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Third edition - April 2004

Mark & Alice in the Strand, South Africa

We have just returned from a short holiday to South Africa. Walking the golden beaches, drinking the Cape's wine, and most importantly seeing our friends and family again prompted me to reconsider our move to Australia. So I decided to do some research and found the following stats on Nationmaster's website: www.nationmaster.com

Luxembourg has the strongest Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the world, Australia has the 19th and South Africa 72nd. Andorra has the longest life expectancy average in the world, Australia the 6th, while South Africa doesn't feature under the top 100. The most educated country in the world is Norway, Australia is 3rd, and South Africa comes a respectable 29th.

Now at the risk of being labelled a badmouthing expat, here are the more frightening stats on South Africa: 2nd only to Colombia as "most murderous" country in the world (Australia 42nd), first as "most trigger happy" country in the world (Australia 26th), second only to Nigeria when comparing "children living with Aids" (Australia 78th), and unemployment at (a very generous) 37% (2001 est.) which places South Africa 18th in the world (Australia's current unemployment is below 6%).

Reading the above stats makes you wonder why anybody would want to gamble the odds and remain in South Africa. Yet many do. Perhaps the answer is simple: patriotic blood is thicker than logical water.  

Regards, 
Mark Cumming

 

So what's new on the site?
The most important development is most probably the addition of a very basic SEARCH FUNCTION. Hopefully this will make navigating the mass of information easier.
 
 
THE BASICS: we have included a map of the basic information structure to facilitate the navigation of this section.
  Articles section with a Franchising and two Negative gearing (1, 2) articles
  Australian property section with a section dedicated to Negative Gearing
  Useful links section with:
     Rugby League teams and their official websites 
      Websites geared to answer any question on Australian pets 
 

AUSTRALIA: this section is rapidly growing with tons of useful and interesting information.
  Have you heard Waltzing Matilda in the Australian Songs section? 
  New South Wales with even more on Political, Geographic, Climate, & Economical facts
 

ABOUT US: this section only had minor updates. Because we are in the process of buying a franchise, we are offering you some of our research findings.
 

OUR COMMUNITY: no updates. 
 

ARTICLES: the second of a 12 part series called, "The Migration Series" will be published by the beginning of May. Click here to read the first article titled "Waltzing Matilda vs Shoshaloza". 
 

Stay abreast of developments
A totally voluntary registration of your email address on the website will enable us to keep you informed of changes to the site. We will be sending out monthly newsletters very much like this one with some highlights and indexes into the information. Register if you want to receive the newsletter again. Otherwise just pop in every now and then and see the "what's new" section.

Our contact details
Email  
mark@beluba.com.au
alice@beluba.com.au		 Web  
www.beluba.com.au/ww3

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