The world's most controversial currency? | Orania, the Ora, & the eOra cryptocurrency

Orania is an all-white, privately owned town for Afrikaners in majority-black South Africa - and it has its own currency - the Ora! But is Orania or the Ora a threat to anyone? And whatever happened to the "eOra" cryptocurrency which was widely reported on in the media a few years ago? These questions and more are all answered in the latest video in my STRANGE MONEY sereis.

[FredoRockwell]

Okay, making this video has been an uncomfortable process. I don't want to offend the very helpful people in Orania who made this video possible, and yet at the same time I want to make my own views on segregation and apartheid clear. Anyway, I hope that I somehow struck the right balance.

Some of the sources used to make this video include:

[ruaanvandyk]

Proud to be a "Oraniër"! And even more proud to be one of the creators of the dOra.

[hamish]

Long live Orania. I'm donating from Australia. I love everything they are doing and hope we see more of this across the world.

[SonicHawk]

Orania is the answer to discrimination from the majority elected government and its supporters.
Afrikaans schools are forced to go double medium or even full english.
Afrikaners are called settlers and white capitalists.
We are subject to Black Economic Empowerment laws.
Little to nothing is done by the government to protect our farmers who are tortured and murdered like animals.

Orania combats this hate and discrimination by depending on themselves and creating a future for themselves through hard work.

Orania isnt a whites only town, its Afrikaner Cultural town.
If Orania didnt do as well as they do, the racist people that hate them wouldnt even pay attention..

[renegadeace]

With the way things are going in the US, not a bad idea here too.

[mundusuys]

I'm a white Afrikaner and I won't get into Orania. Neither would I want to live there. I have a modern lifestyle integrated with the other cultures of South Africa. Orania is a cultural enclave and I'm glad it exists because it serves as a private museum for Afrikaner culture which is understandably neglected by the black government. South Africa is a multicultural diverse nation and other cultures also undertake their own cultural activities. This obsession with being bothered by Orania is hypocritical and somewhat pathetic, considering it was built from scratch in the middle of nowhere and thriving to no outsider's detriment. Its residents pay taxes to the RSA and complies with all the laws. Rather use successful Orania as a template for preserving your own cultures and leave them be.

[jrr]

My brother and I are planning on moving to Orania this year and it's great to see less biased news about the town. Some people focus too much on the segregation part, some too much on the past, and some are optomistic see peace, and this video was a good blend.

I must however point out a few things about Orania, the land issue, the Volkstaat and South African issues in general and some of it might be hard to swallow, especially for non-South Africans, but people within our nation will often reiterate what I write here :

The Volkstaat is still an ideal for many Afrikaner nationalists who see their political power, economical situation and welcome in South Africa diminish. Many move oversees to the UK, Canada, Australia or New Zealand. Orania was indeed the first town that was built with this ideal in mind, but not the only one. There are a few others, such as Kleinfontein, Eureka and Groendorp along with a few farms that have been made into small housing facilities for Afrikaners. The point of the Volkstaat is for all the Afrikaners in this region to be a majority in the region, then we can have a referendum to 'exit' South Africa' and create a new country or make a new state with our own laws like Quebec, Canada.

South Africa's "Rainbow Nation" idea died after Mandela left office. Back then there was hope for unification and non-racialism, but soon the problems arose. White people have been to blame for everything in the country even if everything in the past 30 years after Apartheid also failed, miserably, like ESKOM (our electricity supplier) which is bankrupt and which cuts power to major cities for several hours so that the infrastructure doesn't implode; PRASA (Railways) which are also bankrupt, all trains run late and the main line into Cape Town has been cut for the last few months due to the rail lines being stolen. In 2015 there were trains on fire nearly weekly and 7 trains crashed into eachother that year. DENEL (weapons factory) also broke. SABC (News and media) broke and corrupt, government for a while controlled what could and couldn't be shown in the news. ETCETERA!
The people have their own cultural and ethnic clusterings. With so many different groups, it's easy to spot how our tribalistic instincts come forward and make us group rogether with the same people as us. There was never really a "Rainbow Nation" apart from the fact that the different groups live separately within one entity.

The land ussue is a huge factor of hate and fear in this country. A fear of a civil war, a fear of economic turmoil and hate for people who don't have control over what happend in the past.

Now all these things, from crime, to government corruption, to hate surrounding who's land is it anyeays, to economic reasons and to inherent human nature to be with your own kind, Orania was an answer to many of these problems.The things that kept people from ever really moving there and perhaps settle other Afrikaner towns (till recently) was the lack of resources for a sugnificant industry for an economy, an infrastructure to support the people and the businesses, a lack of high paying jobs and most importantly, a reason to leave South Africa's ideals behind and semigrate, and those reasons have been stacking up higher and higher yearly. An economy was fested in Orania, the infrastructure is being built and needs meeted and the idea of a Volkstaat seems more and more promising each day that passes.

Orania has great allianses/diplomatic ties to other places with similar outlooks as them, such as a Xhosa town in the Eastern Cape (Speaking of which, there are hundreds of Black only towns still in the original Bantustans that were made for each Bantu ethnic group), Hopetown (a community of Coloured (not mixed) people), South-Tyrol (a German population in Italy) and Vlaandere.

[totallynotgad]

I would love to see a full Strange Politics video on the politics of Orania!

[yuppieNL]

As a dutchman I can tell you right now all dutch cultures are stubborn, these people will not give up and this town will grow to be the biggest in the district by 2060 of we calculate with exponential growth.

Current population - 2800
Growth rate 10 %

[enzo_uBhutTyhopho]

As a South African citizen part of the majority, I can see the efficiency of the ora in terms mitigating socio-economic issues related to crime. However, it does raise questions on Orania's supply chain. How do they comply with regulations posed in primary, secondary and tertiary sectors of the economy? If the community exercises self-efficiency in those sectors as well, are the levels of production sufficient enough to constitute a sustainable local economy? How will they maintain equilibrium between population growth and the availability of resources when they are independent on South Africa's "plummeting economy"?

I feel that Orania's values and governance supplemented by population growth will initiate political unrest in the country in the years to come.

[GoodVideos]

It isn't really a currency anyway, and is more like coupons, vouchers.

[wypkewypkema]

Making their own currency is a stroke of brilliance

[noodlyappendage]

Any group of people have the right to self determination and the right to freedom of association. If Afrikaners want to keep themselves to themselves that’s fine. They can still trade and have relations with foreigners. South Africa is going down the drain. These guys have the right idea.

[CasperLabuschagne]

Across the world many places have local currencies that are merely a rebranding of the national currency with the permission of the central bank. The ORA in Orania is in not in any way an independent currency but for every Ora in circulation a Rand is taken out of circulation and deposited at the Reserve Bank.

[lookslikeme]

Freedom of association. It's in our constitution. We are like Jews without a homeland. That's why there is Orania.

[Anon]

You pronounce most Afrikaans words not too badly, apart from "klein reus". The "ei" in Afrikaans sounds like the "ai" in English "main". The "eu" in Afrikaans like the "ieu" in "monsieur". Thank you for the interesting video.

[moonam]

Can you do a video on some other local currencies? I've never heard of this concept before.

[mikek]

Orania is an island of peace in SA's chaos. I'm glad Orania is doing well

[Baronvanhausen]

You made your position quite clear buddy😂 what you don’t realize is that a diverse range of unique cultures only exist due to separation and preservation. Diversity kills a unique culture no matter if it was white or any other race

[facerdas]

Wat kan ek doen om na Orania te immigreer?