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Sanctifying our RAINBOW nation - forever

Ethnic cleaning of Christians in the Middle East. http://youtu.be/45_e2OP9ICo Everyone please be aware of what's brewing. We need to not take sides. We live in South Africa. Those of us who do. We have Christian (Catholic, Methodist, Protestant, Orthodox and others) and Muslim (multiple kinds) and Jewish (Orthodox, Reform, Conservative and others) and Tibetan and Buddhist and Zen and Black and White and Brown and Gay and Lesbian and Straight and non-believer and Agnostic and Atheist and men and women and so many other types of friends. We have friends who are leaders and friends who are managers and friends who are generalists and friends who are doctors and friends who are just your day to day kind of person. We love all of them / us. We have a very special RAINBOW nation and we MUST keep it. The only way we can keep it is if we have freedom of speech and freedom of association and freedom of religion and freedom to be who we want to be. If we allow some people to cont...

Stay on Facebook or leave? My thoughts on the 22nd July 2014

I thought of leaving Facebook because of all the vitriol I am reading. But there is so much good about Facebook. If you take sides in any of the conflicts without considering the other side's view and without going to the countries concerned to find out for yourselves what is going on, then please unfriend me. If someone came up to you and said you have 3 choices: change to my religion; pay me 5 ounces of gold; or die; you might say that there is no freedom anymore. If you want freedom, you need to be free inside your self. We need societies with Freedom of Speech, with Freedom of Association, with Freedom of Religion, or the choice not to have a religion, with Liberty, Equality and Fraternity. One of my friends said that non-believers must pay a tax to stay alive. I said that would be like people who don't believe in e-tolls and who don't pay the e-tolls being told that they will be shot. Come on people. Please don't be ignorant. Please speak and ask and di...

South African Inflation

Inflation: South African Reserve Bank raises interest rates half a percent in the past year to 5.75%. That's a 9.5% increase in interest! Perhaps someone can explain something to me? As more and more of the economy is in the hands of government and as our taxes rocket, for example via electricity, water, rates, fuel, e-tolls, carbon taxes and many more new taxes in the pipeline, and the government mismanages large scale projects like the Eskom build which has cost the taxpayer at least R100 billion extra already, and whilst private expenditure is already on the way down and car sales are down, and the government is taking parts of existing land and business for itself, and people have less money to spend on more expensive food, how then can the government increase interest rates, when it is the government which is the cause of most of our inflation? I guess that government needs even more tax and a way to get it is to raise interest rates which banks have to pay to governmen...

Why is the gap between rich and poor incomes (Gini Coefficient) so big in South Africa?

Gill Marcus, Governor of the South African Reserve Bank blames employers for the strikes in various industries: http://www.miningweekly.com/article/rand-weakens-after-marcus-comments-2014-06-10 My comments: Marcus blaming employers? Perhaps they are at fault, but without them, there wouldn't be any employees! Unless the government wants to employ everyone, as seems to be the case. And in Communism, the only way to finance this is by asset stripping (causing massive environmental destruction), essentially by dramatically increased mining exports (which are dwindling) and fracking, which won't happen if workers would rather have handouts and grants than actual self-fulfilling work. In the meantime "new Mineral Resources Minister Advocate Ngoako Ramatlhodi exits the platinum sector wage talks",   http://www.miningweekly.com/article/mining-minister-bows-out-of-talks-platinum-producers-mull-options-2014-06-10 , saying that the task team established by government...

South Africans : Please vote on 7th May 2014

South Africans: Please vote tomorrow. If you don't vote, you have no say in this country. You cannot complain. You voted for the winner! If 10 people vote and 4 people vote for party A and 3 people vote for party B, then party A wins with 57% of the vote! But not 57% of the possible voters. If 2 people who hadn't voted had voted for party B, party B would have won with 55% of the vote. Please vote on the 7th May 2014. It is your duty as a voter to not be apathetic on this particular day and to CHOOSE. None of the parties is perfect. They all have good points and bad points. Choose the one that you think will help to make South Africa more democratic, and less lopsided. Lopsided ships sink.