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NEPAD ONLINE newsletter 203
China to work with NEPAD and African partners on aquaculture research
Top-level executives attend annual regional meeting on Africa's progress
NEPAD Gender Task Force recommends changes in APRM reporting
Focus on water and sanitation at AFUR workshop
Click here to view this newsletter online
26 Octob2007
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Unique opportunity for Africa and development partners to work on NEPAD
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Think Tank workshop on Peer Review issues
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Burkino Faso and Mali next on Peer Review list
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Mayor supports Cities programme to make NEPAD happen at the local level
05
UNEP environment report will help NEPAD’s agenda
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Training programme for district health
.07
NEPAD TV
www.triomedia.co.za
The football field of corporate business
We have such a wonderful diverse kaleidoscope of people living in South Africa today.
It is such a pity that laws like BEE infringes or tries to control the natural ability of South Africans to make this country an economic giant on the world corporate rugby field.
One can say BEE is not playing the ball fairly.
Why tar all citizens with the same brush. We have such a diverse African economy.
Methods could be found to empower all previously disadvantaged people by offering them assistance to start up their own companies without hijacking well run financial giants.
Only a strong economy can empower all citizens of South Africa.
If the rugby team was subjected to the same criteria as the business world in South Africa, we may not have taken the world cup.
Lets turn the economy of South Africa round to becoming top players corporate global rugby field.
Ministers approve $2bn submarine cable to connect Africa
High-level meeting praises progress with implementation of CAADP
Key role of agriculture in reaching Millennium Development Goals
APRM Secretariat gears up for major implementation workshop in Algiers
24-09-2007
We use, according to Carte Blanch, last night, a third of Africa's electricity. (If I remember right)
90% of our electricity comes from coal.
Plans are afoot to open a number of open-faced cola mines adjacent to conservation land.
Coal mines cause acid deposits in the water systems, threatening the natural wetlands.
South Africa is threatening to destroy all it's dams and river systems.
Even Rietvlei Nature Wetlands Reserve, Cape, is contaminated with an uncontrollable invasion of poisonous blue-green algae due to industrial waste seeping into the waterways of the area.
The removal of trees and reeds exasperated the effect.
Is the "make poverty history" campaign threatening the natural inheritance of out future generations?
What is real poverty?
The lack of money or the lack of a standard of living?
White male children especially will find it difficult to get good jobs. They have to wait for the selection to sift through potential employees among black women, black men, colored women, colored men and lastly white women before white boys are often considered for a job in a major South African company. The same racial sifting will be repeated when promotions are to be considered
White children need to be empowered to become managers and run their own companies before they leave school.
White parents will need to find solutions for the male unemployment problem. Giving your child a good education is no longer good enough for South African whites. Perhaps we should look at black tribal customs, (where the boys go into the bush to become men), for a new solution to the present employment problem.
White boys could attend a finishing school year to become managers and self empowered as a new white tribal custom. (Perhaps in the overseas work market instead of the bush)
One cannot fight against the odds. While black people carry bleeding psychological wounds from past injustices, whites need to allow them the space to heal without sinking into poverty and despair.
Struggle makes one strong and “Boer maak 'n plan” There must be a peaceful solution. A win-win solution for all races. We can not force racial equality in the job market but we must find a working solution.
Perhaps South Africans living overseas can help securing the futures of the boys from their fellow countrymen.
Crossing the floor to another political party should be a criminal offense.
It should be a sign that a minister is not to be trusted. He/she makes promises to the voters that he/she does not keep.
Such a person could be classed as a liar.
Do not vote for someone who cannot stand behind his (or her) words.
Remember such people. Store their names to memory. Never support them. They may let you down again.
Governments should be run by honesty, integrity and according to the wishes and needs of the people.
The importance of ICT/science and technology as a basis of sustainable development of Africa was reaffirmed.
NEPAD explained the core activities of the e-Africa Commission, such as the NEPAD e-Schools Initiative and the ICT infrastructure network. The Japanese expressed their intention to consider knowledge transfer in this area.
Private sector development/trade and investment
In the context of Africa’s needs the Japanese explained their development initiative for trade. This consists of the four areas of assistance: (1) knowledge and technology, (2) finance, (3) human resources and (4) systems development in three stages: production, distribution and cross-border trade as well as enhanced duty-free and quota-free market access to Japan.
Environment
The Japanese referred to the results of the TICAD ministerial conference on energy and environment for sustainable development held in Nairobi, Kenya, in March, and indicated that special emphasis is to be placed on environmental issues and climate change at TICAD IV next year.
The two sides agreed on the addition of the environment as the fifth priority sector in Japan’s support to NEPAD.
* TICAD IV – the Tokyo International Conference on African Development -- will be held in Yokohama, Japan, on 28-30 May 2008, with the basic theme of “Towards a vibrant Africa: continent of hope and opportunity”.
The aim is to discuss priorities and methods to strengthen positive trends in Africa in both economic and political areas and to mobilise knowledge and resources of the international community for the sustainable development of Africa.
The importance of the following four areas of cooperation was noted at the Pretoria meeting:
POSITIVE MOURNING - A NEW WAY TO REMEMBER THOSE WHO ONCE WALKED ON THIS EARTH
Let those who helped to create our past continue to shape our future.
1 The number of people dying each day increases at an alarming rate.
2 We are running out of space in which to bury the dead
3 Many grave sites are deteriorating and are never visited by family members.
4 The space for our wildlife and natural vegetation is shrinking at an alarming rate and
many species have become extinct.
5 In history the technologies of the times have always influenced the way the dead was
remembered
6 For many people the mark they carved in life soon fades after the period of morning
Is over.
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We can allow graves that are no longer visited by relatives become part of a nature reserve (without disturbing the last resting places of those who are buried there).
Thorough documentation and photographic records of the graves that will become part of this tranquil garden could be done and placed on a special Internet site to honour all those who lived and died on African soil.
Each person deserves to have his/her biography recorded , Each person helped to write the history of our culture, town or country. The lessons learned and his/her achievements or inability to achieve could be and inspiration or lesson for those who follow.
Death need not to be a vacuum lined by heartache and sorrow. People do not have to cease their existence when they die.
So much more information can be written on a web space than on a grave stone
