speech this past Wednesday, February 11th. The following excerpt describes
how the changes in business activity in one part of the world affect
business activity in other parts of the world:
“The consequences are felt everywhere. If the balance sheet of a bank
shrinks, its capacity to lend is eroded. If its lending is curtailed,
businesses and households have to reduce their spending. If demand falls
in Birmingham, factories close in Beijing. If production lines in China
slow, demand for commodities from Africa dries up. The vegetable shop next
to the mine closes, and the drivers of the delivery vehicles are asked to
work short time, on half pay, and if the driver cannot pay his mortgage,
the bank forecloses on his bond, and the bank writes down its balance
sheet again...
When a global motor company cuts back on making cars, it cancels its
orders for catalytic converters. Madam Speaker, this firm making catalytic
converters is not in Detroit or in Shanghai, it is here in the Eastern
Cape. The mine producing the platinum that goes into that converter is
near Rustenburg. The worker in the factory in Uitenhage and the mineworker
in Rustenburg are now without work. And the woman who runs the little
stall selling vegetables outside the mine is making less money each
passing week. And their families, all of them, face a future made more
precarious by the vagaries of global finance.”
Link to the budget speech:
http://www.oldmutual.co.za/markets/south-african-budget-2009/budget-speech-transcript.aspx
The National Development Agency (NDA) provides grants of about R100
million (about $10 million U.S. dollars) to NGOs and co-operatives that
initiate projects in three categories:
1. Food Security
2. Land Reconstruction
3. Micro Enterprises
A proposal from a co-operative must be submitted to a grant giving
institution in order to receive funding. The goal that the NDA works
towards is halving poverty in South Africa by 2014. http://www.nda.org.za/
The work I do for Cape Nature ties into the NDA type of framework by
providing proposal construction aid co-operative owners so they can
purchase infrastructure and equipment to extend their operations.
Vincent’s class about the politics of South Africa, Vernon’s assignment
prompting me to inquire into the origins of Cape Nature relating to the
1994 constitution, and Marita’s class about race and gender in a global
perspective provide a near 360 degree view on issues at the forefront of
South Africa’s past, present, and future.
I will be spending today getting a head start on some assignments that are
due in the following week and determining what I will be doing for an
activist project. I’ll be going to a soccer game on Saturday. On Sunday I
will be spending the day sandboarding. Holler!
Kevin on the Mountain Top
