Town Cliches

In South Africa, there are a total of 18 major cities. In Singapore, we have only one sunny island.

Within South Africa itself, there is an obvious income disparity. The rich are becoming richer and the poor are, sad to say, becoming poorer. The different towns of Johannesburg actually display such imbalance. In Soweto, where the majority of the residents are blacks, lays squatters as well as mansions. In Sandton, where the majority of the residents are whites, lays the wealthiest of Johannesburg. Not too far away from Sandton is Alexandra, where the poorest of Johannesburg resides. This is, thankfully, not a common sight in Singapore.

Sandton
http://www.iicom.org/annual_2002/new.htm

Soweto slums

http://www.elcivics.com/united_nations_3.html

While talking to one of my South African group mates, Vicky, it was interesting to find out that each city in South Africa has unique descriptions for the other cities. Vicky lives in Johannesburg, the largest and richest city in South Africa.

Johannesburg Night Life
http://www.safarinow.com/cms/johannesburg-gauteng/irie.aspx

“All the fashion begins here, all the biggest parties mostly happen here. It’s just that the latest and best always will get here first” - Vicky

She goes on to make a comparison with her own city and Cape Town.

Cape Town
http://www.afropop.org/sweepstakes.php

Cape Town is one of the three capitals of South Africa. It is in charge of legislative matters of the country. It has the reputation of being one of the most beautiful cities of the world as well as the most laid-back city of the country. However, Vicky begs to differ. According to her, it seems that the youths of Johannesburg and Cape Town have a mutual dislike for the other.

Apparently, the Jozis (that’s what people who live in Johannesburg are called) say that the Capetonians (that’s what people who live in Cape Town are called) are hippies or are slow.

“Capetonians compared to Jozis are a lot slower. People are just slower, literally. They drive a lot slower than Jozi people and it gets frustrating for us Jozi people.” - Vicky

Vicky mentions that every time she goes to Cape Town and tells the Capetonians she’s a Jozi, “there is an immediate negativity” towards her. This is how severe the dislike is between the two cities.

Because Johannesburg is the wealthiest city in South Africa, Capetonians often stereotype Jozis as stuck up and arrogant because of their wealth, as such they call the Jozis “Sandton dolls”. Capetonians also have names for Jozi girls who are very conscious about their physical appearance “Kugels”. This is the equivalent of the “Plastics” in the movie “Mean Girls” starring Lindsay Lohan.

"Plastics" in Mean Girls

http://groups.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=groups.groupProfile&groupID=101052360&MyToken=76f44a0a-c535-4c8e-9644-c9dafa9ca806

On the other hand, Jozis think Capetonians are snobby because they are always boasting about their nature – being surrounded by the sea and mountains makes them the most beautiful city in South Africa. Likewise, Jozis call Capetonian girls who aspire to be models “Shmodels” or “poodle”.

The situation in Singapore is very different. Singaporeans do not have city/town clichés. In Singapore, we don’t judge people by their residential area. There are no negative connotations or labeling towards people from different heartlands.
We don’t have distinctive stereotypes of youths who live in different districts or areas of Singapore. We don’t say things like “Hougang youths are hip whereas Boon Lay people are boring”. We’re very united as a whole. Perhaps this is due to the size of the country. The cultures within the different heartlands of Singapore are very much the same. The only stereotypes we may have are that of ethnicity. But in South Africa, they have that too. (However, this is not my main focus, therefore I should not venture into that discussion.)

Links:
http://www.go2africa.com/south-africa/highveld/johannesburg/
http://www.go2africa.com/south-africa/western-cape/cape-town/