Category: Comment
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How Apt For Africa
Stated way back in 1931 and it says it all…
“You cannot legislate the poor into freedom by legislating the wealthy out of freedom.
What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving.
The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else.
When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get
what they work for, that my dear friend, is about the end of any nation.You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it.”
~~~~ Dr. Adrian Rogers, 1931
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Speech by F W De Klerk to the Adele Searll ladies 100 Club: 1 June 2011
SOUTH AFRICA 2011: THE BALANCE BETWEEN FAILURE AND SUCCESS
It is a great pleasure for me to address this gathering of Cape Town’s most influential women leaders. The venue is also splendid. I always enjoy returning to the Mount Nelson – which is one of our most venerable and elegant hotels.
Most of us will also agree that no matter how far – or how often – we travel it is very difficult to find a city that is as beautiful as Cape Town. I travel a great deal and firmly believe that this is the best place in the world in which to live.
There is so much of which we South Africans can be justifiably proud:
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The resilience of our young democracy has once again been illustrated by last month’s successful municipal elections. The elections were free and fair and were preceded by vigorous political debate. Sadly, the great majority of South Africans still voted according to their race. However, there are heartening signs that significant numbers have decided to break racial ranks by voting according to their values and their perceptions of the performance of the contending parties.
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The sound macro-economic policies that Trevor Manuel has implemented have brought us sustained economic growth that was only briefly interrupted by the recent global economic downturn.
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Most countries would envy the fact that our public debt is less than 36% of GDP – and external debt is only 16% of GDP.
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We have the 24th largest economy in the world. We produce more than 30% of the GDP of sub-Saharan Africa with only 6.5% of its population.
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Our natural resources are legendary – including gold and diamonds, platinum group metals and abundant and inexpensive coal.
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Nevertheless, tourism now contributes 8.3% of GDP – considerably more than mining. We have superb game parks, mountains and beach resorts. Cape Town is one of the world’s premier destinations with great facilities including three of the world’s top 100 restaurants.
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Automobile production now contributes almost as much to GDP as mining. In 2008 we produced 600 000 vehicles of which 170 000 were exported.
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Government has made great progress in improving the lives of millions of South Africans. It has built 4 million houses and had brought electricity and sanitation to more than 72% of our homes.
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According to the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Report our auditing and reporting standards and regulation of securities exchanges are the best in the world. We are also in the top seven with regard to the soundness of our banks, financial services and the efficacy of corporate boards. The Report also gives us high marks for the quality of our management schools, our anti-monopoly policy and local supplier quality.
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South Africa has resumed its position as a respected and influential member of the international community – and has become a member of the exclusive BRICSA group.
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The magnificent success of the 2010 FIFA World Cup has shown the world what glories we South Africans can achieve when we all work together.However, there are many things of which we are not so proud.
We see them in the daily barrage of press reports about corruption, crime, incompetence and divisive racial politics.
Unfortunately, we are becoming so conditioned by such reports that our responses have been deadened. Developments, that in other countries would lead to the fall of governments, are routinely brushed aside by South Africans as being just more of the same old tiresome thing. Among many of us there is a feeling of disempowerment – and almost of detachment.
My message to you today is that we have a Constitution that empowers all of us. We must not allow ourselves to be lulled into a situation where we no longer respond to situations that are constitutionally, morally and politically unacceptable.
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It is unacceptable to sing songs calling for the shooting of anyone. The historical context is irrelevant. It would be equally unacceptable for Afrikaners to sing Boer War songs calling on people to shoot the English – or for Americans to sing World War II songs about killing Japanese people. It is incomprehensible that the government of a non-racial democracy continues to support this song.
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It is unacceptable for Julius Malema to call whites criminals – and to add that they should be treated as criminals and that their land should be seized without compensation. It is even more unacceptable for President Zuma to sit on the same platform, smiling, while Malema, as a key office bearer in the ANC, makes such racist comments. Malema’s behaviour is irreconcilable with the Constitution that the President has sworn an oath to uphold.
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It is unacceptable for the Judicial Services Commission to ignore unambiguous constitutional requirements regarding the manner in which it should be constituted – and then to refuse to fill vacancies on the Cape bench, despite the availability of eminently fit and proper candidates, simply because they happen to be white.
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It is unacceptable for COSATU and the SACP to set as their mid-term vision the utterly unconstitutional goal of “worker hegemony in all sectors of the state and society.”
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it is unacceptable for Gugile Nkwinti, our Minister of Rural Development and Land Reform, to declare in Parliament last year that all “colonial struggles are about two things: repossession of the land and the centrality of the indigenous population.” Just think for a moment about the implications of this statement. He is actually saying that
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the colonial struggle is not yet over;
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whites are colonialists whose land must be repossessed;
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only South Africans who are ‘indigenous’ should be regarded as being central to our society. People from minority communities must presumably be content with a peripheral or second-class status.Can one imagine the outcry that would rightly ensue if a member of the United States government were to call for the re-establishment of the centrality of the white majority?
Much of the legislation that is currently before Parliament is equally unacceptable:
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Although the Protection of Information Bill has been improved, it will, as things stood a few days ago, still inhibit journalists from publishing stories on corruption and incompetence,
based on leaked government information. They will still not be able to make use of a public interest defence and will still be liable to long terms of imprisonment without the option of a fine. Officials in more than 1 000 state organs will still be able to classify any documents that they think will affect ‘national security’ and the state itself will still be the arbiter in the process.
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The Land Tenure Security Bill is equally problematic. It will create unlimited rights for farm workers to build communities, graze animals and cultivate crops on the farms where they work. At the same time it will impose unlimited obligations on farmers to provide land, services and training to farm workers. Ironically, it will also weaken the tenancy rights of farm workers.
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The Labour Relations Amendment Bill is intended to end the practice of labour brokering and contract employment in our economy. Employers will be forced to convert the 3,7 million contract jobs in the economy to permanent jobs. Estimates are that they would re-employ no more than 60% of those involved – which would result in the loss of 1,5 million jobs at the very time when President Zuma has quite rightly identified job creation as our main national priority.One could mention many other unacceptable aspects of our society:
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the parlous state of our education and health systems;
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unsustainable levels of unemployment;
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the failure of half of our municipalities;
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the deplorable levels of crime;
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the inefficiency of most government departments; and
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recurrent reports of endemic corruption and incompetence.Unfortunately, South Africans are in danger of allowing this dismal litany to pummel them into accepting the unacceptable as part of the daily reality of their new society. They must not do so.
The fulcrum on which South Africa’s future will pivot is our Constitution. It is a carefully balanced document that represents an historic compromise between all the significant sectors of our society. It makes provision for a fully democratic society; it is based on the rule of law; it protects the fundamental rights of all our citizens; it entrenches our language and cultural rights; it envisages a society based on equality and human dignity. It is a transformative document that rightly rejects the status quo. If we can maintain this excellent Constitution I am confident that our future will be secure.
I believe that we are approaching a pivotal point in our history where all South Africans of goodwill, regardless of their race, circumstances or political affiliation will have to rally around the constitutional rights, values and vision upon which our new non-racial democracy has been established.
The country is balanced between success and failure. If the forces of history come down on the side of constitutional values we can all look forward to a positive future. However, if the balance tips against the constitution, the consequences for all South Africans could be very dire.
The main force seeking to disturb the constitutional balance is the ANC’s National Democratic Revolution.
According to the ANC’s Strategy and Tactics analysis, the establishment of our non-racial constitutional democracy in 1994 was not the end of the liberation struggle – but only a beach-head on the way to the ultimate goals of the revolution.
In the ANC’s own words
“…The notion that South Africans embraced and made up (after the 1994 settlement), and thus erased the root causes of previous conflict, is thoroughly misleading. April 1994 was neither the beginning nor the end of history. The essential contradictions spawned by the system of apartheid colonialism were as much prevalent the day after the inauguration of the new government as they were the day before.”
The ANC admits that it had to make painful compromises in the constitutional negotiations because of the then prevailing balance of forces between it and the former government. Its first priority was accordingly to shift the balance of forces in its favour by seizing what it calls the levers of state power. The levers of state power include “the legislatures, the executives, the public service, the security forces, the judiciary, parastatals, the public broadcaster, and so on.”
Developments during the past 17 years have shown that this is not just empty rhetoric. Assisted by its unconstitutional use of cadre deployment, the ANC has taken vigorous steps to take over – or to try to take over – all these institutions. In the process it is obliterating the constitutional borders between the party and the state; it is undermining the independence of key constitutional institutions; and it is opening the way to large-scale corruption and government impunity.
The ultimate goal of the NDR is a ‘non-racial democracy’ – in which all aspects of control, ownership, management and employment in the state, private and non-governmental sectors will broadly mirror the demographic composition of South Africa’s population.
Like the communist ideal of the ‘classless society’, the non-racial democracy has a superficial appeal – but is equally unattainable in practice.
Closer examination reveals that demographic representivity would simply result in racial domination – what the ANC calls “African hegemony” – in every facet of the government, society and the economy. To achieve its goal of eliminating what the ANC regards as “apartheid property relations” the NDR would require massive and forced redistribution of property and wealth from the white minority to the black majority. It would also require the disemployment of large numbers of people from minority communities.
Whites, Coloureds and Asians would be corralled into demographic pens in all aspects of their economic and professional lives according to the percentage of the population they represent. The prospects of South African citizens would once again be determined by the colour of their skins – and not by their skills, their contribution to the economy or by what Martin Luther King called the content of their character.
Nearly all of the unacceptable developments that I have listed – including Malema’s inflammatory rhetoric, the JSC’s behaviour; Gugile Nkwinti’s land reform proposals, cadre deployment, the failure of municipalities and government departments – can be traced back, directly or indirectly, to the NDR’s corrosive and unconstitutional ideology.
The NDR is, in essence, the continuation of the ANC’s pre-1994 revolutionary struggle against segments of our population based primarily on their race.
Let me put it plainly:
Achievement of the NDR’s goals as expounded in the ANC’s Strategy and Tactics documents would end any prospect for racial harmony in South Africa. It would destroy the basis for national unity that we created in 1994; it would lead to national disintegration; to the loss of hundreds of thousands of people with indispensible skills and to the collapse of Africa’s largest and most sophisticated economy.
None of this is necessary.
No reasonable South African would question the need to promote genuine equality; to achieve fair and sustainable land reform; and to remove any barriers that might remain to black advancement in the economy or in any other sector of our national life. We would, however, disagree fundamentally with the ANC on the manner in which we should achieve these objectives.
South Africans urgently need to speak to one another and to the government on the best ways of achieving these goals.
Such a dialogue is necessary because many ANC members truly believe the myths and historic distortions that underlie the NDR. They really think that the NDR will build ‘a society based on the best in human civilisation in terms of political and human freedoms, socio-economic rights, value systems and identity”. Black intellectuals sincerely propound ideas that
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blacks cannot be racists;
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the land that whites occupy was ‘stolen’ from the blacks – even it was purchased after 1994; and that
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white wealth was acquired solely – or primarily – through the exploitation of blacks.We need to talk with one another in the frank and constructive way that we did during the negotiations of the early 1990s.
At the same time it is essential for all people of goodwill to oppose the threats that the NDR poses to our constitutional accord.
The main safeguards against the further erosion of the Constitution lie in
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the genuine support for the Constitution that still exists among many principled ANC members;
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the Government’s reluctance to alienate international opinion and foreign investors by breaching global governance and economic policy norms;
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our Courts, which are for the most part still courageously free and fair; and,
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finally, in South Africa’s free media, civil society institutions and opposition parties.The media and civil society have an impressive track record in defence of the Constitution:
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the TAC successfully pressured the Government to change its disastrous approach to AIDS;
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in 2006 civil society persuaded the Mbeki presidency to withdraw the Constitution 14th Amendment Bill that would have seriously undermined the independence of the judiciary;
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in 2008 civil society actions led the government to shelve an expropriation bill that would have made it possible for government to expropriate property without payment of court-approved compensation;
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currently, civil society and the media are combating the Protection of Information Bill and proposals for a Media Appeals Tribunal;
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a single citizen, Hugh Glenister, succeeded in the Constitutional Court in having the government’s abolition of the Scorpions declared illegal;
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I am confident that civil society together with NEDLAC will be able to stop, or greatly ameliorate, the worst excesses in the labour and land reform bills that are currently before Parliament.But it will not be an easy process. The defence of liberty has always been a hard and difficult struggle.
The media, civil society and opposition parties will need all the support they can get from people of goodwill inside South Africa and in the international community to continue to play their role.
My message to the Adele Searll Ladies Club is this:
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Do not regard today’s lunch as just another item in your busy calendars;
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Do not accept developments in South Africa that would be unacceptable in any other genuine democracy in the world;
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Think about – and actively support – other, much more effective, ways of promoting genuine equality, non-racialism and a better life for all our people;
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Consider the concrete steps that you can take to support the work of NGOs – like our own Centre for Constitutional Rights – that are fighting night and day to protect our Constitution – and your own fundamental rights.I can assure you that your future happiness, prosperity and security – and the future of everyone in this country – depend on it.
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South Africa: Only a matter of time before the bomb explodes
South Africa: Only a matter of time before the bomb explodes
Moeletsi Mbeki – South African Author, political commentator and entrepreneur I can predict when South Africa’s “Tunisia Day” will arrive.
Tunisia Day is when the masses rise against the powers that be, as happened recently in Tunisia. The year will be 2020, give or take a couple of years. The year 2020 is when China estimates that its current minerals-intensive industrialisation phase will be concluded.For South Africa, this will mean the African National Congress (ANC) government will have to cut back on social grants, which it uses to placate the black poor and to get their votes. China’s current industrialisation phase has forced up the prices of South Africa’s minerals, which has enabled the government to finance social welfare programmes.
The ANC inherited a flawed, complex society it barely understood; its tinkerings with it are turning it into an explosive cocktail. The ANC leaders are like a group of children playing with a hand grenade. One day one of them will figure out how to pull out the pin and everyone will be killed.
A famous African liberation movement, the National Liberation Front of Algeria, after tinkering for 30 years, pulled the grenade pin by cancelling an election in 1991 that was won by the opposition Islamic Salvation Front. In the civil war that ensued, 200000 people were killed.
The former British prime minister, Margaret Thatcher, once commented that whoever thought that the ANC could rule SA was living in Cloud Cuckoo Land. Why was Thatcher right? In the 16 years of ANC rule, all the symptoms of a government out of its depth have grown worse.
- Life expectancy has declined from 65 years to 53 years since the ANC came to power;
- In 2007, South Africa became a net food importer for the first time in its history;
- The elimination of agricultural subsidies by the government led to the loss of 600000 farm workers’ jobs and the eviction from the commercial farming sector of about 2,4-million people between 1997 and 2007; and
- The ANC stopped controlling the borders, leading to a flood of poor people into SA, which has led to conflicts between South Africa’s poor and foreign African migrants.
What should the ANC have done, or be doing?
The answer is quite straightforward. When they took control of the government in 1994, ANC leaders should have: identified what South Africa’s strengths were; identified what South Africa’s weaknesses were; and decided how to use the strengths to minimise and/or rectify the weaknesses.A wise government would have persuaded the skilled white and Indian population to devote some of their time — even an hour a week — to train the black and coloured population to raise their skill levels.
What the ANC did instead when it came to power was to identify what its leaders and supporters wanted. It then used SA’s strengths to satisfy the short-term consumption demands of its supporters. In essence, this is what is called black economic empowerment (BEE).
BEE promotes a number of extremely negative socioeconomic trends in our country. It promotes a class of politicians dependent on big business and therefore promotes big business’s interests in the upper echelons of government. Second, BEE promotes an anti-entrepreneurial culture among the black middle class by legitimising an environment of entitlement. Third, affirmative action, a subset of BEE, promotes incompetence and corruption in the public sector by using ruling party allegiance and connections as the criteria for entry and promotion in the public service, instead of having tough public service entry examinations.
Let’s see where BEE, as we know it today, actually comes from. I first came across the concept of BEE from a company, which no longer exists, called Sankor. Sankor was the industrial division of Sanlam and it invented the concept of BEE.
The first purpose of BEE was to create a buffer group among the black political class that would become an ally of big business in South Africa. This buffer group would use its newfound power as controllers of the government to protect the assets of big business.
The buffer group would also protect the modus operandi of big business and thereby maintain the status quo in which South African business operates. That was the design of the big conglomerates.
Sanlam was soon followed by Anglo American. Sanlam established BEE vehicle Nail; Anglo established Real Africa, Johnnic and so forth. The conglomerates took their marginal assets, and gave them to politically influential black people, with the purpose, in my view, not to transform the economy but to create a black political class that is in alliance with the conglomerates and therefore wants to maintain the status quo of our economy and the way in which it operates.
But what is wrong with protecting South Africa’s conglomerates?
Well, there are many things wrong with how conglomerates operate and how they have structured our economy.- The economy has a strong built-in dependence on cheap labour;
- It has a strong built-in dependence on the exploitation of primary resources;
- It is strongly unfavourable to the development of skills in our general population;
- It has a strong bias towards importing technology and economic solutions; and
- It promotes inequality between citizens by creating a large, marginalised underclass.
Conglomerates are a vehicle, not for creating development in South Africa but for exploiting natural resources without creating in-depth, inclusive social and economic development, which is what SA needs. That is what is wrong with protecting conglomerates.
The second problem with the formula of BEE is that it does not create entrepreneurs. You are taking political leaders and politically connected people and giving them assets which, in the first instance, they don’t know how to manage. So you are not adding value. You are faced with the threat of undermining value by taking assets from people who were managing them and giving them to people who cannot manage them. BEE thus creates a class of idle rich ANC politicos.
My quarrel with BEE is that what the conglomerates are doing is developing a new culture in South Africa — not a culture of entrepreneurship, but an entitlement culture, whereby black people who want to go into business think that they should acquire assets free, and that somebody is there to make them rich, rather than that they should build enterprises from the ground.
But we cannot build black companies if what black entrepreneurs look forward to is the distribution of already existing assets from the conglomerates in return for becoming lobbyists for the conglomerates.
The third worrying trend is that the ANC-controlled state has now internalised the BEE model. We are now seeing the state trying to implement the same model that the conglomerates developed.
What is the state distributing? It is distributing jobs to party faithful and social welfare to the poor. This is a recipe for incompetence and corruption, both of which are endemic in South Africa. This is what explains the service delivery upheavals that are becoming a normal part of our environment.
So what is the correct road South Africa should be travelling?
We all accept that a socialist model, along the lines of the Soviet Union, is not workable for South Africa today. The creation of a state-owned economy is not a formula that is an option for South Africa or for many parts of the world. Therefore, if we want to develop SA instead of shuffling pre-existing wealth, we have to create new entrepreneurs, and we need to support existing entrepreneurs to diversify into new economic sectors.
CLICK – Architects of Poverty: Why African Capitalism Needs Changing
Mbeki is the author of Architects of Poverty: Why African Capitalism Needs Changing. This article forms part of a series on transformation supplied by the Centre for Development and Enterprise.
South Africa
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Siyabulela Xuza-His Story Has Really Just Begun
Siyabulela Xuza- His Story Has Really Just Begun
Siyabulela Xuza
Siyabulela Xuza’s story has really just begun. He is merely twenty years old and already has created an international stir. When he was eighteen years old and in Matric, he won two grand awards at the 58th Intel International Science and Engineering Fair which was held in New Mexico.
His awards were in the Energy and Transportation category, and his project was a revolutionary cheaper rocket fuel. He is quoted as saying that when he discovered the amount of money spent on rocket fuels which could be better spent on other projects such as AIDS/HIV research, he decided to figure out a way to make them cheaper. In return for this innovative thinking not only did he win at the Fair but the Nasa-affiliated Lincoln Laboratory named a minor planet after him. Planet 23182 discovered in 2000 -just around the time Xuza became serious about rocketry- is now known as Siyaxuza and is found in the main asteroid belt near Jupiter with an orbital period of 4, 01 years.
Xuza’s love for science started in 1994 in Umtata where he remembers following a Cessna plane which was dropping off election pamphlets. From there he began to build rockets in his mother’s kitchen and remembers once mixing the fuel incorrectly and having a mini-explosion which thankfully caused no real damage but did cause a mess.
From there his family moved to Johannesburg where he attained a scholarship to attend St. John’s College where his love for science was further nurtured. With the guidance of teachers he built the Phoenix; a rocket which reached the height of 1 220 metres. This was done in 2003. He was fourteen at the time and with this achievement he won the Eskom National Science Expo as well as breaking the South African Amateur Altitude Record.
After matriculating, Xuza went on to study chemical engineering at the University Of Cape Town, until he received the news that he had been granted a bursary to study at Harvard.
While he studies science he says he wants to further grow in other respects. In his own words, “I’m learning to speak Mandarin, which keeps me up in the wee hours. I believe the relationship between China and SA will grow and would like to be able to facilitate communication between both countries in the area of energy. I want to be multi dimensional: educated in the West with strong African roots but with a clear understanding of the East.”
Siyabulela Xuza is truly an African Renaissance man, educating himself in natural and social sciences and with a positive outlook on the impact himself and his generation will have upon the world and South Africa.
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Helen Zille-DA the new UDF
Helen Zille-DA the new UDF
Helen Zille’s letter to City Press editor Ferial Haffajee on News24 raises interesting new possibilities for the DA. Zille writes, “The DA is the new UDF.”
The letter is a response to a News24 column (“How the ANC lost the coloured and Indian vote”) by Haffajee, a former Mail & Guardian editor. In her piece, Haffajee explains that many people who have been loyal to the ANC and the UDF are now alienated by its apparent abandonment of non-racialism. The very divisive language of race that the ANC challenged has now made its way into its everyday discourse. At the moment many newspapers, along with the ANC, are talking about the party’s loss of the “minority vote”.
Haffajee makes sense of this about-turn on the part of the ANC by making the following assertion: “The ANC brought the ideology of minority and majority into its mainstream thinking when it assimilated the Nationalists like Marthinus van Schalkwyk into its fold. It co-opted the coloured and Indian nationalists too (people we had regarded as sell-outs), all of whom brought this dangerous ideology of difference right into the non-racial heart of the party.”
Zille’s timing could not be better. “The ANC has now become a racial-nationalist party,” she says in her reply to Haffajee. It is true. If remarks by Julius Malema, Jimmy Manyi and the late Blackman Ngoro (remember him?) are anything to go by, ethno-nationalism certainly seems to have reared its ugly head in the party over the last few years. Criticism of BEE and over-the-top displays of wealth on the part of the new black elite minority also does very little to shift negative perceptions of the party. The irony is rich for those who grew up on the writings of Frantz Fanon. Fanon has lots to say about the rise of ethno-nationalism as a device of control for the rising black elite minority in post-colonial African states. The Afrikaans press is also beginning to see parallels between the ANC and the NP in the 80s.
Helen Zille goes on to say: “The DA is the new UDF.
We are the most non-racial party South Africa has ever had. We never once used or exacerbated racial divisions in this campaign, even though we could have, for short-sighted purposes of maximising our vote.” The party certainly did position itself as racially inclusive, notwithstanding the fact that Zille’s cabinet is far from representative in terms of race and gender.
What is worth noting here is that Zille is not saying that the DA is like the UDF on the score of racial inclusivity. She is saying it is the new UDF. Optimistically, I am going to interpret this as an assertion that the DA has reinvented itself. It has broken with its past as the party of those who voted for the National Party and, by implication, supported apartheid. To paraphrase her, the ANC has betrayed its own history and the DA is going to fill that vacuum.
Some critics would say that Zille is opportunistically appropriating the Struggle and the legacy of Nelson Mandela in order to score more votes for the DA. I am not going to pursue that argument because it would be very easy to invoke racial binaries and generate more racially divisive thinking. I am interested in what Zille’s claim potentially means for the DA.
If the DA is going to be the new UDF, if it is going to build a truly inclusive party and live up to the ideals of the Struggle, it should do what the UDF did in 1983: adopt the Freedom Charter. The DA would then truly reinvent itself.
The part of the Freedom Charter that inspired so many of us in the 80s was the following:
“THE PEOPLE SHALL SHARE IN THE COUNTRY’S WEALTH!
- The national wealth of our country, the heritage of all South Africans, shall be restored to the people;
- The mineral wealth beneath the soil, the banks and the monopoly industry shall be transferred to the ownership of the people as a whole;
- All other industry and trade shall be controlled to assist the well-being of the people;
- All people shall have equal rights to trade where they choose, to manufacture and to enter all trades, crafts and professions.”
If the DA is going to live up to its assertion that it is the UDF, then it should put its money where its mouth is. So many young people sacrificed their blood, their innocence and their idealism to make the Freedom Charter a reality. Instead, their blood gave us Gear, Asgisa, the failure of the RDP and the murder of Andries Tatane at one of many service-delivery protests in SA.
Their sacrifice gave us a macro-economic policy so neo-liberal that it got the thumbs up from the IMF and the DA alike. The uneasiness of the markets when Mandela spoke of delivering on the promises of the Freedom Charter (specifically, nationalisation) upon his release from prison was forgotten by the time our new finance minister took office and steered us in the direction of the “free” market.
If the DA is going to claim the history of the UDF and the struggles of so many ordinary people in the mass democratic movement, then it should be prepared to make the kinds of sacrifices that were made by those people. If it wants to claim that it has broken with its racially divisive past, then it should take a long and hard look at its own neo-liberal economic policies.
Race is the red herring, as always. It is economic policies that determine the extent of the growing racialised class divide. The real way to build an inclusive society is to ensure that all people are involved in securing social justice. You cannot leave it to the market to generate a better life for all. You cannot leave it to cadre deployment. And you certainly cannot leave it to “speak left, act right” politicians — whether they are from the DA or the ANC.
Zille, now is the time to become the UDF. Now is the time. I dare you
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Human Polar Bear Goes Head To Head With Shell
Below the video is the content of a short speech given on Friday night in Cape Town by Lewis Gordon Pugh OIG (a.k.a. the Human Polar Bear) about the proposed fracking for gas in the Karoo, by Shell. He received a sustained standing ovation !
Ladies and gentlemen, thank for the opportunity to address you. My name is Lewis Pugh.
This evening, I want to take you back to the early 1990’s in this country. You may remember them well.Nelson Mandela had been released. There was euphoria in the air. However, there was also widespread violence and deep fear. This country teetered on the brink of a civil war. But somehow, somehow, we averted it. It was a miracle!
And it happened because we had incredible leaders. Leaders who sought calm.. Leaders who had vision. So in spite of all the violence, they sat down and negotiated a New Constitution.
I will never forget holding the Constitution in my hands for the first time.
I was a young law student at the University of Cape Town. This was the cement that brought peace to our land. This was the document, which held our country together. The rights contained herein, made us one.I remember thinking to myself – never again will the Rights of South Africans be trampled upon.
Now every one of us – every man and every women – black, white, coloured, Indian, believer and non believer – has the right to vote. We all have the Right to Life. And our children have the right to a basic education. These rights are enshrined in our Constitution.
These rights were the dreams of Oliver Tambo. These rights were the dreams of Nelson Mandela. These rights were the dreams of Mahatma Gandhi, of Desmond Tutu and of Molly Blackburn. These rights were our dreams.
People fought and died so that we could enjoy these rights today.
Also enshrined in our Constitution, is the Right to a Healthy Environment and the Right to Water. Our Constitution states that we have the Right to have our environment protected for the benefit of our generation and for the benefit of future generations.Fellow South Africans, let us not dishonour these rights. Let us not dishonour those men and women who fought and died for these rights. Let us not allow corporate greed to disrespect our Constitution and desecrate our environment.
Never, ever did I think that there would be a debate in this arid country about which was more important ¬ gas or water. We can survive without gas…. We cannot live without water.
If we damage our limited water supply ¬ and fracking will do just that we will have conflict again here in South Africa. Look around the world. Wherever you damage the environment you have conflict.
Fellow South Africans, we have had enough conflict in this land ¬ now is the time for peace.
A few months ago I gave a speech with former President of Costa Rica. Afterwards I asked him “Mr President, how do you balance the demands of development against the need to protect the environment?”
He looked at me and said : “It is not a balancing act. It is a simple business decision. If we cut down our forests in Costa Rica to satisfy a timber company, what will be left for our future?”
But he pointed out : “It is also a moral decision. It would be morally wrong to chop down our forests and leave nothing for my children and my grandchildren.”
Ladies and gentlemen, that is what is at stake here today: Our children’s future. And that of our children s children.
There may be gas beneath our ground in the Karoo. But are we prepared to destroy our environment for 5 to 10 years worth of fossil fuel and further damage our climate?
Yes, people will be employed ¬ but for a short while. And when the drilling is over, and Shell have packed their bags and disappeared, then what? Who will be there to clean up? And what jobs will our children be able to eke out?
Now Shell will tell you that their intentions are honourable. That fracking in the Karoo will not damage our environment. That they will not contaminate our precious water. That they will bring jobs to South Africa.
That gas is clean and green. And that they will help secure our energy supplies.
When I hear this I have one burning question. Why should we trust them? Africa is to Shell what the Gulf of Mexico is to BP.
Shell, you have a shocking record here in Africa. Just look at your operations in Nigeria. You have spilt more than 9 million barrels of crude oil into the Niger Delta. That’s twice the amount of oil that BP spilt into the Gulf of Mexico.
You were found guilty of bribing Nigerian officials ¬ and to make the case go away in America – you paid an admission of guilt fine of US$48 million.
And to top it all, you stand accused of being complicit in the execution of Nigeria’s leading environmental campaigner ¬ Ken Saro-Wira and 8 other activists.
If you were innocent, why did you pay US$15.5 million to the widows and children to settle the case out of Court?
Shell, the path you want us to take us down is not sustainable. I have visited the Arctic for 7 summers in a row. I have seen the tundra thawing.
I have seen the retreating glaciers. And I have seen the melting sea ice. And I have seen the impact of global warming from the Himalayas all the way down to the low-lying Maldive Islands. Wherever I go ¬ I see it.
Now is the time for change. We cannot drill our way out of the energy crisis. The era of fossil fuels is over. We must invest in renewable energy. And we must not delay!
Shell, we look to the north of our continent and we see how people got tired of political tyranny. We have watched as despots, who have ruled ruthlessly year after year, have been toppled in a matter of weeks.
We too are tired. Tired of corporate tyranny. Tired of your short term, unsustainable practices.
We watched as Dr Ian Player, a game ranger from Natal, and his friends, took on Rio Tinto (one of the biggest mining companies in the world) and won.
And we watched as young activists from across Europe, brought you down to your knees, when you tried to dump an enormous oil rig into the North Sea.
Shell, we do not want our Karoo to become another Niger Delta.
Do not underestimate us. Goliath can be brought down. We are proud of what we have achieved in this young democracy ¬ and we are not about to let your company come in and destroy it.
So let this be a Call to Arms to everyone across South Africa, who is sitting in the shadow of Goliath: Stand up and demand these fundamental human rights promised to you by our Constitution. Use your voices – tweet, blog, petition, rally the weight of your neighbours and of people in power.
Let us speak out from every hilltop. Let us not go quietly into this bleak future.
Let me end off by saying this – You have lit a fire in our bellies, which no man or woman can extinguish. And if we need to, we will take this fight all the way from your petrol pumps to the very highest Court in this land. We will take this fight from the farms and towns of the Karoo to the streets of London and Amsterdam. And we will take this fight to every one of your shareholders. And I have no doubt, that in the end, good will triumph over evil. -
Is This The Biggest Lie?
This is an article by Coert Coetzee, the founder of the Treoc group and is very interesting reading – Martin
“If you tell a lie long enough, loud enough and often enough, the people will believe it and people are more likely to believe a big lie than a small one.” – Adolph Hitler
Is This The Biggest Lie?
A lady was recently telling us about an endowment policy that she took out with one of the big insurers. If you look at the figures, it doesn’t appear to have been a bad transaction at first glance.
She’s paying R400 a month for a product that, according to projections, will pay out R500,000 in twenty years’ time. The monthly contributions also get increased by 10% each year, so that they’re kept in line with inflation. It looks good – and don’t forget that it’s being sold by one of the staunch old South African companies to whom just about half the country belongs. They’re also approved by that mighty consumer protector, the Financial Services Board. And bear in mind that these powerful companies have the best actuaries working for them. So there’s therefore no way that this could be a scam. Think again, my dear friends. This is the biggest organised and legalised form of a scam you can imagine.
Anyone who can do maths can see how the scam works, but I think our people are like lambs being led to the slaughter. They don’t do the maths, they ask no questions, and one day in twenty years’ time they’ll just take the money and say thank-you.
I want to show you today how to do these simple little sums, but before we get started we first need to reflect on an important assumption here, namely inflation. The government would very much like us to believe that inflation is lower than their goal of 6%, but any housewife will tell you that consumer inflation is higher than 10% per year. Just work out what a trolley of groceries cost you 5 years ago, in comparison to now. For this exercise let’s use an inflation rate of 10%, like the insurance company uses for its annual increase in the contributions.
Let’s do the maths! All that you do now is take a piece of paper and draw four columns for yourself. Column one is the number of years. Column two is the inflation percentage. Column three is the annual inflated contribution. Column four is the expected deflated value of the endowment policy at that stage. In column three, Contribution, we take the R400 per month and multiply it by 12 to determine the first year’s contribution. That’s R4,800, which is then increased by 10% each year. In column four, Value, we start with the promised, projected payout of R500,000 and decrease it by 10% per year. The reason for this is that money’s buying power decreases each year, thanks to inflation. This is how the table looks now:
Years Inflation Contribution Value 1 10% 4 800 500 000 2 10% 5 280 450 000 3 10% 5 808 405 000 4 10% 6 389 364 500 5 10% 7 028 328 050 6 10% 7 730 295 245 7 10% 8 503 265 721 8 10% 9 354 239 148 9 10% 10 289 215 234 10 10% 11 318 193 710 11 10% 12 450 174 339 12 10% 13 695 156 905 13 10% 15 064 141 215 14 10% 16 571 127 093 15 10% 18 228 114 384 16 10% 20 051 102 946 17 10% 22 056 92 651 18 10% 24 261 83 386 19 10% 26 688 75 047 20 10% 29 356 67 543 Total Contribution 274 920 If you now add up all the contributions in column 3 over the 20-year period, it comes to an amount of R274,920. The value you’ve bought with that is that amount of R67,543 in year 20 in column four and NOT R500,000 like they told you. With inflation taken into account you’ve therefore paid R274,920 for R67,543. Would you have made this ridiculous “investment” if you had known what you were buying?
Do you know how ordinary people do these sums, though? (And this is why the crooks have been getting away with this scam for generations already.) Ordinary people think they paid R274, 920 and got R500,000 out. This is the illusion that the crooks create, and it’s also what it says in the policy documentation. You do get out an amount of R500,000, but then you’re not taking the effect of inflation into account. That is how they legally prey on the unsophisticated and trusting public. With their clever actuaries’ “complex” calculations they bullshit the police, the FSB, the brokerage industry and the public.
Ordinary people who receive the R500,000 after twenty years think, “What a fantastic investment!” Then they think that the insurance company is wonderful and they’re sorry that they didn’t take out more of these endowment policies when they were young. That’s also the message that people communicate to their children, which is why the crooks get away with it and can carry out the same scam with your children.
What do they do with your money every month? They invest it in property. That’s why they have such enormous property portfolios – because they pay only R67,543 for a property value of R274,920. Show me a bigger scam!
http://www.lightminded.com/upcoming-events/
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Speech Delivered By Dr Christo Wiese To The Members Of The Adele Searll Mount Nelson 100 Club
Another positive outlook on Africa, which despite the various serious problems we have with corruption, crime etc. clearly shows we are moving in the right direction.
It’s just that we are still in “wild west’” mode as such, or as I see it, we live in an exciting, real live Wilbur Smith novel. We live with history in the making. Well, I guess everybody anywhere does, but ours is certainly one of the more exciting journeys, violent crime apart.
Enjoy the energy/adrenelin trip. VIVA!! or whatever turns you on.
SPEECH DELIVERED BY DR CHRISTO WIESE TO THE MEMBERS OF THE ADELE SEARLL MOUNT NELSON 100 CLUB. FRIDAY, 7 MAY 2010
A few years ago I read a very interesting book, by a Lebanese writer, one Taleb, titled The Black Swan
. By now, I am sure, we’ve all heard the story of the “once enigmatic” Black Swan – but what was the lesson of this story? Simply, that when confronted with incomplete data one often draws incorrect conclusions, and therefore – people often think they know more than they actually do know. Perhaps one should pay more heed to what Donald Rumsfeld, former US Secretary of Defence said on occasion:
“There are known knowns. These are the things we know that we know. There are known unknowns. That is to say, there are things that we know we don’t know. But these are also unknown unknowns. There are things we don’t know we don’t know.”
Being ignorant when it comes to the unknown unknowns is understandable, but what constantly amazes, in respect of our continent and our country, is how little many people know of what are or should be, the known knowns.
Non-Africans, and I suspect even some South Africans, often fail to grasp that Africa is not a country, but a continent. And a very large continent at that; the land mass of Africa is larger than the combined land mass of China, India, the US and Europe.
This vast continent with its more than 800 million people is made up of 53 diverse countries whose inhabitants speak more than 2000 languages. And to mention only a second aspect of Africa’s diversity, per capita GDP in 2009 for example was 51 times higher in Equatorial Guinea than in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Another common mis-apprehension is that South Africa is a non-African country meaning unsuccessful.
How does one define a successful country ?
Would you agree that a country with the following score-card can rightly be defined as successful. Let us call the country X.
1. X has the world’s 26th largest population and 29th largest economy.
- X’s per capita GDP, corrected for purchasing power parity, positions the country as one of the 50 wealthiest in the world
- X’s currency is the 2nd best performing emerging market currency of the 26 monitored by Bloomberg.
- The IMF’s World Economic Outlook ranks X in the top 10% of countries in respect of real GDP growth projections for 2010.
- X was ranked as the 18th most attractive destination for foreign direct investment by Global Strategic Management Consulting Firm AT Kearney.
- In the Economist Intelligence Unit’s Survey of Democratic Freedom, X ranks 31st of 184 countries.
- X has sold $1.8bn worth of cars to the US last year, putting it ahead of Sweden and Italy as supplier to the US auto market.
- X, according to the Open Budget Index, ranks 2nd worldwide in terms of the transparency surrounding its budgets, just behind the UK, it ties with France, and is ahead of New Zealand and the US.
- X is ranked 30th out of 178 countries for ease of doing business ahead of Spain, Brazil and India according to a joint publication of the World Bank and the International Finance Corporation.
- X’s media ranks 26th out of 167 countries in the Worldwide Press Freedom Index 2007, higher than any country in Asia, the Middle East or South America, and ahead of Spain, Italy and the US.
- Tax revenue in X has increased by 220%, over the past 10 years.
By now, I am sure, most of you have guessed that the mystery country of course is South Africa. Or rather South Africa as we have just analysed it, by focusing on the positive aspects. Of course there is another side to the coin. Our unacceptably high levels of crime and low level of policing efficiency. Our inability to achieve the desired output for our vast expenditure on education bearing in mind that – 25% of our non-interest budget expenditure goes to education. Also the ever present fear of corruption and maladministration, etc., etc. I am sure everyone has his or her own little list.
I would submit, however, that the positive aspects, that I have briefly referred to (and there are many more) at least prove that contrary to the way pessimists perceive South Africa there are definitely two sides to the South African coin.
The challenge for every South African appears to be which side of the coin do you wish to focus on for example when you drive to Cape Town International Airport – which is the lasting impression on your mind – the unsightly (albeit diminishing) shack lands – or the glittering new Airport precinct. Cape Town International Airport is regularly judged to be one of the best (mid size) airports in the world.
But as pointed out earlier, South Africa is unquestionably part of Africa. So we should also look at Africa.
Firstly, how is Africa faring politically. Fortunately we now have a very handy yardstick with which to measure African Governance. That is the Mo Ibraham Index established by the like-named Sudanese billionaire and compiled by a team from The Harvard Kennedy School of Government. The criteria used to compile the index are: economic stability, corruption, security, rights, loans, elections, infrastructure, poverty and health.
The 2008 Mo Ibrahim Index stated that 31 of 48 sub-Saharan nations recorded higher scores than in the previous year’s survey.
What this index reflects is the reality – that in Africa today the political generation of the Bwana Mkubas (Big Men) is showing signs of passing – prompting some to speak of Africa’s Second Liberation.
Those with a clear understanding of modern Africa believe that it is the growing democratization of Africa that allows the warm water of the market to spread within its states – a trend that in turn reinforces the spread of greater democracy. Economic and Political freedom will continue to lead as it has already done, to economic opportunities, social upliftment and a new place for Africa on the World Stage.
What are the reasons for Africa’s democratization? I would like to mention only four:
One powerful reason for this welcome change is demographic. The post 1960’s African population boom means that the continent’s electorate is on average young. Never having lived under colonialism they are far more likely to hold their politicians responsible for the challenges facing their countries. Blaming colonialism is increasingly seen for what it is, namely an excuse for bad governance.
Another reason for the greater democratization is the bigger role played by women in African politics. In Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia the continent has at last elected its first female president, one with an open style and a technocratic bias.
Previously chauvinist parliaments across the continent are seeing the number of women MP’s increasing. In Rwanda, a recent African success story, the ratio is now 56%. In South Africa it is 33% with females constituting 40% of our Cabinet.
Further support for the Second Liberation has come from Africa’s increasingly vociferous fourth estate. In an ever growing list of countries the Media has become the guard dog that barks and that no longer readily responds to being told to shut up.
The justice system in a given African country may not yet always be able to bring its former leaders to book. However Frederic Chiluba in Zambia and Bakili Muluzi in Malawi are welcome exceptions. In addition, external institutions, supported by African Nations are being established to fulfill this role. Charles Taylor of Liberia is having his day in court in The Hague and the International Criminal Court has even issued an arrest warrant for the sitting President of Sudan, Omar Bashir.
Just as Africa’s condition and future development will have a massive impact on South Africa, so will developments worldwide impact on Africa. So what will the New World look like that South Africa will likely inhabit in 2020?
China with a population of 1.5bn by then will be close to overtaking the US as the world’s largest economy. India (2020 population of 1.3 bn) will be a top 5 economy and Indonesia will be emerging as an Asian Brazil, resource-rich and with a population of 275 million.
Commodity-rich countries from the “New World” – Africa, the Middle East, Russia, Indonesia, and South America will be prospering, because of Asian demand for their products. Most of the “Old World” – the US, Europe and Japan plus their adjacent, dependant regions such as Mexico and Eastern Europe will be stuck in a low growth economic rut. Indeed the coming decade may well be the West’s Japanese-style “lost decade”. The reason being that the demographic consequences of the ageing of the Old World – coupled to the fact that the US, UK & Europe – 15% of the world’s population – currently consume 70% of the world’s mobile savings – this means that in the West there will be higher interest rates, a higher cost of capital and consequently lower economic growth.
Overall South Africa will live in a more globalised, intensively competitive world economy that will be increasingly focused on an urbanizing, industrialising Asia. The region which by 2020 will also dominate the growth in global consumption, driven especially by the exploding middle classes of China and India.
By 2020 it is projected that South Africa will have a population in excess of 53 million of which 30 million will be under the age of 25. Forced by intensive competition from Asia on South Africa’s remaining industrial base our economy will have to refocus on its core, defensible, competitive advantages : mining, agriculture and tourism. Sectors that are doubly blessed in that they are all labour-intensive and export orientated.
South Africa’s trade focus will by then have diversified significantly from the West. Asia will have become by far our most important trading partner – China most obviously but with English-speaking India a strong number two. Indeed the Indian Ocean Basin – from South Africa in the West to Australia in the East will have become a very prosperous trading basin.
South Africa’s economic status will be secured by its natural-resource based development with targeted value-added propositions added on to this foundation further enhanced by the development of tourism – a “magic” industry in that it is an export-earning service sector capable of absorbing large numbers of lower skilled workers – especially in rural areas.
But then optimise these opportunities we South Africans will have to learn to think out of the box socially, politically and economically – designing policies that are made for South Africa and that are good for South Africa.
Events over the last two years have illustrated that the capitalist way is not only to be found in the West. We must and I believe we will develop a 2020 vision for South Africa that is much more globally relevant than to-day in the Asia-centred, commodity-hungry world we will live in by 2020.
Sceptics of course will have grave reservations as to our ability to develop and implement such a vision. The answer to such sceptics (perhaps the same people who were hoarding bully-beef and candles in the run-up to the 1994 election) is to point to the many successes we have achieved as a country – in 1994 and in the sixteen years since.
As Roelf Meyer recently wrote in Die Burger. In taking stock we should compare ourselves with comparable countries in the rest of the world. We should not compare ourselves to the developed or Western World, because we were never part of that world. We should compare ourselves with developing countries and also countries that recently emerged from internal conflict. In the latter group we are a shining star and within the international community South Africa is still hailed as a beacon of successful conflict resolution.
Roelf refers to a 2009 issue of the Economist in which comparisons are drawn between 180 countries and specifically the 65 best economies in the world.
According to the survey: South Africa has the 25th largest purchasing power, is the 39th largest exporter, is the 25th largest manufacturer of goods and the 28th largest supplier of services. On the competitiveness Index we rank no 45. Not great, but it looks a lot better when one notes that Brazil, considered one of the leaders of the developing world and with a much larger population ranks 43.
But these are the achievements of yesterday and today. And we have to get from 2010 to the 2020 Vision. Other countries or societies will not do it for us. The Government on its own cannot do it.
Inter alia, because as Henry Kissinger once said:
“No policy – no matter how ingenious – has any chance of succeeding if it is born in the minds of a few and carried in the hearts of none” and Ronald Regan said: “The most terrifying words in the English language are: I’m from the Government and I am here to help”.
Every South African who has the best interests of this country at heart, will need to do his or her bit. As general pointers I would like to leave you with a few suggestions:
“Make a positive difference, no matter how small, inter alia, by developing a positive mind set : Perhaps along the lines of what George Bernard Shaw said “You see thing and you say “WHY?, but I dream things that never were and I say “WHY NOT?”
1. Harness the power of community
2. Engage in constructive participation
3. Do not be overwhelmed by all that is still unacceptable or sub-standard. Look around at the great things that are happening – Soccer World Cup.
We should not only see the positive – but embrace it and contribute to it. Surely then, but only then will exponential benefits flow to all of us who share this beautiful country.
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A Very Interesting Conversation
Please understand that I am not proselytising or pushing a particular religious or any other point of view.
I have a completely open mind regarding “faith” which I believe is not the preserve of any particular religion or creed, but a universal truth demonstrably active in our day to day lives in many different ways.
Clearly informal usage of the word “faith” can be quite broad, such as trust/belief/faith in – oneself or a loved one – gut feel/ intuition – a religion etc.
Faith involves a concept of future events or outcomes not resting on logical proof or material evidence.
Swami Tripurari states it well:
Faith for good reason arises out of the mystery that underlies the very structure and nature of reality, a mystery that in its entirety will never be entirely demystified despite what those who have placed reason on their altar might like us to believe. The mystery of life that gives rise to faith as a supra-rational means of unlocking life’s mystery—one that reason does not hold the key to—suggests that faith is fundamentally rational in that it is a logical response to the mysterious.
I have posted this, as it is indeed – A VERY INTERESTING CONVERSATION
An Atheist Professor of Philosophy was speaking to his Class on the Problem Science has with the concept of God.
The Professor asked one of his students to stand and asked—-
Professor : You are a Christian, aren’t you, son ?Student : Yes, sir.
Professor : So, you Believe in GOD ?
Student : Absolutely, sir.
Professor : Is GOD Good ?
Student : Sure.
Professor : Is GOD ALL – POWERFUL ?
Student : Yes.
Professor : My Brother died of Cancer even though he Prayed to GOD to Heal him. Most of us would attempt to help others who are ill. But GOD didn’t. How is this GOD good then? Hmm?(Student was silent )
Professor : You can’t answer, can you ? Let’s start again, Young fella. Is GOD Good?
Student : Yes.
Professor : Is Satan good ?
Student : No.
Professor : Where does Satan come from ?
Student : From . . . GOD . .. .
Professor : That’s right. Tell me son, is there evil in this World?
Student : Yes.
Professor : Evil is everywhere, isn’t it ? And GOD did make everything. Correct?
Student : Yes.
Professor : So who created evil ?(Student did not answer)
Professor : Is there Sickness? Immorality? Hatred? Ugliness? All these terrible things exist in the World, don’t they?
Student : Yes, sir.
Professor : So, who Created them ?(Student had no answer)
Professor : Science says you have 5 Senses you use to Identify and Observe the World around you.. Tell me, son . . . Have you ever Seen GOD?
Student : No, sir.
Professor : Tell us if you have ever Heard your GOD?
Student : No , sir.
Professor : Have you ever Felt your GOD, Tasted your GOD, Smelt your GOD? Have you ever had any Sensory Perception of GOD for that matter?
Student : No, sir. I’m afraid I haven’t.
Professor : Yet you still Believe in HIM?
Student : Yes.
Professor : According to Empirical, Testable, Demonstrable Protocol, Science says your GOD doesn’t exist. What do you say to that, son?
Student : Nothing. I only have my Faith.Professor : Yes, Faith. And that is the Problem Science has.
Student : Professor, is there such a thing as Heat?
Professor : Yes.
Student : And is there such a thing as Cold?
Professor : Yes.
Student : No, sir. There isn’t. (The Lecture Theatre became very quiet with this turn of events )
Student : Sir, you can have Lots of Heat, even More Heat, Superheat, Mega Heat, White Heat, a Little Heat or No Heat. But we don’t have anything called Cold. We can hit 458 Degrees below Zero which is No Heat, but we can’t go any further after that. There is no such thing as Cold. Cold is only a Word we use to describe the Absence of Heat. We cannot Measure Cold. Heat is Energy. Cold is Not the Opposite of Heat, sir, just the Absence of it. (There was Pin-Drop Silence in the Lecture Theatre )
Student : What about Darkness, Professor? Is there such a thing as Darkness?
Professor : Yes. What is Night if there isn’t Darkness?
Student : You’re wrong again, sir. Darkness is the Absence of Something. You can have Low Light, Normal Light, Bright Light, Flashing Light . . .But if you have No Light constantly, you have nothing and its called Darkness, isn’t it? In reality, Darkness isn’t.
If it is, were you would be able to make Darkness Darker, wouldn’t you?
Professor : So what is the point you are making, Young Man ?
Student : Sir, my point is your Philosophical Premise is flawed.
Professor : Flawed ? Can you explain how?
Student : Sir, you are working on the Premise of Duality. You argue there is Life and then there is Death, a Good GOD and a Bad GOD. You are viewing the Concept of GOD as something finite, something we can measure. Sir, Science can’t even explain a Thought. It uses Electricity and Magnetism, but has never seen, much less fully understood either one. To view Death as the Opposite of Life is to be ignorant of the fact that Death cannot exist as a Substantive Thing. Death is Not the Opposite of Life: just the Absence of it. Now tell me, Professor, do you teach your Students that they evolved from a Monkey?
Professor : If you are referring to the Natural Evolutionary Process, yes, of course, I do.
Student : Have you ever observed Evolution with your own eyes, sir? (The Professor shook his head with a Smile, beginning to realize where the Argument was going )
Student : Since no one has ever observed the Process of Evolution at work and Cannot even prove that this Process is an On-Going Endeavor, Are you not teaching your Opinion, sir? Are you not a Scientist but a Preacher? (The Class was in Uproar )
Student : Is there anyone in the Class who has ever seen the Professor’s Brain? (The Class broke out into Laughter )
Student : Is there anyone here who has ever heard the professor’s Brain, Felt it, touched or Smelt it? . . . No one appears to have done so. So, according to the Established Rules of Empirical, Stable, Demonstrable Protocol, Science says that You have No Brain, sir. With all due respect, sir, how do we then Trust your Lectures, sir? (The Room was Silent. The Professor stared at the Student, his face unfathomable)
Professor : I guess you’ll have to take them on Faith, son.
Student : That is it sir . . . Exactly ! The Link between Man & GOD is FAITH. That is all that Keeps Things Alive and Moving.NB: That student was Albert Einstein
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True Colours – by Jonathan Jansen
I Agree with Jonathan 100%
Time to make the choice to move South Africa forward, despite the crooks in whatever walk of life. They are everywhere at all times in every society in every country. Don’t give in to them. Fight the F——!
Spending precious time whining helps not at all. Have we become that weak and feeble? Where is the tough pioneer spirit? Where are the warriors?
Time to get off ones arse and DO something constructive – and don’t tell me there is nothing that can be done, because the government have all the power. Think of what they went through to get that power. Cojones!
You need commitment, to get active and have the cojones.
Well, actually you don’t.
Think of how many of our admirable women have done wonders in their communities for the poorest of the poor with so little but courage that it makes one want to weep.
Look at what the much maligned taxi drivers have achieved. An Africa wide, highly effective and convenient transport system where this was virtually non existent. (OK! OK! also a little dangerous and I wish they drove with more care, but that is another challenge) Even if you don’t use a taxi, you had better believe most do and that includes YOUR domestic.
So get a grip man and make a plan!!
Click here to read – True Colours
