The Long Now- My vision for South Africa.

The Long Now. A solution for South Africa. My vision for our country. Copyright Belinda Silbert 2019.

"Words without actions are the assassins of idealism."- Herbert Hoover.

The confines of politics are too narrow for those who seek to be effective. Only when mass-consciousness is truly activated and harnessed can change begin.

Our nation has a wounded psyche and the wound is not being allowed to heal. The politicians keep reopening it and causing it to fester . South Africans are trapped in a mindset of extreme negativity and despondency. Politicians offer "Words without Actions" and the sickening Status Quo is reinforced and appears to be inescapable. The thing is, nature is not static and change occurs whether we wish it to or not. Our freedom of choice is whether we harness change or allow it to be our Master. I choose to channel that power and to bend it to my will and I would urge you to do so too.

The first challenge is to build a new template for what we would like our society to look like and a bold vision for South Africa that is both novel and workable. I hope to offer some innovative solutions to these challenges.

There is NO reason that South Africa should not be a world leader. A nation's true wealth lies in its PEOPLE, not in its natural resources. Ideas are our true wealth and the potential within each human brain is not yet measureable. Every child that is born could be the possible game-changer since we have no clue about what ideas lie dormant in his or her unique brain.

We have been brain-washed into a belief that large populations bring scarcity and yet we can utitilise our populace as a priceless resource. People who are doers can construct. The more active people that we have, the more we can build and create. We need to be a nation of builders and philanthropists with no fear of lack and zero-tolerance for greed.

Our connection with a unique land that lies within a magnificent pulsating continent has been lost. I assert that our love-affair with Mother Africa needs to be rekindled. Western religions and philosophies have been imposed upon Africa and these need to be used to enhance our Ancient African Wisdom without replacing it. This continent is one that has always drawn on ancestral energy and continuity and this rich heritage needs to be embraced and honoured, not denigrated.

The culture of Ubuntu will bring about a flourishing Africa whereas the setting aside of Ubuntu will bring tragedy and decline. We can build an economy based on these principles that is neither a capitalist nor a socialist model. We will engineer a sharing and caring economy with zero-tolerance for hatred, destruction, malice and greed in any form. These thoughts sound like Utopian ideals and yet if we set ourselves lesser goals, we will fall far short of achieving anything that resembles a just and fair society.

There are solutions for changing the present inequity immediately. There are inherent dangers that lie in focusing on the distant future and planning for the "long-term." There are too many unknown and unpredictable variables in the future. If we reframe our perspectives and focus on the "Long Now," we shall be more successful.

Why should the future be more glorious that the present? If we plan only for the future, we will keep pushing our solutions further away from us. By using my principle of the "Long Now," we shall be able to take actions that will by default offer future generations a thriving economy, health and technological excellence. We shall raise a generation of thinkers and doers who will have peaceful, considerate mind-sets and we will be able to facilitate a climate where the Arts can thrive. Arts cannot be supported adequately when a country is in survival mode and that is where we find ourselves at this moment in time.

I envision a South Africa that is a hub of "High-Tech Ubuntu." I am not a neo-Luddite. I believe that the earth will be saved by technology rather than destroyed by it- and this includes the challenge of dealing with Climate-Change.

A society that can deliver top-class health-care will enable every citizen to live a safe life and to reach his or her fullest potential. None of the present medical care models are able to deliver adequate healthcare to every citizen.

I believe that we have to take Smart Medicare TO the people, not to create behemoths that require citizens to come to them and even then cannot accommodate the number of people who pass through their doors. My emphasis would be on micro-medical facilities rather than mega-institutions. Take high-tech medicine to the people. This is attainable if we adopt a vastly different model of medical-care.

The development of Nurse-Practititioners would be crucial in this regard. They would be able to both prescribe and diagnose and new structures embracing both Tele-Medicine and advances in technology would enable them to dispense more than primary health-care. We need to have new degree and diploma programmes that utilise nurses far more and to encourage specialization within this profession too. It is not viable in the short term to produce enough doctors, but upgrading the very under-valued and irreplaceable nursing profession is attainable in the short-term.

I am hoping to partner with innovators in the pharmaceutical;chemical, bio-technological and engineering sectors to develop some of the inventions that I have envisioned that will assist in the running of these new micro-clinics. The power of triaging is under-utilised and this low-tech skill combined with new technology can be honed and fine-tuned in order to make these clinics function even more efficiently.

The approach to epidemiology rather than viewing each individual as a separate medical "unit" where common-place illnesses are rampant could shift medical practice in a positive direction too. The use of tests to evaluate whether an infection is viral or bacterial in origin could reduce the overuse of antibiotics and put a stop to antibiotic-resistant infection in the medium term.

Individualised medicine can be referred outside of the micro-clinic environment depending on the triage system and the stabilisation of patients using the new technology. However influenza and gastric epidemics can be halted by best practice in the new micro-clinics. Education in low-tech solutions such as hand-washing campaigns can also come under the umbrella of the societal organism viewed as a whole and these unecessary epidemics can be brought under control.

Security for each micro-clinic will be supplied by personnel from the individual communities who would be trained for this purpose. A sophisticated bio-metric system that incorporates wearable technology in additional to other bio-metrical tools will ensure only lawful access to medication by the designated personnel in each micro-clinic.

An undeducated populace is a disempowered entity and agents of chaos can exploit this negatively. Every person deserves the chance to learn and here too, the principle of decentralising and going “micro” would facilitate the process of upskilling on every level. I envision turn-key classrooms that can be put in place instantly with systems that are algorithmically predetermined and are consistently duplicable.

I would also initiate mandatory psychometric and aptitude testing for all learners in order to evaluate their particular strengths so that their education could be tailored to those strengths. This would ensure that their would be seamless vocational training and a smooth transition to active citizenship in a functioning economy that would offer immediate employment. Likewise, those who have disabilities could also be placed in optimal conditions in order to be incubated, trained, cared for and ultimately to take their places in society in a suitable manner.

A new type of free market economy needs to be initiated in South Afica. The culture of giving away to another what you no longer need ought to be universally practiced. Bartering would also be a useful addition to the present economic system that leaves too many with no prospect of prosperity.

Citizens who feel enslaved to the wealthy are discontented citizens and rightly so. I would propose a compulsory percentage of shares to be awarded across the board to those who endanger their lives underground. All miners would be eligible to acquire shares in all mines in South Africa.

This would apply equally to those who have worked on a farm for generations and who already de facto live there. They would have a right to their home and a parcel of land.

Drawing upon African wisdom, I would encourage using the principles that were originally applied when building homes that were a perfect fit for the environment. Traditional homesteads could be built using materials that have always been used in South Africa with the addition of modern technology and off-grid systems. No person in South Africa need live in housing that is unsafe or unsanitary without basic services. This is a travesty and can be remediated.

Every citizen deserves to be able to eat. I suggest basic food stores that are State-owned that exist in addition to the corporate Supermarket chains. The State stores would supply basic items at fixed prices with no additional packaging. The bread price for example would be fixed and would never be allowed to increase.

Crime is a scourge in our society. I would implement a zero-tolerance policy including shunning of perpetrators, restitution to be paid by the perpetrators to the victims of crime and their families and prison sentences that match the nature of the crime. For example, those who destroy trains would be forced to work on the railroads to fix them and to build new trains. Re gang-violence, the prison system would need to be more high-tech and require revision so that the gangs would not be incubated in prison. All gang members would be separated from one another and undergo rigorous re-education including lif-elong smart monitoring to prevent re-offence.

Anybody destroying public property would be forced to fix it and to pay restitution. On the other side of the spectrum, Those who contribute to our society by reducing carbon emissions, recycling and using off-grid technologies would be rewarded with significant tax-breaks. Climate offenders should pay significant fines and companies who are repeat offenders should be penalised accordingly .

This is a sample of my thoughts on a proud new South African society that would implement techno-Ubuntuism and the principle of the “Long-now” I have not covered every area, but this should give you some idea of the scope of my philosophies.

I believe that we are entering an era of strong coalition politics even though I think that the ANC will win this election. Use your voice and take your place in opposition politics because the power of the collective in coalition politics is significant.

What can you do to help to support these ideas?

If you have resonated with the ideas that I have put forward, please share them and translate them into other South African languages. Please include attribution to me as the author. My ideas are copyrighted.

I envision public-private partnerships in order to achieve my objectives rather than operating within the political arena and I have disseminated my ideas for free without paywalling them Thus, if you feel moved to do so, I would welcome a donation via Paypal to my email address: [email protected].

Thank you very much.

Remember Ann Frank said, “How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.”

Let’s start improving South Africa right now.