And how much time have you actually spent in Africa? And what parts?
That’s actually a great question.
I know the question wasn’t for me, but I’ve spent a fair bit of time there…not as much as many, including a few folks here, notably
@TheHorta and have a few observations.
I found the Rangers I worked with in Botswana, and threw many of ‘em out of the back of my airplane (Airborne training, LoL) to be quiet professionals in the extreme. I wouldn’t hesitate one second to go into a fight with them…they were tiny little dudes, but tough as nails. Their officers seemed to genuinely care about their troops too…something extremely rare in that region and throughout the Middle East as well for that matter.
Very mixed results in every country surrounding them, including South Africa.
I found that the farther away from the bigger cities we were, the better the various teams we worked with were at paying attention during training and learning; Arusha > Zanzibar > Dar es Salaam in Tanzania for example. Of course, Dar es Salaam is completely overrun by the Chinese by this point, so kinda moot.
East coast was kind of a mixed bag…the folks I worked with in Eritrea, Djibouti, and Ethiopia had some really fucked up idiots in charge when I was there, but the average person I met and worked with was remarkably, well, average. Somalia is just a total loss IMHO, just nuke it from orbit and start over.
I did find that the folks we worked with along the Gold Coast...and West Africa in general had (almost) the dumbest people I’ve ever worked with…and very little desire to improve at pretty much anything.
The Sudan is just a train wreck…and getting worse as Islamification continues its march into Africa. Pretty horrific shit going down and it’s gonna get worse.
I spent the most time in Egypt though, years actually…doing everything from teaching their field grade officers how to build training programs, to flying with their aircrews, doing DZ and airfield surveys, etc. Some truly good people, but almost robotic in general…anyone smart enough to lead there is almost certainly corrupt to the core, and/or leaves for greener pastures. And the general population is either too stupid to make a difference or just so beat down that anything, including death, is better than their life there.
I watched people get out of their Mercedes and take a shit on the street, then get back in and keep on driving. I watched them throwing dead animals and all their garbage into the Nile, and 100 yards downstream watched old ladies washing clothes and pulling drinking water from the river and canals. Unreal.
The only place I imagine more filthy and unsanitary is probably Bangladesh.
Edit: One time, my crew and a few others were called over to the Egyptian side of the airfield at Cairo West, and the Egyptian General in charge had us line up in front of what we thought was gonna be some kind of parade or something. And it was…sort of. They hauled out some conscripts who had tried to desert and stripped them naked and started beating them with canes…pretty sure a couple of them died. We were pretty stunned. Apparently it brought more shame to them by being beaten in front of ‘strangers’ or foreigners…or maybe that general was just sending a message.
Don’t know, but after a couple minutes of that I pulled us out of there and we just left in the middle of that scene…very fucked up. But I guess you gotta be harsh to control people in that society
My biggest takeaway from my time in Egypt is that their current “civilization” is absolute proof that aliens built the pyramids! LoL. There’s no way in hell those idiots built those grand old piles of rocks…
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So yeah, I’m down to save whatever, and whoever we can from that continent, as long as they want to work and contribute to society…not just become wards of the state. I welcome those Boer with open arms, and hope they can teach that same work ethic to the folks around them wherever they settle
