We shall never eat at the table of the 1% (publised in The Underminers Sept 25 2019 https://www.theunderminers.co.za/we-shall-never-eat-at-the-table-of-the-1/

White and State Monopoly capital represent the 1%, and are allied to create confusion and division among the rest of society.

There are a number of terms that are thrown around in this country that people have little understanding of. One of these is White Monopoly Capitalism. What does the term refer to and why do white people see it as an implied threat?

WMC does not refer to wealth and money of the average white person, who does earn and own a lot more than the average black person. (For those who need facts and figures the Living Conditions of Households in South Africa survey, published in Bussinesstech, 20 Jan 2017 found white average household income ( +- R300 000) to be five times higher than the average of black households.(+- R69 000)) What WMC does refer to is the massive amount of wealth in the hands of a very small sector of the population ( the infamous 1% of the population who control 80 per cent of the country’s (and the world’s wealth)) and who do happen to be mostly, but not exclusively white. The average salary of the top 1% of earners in SA (according to a March 2019 Bloomberg report courtesy of Bussinesstech, 29 May) is R2.21 million. The bottom 55% of the population (that’s +- 30.4 million mostly black people) earns an average of R992 per month. ( 2015 Statics SA study reported in Quartz SA 25 August 2017). According to the same study less than 1% of white South Africans fall into this group.

Further research by Econ 3×3 reported in Inquistr May 7, 2017, found that 10 % of the population owned 90-95% of the country’s wealth while the next 40% (the middle class) owned the majority of the remaining 5-10%. The poorest 50% of the population own little or no measurable wealth.

In the private sector 70% of senior management positions are held by still held by whites, with only 13% being held by blacks. What has changed with the end of apartheid is there has been a rise of what could be called “State capital”. This comprises a group of elite (largely black) businessmen who own about 30% of the country’s capital though the State. This group, however has close ties with White capital, and forms a part of the 1% elite that controls the economy, and are allied with it with the purpose of maintaining the status quo.

The real owners of South African capital are found in the stock exchange. Of the top 100 companies listed on the JSE, 22% are white owned and 23% are black owned local companies. Foreign companies, largely European- (and white-) owned, make up around 40% of the remaining investors. (courtesy of the same Inquisitr article). In spite of post-apartheid changes the economy of the country is still largely in the hands of white people.

The real problem behind such shocking disparity, in terms of relations of peoples in the country, is not that white people earn, and own, far more than their black counterparts for doing the same job and consider themselves superior as a result. The real problem is that most people, especially the middle class, (white and black) continue to support the ongoing agenda and rule of this 1% thus alienating themselves from the majority of humanity. They do this by continuing to buy in corporate owned supermarkets, to consume corporate- made and largely useless, badly made, dangerously toxic, unnecessary products, to use fossil-fuel based forms of energy which poison the environment, to send their children to elite schools and to absorb state and privately owned mainstream media which are designed to brainwash them into accepting the disparities of wealth and the culture of consumerism with its perpetual growth and spending.

Through the cult of the celebrity, and through accident of birth which ensures they share a common skin tone, people imagine themselves to be connected to this elite class. In reality they are not and will never be part of the monopoly capital class. They are conned into believing that that this group of people (the 1 per cent) is somehow looking out for them and represents their best interest. Yet they are no more than cannon fodder to them; useful idiots who will continue to support them in their quest for world domination. We need stop identifying with and supporting the agenda of people (the true owners of monopoly capitalism, state or white) who don’t give a thought for us, but only for their own survival. Stop identifying with the agenda of supremacists and racists who represents the interests of this class. They survive only because they have succeeded in dividing the rest of humanity. These are the real enemy of humanity. They have corrupted our police forces, and set us against each other. Our governments are now headed by billionaires who have little regard for the ordinary people and care only for their own profits. They have convinced people that the drug user in the streets and the foreigner are the cause of their suffering, when they are but a scapegoat to distract us.

Their agenda is precisely to divide you and convince you that you are one of them, when you can in reality you can never be. Yet you are seen as one of them because you choose to put their interest above the interests of your fellow humans. As long as you do this you will be on the side of monopoly capital, the 1 %, and against the rest of humanity . If you are a working class or middle class white South African your true allies are other working and middle class people, no matter their colour or ethnicity, not the elite who only view you as fodder to achieve their own ends. It’s your choice and it’s time to choose.

The Corrupt Nature of Capitalism

Capitalism is at its core corrupt. It is a system that is designed to profit off the labour and suffering of those deemed as lesser beings. It reduces everything to a monetary value and corrupts everything and everyone it touches. It is designed to ensure that wealth will forever be concentrated in the hands of a small minority who deem themselves superior to the rest of us mortals. With its values of endless growth it will necessarily end with the destruction of all that is natural in the world. It thrives off , indeed cannot survive without corruption and greed. It corrupts the very soul of humanity to value profit over humanity and nature and ensures in the end that people cannot even survive without money to buy what should be their's by right of birth. It survives by stealing what nature has given us as a free gift and selling it back to us . It is an evil system whose time has come, indeed must come, to an end of humanity is to survive.

We Are All Addicts (published in The Underminers 23 August 2019)

The first thing you think of when you hear the word addict, is of drug addiction. Actually the word refers to a far broader range of social behavior than drug use. The word itself dates back to Roman times and was used in law to refer to a person who could not pay debts and was given over as a bond slave to his creditor. Today it has come to mean a passionate dedication to any activity. In the modern world addiction, in this sense, has become prolific. People are addicted to shopping, the internet, sport, games. Any activity has its passionate devotees and these are termed addicts. But addiction has a darker side. When the dedication to an activity becomes an obsession and begins to have harmful effects, not just on the devotee, but to those around him and also to the society.

Bruce Alexander (In his book “The Globalisation of addiction: A Study in Poverty of the Spirit”) attributes this darker kind of addiction to inadequate social integration or dislocation, caused by globalization. The problem as he sees it, is that addiction in all its forms, not just drug addiction, is a way of adapting to the sustained dislocation of globalisation. Our society, he believes deliberately obscures the link between free markets, mass dislocation and addiction. Mass media and political leaders celebrate the achievements and innovations of the free-market, while attributing its failings to individual immorality and weakness. Advertising urges people to keep consuming, regardless of the consequences. Millions are spent distracting people from the truth. Research funded by government and industry is designed to confuse and obfuscate reality. Educational institutions no longer teach critical thinking. Fake news abounds, to the point where it becomes nearly impossible to find the truth. In this milieu, drugs become the scapegoat, the reason for all that is wrong in the world. In truth it is dislocation that is at the core of what he refers to as “the modern poverty of the spirit”, and is the root cause of addiction.

If we take Alexander’s thinking to its logical conclusion then our society is sick from the disease of addiction; we are all addicts to one degree or another. In fact there is a deeper alienation that affects us all: an alienation from nature. Everything in this world is interconnected: one species relies on another to provide its food, its air, its sustenance. But we have forgotten that. Addiction stems from this alienation. It creates a feeling in us that something is not right in our world, an emptiness, a desire for something more, something we feel we can’t have. Some see it as a spiritual malady: a searching for something beyond ourselves. Others see it as an existential pain, a search for completeness and wholeness. We all suffer from it to some extent, but we all react to it in different ways. Some seek to fill the emptiness with money, with power: they seek power over those they see as less then themselves, they become judgmental of anyone not like themselves: they turn to war and violence. Others seek it in work. Others in helping people less fortunate than themselves, often to their own detriment. But it is the world, our society that is sick. Our society runs on natural resources that are quickly running out, but we refuse to change, to find other ways to live. We are killing the very thing that sustains us: our natural world; the planet that gives us life. This is the dark side of addiction.

Some people turn to taking drugs to find relief from the chaos and pain, and in turn create more pain for themselves and the people around them. They are cast as the villains of society: but are they really? Who is creating more pain and suffering? The world leaders who are putting children into cages, fighting wars, spending trillions to create weapons of mass destruction, and then claiming there is no money to feed the hungry people of the world? Or the drug user on the street who has turned to drugs because there are no jobs for him: no hope … none of the pieces of paper we supposedly need, to eat, pay rent, and there is none because others are stealing and hoarding it all, creating vast domains of luxury and pleasure for themselves. And the ordinary people strive for that. They become obsessed with celebrities and the mega rich, and t buy into the fantasy that one day they too can be like them. So they buy the clothes that they wear, the food that they eat: they model their lives on them, and in doing so they empower them and continue their own oppression They don’t realise that it is all a big con, that they can never be one of them.

Gabor Mate (in his book “ In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts”) says all addiction stems from pain . “We question we should be asking” he says “is not, ‘Why the addiction?’ but ‘Why the pain?’. We all have stories of pain, of suffering, of trauma. But no matter what I (or you) have been through in our personal lives there are always people in the world that have suffered far worse. Children that have had to watch their parents being blown to smithereens, little girls raped by their own fathers or sold into sexual slavery. This is the world we live in. It is sick. So we indulge in our addictions, and turn a blind eye to the reality of the world, and blame the drug addict, the foreigner, the gays, whoever is different to us, saying that they are the root of all evil in the world. And this is just what the real rulers of the world want you to think. It divides us and distracts us from the truth.

So, if you want to know the truth, instead of blaming the addict, the other ask yourself: “What is my addiction? What am I using to make the world seem a more tolerable and less painful place?.” We despise the addict, because he is the one who carries the symptoms of the disease. He reminds us of how sick our world is. Instead of blaming the addict and the drugs, which for him are his solution, just as yours may be shopping or the internet or sex, we need to find a way to heal the sickness of the world. It is the world, our society, that like the individual addict needs to find recovery. The first step is to stop the denialism, to wake up to the realisation of just how sick the world really is. To say to ourselves: “I will no longer part of this blind rush to destruction.” To stand up and take to the streets if necessary to demand change. This includes the realisation that essentially the drug user on the street is no worse, or less human than anyone else, (including the so-called leaders of the world), and to start to treat them with the empathy and respect they deserve as human beings. (I have certainly met people on the street that are more likeable, honest and human, more worthy of my time than the President of the United States). To say the corporations and the people destroying our natural environment: “No we will not let you steal our water, and put it into bottles to sell to rich people, while our children die of thirst. No we will not let you take our oil and use it to drive machines that kill us, No we will not let you put our children in cages, No we will not let you kill any more of the beautiful wildlife with which we share this planet in, the name of greed and addiction to wealth.” What are you doing to make the world a better place, so that we don’t all need to hide away in our little bubbles of addiction and pretend that everything is OK while the world burns?

We are more than just residents on this planet, we share with all the living beings on it a deep and real connection, and as long as we treat it only as a source of wealth, rather than what it truly is, the divine and glorious life- giving Gaia, we will remain dislocated and alienated and addicted to our own eventual destruction.

What is White Minority Capitalism

My take on White Minority Capitalism: WMC does not refer to the average white person (who by the way does earn a lot more than the average black person and not because they are naturally superior and better in any way but because inequality is built into the system) but it refers to that class of people (,who do happen to be mostly white) who control and run the finances of the world.( the 1 per cent of the population who control 80 per cent of the world's wealth.) 

The real problem is not that white people on average earn far more than their black counterparts for doing the same job and consider themselves superior because of this accident of birth. The real problem is that most white people continue to support the ongoing agenda and rule of this 1 per cent....(with whom the only thing they have in common is this accident of birth) thus alienating themselves from the majority of humanity. In reality they are not and will never be part of the WMC class (the 1 per cent who control the finances of the world) but imagine themselves to be part of it because they are conned into believing that because they are white ( like most of the 1 per cent is) that this group of people (the 1 per cent) is somehow looking out for them and represents their best interest. Get over yourself . .. you are no more than cannon fodder to them ..useful idiots who will continue to support them in their quest for world domination...stop identifying with and supporting the agenda of people (the true owners of WMC) who don't give a toss for you but only for their own survival. 

Stop identifying with the agenda of supremacists and racists who represents the interests of this class. They survive only because they have succeeded in dividing the rest of humanity. They are the real enemy of humanity. Their agenda is precisely to convince you that you are one of them when you can in reality never be. You are seen as one of them because you choose to put their interest above the interests of your fellow humans. As long as you do this you will be on the side of WMC, the 1 pc, against the rest of humanity. It's your choice and it's time to choose.

My First attempts at journalism

UCT Student receives award for plastic waste research.

University of Cape Town PhD student Takunda Chitaka recently won the PETCO 2019 Excellence in Academia award for strategic intervention into the broad area of recycling and sustainability. Chitaka won the award for her important contribution to the understanding of marine plastic waste. Her research involved cleaning a beach entirely and than observing what waste was washed up over a 24 hr period. She looked at 5 beaches in the Cape Town area and found that the most common items, comprising 60% of waste, were items associated with the fast food industry—plastic straws, chip and other snack packets, and polystyrene containers. The important of this knowledge is it can be used to develop evidence based interventions. Chitaka commented “My hope for my research is that it helps to inform the way forward for the plastics economy in South Africa.”

Studying While Black tackles the challenges of black students in South Africa.

Studying While Black is the result of a research project undertaken by the Human Sciences Research Council. This project is part of a larger study being conducted by the HSRC into higher education in South Africa, which looks at the need to transform the country’s universities into learning spaces which are more inclusive and responsive to the needs of the majority of the country’s population. This is part of a trend in higher learning circles to focus on the study of African learning, people, spaces and problems.
The study tracks 80 students from 8 universities and documents their experience of higher learning at a South African University over 4 years. The purpose of the study was to show the obstacles and challenges black students face in accessing higher education in this country and their response to these: to find out who succeeds, and the reasons for their success. As the universities in this country seek to adapt from the elitist spaces they previously occupied, this will prove to be useful knowledge indeed.

Durban’s Urban Futures Centre tackles street level drug use.

The UFC at Durban University of Technology is an interdisciplinary research hub which tackles the social issues of living in 21st century African city.
One of the big social issues, especially in Durban is the use of cheap heroin-based drugs by a growing number of homeless street dwellers. In 2014 clashes between the police and people living in one of the city parks inspired the UFC to call together stake holders from the university, the police, city officials, NGO workers, doctors and others in the health and drug treatment profession. As a result of that meeting the KZN Harm Reduction Advocacy Group was formed. Since then a number of initiatives have been taken. These include:
• A number of meetings with street level drug users to learn about their lives and engage with them about a possible treatment program.
• A number of workshops and seminars with police, health workers and people who work with street level drug users addressing the rights of people who use drugs and other issues.
• The development of a play, Ulwembu, based on participatory action research into the lives of drug users which toured around Durban and surrounding areas in 2016.
• The setting up of a low threshold Opioid Substitution Treatment program, in conjunction with the NGO TB/HIV Care, which was also the basis for a research project which documented the lives and experience of those involved and monitored their progress over 18 months in treatment. 42 heroin users took part in the treatment program. That research is now in the process of being written up and should appear over the next few months. It is hoped that the success of this program will inspire government and NGOs to begin rolling out Opioid Substitution Treatment programs on a large scale to make them accessible to the people who need them.

.Black Studio investigates the roots of Qgom in Umlazi township

.

A group of students from Joburg and Durban recently undertook a study into the spatial roots of Qgom culture in Umlazi township as part of BlackStudio’s Design Exchange Initiative. This initiative brings together students from Architecture, Planning, Urban Design, Art and Engineering, and is intended to question the way we look at and experience spaces and to challenge the colonial system of planning and designing spaces. They were hosted by the Urban Futures Centre at DUT.
Gqom music originates in Umlazi township and has recently taken the world by storm. This years design exchange investigates the links between the culture of Qgom and the spaces that helped create it, and how Qgom is both shaped by these spaces and in turn helps shape them. Qgom music is very much influenced by the everyday sounds of township life. It has become a lifestyle bringing together music, fashion, dance, language and art in a way that contributes both to individual’s livelihood and to the economy of the township.

You are never too old to study

Jacob Seboko recently became the oldest first year student in the history of North-North-West University at the age of 79.

Since his wife died 10 years ago he had been feeling increasingly lonely and decided to register to fulfill his lifelong dream of becoming a professional teacher. He already has a BA in Public Administration and Management, from what was then the Pothchefstroom Universiteit vir Christelike Hoer Onderwys. (Potchefstroom University for Christian Higher Education ) which he completed in 1996. In order to gain his Postgraduate Certificate in Education he will need to take some subjects, such as Psychology and Marketing Management on a first year level. 

When asked how he gets along with his classmates he said that they respect him and go out of their way to make him feel welcome. He says he dreams of a South Africa where children and young people prioritize education. His message to the youth: "Many who see me think my time has passed but I’m here to tell them that now is their future. Not one day. Today.”.
Since his wife died 10 years ago he had been feeling increasingly lonely and decided to register to fulfill his lifelong dream of becoming a professional teacher. He already has a BA in Public Administration and Management, from what was then the Pothchefstroom Universiteit vir Christelike Hoer Onderwys. (Potchefstroom University for Christian Higher Education ) which he completed in 1996. In order to gain his Postgraduate Certificate in Education he will need to take some subjects, such as Psychology and Marketing Management on a first year level.
When asked how he gets along with his classmates he said that they respect him and go out of their way to make him feel welcome. He says he dreams of a South Africa where children and young people prioritize education. His message to the youth: "Many who see me think my time has passed but I’m here to tell them that now is their future. Not one day. Today.”

Jacob Seboko with fellow students.

You are never too old to study.

Jacob Seboko recently became the oldest first year student in the history of North-West University at the age of 79.
Since his wife died 10 years ago he had been feeling increasingly lonely and decided to register to fulfill his lifelong dream of becoming a professional teacher. He already has a BA in Public Administration and Management, from what was then the Pothchefstroom Universiteit vir Christelike Hoer Onderwys. (Potchefstroom University for Christian Higher Education ) which he completed in 1996. In order to gain his Postgraduate Certificate in Education he will need to take some subjects, such as Psychology and Marketing Management on a first year level.
When asked how he gets along with his classmates he said that they respect him and go out of their way to make him feel welcome. He says he dreams of a South Africa where children and young people prioritize education. His message to the youth: "Many who see me think my time has passed but I'm here to tell them that now is their future. Not one day. Today.” 

Living Day- to- Day

Wow-what a day. As I have been sharing, I have been battling recently. I am living day to day as far as work and finances go. Today I had exhausted both and was on the verge of giving up. I have not been to find any work or job in two weeks. There is always one factor that rules me out. I don't have a licence, wrong gender, too old, don't have the right qualifications or experience, don't speak the right language, the wrong skin colour etc etc. Whatever ...there's always something. I was in serious self pity. Telling myself: I have not even managed to pay last months rent, and now the new months rent is due and the landlords going to kick me out.... I ate the last food in the house for breakfast this morning..what am I going to eat tonight....blah blah. The old familiar chorus of self-pity. Anyway I got to varsity and found I have three people contacting me wanting me to work. It might only bring in a couple of hundred rand, but it'll get me through the next few days, until the next job. And there always the chance it'll lead to more work, or a full-time job. Its quite amazing how this works. As long as I am getting up and showing up everyday, putting in the action, something always comes up. Sometimes only at the very last minute, when I'm on the verge of giving up, like today, but it always happens. I believe this is through having faith and practicing a program. I don't always feel it, but I practice it: by turning up, by going to meetings, through practicing the pillars of the program in my daily life, even when I'm feeling shit and don't want to, I do it. I don't have a choice really, the alternatives are to horrible to contemplate.

Don't give up before the miracle happens.

Why I Dont want A "Proper Job"thank you

Hi I have had some people saying that I am oversharing on facebook and that I should get a proper job rather than hustling on social media. I do appreciate that these comments are coming from a place of love and concern for me, and i thank those people for their concern. I feel, however that what am doing here in sharing my experience, my story, that others can learn from it, so that they can see that there is life after drug addiction, and get hope from that. It is difficult, being an elderly male to get a "proper job". I have only worked in bookshops and been a student most of my life. So I have opted to continue with my doctoral studies and look (or "hustle"--i am comfortable with that term for what I am doing--i don't see hustling as having negative connotations and it is a good description for what I do) for writing and editing work on the side to pay for food and rent. As I am fairly new to this kind of work ( at least professionally, I have been writing most of my life) , it is coming in fairly slowly, but as i do more work and build up a reputation, I have no doubt the work will come in more frequently (and it already is). I has been a battle. At times I have had no money even for food, and self pity consumes me, but I need to remember that I only came into recovery 10 weeks ago and I have done pretty well considering that. In that time I have had an article printed in an online newspaper, been on a radio show, made progress on my thesis, edited a book and helped a number of people to write articles for submission. Plus I run an online blog to help people with drug and addiction related issues. And i still find time to stop and talk to and carry a message to people living on the streets. And I go to meetings every day and have a program to help me to deal with all the stuff life throws at me. I'm quite happy to carry on hustling, thank you . I rather do this over a "proper job' any day of the week.