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:

http://marlenvargasdelrazo.wordpress.com/2013/04/29/the-equal-life-foundation-bill-of-rights/

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Day 26 - The Insanity of Legality - Animal Rights

Source Article: http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/Farmers-held-for-assaulting-rhino-poachers-20130523

Johannesburg - Three Limpopo farmers have been arrested for alleged attempted murder after apprehending a suspected rhino poacher, Beeld reported on Thursday.

The three farmers, PP Mare, Chris Naude and Johannes van Zyl, were being held in the Gravelotte police cells, the newspaper reported.

Their lawyer Aldo Rech told the newspaper they were tipped-off earlier in the week that poachers would target the area.

They reportedly claimed they gave chase to two suspected poachers on Wednesday. One of them got away, but they caught the other one, who was injured while running through dense, thorny undergrowth, and found rhino dehorning tools.

According to Beeld, they tied him up and called police to arrest him.

Colonel Ronel Otto told the newspaper police found the man with a head wound, and decided to charge the farmers with attempted murder. He had since been admitted to hospital.

Rech reportedly denied that the farmers had assaulted him.

The farmers were expected to appear in the Phalaborwa Magistrate's Court later on Thursday.

- SAPA

When I read this article, I am bewildered and amazed at the fact that it can be justified to arrest the farmers who were standing up for the animal’s rights. From my perspective: why is the man’s injury being prioritised over the fact that he was coming to poach and dehorn a Rhino? How is it that we demand Justice so easily when a human is being harmed – but do not show equal concern for the animal kingdom? Immediate action is being taken through arresting the farmers – because “A man got hurt!” But no such immediate action is undertaken for the injustice that was being done unto the animal. 

From my Perspective: If you are willing to harm another being for profit then you forego the right to ask for justice when harm is being done unto you. It is similar to situations where a robber was trying to rob a house by climbing in through the ceiling and fell through the ceiling and sustained injuries in the fall. The man then has the audacity to sue the owner of the house and claim reparation. 

This shows the inadequacy of a legal system based on rules and not principles, where we blindly follow rules so that we do not have to do the effort of assessing what is justice in any particular situation.

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Day 25 - Outrageous Demands for Human Rights

Source article:
http://www.fin24.com/Companies/Industrial/Eskom-gears-up-for-pay-talks-20130521

Johannesburg - Three trade unions for Eskom employees have submitted their demands ahead of this year's salary negotiations, the power utility said on Tuesday.

Spokesperson Hilary Joffe said the negotiation process would begin next week.

Lists of demands were received from the National Union of Metalworkers of SA (Numsa), the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), and Solidarity.

Numsa wants more for medical aid

Numsa demanded entry level workers be paid R12 500 as part of a one-year wage agreement and that minimum wage workers be moved to the maximum in their pay scales from July.

In relation to medical aid contributions, it wanted Eskom to pay 80%, with employees contributing the balance.

Numsa wanted the monthly housing allowance increased by R3 000 to R5 000 and a transport subsidy of R300 per month, and for the standby allowance to be increased.

The union sought six months' maternity leave on full pay, and an increase on the 10 days' paternity leave now offered.

Other demands included extending death benefits to workers' families, an essential service agreement allowance of R1 000, and free solar geysers for staff.

In addition, Numsa demanded that Eskom stop using the services of labour brokers from the beginning of July.

NUM seeks more leave days 

The NUM wanted average monthly increases ranging from R3 000 to R3 500, depending on workers' job grades, extended to all employees covered in the bargaining unit.

It echoed Numsa's demands on housing allowances and also wanted staff personal housing loans upped from R75 000 to R120 000 in a one-year wage agreement.

The NUM demanded the essential service allowance to be increased to R1 500.

For maternity leave the union wanted five months on full pay and the sixth month leave at 30% of basic salary.

It also wanted annual leave increased to 25 calendar days, an additional two days for each month of completed service on a pro rata basis, and 21 days of contingency leave per cycle.

The NUM demanded 50 days of trade union leave each year per business unit and another 20 days for each part-time shop steward to attend training courses.

It further wanted Eskom's disciplinary code and procedures, as well as grievance procedures and recognition agreements, reviewed according to best practice.

Solidarity wants phone benefits

Solidarity demanded a 12% wage increase across the board, and also a one-year agreement.

It wanted a R3 500 housing benefit per employee and a fixed daily subsistence allowance of R550 per day.

The union demanded an R85 standby allowance and subsidised telephone allowance, but where an employee wanted to use a private cellphone Eskom should pay R800 per month.

For workers acting in higher positions, Solidarity wanted workers to receive a 10% increase in basic salary after 14 days in an acting role. After six months of acting, the worker should be appointed to the position.

Other demands included that the weekly rest period be extended to at least 48 consecutive hours and a R1 000 electricity allowance for each worker.

Looking at these demands the first thing that comes to my mind is that these demands are entirely insane, but the fact is that these “demands” are entirely reasonable as these people are asking for their basic human right to be able to survive in this world. Let me expand: they are asking for housing, they are means of transportation, they are asking for enough money to support their families, they are asking for clean free energy, they are asking for means of communication, they are asking for enough time to prepare themselves for bringing a child into this world and they are asking for time to live their lives. Aren’t these things that everyone would like to have and should have and should be given as these things are basic human rights?

In the current system these demands are extremely unrealistic and if accommodated the company would likely have to hire more people to cover the work and would have to raise prices to be able to cover their costs so as to make the profit that they see as more important than their workers well being. In turn, with rising electricity prices, pressure would be placed upon the production costs of all other goods which would reduce the real income of individuals throughout the economy and cause the workers to ask for wage increases again so as to maintain their living standard, creating a vicious cycle.

So, no in the current system these demands cannot be met, but this means basically that the current system is falling short of providing everyone with their basic human rights, which makes you consider if this system is worth continuing and if this is the system that we want to leave to our children.

Please join us in this discussion at:

http://www.facebook.com/groups/134734879873165/?ref=ts&fref=ts

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Day 24 - The Lazy Student

Anthony was an amazing man to me. He would always treat me like an adult and talk to me as such and point out when I was doing something wrong, but I do not have a single memory that I can find of him being angry at me or of him ever being angry. He was a lot of fun to be around. He was always able to put people into a good mood and make them laugh. He was open, honest and always willing to help me, but at that stage I wasn’t willing to get help from anyone about anything in my life. I was a bratty little child. He never told me that there was something I couldn’t do and was willing to show me anything I wanted to learn that he was able to teach, but I was never a very good student as I thought of myself as unable to do anything without help. Most of the time when I needed something, I went to him as I wasn’t willing to look and learn to do it myself. I used and abused him for his knowledge and was happy with having someone that I could get what I wanted from.

This blog is a continuation to Day 21 - I lost my Friend my Brother and Day 23 - My Mother BETRAYED Me

I forgive myself for accepting and allowing myself to judge Anthony as amazing, fun and honest
I forgive myself for accepting and allowing myself to be envious of Anthony and his character
I forgive myself for accepting and allowing myself to judge myself as less than Anthony
I forgive myself for accepting and allowing myself to judge Anthony as a calm person
I forgive myself for accepting and allowing myself to judge myself as a bratty little child
I forgive myself for accepting and allowing myself to judge myself as selfish
I forgive myself for accepting and allowing myself to judge myself as lazy
I forgive myself for accepting and allowing myself to judge myself as incapable of learning
I forgive myself for accepting and allowing myself to see myself as a bad student
I forgive myself for accepting and allowing myself to see myself as someone that cannot be helped in any way by another
I forgive myself for not accepting and allowing myself to go to others for help
I forgive myself for accepting and allowing myself to see going to others for help as weakness
I forgive myself for accepting and allowing myself to judge myself as weak
I forgive myself for accepting and allowing myself to use someone for their knowledge
I forgive myself for accepting and allowing myself to abuse someone for their knowledge
I forgive myself for accepting and allowing myself to manipulate people for their knowledge
I forgive myself for accepting and allowing myself to manipulate people to help me out of laziness
I forgive myself for accepting and allowing myself to be happy that my ego is satisfied
I forgive myself for accepting and allowing myself to satisfy my ego by winning through successfully manipulating someone
I forgive myself for accepting and allowing myself to satisfy my ego by exerting my power over them
I forgive myself for accepting and allowing myself to satisfy my ego by seeing myself as more powerful as the person I am influencing
I forgive myself for accepting and allowing myself to follow and try to satisfy my ego to get energy, so I can feel in control, bigger, stronger and smarter than other people
I forgive myself for accepting and allowing myself to fear being seen as inferior
I forgive myself for accepting and allowing myself to desire to be seen as strong
I forgive myself for accepting and allowing myself to want to be seen as strong, since I do not see myself as strong, I therefore need others to reaffirm the idea that I have created of myself of being strong
I forgive myself for not accepting and allowing myself to investigate for myself what actual strength is and redefining it within and as myself and from there developing the redefinition of strength as myself
I forgive myself for accepting and allowing myself to desire to be seen as powerful
I forgive myself for accepting and allowing myself to want to be seen as powerful, since I do not see myself as powerful, I therefore need others to reaffirm the idea that I have created of myself of being powerful
I forgive myself for not accepting and allowing myself to investigate for myself what actual powerfulness is and redefining it within and as myself and from there developing the redefinition of powerful as myself
I forgive myself for accepting and allowing myself to desire to be seen as superior, as I use the character trait of superiority to suppress the fact that I see myself as inferior and also fear being seen as inferior by others, as I fear that they will take advantage of me
I forgive myself for accepting and allowing myself to desire to be respected
I forgive myself for accepting and allowing myself to want to be seen as respected, since I do not respect myself, I therefore need others to reaffirm the idea that I have created of myself of being respected
I forgive myself for not accepting and allowing myself to investigate for myself what actual respect is and redefining it within and as myself and from there developing the redefinition of respect as myself
I forgive myself for accepting and allowing myself to desire to be feared, as I fear others and as I want to be the most feared being, since I see that if people fear you, they give to you their energy and submit to your power, which means that you are then in control of their life
I forgive myself for accepting and allowing myself to fear being ignored, because when I am being ignored, I see myself as not being good enough or worthy of the person’s attention
I forgive myself for accepting and allowing myself to fear being left behind, because when I feel like I am being left behind, I feel like I am not good enough to be a part of whatever is happening
I forgive myself for accepting and allowing myself to define myself within my perception of Anthony
and the character traits that I saw he had that I wanted, such as: strength, compassion, motivation, intelligence, skill, efficiency and dedication – instead of standing equal and one with him and learning from his example

To Be Continued...

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