Ignorance and greed respond to money.

Climate Change Conference a Huge Success in Disguise

20 Dec 2009


We should not consider the Climate Change Conference as a failure. It was in fact a huge success, even without reaching an anonymous agreement.

We now have a better understanding of who the major climate polluters are and what as well as who to focus on to make a difference.

If all foreign aid is coupled to some climate change initiative, much good can still be done.

We now know that, for most countries, short-term finance is more important than the survival of life on earth.

We could use this knowledge intelligently to achieve our climate change goals.

Africa and Global Warming

African country leaders no longer have the unchallenged ruler-ship.

They are responsible to the people who voted them into power.

If the majority in a country see no further than the food they can bring to the table today, we should not blame the leaders for rejecting global warming policies that will only further the poverty gap between first and third world nations.

The amount of emissions that need to be reduced should be mathematically calculated, taking into account the current abuse of fossil fuels and the population among other considerations.


It stands to reason that a country that spews 8 measuring units of CO2 into the air should reduce its output more than a developing country that spews 3 units.


There are other considerations like the amount of trees and other carbon neutralizing factors that influence the atmosphere.

In the long run we should aim to keep the air clean, using a variety of methods, like for each industry, there should be natural ways to neutralize the poisoning impact on the environment.

A power plant must be balanced by a forest for example.

No industry should have the right to poison the land, air or water.

Without the earth to live on there is no life.

Original Post

Scientific carbon reduction

The percentage of carbon reduction from countries should be scientifically

calculated across the board and not be based on empty promises.

The calculation should use the following criteria:

* Population,
* population growth,
* deforestation,
* air polution,
* water polution and
* the total current carbon footprint of the country.

Links to other websites:

* http://en.cop15.dk/
* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_Climate_Change_Conference_2009
* http://www.copenhagenclimatecouncil.com/
Original post from :http://sites.google.com/site/unityinafrica/the-responsibility-of-all-nations-to-reduce-the-carbon-footprint

THE UNIVERSITY OF ''HARD KNOCKS' GRADUATES?

Many Africans, who were subjected to no or inadequate schooling or learning opportunities, gathered a lifetime of experience or knowledge in their fields of interest.

Many of them could, with or without, a little training and recognition, become leaders in their fields of self-trained expertise.

Africa is loosing many of its artists, historians, conservationists and craftsmen because their skills and knowledge were never recognized.

The knowledge of African languages, plants, cures and history is being lost daily when elders retire or die without imparting their knowledge and expertise, ……. unrecognized … forgotten.

Stupid mistakes are being made into laws because of the inexperience or lack of wisdom of some people in charge.

It is time we find ways to honor those who graduated from the ‘University of Hard Knocks’.

It is time we set up a criterion for people, over fifty years of age, who became self taught experts in their fields, of interest or experience; to receive their well earned recognition.
It is time we give certificates, degrees and doctorates to people who gathered and are able to share a lifetime of wisdom or knowledge.

The elders who possess such expertise, knowledge or wisdom due to the experience of a lifetime of observation or hard work, should be aided to impart their knowledge into a thesis, either verbally or written. They should receive their recognition to the level they deserve. Literacy should not be a qualifying criterion.

The elders should be given their degrees, certificates and doctorates which would have been theirs if they lived in an era of open opportunities. This need not be a racial thing, as many elders, of all races, needed to leave school to earn an income for their families. Tertiary education in Africa has ever been, and still is, out of the reach of the majority. It is time that only the lack of will-power separates a person from his/her educational opportunities.

Many elderly have a wealth of knowledge to impart, without perhaps the ability to attend university or the know-how to share their expertise. Some of them never had any formal schooling and are therefore illiterate.

The University of Hard Knocks can go out and seek those who can add to a database of knowledge gathered by experiencing life in Africa. Such a database of knowledge and experience should be able to be tapped freely by all.

There are people sweeping floors today with more knowledge locked in their heads than the graduates who employ them.

Not all elder people deserve recognition for the way they lived. People fail at life too.
Some people spend a lifetime on self gratification, but there are many who dedicated their lives to some cause. There are those loyal long-term employees who are more able to lead their team than the young college graduate who have nothing but a signed certificate to say he can do the job.

It is time for Africa to stop keeping racism alive with BEE’s and brood over past injustices and gather it’s strengths from within its own people.
A degree from the university of hard knocks should carry the same weight as one from a modern university.

I shall give an example from the nature conservation or natural healing fields:

There are many uneducated elders who know the habitat and behavior of the animals in a specific area. They can follow its spoor without referring to a manual. They know their call. They know their habitat and what will drive them away. They know the plants in an area and how it can be used for cures. They understand what will disturb the ecosystem.

How many conservation students who graduate will be able to match their knowledge?
How many new conservation graduates even know the names of the birds or plants in the area they work in without having to refer to a manual?

That is but one area of African life. There are many similar examples in other areas.
Ex Unitate Vires 7-11-2009







Original post from HEALING THE DIVIDE

EDUCATION IN AFRICA

EDUCATION IN AFRICA




A shortage of schools, unqualified teachers, the cost of school fees and vandalism are just some of the problems facing third world countries.

With laptops costing a fraction of the salaries of teachers, students should be given hardwired interactive basic laptops to be used to aid their teaching careers.

Laptops can be designed so that they have no general commercial value but is dedicated as a teaching/learning aid. Such a computer can aid the child in his/her learning even in the absence of a teacher.

All lectures should be recorded on flash drive and made available to students who need to catch up on their studies.
Students should be able to obtain a different take on a subject from a teacher of another school or class if they had a problem following the teaching method of their own teacher.
 Slow students will then be able to review lectures from a lower grade, while those who are more intelligent can enhance their studies with lectures from a higher class.

By recording all lectures it would also make teachers more responsible to prepare for their subjects because they will never know who is going to download their lectures and teaching methods.

Free school books and laptops can be offered to the student as a ‘dept to be paid back to the country’, either by the parents or the students - once they leave school.

All students who receive bursaries should pay them back from a percentage of their salaries once they enter the job market, whether they work in South Africa or not.

Free schooling should be available to everyone, but in the long run there need to be no free schooling if the students pay back, what they owe to society, once they leave school.
This will teach students the value of responsibility from an early age.

There is a lot we can do to get South Africa educated and employed.
Educated people can in the future afford to buy their own homes and this relieves the burden on the municipalities

Educated students will be less likely to sacrifice their brains for a dope or alcohol abuse experience.

FREE EDUCATION ON A ZERO BUDGET
SHORTAGE OF SCHOOLS
THE UNIVERSITY OF HARD KNOCKS
ONE BOOK PER CHILD NOT ENOUGH
TV TO HEAL A NATION
DO NOT LOOK BACK GOING FORWARD
A VISUALIZATION OR PRAYER TO CHANGE THE WORLD
http:   SEARCH FOR SCHOOLS LABEL
A DELAYED SUCCESS IS BETTER THAN A TOTAL Failure
PONDER ON THESE THOUGHTS
CHILDREN SHOULD BE FREE TO CARVE THEIR DESTINIES
HEAL TE INNER CHILD OF AFRICA
A COUNTRY IN DEBT IS A ROAD TO SLAVERY
CHILDREN SHOULD BE FREE TO CREATE THEIR DESTINIES
2015 A YEAR FOR JUDGEMENT
DO NOT DIE FIGHTING FOR FREEDOM, LIVE IT


Original post from

Let the grassroots meet the treetops

The monthly income, of the population in South Africa, can be divided into five groups.

1. Monthly earnings of below R3, 000 per month group. (Lower income group) (Below grass roots) - The majority of citizens -
2. The R 3,000-10,000 per month group (What should be the middle class but is now the upper lower class) (the grassroots)
3. R10 -R20, 000 per month group or the upper middle class group. (The trunk)
4. The upper income group R20, 000 to R40, 000 (the branches)
5. The gluttonous group of over R40, 000 per month. (The treetop)


The aim should be to get the majority of money earners in the upper middle class and the base line for any South African the lower middle class.

A way to approach this challenge may be for the R20, 000 and over group of income earners to pay a percentage of poverty relief tax for each rand they earn over R20, 000.

This poverty relief tax should be used to

* supplement the basic pension to R3, 000 per month,
* to provide free schooling and medical care,
* and to boost the wages of the lower middle class group, so that the treetops do not tower so high above the grassroots.



Original post from: Get Africa Working

Strike while the iron is hot!

While the television broadcasting corporation in South Africa is under scrutiny, it may be the right time to take responsibility the role television to can play in educating and guiding a nation.

What is regularly shown on television may have a long-term impact on the minds of the viewers.

“What we view on television today becomes our reality of tomorrow”

The power of audiovisual stimuli should never be underestimated; it can make or break a nation.

Television could be utilized to close a gap in education for both adults and children.

Taking responsibility, for the quality of programs to be offered to the public, need not break the budget.

There are many volunteers who will volunteer their service for little more than gratitude -- Volunteers who will welcome a chance to make a difference.

Free training and VBEE (Volunteer Broad-spectrum Economic Empowerment) points which could be cashed in for *government favors. (Like VBEE points in the piggy bank)

We could start moving away from financial rewards for all jobs done.


People no longer need to travel to capital cities and stay over in expensive hotels to conference, or having the inconvenience of leaving their home towns.

Conferencing can take place in 'virtual conference settings' using computerized electronic media.

Volunteers can overview what is being offered, to the public, on the television screens. A team of psychologists, elders and other experts can determine the effect the viewing will have on the nation.

They can be trained and provided with the necessary computer equipment to attend virtual meetings or conferences.

Electronic conferencing can be launched from local libraries if the volunteers are unable to participate due to insecure living conditions or computer-illiteracy.

There are many ways to get the elders and other experts from all over the world together to nation-build.

Local librarians and teachers can be trained to help the volunteers with this task. It could be considered their duty to nation-build without expecting remuneration.

A VBEE piggy-bank system can here also be implemented to be used as bargaining points for promotion.

Africans can help other Africans to become proudly African again. They can learn to respect themselves and others again. We have so many damaged people in the country and on the continent.

People are damaged because of their past experiences as freedom fighters, child soldiers, poverty, drugs, immorality, illiteracy and violence. They need to learn what is normal and what thoughts are healthy and what is destructive to them and their environment.

We need to heal in order to respect and honor again.
We need to reach out to fill education gaps when a system breaks down or is not yet in place.

Television can become a powerful nation-building tool.

A few local soaps with a morale building script, instead of one that is based on divorce, back stabbing, murder and cheating can provide a great influence on the minds of the viewers.

People follow the examples of their idols.

We need to create heroes with a high code of ethics -- Heroes who are nation-builders.

----------------------------------

* VBEE points could be given to people who make a difference without receiving financial rewards for their service.

Suggestions of how volunteers can be remunerated by using VBEE points (Volunteer Broad-based Economic Empowerment) points

VBEE points could be like money in a bank and could be electronically loaded onto a debit card.
VBEE points could be used to increase one’s VIP status.
VBEE points count towards job promotions.
VBEE currency could buy a percentage of their rates and taxes.
VBEE points could buy entry to government and municipal facilities like museums and reserves.
Etc.

Original post: (http://sites.google.com/site/unityinafrica/television-to-heal-a-nation)

Should South African whites receive refugee status in Canada?

A GUIDELINE FOR STATISTICS AND QUESTIONS TO DETERMINE IF A GROUP OF PEOPLE WITHIN A COUNTRY IS BEING
(A) VICTIMIZED OR
(B) SUPPRESSED OR
(C) IN PHYSICAL DANGER

(Setting up these guidelines were prompted by a recent court decision to grant asylum to a white South African)

Guidelines to statistics and questions that can determine if a group of people should receive refugee status in their country of ancestry and other sympathetic countries.

The Statistics/Questions to be determined/answered relating to the race or group who seeks asylum:

1.
What percentage, living in the capital city of the country in question, has been a victim of crime or violence on more than one occasion?
2.
What are the statistics of murders (or unnatural deaths) of citizens living in the farming community of the country in question?
3.
Do they have equal chance, without restriction, to compete on the business arena?
4.
Do they compete equally, on merit, to qualify for tertiary education?
5.
Are they being suppressed, as a race, to give another race time to catch up?
6.
Do they receive equal opportunity to receive financial aid in the form of pensions, disability, and study grants?
7.
Do they have an equal chance to get promoted at work?
8.
Are they being suppressed, in any way, to give another group the chance to advance?
9.
Are their lives in danger?
10.
Do they live in fear?



If the above points do not score 100% in the favor of the group or race in question, they can be considered as being victimized or suppressed.

The compassion of first world countries, in regards to suppressed or victimized citizens in African countries, can alleviate the problem by offering them refugee status.
By opening a door to escape victimization and suppression may help to level the playing field in the country in question. (If it is perceived as unbalanced due to the group of people in question)

Perhaps the international community should review guidelines relating to who should qualify for refugee status.
Killing a group of people emotionally, may be as bad as killing them physically.
Suppressed or victimized people should have the opportunity to return to their country of ancestry.



Original post from HEALING THE DIVIDE

How the demand for jobs and homes can be met in Africa

For every 150 houses built or jobs created to fill a demand, it grows to 1500 as other hopefuls’ stream to the area. We are currently building houses to create homelessness and create jobs to increase the demand for work.

At the present rate there will never be enough houses or jobs to go around. Not until all the homeless in Africa has been accommodated.


The best efforts of armies can not protect the borders of countries.

The only way to solve this problem is a cruel one, at the beginning.

READ MORE


Read More

Educate Africa through free television viewing.

It is beyond a great majority of our workforce's comprehension to realize what harm their strike actions have on the economy.

They can not understand the importance of wealth sharing or that by empowering their companies and their country it will be in a better position to look after those in need.

Unfortunately many of our people in leadership positions have very little communication and managerial skills. It appears that some of them have little interest other than blowing their own trumpets.

It is not only our children, at grass roots, that need education.

We may need to train the whole population of South Africa to become proudly African and to recognize which of our combined actions are empowering and which will lead to lowering the general standard for all citizens.

The trend of violence and disrespect towards employers, places of employment and people in power need to change.

It may be the miss-management and glut of those in power that fuel much of the discontent of the people.

Can we blame the people if they want better living conditions while government leaders spend more in one night's festivities than a whole community will earn in several years?

Leaders need to earn their respect and become model citizens themselves.

Our television screens should display programs that will build the nation and heal the earth.
We need programs that will make us proudly African again and respect our environment and natural resources.
We need to curb viewing that encourages loose morality, sex, crime and violence.

Sooner or later people will act out that what they view on television. Sooner or later they will start accepting an immoral society, crime, violence and dishonesty as the norm.

Free television showing material under a strict moral code that will educate and empower African Citizens could be made available to all citizens.
Perhaps an independent task team, consisting of teachers and psychologists, needs to review and control what is being shown on SABC TV.

Sport, educational and morale boosting programs alone in three different languages should be aired on the free television.

The normal viewing, as is, can be made available through paid television to maintain democracy for those who choose to watch it.

This may sound like communism, but when the majority of the workforce in a continent was deprived of basic education, we need to correct those imbalances in society.
What better way to generate proud citizens than through free television broadcasting?

People need education on farming and self help and sustained living advice.
People need to learn to respect their environment and their leaders.
Leaders need more opportunity to communicate directly to the larger public to explain the motivation behind their actions.
.
Free educational television should be available to everyone with electricity or cell phones.

We can heal a nation, but we need to heal ourselves first.

The people don't need domination but education to make the right choices.

(Original post from "Africa -- Healing the divide"

Fair Politics

Narrowing the gap between rich and poor should start at the very top, with the politicians who up to now considered themselves as separate from those who voted them into those positions. .

Some politicians behave as if they can walk on water while “the people” are no better than pigs rolling in mud.
We can see that in the way their million rand vehicles are being driven with no consequences for road rules and the deaths caused by disposing of those who may be blocking their path.

Some African politicians give the impression that to them “the people”, sometimes referred to as “rate payers”, “voters”, “tax payers”, “previously (20 years ago) disadvantaged” or “the underprivileged”, depending on what they need to milk from them, are merely tools to furnish their popularity and riches.

Most African politicians are counted among the highest paid politicians in the world.
If measured by the wealth of their economies, they may emerge as the wealthiest on the globe.

It is time that politicians stop blaming the past for the state they are in.
If the past was to blame, one should be able to see a decrease in poverty and suffering after twenty years of freedom in countries like South Africa and Zimbabwe.

In twenty years a whole generation reached maturity and all that we can see is more fighting, more crime, more poverty, a collapse of services and politicians together with a hand full of often related BEE partners and crime lords living in luxury that is beyond the imagination of the average African citizen.

If some citizens can enjoy one meal at a restaurant that costs more as the total pay packet that another person will earn in five years (or in some cases a life-time) then there must be a rotten apple in the bag.

One of the missions of both Jacob Zuma and Helen Ziller is to make those in power accountable for their areas of leadership.

We can only hope they succeed and that they rethink the mode of wealth distribution in the country, including their own.

It is impossible to create a sustainable living by multiplying zero by X. One needs to subtract the zeros from those who have millions. Wealth need to flow from those at the very top - not from the middle classes who managed to get there by hardship.

Taxing the average working citizen will just push him to the brink of unemployment.
Taxing his home will make him homeless. Over charging him for medical services may kill him.

By taking from the very rich, will at the worst force him into a comfortable middle class.
This will be the best way to level the playing fields.

We need to remove glut, starting by those who consider themselves (or should consider themselves) as role models.

the growing unemployment situation in South Africa

Unless a solution to the growing unemployment situation in South Africa can be found, we may need to rethink our border control policies.

Perhaps temporary work camps can be arranged where unemployed emigrants perform jobs that will benefit South Africa while they receive shelter and food in exchange.

Immigrants should only be allowed beyond the work camps if they have a legal address and/or secure job to go to.
Immigrants should never cause further unemployment in any African country.

Perhaps some bright mind can think about ways of employing immigrants in a way that would have a positive spin-off for our own unemployed.

Read a previous post (http://grannypolitics.iblog.co.za/2009/06/22/51/)

Photograph: Newspaper clipping from the Cape Argus

To strike oneself out of jobs

The strikers today, may become the unemployed of tomorrow.
Some employers will have to decrease their staff quotas.
Other may close shop altogether.

READ MORE

Education for all and let the best student get the job.

Sunday, March 29, 2009

29 MARCH 2009

Black, white or colored empowerment is a form of racist empowerment.
It is time that we live up to the ideal to regard all people as equal.

South Africa can become economically strong if she employs the best people for all jobs - regardless of race or color. We need to develop racial color blindness. We all need to become, ‘the people’, Citizens of South Africa.

Students who did not qualify for further education, in the field of their passion, should be encouraged to return to school to improve the marks of their weak subjects. We do not need doctors who can not work out the right dosage of medication per body-weight, or the required infant formula per weight.

Downgrading maths and giving under-qualifying students university entrance, based on a color criterion, can lead to South African universities being regarded as sub standard and South African academics regarded as uneducated.

It may be time we replace black racist empowerment with non-racist economic empowerment.

Today black empowerment gives stupid kids from private schools -who had all the educational opportunities they needed - preference to higher education, while students with top grades, and the ability to become good managers, are forced into career paths for which they hold no interest and does not challenge their capabilities.

It is time we empower the poor and under-privileged students, regardless of race and color.

In South Africa we already have the infrastructure for economic empowerment in place. We just need to take racism out of it. There should never be a need for any person to be classified as any race. The only classification we need is one of Citizenship.

We can grow a strong economy again. It was the persistent divide within the country that destroyed our opportunity to count among the first world nations. We were once the leading African nation, but unfair and ludicrous policies are in a process of leveling that lead. We do not need any more stupid people in high places. It is only hard work honesty and intelligent action that can save us.

We do not need bosses who are milking a company while they wait to be headhunted to milk another company with a bigger bounty.

Where the education system fails, we could replace it with an on-line electronic educational system. The technology is there for that kind of quality education to be available for each and everyone. School computers could be fitted with indestructible tracking devices that record the history of finger print access, face recognition and keystroke activity off-line.

• This system of supervision is needed for student identification during tests,
• to determine how long a student spends on subjects
• as well as making it difficult for thieves to get away with computer theft.

Computer based education can bridge the language barrier.


To help the teachers there can be a system where students from a higher grade supervise one or more students from a lower grade on-line.
The students ability to improve his rank in the class (not necessary the grade) could earn marks towards the final examination of his supervisor.
The ability to supervise and guide workers is an important quality students can become familiar with at an early age.

That means that if your understudy gets the tenth highest marks in the first test and improves to fifth place throughout the year, you should share his success as well as your own student educator whose job it is to supervise your studies as well as the way you supervise the studies of those under you.
School children can become familiar with the hierarchical structure in companies while still at school.

First year university students can supervise the online performance of final year high school students.

This kind of system can bridge the lack of qualified teachers in Africa.

School computers need not be stand alone devices, but can be built as dedicated educational devices which are attached to a mainframe and of no commercial value in order to minimize theft and corruption.

Ex Unitate Vires 29-03-2009

Photograph by Eddie Arpasella


LABELS
FREE EDUCATION ON A ZERO BUDGET
SHORTAGE OF SCHOOLS
THE UNIVERSITY OF HARD KNOCKS
ONE BOOK PER CHILD NOT ENOUGH
TV TO HEAL A NATION
DO NOT LOOK BACK GOING FORWARD
A VISUALIZATION OR PRAYER TO CHANGE THE WORLD
http:   SEARCH FOR SCHOOLS LABEL
A DELAYED SUCCESS IS BETTER THAN A TOTAL Failure
PONDER ON THESE THOUGHTS
CHILDREN SHOULD BE FREE TO CARVE THEIR DESTINIES
HEAL TE INNER CHILD OF AFRICA
A COUNTRY IN DEBT IS A ROAD TO SLAVERY
CHILDREN SHOULD BE FREE TO CREATE THEIR DESTINIES
2015 A YEAR FOR JUDGEMENT
DO NOT DIE FIGHTING FOR FREEDOM, LIVE IT

Nepad website to change

Please note
that NEPAD is in the process of releasing a new website with better user-friendly features.

When the update is complete, I shall comment on their posts again.

The Heal Africa website is in a process of being transferred to another site