Repair (Heal) Your World

Referring to this article: http://www.theguardian.com/cities/2014/apr/30/cape-town-apartheid-ended-still-paradise-few-south-africa?CMP=share_btn_fb Just looking at the past 20 years. I don't get it. I have so many neighbours who are not white. I work with so many people who are not white. Many of my closest friends are not white. There are whites living in townships. There are poor whites. This story doesn't sound any different to most other big cities around the world. Not that it makes it any better; it's just as bad. We just need perspective and perhaps The Guardian has forgotten about the elite in the UK and how it also (unfortunately) manipulates the system. I do know is that many of these disadvantaged people now get many advantages that I am happy to pay towards, even though I myself am not entitled to them, except for the fact that about half of my payment is going to the new elite, the regime. And I know many people who have positively used the ed...

Dear all I pray that everyone has the most incredible Festive Season and New Year 2015. I made a new year resolution this year "to find the good in everything that happens". Sometimes, e.g. when people have died, or when I've made a mistake, it isn't easy to do this (and one needs to meditate on it for days or weeks or months), but it has completely changed my life. I intend starting 2015 with the same resolution. In the meantime, just a reminder about the Tequila Christmas Cake. Enjoy. Love, David ---- Just a reminder Tequila Christmas Cake Ingredients: 1 cup of water 1 tsp baking soda 1 cup of sugar 1 tsp salt 1 cup of brown sugar Lemon juice 4 large eggs Nuts 1 bottle tequila 2 cups of dried fruit Sample the tequila to check quality. Take a large bowl, check the tequila again. To be sure it is of the highest quality, pour one level cup and drink. Repeat. Turn on the electric mixer. Beat one cup of butter in a large fluffy bowl. Add one tea...

Dear all Many people have disbelieved my writings over the past few years. Well here's one of the word's biggest energy companies,  Alstom , saying the same thing! http://microgridknowledge.com/a-constellation-of-microgrids/ I've been writing about Embedded Micro-grids for some time and renamed my company My Power Station a few years ago. Here is an example of a recent article that appeared in our local Cape Times newspaper in Cape Town:  http://mypowerstation-sa.blogspot.com/2014/12/delivery-of-power-solution-needed-but.html Regards David

7,843 people have signed a petition to stop poaching. Only 226 people have signed a petition asking the South African government to Level the playing fields in the electricity sector. This will decrease our cost whilst improving our economy. https://secure.avaaz.org/en/petition/South_African_Government_Level_the_Playing_fields_in_the_Electricity_Industry/?miJGmbb If we have enough electricity, we'll have enough jobs, and people won't need to poach!!

To my friends: I just signed this petition -- please will you join me? South African Government: Level the Playing fields in the Electricity Industry: To: South African Government The petition is really important and could use our help. Click here to find out more and sign: http://www.avaaz.org/en/petition/South_African_Government_Level_the_Playing_fields_in_the_Electricity_Industry/?miJGmbb Thanks so much, David

Happy new year to everyone: Freedom vs Slavery and Books I am reading: Read the PS section if you don't have time to read the whole thing. The Zero Marginal Cost Society I am so enjoying this book. Not finished reading it yet, but I can't put it down. It is one of those books that you need to read whilst reading other books as there is so much to ponder and think about whilst reading it that one can't read more than a few pages at a time. Jeremy Rifkin shows how the world is changing and why and the similarities between the previous paradigm shift economic revolutions that have happened in history. A fascinating read of how the internet age and the age of "water and wind, and now solar power" and the age of "digital printing" and the age of "prosumers" (people who produce and consume their own goods) is changing our way of life and especially our cost of living both for ourselves financially and on our endangered planet. The hypothe...

Are you wearing the "right" clothes is a synonym for "Are you thinking the 'right' thoughts"? Just a reminder that we need to keep our FREEDOMS. The people who have brought freedom to the world are under attack like never before: Jews, Tibetans, Native Americans, and other minority peace loving people, who don't fit into the status quo. Most people don't realise how valuable their freedoms are until they are gone. In this internet age, we must use our freedoms to get rid of myths, to support our friends, to get rid of ignorance and to bring our sleeping subconscious friends and acquaintances and Facebook friends out of their dreamlands into reality. Our parents and grandparents fought in the Second World War for our freedoms. It is imperative that we maintain the freedoms that we have today, especially the freedoms of speech, of association, of religion, of gender choices, of movement, and that we uphold that great maxim of the French Revolutio...

Easy or difficult? The #choice is in each of us. Separately and together. Easy: Anger. Pride. Jealousy. Envy. Hatred. Unethical. Corruption. Stealing. Back-stabbing. Killing. Adultery. Rape. Pollution. Environmental Destruction. Pollution of the Soul. Taking. War. Drug abuse. Alcohol abuse. Easy. Cursed. Propaganda. Speeding. Mindless pursuits, like excessive TV watching!! Profanity. Profane. Death. Difficult: Kindness. Generosity. Love. Friendliness. Honesty. Ethical / Ethics. Cleanliness. Giving. Receiving. Peace. Charity. Giving someone the benefit of the doubt. Listening. Silence. Difficult. Blessed. Thinking. Taking the time to spend time with yourself. Taking the time to spend time with your loved ones. Mind Training. "Right" Conduct. Forbearance. Meditation. Dedication. Wisdom. Truth. Purity. Sacred. Freedom of Speech. Life. Difficult or easy? We each have this #choice. This is the #choice that God has...

I've been trying hard not to say anything about Gaza, and to focus on the things that I actually know about, e.g. Computer Programming and South Africa's Electricity Crisis, but someone just compared the current Power and Water outage in Utrecht, Natal with Gaza. He said: "Imagine what its like in Gaza". And I replied: What exactly has Gaza got to do with Utrecht? Especially when 1000's of trucks have taken aid and supplies into Gaza through the Israeli border crossing? Especially when 1000's of tons of concrete was supplied by Israel and was used to build tunnels instead of schools? Or perhaps you meant to add: Imagine what its like in Israel with thousands of rockets raining down on you? Imagine what its like to have to live within 15 seconds of a Bomb Shelter? Imagine what its like with people jumping out of tunnels highjacking your children? Maybe you meant to add: Imagine what its like in Iraq with people killing Yazidis and Christians? Imag...

Ladies: time to immigrate to Saudi Arabia, Afganistan, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Egypt, etc?. The benefits: 1) Only men at the women's conferences; 2) You have to stay at home, so no need for money to travel, etc; 3) No bikinis, etc, hence massive savings on looking beautiful; 4) Easy clothes shopping: you can only wear black and you have to be covered from head to foot; 5) No make up required: no-one can see it; 6) No hairdos, in fact no hair: no-one can see it, think of the savings in hair products and haircuts; 7) You can't drive: think of the savings in car bills and petrol and maintenance costs. Your husband has to take the kids to school; 8) No choice of religion: this makes it so easy for you to choose which religion you want; 9) If you want to go out, a male relative has to accompany you, which makes it even easier for you to decide where to have dinner tonight; 10) No freedom of choice; your husband decides everything for you; so this makes your decision makin...

Part of what I truly want is people to be consistent, to not be hypocritical and to not blame others when they have faults they still need to fix. Here is an article that explains this feeling: Penelope Cruz and Javier Bardem Accuse Israel of Genocide By Rabbi Shmuley Boteach What do Javier Bardem and Penelope Cruz know about genocide? Well, apparently enough to know that Israel is committing one in Gaza against the Palestinians and Hamas. But seeing their public declaration to that effect, I wondered about their immersion in the subject. What, for example, is their position on Erdogan’s Turkey on why it’s against the law to acknowledge the 1.5 million Armenians slaughtered by the Ottomans during the First World War? And what of the holocaust? Are Penelope and Javier, who are married, concerned about the repeat of the genocide of the Jews, especially since the Hamas charter explicitly calls for the murder of all Jews wherever they may be found, which is in fact a true ca...

Thought for today: We all breathe the same air. The air is recycled, through trees, human bodies, animals, everything. We all breathe the same air. If you kill me because you hate me, even though I have done nothing to deserve this hate (i.e., I haven't killed your mother; I haven't shot your father; I haven't raped your sister; I haven't stoned your daughter; I haven't stolen your house after I declared your people abhorrent so that I could steal your goods; I haven't sworn at you; I haven't said you are evil) and I have been compassionate and I have been loving and I have freely given you goods and land as a "peace-exchange" and I have tried hard to understand and to therefore listen very carefully without any filters and without any judgement to what you have to say; But even after all this you still steal my livelihood and kill me and my people? Well even if you do this, you will still be breathing the same air that I breathed 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...

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...

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...

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 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.

David Lipschitz Discussing Energy http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLSGT47wNRf_MDcplBNHLZE7N3L-rMxyMl

Actually it's not true. But see  http://www.wired.com/business/2014/03/car-dealers-fear-teslas-plan-end-oil-changes-forever What's the difference?

No electricity for several hours or longer could lead to no water (water is pumped using electricity) and no petrol and diesel (petrol and diesel are pumped using electricity and are made using electricity). This will lead to hunger. Then violence. Isn't it about time that people took responsibility for their own electricity, water, food, sewerage provision, just like our grandparents used to do? My grandmother lived in Bantry Bay when it wasn't so expensive as today. She collected rain water. She had a septic tank and French drain for sewerage. She had hardly any waste because nappies and all that kind of stuff was recycled. And she had hardly any plugs in the house. Things got done. Cheaply. And she had time for holidays and all that kind of thing. Then along came the government and said they could do all these things for her cheaper. And they did for about 40 years, and then once they had us all by the short and curlies, the government became a business, the biggest of t...

Yesterday an 8 year old domestic servant's child died in a friend of a friend's pool. She couldn't swim. Only the domestic servant and her child were in the house. Who is responsible for this accident? The pool? The child? The mother? The owners of the house? The Government? Legislation? Who? As far as we know, the domestic worker is blaming the home owner, but even if the pool had a fence, the child would have been tall enough to open the special hook on the gate. We have a swimming pool. Our pool is surrounded by walls. When we have guests we ensure that someone is watching the pool at all times. Or we keep the house gates locked and we keep everyone inside. As it is our house gates are locked most of the time, so no one can get to our pool unless they climb over a wall. We don't have a net. And even if we did, the child could get tangled in it and still drown, whilst the parent fumbles around trying to untangle the kid from the net. So much easier to just dive ...

South Africa has a number of problems, which are starting to flood and overwhelm the tax payer. President Zuma, in his state of the nation address proudly said that there are 15 million employed people and 16 million people getting grants. Some people say a family needs R30,000 per month just to survive. Perhaps because 70% of our taxes, ie rates, taxes, electricity, water, transport, etc, prices are going to grants, and funding such as free electricity, free rates, free transport, free housing, etc. Under this regime, people get a free house and then say its to small!! If only jobs could be created, South Africans would be so much better off and we would all feel much better off. But how to stop this flood? 1) Eskom can only supply about 30% of South Africa's current electricity demand. So many companies have to move elsewhere to get electricity. Hence the reason why our top 40 companies are doing so well, but the SA economy is doing so badly. Almost all the top 40 are slowly mo...

We put money away for a rainy day. We have insurance to cover us if something gets stolen or if our house burns down or if our property is damaged. We have pension plans. So from these things that we do, we can see that we think about the future and we prepare for it. However, we are really only between 2 and 4 days away from catastrophe at any time! So why are we planning for events in perhaps 30 years time, but not being prepared for events tomorrow? So what can possibly go wrong in the next few days which should concern us? Our electricity supply is becoming more and more precarious. Eskom should be able to supply 42 GW of electricity but on a regular basis it can only supply only around 30 GW. The grid infrastructure is overloaded which puts a large burden on transformers which are reaching end of life in half of their usual life, ie 12 years life instead of 25 years life. Our grid itself is behind with maintenance and many of our power stations are alr...

The storms continue. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2559186/UK-weather-80mph-winds-2in-rain-snow-sweep-Britain-storms-misery-goes-on.html Note the house in the middle of the water. This guy wanted to actually build the house 2 feet higher than it is and the planners said no! So he said, ok, and he built his own Berm around his property. The neighbours laughed at him until it started raining! We need to protect ourselves from events that can happen this year, before we concern ourselves about retirement! And if we have systems to supply our own water and electricity and deal with our own sewerage, then we will in effect already be retired for these components of our existence. What if these bad winter storms and terrible weather in the UK and USA hit South Africa in our coming Winter? It could be much hotter (like in Sochi) and it could be much colder and wetter. The only way we can protect ourselves is if we decide that local water and electricity backup s...

In the following video the former Chief Rabbi of England tells us exactly where our problem is: http://www.torahcafe.com/chief-rabbi-lord-jonathan-sacks/covenant-conversation-parshat-terumah-video_b714c0618.html i.e. in a very simple sense, we just need to work together. I said this here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I7W6kn9M8pI So as long as we blame and have expectations that someone else will save us, the current politics will ensue. As soon as we take responsibility for ourselves, we will be saved. Simple? Love David

Has anyone read the article in the Tabletalk (or the other free local papers) about the guy who wants to recycle the Turpentine? And he wrote to OffMyTrolley (Brian Joss) to ask what to do and Brian wrote to the City (Water department, etc) and asked what to do. The City of Cape Town says there is nothing they can do to help because there is no law about Turpentine recycling!! If we need laws for everything we do, then I think it is time for new leadership. Doing the right thing should be way above the law! The reason the City wants to develop Princess Vlei and the Philippi Horticultural Area is because they can do this in terms of the law they uphold, but are they doing the right thing? And what about the law for the rest of us? Why are there different "laws"? So the law is the law, but it doesn't imply ethics and it doesn't imply responsibility and it doesn't imply doing the right thing!

22 km going no-where. Dear all I just spent an hour in the traffic going no-where. I was trying to get to Westlake. But Koeberg Road was choc-a-block. So I took my usual detour and that was full. Then I took the detour in the detour and that was full. The Koeberg Road Intersection at the N1 is bad. So I eventually managed to turn off Koeberg Road into Paarden Eiland so that I could go via town and get onto Eastern Boulevard, but the N1 into town was bad. I eventually turned around and came home. Interest rates went up this week. I guess people are so mad, that they have forgotten how to drive. Interest rates normally only go up when an economy is over-heating or there is inflation, but ours have just gone up because of foreigners selling Rands. And this is exactly what our politicians have been asking for!! A weak Rand to sustain exports!! But this is at the expense of huge inflationary pressures, because as our Rand depreciates, everything for everyone who isn't an expor...

We were so good back in the day! Checking out at the supermarket, the young cashier suggested to the much older woman, that she should bring her own grocery bags because Plastic bags weren't good for the environment. The woman apologised and explained,  "We didn't have this 'green thing' back in my earlier days." The young cashier responded, "That's our problem today - your  Generation did not care enough to save our environment for future generations.”  She was right -- our generation didn't have the 'green thing' in its day.   Back then, we returned milk bottles, lemonade bottles and beer bottles to the shop. The shop sent them back to the plant to be washed and sterilised and refilled, so it could use the same bottles over and over. So they really were recycled. But we didn't have the "green thing" back in our day. Grocery shops bagged our groceries in brown paper bags, that we re-used for numerous things, most ...

The Rich are Rich because they socialise. The Poor Socialists on the other hand are poor because they don't socialise. How to solve this problem? Where do the Rich socialise? Davos, World Economic Forum, World Energy Forum, International Trade Organisation, Government, COP, Trade Shows, Conferences, Institute of Directors, Clubs, Associations, Boards of Directors, Golf Clubs, etc. In many cases the DTI and others fund these people to go to conferences. Why, because they are organised. They share. They find ways to work together. How to get the rest of us to work together to gain true equality. The rest of us are on the Internet. This is our place for sharing. Lets make 2014 the year of Sharing and Trust. See I look forward to your thoughts.

Dear Mr Madingoane (at the DOE) These comments must be in by 7th February 2014. Please see my comments below and also please confirm receipt of this email. I have the following comments re the IRP 2010-2030 Update 2013: The extended Transmission network is estimated as being 2.5 times the size it is now. However there are no costings for this upgrade. What is it expected to cost, for each of the 3 scenarios in the IRP? Have agreements been made with landowners re way-leaves (land easements)? What is the environmental impact of these additional cables? What is the visual impact on our beautiful landscape? Who will own this new cable? The price increase graphs, e.g. on pages 21, 25, etc, show a rapidly increasing price till 2018 (8% per annum and 16% per annum) and then a lowering price till 2023. I believe that these price increases should be smoothed. There isn't any company in the world that can increase prices before service delivery happens, except for governme...