And as we were talking about Afrikaners and some perceived stereotypes people have of other people, I remembered a funny event some years ago in a desolate area in northern South Africa close to the border with Botswana.
Me and my 2 colleagues had car trouble. It was my fault. I was driving too fast with a rental, hi-tech Range Rover over dirt roads. The computer on board the 4x4 that constantly recalculates the suspension couldn't cope anymore and gave up. Result of that ‘surrender’ was that it lowered the car to its maximum and thus we were scrapping the dirt track and thus some red lights started to flash on the dashboard. And thus we were forced to stop.
In the middle of nowhere as it goes and without cell phone signal. We looked a bit around and saw a farm in the distance. The Range Rover stopped flashing warning signs but was still very low to the ground. We drove very slowly to the farmhouse. A young Afrikaner couple came out. Very friendly. We explained them our conflict with high-tech car technology. They saw our TV equipment in the car and a brief chat erupted about media. And to our surprise they said they were regular viewers of the international news channel Al Jazeera English, which you can catch through the DSTV decorder (channel 406). We were really taken by (positive) surprise.
Here we were in the middle of nowhere, without cell phone signal and on an Afrikaner farm,... but they were watching Al Jazeera English. How preconceived ideas can be easily forced out of the window!
The 4x4 started to lift itself (and by itself) to normality and of we went. Slower than before, but without hassle we reached Joburg some hours later.
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