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I will be proactive...

This letter is in response to articles on the death of baby Jamie Naidoo. I would like for this to be published in the form of an open letter to the public.

“Over the course of my life, I’ve encountered no shortage of people who presume to speak of good and evil, such terms mean nothing. People do what is in their best interest, regardless of who gets hurt. Is it evil to take what one wants? To satisfy hunger, even if doing so would cause others suffering? What some would call ‘evil’, I believe to be an appropriate response to a harsh and unfair world.” The Originals S01E04, Julie Plec.

Deontology and consequentialism are two branches of ethics. The former can be briefly defined as doing a ‘right’ action regardless of the outcome or consequence. Consequentialism on the other hand is achieving a ‘positive or right’ outcome regardless of the actions that lead to that outcome. But who decides what action or outcome is right or wrong? The definition of ‘right’ can be left open to interpretation, however there are billions of people on Earth, what one deems a right and noble action, another may consider wrong. Fortunately we have religious and spiritual groups to guide us, our parents and family teach us, we gain an understanding of what is right and wrong. For others, the law serves as a guide by telling us what not to do.

A public official recently called for urban residents to refuse beggars money, a harsh action, however the consequence or outcome would be positive: there would be fewer squatters in urban areas, people would be motivated to find a way to earn a living, and they could also move back to rural areas, this would stimulate a drop in crime rates. The officials’ plea is just, because there is a positive outcome for all involved, she has utilised consequentialism.

How then is the death toll illegal? It is a harsh action but it yields a positive outcome for society: it instils fear in those who would consider committing a crime, it sends a message that there is zero tolerance for crimes such as rape and murder. Yet some argue that bringing back the death toll is immoral because it is ‘not the right thing to do’. Yes, it is not a right action, however as per consequentialism it can be deemed moral due to the positive outcome.

The high unemployment rate plaguing our country cannot be solely attributed to a lack of available job vacancies. There are millions of ‘unemployable’ persons: those who lack skills; training; academic qualifications and tertiary education. Given the fact that the government, thousands of Universities and businesses provide scholarships and bursaries to South Africans on an annual basis, how then is the yield of unemployable people so high? I don’t claim to know the answers to these questions, but I am willing to provide suggestions for solutions to these problems. Statistics and consensus reports can be utilised to provide information regarding the areas of skills shortages in a particular year, for instance: a shortage of medical professionals or school teachers.

This information must be made available to the government; universities; businesses and other private entities that are willing and able to provide bursaries and scholarships. There ought to be some sort of regulation that lists the areas of skills shortages in the country, so that the abovementioned entities may only provide study grants for qualifications in those specific fields.

We do however live in a democratic nation, therefore students are free to study or pursue a field of their own choosing, and this applies to those students whose fees are paid by themselves /family. By directing the study grants given out annually, we are proactively filling the skills gap as needed in our country. Therefore, there would be fewer unemployable persons who have tertiary qualifications, because their qualification was specifically chosen to fill a need at the time.

Fewer unemployable people results in fewer welfare grants handed out to people and children born of families who are unable to provide for them. This has the effect of slightly reducing the amount of taxes paid by working citizens or, the government could keep the tax level constant and do away with unnecessary taxes such as e-tolls, use the extra money to build infrastructure in underdeveloped areas.

This infrastructure development will create self-sufficient communities with schools; hospitals; police departments etc. self-sufficient communities will result in fewer people leaving rural areas to enter urban cities, a drop in squatters allows home owners the safety they need, it allows them a decent property resale value, and it prevents urban dwellers from moving internationally to avoid the plaque of squatters and the theft; high jacking and murder that follow.

South Africa has been a procrastination for far too long. We are able to take care of our beautiful country but we have become so complacent…waiting for someone else to step up and make a change. I say, we can collectively make a difference by putting our minds together to come up with solutions to our problems instead of just complaining about them.

Gandhi and Mandela, the two most iconic figures in the history of our nation, were in a relentless pursuit for the freedom of our people. Thousands of others made remarkable sacrifices to ensure our freedom…now we are free. But what have we done with that freedom? Were the efforts of the great men and women before us all in vain? Did they fight for our freedom so that we may become so free that we feel we have the right to murder our own children? Are we so free that we feel entitled to live like barbaric animals??? To kill, steal, rape and murder one another??? If this is the freedom that you want, then I would rather not be free!

Thousands were killed and injured just to make this country the democratic nation it is today, but freedom comes with a responsibility. What gives a person the right to take the life of another? Is it the freedom to do whatever they want? What exactly goes on the mind of a person that murders another? What drives them to such actions? I don’t want to believe that people are evil. I know there must be good in everyone, I’ve read of excuses for crimes: such as “there was no other way, I was starving so I stole something, I wanted to steal the car but they resisted so I killed them” stop with the excuses South Africa, wake up and take responsibility for your own actions. If a person feels he is entitled to murder or rape an innocent little baby, why aren’t we entitled to take his life in return?

Instead, as complacent as we are, we give that same murderer a roof over his head, a hot meal, shower facilities and the safety of being in prison, all paid for by the hard working, decent citizens of this country. So I suppose, it’s better to be a criminal in this country, because that way the good people of this country work so hard to pay for our safety in jail.

An eye for an eye is what I believe in…for a man to take someone else’s life, he must be prepared to give his life. For those filthy men that rape others, they must be prepared to be castrated. I don’t propose a sort of dictatorship over the country whereby people live in fear, I strongly believe that enforcing the abovementioned would instil in offenders the idea of cause and effect.

Yet we sit back and allow offenders to cause and cause and cause without any substantial effect in retaliation, which is why these offenders continue to cause and cause and cause. What is jail anyway? To those who have an average or above standard of living, imprisonment is a severe consequence, we are used to our freedom of movement, comfortable beds, and good food etc. jail would most certainly serve as a wakeup call to us. However, what is jail to a man living on the street? Jail is the promise of free food, free shelter. How can that be considered a punishment? A punishment must be something worse than that which the offender has already experienced.
I think we have become too lenient.

We are so lenient with criminals in our country that they don’t have fear, they can torture innocent little kids, rape and murder, do as they please, because…what’s the worst that could happen to them anyway? Let’s do something about this while there’s still hope. There are millions of good people out there and I would like to think I am one too, yet I know we cannot go on like this, something has to be done! Remove your rose-tinted glasses and see things for what they really are. I enjoyed living in a bubble, avoiding the news because it’s only ever filled with bad news, it brings me down.

So I lived with my rose-tinted glasses in my safe little community, blissfully ignorant. Until one day the headlines of the paper caught my eye. The story of little Jamie Naidoo, this affected me because it happened in an area near me. We weren’t accustomed to dealing with such news in our local community. I thought that if I ignored it, I could live peacefully, but now it has started happening in my own area. Only now am I awake to take notice, only now, now when it’s too late, now when the baby is already dead. All I can hope to do now is create more awareness and motivate those in power to take action, to provide ideas for solutions and ensure that such a tragedy never occurs again.

“Who failed Jamie?” I did. You did. We all did! We enabled this behaviour, we ignore the bad things happening around us, we mourn her death in sorrow and rage and like cowards we forget it ever happened and move on with our lives. We are the adults, we are supposed to be the protectors, so let us get up off our complacent behinds and take action. How will anyone live with themselves if such a tragedy had to reoccur? Knowing full well that we did nothing to prevent it? I certainly wouldn’t be able to live with myself.

If the government were to enforce a measure of population control, to reduce the number of children per house to say two, we would see substantial overall improvements. There would be fewer children in welfare homes, this reduces the amount of taxes that are set aside for such expenditure. Instead of having millions of kids in welfare homes and orphanages: where funds are so low that kids are kicked out in their teens, they don’t get to complete school, they never enter a college, they can’t find jobs, they resort to a life of crime, they have many more kids to collect child grants, they turn to drug abuse and the vicious cycle continues over and over again.

We could instead have a few thousand in welfare homes, keep tax rates steady even though there is a huge reduction in the number of child welfare grants needed, but use this money to instead give those kids a better life, allow each of them to complete school, and possibly even a diploma.This way there are employable persons coming out of the system.

We have the tendency to be reactive… we wait for something to happen, then suddenly we care. I always knew child abuse was real, yet it took the death of Jamie Naidoo to get me to wake up and take notice. But now that I am aware, I will be proactive. Now that you are aware, what will you do?
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