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Republic of Junk Status
8 years ago
General
A lot has been happening in South Africa over the past couple of months and I sort of felt like I needed to put things down here in relation to the Ronso site and other aspects concerning the furry community.
South Africa has recently been declared as Junk Status or sub-investment class. Meaning foreign investors would have to pull out investing the country to meet the contractual agreements not to invest in any sub-investments. This follows after our President fired our renowned financial minister almost 2 years after he fired the previous one and got flack for trying to appoint a no name backbencher. This is all part of a major corruption scandal where our President essentially sold the country to a wealthy Indian family and is trying to ransack the treasury.
Long story short; our country's economy is fucked. As such we expect higher taxes, more VAT and generally the cost of living just going up. Throw in the currency exchange versus the dollar; I dont think it would be viable for me to take out regular commission for the RONSO site as much as I would like. You all may have noticed the lack of exclusives from last year till now and it mostly comes down that. Despite a donation page to help out with exclusives; the site has only gotten enough for one commission the past 4 years or so. Regardless it brings me back to something I said earlier; it was not financially responsible for me to spend money like that to commission art of a videogame character I did not necessarily care for. In all honesty I would rather use my money to commission something for myself or as a gift to somebody.
That being said - I still plan to update the site on regular intervals and maybe commission a piece here or there.
Back to the subject of my home country. South Africa is going through a very hard time. Our President seems to do whatever he wants to enrich himself and his cronies, white/black relations are terrible and the general prospect just seems hopeless. Many people ask me 'Why dont you move?"
Well that something I've been battling for ages. You see despite the country going to shit; Im still reasonably well off all things considered. I have a stable job, my own place, my own car, family, etc. Moving abroad is such a major shift change and I'll ultimately have to begin from scratch again with zero support. In this stage of my life; Im just not sure if I want that.
Moreover if I was going to move I would prefer to move to the US if I was being honest. Solely to be close to somebody special and the largest concentration of my overseas friends. We all know how wonderful immigrating to the US is, so you may understand my feelings regarding that. I have no real desire to move anywhere else save Canada and even then that would be so that I could be close to the US.
With the economy going however I may soon be out of a job and would have no choice but to look at other prospects. There's a lot of questions on my mind on what should I do. Do I continue as is and enjoy what I have? Cut my losses and make a break for it before its too late?
I suppose making plans just in case things goes to shit would be in order, but this also enters another issue - family in particular.
They have certain expectations of me. You see Im somewhat of an inheritor of a family business and they expect me to get involved some day. To be honest I want nothing to do with it. I have no interest in that line of work and was one of the reasons why I left my hometown and struck out on my own. Secondly my folks are now in that age bracket where anything that could go wrong will and I dont like the idea of me being halfway across the world should something happen. Also I have found that despite how much they or others say: "Follow your dreams" or "Do what makes you happen"... As soon as you do they suddenly tell you to slow the fuck down. It just adds to the conundrum of what to do.
Somebody dear to me always says "If not you, who? If not now, when?" I know the answer to the first question. The second one is up in the air.
The omitted question however is How?
South Africa has recently been declared as Junk Status or sub-investment class. Meaning foreign investors would have to pull out investing the country to meet the contractual agreements not to invest in any sub-investments. This follows after our President fired our renowned financial minister almost 2 years after he fired the previous one and got flack for trying to appoint a no name backbencher. This is all part of a major corruption scandal where our President essentially sold the country to a wealthy Indian family and is trying to ransack the treasury.
Long story short; our country's economy is fucked. As such we expect higher taxes, more VAT and generally the cost of living just going up. Throw in the currency exchange versus the dollar; I dont think it would be viable for me to take out regular commission for the RONSO site as much as I would like. You all may have noticed the lack of exclusives from last year till now and it mostly comes down that. Despite a donation page to help out with exclusives; the site has only gotten enough for one commission the past 4 years or so. Regardless it brings me back to something I said earlier; it was not financially responsible for me to spend money like that to commission art of a videogame character I did not necessarily care for. In all honesty I would rather use my money to commission something for myself or as a gift to somebody.
That being said - I still plan to update the site on regular intervals and maybe commission a piece here or there.
Back to the subject of my home country. South Africa is going through a very hard time. Our President seems to do whatever he wants to enrich himself and his cronies, white/black relations are terrible and the general prospect just seems hopeless. Many people ask me 'Why dont you move?"
Well that something I've been battling for ages. You see despite the country going to shit; Im still reasonably well off all things considered. I have a stable job, my own place, my own car, family, etc. Moving abroad is such a major shift change and I'll ultimately have to begin from scratch again with zero support. In this stage of my life; Im just not sure if I want that.
Moreover if I was going to move I would prefer to move to the US if I was being honest. Solely to be close to somebody special and the largest concentration of my overseas friends. We all know how wonderful immigrating to the US is, so you may understand my feelings regarding that. I have no real desire to move anywhere else save Canada and even then that would be so that I could be close to the US.
With the economy going however I may soon be out of a job and would have no choice but to look at other prospects. There's a lot of questions on my mind on what should I do. Do I continue as is and enjoy what I have? Cut my losses and make a break for it before its too late?
I suppose making plans just in case things goes to shit would be in order, but this also enters another issue - family in particular.
They have certain expectations of me. You see Im somewhat of an inheritor of a family business and they expect me to get involved some day. To be honest I want nothing to do with it. I have no interest in that line of work and was one of the reasons why I left my hometown and struck out on my own. Secondly my folks are now in that age bracket where anything that could go wrong will and I dont like the idea of me being halfway across the world should something happen. Also I have found that despite how much they or others say: "Follow your dreams" or "Do what makes you happen"... As soon as you do they suddenly tell you to slow the fuck down. It just adds to the conundrum of what to do.
Somebody dear to me always says "If not you, who? If not now, when?" I know the answer to the first question. The second one is up in the air.
The omitted question however is How?
hunterwolf
~hunterwolf
This isn't the first time SA has been denoted as Junk Status. It happened in '94 as well, so we can get past this. But in the interim, yeah...it sucks.
