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 them all, and they started dramatically raising prices. And because they are the government, Competition Law doesn't apply to them. eg: in the City of Cape Town, we have the Bus Rapid Transit, but taxis and private bus companies can't compete along these routes, never mind that the government took 1/3rd of the road space for themselves, and supposedly has the fastest routes. Isn't this enough? eg: Eskom, and no competitors, even though before Eskom there were many producers of electricity in South Africa, ie, until the 1920's. We have just forgotten these facts. eg Toll Roads. Many other examples of Big Government just being Monopolistic.
But 40 years in the desert is a long time and we have forgotten that we used to make things ourselves. We were depended on ourselves and our neighbours. We shared.
We need to do this again.
My theme for this year is Trust and Sharing. Lets Trust and Share with each other so that we can predict the future, ie tomorrow and the next day. With our own electricity, water, food, production, and our own waste treatment plants. 99.94% of sewerage is water. And there is methane as well for cooking. Not difficult. Just requires people to think. A little bit.
And to stop blaming others, a centuries old occupation, and to take responsibility for themselves.
PS: We have local South African technologies and experts which can and who can solve all our problems. We just need to trust and share.
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 them all, and they started dramatically raising prices. And because they are the government, Competition Law doesn't apply to them. eg: in the City of Cape Town, we have the Bus Rapid Transit, but taxis and private bus companies can't compete along these routes, never mind that the government took 1/3rd of the road space for themselves, and supposedly has the fastest routes. Isn't this enough? eg: Eskom, and no competitors, even though before Eskom there were many producers of electricity in South Africa, ie, until the 1920's. We have just forgotten these facts. eg Toll Roads. Many other examples of Big Government just being Monopolistic.
But 40 years in the desert is a long time and we have forgotten that we used to make things ourselves. We were depended on ourselves and our neighbours. We shared.
We need to do this again.
My theme for this year is Trust and Sharing. Lets Trust and Share with each other so that we can predict the future, ie tomorrow and the next day. With our own electricity, water, food, production, and our own waste treatment plants. 99.94% of sewerage is water. And there is methane as well for cooking. Not difficult. Just requires people to think. A little bit.
And to stop blaming others, a centuries old occupation, and to take responsibility for themselves.
PS: We have local South African technologies and experts which can and who can solve all our problems. We just need to trust and share.
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