Global Instability – Impacting Social & Economic Issue
A need to identify & understand the real issues
Shifting the Dividing Line between Have’s & Have-Not’s is a first priority on the road to achieving global stability.
A Thumbnail Sketch of the Global Historical Background
The Dividing Line between Have’s and Have-Not’s was, as of circa 2001, a global split of around 0B9 to 5B1, or a ratio of 1:5.6. Within South Africa the ratio is more in the order of 1:7, even 1:8, depending on where the threshold is determined. Within the next 50 years it is anticipated that the world population will double. And, unless meaningful Business Engineered solutions are found, the ratio split will negatively increase (see diagram in Shifting the Dividing Line).
Clearly then the Dividing Line problem in South Africa is more acute, and - with the Global Spotlight on this country to solve the multi-cultural, social-imbalance, problems – it is up to us to make serious effort to develop meaningful solutions to SA’s problems so that the solutions in turn can be applied to assist in solving the greater global disparities.
The historical solutions, which have essentially been a begging bowl approach, have all failed – primarily because the developing, under-developed, country has had a legacy of 1st World economic & social systems & controls that are totally inappropriate, catastrophically destructive. In the long run they are inappropriate within 1st World nations.
The expansionary phase of the European Powers, which commenced in earnest from around the 1500’s, was essentially a case of strong nations exploring, colonising, and plundering new found shores. England’s Queen Liz (I) manoeuvred politically, and through initiating the use of the Royal Navy as a “legitimate” Pirate Force, pirated the opposing pirates. Successive Crowns eventually won for Britannia the Rule of the Waves. Through the centuries to mid 900’s colonies were ruled by various European powers with vastly differing degrees of barbarity. Wealth was plundered and peoples oppressed or slaughtered.
A perceived, delicate, “balance of power”, with England as a dominant force, at the entry to the 20th Century was upset by a recalcitrant bunch of Boer Farmers who gave Britain a resounding thrashing in the first phase of the Boer War. The might of the British Empire was seen to be having a serious chink in its armour. An arms build-up followed over the next fourteen years culminating in a staged excuse for starting WWI. An exceptionally onerous Versailles Treaty concluding WWI created an oppressive environment upon an already defeated Germany.
On top of this a minority financially powerful few had control of the economy with foreign hard currencies. These people were in stark contrast to the majority impoverished people who were pushing barrow-loads of worthless paper money. All of this created the breeding ground for anyone who could bring hope. Hitler provided a short lived, and disastrous, hope.
It is important to note that Hitler was a babe-in-arms. To argue that he was evil is to miss the point about the destructive nature of unfair judges imposing unfair rules upon an uneven playing field.
It is also important to note that the Allied nations had plenty of warnings of impending social & economy disaster but ignored them.
At the extreme British society rejected the overtures of von Ribbentrop – social rejection is a recipe for breeding of evil. This is exactly what occurred. Hitler turned to Mussolini and, initially, Stalin. Evil bred more evil
The result of both WWI & II left Europe stripped of millions of its youth, greatly weakened physically and emotionally.
A general rebellion against colonial powers took place in various continents which resulted in a sudden exit of the powers, especially during the 1950’s to 1960’s. The freed colonies were left with a massive power & intellectual vacuum, and no wherewithal to manage themselves. They also were left with economy & social structures, and control-measures, that could not work within their countries. Internal frustrations & politicking increased leading to conflicts & destruction which continues rampant today throughout Africa, as well as other underdeveloped countries throughout the world.
At this moment, mid 2005, Nigeria is a powder keg threatening to explode into genocidic violence. Zimbabwe is destroyed, So too are most African nations. The Middle East is a continual hot-spot, with occasional highly destructive attacks into the Western 1st World.
Within any economy analysts are attempting to extract understanding from measured economic data; which data is a consequence of a defective economic system.
Hence the data = Garbage Out.
Filtering this data (garbage out) into input signals to the system means that “Garbage In” is being fed into a system which has a defective transfer function.
Hence: Garbage In, through a defective system, produces total Garbage Out.
South African Context.
South Africa was the last bastion of white rule on the African continent. The country changed remarkably to a democratic (to use a simplistic politicised buzz word) nation in 1994. The Dividing Line ratio, at between 1:7 to 1:8, exceeds the world average of around 1:5 to 1:6 (depending on how the threshold is determined), but it is apparent that the absolute level of impoverishment of Have-Not’s is not so much the issue, as is the relative disparity between them & the Have’s.
In the ensuing 10 years strides have been taken to close the gap with various initiatives, invariably imposed by government. Imposed initiatives do not work.
The private sector developed the King Report II – Corporate Governance which was an initiative to instil values of transparency, honesty, integrity, commitment to economic upliftment, stakeholder relationships. This was taken up by the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) as a listings requirement from 2002 – all companies had to comply and to make formal commitments to do so. This initiative quickly came to be exposed by CDADD as worthless (see JSE Complaint – Corp Gov violations). It has also transpired that the Chief Designer Mervyn King was/is operating his business out of one of the, if not the, most tightest & secretive of tax havens. It is also known that the “run-on-the-and” two years ago was initiated by secretive entities based offshore.
Even the JSE have covered up on these issues
More recently government have announced initiatives to “Name & Shame” - this should be on a broad basis. But government have not followed up on this, despite being aware of the losses to pensions for nearly a year.
Those corporates & executives that have covered up on the plundering of employee pension savings extend globally and include:
Richard Branson – Virgin, Mervyn King – Brait & AASA, Russell Loubser – JSE, Raymond Ackerman & Sean Summers – Pick ‘n Pay, Anton Rupert – Richemont, Peter Watt – Comparex, Business Connexion, Carl Grim – Aveng, Bill Venter – Altech, David Drummond – Acer, and many others (see JSE Complaint – Corp Gov violations)
Maria Ramos of Transnet (Government business unit), ex Treasury, has also covered up. And Finance Minister Trevor Manuel was her boss.
Singularly, but collectively, this issue of pension losses is possibly the greatest global fraud the world has seen.
Second to this is possibly demutualisation.
Mervyn King has been protected by the High Court and Constitutional Court, consequently employees remain exposed and their pensions continue to be plundered.
The question though is:- where is their money disappearing to? In South Africa alone the losses run into the tens (hundreds?) of Billions of Rands.
The losses of pension monies, savings, from Brait & AASA is one issue, the fact that Mervyn King covers up, reneges, on his Corporate Governance principles, reneges on agreements, is assisted by the High Court and Constitutional Court, brings to focus the collusive nature amongst the powerful. Which is essentially how Queen Liz (I) started Britain on its destructive (to the victims, that is) expansionary campaign.
The failure of South Africa’s Courts, and more partcularly, the Justices in opening up the Intellectual Doors of the courts is a key obstacle to achieving stability in South Africa. Similarly in other countries.
Frustrations & anger are going to increase, much as we saw in Zimbabwe, unless we address the real issues and develop meaningful, sound, Business Engineered solutions. (The Zim land issue was a symptom of underlying problems: closed justice doors; inappropriate & destructive economy systems & controls)
Per Capita destructive power has increased immensely in the last 100 years, such that a few people can cause extensive damage & instability globally. The reach of aggressors has extended to any region in the world. The reality is that the time is not too distant before hand held nuclear devices will be used.
The pressure is on for this world to find solutions to the Dividing Line issue so as to reduce the frustrations & anger.
The responsibility for economic & social stability within an economy rests on all persons, from Government through to Private sector, within all countries. With regard to developing or under-developed economies 1st World countries have a responsibility to assist in achieving stability within those poorer countries.
BUT – the historical methods of developing countries with old style social & economy systems and control measures are defective in nature, such that within 1st World nations they are destructive, within 3rd World nations they are catastrophically destructive.
It therefore requires a rethink of some key principles so as to identify the defective aspects of these control-devices & market systems. From there it is necessary to develop a new initiative to finding meaningful & sound Business Engineered solutions to Shifting the Dividing Line between the Have’s and Have-Not’s.
A key principle should be borne in mind
Macro-events occur because of micro-actions – by those in Power
Through positively constructive micro-actions we aim for positively constructive macro-events, and thus reduce the probability of negatively destructive ones.
Acid Test.
The Acid Test for determining the sustainable well-being of a country is its social & economic structures, and whether people can speak out without threat of tyranny against them for doing so. The use of well designed, effective & efficient, control-devices in the private sectors will result in a greater growth & development rate than with poorly designed ones; which can even significantly offset poor, inefficient, government.
Otherwise stated: what people actually experience on a day-to-day basis is of primary importance in achieving social & economic stability.
The areas that people interact daily must therefore have systems & control devices that achieve a fair & just environment, in which disputes can be resolved promptly & optimally. The financial/economic environment and the social/justice environments are the two foremost areas that need to function correctly to achieve long term sustainable, social & economic stability. It is also important to note that these areas are closely interlinked and cannot be dealt with entirely in isolation.
BUT – the systems currently utilised in these areas are inadequate, destructively so, for this 21st Century world – we need to understand the inadequacies and then move forward into designing new sound Business Engineered systems.
The legacy of centuries of plundering & oppression has left its mark on our social & economic structures –
It requires sincere Businesses to invest into sound global Business Engineered solutions.
Without sincere investment from the business community the Dividing Line ratio is going to increase, negatively. With disastrous consequences for the world.
Chris Addington Pr.Eng., CDADD Consulting Services.
+27 (0)83 962 7098, http://www.cdadd.com