Building an Engine

If you want to still the waves of money anxiety, you need to start with some fact finding. Where are you? For me that has changed in a pretty fundamental way. Quite often big life changes are a catalyst for relooking at your situation. I moved back to South Africa in December. That means thinking in Rands rather than Pounds. I spent the early part of my career getting my money jobs around the world. Building what I call an Engine. You don’t have to be the sole breadwinner. Your money can work too. Especially if you squeeze some space in between your hand and mouth. To create space, you need to have an idea of what you are spending. So for me, now... I have to wait for the dust to settle. As I adjust, the numbers are way bigger (thanks inflation!) than 13 years ago, and some of the basic ways things are done differ from up north. After a few months of paying attention, you can get an idea of the things you can expect. Then you can start to add space for the surprises. Then you can start building (or repairing) your Engine.

Mechanical Repair

 

Hopping the Pond

I am navigating all the hoops involved in country and continent hopping. I did it in the other direction in 2008, aged 28, when all I had to do was pack a bag and jump on a plane. That, and get permission. In a world with borders and restricted movement, I had to get a work visa based on qualifications, language, age, and proof that I could self-support. Like borrowing money, where you need to prove you don’t need to borrow it. In the other direction, I am a citizen. This time, the lottery of birth works in my favour. My British wife is going through the process of getting a visa. Thanks to Social Media, in many ways I never “left” South Africa. During Lockdown, does it matter if you are reading Sindile Vabaza’s musings on your computer in the Cotswolds or in Claremont? In other ways, I have been a Scatterling of Africa and am returning home. Everything is temporary. The body regenerates every 7-10 years. We choose what we want to keep, what we want to discard, and what we want to add. Reinventing. Reinvesting. This time, I am “not leaving” the UK. I am not leaving the old colleagues, clients, neighbours, artists, dancers, yogis, family and friends who are not defined by the random location they were dropped on this planet.

Putney, London, United Kingdom, 2008

Freedom of Movement

I moved to the UK from South Africa in 2008, via Bermuda. My high school Maths teacher used to tell me I always did things the long way (my answers went “via Cape Town”), so it was time to up my game. I spent six months in Bermuda because it was easier to organize a work visa, and the company I was with was based there. The goal was to move to Putney, which was where my brother would be with my new niece. Reverse-Colonisation, my sister-in-law called it.  On the day the little lady was born I was still in Bermuda, strapping a celebratory cake onto my scooter to take to my colleagues. I am a supporter of the Four Freedoms of Movement (Goods, Capital, Services, and Labour). Having grown up during Apartheid, I have never understood why the lottery of birth should play such a big role in determining the container in which people are able to build their financial security. Whether the container is nationality, race, gender, or any other form of discrimination.

Via Bermuda

Hiding in the Shire

One big shift for me to become a true Soutie is getting used to the seasons. I grew up in Durban where Winters are warm enough for beach weather, and Summers are boiling. The seasons here on Mud Island are distinct, and there are very much four of them. Gardens that disappear completely and burst into life. Particularly where Gem and I have set up home in the Shire. Straight out of the story books, there are hobbits everywhere gardening and farming. Endless Summers have their appeal, but I love the changing character of this corner of the globe that makes weather so topical. It has strengthened its hold on my heart during the Covid Lockdown, when we are all cut off from each other. By ocean, border, or car being immaterial. The lessons of Autumn and Winter seem apt. Unlearning and stillness. Creative destruction. Reskilling. Survival. Time to reflect on what truly matters and what is permanent. Moments when we can’t do anything, because there is nothing to be done. Moments to acknowledge those who have to do, because they have no other choice. Moments to be grateful for our ability to survive challenges and connect seasons. Till we can hold each other once again.

Gem Sketches the Shire

Unpacking Constructively

We haven’t got shared words. Words are imperfect, but useful if they connect us. If they move the conversation forward. Words are models of reality. I am a Soutie with one foot in South Africa, and one foot in the UK. After “persistent problems with salient collective terminology” (Peter Aspinall), the UK office for national statistics defines ethnicity as “something that is subjectively meaningful to the person concerned”. I reluctantly tick White African with half a nod to the colourblind dream of the Rainbow Nation, and half a nod to the reality of persistent bias in all the companies I worked in, and both countries I have lived in. The latest stab at a word for ethnicity that doesn’t sit well for me in the UK is “Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic”. BAME. “Black” people are not a minority in South Africa, and they are only a minority in wealthy countries because our Nations were consciously constructed by race. Creating minorities. Borders don’t interest me much. Religions, nations, companies, races, numbers, and words are imperfect models of a much more complicated reality. The key is unpacking constructively.

2011 UK Census Ethnic Group

Pay Deep Attention

All lives don’t have the same options. The challenge with reading books, watching movies, and spending time with outliers and heroes is their realities are likely vastly different. I went to watch a play about homelessness in the UK. Something as a Soutie, I had been skeptical about (“You don’t know what poverty is. Come to South Africa.”). The Actors took suggestions from the audience, and then played it out. The lesson? We have no idea how to live other people’s lives. We just think we do. The best generic advice is to pay deep attention to your options. Talk to people whose lives resonate with yours. Find mentors who have walked the path from where you are. Friends one page ahead. Don’t underestimate what you can learn from very average people. What you can learn from, rather than teach, people less fortunate than you. Don’t spend so much time trying to surround yourself with successful people that you lose yourself. Meritocracy can hide what we have under what we want.

UK National Charity for Homelessness

Dismantling Apartheid

Financial Security is a team sport. The former Mayor of South-Central Durban, Theresa Mthembu, invited me to her home in 1996. It was the first time I had been to Umlazi. I grew up along the route of the Comrades Marathon which winds its way from Durban to Pietermaritzburg. I was in the White bits. The other bits were further from the main artery. I spent two years in the UK in ‘98/’99 and moved here again in 2008. To me, in my “English Speaking World” bubble, it is irrelevant whether what separates me from poverty is the valley of a thousand hills or the hills of Oxfordshire and then the Atlantic Ocean. Racism was never a “South Africa Problem”. Apartheid was never a South Africa problem. We are all connected. We just create artificial divisions that allow us to live in bubbles of self-determination. I can’t unsee that visit as a 16-year-old. But the system we live in didn’t change that day. Just my personal practice of dismantling it. Starting the only way I can. With myself. Every day. For the rest of my life.

Dismantling Apartheid is a Marathon

Durban Boy Afrikaans

The CEFR (Common European Framework of Reference) outlines your ability within a language. I am attempting to break free of my monotongue world view. My mother tongue is English. I also speak Durban Boy Afrikaans (i.e. not great, but better with booze). My English wife finds it strange when people in South Africa say they are English. South Africa has 11 official languages, and that is part of our identity. In CEFR, level B2 is “the capacity to achieve most goals and express oneself on a range of topics” (2500 active vocabulary) and C1 (5000) involves “nuance, in terms of appropriacy, sensitivity, and the capacity to deal with the unfamiliar”. It feels like financially speaking, we live in a world stuck on level B2. Within a hand-to-mouth, pass-the-parcel economy, we are fine if (1) there are enough jobs, and (2) we don’t go off-script. We can handle the very familiar. We can do Durban Boy Afrikaans with prepared “going to the shops” dialogues. If we want a deeper connection, we need to build Buffers (Emergency Funds) to handle unexpected expenses, and vanishing income. If we want deeper comprehension, we need Engines (Capital that earns on our behalf) that can sustain our exploration. Beyond our income-dependence lies a world of creativity.

1991 Trev in the Durban Boys' Choir

in front of the Durban City Hall

Bit of a Wet

I was a bit of a wet as a kid. At the tail end of Apartheid, we still had Corporal Punishment (which ended with the birth of Democracy). There were two occasions when I almost got caned, but waterworks saved me from Mr Pike and Mr Ash (not making the names up). This was the same culture that had the 2003 Springboks naked in a foxhole while having ice-cold water poured over their heads. The complicated bit is the "my parents beat me and look how I turned out" justification given. Often people who had it hard become the hardest opponents of stopping it from being hard in the first place. Like people who have made it against the odds objecting the loudest to those in poverty being given "handouts". I am still a bit of a wet. I don't regard basic foundations of kindness and respect as handouts. I don't believe in fear as an incentive.

Caning stand from British Prison in Hong Kong

Basic Flexibility

One noticeable difference as a Soutie is how get togethers are organised in my UK bubble relative to my SA bubble. Down South… Nice weather? Braai? Everyone magically arrives with meat and drinks. Up North… enter the logistic nightmare of matching up calendars. Add a month to when the event can occur for every additional person invited. Planning too far ahead means full calendars swallow you whole. Inflexibility is contagious. Financial Flexibility is similar. The more fixed, recurring expenses you have, the less you can adapt and adjust to the weather. If you spend too far ahead. More isn’t the core goal of Financial Security. The Foundation should be very aware of the expenses over which you don’t have control. Which are short-term, regular, and insistent. Again, the lack of flexibility to cover the basics when storms hit is contagious. If we don’t all have the basics covered, it becomes difficult to see people.

Through the Seasons

I am a Soutie. One foot in South Africa and one foot in the UK. I grew up in Durban where winters are warm, summers are hot, and it is mostly green all year round. I married an English Rose and now live in the middle of the Shire, where I am learning the ways of the Hobbit (slowly). The seasons are distinct. From short days to long. From leafless trees and bare gardens to overflow. “Endless Summers” have their appeal, but the idea of seasons as a foundation for growth makes a lot of sense. Creative Destruction requires broad framing. Busyness is a form of laziness. We need to step back and identify what is really important. Unlearn the distractions. Invest in the foundations. See the connections that matter, and prune cross branches and sucker growth. Sustainable Growth isn’t always up. Tough times will come repeatedly. The key is making sure the winters don’t kill the roots, and tending potential. Springs come repeatedly too.

Boxing Opportunity

Money is made in containers. An ask, an offer, and a box. Meritocracy without a denominator is Privilege. The problem is we are seduced by numbers. It is easier to manage and reward things you can count. I came to the UK in 2008 on the Highly Skilled Migrant Program. Not dissimilar from the points-based system being suggested now. It is one of my most obvious hypocrisies for someone who believes in the four freedoms of movement. Without the free flow of Capital, Goods, Services and People, we live in a system of Global Apartheid. South Africa introduced Homelands and Dompas (internal passports) using Self-Determination and all the other tricks to justify the borders we see between nations. Nations put opportunity in boxes. Based simply on the lottery of birth. Money is made by actually solving problems, or artificially restricting our ability to solve problems and limiting who gets to benefit.

Different Sources

You can’t build an Engine without a source. I picked a source from the menu. But not everyone has the same menu. I got a two-year work-travel visa in 1998-99 and considered my options while working as a waiter, night-porter, and teaching assistant. In the UK, the Jobcentre is part of the Department for Work and Pensions and delivers working age support-services. Helping with the menu. The National Minimum Wage is increasing to £8.72/hour in April. At the moment, that is about R170. Close to a day’s wages in South Africa at the lower end. Many things cost less in Rands, but being a Soutie (one foot in SA, on foot in the UK) punches you in the face with Global Inequality. The Gini Coefficient measures inequality. South Africa takes gold at 63% which is the same as Global Inequality (Lafuente, 2006). The worst country is the world’s self-portrait. Conveniently hidden by borders, distance, and Global Apartheid.

Opening Up

Having grown up in Apartheid South Africa, I am a supporter of the Four Freedoms of Movement – Goods, Capital, Services, and Labour. Wealth compounds over the very long term. The marginal contribution is amplified or muted by what came before. A lottery of birth shouldn’t determine the impact of our effort. I believe in “Open Borders” (See the book by Caplan and Weinersmith) but ironically/hypocritically (?) came to the UK on a Highly Skilled Migrant Program that allowed me to arrive without a job offer. This opportunity wasn’t (and isn’t) open to everyone. I got a job offer before moving, but didn’t like the idea of being tied to a company. Still, I went through the process and now hold two passports. Two of the things I don’t believe in. Caplan calls this a “keyhole solution”. Better than closed borders by targeting the specific objections as narrowly as possible. Typical keyhole solutions include immigration tariffs, guest worker programs, and linguistic and cultural fluency requirements.

Defining Basic

I live off a Capital funded Basic Income. Defining Basic is a challenge. I have one foot in the UK, and one foot in South Africa. In the UK, the most recent survey of Personal Incomes puts the median amount at £21,000. For one person. The median wage in South Africa is just short of R40,000 a year for a family of 3.5. That’s about £2,150. It all gets complicated (tax, cost of living, etc.) but my goal when I stopped employment 5 years ago was to live off less than £2,000 a month. Luxury, as Monty Python would say. The UK has 1.3 million, and South Africa over 10 million, unemployed people. Again, it gets complicated. The support available is different. I believe it is possible, with time, to build Community Wealth Funds that could fund Basic Incomes. There are lots of issues to work through, but I am excited by the prospects of the creativity that could be unleashed in a world where everyone is empowered with Financial Security. Where everyone has the Endurance and Resilience to explore and develop their skills, knowledge, and passions. That is a world worth building towards.

Four Yorkshiremen

Hard Thing First

When I finished school, I didn’t know what I wanted to “be”. Top of the list were Teacher or Architect because I thought they combined my interest in Learning, Art, and Mathematics. Both my brothers were at Medical School, and three sets of fees was too much of a push for my parents. The UK offered a two-year working holiday visa. I worked as a waiter to save for the plane ticket, and then got a job as a gap student at a prep school in Chichester. While there, I saved my Pounds like a hamster, and plotted what to study. On trips to London, I felt “poor”. Look, but don’t touch. I decided to be deeply pragmatic. It was easier to make a career out of Maths skills, and a hobby of Art, than vice versa. I chose Actuarial Science, which topped the list of many surveys of the best professions. Hard, but safe. If I busted a gut for a few years, then I could do the stuff I wanted. Do the hard things first was very much the way I had been deep soaked growing up. Gratefully, Old Mutual also had a bursary scheme. This meant the money issue was taken off the table, in exchange for working for them after my studies.

Working as a Porter in the English School Holidays

Bigger World

I moved to the UK in 2008 partly for family reasons, and partly for the increased opportunity set of working in a Global City. I never “left South Africa”. I just thought that earning Pounds, gave me a better chance of squirreling away some acorns for the winter. Like investment returns, opportunity compounds. I got the chance to work in the UK based on my age, income, education level, and ability to speak English. It isn’t an opportunity open to everyone. By 2014, still thinking in Rands, I felt I had sufficient acorns to stop worrying about squirreling if I was good at controlling my expenses. Acorns grown by the Pound go further in cheaper areas. Working is expensive. Many who work in London earn more, but still live hand-to-mouth. The living can be done cheaper elsewhere if your hand and mouth can look up and see a bigger world.

The Right Approach

I am part of a group of men that meets twice a month to support and challenge each other. I don't have the colleagues a 9-5 job provides, and so this is similar to that.... but without the artificial work/life/play divide. We all think very differently, and there is always the risk that we end up in a talk shop where we are trying to sell our world view. We have recently overcome this by creating "cards" for what exactly it is we are trying to achieve in the discussion. 

I get the sense that that may be what is missing from the general noise of conversation that we see in politics and social media. We aren't sure, in advance, what it is we are trying to achieve. We aren't sure, in advance, what the conflict resolution process is. We end up throwing around the word Democracy like it has meaning that is agreed upon. "The People". All sorts of ideas when it doesn't even seem like we are playing the same game.

One example is feedback. There is a difference between just needing to say something aloud, and actually wanting someone to offer a solution. Sometimes articulating something to a sympathetic ear is all I want. I feel like I am equipped to deal with the challenges. I just want to scream. Or cry. I whine. I don't want someone to then "come to my rescue" with advice that they then expect me to carry out. We call this the "context card". The "advice card" is different. If I actually want to know what the others would do in the situation I am facing. If I feel there is something I am missing. The "challenge card", gives people free rain to throw in whatever judgements or projections they have.

The "UK Parliament" card is sometimes useful in Democracy. A combative Opposition and a firepit of people divided into teams. Sometimes it is exactly the opposite of what is useful. Sometimes marches are useful. Petitions. Sometimes it is useful to have a directly elected representative who can be fired representing a constituency. Sometimes Proportional Representation is useful to ensure minorities have a voice. To ensure that everyone feels their vote counts so they don't have to strategically bet on things that they don't want. Sometimes you need an expert. Like if you are having an operation. Sometimes you just need the crowd to cheer or boo. Like if you are at a Comedy Club.

The biggest lesson for me from the Brexit mess is how easy it is to be against something. Almost no one is taking responsibility. The other side is being pointed at and bad mouthed. The hard work of listening to everyone, and finding something that works is being kicked down the road.

Sometimes we have to step back from the game, and decide if the game we are playing even has any chance of delivering what it is any of us want.

Are the rules working?

Stretched Soutie

As a Soutie, I can't move home. Home isn't a place. It feels more like a state of mind. Of heart. One of my feet sits on a muddy island that was once a magical and scary place beyond the Empire. Then briefly the head of an Empire. The other sits in a country on the southern tip of a vast continent that is waiting to roar. Both are having raw identity crises. I don't want to be defined by a place. Anger rises at the thought of being defined by borders and separateness. Born in Apartheid, the boiling point of my blood is division, suppression, and disempowerment. I will never be defined by a team. For me, home isn't the edges. It is the engine. Home doesn't contain me. Home releases me. I can't move home. Home can only move me. Home doesn't contain us. It empowers us.

Moving Home

Finding Roots in a Global World

I have been writing my blog almost daily for about 4.5 years now. A form of stream of consciousness, where I think aloud and then my ideas get fired in the public kiln till the bubbles crack the badly formed ones. 

One tool that I find useful is consistency. How can you believe A, and B, if B is not A. You have to choose. The problem is consistency has its limits. Our beliefs and preferences tend to be narrow, and dependant. I used to think you couldn't be racist and intelligent. Then I learned about Wouter Basson ("Dr. Death"). There are plenty of examples of people who are persecuted and persecutors. There are examples of people who are one person at work, another at home, and another at play. Whose beliefs depend on the group they are in, and who like multiple groups.

We layer meaning on top of facts. We think in categories and stories. This means we can be reading two books as we look at the same situation. Our response depends.

A theme of my writing has been the homelessness of my circle of friends and family, in a world that is battling with Globalisation and Localisation. Home has had to become a collection of my favourite competing stories. To maintain my mental health, I have to switch between worlds. To learn to let go of things that really matter to me... temporarily.

I am a Soutie. I have one foot in the UK and one foot in South Africa. I have good friends in the US, China, Brazil, and New Zealand. My family is all over. Even when people are in the same place physically, they are often not available. Everyone is so busy, it becomes near impossible to arrange events when groups get bigger than two or three. It isn't that they don't care. They are just reading something else. So there isn't actually an option of "moving home". My home is always moving.

As someone who loves seeking out patterns and layering meaning, I have had to develop a lighter touch. A half-hearted detachment. Not everything means something. Not everything is consistent.

I would love to figure out how you can build community in this brave new world. How do you develop roots that are oceans apart? Letting go is required just as much as digging in.

Be the Tree-v