Why I loved but left South Africa 

 with Keryn Paull

 Streamed live on Jan 4th 2018

 

00:00 Introductions how to watch and participate in the show.

03:00 Farming, playing with Africans, rural life, heaven for children in the middle of nowhere. Annual cycles of wet summers and dry winters

11:00 Zimbabwe had been the “breadbasket” of Africa until 2000 when white farmers were kicked out. Now very little agricultural production

13:22 Our local situation in Umbria with immigrants, but quickly back to Africa!

14:30  The spirit of Africans, spontaneity for better or for worse.  Bureaucrats! Music!

19:00 How is the situation for work there? Little social net.  Compared with Britain, and why she’s there now.

23:25 Her children are doing well in South Africa.  How do they do that? Big industries with tech needs!

25:00 Lots of corruption. Education has suffered, despite strong teachers’ unions!
28:15 Opportunities in music, even classical and opera!  Also dance and arts in general.

33:28 Back to her daughter and son-in-law and the work scene in Africa with

opportunities for development, skipping over the old techs of Europe.  But not for Keryn!

38:00 Dismal public support for Africans.  Housing conditions, no or minimal taxes.  Some lovely and practical structures in rural areas.

43:00 Young people are not attracted to rural life. But also ecological solutions. “People find ways.”

48:00 Many immigrants from more northern people since 1994, which leads to friction. Zimbabweans actually had been better educated than S. Africans.

49:00 S. Africa has decided to follow the money and rural development has been neglected.  Of 55 million, only 6 or 7 million make enough to pay taxes.

52:30 Keryn’s eventual return to S. Africa, as a grandmother!

56:00 Keryn sees little chance of Africans adapting a “western” mentality, and isn’t sure they should!  A fish story

59:00 differing outlooks with progress

1:00:00 Thanks yous and goodbyes.

More about Keryn at: https://thewisdomfactory.net/kery-paull/

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Why I loved but left South Africa with Keryn Paull

Heidi’s introduction to the show:

When I hear the words “South Africa” I think about lions, elephants, zebras, wonderful wide land and more. Later comes the memory of Apartheid and Nelson Mandela and also the amazing opera singers who have won prizes in international festivals and who were grown and born in a township.

I am sure my view on South Africa is somehow romantic and idealistic. How can it be otherwise when you have no direct connection to the country, when you live far away and have never been even near to that part of the globe.

The few South Africans I personally met could have been Europeans or Americans instead, and only when we talked about their origin I found out where they came from and that they had very interesting things to share with me, with us.

I met Keryn Paull, our guest in this show, many years ago at a course and we became buddies in our work to get the certification as a coach. Since then we were in contact and lately I hear that she left the country to live in UK. I became very curious and wanted to know why. I find her stories so interesting that I thought to give you all the possibility to hear them as well: first hand experience of what is going on in a country which seemed to have overcome huge problems, which was developing for a while. And now?

Excerpt of a text written by Keryn:

South Africa is an incredible place – so beautiful, so soulful, so colourful, so forgiving, so accepting, so full of promise.
Its a bit difficult from the point of view of race – there is both a happy relationship between different people, and a very complex painful one. Politicians are very quick to blame the problems they have caused on race, and so create a diversion from their dirty deeds, but that just makes for a more difficult problem than really needs to be….. A lot of healing still needs to be had in SA, and white people do need to humble themselves and accept that they are seen as the enemy at times. 
And yet on a one to one level people across colour lines have wonderful enhancing relationships.

About Keryn Paull

Born in Southern Africa in 1952 Keryn Paull has always been close to nature, an upbringing in the wildness of Rhodesia  led to the unique experience of  developing a very intimate communion with the natural world.  This crucible provided a singular possibility to  unconsciously forge a deep connection to the nature and the divinity of All That Is.

By stark contrast her twenties was spent living the high life in Europe making her way as a fashion model, exploring the very different experiences this world provided.

Back in South Africa  and back on the land – life took on some dramatic turns, which together with the advent of motherhood set her on an path to explore her own limitations. Realising that her psychological wholeness was the key to guiding her child to a successful holistic life led to a longterm  immersion in personal development and spiritual growth.

 There followed an extensive career as a decorative painter in the interiors field, which has allowed for the artist to emerge, and all aspects of the creative journey have been a constant interest along the way.

Keryn regards herself as a humanitarian, a seeker on the journey to greater self-realisation, a creator of her own reality.

 An artist, an environmentalist, a gardener, a big picture thinker, and especially an advocate of solutions and possibilities far removed from the traps of consensus reality.

Complementary and alternative medicines – medicinal uses of plants, natural healing of mind body and soul are all on going passions and pursuits.

Keryn Paull
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