Strike, help, what is going on?

I am curiously watching the news to see what is going to come from the strikes in South Africa. I support the workers who are all just hoping for a better life and rewards for their hard work and efforts, and on the other side you have children who have to write exams and are scared they will not have enough time, and the intimidation and so so many things happening. So many dimensions and everybody only sees the view that affects them. This all in the light of the massive pay increases given to parliamentarians and higher level officials, it is no wonder that people are disillusioned. The only ones paying the price for this is the poor. The top government officials get enough money, the workers lose, but will hopefully gain in the end and the poor lose all the way!

I can see that SA is still in so many ways a place where everyone just wants his own wealth to increase. Freedom fighters fought for many years to be liberated from white oppression and then the new government repeats so many of the patterns of the old. Ensuring that the rich get richer and the poor get poorer and of course the higher level officials with power have to take the cream, because they can.

When will we learn that a nations is only "good" if the poor has access to a better life. We can never make someone get off his jack and work, but we don't have to make it impossible for them to get into the market either. Employment creation is not government's work, and will never be, but a healthy pro-small-person-with-little-money environment makes it easier for someone to try. I am from a middle income environment and I consider myself hard-working and creative, and I am having a battle making a business work and to earn enough to survive in a country where the cost of living rises daily. H0w does a pooooooooor person with no access to capital and that struggles for daily survival just start a business, or get work. Let us be realistic, we are still alive in SA because God is gracious and many people are praying for the country. It is not due to the government efficiency or anything else.

The answer to our Nation lies in the hearts of the people of the country. Those with access to capital and who own businesses should always look at how to increase their staff, pay them better and improve their skills and education. We are constantly helping our cleaning ladies to start businesses or the garden man to do something or our employees to go further. Yes, it costs, as we have to get new people then, but what a pleasure. Meet someone new and give them the same opportunity. Start looking beyond your own survival and own riches and you will see that there is something better than a fat belly, fancy car and expensive shoes - to give of yourself. It is the greatest discovery that you will make. Why did you risk your life to liberate the country, was it to become a parasite or to make a significant impact?

till later....

skalla

The willpower element is key to development

I went to watch my daughter at their dress rehearsal for their ballet on Friday and I noticed a key element, that was not new to me, of developing people. I have pondered about it a lot in the past and about it's value, but it was made so practical to me at this event. The ballet class has about 10 girls of different cultural groups, income groups and various shapes and sizes. My daughter has a perfectly shaped body for this activity and so she can trot and run over the wooden floor with grace and with almost no sound. There were however 2 other girls that caught my attention. The one has Down's Syndrome and the other one is quite bigger (podgy) than the other girls. Her Ballet dress is not so flattering and she looks out compared to the rest of the skinny cats. The things is though that these two girls, with the handicaps, had so much passion for the ballet. They couldn't glide across the floor or do the moves as gracefully as my daughter, but they had heart. They wanted to be there, they had fun. They wanted to do ballet because it was nice for them. I'm glad that they have such a wonderful teacher that has the patience to help and keep saying the same things and always building the girls. The unfair things is that there are also girls, with perfect bodies for the activity, that does not put the same amount of effort into their ballet. They can do the moves okay, but they are only there because mommy said so.
With human development it is the same. Some people have all the opportunities and belong to the right socio-economic group, but they have no interest in going fwd in life or to really develop themselves. They are quite happy to just survive and climb the ladder that society has determined for them. We all need to get to the place where we see the thing that will make us most complete and give us satisfaction and we must pursue that. It will take a price, sometimes a big one, but it is so important. The same with communities. We cannot arrive at a community with a brilliant economic development initiative and then the community just has to take what we wanna give em. They should buy into the idea, conceptualize it and agree that this will lead to their future advancement and realization of personal dreams. Unfortunately many people don't have the urge to develop and that hinders efforts, but i have found that with some "counsel" and encouragement, even those often get a dream.

Anyway, there is another piece of idea to chew on. It is actually a whole lot of ideas combined, but we will unpack it all with time.

till later...

skalla

The Cornerstone of Development

The cornerstone of development is IDENTITY. If a person cannot find his/her identity then they will always be slave to someone or something. I am poor and I need a person with money to help me. Fact is that such a person will not go fwd and develop even if they receive money, or even employment. Unemployment is bad, but it is not the worst of all evils. The giant to attack is the loss of value and identity. The class, social, financial ideological and political systems of our world have classified people in categories. You are from poor class, middle class or whatever and therefore you have a certain amount of respect or authority. Your identity is connected to something external. This will keep you enslaved even if you earn a good income. The rich needs these kinds of employees in order to control productivity and order in the company and so they are not too eager that people find themselves and grow more assertive. Once we find that seed, gift, ability and image that is in us by birth, that natural inclination, and we follow that, we are on the road to freedom and development. We need to find the fingerprint of our Maker in us. Identity is all about knowing origin and purpose for being created. Once that is uncovered, or even just a realization that such a thing exists, it releases energy, passion and zeal to go fwd. Then money is only a means to an end and not the end. Employment is then also seen in a different light. WE ARE NOT ON EARTH TO SURVIVE, BUT TO CO-CREATE.

till later....
skalla