Tarred with the same brush

Since I have started blogging, just a few weeks ago, I have noticed that there appears to be one overriding argument that seems to raise it's head on a more than just regular basis. There is a passionate argument regarding South Africans who have remained in South Africa, and those who have chosen to live abroad.

In this time I have been happy to accept both sides of the argument - I am a South African who has lived in the UK for more than 5 years. I have close friends who have chosen to remain in SA, some who have joined me in the UK - or further afield in Australia, and some who have returned back to South Africa from London. So I feel I know all the sides of the argument, and I believe that each has its merits. I have never begrudged my friends their decisions, or the motivations for those decisions or thought any less of any of them.

However, today for the first time I read something and felt the hair on my neck rise. I found a blog entry titled, "Why are South Africans abroad such w***ers?".
It appears that the author (based in SA) and an "expat" based outside of South Africa got involved in an argument regarding living in South Africa.
I am not going to get involved in defending one side or the other of the argument that took place. It appears that an ignorant, or at the very least uninformed, opinion initiated the argument, and in any sphere these types of opinions are the most dangerous.

However, the author of the blog was so enraged that they sought to express this anger by arbitrarily classifying "[all] South Africans abroad [...] w***ers"
This smacks of stooping the the same ignorant and uninformed level of the opinion which started the argument in the first place!

I feel insulted to have been put into this category (admittedly, by someone who specifically says this is their opinion, and there's alone). However, the rating on Muti of this blog seems to indicate to me that the opinions expressed are more widely held than by just one individual.

It is an insult to use such broad generalisations.
We each have our reasons for taking the decisions we have. I will agree, some of those decisions are not honourable, are selfish and are misinformed.
To me, there appears to be a huge divide being created between South Africans living in South Africa, and South Africans living outside of South Africa.

Surely the process of nation building requires people of the same mind to work closely together and can accommodate them regardless of WHERE they live?
Surely the divide should be between those who passionately work towards a brighter future for the country, regardless of their methods of doing so, and those who selfishly work toward their own embetterment, regardless of what means they employ to do this? (I imagine there are some fine examples of such people IN South Africa.)

If we are going to see a brighter South Africa, don't we have to harness the power of our collective passion, rather than allow that energy to be wasted on petty bickering, name calling and expressing uninformed opinion?

And while we are brandishing the tar brush indiscriminately, I would point out that Nelson Mandela, Desmond Tutu, Thabo Mbeki and Mark Shuttleworth have all spent time "abroad" at some point in their lives.

Please let's be careful where we splash that tar!