Freedom is not only a right, it is also a responsibility.

Freedom to know the truth is regarded as a basic human right in countries where the governing bodies are prepared to take the responsibility for their actions.

Institutions with something to hide or cover up, on the other hand would welcome a secrecy bill.

Is it possible for any leading African country to take a step back to the days of Apartheid with gagging policies on information sharing?

I do not think the world will tolerate another iron curtain.   Instead of hiding information with secrecy bills, the truth will be published in through the international media, which will focus the world attention on other government shortcomings also.

Parallels will be drawn with countries like Zimbabwe and the suppressive era in our history, resulting in negative criticism for the Sub Saharan African region.

The truth will come to a boil in Google, Twitter, Facebook, U-Tube etc through the internet and other international media.   

We are moving towards globalization.       The world is moving towards responsible action and cover-ups are not tolerated any longer.    The global media hunts the revealing of truth behind a cover-up with the same passion as an Astronomer in his search for undiscovered heavenly bodies.

What is Transformation?

Transformation should not aim towards changing the colour of leadership to ‘black or white’. The aim of transformation should be towards perfection, or so that it can deliver a better service (which is another measure for perfection).   The aim should be to be better than before, not only look better.    Majority will rule in the long run, if they are given educational opportunities on par with the best, but then they will also need strong role models; people in charge that stand head and shoulders above their subordinates.    They need to aim to win by being the best, and not aim for an emotional sympathy vote.

The drawbacks of putting someone with lesser qualifications (but a better skin tone) in charge will have negative kickbacks.
•    The more qualified co-workers will criticize the decisions made by the leadership.
•    They will neglect their own work because they are disillusioned by the system.
•    They may complain to the press who will report on the weak decision making process and the country concerned will loose Brownie-points from the global community.
•    The sky-limit will just be another step lower than it can be; the best would have been downgraded.
•    A developing country will be another step further from being included in the global decision making group (or a step closer to loosing that position).

In South Africa employment decisions should not favour colour above competence.   If we do that we shall continue to be a developing nation.   We need to break out of the ‘apartheid’ mould to become a developed nation.

No part is bigger than the whole.

No one race is more important than unity, because only a united country can break barriers.   Only a united country can work together to achieve greatness.

Using the same measure no country is bigger than the continent.    South Africa is not bigger than Africa.   A continent is measured both by its best and worst nations.

No one continent is bigger than the world.   No nation is bigger than the world of nations.   No race is bigger than the whole of humanity.

We should transform according to the measure of humanity; it is the only way to be a developed nation on the global platform.     To measure against humanity is the only way to rise to leadership.

EX UNITATE VIRES

The photograph below is the headlines of an article from the Cape Times 10/04/13 which was the inspiration for this blog post.   The contents should be regarded as fact because it is incomplete.  

Low-cost broadband internet for schools

SOUTH Africa is involved in trials to provide low-cost broadband internet to rural schools.
 This project will make of unused parts of the television (TV) frequency spectrum to provide low-cost broadband internet.
 The feasibility study is being funded by Google.
It was launched in Cape Town on 25 March 2013in partnership with the tertiary Education and Research Network (Tenet) of SA and the Council for Scientific
and Industrial Research (CSIR).
Television white spaces
(TWVS) are unused spaces in the television spectrum that can be used for broadband.
 The advantage of white spaces is that low-frequency signals can travel longer distances. This ability makes the technology suitable to provide low-cost connectivity to rural communities with Poor telecoms infrastructure, according to Google.
 The above is an extract from an article in Cape Times 26-03-20

Ex Unitate Vires.

The above post is a synopsis of an article from The Cape Times 26-03-2003

In 2000, leaders from 189 nations signed on to the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDG) designed to significantly the reduction of  global poverty and disease

Since 2000, tangible results prove that dramatic progress is possible when developing countries and donor governments fulfil their ends of the bargain. But despite these successes, much more needs to be done to ensure that MDG are met by 2015, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, which is the region farthest off-track from reaching the goals.

The same political parties have been in power in South Africa since the global decision to make poverty history.

How do the South African politicians demonstrate through their own lifestyles that they are prepared to share wealth with the poor?

One only needs to read the local news on government and political spending to find that answer.   If the government leaders cut their own wasteful spending then it would not have been necessary to tax the 25 percent of citizens, with sustainable jobs, into the poverty bracket.

If BBE companies were being built from the grassroots up, instead of hijacking the employment selection of profitable companies, the 75% of black managed companies would have been a reality and not just a dream.

One can not exchange experience or education for skin pigmentation.

The failure of poverty reduction lies in the fact that the government wanted to steal white positions instead of building international trading centres.    The money was there to do it.   There was a time when the world poured cash into African countries, until they found out that it all ended up in the hands of executives while the poor grew poorer.

It is time to reflect on past failures on the home front;   the failures of the last twenty years.   Think how much money would there have been if companies did not move overseas to escape government interferences.

How much money and expertise would there have been if people were not made redundant while they were in their prime just to make way to empower other with less experience.

It is time that executives realize that decisions do not need to be made in expensive restaurants or in private jets.    Much money can be saved if the system of video conferencing is utilized to its fullest.

Perhaps we can, from now on, calculate spending, like the cost of executive dinners, with the number of basic wage packets spent on one sitting, instead of just considering dollars and pounds.     We need to see actions in perspective.      

The penny has to drop in such a way that each leader evaluates his own financial footprint.

RW

Do not get trapped in the web of past pain.

   Freedom can only truly be granted if there are no suppressors

 

If freedom and peace is not regarded as the right of all citizens,

 and not only a right for those who were previously suppressed, 

today's  freedom fighters will one day be the suppressors.  

Separatism becomes a vicious circle.    

Think about it!

Calculate a country's debt to a Global Save The Planet fund

Reasons why many countries are not supporting climate change initiatives are based on a perception of their economical viability.  Today we are recognizing the global financial crises and the extinction of certain animals because they lost their habitat.   Most countries are yet to seriously considering the extinction of humanity due to the loss of the planet.

The debt owed by a country to a “Save the planet fund” could be calculated using some criteria for example by:

The population of a country,

The percentage of green space

Money spent on saving the planet.

Percentage of waste produced by industry.

The use of fuel for transport etc.

The quality of the water supply.

Etc.

The financial status of a country should not come into the calculation because starvation is not a reason for destroying a planet.

A mathematical calculation of a country’s debt to the ‘global planet fund’ can be reduced by changing the criteria that pushes it up.

E.g.

·         Slow down the population growth,

·         purify water,

·         reduce dependence on fuel,

·          Recycle waste etc.

·         Preserve nature.

WAR TOYS FOR BOYS

War

What cost to the planet, what cost to humanity.

What negative impact on the global financial crises.

What burning of wealth that could be used to end global poverty?

What chaos within the animal world?

What mockery of religion?

What silliness war is!

Weapons of war are toys for boys which they use like live video games that have no purpose.

Where is responsibility?

Where is love?

Where is peace and freedom?

Not in war!!

The last world war did not solve the Jewish problem as was the original intention.

The last world war did not unite Europe; it only erected walls of separation that took decades to break down.

When will humanity learn that war only delays peace and right living conditions?

WAGE FREEZE?

It is unlikely that top level wages will be frozen voluntarily because the ones who have to vote on it are those who earn the big bucks.    Invariably cost cutting will be done from the bottom up while executives jet around the world and stay in luxury hotels.

A possible solution is to implement gap narrowing wage strategies.     There will then be no cause for workers to strike for better wages.

This can be done by increasing the wages at the bottom by a higher percentage than those at the top until there is an even percentage difference between various grades of workers.  

E.g.:  

Top earners may get 10% wage increases, while middle earners gets 15% wage increases, and bottom earners 20%.    Pensions and unemployment funds need to be adjusted accordingly.

By using inflationary rate wage and salary increases the top earners can have their wages increased to the latest inflation figures.   Middle earners by 1.5 times the inflation rate and the bottom earners double the inflation rate until there is an even percentage difference between various grades of workers.  

Top jobs can be cut by degrading the post when the worker leaves or retires.

The unemployment pay outs and government pensions need to be adjusted to the same level as the average job entry level with a tax free option to earn an extra income of double that amount.

Too often the government employers receive wage increases while pensioners are left out or receive increases at a much lower percentage.   It has become impossible to survive on a government pension.

All pensioners who rely on a government pension should receive their rates and taxes for free if they owned their home for ten years or more before retirement.

It is unfair to force a pensioner out of the home they live in.   The money can be redeemed by the social welfare department after the death of the pensioner by selling the home.   

It should be the responsibility of the government to make sure its citizens joins the workforce.     

It is suggested that any age pensioner who feels that he can no longer pay for his rates and taxes should be able to sign his house or farm over to the municipality after his demise and that of his spouse and handicapped dependents in exchange for free municipal services and rates as long as they occupy the home.    Should he rent the house out and move to a nursing home the rates freeze should be lifted but the house will become the property of the municipality after their deaths.

Teach the teacher how to teach.

Thursday, 18 October 2012



By giving a child better life skills and knowledge, we empower the next generation of teachers and learners.
By training teachers to teach life skills and mathematics we empower this generation of students and teachers as well as the next.

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.

When strike action turns to war action we do not need bulldogs with rubber teeth.

When strikers use live ammunition, or other weapons to inflict bodily harm, they are no longer strikers.   They have crossed the line and became terrorists.?

The minute a striker arms him/her self with a weapon or a fire lighter he/she should receive the confrontation given to any terrorist world wide.

Having said that, we need to address the real reason behind the violence.

The buck stops with the politicians.  

There should be a rule of as to how much company executives may earn as compared to the workers.  There should be an even gap between all ranks or earners, from the bottom up.    (Say a 15% increase in earnings between all grades and not 5% at the lower end and 600% at the top)

Neither should the earnings of workers (and executives)  be fixed, but should be determined according to the profitability of the mine or company.   Earnings should be based of net profits.   It could be high – low – or nothing, but the same rule should apply to all workers and executives.

It is time that the gap between glut and starvation is addressed.

Unfortunately it can not be done by reigning politicians because they will not be willing to give up their luxurious lifestyles.  This is something the country will have to vote for and it is something only a new parliament can implement across the board.

The best we can do, for now,  is to run a few pilot initiatives, just to test this new fairer profit driven even-gap system.

The earth crossed the line of sustainability!

At this time, when we are nearing the 2015 initiative to make poverty history,
the increasing unsustainable growth of humanity is squashing that dream of ever being realized.


Seventy five percent of the human population is struggling to survive.

There simply are not enough resources to continue feeding the world at the current poverty crises rate;
Let alone when poverty is history and everyone can financially afford to buy food.

Humanity has to reduce its birth rate and strive for a zero population growth.

There is not enough space on earth to grow food to end hunger without destroying
our natural resources that is already at unsustainable level.   

There is an urgency to address two main problems.
1.    The glut among high earners and
2.    The birth rate of the poverty-stricken masses.

We need to strive for only live child per woman.

Every birth should consciously be planned and every child should have the right to enjoy all that the earth and her environment has to offer. 


It is time that we are educated to become responsible for the space we occupy on earth.

The power of the future should be in our hands.

Have you ever thought how much fish the world harvest from the sea for human consumption each day

LET HE WHO HAS EYES TO SEE ACT NOW


EX UNITATE VIRES

People need to be proud of their herritage.

The Afrikaner will always be proud to be an Afrikaner, no matter what nickname is given to him.  Few will cry "racist" because someone called him a "whity", "rock spider","boer" or anything else.  Afrikaners are proudly Afrikaans, generally.

The Jew also is a proud race regardless of how much the world hated them at times.

Germans are proud to be Germans even though they were the enemies during the last world war.

The Australians were once a bunch of criminals sent into exile.   They are a proud nation and embrace their past.  

Why can Africans not be proudly African?

Why can the black majority not be proudly black?

Why is calling someone "black" regarded as a crime?

Perhaps the answer lies in the fact that African politicians spend too much time jet setting around the world and spend too little effort in uplifting the plight of ordinary people.

Perhaps the biggest cleavages in Africa are not between different shades of skin color, but lies in the fact  that the black African is a divided race.

They still cling to the "Upstairs - downstairs" policies that first world nations abandoned many decades ago.

Does the politicians, who walk among the shacks for their photo shoots really feel equal to the poverty stricken people they try to impress?

A government divided can not achieve unity.

A government who divides can not unite the nation.

Education, sport and intermarriage are ways by which unity, within a nation, can be fostered.    Unity means that all citizens strive towards prosperity and right human relations within a society.   A government divided or a government who empowers one race, or group of people suppresses another and can never achieve unity among the citizens.
While there is a gap between the lifestyles of the rich and that of the poor, there is division.   All people should be able to experience the best of what the country has to offer.

Citizens deserve to be able to afford the experience of their own culture and heritage.

Being able to visit the heritage sites, see wildlife in their natural environment or visit landmarks like “The top of Table Mountain", should be within the financial reach of all local citizens.  It is our birthright.   Often foreigners see more of a country than the local population simply because they cannot afford the entrance or transport fees