Its happening. South Africa, as an example, used to be like any Western country in the 1960s, 70s and beyond.
Right up until Valentine’s Day in 1961, South Africa used the British Pound as its official currency. This was because SA was a British colony. In 1961, when the Rand made its debut, it wasn’t considered a weak currency as it is now. It traded at R2 to the Pound and a 72 cents to the dollar! Can you even imagine such a time? The reality is that some South Africans can and do! But, all that has changed.
Now, South Africa is falling to pieces:
Eskom (the national power utility company) impliments load shedding (rolling blackouts) on a daily basis, which affects the whole country and according to some, is now getting so severe, that it is literally starting to bring the country to a standstill.
Currently often at around stage 5, that means there is often no electricity for up to around 10 hours a day at times.
People who want to have power, must rely on running generators and using batteries and inverters - those who can even afford this.
Sometimes, it stays off longer, when it simply does not come back on when its scheduled to restart.
Everything is crazy expensive and people everywhere are really struggling financially.
The lights are literally not being kept on and are going out.
This includes traffic lights, which go out during the now daily rolling blackouts, with no end in sight and no answers from anyone about a way to fix the situation.
The Post office is basically not working. SAA is gone.
Infrastructure is crumbling away, roads are full of potholes and there are no funds to fix it due to corruption and mismanagement.
The opinion of many locals now is that it's going the way of Zimbabwe.
Meanwhile, South Africa is holding Naval drills along with Russia and China (with what little still remains of the navy that it once had). Many are alarmed and are critical about it, as SA traditionally used to be aligned with the UK/USA/West, but now, that appears to be changing too (SA joined and is a member of BRICS).
South Africa Joining Russian naval exercise amounts to joining the war - Leah...
Note the note
STAGE 5 ROLLING BLACKOUTS
That means there is about 10 hours of electeicity blackout happening EVERY day. And its not getting any better.
However, not everyone feels the same way and the ANC government (due to the historical ties, of having been helped by the Soviet Union and China during their struggle to come into power) is now defending the further strengthening of its friendship with Russia, despite the USA having voiced its concerns.
Local news
SA to host China Russia in military exercises
France 24
South Africa hails friendship with Russia as military drills planned FRANCE 24
US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has also come attempting to persuade the country leaders, to instead look to the USA as a strategic partner, rather than them looking more to Russia and China as friends and partners, with promises of investment and help with transitioning to "green energy".
US firms doubling down on South Africas commitments
U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen starts 10-day tour of three African...
However, most see this as being a bit of a pipe dream and that so-called "green energy" investments are not going to do anything to really help fix the situation, when there is not even a fully functional power grid left as it is and what is left of it, is increasingly corrupt, often at the very top of its structure.
With South Africa now openly welcoming Russia and China for war games, the rest of Africa is very likely to follow suit (perhaps even more so) as they like the Chinese way of investment which despite debt trap diplomacy tactics, ultimately brings new infrastructure and does it fast.
Africa has lots of minerals. Russia must clearly have its plans too. There are even Russian students who are learning to speak Afrikaans at Univerity level in Moscow, which perhaps also shows that there must be a growing interest for them in SA and the rest of Africa.
Does any of this apply to Gibraltar? Perhaps not directly, but this is being posted because it shows how life can become changed radically in countries and that it can happen in a relatively short time, often right under people's noses. Some changes may be for the better, this is what people hope for, but this is not always the case across the board. And we all know, that the West is being changed. It may not be anything like in SA tomorrow, but then again things can also happen very quickly, when there is a war.
This shows more about what's been going on in SA.
