So what is problem ?

The BIG question as asked by Leader SA


“South Africa has everything required to be the wealthiest nation in the world – we have gold, platinum, natural minerals; we have Nobel Peace Prize winners and gravitas when it comes to leadership (excluding some examples of the last few years, of course); we have the most progressive constitution in the world; we have brilliant policies; we celebrate enormous cultural diversity and are essentially at cultural peace with each other.
"So what’s the problem?"  


Here is my longer version : 


South Africa is the only country in the world where 90% of the population have to introduce LAWS that govern the economic actions of the other 10%. I am not going to try to be politically correct.  Without knocking anyone these are major obstacles  holding us back:  BEE,  Affirmative action, Laws like the newly proposed  "gag" Law,  "Traditional leaders law" .  Having the most progressive Constitution in the world can be scratched with one stroke of the pen by introducing these types of laws.
The Gag law will hide corruption.  The Tradition leaders law will take away the power of black women -and men that won't stand up against it. 
The country should not be led by Political leaders - It should be led by Economic leaders.  We have none of either of the two.


The Entrepreneurial spirit should be kindled and expanded.  We talk too much and do too little about this. Instead of banks revising their lending criteria to help entrepreneurs they  prefer to go to court to cover up their dismissals. 


 We allow foreigners to take the bread out of our people's mouths - The contract with Sanral, Barclay's shareholding in Absa (55% - what they say goes and jobs are lost) 


In an effort to protect the workers we introduce silly labour laws that cost jobs.   
No coherent job creation project exist.   Again we talk about it and it does not come off the ground. 


Now these are only some of the problems - Leader SA you asked for the problems , Now why don't you ask for solutions ?
Start a discussion on each and every one of the problems identified - I can go on for quite a while longer but I think we need to turn this discussion around into something positive !


We should take note of the comments BUT I think it is time that we DO something about the problems -  There is a saying that one person cannot change the world - In fact it always starts with one person.   Nelson Mandela is living proof of that ! 

Of debt counselors and reckless lending

Recent discussions I had with some learned friends and coincidental news reports urged me to write this article.
As we all know by now Debt counselors are those merry men and women that irks debt collectors and banks alike to the nth degree while in the process masquerading as the saviour on the white horse helping those in dire need of rescue.
To define Reckless lending so that the man in the street (or the one reading my article) is that which banks and other credit providers do to keep debt counselors in business. They all have a model to calculate how near they can come to the fine line of reckless lending.  But again with the help of a Debt counselor friend of mine we did a test on about 100 clients of his and every single one of them could call foul ! " I have been recklessly lent to" The real problem is however far from just reckless lending resulting in countless consumers visiting countless debt counselors to create a sub economy of debt counselors driving around in new Mercs (which by the way has been financed by the same banks that are irked by the debt counselors - probably in a reckless manner)
Now that you all understand the terms here is my view of where the whole problem lies :  Actually it lies with the Mainly with the Lenders and to a small extend the consumers.  The consumers (a vast majority of them anyway) are totally oblivious of how credit works and the Lenders like to keep them there so that they can reckless lend to them and keep the economy going.     Any attempt at educating them will in all probability be met with a smirk and a no ways from the Lenders.  Some however might offer to do such "borrower education" for their new prospective clients in a manner that will show he/she needs the money or item about to be financed.
Anyone agree here is a gap for a regulation or two ?   NO new debt before the lender has undergone a proper borrower education program by an independent qualified business entity with no links to any financier of any sort?   Why do I have to write a test to obtain a firearm but then I can go and throw away my family's future on reckless borrowing offered by reckless lenders with no-one to answer to ?

Victim hood

The quote by Condaleeza  Rice prompted these comments :  

Bitterness and anger makes one believe that you are a victim of something. In most cases you alone knows what that something is.   In South Africa one hears the following quotes ever so often :  We were(are) VICTIMS of .............apartheid, affirmative action .......et all.   So where did this come from ?  Bitterness and Anger about things you can do blue all about. But it is nice to be a VICTIM.   People will empower you because of this. They might even feel sorry for you.  
I pondered a while about the second sentence there :  You will feel aggrieved and the twin brother of aggrievement is entitlement .   How can this be ?  Entitlement means laying claim to something - so when I am aggrieved it is ok to lay claim to ..................?  Is this where the land grabs in Zim is coming from - probably!
So now you think you are owed something and you do not have to work for it.  You are now on a really bad road to nowhere because there are people who will play to this victim hood, aggrievement and entitlement and you still won't have a job.  

Are these the policies the ANC is chasing ?   It was definitely the thinking of one Julius Malema who thought all youth of today sees him as the savior of  the victim hood (s)  But is also becoming the views of a lot of all other Colours in South Africa .

Stop your victim mentality and start doing something for yourself - Youth of this country - Nothing is for free and get with it!