You really cannot get away with that first sentence, you know.

If Tony is not talking about the rich giving away (some proportion) of their riches then it is not possible to see what he is asking of the rich – since it is only their riches that distinguishes the rich from the rest of us and that they, uniquely, have to offer.

There was an exchange between two American writers (one was Scott Fitzgerald – cannot remember the other one).

Scott observed, ‘The rich are different from us.’
‘Yes,’ his friend agreed. ‘They have more money.’

I did not comment, as it expresses how I felt decades before Apartheid and have, ever since.
Today – we can choose the high or low road.
Regimes in SA changed since 1930′s – trust me – nothing is new.
The poor are like the poor of those days.
As you say, some of us chose to “educate ourselves.”
We went to libraries for information.
Home study colleges and UNISA – had millions of students burning midnight oil.
We had to find work to survive, education was the tool.
There was no charity for all.

There was no distribution of wealth; so in 2009 we have a prosperous economy – emanating from the capital of the rich, and the labours of ALL poor people of ALL colours over the centuries since 1659.

Try wealth distribution and the hated rich, with their vital capital – fly away and jobs too.
Taxes diminish and so too the whole country.
Look North for proof.
We need the rich – they do not need us.

I speak from experience not myths of good old days.
There have never been good old days for the poor of any country at any time.
The poor have to labour to earn money or starve.

Money and man have to work together to provide for each other.

He spoke about thinking and reflecting; about creative and professional ability and about coming out from behind the high walls (real and metaphoric) to see what’s going on and to start showing we care about our country – because unless we do – all of us whatever our financial status – the space is left wide open for the charlatans and crooks and political snake-oil Mugabes who exploit the hopes and fears of ordinary people and then leave them to rot, anyway.

Tony’s piece is a bit odd perhaps, not what I’m used to reading, but I don’t come to Thought Leader for what I’m used to reading. Thank you Tony, your words have touched me. I’m also wondering where these thoughts might lead you (us) in future and will be watching this space!

Meanwhile, in the Western Cape, a lot of us are holding our breath for a change of government and the Cape Times says that they’re packing up in Wale Street where the mood is “tense”. Good. I hope our crappy, patronising, doctor-victimising, big-talking, small-changing death-by-neglect Health Department is packing up their personal coffee mugs in Dorp Street as well.

the countries with the worst income disparities have the worst crime problems. the only countries with the same levels of crime levels of crime as south africa are colombia and brazil, and their policemen shoot first and ask questions later.

[this really needs to come back in south africa. it won't, given that there are too many ruling party voters among those folks]

to be honest, brazil is much worse than south africa. that said, the poor are coming up faster because of entrepreneurship [including the criminal variety] and because the economy is not so dependent on dirigistic policies from brasilia.

“the government must give us a house, a job, and a pension?” um, no.

there are a lot of lefty policies which sound good, but in the long term, dampen expectations for self-starting which can become horrible. all that said, the ONLY time that it’s good to be in a dirigistic mood is when all of your trading partners are doing it, so that it won’t disadvantage your economy — which completely boggled my mind that trevor manuel is completely against doing something like that at this very exact moment.