Publications
Partners
There's been a lot said about legalising prostitution so that prostitutes can be protected, receive healthcare and not be victimised.
There's a lot been said about legalising various drugs, marijuana foremost, so that drug takers can be looked after, not exposed to poor toxic chemicals, and receive healthcare.
There hasn't, however, been a lot said about the plight of illegal miners, the people without a voice. Before I say anything more, I beg you to watch this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVQWFmy2A_k
How can anybody who works that hard be harshly criticised and discarded on the wastedumps of society? A day's labour for R150 divided between a group of guys, at the risk of death by crushing, gang violence and worse.
The people who live their lives within the law's confines are often so protective of the laws, simply because they've had to do so, yet it's not that clear-cut for many other people.
People protesting the Apartheid Government and Gauteng motorists are two cases springing to mind where otherwise law-abiding middle-class citizens have indeed been coerced into ignoring 'the law' wholesale, but society's poorest skirt its edges as a matter of daily survival.
We don't often think about being law-abiding as a privilege of financial opportunities (like eating out in restaurants and DSTV and designer labels) but clearly it is, every bit as much as it is an ethical choice as well.
Who is going to speak up for illegal miners? Who is going to speak up for the hijackers? Who is going to speak up for the kid-thieves, slipping through the cracks of security bars?
As that video hints at, they cannot. Their daily lives are hard enough, with only KFC and Coca Cola to look forward to.
There's a lot been said about legalising various drugs, marijuana foremost, so that drug takers can be looked after, not exposed to poor toxic chemicals, and receive healthcare.
There hasn't, however, been a lot said about the plight of illegal miners, the people without a voice. Before I say anything more, I beg you to watch this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVQWFmy2A_k
How can anybody who works that hard be harshly criticised and discarded on the wastedumps of society? A day's labour for R150 divided between a group of guys, at the risk of death by crushing, gang violence and worse.
The people who live their lives within the law's confines are often so protective of the laws, simply because they've had to do so, yet it's not that clear-cut for many other people.
People protesting the Apartheid Government and Gauteng motorists are two cases springing to mind where otherwise law-abiding middle-class citizens have indeed been coerced into ignoring 'the law' wholesale, but society's poorest skirt its edges as a matter of daily survival.
We don't often think about being law-abiding as a privilege of financial opportunities (like eating out in restaurants and DSTV and designer labels) but clearly it is, every bit as much as it is an ethical choice as well.
Who is going to speak up for illegal miners? Who is going to speak up for the hijackers? Who is going to speak up for the kid-thieves, slipping through the cracks of security bars?
As that video hints at, they cannot. Their daily lives are hard enough, with only KFC and Coca Cola to look forward to.
