Thanks Gerrard. To contrast I'll add.... I live in a large, upper-midwestern city now. I've owned my suburban home, debt free, for close to 20 years. Retired at age 60 from industrial sales, twelve years ago. I can walk to Lake Michigan in 15 minutes. I can't remember the last time I saw a fist fight. Can't really recall hearing amped up…
Thanks Gerrard. To contrast I'll add.... I live in a large, upper-midwestern city now. I've owned my suburban home, debt free, for close to 20 years. Retired at age 60 from industrial sales, twelve years ago. I can walk to Lake Michigan in 15 minutes. I can't remember the last time I saw a fist fight. Can't really recall hearing amped up, angry conversation. Three doors down from me though, last July, a neighbor shot and killed his wife and injured a step-daughter with the gun. Later to commit suicide. He clearly had had enough. No one I hang with goes to church but yoga and meditation operations offering a reasonable facsimile here I suppose. Plenty of bars around but more upscale with a pour of white wine running $8-12/ glass. Boutique, local brews @ $6-8/glass. Getting loaded is verboten. Bad form. My life is fairly charmed with sons doing well. Happy 45 y/o marriage. There is almost no one here to talk politics with (Genocide Joe disciples). I asked a couple of Harvard educated, NYT loving neighbors if they'd ever heard of Substack. They had no clue what it is. I'm so thankful for the intelligent writing and comments on Substack, without which I'd be really adrift in an ocean of stupidity.
That sounds more or less, with no irony, like the good life
A far cry from here, in Central Africa backwoods, but which I regard also as the good life- essentially in the autonomy from city life mores and morals - one can live very cheaply, the land is exceptionally fertile, grow your own is easy
- traditional life here lives on, and it shares elements with working class lives everywhere, nobody has a gun, the fights are fist fights, and very carefully calibrated, there is little damage done, the drink is beer, although there are numerous forest conconctions which are literally mind bending -traditional medicine and traditional drinking are closely related
Gerrard, have you by chance come across this book (link) that is an account of a white gal growing up in Rhodesia? If not I think you might like it. It blew my mind. Alcoholic mother, Uzi always on the dinner table and much more. Now of course it's Zimbabwe. My son, with a couple of friends, drove a Subaru from S. Africa to Addis Abba. Not my cup-a-tea exactly but I've done bat shit crazy things in my youth too. He came back from Africa with a TRILLION dollar Zimbabwe note. I asked him what it was worth and he said it would make a dandy bookmark. I've always wondered where the white farmer lads from Rhodesia ended up. I'm sure there's grist for a novel or three in their accounts. I guessed other parts of Africa and maybe Oz. Anyway, I promise this book is a great read and some of the tales are so crazy that you know they must be true. I read it in paperback. I've only been to Alexandria and Cairo in Africa but except for my age, I'd love to return. You can put her name (Alexandra Fuller) into a YouTube search and hear interviews with her. On top of everything else, she's a stone cold beauty. And...good luck to you too, mate. Last I'd heard she married an American guy and moved to Wyoming-since divorced.
Thanks for this - I'll look at the Youtube, but here we are beyond the reach of Amazon delivery
As for driving around Africa, as long as you have the right attitude and behaviour, and avoiding the wars in the Congo, or towns like Lagos, or Nairobbery, it would not be more dangerous than run down city areas in EU or US, in fact less so
I know little about East Africa, there's quite a gulf between francophone and anglophone, people/news is very local
This might start changing with the Russians - the experience of the Sahel countries is very relevant here
And with the Chinese - official China presence (as opposed to traders/immigrants) is growing more pronounced
Thanks Gerrard. To contrast I'll add.... I live in a large, upper-midwestern city now. I've owned my suburban home, debt free, for close to 20 years. Retired at age 60 from industrial sales, twelve years ago. I can walk to Lake Michigan in 15 minutes. I can't remember the last time I saw a fist fight. Can't really recall hearing amped up, angry conversation. Three doors down from me though, last July, a neighbor shot and killed his wife and injured a step-daughter with the gun. Later to commit suicide. He clearly had had enough. No one I hang with goes to church but yoga and meditation operations offering a reasonable facsimile here I suppose. Plenty of bars around but more upscale with a pour of white wine running $8-12/ glass. Boutique, local brews @ $6-8/glass. Getting loaded is verboten. Bad form. My life is fairly charmed with sons doing well. Happy 45 y/o marriage. There is almost no one here to talk politics with (Genocide Joe disciples). I asked a couple of Harvard educated, NYT loving neighbors if they'd ever heard of Substack. They had no clue what it is. I'm so thankful for the intelligent writing and comments on Substack, without which I'd be really adrift in an ocean of stupidity.
That sounds more or less, with no irony, like the good life
A far cry from here, in Central Africa backwoods, but which I regard also as the good life- essentially in the autonomy from city life mores and morals - one can live very cheaply, the land is exceptionally fertile, grow your own is easy
- traditional life here lives on, and it shares elements with working class lives everywhere, nobody has a gun, the fights are fist fights, and very carefully calibrated, there is little damage done, the drink is beer, although there are numerous forest conconctions which are literally mind bending -traditional medicine and traditional drinking are closely related
I wish you good luck
Brings back some memory ...
Gerrard, have you by chance come across this book (link) that is an account of a white gal growing up in Rhodesia? If not I think you might like it. It blew my mind. Alcoholic mother, Uzi always on the dinner table and much more. Now of course it's Zimbabwe. My son, with a couple of friends, drove a Subaru from S. Africa to Addis Abba. Not my cup-a-tea exactly but I've done bat shit crazy things in my youth too. He came back from Africa with a TRILLION dollar Zimbabwe note. I asked him what it was worth and he said it would make a dandy bookmark. I've always wondered where the white farmer lads from Rhodesia ended up. I'm sure there's grist for a novel or three in their accounts. I guessed other parts of Africa and maybe Oz. Anyway, I promise this book is a great read and some of the tales are so crazy that you know they must be true. I read it in paperback. I've only been to Alexandria and Cairo in Africa but except for my age, I'd love to return. You can put her name (Alexandra Fuller) into a YouTube search and hear interviews with her. On top of everything else, she's a stone cold beauty. And...good luck to you too, mate. Last I'd heard she married an American guy and moved to Wyoming-since divorced.
https://www.amazon.com/Dont-Lets-Dogs-Tonight-Childhood-ebook/dp/B000FC1HQY
added-link to an interview with her:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fSU9_5lhy6s
Thanks for this - I'll look at the Youtube, but here we are beyond the reach of Amazon delivery
As for driving around Africa, as long as you have the right attitude and behaviour, and avoiding the wars in the Congo, or towns like Lagos, or Nairobbery, it would not be more dangerous than run down city areas in EU or US, in fact less so
I know little about East Africa, there's quite a gulf between francophone and anglophone, people/news is very local
This might start changing with the Russians - the experience of the Sahel countries is very relevant here
And with the Chinese - official China presence (as opposed to traders/immigrants) is growing more pronounced
I’ll get back to you with more, shortly