Its afternoon ,,, me driving home .. the streets strangely sort of half busy and as I observe I get the same feeling as I get at Christmas ... people abandoned by society and the system some begging at the traffic lights , some begging ,, most heartbreaking is the women with babies on their backs , in all likelyhood mothers abandoned by their men trying to eke out some sort of living .. Some trying to sell something .. I do if I see an item of wire and beadwork that has use or appeals buy it to either gift or yes just keep ... It makes me feel blessed and fortunate that I have financial security , yet I also get those twinges of guilt , yet remember my Moms words when as a child I would pester her to give to anyone i felt sorry for .. she would say " my boy if we gave to all we would have nothiing and would not have solved any problem just alleviated the plight of some a wee bit "
Which brings me to the " SYSTEM " yes our system has previously and even more so now let the lesser fortunate down ... What about social upliftment programs funded from money that should not have been squandered by the fatcat politicians ?? I quote an example ... food farms ?? they in power engaging the skills of NGO's and working hand in hand with them ?? as most stuff the politicians touch gets stuffed up ... we have food shortages , people going hungry .. why not have these farms giving them a safe place to stay and work ,, growing food and of course ,earning money , they in turn spend and yes keep the tax base rolling .. we have plenty of arable land but nobody taking the initiative ...
MY 2 $ WORTH HERE , BUT ANYHOW FOLKS WHEN WE RAISE OUR GLASSES TO THE NEW YEAR TONIGHT REMEMBER THE LESS FORTUNATE AS WELL .. GO FORWARD IN HOPE THAT THE ECONOMY RECOVERS , THAT COMMON SENSE SINKS INTO THE HEADS OF POWERS THAT BE , AND THAT WE WILL HAVE MANY BETTER YEARS AHEAD ...
Hi Sandy,
Re your query: "why not have farms where these people can live and work?"
We've been there, done that. It was called native tribal areas where each family was allotted land by the headman. And yes, indeed, the result was subsistence living but at least it was a living and there was no crime. There were schools and medical clinics. Each person lived in close contact with their neighbours who had grown up with them, gone to school with them, and intermarried with them.
The problem was, as UNO saw it, they didn't have a vote outside their tribal area. Well, as you know, we solved that problem by handing over the entire voting system.
The ANC went one step further and, using a stick and carrot approach, urged and coerced these subsistence farmers to move to the cities to capture the urban vote, hence the huge surge of population to urban areas.
Now they have the vote but no house, no job, no food, no friendly neighbours and little hope of ever getting back to square one.
I doubt if these thoughts really fit under the heading "happy new year and moving ahead in hope". Perhaps we'll start doing that when we have a reality check at high level.....
Morning Bob , the reality of what you say regarding the carrot and stick applies ( your paradise in Hout Bay affected by such gerrymandering )
The thread of where I was trying to go was the way it affects my heart to see so many and yes in this last year of reccession even more so people in poverty .. and asking the question why does society the system and yes the powers that be let this happen ,, I quote the new year ahead and moving on in hope .. reminding all when celebrating and raising their glasses to remember those less fortunate and that the reality checks do eventually come ... there is nothing wrong with hope , its what helps keep us as mortal beings glued together ... so yes abstract as my writing is I say move into this new year in hope ..
From an online source... and yes this makes you think, about those "discarded by society" an dhow they come to be...
BUNDLES OF SORROW
by George Annandale
2009-12-29
I woke up on Saturday morning to the exciting news that over 500 "Bundles of Joy" were born on Christmas day in South African hospitals.
We need this glorious news like a hole in the head. Truth be said, besides the 500-odd babies born in hospitals a further five-thousand-odd were born all over the place; babies born in abject poverty from parents who cannot sustain themselves, never mind their "Bundles of Joy".
What the tellers of the stories of delight omits from their good tidings is that more than 200 of these "Bundles of Joy" will be dead as Dodos by next Christmas, many of them having died most horribly of hunger or HIV/Aids related deaths.
The bearers of good tidings also forgot, conveniently perhaps, to tell us how many of these babies were born to unemployed and poverty stricken parents who can hardly afford enough food to render onto them the energy required to procreate. Many of them having probably harnessed their last bit of energy, most likely derived from an energy bar or Wilson Toffee, stolen from the nearest spaza-shop.
To add more gloom to the supposedly joyous Christmas birthing occasion, it must be noted that more than a hundred of the babies who survived the first year, will die a horrible and suffering death before they are five.
The four-and-a-half thousand who remain, after the initial carnage, does not face a life of moonshine-and-roses either. At least 50% of them will live on the breadline, having to scrounge a living from rubbish heaps, dust bins, begging and petty theft; never knowing whether they will see the next Christmas and not even having a clue that, odds are, they will be dead by twenty-five.
"What is wrong with that?" - some may quite rightly ask, not realising we live in a country, part of a continent that, with the best will in the world, have never been able to sustain itself and its people without alms and food donations.
That the ANC government and its partners refuse to acknowledge or address this very real problem is inconsequential to most. To them, the so-called leaders, the populist promise of social allowances, whilst hoping for a miracle, is the only way to handle the crisis facing the country and the continent.
Instead of facing the fact that too many people are competing for resources, they while away their time, making transformation plans whilst blaming everything, from labour-brokers to white farmers, weather, apartheid, thieves-in-their-midst and wages, for the plight of the poor and desperate.
To them, the so-called leaders, as virulent African breeders of note, the very idea of any legal constraints on breeding, like measures propagated, implemented and enforced by many civilised or half-civilised country outside the African continent, as solution to their overpopulation problem, is quite unthinkable, or as some would say, "Too ghastly to contemplate". Instead of preaching moderation, African leaders urge their illiterate followers to "Go forth and multiply" and promise them monetary rewards as an additional incentive, encouraging them in their belief that their breeding is an assurance policy against famine and pestilence.
The nail hit squarely on the head in this writing indeed ...
I will add to this one ... Bob mentioned the tribal areas .. all from the past ... and yes effectively trashed by past and current goings on ...
There is one large company in the form of woolworths here is SA ... ( equivalent and very aligned to M & S in UK ) they have written into their company policy a social responsibility program .. vis they identify areas and engage and educate communities to grow some of their more exotic veggies etc ... this is not a form of handout ,, sure they help set them up and help them along the way , but obviously it has to be viable ... they having reasonable success with this ... now if all major corporations were to engage in this sort of thing ... show those palukas in power how it can be done ,, and yes demand their tax rebate for job creation ... talk about job creation .. if you have a domestic worker as a private individual ( your are providing a job ) but yet there is nor tax rebate for employing someone ?? duh !! hello so many folk are too busy working and propping up the goose that lays the golden egg and have no time for doing housework , yet cannot get a rebate for empoying someone to do it ?? we have to register the domestic worker and pay into the UIF fund or some day some asshole of a beaurocrat will come and fine you into oblivion ,, yet you cannot claim against tax for empoying as a private individual ??? duh !!!
as said before it requires the interaction of business and concerned citizens to get things moving .. farms as Eddie has also said are a way of providing work and dignity ...
One of the current lots cockups is the so called environmental levy on plastic shopping bags ( and dont even get me started on that subject ) the so called intent was the levy was suppoeed to be used to create an effective recycling industry .. to date they have noting to show but excuses as they say that they cannot " ringfence " the income from that source so there fore cannot hold any stupid asshole responsible ... now in my simple way of thinking ... the income by normal accounting procedures has a source .. they have a very good and amazing tax system for hitting the average wage earner .. but somehow caanot rinfence a fund and hold somone responsible ... I go back again .. it must be a joint venture with damm good oversight from indusrty and NGO's ... again more companies doing the social responsibility thing and demamnding from " powers that be " engagement and responsibility ........... my tonights 2 $ worth of bile and suggestion ... Uugh work tomorrow wages earned and taxes paid and wasted ...