October 24th, 2009 by Jesse
A view into a situation in a rural village really brought home some perspective regarding what I perceive as my daily troubles.
While our own people suffer in a similar way to this, our elected leaders are buying fancy cars and mansions. Shame on them for abusing the position of trust we voted them into. Shame on us for voting them into it.
I have to ask, too, where the community support was in the situation in this village. Are the children not seen as the future? Due to their polio is their situation seen as hopeless? How was it that their eight year old sister was left to care for them alone?
The community is a hugely important support structure in rural villages and in situations where people live in abject poverty. We need to build and support the communities, helping them to become self sufficient!
Tags: Politics, south africa
Posted in Personal, Politics | No Comments »
October 23rd, 2009 by Jesse
Is cultural schizophrenia isolated to blacks in South Africa? I don’t think so.
I, as a white South African, grew up in a small town and have had to adapt in a similar fashion to the demands of the corporation in the city. The ways of doing business are learned with experience and built with a tenacious spirit. They are not taught in a classroom.
Many professions have their own languages, securing their exclusivity and mystique. It is in each profession’s interest to keep it this way. Just think about how easily a lawyer, accountant or IT technician can bamboozle you just by overwhelming you with technical terms. I guess my point here is that we cannot always expect to walk into a business situation and be comfortable. It takes effort to fight through the jargon and find the truth.
In Europe people often do business in a language other than their mother tongue, putting them at a disadvantage to someone who is able to speak that language fluently. This is not a uniquely South African problem.
Tags: Politics, south africa
Posted in Politics | No Comments »
October 23rd, 2009 by Jesse
I view this post as one of the best analyses of the situation which the Affirmative Action policies present to us I’ve read. At the very least it describes the case for it without also adding racist undertones.
While I don’t like it, I do see the point.
My questions:
- For how long will we be judged on the sins of our fathers?
- When do we decide that those that are entering the job market or starting businesses did not benefit from the fascism of the past?
- Where is the line that defines someone who has benefited from apartheid policies?
Tags: Politics, south africa
Posted in Politics | No Comments »
October 20th, 2009 by Jesse
The world makes way for the man who knows where he is going. –Ralph Waldo Emerson
As part of a recent self examination I found myself asking the question “what guidelines do I choose to live my life by?” It’s an important question, I believe, as it determines my values. Values, in turn, help me set my goals and make tough moral decisions within my own belief system instead of the belief system of others.
My notes (in no particular order) were as follows:
- Be aware that my identity is my responsibility.
- I can only choose for myself, not for others. They volunteer to be a part of my life.
- Respect the choices of those around me. Respect and honour their person.
- Have a positive influence on those around me. Pay it forward and give back.
- Feel good about every decision I make. Consider each decision circumspectly and responsibly. If I don’t feel good about a decision then learn, grow and move on from it.
- Seek to challenge myself in every situation. Do not accept the norm nor go against the norm – forge a path of my own choosing.
Tags: self, values
Posted in Personal | No Comments »
October 20th, 2005 by Jesse
Religious or moral beliefs in whatever form introduce very emotionally charged responses, even from totally rational people. Most people in the world have had very personal experiences in some way, shape or form with regards to religion or some kind of belief system that acts as a proponent for moral standards. Often it’s difficult to seperate moral standards that are for the greater good of humanity from the emotional or political situations that prompt them.
In the end I believe it’s best to talk from personal experience, discuss your own beliefs and leave everyone to make their own decisions. If only all ‘advisers’ (governments, counsellors, etc) would implement their beliefs in ‘recommendations’ rather than ‘commands’.
My experience with religion is a thorny one. I grew up in a Pentecostal Christian household with my morals generated from this environment. I learned what was percieved to be right and wrong and was instructed in schools based on similar principles. It was the school of life that led me through many situations where I doscovered my own system of beliefs through many trials and errors.
Religious leaders in my experience use psychological techniques and moral perceptions to twist situations and scenarios to their own needs. They often do this unknowingly, thinking that they are doing it for the greater good.
Ultimately they do the same thing as anyone manipulating someone else. They use the ignorance of the target and their influencial character to achieve whatever it is they want to achieve. It’s like a higher form of peer pressure, and in the case of governments doing the manipulation the situation is often more deadly.
Tags: Politics, Religion
Posted in Politics, Religion | No Comments »
August 14th, 2004 by Jesse
I just finished watching “
The Butterfly Effect“. It’s a movie that plays on the wish of mankind that it could go back in time to correct things that they did wrong – but it shows the consequences of changing the past.
It’s an excellent movie – I recommend it, although I warn that it may make you think about your regrets in life, and wonder what might have been if…
Sometimes I do wonder what might have been if I had made different choices.
Sometimes you make decision which take you on a course which seems unstoppable. I can tell you that regardless of those choices and how wrapped up in their consequences you might be – you can change your life. It hurts and it’s hard, but you can go back on your choices.
In my life most of the fractures in my psyche have been due to religious choices. I chose paths based on religious beliefs instead of my own instinct… today I have gone back on some of those choices to life a life in which I truly believe, not which I’m trying to make myself believe.
Some other decisions in my life were purely hedonistic. Those are the ones which are more difficult to change. How do you repair something caused by your own selfishness with someone who you have no contact with any more thanks to your act of selfishness.
Together with a friend we have managed to salvage a relationship after I committed an unforgivable act towards him… and even in that it’s difficult to truly move beyond it.
Life is generally about choices, one of those choices are to choose or not to choose… if you never make the choice yourself but let circumstances make them for you, then you cannot blame circumstances for the consequences – you have only yourself to blame
It took me a long time to learn this and to decide to steer my own destiny and be prepared to accept the consequences of my actions.
Posted in Personal | No Comments »
July 14th, 2004 by Jesse
Many people in my life have tried to shape me into what they thought was right. A few people in my life have managed to have enough influence on me for a period of time to shape something into me which sticks fairly deeply into me.
Then there are the precious few in my life that actually help me explore myself, and try not to exert an influence but rather question me, my motives and in a more subtle way guide me along my way.
Those are the friends that are worth keeping.
Posted in Personal | No Comments »
July 5th, 2004 by Jesse
It’s amazing to read how South Africa’s society was transformed by so many South Africans who truly believed in a racially equal society. I’m reading “
Long Walk to Freedom” by Nelson Mandela – it is politically enlightening, yet soul wrenching in the sense that I discover the passive involvement that I had in the racist society that was South Africa then… and it incites me against prejudice of any form in today’s South Africa.
I recommend it as a read for anyone who wishes to discover the truth about themselves in terms of prejudice. I know many who term themselves as liberals, yet are prejudice in the extreme when it comes to interracial relationships, interracial communications, homosexuality in general, religious matters, etc.
Just this morning I heard an announcement on the radio that the first ‘black gay kiss’ was to be broadcast on South African TV. The inherent prejudice in such a statement is astounding and disgusting.
Enlighten yourself with the real happenings in your year of birth and beyond – not the happenings taught to you by a prejudiced school system. Take a look at the real SA History.
It’s helping me understand, more and more, the difficulties we have to overcome in our new society. It’s helped me understand the stigma’s that are associated with ID Books (pass books), the police and many other things. It’s enlightening me with regards to the significance of our public holidays. I’m being enlightened with regards to the truth about the former homelands (Transkei, Ciskei, KwaZulu, etc) and the education system from the days of prejudice.
It brings me to tears to understand the dark depths to which we South Africans went to indulge in power; yet it brings me immense hope to understand the true leadership expressed in the political heroes of our current time. I have greater understanding and hope – and although I did not understand or know the system I grew up in, I am sorry that it even came into being and will do my best to eradicate any prejudice in my life.
Posted in Personal, Politics | No Comments »
May 17th, 2004 by Jesse
Edward de Bono comes up with a lot of provocative thoughts. Here’s his thought for this week, which I felt was particularly provocative.
Most people cannot distinguish between:
6+2 = 8
8 = 6+2
The difference can be rather important. The addition of 6 and 2 cannot produce any answer other than 8. But 8 can be made up of combinations other than 6 and 2 (5+3, 4+4, 7+1).
Why is this important? Because people start to believe that if you have a ‘right’ answer there is no need to think further because you can never be more than right. Having the right answer means you do not have to listen to other answers because they can never be ‘more than right’. The result is a severe limitation on thinking.
Tags: Think Differently
Posted in Think Differently | No Comments »
April 8th, 2004 by Jesse
I think that many *people* stop thinking. It’s not just a Christian thing – the same behaviour occurs in other religious groups and even non-religious groups.
It seems to be human nature for people to follow the stronger personalities, and with enough exposure they stop questioning the behaviour of those people and what they say/do.
‘Spiritual experiences’ as I’ve heard them expressed by others are very rarely unexplainable. The truth is that if you want to believe something was through your ‘faith’, you will – when someone explains how it happens in a scientific manner, it pisses you off because it takes away your ‘faith’, or you still justify it in a way that it was due to your ‘faith’/'prayer’ that ‘God’ made that happen in that way.
It may be true. It may not be. I question the validity of each experience and have usually found an explanation or time has refuted the ‘experience’.
Growth is painful, if you decide to follow through with it. For those of us that strive to be ‘better’ people there is a process of refinement of character, behaviour, etc. This is a difficult process but what motivates us is the end goal of being a truly ‘good’ person. This is not a religious thing.
Religion, however, strives for a similar goal and often is the supporting structure for this personal development. It encourages it and provides psychological support for it in many cases.
I think that most people feel the need to believe in something, to help them want to be better people. For some it’s ‘God’, for others it’s ‘Allah’ and for others it may be other names, personalities, etc. Each of these defines some kind of goal and if the goal is attained people either remain at that level or they choose their next goal.
One could relate the idea of a teenagers goal to be someone like Marilyn Manson – this is great, although I’m not sure what it would achieve. The key would then be for the person who chose MM to be their role model to achieve that role in the sense that they want to and then want to grow beyond that role to another one which is hopefully a more socially uplifting role.
I find it quite a laugh sometimes where I see adults in their 40’s who still want to be like Ozzy Osborne and never grow beyond that point… never transcending to their ‘next level’. This is sad.
Similar issues are found with prolonged/excessive drug use – where emotional, social, intellectual and often physical behaviour is stunted. This happened to Ozzy Osborne, in fact. 
I do believe that what is considered ‘excessive’ is different for everyone.
Tags: Think Differently
Posted in Personal | No Comments »
Powered by FireStats