder, rape, violence and the sort. The only reason Londoners are quite unfriendly is because they have the big city syndrome. People in large cities usually become more introverted due to the large amount of anti-trust in the air.
I think Afrikaans should be removed as its a pretty useless language anyway. The only thing Afrikaans has taught me in life is that overly-conservative Afrikaaners have to realise its the 21st century, and not the 15th; and I have a little bit of a grasp of German; Dutch and Flemmish.
I never said Londoners are unfriendly.
graedon: One would expect that after living in SA and now NZ you might have some appreciation for multiculturalism, but clearly all you have is ignorance and resentment, and that’s unfortunate. If you can’t think positively then don’t bother thinking at all.
Ra Ra boetie – I’m with you on this one! I agree totally with your last comment about thinking positively! Its probably all the best for this country (SA) if people who have such a negative outlook simply do ship off and live somewhere else!
graedon:ons Kom wyd seun, ons kom vir jou
Agree with you Damien and Justine. That is all I have to say. :)
Afrikaans is still popular – ABSA recently released figures that the 2nd most chosen language on their ATM’s Afrikaans… and the company I work for still produce brochures in both Afrikaans and English.
The reason it’s being removed from official documentation is because they simply can’t put all 11 official languages on, English remains the most spoken language while believe it or not French is still the Official World language. (it changed from Latin some time ago).
when do you actually land on SA soil?
ABSA is an amalgam of Allied, UBS, Trustbank & Volkskas – the latter two being almost 100% Afrikaans banks at their time. Having worked at ABSA, I can tell you that a large portion of these customers remain loyal, as they believe other banks don’t accomodate Afrikaans. Indeed, one of the clients came into the bank and asked me ‘hoekom mense by die Trustbank nou hierdie “Engelsman se taal” praat’ – hence I doubt ABSA’s ATM results are too reflective of the language choice of the entire country, despite it being the largest consumer bank in SA.
Nice! Viva la ABSA!!!
Yeah Natz… I see yr point. Something that I also picked up is that 2 years ago you didn’t really see any Afrikaans ads on TV anymore (not even during the “NUUS op 2″) and recently it’s been making a comeback… and im not talking about the dubbed crap… there’s some really good ads recently.
The truth is out there. :P
I too was perplexed by the smiling man in the passport pages. But I refused to believe that it is Madiba.
Extensive googling lead me to a page on the Department of Home Affairs’ Web site which describes the security features, including the watermark design. Apparently the face belongs to Chief Albert Luthuli, the first South African winner of the Nobel prize.
http://www.info.gov.za/speeches/1996/960524_0×180.htm
Google also pointed me here :)
how dare we English be called unfriendly.I live in Wimbledon which is crammed full of Saffas and Aussie et al!!! Jobs are hard to come by for the local people plus the rental properties are wreaked with your lot drunk all the time and overcrowding !Groups of Sffas and Aussies get so drunk its sick they make trouble in the town centre most weekends.I know many Saffas and Aussies who are working here and are also fed up with their fellow countrymen.
I have spent a lot of time in Cape Town (not doing a locals job I may add or messing up anyones accomadation) People from outside get stabbed for taking locals jobs so think on and if its not home or good enough they dont stay we sure as hell will not miss you!
The face is Albert Lutuli, the first African to receive a Nobel Peace prize.
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15 December 2005
ben02:49 pm
The last SA passport I saw was from a few years ago and had more pages for gun permits than visas.
Scary place?!