South Africa is one of the worst places to live in Africa.

The West are keeping up the 'good-image' because of deep investment and life they have there.
They rather demonise Nigeria so that more investment goes to South Africa.

see report below from a white-south-african; this sure does not happen in Nigeria:

Why I'm fleeing South Africa
By Anne Paton
I AM leaving South Africa. I have lived here for 35 years, and I shall leave with anguish. My home and my friends are here, but I am terrified. I know I shall be in trouble for saying so, because I am the widow of Alan Paton. Fifty years ago he wrote Cry, The Beloved Country. He was an unknown schoolmaster and it was his first book, but it became a bestseller overnight. It was eventually translated into more than 20 languages and became a set book in schools all over the world. It has sold more than 15 million copies and still sells 100,000 copies a year.

As a result of the startling success of this book, my husband became famous for his impassioned speeches and writings, which brought to the notice of the world the suffering of the black man under apartheid. He campaigned for Nelson Mandela's release from prison and he worked all his life for black majority rule. He was incredibly hopeful about the new South Africa that would follow the end of apartheid, but he died in 1988, aged 85. I was so sorry he did not witness the euphoria and love at the time of the election in 1994. But I am glad he is not alive now. He would have been so distressed to see what has happened to his beloved country.

I love this country with a passion, but I cannot live here any more. I can no longer live slung about with panic buttons and gear locks. I am tired of driving with my car windows closed and the doors locked, tired of being

afraid of stopping at red lights. I am tired of being constantly on the alert, having that sudden frisson of fear at the sight of a shadow by the gate, of a group of youths approaching - although nine times out of 10

they are innocent of harmful intent. Such is the suspicion that dogs us all.

Among my friends and the friends of my friends, I know of nine people who have been murdered in the past four years. An old friend, an elderly lady, was raped and murdered by someone who broke into her home for no reason at all; another was shot at a garage. We have a saying, "Don't fire the gardener", because of the belief that it is so often an inside job - the gardener who comes back and does you in.

All this may sound like paranoia, but it is not without reason. I have been hijacked, mugged and terrorised. A few years ago my car was taken from me at gunpoint. I was forced into the passenger seat. I sat there frozen. But

just as one man jumped into the back and the other fumbled with the starter I opened the door and ran away. To this day I do not know how I did this.

But I got away, still clutching my handbag.

On May 1 this year I was mugged in my home at three in the afternoon. I used to live in a community of big houses with big grounds in the countryside. It's still beautiful and green, but the big houses have been knocked down and people have moved into fenced complexes like the one in which I now live. Mine is in the suburbs of Durban, but they're springing up everywhere. That afternoon I came home and omitted to close the security door. I went upstairs to lie down. After a while I thought I'd heard a noise, perhaps a bird or something. Without a qualm I got up and went to the landing; outside was a man. I screamed and two other men appeared. I was seized by the throat and almost throttled; I could feel myself losing consciousness.

My mouth was bound with Sellotape and I was threatened with my own knife (Girl Guide issue from long ago) and told: "If you make a sound, you die." My hands were tied tightly behind my back and I was thrown into the guest room and the door was shut. They took all the electronic equipment they could find, except the computer. They also, of course, took the car. A few weeks later my new car was locked up in my fenced carport when I was woken by its alarm in the early hours of the morning. The thieves had removed the radio, having cut through the padlocks in order to bypass the electric control on the gates. The last straw came a few weeks ago, shortly before my 71st birthday. I returned home in the middle of the afternoon and walked into my sitting room. Outside the window two men were breaking in. I retreated to the hall

and pressed the panic alarm.

This time I had shut the front door on entering. By now I had become more cautious. Yet one of the men ran around the house, jumped over the fence and tried to batter down the front door. Meanwhile, his accomplice was breaking my sitting- room window with a hammer. This took place while the sirens were shrieking, which was the frightening part. They kept coming, in broad daylight, while the alarm was going. They knew that there had to be a time lag of a few minutes before help arrived - enough time to dash off with the television and video recorder. In fact, the front-door assailant was caught and taken off to the cells.

Recently I telephoned to ask the magistrate when I would be called as a witness. She told me she had let him off for lack of evidence. She said that banging on my door was not an offence, and how could I prove that his intent was hostile? I have been careless in the past - razor wire and electric gates give one a feeling of security. Or at least, they did. But I am careless no longer. No fence - be it electric or not - no wall, no razor wire is really a deterrent to the determined intruder. Now my alarm is on all the time and my panic button hung round my neck. While some people say I have been unlucky, others say: "You are lucky not to have been raped or murdered." What kind of a society is this where one is considered "lucky" not to have been raped or murdered - yet?

A character in Cry, The Beloved Country says: "I have one great fear in my heart, that one day when they are turned to loving they will find we are turned to hating." And so it has come to pass. There is now more racial tension in this country than I have ever known. But it is not just about black-on-white crime. It is about general lawlessness. Black people suffer more than the whites. They do not have access to private security firms, and there are no police stations near them in the townships and rural areas. They are the victims of most of the hijackings, rapes and murders. They cannot run away like the whites, who are streaming out of this country in their thousands.

President Mandela has referred to us who leave as "cowards" and says the country can do without us. So be it. But it takes a great deal of courage to uproot and start again. We are leaving because crime is rampaging through

the land. The evils that beset this country now are blamed on the legacy of apartheid. One of the worst legacies of that time is that of the Bantu Education Act, which deliberately gave black people an inferior education.

The situation is exacerbated by the fact that criminals know that their chances of being caught are negligible; and if they are caught they will be free almost at once. So what is the answer? The government needs to get its priorities right. We need a powerful, well-trained and well-equipped

police force. Recently there was a robbery at a shopping centre in the afternoon. A call to the police station elicited the reply: "We have no transport." "Just walk then," said the caller; the police station is about a two-minute sprint from the shop in question. "We have no transport," came the reply again. Nobody arrived.

There is a quote from my husband's book:"Cry, the beloved country, for the unborn child that is the inheritor of our fear. Let him not love the earth too deeply. Let him not laugh too gladly when the water runs through his fingers, nor stand too silent when the setting sun makes red the veld with fire. Let him not be too moved when the birds of his land are singing, nor give too much of his heart to a mountain or a valley. For fear will rob him of all if he gives too much." What has changed in half a century? A lot of people who were convinced that everything would be all right are disillusioned, though they don't want to admit it.

The government has many excellent schemes for improving the lot of the black man, who has been disadvantaged for so long. A great deal of money is

spent in this direction. However, nothing can succeed while people live in such fear. Last week, about 10km from my home, an old couple were taken out and murdered in the garden. The wife had only one leg and was in a wheelchair. Yet they were stabbed and strangled - for very little money. They were thesecond old couple to be killed last week. It goes on and on, all the time;

we have become a killing society.

As I prepare to return to England, a young man asked me the other day, in all innocence, if things were more peaceful there. "You see," he said, "I know of no other way of life than this. I cannot imagine anything different." What a tragic statement on the beloved country today. "Because the white man has power, we too want power," says Msimangu. "But when a black man gets power, when he gets money, he is a great man if he is not corrupted. I have seen it often. He seeks power and money to put right what is wrong, and when he gets them, why, he enjoys the power and the money.

Now he can gratify his lusts, now he can arrange ways to get white man's liquor. I see only one hope for our country, and that is when white men and black men, desiring neither power nor money, but desiring only the good of their country, come together to work for it. I have one great fear in my heart, that one day when they are turned to loving, they will find we are turned to hating.

The truth is that South Africa's infrastructure is world class and that is the end. Every other things about the country is horrible. Is it the HIV/AIDs crises? or the hostile and lazy citizens?

Nigeria is a far better place. There is no place like Nigeria in the African continent which is why despite the horrible things happening in Nigeria people still flock into the country. Investors know it.

See i will not exchange even America (Tufiakwa!) with my home Nigeria

South Africa is not in my list of africa destinations.

The crime is simply too much, too violence.

If all these and more are happening in South Africa, why then are people like Oprah Winfrey closing their eyes to it and talking negatively about Nigeria all the time? This, definitely, is worse than Nigeria.

why then are people like Oprah Winfrey closing their eyes to it and talking negatively about Nigeria all the time?

The west have so much invested in SA, they would do much to savage it. So bad new is spread much wider about Nigeria than about SA

To live with the statistics is not easy. A serious crime is committed every 17 seconds in South Africa and Johannesburg is the epicentre of the crisis.

What goes around,comes around,south africa is still suffering from the effects of aparthiad as well as coming to terms with black man;s regime,both elements fuse together is lethal.

@ babasin

Do we call this hypocrisy then?

Been to SA, & i can tell you even thier roads are not improving. all the infrastructures left by the whites are poorly maitained. Corruption is eating deep into every sector and even the police force.

But this makes me realise that Nigeria is not that bad compared to how long we have been managing our own affairs. Give south Africa 10yrs from now when all the Whites leave in frustration, you will see Naija evolving as the best best in the continent.

However, the big question is, Why cant it work for a black Nation?

oceanblue:

Been to SA, & i can tell you even their roads are not improving. all the infrastructures left by the whites are poorly maitained. Corruption is eating deep into every sector and even the police force.

But this makes me realise that Nigeria is not that bad compared to how long we have been managing our own affairs. Give south Africa 10yrs from now when all the Whites leave in frustration, you will see Naija evolving as the best best in the continent.

However, the big question is, Why can't it work for a black Nation?

word

Been to SA, & i can tell you even their roads are not improving. all the infrastructures left by the whites are poorly maitained. Corruption is eating deep into every sector and even the police force.

But this makes me realise that Nigeria is not that bad compared to how long we have been managing our own affairs. Give south Africa 10yrs from now when all the Whites leave in frustration, you will see Naija evolving as the best best in the continent.

However, the big question is, Why can't it work for a black Nation?


the reason why it can't work for the black man is becasuse black inside
and outside, have ever wondered why what ever the white man leaves
for us, instead of improving on it we just destory. And am not saying that
all blacks are bad, we just need to change our thinking, give our
people the basics of life; education, health, employment, etc, and you would
surprised.

EDUCATION is the KEY out of POVERTY and HOPELESSNESS.
how we change.

What goes round comes around, the whites are begining to reap the rewards of their conspiracy against the blacks. They have fine tuned their racial discrimation from the outright aphateid practises , what we now have is economic aphateid, they run us down through their media in order to have control over our resources. they frustrate our ambitions to be educated and liberated by keeping us perpetually poor through economic barriers they create, they label us as hiv/aids infested, they call us the most corrupt in the world. They make us turn against each other in war all to satisfy their economic ends. The truth is when you push a person to the edge, he will eventually turn back at you violently. What we see in south africa is also common place in america, nigeria (the kidnappings in the nigerdelta) and the rest of the world where hostilites are directed at blacks.

@helen, you couldn't get it better. I agree with you.
The whole thing is not about being black or white. It's about the
opressors and the opressed, corruption and transparency.

I think the effects of corruption are beginning to manifest even in U.S.A.
Take the issue of the recent bridge collapse. Experts say that about two third of
the bridges in USA are right now at risk of collapsing due to lack of maintenance.
The government has ignored its responsibilities at home and is spending billions fighting
an unjustified war. Now that's a classic example of corruption.

If this is happening in Nigeria, people will start saying it's because we (Nigerian/Blacks) are
corrupt. Guys, we need to get any traces of inferiority out of our heads if we want to succeed at all.

@IG
That's a very shoddy analogy if what you wanted to pinpoint was 'corruption'. at least you can be sure that after the 'Experts' have spoken, a determined attempt will be made to rectify all lapses in maintaining bridges around the country. If that happened in Naija? All experts would be ignored. When three planes crashed in 2 years in Nigeria without any major effort from the Aviation Industry, now that's corruption.

@all
The white part of South Africa used to be a major player in the world of technology. DOn't forget that the South Africans even had nukes once upon a time. They have a vastly superior telecommunications industry (heck, they've been enjoyiong cheap broadband and 3G for years) to ours. Before Soludo's capitalisation, the second largest bank in SA was bigger than all our banks put together.
Yet we wonder the west have a higher opinion of SA? Heck, SA's got a flourishing tourism industry going on.
Besides, is there anyone here who cannot churn out similar horror stories about Nigeria? Kindly ask the parents of the little girl kidnapped in Nigeria to tell their story why they are leaving the country (i know the guy's dead, but use your imagination!)

I'm not trying to diss Naija, but why we dissing these guys when we know we get pissed when people diss Naija for very similar things?

That's a very shoddy analogy if what you wanted to pinpoint was 'corruption'. at least you can be sure that after the 'Experts' have spoken, a determined attempt will be made to rectify all lapses in maintaining bridges around the country. If that happened in Naija? All experts would be ignored. When three planes crashed in 2 years in Nigeria without any major effort from the Aviation Industry, now that's corruption.

@texazzpete, are you trying to tell me that the US government left more 100,000 bridges to suffer simply
because they don't know that the bridges need maintenance ? The steps you are saying are being taken
are simply because the world now knows there is a problem.

The white part of South Africa used to be a major player in the world of technology. Don't forget that the South Africans even had nukes once upon a time. They have a vastly superior telecommunications industry (heck, they've been enjoyiong cheap broadband and 3G for years) to ours. Before Soludo's capitalisation, the second largest bank in SA was bigger than all our banks put together.

What is the importance of 3G e.t.c if an old woman can not feel secure in her house (Locked with chains). I believe even in the high crime areas of Nigeria
there is still some respect for old people. We still call our old ones "mama" or "papa". Our area boys do not kill old people just like that talkless of killing old wheel chaired women.

The point is that in Nigerians have not completely lost their souls to materialism. There are a lot of bad things happening in Nigeria but we're not as bad as we are being portrayed.

@IG
I do not know whether or not our youths kill old women now. In fact, i'd say they do now! We've heard stories of old women bein gkilled for rituals.
Our robbers never used to kill Priests and Pastors too, until the Deacon was killed in St. Dominics a couple of years ago.
last 2 weeks or so a Reverend father was kidnapped along with his masserver and his 13 year old female cousin. The robbers asked for N2million ransom. That same day, the 13 year old girl was gang-raped by the robbers.

Now, how does that benchmark? It's a softer crime to assault old ladies who have lived their lives than to kidnap 2 year old children in PH and traumatise them for life. So why we dissin'?

Hmmm. Murder is worse than kidnapping.

Nigerians need to leave SA before they burn them all down there.

helen123:

What goes round comes around, the whites are begining to reap the rewards of their conspiracy against the blacks.

What in the world does the above mean? Did you read the same article or is there something I am missing here?

helen123:

They have fine tuned their racial discrimation from the outright aphateid practises , what we now have is economic aphateid, they run us down through their media in order to have control over our resources. they frustrate our ambitions to be educated and liberated by keeping us perpetually poor through economic barriers they create, they label us as hiv/aids infested, they call us the most corrupt in the world.

That is lame excuse for your choice to remain a slave in your own mind.  South Africans have access to education and they have some of the best schools in the world. Have you ever been to South Africa before? The government, only a couple of years ago, decided to take lead jobs from whites to give them to the black South Africans instead and that is when the decay in the country really started. Crime shot up as more and more of those in charge of keeping the peace had no clue what they were doing.  More and more white South Africans left, not wanting to settle with working under under experienced black managers and leaders.

The crimes are committed mostly by black south africans. You were given a sample only a couple of months ago when black africans from other nations were attacked by, yes, black south africans and you want to make this a black and white issue? Get a life !!

helen123:

They make us turn against each other in war all to satisfy their economic ends. The truth is when you push a person to the edge, he will eventually turn back at you violently. What we see in south africa is also common place in america, nigeria (the kidnappings in the nigerdelta) and the rest of the world where hostilites are directed at blacks.

More lame excuses for our stupidity! Did these same whites make you turn against your own during the elections or the many riots recorded in Nigeria only recently? Please grow a brain!!

Blacks can't grow up because our thinking holds us back not because our genes are bad.

We've taken it everywhere with us, Haiti, Jamaica, Brazil, Nicaragua and even that African/Asian island called Madagascar.

We fail to be objective, whether we are black African Americans, Haitians or Nigerian. We squabble amongst each other, we fight over irrelevant matter, we follow the orders of our closest relatives or friends without so much as a second thought of their logic or coherence only because we are "boys"/"fam"/"igboman"/"muslim"/"christian"/"northern" etc".

We use modern weapons to kill each other from Somalia to Haiti because we did not invent them and still do not understand their awsome power of destruction.

We have no culture of humbleness, we cannot accept defeat (Haitian election, Nigerian election, Zimbabwe election, so on and so forth), we cannot accept criticism, especially from those younger or different from us, we take it as an insult and see it as a declaration of war on our character.

Small differences create wedges in our societies that usually spill over to violence.

We have never had to maintain anything in Africa and hence we have no culture of maintenance. We will spend N3m for a new palace, and yet it will have weeds growing in its central area because we did not maintain it, no one thought of that.

We spend N6m for French to build us a power station and yet we did not take into account maintenance, expertise, the labor, knowledge, and thoroughness in being able to make sure it operates at full capacity.


We complain that our leaders loot, rig elections, and share the wealth of our black curse gold from the Delta (or Diamonds, or whatever other mineral), and send their children to Western universities whilst we rot in the petulance of our misery. And yet, given the opportunity, many of us will gladly do the same thing if Selected into such a position of power. In-fact, we do it everyday of our lives we just fail to realize it.

And worst of all, OUR PRIDE, lack of humbleness and blatant arrogance continues to  prevent us from dealing with our own faults. Each day we step closer to recolonization, each day labours another hour where we gasp in the smog of our incompetence and blight while pointing at the sky and saying ", god willing we will be saved".


And the squabbling and misery shall go on, until we choose to fix ourselves up.





The only difference between SA and Nigeria is that

1) SA takes statics (while Nigeria doesn't)
2)Whites care about SA (while they don't for Nigeria) and hence all the negative publicity
3)If Nigeria had 10% of its population as whites who earn an avg income per capita the equivalent of an American and live in American style suburban homes and luxury condos, you bet they'll be walking targets





This thread is a typical African style thread, we are trying to put down another nation (people, tribe, religion, territory) because they are different from us.

Do you know that one woman champion in my church took her children and relocated to SA; now am doubting if she really believed in Jesus.

texazzpete:

@IG
That's a very shoddy analogy if what you wanted to pinpoint was 'corruption'. at least you can be sure that after the 'Experts' have spoken, a determined attempt will be made to rectify all lapses in maintaining bridges around the country. If that happened in Naija? All experts would be ignored. When three planes crashed in 2 years in Nigeria without any major effort from the Aviation Industry, now that's corruption.

@all
The white part of South Africa used to be a major player in the world of technology. DOn't forget that the South Africans even had nukes once upon a time. They have a vastly superior telecommunications industry (heck, they've been enjoyiong cheap broadband and 3G for years) to ours. Before Soludo's capitalisation, the second largest bank in SA was bigger than all our banks put together.
Yet we wonder the west have a higher opinion of SA? Heck, SA's got a flourishing tourism industry going on.
Besides, is there anyone here who cannot churn out similar horror stories about Nigeria? Kindly ask the parents of the little girl kidnapped in Nigeria to tell their story why they are leaving the country (i know the guy's dead, but use your imagination!)

I'm not trying to diss Naija, but why we dissing these guys when we know we get pissed when people diss Naija for very similar things?

stick to things you are sure of.
this is partly untrue.
3G- yes.
broadband - big NO.
besides it is no big deal at all.

there is crime everywhere. i mean everywhere. there are parts of london i can't venture into once it is dark and there are hoods i will not party in, in the UK(just using the UK as an example) but the problem of SA is the violence of the crime. it is senseless and incomparable.
but the women are something else sha
but not enough compensation.

Seemingly this thread is all about hate to South Africa. Hmmmm

gimme a break, You mean to tell me there is no crime in Nigeria? You guys are pathetic!!! How many foreigners were killed by black South Africans? Probably less than 20!(I wishi it were ZERO) Compared with hundreds of Kenyans killed by other black Kenyans. Don't forget about hundreds of BLACK NIGERIANS killed by other Nigerians every week in the name of religion and tribalism. Nobody is giving Nigeria a bad name except by its own citizens! It would be best if Nigeria channelled her energies into developing herself instead of being so obsessed about what's happening in South Africa,who is not even her neighbour. I submit to you that the crime rate in sub-Saharan Africa is extremely high, it's just not being reported like it is in South Africa. I find most responders in this article to be very hypocritical. South Africa will succeed (and has succeeded) whether or not you wish us ill!! Let's rid ourselves of blind jealousies as Africans!

I submit to you that the crime rate in sub-Saharan Africa is extremely high, it's just not being reported like it is in South Africa. I find most responders in this article to be very hypocritical. South Africa will succeed (and has succeeded) whether or not you wish us ill!! Let's rid ourselves of blind jealousies as Africans!

Before you talk without facts.

Nigeria was key in liberation of South Africa from claws of whites.

We finance your ANC for many years. Many of your people came to study in our Uni for free!

The point here is that if any investment is to come to AFRICA, the WEST wants to make sure 70% goes to SA because they have invested interest in the country. Thats not level playing fields for other African countries.

As such they blow-up statistics about possibly place that could get such investment and increase SA chances!

Not All African Countries are Bad.
Kenya is a nice country that developed on their own. They had a few rough patches a yr ago, but overall Kenya is a developing nation in Africa. Thats where all the whites are going now
Ghana is another country to be proud off. They might not be the best, but they are working on their progress which is more than I can say for Nigeria
Bostwana is a nice country
Tanzania is a nice country
Namibia is also a nice country.
Senegal is pretty nice and peaceful
We always hear the negative about Africa because thats what the media feeds on, but we never really hear about the Positive. Not all African countries are doing bad
Angola is on the uprising too
Belive it or not, Rwanda is also on the rise even they had a genocide 15yrs ago.

@Back 2 Back

Nigeria was key in liberation of South Africa from claws of whites

There are other countries that helped South Africa get liberation, the most important country that helped SA is Angola.(study SA and Angolan history)
Thats why there is huge investments from SA businesses into Angola today because of their history.

We finance your ANC for many years. Many of your people came to study in our Uni for free!

The ANC also got finance from the UK, Australia(SA and AUS had strong political rivalry in the Anglo-Boer days) New Zealand, Canada to name a few. Most SAn politicians who went to exile studied in the UK. i.e Thabo Mbeki

The point here is that if any investment is to come to AFRICA, the WEST wants to make sure 70% goes to SA because they have invested interest in the country. Thats not level playing fields for other African countries

The main reason why the west invest in SA is because South Africa is a Advance Developing Country(Also Egypt). South Africa has the best infrastructure in Africa, also it has laws that are compared to conservative first world countries and a commercial industry that is well developed.

As such they blow-up statistics about possibly place that could get such investment and increase SA chances!

Please study South African history and economy, not everything is as obvious as you think.

the chickens have come home to roost, what did the whites expect?  this is what is known as blowback - you put in place one of the most heinous systems known to man - apartheid and then you think there wont be any long term consequences?  nobody is talking about the years of brutality blacks were subjected to under apartheid - Alan Patton's widow talks about one of the root causes being the inequitable educational system implemented under the Bantu Education Act which deliberately gave blacks an inferior education - Yes absolutely, i would like to know how whites would have reacted had they been dispossessed in their own country for over 100 years, would they be willing to forgive and forget the way they are expecting blacks to do?  whites committed a lot of atrocities against blacks but very few of the perpetrators were ever brought to justice? how would this make you feel if you were on the receiving end of all of this, surely your heart would be filled with nothing but hatred for whites?  

now because the tables have turned whites want reconciliation but had blacks not fought to rid themselves of apartheid the whites would have been happy to carry on in their oppression of blacks, so i have no sympathy for the whites, everywhere they go in the world they leave a trail of death and destruction because they are not peace loving people, they provoked all the hatred that they are now receiving from blacks, its unfortunate that elderly white women are victims of this mayhem but that is what happens when evil is awakened - no non white race who has been subjugated by whites has come away unscathed.  i say to a lot of nigerians who are posting on here criticising the crime level, count yourself lucky that the whites never decided to settle permanently  in nigeria and dispossess you of your land and impose an apartheid system on you, would  you be so forgiving if in the country of your forefathers you could not own land and were forced to live on a reservation? under apartheid whites made up only 5% of the population but appropriated 87% of the land and forced blacks who made up 95%of the population to live in filthy, crime ridden townships or arid reservations.

something tells me that if this had happened in nigeria - a lot of people on here would have been responding differently.

under apartheid whites made up only 5% of the population but appropriated 87% of the land and forced blacks who made up 95%of the population

Correction: whites make up 11%, coloreds 5%, indians/asians 4%, blacks 80%.
but reading from your comment I see that you have a good insight of South Africa. The Bantu Education System imposed by the whites was there to make black people educated enough to become only housemaids and gardeners. This system and the economical separation is the root of the social ills that black South Africans are suffering today, apartheid caused black people to become mentally and physically oppressed even today. This oppression is similar to countries like Brazil and Russia(even some areas in the US were black people reside i.e ghettoes) which also have high crime levels.

This is a sad situation and it could take generations to recover from.

every country has it's own share of problems so let's leave south africans with theirs and face ours.

desgiezd:

If all these and more are happening in South Africa, why then are people like Oprah Winfrey closing their eyes to it and talking negatively about Nigeria all the time? This, definitely, is worse than Nigeria.

It is because Southern Africa , which includes South Africa , is slavishly welcoming to the west and Westerners , even if that is to their detriment , to the extent that many African-Americans like Oprah (who don't know the reality of Africa) have a 'romanticised' notion about how nations like South Africa represent the 'true' Africa while they deem Nigeria to be an abberation.

Every black person who has never lived in Africa wants to be Mandela's 'son' or 'daughter' . Naturally these folks , including the ignorant Oprah Winfrey , queue up to endorse South Africa as "Africa".  Oprah and her ilk may have money and influence but they knows nothing about the history of Africa and the directions it needs to head in to include a recognition of those who , because of their natural human and material endowment , must be brought in to play a part so that all of Africa can develope rather than a sitaution where some arrogant folks ( like oprah) narrow-mindedly and divisively endorse regions and nations in a continent they do not understand . If Oprah is well-read, well-advised and sincere she  would at least confront some of the heinous acts of the Western usurpers that have made African life , as we know it today,  artificial and bastardized . Oprah's generalisation of Nigerians is crass at best and ignorantly malicious at worst. .

Oprah only endorses the African nations that shield from her the reality of how black folks are second class in their own nation while she opens her schools and orphanages . Any nation that reflects the evil legacy of colonialisation is full of 'avoidable' people according to her. I am not absolving Nigerians of blame in the dire situation we find ourselves in today but any fair minded person would admit that the Brits meddled to play a detrimental role in what we are today. I would respect Oprah as a fair minded person and good student of history if she minimally accepted the role of the Brits alongside any criticism against Nigeria. For me she has proven that she needs to stick to her chat show. She is just another ignorant 'blackie' IMO and Africa does not need more of those.

I think this post is fundamentally flawed quite frankly. Why is it the case that Nigerian success is always measured in the context of the relative failings of other countries?

Too many posts on here are based on the dangerous premise that Nigeria is not doing badly because others are doing worse which is a defeatist attitude. Why can't it be the case that Nigeria is doing sell because Nigeria is doing well? The mind mindset of a forward thinking people should be to be better through positive strides and not through default.

Colonialists have messed up Africa without a shadow of doubt with their artificial boarders and quite frankly wasting our time by concentrating the world’s resources on developing a handful of their nations. When you throw in post colonial meddling and their cold war antics then it becomes impossible not to hold them at least partially responsible for a lot of what is happening in Africa today. But the question that really matters is in spite of all that, can we as a people develop? The answer is a resounding YES. We certainly have the resources, they stole some but we have way more left and with hard work and a resolute attitude we can develop as a continent. Countries like Nigeria certainly have the human resources to compliment their Natural resources.

So as opposed to adopting a sceptical, retrospective and conspiratorial view we should look forward and set good goals. Don't forget global investments are not controlled by a committee of ex colonialists. Multinationals that answer to their shareholders spearhead investments decisions. Therefore to say that they are conspiring to make South Africa more attractive is put politely inaccurate. Most people would invest in South Africa before Nigeria for obvious infrastructure and economy related reasons and that’s just the truth. To blame others for failing to make our own nations attractive investment destinations will do us no favours. Oprah's ignorance is not the reason for failing to attract investments the hard facts on the ground are!

yoruba:

Correction: whites make up 11%, coloreds 5%, indians/asians 4%, blacks 80%.
but reading from your comment I see that you have a good insight of South Africa. The Bantu Education System imposed by the whites was there to make black people educated enough to become only housemaids and gardeners. This system and the economical separation is the root of the social ills that black South Africans are suffering today, apartheid caused black people to become mentally and physically oppressed even today. This oppression is similar to countries like Brazil and Russia(even some areas in the US were black people reside i.e ghettoes) which also have high crime levels.

This is a sad situation and it could take generations to recover from.

correction taken - i hear that the coloured population - mixture of black south africans and whites HATE black south africans and are  used by whites for divide and rule purposes, apparently they never voted ANC when blacks regained political control - instead they alligned themselves to the whites and voted for the minority nationalist party.

brazil is a racially segregated society - the darker your skin - the lower down on the social scale you will be placed.  despite blacks making up over half of its 160 m population blacks are almost totally  absent from positions of power - from all levels of government, from congress, senate, the judiciary, the higher ranks of the civil service and the armed forces instead power is in the hands of the whites.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/719134.stm