Showing posts with label money. Show all posts
Showing posts with label money. Show all posts
Friday, 25 September 2015
Sunday, 20 April 2014
Day 43 - Abandoned Children make Good PR
Johannesburg - Gauteng traffic police believe a 16-month-old toddler was purposely abandoned alongside the N1 near Grasmere on Thursday night.This was after the child narrowly missed being hit by a truck travelling along the route. The truck driver noticed the little boy walking alone on the dark road at about 7pm.“We suspect the child was dropped off on the freeway as there are no houses around there from which he could have walked out of,” traffic police spokesman Obed Sibasa said on Thursday morning.“Traffic police patrolling the area noticed the truck swerving and trying to avoid killing the poor innocent soul. When officers got to the child, he looked panicked and unsure of where he was.”Sibasa said the child looked unkempt, and officers couldn’t be sure if his nappy had been changed.“It was indeed disturbing – the child probably cried and cried until there were no more tears left and he was just wandering around, confused.”The child was taken to a place of safety on Thursday night.The case is being investigated by the police and Sibasa said traffic authorities would keep tabs on it too.“Police are busy with investigations and will try to trace the mother; as long as she is still alive, we will find her.”The Gauteng Department of Social Development would make sure the child was cared for until his parents could be traced.“When we have such situations where a child is abandoned, the child is transferred to us. We then get a court order from a magistrate to enable us to place the child at an NGO or in foster care,” a spokesman said.According to the Gauteng Department of Health, 89 babies were abandoned between January and August last year. In 2012, 135 babies were abandoned and 136 in 2011.Welfare organisations said while the department had noticed a decline in babies abandoned at hospitals, the number abandoned at social welfare institutions was on the increase.
What I see when I read this article is how much the police spokesperson is trying to uplift the importance of the system of taking care of orphans and how well the system works instead of using this point to reveal and correct the points that force people to abandon their children out of fear of not being able to take care of them.
From my perspective, many of the children that are abandoned in South Africa are because the parents are unable to care for them and think that they will be taken care of by the system. Many of the children that go into the foster system end up being abused in some form or another as the people use them as a way to get money from the government and many will be used as slaves.
The other problem that I see is that the parents might be excessive drinkers – as is common in places like SA – which would cause them to either accidently or purposefully leave behind their child while they are under the influence of drugs or alcohol. A lot of people that get addicted to drugs and alcohol are struggling to cope with the reality of theirs lives that mainly consist of terrible jobs with horrible salary and then having to come home to care for their own families.
The reality of suffering and pain that most of the world consists of is a lot to bear and the responsibility – financially, physically and emotionally – of taking care of a child on top of the struggle of life can become overwhelming. We have all had experience of what happens when we feel like our cup is going to overflow, which is to remove something – either by getting rid of certain responsibilities or by running as fast and as far as we can to get away from the lives we deem ourselves incapable of supporting.
I see it as everyone’s responsibility to correct as many of these problems as possible to make the world a better and safer place to live in for everyone.
I do not understand why it is seen as normal for the government to use the suffering of the people they claim to take responsibility for, to use the suffering of those people to increase their public relations in campaigning and never deliver on their promises. The people that have been looking the other way while the world crumbles around them need to force themselves to realise that it is their world too and that what is best for all includes them.
Sunday, 7 July 2013
Day 38 - I can vote?????
What I saw
in this article is how the two apparent ruling parties are wasting time and
money to win favour from the people and to gather more power for their
respective parties instead of working together to do what they were created
for.
What I mean
is that: Are not all political parties basely designed as “working for what is
best for the people of their country”? By that logic would not all political
parties be working for the same thing? Would it not be better for the current
ruling parties to use their resources for the betterment of the people of this
country?
If you look
at the point you would realise that the point of opposition parties are
unnecessary for any true democracy as the people are the ones that should be in
control of the country, not the political parties – as the people that live in
the country are the ones that should decide what is best for them, as - is it
not their choice to make?
You would
not want another to decide how your life is supposed to be would you? The
answer is no. Everyone should have the right to vote on every single policy
decision – no matter how small – to ensure that the policies that are chosen
and implemented are based on how the policy can improve life for all instead
of, what is best for the government and their bank accounts.
If you agree
with this, join us for discussion here:
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.
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:
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.
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:
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:
Saturday, 25 May 2013
Day 27 - Rights for Life
Source Article: http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/Metro-police-dispute-Cosatus-R2m-claim-20130524
Johannesburg - The Congress of SA Trade Unions (Cosatu) was asked to make an upfront payment of R200 000 for the planned protest against e-tolls and not R2m, the Johannesburg metro police said on Friday."It was R200 000, not R2m," said spokesperson Wayne Minnaar.Minnaar said the charge was a monetary guarantee for protection against potential damage.He said they did not always charge for protests."We charge only if we are of the view that there might be damage or injury during the protest."The decision to charge Cosatu was based on their previous protest against e-tolls.Cosatu Gauteng secretary Dumisani Dakile told protesters on Friday, that the JMPD had asked for an upfront payment of R2m for the e-toll protest to go ahead."We have never paid money in order to exercise our constitutional right. We are not prepared to pay even half a cent... let them go to hell."- SAPA
Wow… I cannot say that this is unbelievable as the level of
corruption is so bad that things like this have become realistic expectations
of the world we live in today. What is the point of the rights we have if they
are not even upheld. They are saying that for you to go and protest you have to
pay a deposit “just in case” there are damages. It is obviously reasonable to
have the main protesting group to pay if there are damages After the strike –
but not beforehand!
If rights were being upheld, workers wouldn’t have a reason
to go protesting. If rights were being upheld, police and government officials wouldn’t
have a reason to participate in corruption as there would be no reason to be
spiteful towards a society in which, each ones interests are looked after with
the utmost care.
Is it not time to work towards a better society, a better
system, a better future?
Please join us in discussion and support the new bill of
rights:
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