"Myself when young did eagerly frequent Doctor and Saint, and heard great argument About it and about: but evermore Came out by the same door as in I went.
"But leave the Wise to wangle, and with me The quarrel of the Universe let be: And, in some corner of the Hubbub coucht, Make Game of that which makes as much of Thee." I begin to sympathize with old Omar Khayyam. I shall leave the experts to wrangle over the bookkeeping issues and just raise some issues that occupy my mind. I came in as a layperson, and I remain a layperson with a lot of questions unanswered, the main one being "Will it, can it, work?" Here are a few layman's points:- 1. Can it be that 'one size fits all?' The situation in South Africa (let alone Zimbabwe) seems vastly different than America, Canada, England, Australia. Can Social Credit be set out in a 'system' that satisfies all? 2. Steve pointed out that the whole world lies at the mercy of the multi-national corporations. Can a system that suits them suit a rural clan in a tribal area in KwaZulu-Natal where the adult literacy rate is probably less than ten percent (latest statistic is that 80% of all South African adults are functionally illiterate), and women-folk look after to the 'agriculture' while their menfolk are away working in towns and cities? Where a whole family lives off an old-age pensioner's social pension equal to about R20 per day (coffee at the Seattle Coffee Shop in the city costs R7 -- R10); where grandmothers are left raising infants whose mothers have died of AIDS, and who struggle to access the meager grants available to them (we do not blame the government, they are doing their best in the face of small budgets and lack of infrastructure. There are no banks anywhere near accessible to the people who have to walk long distances to get to a remote trading store.) 3. Where does the Social Credit come from in a country like Zimbabwe where there is a very definite negative growth in the National Asset? We can blame the government, but the people are poor and still need to eat, they still need access to money to buy grain products which are priced according to International Dollar prices. Can there be an one International Social Credit in our global village? 4. It is fact that our African economies are at the mercy of the IMF and World Bank (which are financed and therefore 'owned' by foreign governments, funded by multi-national corporations.) All African countries (except South Africa and Libya) seem to be up to their ears in debt which they have little hope of repaying. They are held to ransome, and pay up with unfavorable (to them) trade agreements and exploitation of natural resources. 5. African States may seem to be unitary States, but they are far from it. In the Democratic Republic of Congo there are over 200 ethnic groups, and in Nigeria about 180, each with their own aspirations. I haven't been there, but I would think there is even less access to banks and services than in South Africa. 6. Someone has raised the question of the association with 'Christian'. I think the mention of 'Christian' came about because I said I had come to the list starting from the Christian perspective -- not the 'evangelizing perspective', but from the idea that American Democracy, which is now the model for the world, comes about because of a wrong practice in Christianity suggesting that democracy is a party-based thing (the Christian Church was never meant to be a mass of thirty-thousand denominations). I say there is nothing democratic in the system because the individual has no voice in the presence of powerful interests that back parties and put their own people in office. The world's banking systems evolved in that milieu to serve the interests of the large and powerful traders. I could go on, but many on this list are probably more up on the African problems than I am, so I end by asking the same questions as at the beginning: "Will it, can it, work?" "Can one size really fit all" -- or does there have to be a separate solution for us in Africa? In a separate e-mail, I would like to set out what would be my wish-list for our own country. Jessop. ------------------------- ==^^=============================================================== This email was sent to: archive@mail-archive.com EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84IaC.bcVIgP.YXJjaGl2 Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] TOPICA - Start your own email discussion group. FREE! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/create/index2.html ==^^===============================================================
