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Hitchhiking In South Africa After completing their tertiary education, loads of university graduates take a year or two off before startin out with their careers. They spend a year or two working overseas or backbacking in places off the beaten track. The purpose of the exercise is often to suss out what they want to do with their lives. They frequently return to their home countries for professional reasons. Sometimes they do not. After my first international stint in Miami, I was one of those who needed a fresh perspective. In my case, one thing led to another. After one thing led to another, I have never returned to Germany. I cannot claim to be unhappy about it. In this respect, I may be a little out of the ordinary. However, my “sussing out period” started in 1993 in South Africa. During that time, the country was right in the middle of its transition from Apartheid to multi - racial democracy. A great time indeed to be there. I spent the first few weeks in Cape Town, doing not much besides chilling out, reading and enjoying the nightlife. Cape Town is definitely one of those cities in the world, where it is worth doing this sort of thing for a while. It is one of the most beautiful cities I have ever been to. Every day started with a mug of coffee and a cigarette, while looking at Table Mountain. Then I was a chain smoker. Now I cannot stand these stinking things. Cape Town is also very un - African. It is the only city in Africa, where the Blacks form the minority of the population. The flair of the city is rather colonial and its pace does not deserve to be called hectic. Cape Town To Durban However, after spending a few weeks in Cape Town, it was overdue to get a little out of my comfort zone. For that reason, I embarked on a hitchhiking tour from Cape Town to Durban, virtually along the South African coastline and the “garden route”, one of the most beautiful part of the country. The circumstances appeared to be almost perfect for that sort of venture. South Africa was on the brink of a civil war. The crime rate in the country was tremendously high by Western standards. Cape Town and Durban are separated by more or less two thousand kilometers. In a nutshell, this little outing looked like quite a challenge.

Ever since the Great Trek in the early 19th century, when Boer farmers pushed inland from the coast to escape British rule, farms have been a very important part of the spiritual life of South Africans.

On D- Day, as I am every now and then fond of calling it, I started that little outing on the highway at Somerset West on the outskirts of Cape Town. After waiting for about an hour for a ride, the first vehicle that felt inclined to give me a ride was a huge truck. An hour or so later on, it dropped me off on the highway. Another thirty or forty minutes later on, a motorcycle gave me a ride and dropped me off right in the middle of nowhere. When the sun was starting to set, another huge truck gave me a ride to George. George is a rather spread out provincial town in the Western Cape. Its most famous son is the second last white president of South Africa, P.W. Botha, whose nickname is “The Crocodile”. Though I do not know exactly the reason for this lovely nickname, it may have something to do with his charm, said to be one of a kind. After spending a few days in “The Crocodile’s” hometown, I moved on. Half a day and three or four rides later on, I arrived in Port Elizabeth, which everybody in South Africa just calls P.E. Although there are said to be nice suburbs and beaches in Port Elizabeth, the city centre truly deserves to be called ugly.

While in Port Elizabeth, an Israeli guy asked me what I am going to do on the highway if I get stuck there and do not get a ride. I told him that I mull it over when it happens. It never happened. A few days in P.E. was enough. My next destination was East London. To get out of Port Elizabeth, I took a black taxi that dropped me off on the highway. Black taxis in South Africa are vans used by Blacks as public transportation. It is amazing how many people can be squeezed into them. I was the only white passenger but thoroughly enjoyed the experience. Do not do what everybody else does. It is boring. Ten minutes later on, a car gave me a ride to King Williams Town, halfway towards East London. After hopping out of the car on the highway in King Williams Town, nature was calling. As there was no toilet on the highway, I left my travelling bag on the highway and went into the bush to do what needed to be done. When returning to the highway, a van was already waiting for me. The driver gave me a ride to East London. 
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The City of Durban lies along the Indian Ocean and is the heart of the large Indian community in South Africa. Indians were originally brought to South Africa by the British to work sugarcane plantations in Natal province.

Even though East London does neither deserved to be called beautiful nor a tourist attraction, it is quite a nice city. What makes it quite nice is probably that it is rather low key. I spent a few days there. Because I had managed already to hitchhike from Cape Town in the Western Cape to East London in the Eastern Cape, I was being filled with a little buzz. It is moreover quite enjoyable to stagger along the Esplanade in East London, where one can watch the waves of the Indian Ocean crashing onto the beach. If my  memory does not completely fail me, Donald Woods is originally from East London. Donald Woods was in the Apartheid era a well respected journalist in East London. After getting to know Steve Biko - a black opponent to the Apartheid regime - Donald Woods was gradually transformed into an opponent to the old regime. As a result, he wrote and published the book “Cry Freedom”, which did not amuse the then ruling National Party. However, that was then, and now is now. Quite a few people in East London talked me into taking a huge detour via Bloemfontein through the Orange Free State. The alternative was to go through the Transkei, then an independent homeland, out of which APLA operated, the military wing of the PAC. The PAC was a smaller and a bunch more radical black liberation movement than the ANC. While trying to get a ride to Bloemfontein on a Saturday morning, the owner of a sausage factory picked me up. He was on the way to Queenstown, about two hours north of East London. When I told him what I was in the process of doing, he took me a little by surprise. One of his sales representatives was going to Pietermaritzburg - the capital of Kwazulu Natal -  the following Monday morning. He was sure that his sales representative was more than happy about some company while going through the Transkei. For that reason, I spent the weekend with the owner of the sausage factory and his cronies in Queenstown and met the sales representative the folowing Monday morning. He turned out to be a former settler from Rhodesia and was indeed more than happy about my company during our trip through APLA territory. Whether I would have been of any use in a clash with the military wing of the PAC is an entirely different story. Fortunately, it was never necessary to find out. After getting dropped off in Pietermaritzburg, a couple of hours later on I safely arrived in Durban. What looked initially almost like mission impossible was all of a sudden mission accomplished.

Concluding Thoughts On South Africa

South Africa is breathtakingly beautiful. Besides New Zealand, it is the most beautiful country I have ever been to. But it is rougher and less tamed than the country of the long white cloud, which is one of New Zealand’s nicknames. South Africans are very friendly and hospitable. It is definitely worth visiting the country and spending some time there. It is a one of a kind experience, which you will never forget. Do not be detered by headlines about crime there. Just practice some common sense.

The Nigerian writer Ben Okri said in his collection of essays “A Way of Being Free”: “If the poet speaks only of narrow things….then what hope is there for any of us in the world?Those of us who want this are cowards, in flesh and in spirit. We fear heroic heights”.

Apply this concept to life in general. Do not be a coward. Do not chicken out. Get out of your comfort zone. It is worth giving it a go. You will never be the same.
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Some Thoughts on Auckland and New Zealand Everybody who knows at least a little about German soccer agrees on who the most outstanding character in German soccer is - Franz Beckenbauer. As a player, he won the German championship and the German Cup competition, the European championship and the World Cup. As a coach, he won the World Cup as well. He won the World Cup twice, as a player and a coach. But I won the soccer tournament at ITESM, campus Colima! However, after finishing his career as a player in Germany, he spent about five years in New York. Later on, after returning to Germany, he made the remark that these five years in “gringolandia” had been tremendously important to his personal growth. He pointed out that five years is the minimum period of time for a stay in a foreign country to truly benefit from it. Based on my own experience, I could hardly agree more with him. You may be tempted to ask now: “Good, but what is the point of all this”? Quite simple. The only country so far outside my home country where I have spent more than five years is New Zealand. Most of my time there, I lived and worked in Auckland. Let us have a look at Auckland and New Zealand. New Zealand Now And Then New Zealand is no longer what it used to be. Until 1984, it virtually deserved to be called the “Poland of the Pacific”. It was one of the most regulated economies in the developed world. The country suffered from enormous budget- and current account deficits. Inflation was prevented by price controls. Trade barriers protected inefficient companies from competition.

A shot of South Island, New Zealand.

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All this changed in 1984 when Roger Douglas became finance minister of the Labour government. In the course of “Rogernomics” financial markets were deregulated, trade tariffs were slashed, subsidies eliminated and a bunch of government activities privatized. When the National government took office in 1990, the new finance minister Ruth Richardson continued with the economic reforms. A significant feature of “Ruthanasia” was that wage bargaining was decentralized. Employment contracts were individually negotiated. During these economic reforms, the Reserve Bank gained independence for monetary policy. Moreover, budgetary discipline was imposed to make governments more accountable for future implications of their policies. 

Even though a Labour - led government has reversed some of these reforms, Godzone - which is one of New Zealand’s nicknames - is most unlikely to be ever again the “Poland of the Pacific”. In the meantime, even the Polish Poland has changed.

In general, I do not have much sympathy for politicians. They are usually fond of playing big shot with other people’s money. Even worse, many of them lack experience in the real world. However, as often in life, there are rules, and there are exceptions to the rules. I do tend to the assumption that Roger Douglas and Ruth Richardson are two of these exceptions among politicians. As Rupert Darwall put it in the New Zealand Business Herald: “Both share an idea of the citizen - politician who solves the problems of their country as best they can and quits once they haven given of their best”. Roger Douglas once advised: “Ask yourself why you’re in politics. My view is that it is better to be in politics for three years and so something, than to be there for twenty years and do nothing”.

Auckland

In the course of these reforms, the land of the long white cloud - another nickname for New Zealand - has been truly transformed. Auckland makes a striking example of this transformation. While Auckland is the biggest city as well as the financial and commercial hub of the country, the much smaller Wellington is the capital. Some residential areas and the hilly streets in Wellington remind me a little of San Francisco. Auckland, on the other hand, reminds me a little of Portland, Oregon. Some streets in the city center - as in Portland - are a little hilly but by far not as steep as in San Francisco or Wellington. 
 

Auckland is virtually surrounded by the South Pacific and is covered in volcanic hills. The first nickname of Auckland is the “City of Sails”. Just have a look at its spectacular harbour with all the yachts there and you know why. Auckland’s second nickname is the “capital of Polynesia”. It attracts loads of people from the islands in the South Pacific. There is the largest concentration of Polynesians in the world. 
 

While Greater Auckland is very spread out in terms of geographical size, the city center is rather compact. Many of the high rise buildings there have been created in the last twenty years. During the day, the city center is vibrant and buzzing. There is a bunch more buzz than in comparable German cities. The significant Asian and Polynesian populations as well as quite a bunch of ethnic restaurants contribute to the vibrancy. In a nutshell, Auckland in summer is great. Because of the sometimes unbelievable rain there in winter, I hesitate to repeat the statement. Spend a week in Auckland in winter and you understand why umbrellas in New Zealand are a lot bigger than anywhere else.

My favourite place in the whole of New Zealand is virtually “round the corner” from Auckland. It is Waiheke Island and it takes about half an hour by ferry from Auckland to get there. Waiheke Island is located almost right in the middle between Auckland and the Coromandel Peninsula. When you live and work in Auckland and feel like leaving the big city life behind you for an extended weekend or a week, Waiheke Island is the place to be.

Life there could hardly be more different to life in the City of Sails. The island is peaceful and quiet, clean and unspoiled. More or less seven thousand people live there. Many of them commute every day. They live on Waiheke Island. But they work in Auckland. Depending on where you live in Auckland, getting from your home to your office by car may take you up to an hour. When you live on Waiheke Island, the ferry ride takes you about half an hour. You do not get stuck in traffic jams. Instead, you thoroughly enjoy the ferry ride.

However, real estate prices on Waiheke Island have been skyrocketing during the last ten or fifteen years. It does not matter. Wise people buy real estate when “there is blood running in the street”. Be a contrarian. Do not follow the crowd. Even if you cannot afford to buy property on the island, you can afford to recharge your batteries there. In case you feel like recharging your batteries on Waiheke Island, if possible do yourself a favour. Wait until the main tourist onslaught in New Zealand - both nationally and internationally - is over. The main tourist season in the land of the long white cloud starts at the beginning of December and ends at the end of January. God instead at the end of February or March. The weather is still quite good. But “every Dick and Harry” is gone.

Employment In New Zealand

The purpose of the little outline above is primarily to give the reader an idea about the turf where I lived and worked in the second half of the 1990’s until 2001. Let us continue now with my employment in Auckland and my notions on this sort of thing.

Before working in Auckland, I had worked as a law clerk, assistant and junior associate for law and consulting firms in Dusseldorf, Miami and Johannesburg. My supervisors told me what to do. There had not been a bunch of scope to deviate and to think on my feet. However, as a result of “Rogernomics” and “Ruthanasia” the business environment including the employment market in New Zealand is quite deregulated. Fixed term contracts, contract work and executive leasing has become there in the course of time rather the rule than the exception. That sort of environment would lead to quite a cultural shock among German civil servants.

My business development role there revolved around generating new business from small and medium sized companies. It was a vertical learning curve. I just had to learn to fly. When I can learn it, so can others. That experience has completely changed my perspective on employment. In a nutshell, a lot more important than the money that you make are the skills that you can develop. While developing sales and marketing skills - especially in a business to business environment - your communication skills are getting very honed. When you are originally rather timid and shy, you are gradually transformed into someone with backbone. You learn to stand your ground. It is rather amazing how I can use now in the classroom with students the communication skills that I could develop in a completely different setting.
Summary

After all this, we get back to where we started. Franz Beckenbauer went through his most significant growth period in New York. In my humble case, it was in Auckland. Afterwards, you no longer take yourself too seriously. You get a little more relaxed. You try to do things effortlessly. Trying to do things effortlessly is better for your nonchalance.

My favourite Latin American writer is Mario Vargas Llosa. The writers who most influenced him were Faulkner and Satre. In his collection of essays “Making Waves” Mario Vargas Llosa says about Satre: “Satre is a man who has aged well. Now he is younger, freer and more agreeable than he was at forty or fifty”. Perhaps people are younger, freer and more agreeable when they no longer take themselves too seriously and try to do things effortlessly.
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To read Jurgen's two previous articles Click Here and Click Here. Jurgen Klemann can be contacted at the following: jhklemann@gmx.net

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