<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by greedyflyza</i>
<br />downward spiral? well.. nobody seems to be doing anything about crime, telcos, unemployment, education. I dont care if they say they are doing stuff.. we are seeing nothing.
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You are seeing nothing because you aren't looking, there is tonnes of stuff going on in the country, not just by government but by NGOs, charities, individuals, communities, etc.
http://www.sabcnews.com/south_africa/education/0,2172,82842,00.html
("Dinaledi" means "stars" btw)
http://www.sabcnews.com/south_africa/education/0,2172,82311,00.html
http://www.safrica.info/doing_business/businesstoday/businessnews/325801.htm
http://www.capetimes.co.za/index.php?fSectionId=271&fArticleId=2126891
http://allafrica.com/stories/200406240239.html
OK, our new education minister Naledi Pandor seems to be on the ball.
It's totally true that many of our MPs are just fools riding the gravy train, but by and large to say there is "nothing happening" or that there is a "downward spiral" is ridiculous and none of the indicators support it (except perhaps the increased unemployment), but there are plenty of things going on, people and groups of people working within their own communities to improve their own lot (rather than waiting for govnment to do it all). Our economy has experienced a record period of growth, and the growth is projected to continue increasing in the coming years. In spite of the likes of Telkom and various useless government members and industry groups, things are moving forward. Crime, poverty, education, unemployment - these things are all related. Regardless of the government, the most important thing is to try get unemployment decline to exceed the population growth rate. Then it's an upward spiral. Better economy = more money to spend on better police force, less crime = more efficient economy, more efficient economy = more money for education, more skills, lower unemployment, etc. Our problem is we expect everything handed to us, so we 'like moving to the UK' because they like our cheap hard-working labour so they pat us on the heads say "nice South African, come work for cheap", and we wag our tails excitedly like dogs. Nothing wrong with that if that's all you want out of life. The scope of the poverty problem in this country is frightening though, and we don't realise it, in our comfortable white worlds we fret about how schools should have broadband access, when you listen to the local black radio stations it makes the news when schools get *running water*. Why wait for government if you want to do something about SAn education? Volunteer; take one day out a week and go help teach/tutor maths or science in the townships, there are opportunities to do this, yet you almost never see white SAns doing it, and frankly it's embarassing that when you see anyone doing volunteer work in SA it's almost always either a local black person or a foreign white person. If you don't want to spend any time doing it just donate a tiny amount of disposable income to a scholarship fund like http://www.mathabane.com/scholarship2.htm. Why yes that is a chip on my shoulder.
