Sustainability Conversations ... Pesticides, Banks, Bots & the Auctioneer

Destiny is a journey.... And sometimes I get scared.... But mostly I get excited, inspired and taken aback when people with passion conspire and choose to make different outcomes come true.... These small acts of courage and belief give meaning and greatness to this paradoxical thing we call life...

On the iStart2 Show this week we focus on two stories:

Simone's story about bots:

(Definition of Bots: the larvae of the botfly, which is an internal parasite of animals. It lives typically in the stomach, finally passing through the host's dung and pupating on the ground).

Simone got cancer and lost her job. The bank (bots) moved in and sold her property on an auction. "Simone, the victim, struggling with cancer was subjected to numerous illegalities in the selling of her property, says Douglas J Shaw, an Advocate of the Supreme Court. "For a number of reasons the bank acted illegally:

- Firstly, an appeal for leave to Appeal was pending;
- Should the Appeal have been in some way defective, then the bank's remedy would be an exception or Rule 30;
- Secondly, the notice of sale in execution was only served three days before the auction and not 30 days as the rues provide:
- Thirdly, the property was auctioned twice despite the first buyer not agreeing thereto;
- The first auction was defective in that the wrong figure was given for municipal rates;
- The second auction was also for a lower amount than the first bidder;
-  This is without going into the unconstitutionality of the process itself"

Tune in on Thursday at 17h30 and hear a brave woman tell her story.

David's story about pesticide:  

(Definition of Pesticide: a substance used for destroying insects or other organisms harmful to cultivated plants or to animals).

Artist, scientist, designer and environmentalist, David Bellamy is inspired by almost everything in the natural world .. "and by ferocity, kindness, generosity, ambition, valour."

David's textile designs and oil paintings refer to the natural world, out of which we evolved and upon which we depend. “We should be making everything last for as long as possible, every object should have nine lives, so we should always live with old and new things,” he opines.

Rooted in the disciplines of science and art, his work reflects deeply held philosophical perspectives on humanity’s place in nature, ie a biocentrism that extends value to all living things and the environment in which they flourish.

Before he was an artist he was a war resistor, leaving South Africa for the UK in 1983. As a conscientious objector, he worked for the Committee on South African War Resistance (COSAWR) in London, later serving part-time in the public housing sector, while he completed a BA Honours degree at Central St Martins School of Art.

In 2001 he returned to South Africa, setting up the Cape Francolin Art Hotel in Riebeeck Kasteel. However after only three years running the hotel, he became ill as a consequence of pesticide drift exposure from the vineyards.

He campaigned against this issue and appeared on Carte Blanche, in Noseweek and in the Cape Times. This activism attracted harassment from the local farmers and a series of court cases flowed. David was partially represented by Angela Andrews of the Legal Resources Centre, UCT.

This drew her attention to the fact that chronic pesticide drift poisoning is ubiquitous and she turned her attention to getting regulations around agricultural remedies updated. Agricultural remedies are a euphemism for pesticides. Pesticide spraying is regulated by the Department of Agriculture pursuant to the Fertilizer, Farm Feeds and Agricultural Remeddies Act, 1947 (Act No. 36 of 1947)

Design meets Biodiversity
Litigation costs prompted David to start marketing a range of what he calls "the cushions of the revolution" via his design house, bbellamy & bbellamy. Starting off as a means of funding legal costs, the company now markets these inhouse textiles as a way to address issues of biodiversity, focussing, too on water conservation and opposition to fracking, which requires urgent attention, believes Bellamy.

Keitu Gwangwa & Pierre du Toit host the iStart2 Show on Thursdays at 17h30. Radio Today broadcasts on 1485 MW (AM) in greater Johannesburg and countrywide on ‪#‎DStv‬ audio channel 869. 

 

Radio Today also streams globally on www.1485.org.za. 

Something to think about ...
"I am the people, I am not the pig. You got to make a distinction. And the people are going to have to attack the pigs. The people are going to have to stand up against the pigs"

- Fred Hampton

Africa Unite ... Kumi Naidoo #AfricansRising

Following hundreds of years of oppression under colonial rule and decades as a pawn in a bipolar world, Africa has been left a damaged continent.

On the iStart2 Show this week Kumi Naidoo offers a glimpse at what the new Africa Civil Society Initiative might look like. 

"If Government won't lead us to unity then we will do it ourselves," says Kumi. "We are setting the basis, and the process included numerous formal and informal consultations with civil society activists, regional and local networks, NGOs, international non-governmental organisations (INGOs), trade unions and faith-based groups across the continent. We also want to work out a way to  involve the diaspora."

Kumi examines the consultation process that is being used to better understand what civil society means in Africa today and how consensus can be achieved in such a diverse environment.

Kumi believes the biggest challenge we face in society is a disease called affluenza: "We need people who have the courage to throw the box away. What you leave behind is what you have contributed to society."

Listen to the show below:

Kumi Naidoo

Born in South Africa in 1965, Kumi Naidoo was executive director of Greenpeace from 2009 – 2015 and was the Secretary General and CEO of Civicus, the world alliance for citizen participation, from 1998 - 2008. He fought against apartheid in his home country and has led various global initiatives, including the Global Call to Action Against Poverty and the Global Call for Climate Action. He is now the start-up director for the Africa Civil Society Initiative.

Thought of the Day:

Together for Africa, 

for justice, peace and sustainable development.

Sustainability Conversations ... Africa's Own Story

"It is time we speak together and decide what change we wish to see in our countries, across Africa and what we want Africa to be when we celebrate Africa Day in the future. For a long time now, others have been writing our story. Now is the time for us to take a brave step, a giant step for us and start writing (and telling) our own story—a story of a united Africa, at peace with prosperous and healthy people," says Kumi Naidoo

"Today we are told that Africa is rising. Yet, when we look closer, it seems that this is based solely on aggregated assessments of national Gross Domestic Product. In these rising African countries the few are becoming fantastically wealthy while the majority remain socially marginalized and economically excluded." "In truth," says Kumi, the majority of Africans are not rising and continue to struggle with poverty and the denial of their most basic rights.

“Imagine we are the last people on the planet and climate change has happened and we decided to write up the history of humanity and put it in a capsule so that if human life emerges again they won’t make the same mistakes, one of the things we would probably conclude is that those who historically deem themselves to be civilised and need to civilise the uncivilised – that is the indigenous peoples of the world – we would conclude that the people who were most civilised were the indigenous peoples of the world.” - Kumi Naidoo in an exit interview after leaving Greenpeace International.

  

 

In February 2016, Kumi Naidoo agreed to serve as the start-up director of African Civil Society Initiative. Upon accepting the role he immediately set about engaging in dialogue with civil society across the continent to gain further insight into perspectives on a move to build greater unity within civil society on the continent. The process included numerous formal and informal consultations with civil society activists, regional and local networks, NGOs, international non-governmental organizations (INGOs), trade unions and faith-based groups across the continent.

Key discussions were affirmed at a recent strategy workshop organized by the African Civil Society Initiative. Thirty activists, NGOs and networks aligned themselves with the inspirational Rustlers Valley Declaration (2014), thus taking up the challenge for civil society generally and NGOs specifically "to be the change we want to see in the world."

Kumi Naidoo is back on the iStart2 Show this week and offers a glimpse at what the new Africa Civil Society Initiative might look like. Tune in Thursday @17h30.

Keitu Gwangwa & Pierre du Toit host the iStart2 Show on Thursdays at 17h30. Radio Today broadcasts on 1485 MW (AM) in greater Johannesburg and countrywide on ‪#‎DStv‬ audio channel 869. 

 

Radio Today also streams globally on www.1485.org.za. 

Something to think about ...
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