It is time to wake up

January 17, 2004

Dear Sir,

At this point I don't know where to start. There seem to be so many things that are going wrong in our Country today. The Government is no help either, in this respect. In fact, it is encouraging foolishness, a tardy work ethic and an attitude of entitlement. It all sounds Communistic and serves no long term or real benefit.

Recently, there has been a lot of talk of the workers getting compulsory overtime pay; putting private houses/personal investments under rent control; commandeering established private business that are on Government land and turning it over to blacks. And, are there any more welfare, or reparation programmes for blacks, to ensure that the rest of us too, can hold out my hands and get something for nothing? Is this really the way?

There was the case of experimenting with the taxpayers' money and promoting Black entrepreneurs by awarding the Berkeley contract to Pro-Active.

Last year, it was the case of St George's Prep., where the "black" government took its first step against the freedom to educate your children as you wish, and the start of eliminating the perceived white schools that had some kind of Government funding.

Next there were taxi owners, small, privately, primarily black-owned small businesses, having to go cap in hand to beg to be able to run their business so that it is favourable to them both financially, and effectively and stifling enterprise. Any more? In all of this blackness, I do not see anything that is going to create opportunity for those who qualify and deserve it, and are prepared to work for the rewards opportunity brings.

There is no encouragement or reward for ambition or initiative. "He that tilleth the soil shall have plenty bread: but he that followeth after vain persons shall have poverty enough." Proverbs 28:19. Put another way: If you do not work you do not deserve to eat. You not only have to work hard, you also have to work smart. How about using Proverbs to help direct our thinking and our habits?

Government's solution to these problems is to be vigilant and creative, to generate new opportunities, to give support to those who are prepared to do that which is necessary. It is not about stealing established businesses and compromising principles. It is about rewarding, creativity, ambition, preparedness, accountability, responsibility, and showing initiative.

We need to help those who are not sharing in the larger economic pie through education, and if they are willing to participate where and when they can and need to, they deserve to reap the appropriate rewards. Yes, there are some who cannot do for legitimate reasons but, these are the minority, not the average persons. To quote Abraham Lincoln,"The legitimate object of government is to do for a community or individual that which that community or individual cannot do for itself at all or as well, in its own individual capacity." This quotation does not say 'will not do' but, 'cannot do' for itself. We confuse these two, too often. Let's create a community of entrepreneurs and independent people, not slaves.

May I also suggest black members of the community read "It's OK to Leave the Plantation" by Mason Weaver.

This book cuts to the chase, it leaves you bare to the bone. I am sick and tired of blacks placing all the blame on "whitey", making excuses, and not being accountable. It is time to wake up. If our forefathers could achieve what they did under such appalling conditions, then surely today blacks have little or no excuses.

Accident is a misnomer

January 7, 2005

Dear Sir,

The headline "Motorists ? and a Bridge ? Have Lucky Escapes Following Freak Accidents" on page two of today's paper is, in my opinion, deserving of comment.

As I've pointed out in the past, 90 percent of what we label "accidents" are really events that are predictable and preventable. The dictionary defines accident as "anything that happens by chance without an apparent cause"We must abandon the word "accident" because it leads to complacency and inaction.

We must stop thinking of these tragic events as acts of God over which we have no control. The word accident does not imply accountability, causation, predictability or prevention. A crash is not just a sad event that happens for no reason. To describe the crashes in today's paper as "?Freak accidents" perpetuates the misconception that the participants are no more than unfortunate victims of circumstance.

Lest your readers feel I am belabouring the point, let me point out that 2004's World Health Day organised by the UN's World Health Organisation adopted the following as its slogan: "Road Safety is no Accident".This concept was also one of the main themes at the 6th World Conference on Injury Prevention and Control

Your paper has always been extremely cooperative in helping us deliver our road safety messages and for this I am grateful. I would encourage you however to make a concerted effort to stop describing road crashes as accidents, something they most certainly are not.