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.

http://www.iol.co.za/news/crime-courts/toddler-was-wandering-around-n1-confused-1.1671369

 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.

Day 22 - Neo Apartheid: Steal from the Poor and give to the Rich

Recently in the Gauteng Province in South Africa the government has been pushing for a new road tolling system called “e-tolling”. My main focus in this blog is not going to be about the system of e-tolling, but rather the speed that the government has used in pushing the system. The government says that the money from the new tolling system would be used to implement road upgrades. The cost of these upgrades would be around R20 Billion, but the expected profits from the new tolling system would be around R70 Billion. The article compares how the government is pushing this new system with a lot more due diligence than – for instance – the slow pace of restricting labour brokers.

"When it comes to the capitalist class, the government had speed in its legs. But when it comes to the interests of the poor the government moves very slowly,"
This quote from the article pretty much describes the whole point of Neo Apartheid, steal from the poor to make the rich richer.
“Vavi said money lost through corruption had to be retrieved and put towards building roads."This e-tolling thing is another way to steal from the poor." "Don't be arrogant with power, because we as workers will take that power and then you will be ordinary people," Vavi said.”
There is a planned protest march against this new system, where the main speaker and instigator of this protest has asked the people to drive to the nearest toll gate and park their car in front of it for the whole day in protest to this system.
"Comrades bring along your cars, bicycles, and horses if you have one, to close down the freeways on Thursday."
I wonder though if any of these protests would make any sort of a difference as the upper class will always find a way to secure their own position. The only way to really change the point is to change the system, to change the rules of the game. To help redesign the system for what is best for all come join us at www.equalmoney.org 

Sources:
http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/Vavi-Govt-moved-fast-on-tolls-20121130
http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/Cosatu-threatens-to-destroy-toll-booths-20121128
http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/Toll-vandals-will-be-punished-govt-20121129-2
http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/Anti-tolling-marches-under-way-20121130

Related articles

• SA government vows to punish lawlessness in protests against e- tolling
• Zwelinzima Vavi's address to The Gathering 2.0
• Gauteng's e-tolling volcano
• 2013: Cosatu's year of the shop steward

Day 20 - ANC Squanders Taxpayers Money Under NeoApartheid

I read an interesting news article recently about how the two main international airports in South Africa have not been doing health checks for travellers from the rest of Africa. They specify that they should have been checking for “Yellow Fever” which according to the WHO is a virus that kills on average 30 000 people a year in Africa as there are no specific treatments for the virus. The WHO also said that the virus is usually transmitted by mosquitos.

The reason that they have not been doing the health checks due to – in part – the lack of staff, also the staff has not been willing to work on public holidays and weekends as they do not get paid overtime. The provincial health department and Airports Company SA could not be reached for comment. The Information was brought forward by the Democratic Alliance.

From my perspective one of the points that I saw within this article is that the current government is using state funds for personal reasons rather than putting the money where it should go. For example: The UK annually sends 19 million Pounds of aid to the South African government mainly aimed at reducing HIV. The reason I say this is because of the fact that there has been a recent scandal around President Zuma concerning the upgrades to his personal “palace”. The South African government spent around 17.5 million Pounds on the Presidents family home and about 40 million Pounds on upgrading the roads around and in his Palace, all of this money came from taxpaying citizens. Another point is that President Zuma asked many companies, mainly in the mining sector to “tighten their belts” so that they can pay their workers more. All the while he is doing things like this where he throws taxpayers money around like it is nothing and the government stops allocating the money that should go to things like public transport, public healthcare, job creation, education and food security. What this is saying to South African citizens is that the government has a lot of money but it is used for the betterment of the ruling party and its members rather than the people who the ruling party are supposed to be protecting and empowering.

To read more click here

Related articles

• UK gives £19million aid to South Africa - its president spends £17.5million on his palace
• Conservative Party: Take from the UK poor & give it to the South African rich.
• Cows killed for Zuma re-election
• S. Africa state TV bans fish and chip advert satirising Zuma
• The day the president's mask slipped: Opposition touches Zuma on his compound
• Ad with cartoon president rejected in South Africa
• KwaZulu-Natal props up its strawman; Nkandla scandal deepens
• S.Africa state TV bans fish and chip advert satirising Zuma

Day 17 - My Struggling Country

Jacob Zuma, former vice president of South Africa. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Looking at the recent news in South Africa I’d have to say that this country is in some serious trouble. The reasons that I say this is that the civil unrest in South Africa is getting worse all the time due to many factors including horrible wages, increasing costs for basic living and a corrupt and selfish government. Recently President Jacob Zuma of South Africa has been under some serious scrutiny over many points but mainly over the point of excessive costs on his private home. Quoting from the news article: "that under his leadership the justice system has been politicised and weakened; corruption has spiralled out of control; unemployment continues to increase, the economy is weakening, and, the right of access to quality education has been violated". (http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/Politics/DA-files-court-papers-over-Zuma-motion-20121117 )

The point of his home is that he was accused and brought before a parliamentary hearing to ask if his private home which cost around R200 million was paid for by the taxpayers as was recently reported in many newspapers.

In this article Zuma is saying how he doesn’t have anything to do with the improvements made other than the ones his family put in and that the government said these improvements were necessary for security reasons. The point that people in South Africa are angry about is the fact that the president allowed these upgrades even with his country in serious financial trouble, which is causing people to get angry with the government.

The main opposition political party in SA – the DA – has been trying to bring a vote of no confidence on President Zuma. There is a lot of anger against Zuma because he is not taking responsibility for the country that he governs, but instead he places blame on others or says that the governor of the respective area that is presenting trouble or specific government departments are supposed to deal with whatever problems.
Let me explain a vote of no confidence. Simply put, a vote of no confidence is a vote to remove the acting president from office legally because of the president not adhering to the responsibilities of the president in accordance with the constitution of SA.

The question here is how far people are going to allow themselves to be pushed before they snap. The recent strikes that have been increasingly violent are signs that people are seriously unhappy.

What will happen if the ANC continues to block the attempts of the DA to remove Zuma from office using a vote of no confidence, which would be in violation of the SA constitution. What would SA turn into then? If SA stands up and removes Zuma what would happen to SA? Ask yourself how far you would need to be pushed before you stand up and say no more?

Sources:
http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/Politics/Nkandla-Zuma-says-still-paying-bond-20121115
http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/Politics/DA-files-court-papers-over-Zuma-motion-20121117

Related articles

• The day the president's mask slipped: Opposition touches Zuma on his compound
• Fist of fury: ANC vows to block the Zuma motion of no confidence
• SA anger over roads to Zuma home
• Zuma and 'No confidence': How would you vote?
• Zuma's missed opportunity to sell South Africa
• Zuma parries attacks on leadership
• S.Africa state TV muzzles reporters over 'Zumaville'
• Battle for spoils tearing ANC apart - Zille

Day 16 - Mother Murders Her 5 Children

I have been reading a few news articles about a woman who killed her 5 children. The kids were aged between 2 and 13, she apparently first made them drink a mix of brake fluids and soda. She then decided that they were taking too long to die so she drowned or stabbed some of them. She appeared in court after the murders and she was pregnant again. She had also attempted to poison her children and commit suicide the year before, she was sent to a mental institute for a 30 day evaluation before going to trial and being convicted and sent to jail for 12 years for each murder.

Here are the links:
http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/Mom-made-children-drink-brake-fluid-20111130
http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/Alleged-killer-mom-pregnant-again-20120209
http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/Mom-gets-12-years-for-killing-her-children-20121113

How can anyone call this a world that is worth living in if things like this are commonplace. A mother murdered her children and will spend the rest of her life being taking care of in terms of food, a bed and hygiene because she murdered her children. A lot of people in South Africa are willing go to prison because they are able to survive their without needing to work and fear that they are not going to have enough money to survive the next day. In prison you get everything you need to survive for as long as your sentence is set to, without having to work for it. It is definitely better than trying to survive in the world – it may not be as comfortable, but at least you will always get 3 meals a day and a bed and a blanket for sleeping in.

In an Equal Money System everyone would already be provided for in terms of food, a house, hygiene and so on, without needing to work for it – so they wouldn’t need to kill, rape, rob or suffer in fear just to survive to the next day. Consider the fact that a lot of crimes committed these days are out of fear and desperation for survival. Also consider that in the current system people choose to go into crime so as to support themselves and their families, in an Equal Money System this choice wouldn’t be necessary as they would already be supported for their entire life. Ask yourself how much crime would exist in a world where people weren’t in constant fear and desperation for the survival of themselves and their families?