CHANGE THE PRISON SYSTEM

We have more people who need to be behind bars than bars to put them behind.

Perhaps all prisons should be replaced with rehabilitation facilities.   That should not mean that prisoners are released earlier, but while being isolated from the society, they should be able to generate an income that will cover the cost of their confinement.   In this way they can learn a skill and when it is time for them to leave the prison they will be an asset to their chosen field of employment.   A portion of their earnings can go towards creating employment when they are released, as well as towards an unemployment- and pension fund.
In other words prisons should be attached to technical colleges, welfare organizations and industrial work facilities.

A prison should be a place where people can heal and become accepted members of a society.

Everyone deserves a second chance, but in order to make it work, they need to do it differently the second time round.    It will be easier to do that if they have new skills.

Do not go forward looking backward

• The Search for new ways is the most imperative problem.

• Due to the unusualness of conditions of the future, it will be impossible to proceed by the old ways.

• All new ones must remember this. It is the worst thing when men do not know how to escape from the old rut. It is dreadful when people approach new conditions with their old habits.

• Just as it is impossible to open a present-day lock with a medieval key, likewise it is impossible for men with old habits to unlock the door to the future.

• Today it did not succeed in order that tomorrow it may blossom more beautifully.

From the book 'Brotherhood', #423

If only BEE could be like a bee

The strongest quality of a bee is its ability to work united as a group. They work for the empowerment of the hive and not one sector within the swarm.

Once can say that a bee colony demonstrates unity.

If only the BEE policies in South Africa can strive towards unity, but that is not possible when one group of people is being empowered AT THE EXPENSE of the other.

Methods of empowerment that will empower all people in need and strengthen the economy would bring the “make poverty history” campaign closer to reality.

pray that the economy be managed with justice and equality, mindful of the “needs of peoples, especially the poorest

World Economy. That the world economy may be managed according to the principles of justice and equality, taking into account the real needs of peoples, especially the poorest.

Speaking of last year’s global financial collapse, Pope Benedict said, “it was precisely from this root of covetousness that the crisis sprang” (General Audience, April 22, 2009). Economic and political solutions can go only so far to fix the economy. What is needed is a spiritual solution to a spiritual problem: prayer.

The Holy Father asks us to pray that the economy be managed with justice and equality, mindful of the “needs of peoples, especially the poorest.” It is the poorest who are most forgotten and denied their rights to what is necessary for life — food, shelter, and medical care.

Lent is a good time to pray and give alms. Can we sacrifice something so we can give something more to others?

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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

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

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"