Is it too late for South Africa ?

Is it too late for South Africa? Recently a gangrape video of a 17 year old girl went viral on the internet, bear in mind for this video to have gone viral it means that a lot of people had to have watched it and enjoyed it so much so that it became popular.That's what needs to happen for a video to go viral.

• According to the world press view during the 2011 year 1,2 million people where raped everyday of this number sixty of them where children
• Janine Rowly of the organisation woman against rape (WAR) says that "A woman in South Africa gets raped every 9 to 23 seconds
• South Africa is said to have twelve times as many rapes as America whic is second on the list of counties with the highest rape cases making us the leading country when it comes to raping woman

Which brings me back to my question is it too late for us, is crime, rape and corruption so much a part of our culture that we should legalise it and make it a national sport? If not what can we do, bring back the death penalty, enlist more policemen, mob justice what? South Africa is often said to be a beautiful country but if we don't stand together it wont be, I don't want to live in a country where my child can get raped and everyone is fine with it. We must stand together and find salutions in our lifetime lets not let the woman and children who've suffered  thus far to have suffered in vein.Often words of wisdom or warning fall on deaf ears until it's late let our generation not fall into that trap.

Are Black People Losing Their Culture?

Are Black People Losing Their Culture?

What are we afraid of

Is it possible that one day we could wake up and the South African culture has dissapeared, that we've forgotten our music, no longer speak our language, don't practice our traditions and don't even know the meaning of our names? Is it a worldwide phenomenon that with globalisation caltures that are not depicted and promoted on  television, in movies and through social media die out?If this is true what's the big deal? So what, we become westernized, Americanized isn't that what being civilized is all about?

The South African Culture

what do we even mean by losing our culture. I still respect my mother and father, my elders. I speak Setswana when I'm at home.I might not know our traditional dances and songs but what's the harm in that, does knowing how to dance and sing guarentee me a job, or will it make me a better husband, how does knowing any cultural rituals help me become a better human being. Don't get me wrong I'm proud to be black, to be Tswana not really to be South African because I don't know what that means yet, but apart from sentimental value what is the point of a culture.
Disadvantages of Globalisation

• A lose of calture in poorer less competitive countries
• difficulty for 3rd world countries to compete
• An identity crisis is created in the youth
• The braindrain as people immegrate in search of new jobs

Human Trafficking

Human Traficking

Byproduct or Symptom

Human trafficking is a multi-billion dollar criminal enterprise targeting vulnerable people for labour and sexual exploitation.My only question is is human trafficking inevitable, is it a byproduct of a capatilist economy where money will come first ahead of human dignity and moral values or can it be stopped through effective policing?

The Victims
People that migrate to and fro internationaly or locally are vulnerable to social or political pressures or crises. In order to seek for better life opportunities, they are willing to be smuggled across borders and suddenly find themselves in a trafficking network Time and time again its poor people that are victims often from rural villages they are lured into these situations through the promises of better jojs and a better life, the incentive for financial security often outweights their safety and well-being.

• There 2.5 million people being trafficked every year around the world 80% are woman and 50% are children, these statistics aren't always reliable due to the nature of the problem. 
• Every year 50,000 woman and children are brought to the United States to work as slaves.
• The average price for individual slaves is less than that of a  cell phone,anything from R100 to R500.
• Every year more than 1 million children are exploited in the global commercial sex trade.
• After drug dealing human trafficking is tied with the illegal arms trade as the second largest criminal industry in the world, and it is the fastest growing.
• Human Trafficking is estimated to be a seven billion dollar anuall businuss.

Conclusion
With these statistics I believe that Human trafficking much like drug trafficking brings in too much money into economies all over the world for it to be eradicated, although people in power might say it is wrong I believe deep down the are for it, due to its economic benefits, I stand to be corrected but modern slavery is frowned upon but either than that little else is done.



Racism is The Future

South Africa and Racism

Immanual Kant has been quoted as saying: " Humanity  is at it's greatest perfection in the white race." and that  "The yellow indians do have meagre talent, the negroes are far below them, and at the lowest point are a part of the American people."

"Blacks are more likely to be ill treated on race grounds, but blacks are more likely to treat other blacks worse than they would treat people of other races." Sifiso Falala, Chief executive of plus 94.

The issue of race is South Africa is one that I would describe as a blessed curse, throught our tragedy we have salvaged a sense of humanity.With soo many defferences between people race seems to be the difference we identify to cuase the greatest conflict. to a certain extent it's understandable, gender can be seen to compliment the other we have different genders in order to procreate, homosexuallity is treated with hostility because it's not understood. Race to a similar extent is not understood no one can explain to this day why we are racially different. and to theorise about this without questioning our motives can be dangerous. Darwin once said: "...at some future period, the civilised races of man will almost certainly exterminate and replace the savage races throughout the world." what where these savage races he was talking about, what would happen to the many people who would read his books, what conclusions would they develop.
Recently a Right-wing racist group Afrikaner Bloed won a first prize at a World Press Photo 2012 multimedia contest for showing pictures fof a training camp of young teenage boys. These pictures where shown to Dutch photographers Elles Van Gelder and IIvy Njioiktjien. The pictures showed boys being taught to hate the idea of a new South Africa, of a multiracial country and to not see themselves as South African citizins. I just don't feel comfortable knowing we can be soo casual about such a potentially destructive idea. Adolf Hitler was seen as an idiot he wasn't taken seriously until he rose to power, no-one would of been able to fathom what his plans where for the jewish people, we cannot wait until extremism and murderous ideology is killing millions before we act we must fight these ideologies before they become deadly.                                                  

Capitalism And Obesity

 Capitalism and Obesity

Simple but Hard
Obesity means having too much body fat. It is not the same as being overweight, which means weighing too much. A person may be overweight from extra muscle, bone, or water, as well as from having too much fat.

I stand to be corrected but fat people need no prefferential treatment. Apart from a clinically diagnosed disease such as hypothyroidism which is the condition of having an underactive thyroid which can lead to a slower motabolism meaning at takes longer than it would an average person to be broken down, Obesity is caused simply by a lack of excersise and over consumption of food.

There are children who die from mulnutrition, hunger and starvation yet we as a society give soo much attention to obesity invest soo much money on getting people to lose weight there are even television programs such as "The Biggest Loser", which is about contestants competing against each other to see who can lose the most weight, why isn't there a game show called "Feed the Children of the World",which can be about which countries can eleviate poverty the quickest and maybe educate the poor communities while they are at it .

Medical proffesionals everywhere will tell you time and time again the treatment for obesity is and always will be healthy eating and regular exercise that's it, simple. It's hard to put into practice but a simple concept none the less there is no miracle diet. When it comes to starvation on the other hand there is no food available that people can eat, and thats the problem, more money needs to go into agriculture people can't starve to death while money is wasted on getting fat people to lose weight, does this even make sense.

I believe that we are treating symptoms not the root causes here, there is an imbalance of recources countries with more recources that are overconsuming overusing and abusing recouces will have citizens with health problems but it will always be easier to make a gameshow about fat people because somehow we can tell ourselves we are trying to help improve the world, but making a gameshow about starving children with exposed ribs or inflated bellies and flies around their mouths trying to see which ones will gain weight the fastest is a different idea altogether, because then we would be facing the real problem the world would see how truly greedy and selfish and inhumane we are.

3rd world vs Developing

THIRD WORLD OR DEVELOPING

"The Third World is not a reality but an ideology." - Hannah Arendt

Who is Right

I had a brief dicussion with my lecturer where we where trying to define South Africa as either a third world or a developing country. I said third world and she said developing, but before we can say who's right or who's wrong we need to understand what the difference between these two concepts is or if there even is a difference.

The Difference

Countries such as the United States of America, Britain and Japan are seen a developed countries they are characterised by a strong economy,thats growing,they are self-sufficient, they have good infrustructure and a strong currency.

What about us, where do we fit in? John F Kennedy said: "The great battleground for the defense and expansion of freedom today is the whole southern half of the globe... the lands of the rising peoples. Their revolution is the greatest in human history. They seek an end to injustice, tyranny and exploitation. More than an end, they seek a beginning."

Lets Not Lie To Ourselves

Hey we are in the Southern half of the globe, we seek to end injustice tyranny and exploitation, we seek a new beginning, i really think thats us, we can all agree we are not developed so developing or third world that's the question.

The platinum produced in South africa accounts for 80% of the world's output, but still we are not developed. We produce the largest amount of one of the worlds most in demand minerals, and still we are not developed. Isn't that a characteristic of a 3rd world country? take Sierra Leone for example it's a country rich in diamonds, but it is still poor, to me there are no developing countries if a country has natural recources and it still is poor its a third world country.We can't change what we dont acknowledge. i'd love for South Africa to to be a first world, developing or even developed country but we just aren't lets not lie to ourselves.Just because we aren't living in poverty it doesn't mean a large majority of our people are not.



Developing countries don't burn people,

our people are frustrated and disillusioned.





South African citizens drinking stagnant water, very unfirstworld.



 

Overcrowded Prisons

The crisis our prison systems face

Overcroded Prisons in South Africa

THE IDEAL

Among the provisions in the South African Constitution is the right of "Every individual who is

incarcerated, including every sentenced inmate to conditions of detention consistent with

human dignity, including; The provision, at state expense, of suitable accommodation."

THE REALITY

this unfortunately is the ideal not the reality. According to the South African institue for race relations(SAIRR) South Africa has the second highest overcrowded prisons in the world. Society has been conditioned to believe that if you are in prison you deserve to be there and that the more crowded the prisons are the less criminals there are roaming the streets this is a misconception. Kerwin Lebone, a researcher at (SAIRR) says South Africa has the highest number of detained prisoners awaiting trial most due to the lack of funds needed to apply for bail. with an unemployment rate of 24,9% est.2010 and most of our inmates being unemployed and poor what do we expect.The magnitude of the situation might not seem that large but these potentially innocent individuals can he forced to join gangs for fear of losing their lives and end up taking part in illegal activities within the prisons, so even if they where innocent after enough time in the prison they'll be guilty. 

PRISONERS ARE PEOPLE

there are many dangers to having overcrowded prisions such as rioting, the spread of disease, a lack of food and sleeping space. In Honduras a fire killed 350 inmates the problem was attributed to overcrowding which didn't allow for a speedy enough exacuation.The questions we need to ask ourselves are first of all are our prisoners still human beings? If so why do we treat them like animals? and if not then lets all agree to not use the term correctional services but detention centres or concentration camps, are our correctional services just a excuse to to get rid of individuals that don't fit into society?



South African prison life



Source: http:www.csvr.org/docs/correctional/prisionovercrowding.pdf

http://index mundi.com/south_africa/unemployment.rate html

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