Traveling abroad, like i am, i tend to become more and more patriotic. I realize in what a great country i live. Obviously, it faces challenging problems, but as one of the most progressive democracies in the world we are taking huge strides.

that said: i think the time of blind patriotism as a virtue is past. There are perhaps a few things that i would die for, but dying at the whim of war mongering presidents are not one of them.

Like the USA, South Africa was founded by rebelious, open minded liberals. Like the US, South Africa has subsequently suffered under harsh rule and social standards of rightwing conservatives citing patriotism as a holy virtue by which to oppress, rob and intimidate.

Being patriotic must no longer be associated with blind faith but rather with rational thought.
It should be considered being patriotic to want the best for your country, inspite of what your government thinks. A true patriot, would be someone who cares enough about humanity and the people in his country to raise questions and challenge the government to encourage social liberty and upliftment.

It is easy for me to feel that South Africa is the greatest country in the world, but if i rationally evaluate it, then we have serious problems. We have widespread joblessness and extreme poverty, highest levels of HIV infection, a lot of cultural baggage, high crime levels and shaky politicians.

still, i wouldn't want to live anywhere else.

similarly I often hear Americans claiming they live in the 'greatest country in the world', yet they too have loads of problems: corruption, political indifference, relationship of religion and government, constant wars, struggling economy, paris hilton, lack of the metric system, outdated constitution, pollution, CO2 emissions, etc, etc.

clearly somewhere, all categories considered, there will be a 'the best country in the world', but even for citizens of that country it will be a senseless claim to make. To play on such patriotic egos is savage, barbaric and primitive and does not serve to encourage growth and upliftment of humanity as a whole.

It is time that we burn flags if they get in the way of civil interaction. there are bigger things to worry about than whose beer is best.

Yep. Today we celebrate Nelson Rolithlathla Mandela!

Bestwishes, congratulations and gratitute to you on your 89th birthday celebration. may there be many more!

i did quite a bit of travelling in the last year.

In all cases the idea was to do fair amount of work during my travels. as such my views on these places has been tainted by the struggle to get reliable, cheap internet access.

Kruger National Park:
This is the biggest, and most renouned game reserve in South Africa. It is about the size of Israel, and it borders Swaziland in the south, Mozambique in the east and Zimbabwe in the far north. I had some great nature experiences and some lovely, relaxing drives. I managed to connect to the internet via 'n usb 3G modem, although i could only connect at gprs speeds.

There is an internet cafe in Skukuza (the main town in the reserve) but i doubt that their speeds would've been any better. Still, i had a comfortable, relaxing environment (with aircon) and i managed to get a good deal of work done.

USA:
I traveled accross America. Had some trouble getting past border control on JFK as they waited on some or other background check to pass.
After 6 hours in border control on JFK i managed to do an hour of sight seeing in NY before i boarded my train north to Connecticut. I spent some time with Josh and Tracy before we drove up to Boston. I stayed with Jake and Jess before i got on a train that took me south to DC, then west to Chicago. I spent a night there in the Best Western, then got on the California Zepher which took me to Denver. After a short bus ride to Boulder I stayed the next three weeks with Matthew.

Matthew and I then drove down to LA where we stayed at Aaron's for a few days.
After Matthew returned home, i stayed with Jessica, Obi and Oren, Christiana + Dave and Beth.

The trip was a great experience, full of wonderful people.

internet was very good and free all over the place and i got to spend some quality time with colleuques and friends.

there is a lot of wonderful things to see and experience in america. one negative that i noticed was that the police weren't very helpful. infact i found that most people i dealt with had a sense of fearful respect towards the police. In other countries i've found the police to be friendly and helpful and fulfilling their roles as public servants.

Although i've seen a lot of really nice places in America, i think the only place where i would be able to feel remotely at home would be the west coast. The weather is similar to what we have in the boland. pretty mediteranean with a cold sea, and some mountains. Boulder was very nice aswell, but it is a bit too far away from the sea, both vertically and horizontally for my comfort. I'd love to see more of the west coast, north of LA toward SF. At this stage, if i were to moce to the US in the future, i'd look for a place to stay in Topanga Canyon.


Zanzibar:
It was supposed to be really cheap, with good internet. It turns out they have upped their prices dramatically, you might be able to have cheaper holidays in the US than in Zanzibar.

It was exremely hot. there were a bunch of people trying to trick me out of my money. Internet was terrible, and expensive. food was good, but expensive (except if you buy it off the street vendors, but we were advised against that.) basically we went through the money we budgetted for 3 weeks in less than 1 week just meeting our basic needs.

It was a dramatic, expensive week. I believe if you have a lot of money, and do not plan to work while you are there, then you might enjoy the tropic islamic spice island that is Zanzibar. if not - stay away  - you'll get much more in South Africa.


England:
I had quite a struggle to find free internet access in London. everyone has solid cheap internet, but finding it for free as a tourist turned out to be a mission. After a few hours i finally found a little cafe near Leichester square that had good free wireless access, with the understanding that you eat lunch there. This worked out great and i spent many hours each day in this cafe, churning good code.
Jodi and I then visited family in Ware, north of London. This was great, and the internet connection was good and comfortable. We got to experience rural England.
We then spent some time with a friend in the East-End of London. This was a bit less comfortable as there were a lot of people staying in this house, but we had our own room and solid internet so we managed to do some serious work.

We later returned to London for a day before we flew back to South Africa.

What i noticed in London is that everything is monitored and video taped. Big Brother really is watching.

Netherlands:
I stayed with friends in The Hague. I really enjoyed The Hague, and the Netherlands in general. It is really pretty and well run. Dutch is very much like Afrikaans and i could easily understand it. Everyone is also very well versed in English. The only reason i wouldn't want to live in Holland is the lack of really good weather, and the lack of mountains (it is really flat!) . also i'm not comfortable with being below sealevel. The Dutch are really tall, and friendly and pretty good looking. They've got a very liberal culture and are generally relaxed and groovy.

Germany:
I only spent 2 days in Germany. One night in Unkel, next to the Rhine south of Collogne and one night in Frankfurt where Jodi took me to see the Tori Amos show.
Germany was surprisingly pretty (and not flat) along the rhine, and if it had better weather and more sea, i'd be able to stay there. People are friendly, but not particularly fluent in English. If german is spoken slowly and clearly i can at least understand it enough to get what is being said.

France:
is very french.
Napoleon did a great job of turning slums into a pretty city, but i wasn't much impressed with paris. nice architecture. that's about it though. it is really expensive.
I concede, i didn't see much of the city as i spent most of the time in paris in my hotel room working.

Conclusion:
I love south africa, and especially the boland and cape where i live. We've got a lot of problems, but personally, i wouldn't want to leave here. Obviously i'll move if i have to, for a few years perhaps, but i see myself being here more often than not.