WARNING: This is Version 1 of my old archive, so Photos will NOT work and many links will NOT work. But you can find articles by searching on the Titles. There is a lot of information in this archive. Use the SEARCH BAR at the top right. Prior to December 2012; I was a pro-Christian type of Conservative. I was unaware of the mass of Jewish lies in history, especially the lies regarding WW2 and Hitler. So in here you will find pro-Jewish and pro-Israel material. I was definitely WRONG about the Boeremag and Janusz Walus. They were for real.
Original Post Date: 2006-12-30 Time: 00:00:00 Posted By: Jan
[I enjoyed these comments from an expat Afrikaner whose American wife had the same lovely experiences with this unwritten rule of the road in the Eastern Transvaal here in S.Africa.
I too found it a fascinating experience. Like your wife, I just had fun giving people the right of way and watching anxiously to see if they’d say “Thank you” and 80% of them did indeed do that. I thought to mysef how utterly cool it would be if people were this nice to each other all the time in other ways. Life would be so great!
re: Johannesburg.
Buddy, the driving I’ve seen in Johannesburg in the last year, is the wildest stuff I’ve ever known. I have never seen bad manners, pushing, shoving and TOTAL INDIFFERENCE to EVERYBODY ELSE like this last year. At various traffic lights I’ve seen the most shocking behaviour where people push and shove so much, that eventually everybody is blocked from all directions and the cars just all end up unable to move. You have to see it to believe it. I got a few photos from one occasion but I can tell you many stories.
Let me try to illustrate one point. In Braamfontein Johannesburg is the new, much-vaunted Nelson Mandela bridge over the railway line. At the bridge is a set of traffic lights and there are two lanes. There is a slip stream to the left which heads off to the Queen Elizabeth bridge. On the right is a road going over the Nelson Mandela bridge.
The rules of the road are clear and simple. Take the slipstream on the left to go over the Queen Elizabeth bridge or go right and wait at the traffic lights for your turn to go over the Nelson Mandela bridge.
Almost every day, without fail, I see black minibus taxis doing the following: They all try to get where they want to go in a hurry and it buggers it up for everyone else. What they want to do is go over the Nelson Mandela bridge. But they won’t stay in the right hand lane to do so, so they jump to the far left, and even drive in the no-man’s land. Then they shove their way into the left hand slip stream and then they drive along as if to go to the Queen Elizabeth bridge. Then at the last moment they turn right, (having jumped the queue) and now want to force their way into the right hand lane.
So now, these ASSHOLES are completely blocking the lefthand slip stream. But they can’t move to the right because the traffic light is still red. So now, BOTH LANES ARE BLOCKED… and the beautiful slip stream which could have been running smoothly is now blocked… and the backlog now quickly goes back and builds up. In no time at all, the roads in Braamfontein are a sodding mess.
I watch this daily. But I see other things there too, which are too difficult to describe. I have some photos to illustrate some points – and I’ll post them later. But every day, I watch these total dopes bugger up the rules of the road and proceed, through their selfish actions to cause traffic snarl-ups the likes of which I’ve never seen before. Its just a few assholes who f*ck it up for everyone else. Jan]
Jan,
First of, my sincerest condolences on the loss of Richard. My family’s prayers are with you and his family. The only ray of light in the situation is that it was God that took him and not one of our enemies.
As for the driving. We have a similar way of driving in the Eastern Transvaal. If you see someone coming up, pull over into the emergency lane. If you don’t see him, he will flash his lights once to alert you that he is behind you – pull over. Once he is past, he will flash his hazard lights twice to say thank you. Even the taxis abide by this unwritten or spoke rule.
My wife, who is an American, was so taken by this behaviour on the road, she immediately wanted to drive, just so that she could let someone over or say thank you by flashing hazard lights.
It really was fun driving around in S. Africa – the only times I dreaded the roads was when I had to head into the Witwatersrand area. Pretoria is kind of ok, but JHB is a nightmare!
Once again Condolences and HAPPY NEW year!