Africa has a secret… a filthy secret, that is in fact not so secret at all… rhino poaching!

• In 1970 there were 70,000 rhinos in Africa.
• Currently, there are fewer than 30,000 rhinos left.
• That decline is largely due to rhino poaching.
• In 2013 alone, more than 1,000 rhinos were killed by poachers!

Rhinos are magnificent animals that have inhabited our planet for about 50 million years. Now, humans are threatening to wipe them out.

If something is not done to stop rhino poaching, rhinos will be gone in another 30 years!

Why Rhino Poaching?

The short answer to why rhinos are being poached at such an alarming rate, is money.

There is a huge demand for rhino horns in the East, particularly in Vietnam, where people believe that rhino horn has medicinal properties. The demand for rhino horn is so big that it sells for about $45,000 per pound on the black market. The average horn weighs about 15 pounds.

This belief in medical properties of course absolute nonsense. Rhino horn is made of keratin, the same material found in hair and fingernails. There is not a single scientific study that even remotely supports any kind of claim that rhino horn has medicinal properties.

So, all of these rhinos are being killed for absolutely no good reason at all!

How To Stop Rhino Poaching

There are a handful of organizations that actively fight rhino poaching.

One such organization is Rhinos Without Borders. It is an anti-poaching organization that has arrested more rhino poachers than any other organization. Rhinos Without Borders is also a leader in ground support and education in the fight against rhino poaching in South Africa.

To be able to function effectively, these organizations need money. They have equipment to purchase, and staff to train and pay. One of the best ways that you and I can support the fight to save the rhino, is by supporting these anti-poaching organizations with donations. It keeps them functioning!

Here in the US, two South Africans, Clint Weimann and Graham McDonald, have created an organization called Project Rhino Charleston, based in Charleston, South Carolina. Project Rhino Charleston‘s mission is to raise funds to support Rhinos Without Borders.

In 2013, Project Rhino Charleston exceeded their fundraising goals more than 4 times! In 2014, their goal is to raise $36,000 to support the wonderful work of Rhinos Without Borders.

This year’s fundraiser will be a massive “Save the Rhino Party” on November 8 from 1 pm – 6 pm. The party will include live music, a South African “potjiekos” competition, kids’ activities, and much more.

If you would like to make a contribution to the fight, here is how you can help…

• Attend the Save The Rhino Party (that will be a lot of fun!)
• Make a Donation if you can’t attend the party.

Fighting rhino poaching is a very worthy cause! It needs to be stopped! If we fail in this, rhinos will be gone in 30 years!

Medical costs in the US are outrageous! We’ve discussed this earlier. According to CNBC and many others, medical bills are the #1 cause of personal bankruptcies in the US!

Emergency Rooms can be some of the worst culprits when it comes to outrageous costs. They will charge $1 for a single ibuprofen tablet, while you can buy a bottle of 500 tablets at Costco for $5.

A single visit to the ER could cost thousands of dollars. A relative recently had to have a half-inch splinter removed from his leg. The cost? $6,100. Last year, a visitor went to the ER with a headache that could have been meningitis. She was discharged 4 hours later with no firm diagnosis. The cost? $8,500.

So what do you do about this? Avoid the ER, if at all possible!

But you still need medical care… what do you do? Go to an Urgent Care facility instead! (Update: What if you need an ER? See below…)

Austin Urgent Care Facilities

There are several Urgent Care clinics in the Austin area. To be able to use them effectively, you need to know which services they offer and where they are located.

Which Services Do Austin Urgent Care Clinics Offer?

Some typical services that Austin Urgent Care clinics offer are:

• Injuries, like sprains, breaks, bites, cuts, puncture wounds, etc.
• Illnesses, like allergies, asthma, diarrhea, headaches, flu, infections, etc.
• Diagnostics, like X-rays, lab tests, etc.
• Vaccinations, like meningitis, tetanus, flu, hepatitis B, etc.

Keep in mind, however:

• Some life-threatening conditions may  require that you visit an ER. An Austin Urgent Care clinic will probably tell you that very quickly. In such a case, see the update below.
• Urgent Care clinics are typically not open 24/7 like an ER, but they are open outside of office hours.

Where Can I Find An Austin Urgent Care Clinic?

Here is a map that shows the locations of many Urgent Care facilities in the Austin area.

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I would recommend that you take a careful look at the map and find one or two Austin Urgent Care facilities near you. Check out which services they offer.

If you do this, when the need arises, you will be prepared and won’t automatically go to the ER where you are likely to get ripped off on costs.

Update: What If You Need An ER?

Sometimes your medical situation needs an ER. My best advice is to look for a free-standing ER. This is an ER that is not associated with a large hospital group. (Note: Sometimes a large hospital group will build an ER that is in a building away from the hospital. That is not a free-standing ER.)

One such free-standing ER is Cedar Park Emergency Center.  They are a full ER that can handle any type of medical emergency. For people with health insurance, they charge mandated ER fees. If you don’t have health insurance, or your health insurance company sticks you with the bill, CPEC will work out a much better financial deal than a hospital-based ER will. CPEC is also on the map above.

PS. What are your experiences with ER and Austin Urgent Care facilities? Tell us in the comments…

The question is, are high US medical costs simply out of control or are they justifiable?

A friend who recently visited us from South Africa (i.e. no US health insurance) got sick on a Saturday evening. All of the symptoms pointed to the possibility of meningitis.

After a quick call to our family physician, we took off to the ER of a newly-built hospital not too far from where we live.

Upon arrival at 8 p.m., the ER staff immediately tended to our guest and provided all of us with masks just in case it was meningitis. Our guest was put in a room in the ER. Some blood tests and a CT scan were done. Our guest was also put on a drip to provide liquids and given some pain medication.

In total, the attending physician spent maybe 20 minutes with the patient, and the nurse spent maybe an hour, if that long. In the end, with long periods of waiting alone in the room, we were sent home at about 1 a.m. with a prescription for some medication. Luckily, no meningitis.

The service was excellent, but then came the bills. The cost of this little excursion to the ER… a little over $8,000.

A Comparison of Medical Costs

Earlier this week, a family member of ours fainted and was taken to the ER of a private hospital in Port Elizabeth, South Africa. Some blood tests, an EKG and a CT scan were done. Everything was found to be in good order, but to be safe, it was decided to take our family member up into the High Care unit of the hospital for the night.

All went well and the patient was sent home the next morning.

By all accounts, this hospital also provided excellent care. The cost for the ER care and a night in High Care? R14,000 or a little over $1,500 at the current exchange rate.

That is less than 20% of the cost of our trip to the ER here in the US!

US Medical Costs: Outrageous or Justifiable?

Before this second ER incident with our family member took place, I looked at the $8,000 bill for the first ER incident and simply could not see where $8,000 in value comes from.

$8,000 provides housing for a family for many months. It can buy a used vehicle that can be driven for a few years. It can buy food for a family of four for at least a year. How is it possible that 5 hours in an ER, with not much more than basic care provided, can cost $8,000?

After the second ER incident took place, it confirmed in my mind exactly how outrageous the cost of medical care in the US can be.

As our politicians like to remind us prior to each election, our medical care system is broken. It is not that the service is bad, but rather that the medical costs to patients are out of control.

I am not convinced that simply forcing everybody to have medical insurance is the solution. The crazy high medical costs will simply find its way back into the pockets of the American people in the form of high insurance premiums.

What Do You Think?

So what do you think about medical costs in the US? Is it outrageously high or can it be justified? Take our poll below and leave a comment…

The conflict I am talking about is between South African expats and non-expats in the MyNews24 (letters) section of News24. And at times, it gets downright nasty!

In the past, every now and again, some expat would write a letter talking about their new life outside South Africa. They would touch on the positive aspects of their new life, which would also usually be the exact opposite of the reasons they left South Africa.

Then followed the inevitable comments… some sympathetic to the author, but others… oh boy… according to them, the author is a chicken and a no-good traitor who ran away from South Africa and without whom South Africa is so much better off!

Now News24 seems to have opened the floodgates by openly inviting expats to write about their experiences as expats. They did, and so did the anti-expat commentators!

Out of all this, five groups of people seem to have emerged:

1. The expats who have already left South Africa. They feel that South Africa does not currently offer them and their children a viable future due to various reasons. Some left South Africa simply looking for a better future, while others have left with hatred in their hearts due to their personal experiences (perhaps having been victims of crime). Almost all miss some aspects of South Africa though, especially if they have still family living there.
2. Expats-to-be: Those who are still in South Africa, but who are in the process of immigrating. Their views on South Africa are pretty much the same as the expats… or else, why bother immigrating?
3. Expat-wannabes: Those who share the views of the expats and expats-to-be and want to immigrate, but can’t immigrate for some reason, usually a lack of immigration options or money.
4. The Neutrals: They may not be very happy with some aspects of the current South Africa, but they have no immigration plans. They try to be generally positive, or they simply ignore the negative, and hope that things in South Africa will improve. They try to get on with their lives. Expats don’t bother them. They might not agree with the expats, and might say so, but they generally remain courteous.
5. Expat-haters: The words say it all. Nothing an expat says is good or worth considering. Expats are the slime of society. South Africa is better off without them, and their new countries are worse off for their presence, never mind that expats usually take some valuable skills along with them. Included in this group are also those who hate white people, plain and simple, and who love Julius Malema.

It is the last group, the expat-haters, that intrigues me.

If you read a letter written by an expat who was asked to, or decided to write about his or her experiences as an expat, what do you expect he or she will say? Will he write about how good he had in South Africa? Maybe (and fair enough, it can’t all be bad), but there will likely be some negative stuff too. They left the country, afterall!

Why all the hate? Why are they so unwilling to acknowledge that all might not be well and damn anyone who says it? Are they perhaps closet-expat-wannabes?

Here are some of the impressions that I got about South Africa…

Let me first admit that we didn’t travel through all of South Africa. We were exposed only to a small part of South Africa and only for a few weeks. This also means that we were tourists who did not have to experience the realities of making a living in South Africa. Therefore my impressions are not comprehensive.

That being said, here goes…

Airports

South Africa is hosting next year’s Soccer World Cup. Other than the stadiums that are being built (some completed, most not…), South Africa is in the process of upgrading most of its major airports.

When we visited South Africa two years ago, Johannesburg airport seemed to be a mess, and we waited more than an hour to get our luggage. There was also lots of construction going on. All that seems to have changed now. The airport is beautiful, with several restaurants, and it all seems to function quite efficiently. This time we waited no more than 15 minutes for our luggage.

Other airports that we visited also have lots of construction going on. As with the stadiums, I hope that all the airports will be ready to go by the time that all the tourists flood to South Africa for the Soccer World Cup.

Money

The single thing always strikes me most when we visit South Africa is how many more Rands South Africans have to cough up to pay for the same items. When we lived there (1996 and before), a R100 note was a rare thing to have in your wallet because you seldom needed that much money from day to day. Nowadays they seem to fly out of wallets like bees from a hive!

In my day, you could buy a Spur burger for around R10-R15. Now you’re looking at R40-R55. There are plenty of other examples. Granted, South African salaries have risen quite dramatically too, at least for some. Many people now earn R25,000 per month instead of the R25,000 per year that I made as an engineer at the SABC.

My Spur example above suggests an annual inflation rate of about 12%, which is double the official rate of about 5.5% over the past 8 or more years. I might be wrong about this, but I get the feeling that South Africans’ cost of living has increased by much more than the 5.5% per year suggested by the official inflation rate. (Here’s an article that may support that point.)

Crime

South Africa still has a big problem with crime, as evidenced by secured housing complexes, burglar bars covering windows, metal gates covering doors, electric fences on top of 8ft concrete walls, etc. Then there are the stories that locals tell of relatives or friends that became victims of crime, and then people simply telling you how bad the crime is.

The crime is not equally intense all over South Africa though. People have to be very vigilant about their safety in big cities like Johannesburg and Pretoria, but things seem to be somewhat better in many rural areas. This is one reason why I prefer to spend most of our time visiting relatives on farms.

I must also admit that during our time in Cape Town, which does have issues with crime, I did not feel threatened, nor did we have any problems when we visited the Waterfront, Table Mountain, and Cape Point. I suppose it helped a lot that we visited mainly tourist spots and were surrounded by lots of other people at all times.

I am hoping that the criminals aren’t licking their lips at the prospect of thousands of Soccer World Cup tourists next year, or that the South African government is making plans to contain this problem. And, of course, life goes on after the Soccer World Cup… the government has to do something about the crime!

People in the Service Industry

Our experiences with people in the service industry have been very good. I’m talking about waiters in restaurants, operators at tourist attractions, SAA flight attendants, etc. They have all been friendly and provided good service with a smile. This was our experience on previous occasions as well.

The South African border agents at the Rietfontein border crossing into Namibia did a thorough job while being friendly, contrary to their Namibian counterparts who didn’t seem to like us at all.

I think this is a very positive thing for South Africa!

Beauty

What can be said about beauty of South Africa’s nature that hasn’t been captured in millions of photographs? We took a trip around the Cape Peninsula, and it is still simply stunning! The same can be said for the Baviaanskloof mountains.

We did however drive through Pretoria on one occasion. We drove from Menlyn Park to the Loftus Versfeld area, and from there to the Johannesburg airport. The area around Loftus, in particular, looked neglected to me. I don’t remember it that way when I lived in the area in the late 80’s. I suppose it is merely one city out of many.

Prospects for Young People

I got the strong feeling that it is tough for a young white person to find employment in South Africa’s formal sector these days. One friend even said it in so many words. Others have said that if white kids can’t join a family business, or get lucky and start their own successful business, that employment could get tough for them.

None of the people I spoke to were encouraging their children to leave South Africa, but I also got the feeling that at least some of them would not be shocked at all if their children announced that they were planning to leave.

For non-white kids, things ought to be as good as the country offers. Policies such as BEE favor non-whites, not only those who need employment, but also those who have their own businesses.

Despite all this, South Africa’s unemployment rate remains high, which affects everyone, and I’m certain that this plays an important role in the high crime rate.

Final Thoughts…

Some people have their own good reasons to think that South Africa is doomed. Based on my limited experiences, I don’t think this is necessarily true. There are positive things that offer hope.

There are however a few issues that the government will definitely have to address soon, or else they will continue to drag the country down. It will all depend on whether the government has the will and right people to do it.

I am hoping that they do.

To help those who have no choice but to make their own boerewors, I want to dedicate an article to that honored tradition.

A couple of years ago I wrote an article describing how we make boerewors. Here it is: How To Make Boerewors

On the website we also have a boerewors recipe.

The recipe and the article ought to get you started with making your own decent boerewors.

However, we all learn little tips and tricks along the way to make things better. Let’s use this page for sharing those tips with one another. If you have learned something about making boerewors that might help others, post it as a comment below.

Instead of you having to keep up with what others are doing, wouldn’t it be so much easier if the others simply kept you informed about what’s going on in their world?

Let’s take a look at all the different methods that we (South Africans in Austin) use to keep people informed. Once you know, you can pick the method(s) you prefer and let us do the work.

Email

Even though email is the “oldie” amongst the contact methods, it still works very well.

We have a mailing list that you can sign up for. We use our mailing lists to send email notifications to list members.

At the time of writing this, our mailing list contains 7 email lists that you can choose from. Each list has it’s own specific purpose. This allows you to decide exactly which types of emails you would like to receive from us. You’re in control!

And if you decide you no longer want to receive emails from us, simply unsubscribe and you won’t hear from us again.

RSS

You can subscribe to our RSS feeds. We currently have 2 RSS feeds:

1. SAA News: This feed contains news items, like when our latest newsletter has been published, or information about upcoming events.
2. SAA Blog: This feed contains all the articles published on this blog.

Please note that the SAA News feed has recently been changed into a Feedburner feed. If you have previously subscribed to the original feed, it will continue to work, but I encourage you to switch over to the Feedburner feed.

If you don’t know what “RSS” is, here’s the nutshell version: An “RSS feed” is simply a special file on a website that contains information about articles (title, article text, link to the whole article). To use an RSS feed, you need a program called an “RSS reader”. When you “subscribe to an RSS feed”, all you’re doing is telling the program (RSS reader) where the special file (RSS feed) is located on the internet. The RSS reader then checks the RSS feed every few minutes and displays all the articles found. If anything new was added, you’ll see it immediately. You can subscribe to many different RSS feeds from one RSS reader, to allow you to follow a variety of topics in one place!

Facebook

Many people are already on the hugely-popular Facebook, including probably you!

We have created a Facebook group called South Africans in Austin (Texas). If you are on Facebook, you are welcome to become a member of that group.

We will be posting many of our updates there as well.

Twitter

Twitter is a very popular micro-blogging site that people use to stay in touch with each other. If you aren’t on Twitter yet, sign up. It is a lot of fun!

We are on Twitter. You can follow us to get updates that way.

There you have it… many different ways to stay in touch with us! Pick your favorite methods and wait for the next update from us! Talk to you soon…

[Article by John]