SeanM.
I can see you are getting a little frustrated by the tone of your first sentence above. No, I don't think any of us in this thread want to be able wear outlandlish clothing when in S.A. Previously I said conservative, neat clothing should be acceptable to both.
I find your comments very informative Sean and I, and I think most of the others, generally concur with your views. But I see a parallel in the Chamberlain/Hitler fiasco. There is nothing to be gained in getting into bed with dictators. All that seems to happen is the dictator has all their demands met and the appeaser's principles are walked over.
I did 2 tours to Vietnam in the late 60's and I agree with the bully-boy comments you make. Australia participated in the Gulf War from day 1 and I totally disagreed with the risking of the lives of our military personnel so that Kuwait could be handed back to dictators. We still maintain a naval presence in the Gulf to monitor the blockade and currently the Australian Navy has operational control of all naval units there. And we have our SAS soldiers in Afghanistan, one poor bugger just had half his foot blown off by a landmine. I just hope we don't hand this country back to a non-elected gov't.

JG/FME