Friday 31 May 2013

Day 33 - Forgive me Father for I have Sinned!


Source Article: http://www.news24.com/Technology/News/Student-confession-sites-go-viral-20130531

“Cape Town - Anonymous Facebook confession sites are going viral as thousands of university students confess their most intimate thoughts.

The craze started with the Facebook page UCT Confessions, which allows students to post messages anonymously using a code via Google.”

“Many are inappropriate for publication, and concerns have been raised that the nature of the confessions may damage the reputation of the university.

According to the Cape Argus, the creators want to remain anonymous, but said they wanted a platform where students could be heard anonymously: “Not everyone wants to associate themselves with their opinion”.

- News24


The backchat confession booth of a University, where all can come and splurge their disturbing selfish thoughts without repercussion, has nicely displayed – for all to see – the Nastiness of the human psyche.

It is fascinating that people are reacting as if this wasn’t to be expected. What I mean is that if you look at the workings of your own mind, you must realize that our thoughts as our secrets are not a pretty picture. We can present ourselves as the best and the most beautiful things in the world, but in reality, well just look at the world as the world is representing the truth of human nature in every aspect.

What is the purpose of this site if the people that use it are not held responsible for the thoughts that they are revealing? The fact that these people are posting on this site and sites such as these is usually in the benefit of themselves in terms of the ego boost they get when people read, like or comment on the post that they made – without the people knowing who wrote it.

It is similar to going to a Church Confession Booth and expecting that if you confessed your sins and say ten "Hail Mary's", that you are now forgiven and apparently cleansed, when obviously nothing has really changed, because you haven't really investigated the thoughts and taken responsibility for them in having a look at how you have to change yourself to correct the origin of the problem.


The solution that I see is that the people get assistance and training in how to deal with the thoughts and feelings so as to see how to work through their issues and take responsibility for themselves and their words and actions through utilising the tools that are available here: 

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Thursday 30 May 2013

Day 32 - Why do I need a Degree I'm a Government Official?


Source Article: http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/Politics/KZN-officials-to-go-back-to-school-20130530  
 
Pietermaritzburg - KwaZulu-Natal municipal officials will be compelled to undergo training in the event of poor audits, the province said on Thursday. 

"We are on the point of introducing compulsory training programmes with relevant modules for officials in municipalities, that have received poor audit reports," Co-operative Governance MEC Nomusa Dube told journalists in Pietermaritzburg.

The province currently does not allow elected councillors to receive bonuses or award bonuses to municipal officials of municipalities, which have received adverse reports from the auditor general.

Dube - speaking ahead of presenting her department's annual budget to the provincial legislature - said the performance of the province's municipalities had improved since 2009.

Turning to the controversial Manase Report - a 700-page forensic audit report on fraud and corruption in the eThekwini Metro - Dube said the date for its release would be announced within a "few days".

She would, however, not commit to when that would be.

Durban's councillors, who agreed to sign a secrecy clause, were allowed to see the report.

- SAPA

Is it not reasonable to assume that government officials be taught how to their jobs Before being allowed to start working? The apparent reason for the “compelled training” is that some officials got bad audits and officials with bad audits cannot receive bonuses, the fact that the people don’t know how to do their jobs doesn’t matter.

Would it not be more prudent to, when someone applies for the job of an official, their qualifications cover the job that they are applying for or\and are put through training so as to ensure the official is able to perform their duties effectively?

Looking at the state of the country combined with articles of this nature, this simple Preventative measures have not been implemented or possibly not even considered.

To help correct this injustice and many more, join us in discussions here:

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Tuesday 28 May 2013

Day 31 - Down the Drain


Source Article: http://www.news24.com/World/News/China-Newborn-rescued-from-toilet-pipe-20130528
 
Beijing - A newborn baby boy was rescued from a sewage pipe in a Chinese apartment building after being flushed down a toilet, state media said. 
"Fortunately the baby survived. But the person [who abandoned him] is still suspected of attempted murder," said an unnamed police officer, according to the official news portal hangzhou.com.cn.

Residents in Jinhua, in the eastern province of Zhejiang, called firefighters after hearing the 2-day-old baby crying in the fourth-floor squat lavatory, the report on Monday said.

Attempts to pull him out failed, so rescuers sawed away a section of the 10cm diameter pipe with the baby inside and took him to a local hospital.

Firefighters and doctors spent nearly an hour taking the tube apart piece by piece with pliers and saws and finally recovered the newborn, whose placenta was still attached, the report said.

From the time he was found to when he was taken out, the baby was stuck in the tube for at least two hours, it added.

The 2.3kg boy suffered some cuts to his face and limbs and his heart rate was low at one point. He was put in an incubator and was in stable condition, the report said.

Police were still looking for his parents, it said.

Chinese families traditionally have a preference for sons, but babies born out of wedlock are sometimes abandoned because of social and financial pressures. The country's one-child policy can also mean heavy fines for couples who have more than one baby.
- AFP

 
This is one of those stories where if you told someone they would think you were lying.

I can see how it is possible to be scared when having a child in China as there are fines in terms of having a second child and that if the child is born out of wedlock – meaning that the parents aren’t married, I only found the meaning now – the parents might not have money or would be shunned by family as the culture is unforgiving.

The fact that these people did this is insane. The fact that they possibly had a good reason is disgusting. The point is that in this system people have to survive and feel forced to do terrible things to be able to survive. 

Laws have consequences, for instance: The laws that are in place to deter people from having multiple children in China has the possible consequence of people devising cruel ways to get rid of children. The problem is that the consequences of points that are placed as law are very rarely considered – in their full scope – or are ignored completely until a problem arises that needs to be fixed.

Real solutions have to be found, help us develop them here:

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Monday 27 May 2013

Day 30 - What is in The Meat we Eat


   
William von Schneidau, an intrepid butcher in Seattle, is giving a whole new meaning to "potbelly pig."

Lately, he's been feeding marijuana refuse to the pigs he turns into prosciutto for BB Ranch, his butcher shop in the city's famous Pike Place Market.

The stems, leaves and root bulbs von Schneidau recoups from , a medical marijuana dispensary, don't season the meat, he says. But the meat from the first few "pot pigs" he's butchered has been "redder and more savory" than what he usually works with, he says.

Still, von Schneidau's creative reuse of a local waste product is part of a larger trend of small farmers looking for new, free sources of livestock feed, especially since prices for corn and soy have been on the rise.

In addition to the pot refuse, von Schneidau has linked up ranchers and farmers in the region with a vodka distillery and with vegetable vendors at Pike Place Market who have waste that would otherwise end up as compost or in the landfill.

NPR goes on to say:

"Scientists at the European Union Food Safety Authority looked into the safety of using hemp, a plant that's a close relative of marijuana, in feed for dairy cows. When the cows were fed hemp plants, enough THC made its way into their milk that the scientists recommended prohibiting its use. (However, feeding the cows hemp seeds was just fine, they found.)"


Ok. Just to start… WTF!?!?!?! It’s fascinating that this is disgusting but also reasonable – meaning that for the farmers to save money it is reasonable to look for any way to save money to stay in business, as farmers, like all of us, have to make money to survive.

The Disgusting point in all of this is that the farmers have to be pushed into feeding their animals things like WEED just to save money for the survival of their families!

Looking at this article makes me realize how difficult it must be for some people to support their families financially for them to consider doing something as unimaginable as feeding their animals weed to save money and make the meat "redder and more savoury". 

The current Capitalistic system endorses such methods as it improves efficiency and increases profits – in most cases. To use another example: On the farm we tried to farm our own chickens for a while through using the foods that the “big companies” use – meaning the foods that are full of hormones and so-on. What those chickens’ bodies went through was terrible. Most of them couldn’t walk or at least not very much and the ones that could would sometimes have broken legs just from carrying their own weight. The bodies picked up fat really fast and they were sometimes the size of full grown chickens by the time they were around 8 weeks old. The chickens that grow up normally on our farm take around 4 – 6 months to be fully grown in size. That means that the bone structure of the chickens that we fed the broiler food (that is what the food was called) was still in its early stages of development, but the weight of those chickens was the same – or more in most cases – of the fully adult farm chickens that we had on the farm. We stopped that experiment very quickly once we saw what was happening.

In the chicken industry the average age of chickens when they go for processing – before being sent to the stores for selling – are around 6 weeks old. This is done so as to increase profits and reduce costs, as the chickens live for such a short time that they eat less and because of this the company wouldn’t need to buy as much food. The longer they live the more they eat, so let’s make them full grown at 6 weeks to save money and increase profits.

If you see this as something that needs to change then join us for discussion at:

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Sunday 26 May 2013

Day 29 - Reactively Harmed




This article is about how the government is bringing in hackers to test and improve the security of data in departments across the South African government in the wake of a cyber-attack by hackers on the SA Police force.
Craig Rosewarne, chairperson of the Information Security Group Africa, said his group had repeatedly warned government decision makers of the importance of data security.

"Unfortunately, we’re just going to have to wait for more ­incidents to take place and more public pressure around these ­issues before we see the urgency needed."
The fascinating thing about this statement is that it reflects how the World deals with problems, where the World is always in a reactive state towards problem solving, instead of utilising a preventative approach. 

If you look at a Reactive problem solving technique, the problem that becomes apparent is that for you to react, you must first have something to react to, meaning that the problem must first play out. This would mean that the problem has already caused whatever harm it was going to cause.

If you look at a Preventative problem solving technique, you no longer have to wait for harm to occur as you would be preventing all foreseeable problems before they occur. This would mean that there would be a significant reduction in harmful problems. 

Investigate Equal Money, where one of the main basic principles is: Prevention is the Best Cure!
www.equalmoney.org
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