WORKERACY™:
A Paradigm Shift
and
A Road Map
for
Poverty Alleviation.
The Poor are not the Problem;
The Poor are themselves the Solution
- if only they can be Taught How?
Nigerian Institute of Management:
Distinguished Management Lecture
Sheraton Hotel: Lagos
July 31st 2008
Dr Norris W Dalton
CEO: South African Institute of Management (SAIM).
www.workeracy.co.za
nwdalton@metroweb.co.za
0
WORKERACY™: A Paradigm Shift and A Road Map for Poverty Alleviation.
by
Dr Norris W Dalton
CEO: South African Institute of Management.
ABSTRACT
The Poor are not the Problem;
The Poor are themselves the Solution
- if only they can be Taught How?
The inter-related problems of poverty and unemployment are examined as the dominant, emergent,
social crises of the 21st century.
It is argued that the root cause(s) of these problems can be found as result of three inter-connected
trends, namely:-
-
the increasing rapidity of technological progress during the 19th and
20th centuries has fundamentally re-structured the ‘world-of-work’
through the replacement of the need for 80%of Blue-collar workers during the first half of the 20th century - by machines and automation
and subsequently, the replacement of the need for 80% of white/pink
collar-workers during the second half of 20th century - by computers
and telecommunication - in the production and trading of goods and
services in the normal economy;
-
the increasing control of the ‘money-creating’ and ‘money-lending’
process by the Private-Banking Community - which through ‘Usery’
- is slowly but surely replacing ‘Life-Values’ by ‘Money-Values’ - as the
foundation for a Global Social Ethic - and enslaving citizens, companies,
governments, and countries to a life-time of bondage-Debt; and
-
the almost complete disconnect between the normal economy and the
monetary economy - as well as a corresponding disconnect between a
‘work ethic’ and ‘material reward’ i.e. The ‘Passive-Rich’ get Richer whilst the ‘Working-Poor’ get Poorer.
The above mentioned crises have become more visible and better understood - as well as
their possible causes - since the 1970s with - the emergence of the subject of ‘Complexity
Economics’ - the acceleration of the Globalisation process i.e. ‘the global search for cheap
labour - both high skills and low skills’ - and the creation of the World-Wide Web through
the Internet.
It is the thesis of this paper that problems of ‘Poverty Alleviation’ and ‘Mass UnemploymentReduction’ are so complex that they cannot be solved, in principle, solely by any single Macroeconomic Top-down approach proposed by any think-tank of learned economists and academics.
Rather, there is not one solution - but millions of micro-solutions, which can only be discovered by
the ‘poor’ and ‘unemployed’ themselves - through Enabled (by Education, Government, Business,
and Civil Society) Grassroots, ‘Chaordic’, Networks.
1
It is suggested that the concept of ‘Workeracy’ , if widely implemented, may provide a step in the
right direction.
WORKERACY™: A Paradigm Shift and A Road Map for Poverty Alleviation.
The Poor are not the Problem;
The Poor are themselves the Solution
- if only they can be taught How?
OUTLINE
1.
Introduction: ‘Poverty-Alleviation’ and ‘Unemployment-Reduction’.
2.
The Tragedy of ‘Mass Unemployment’: Dehumanisation of the Poor.
3.
The Cancer of ‘Usery’: Life-long bondage-Debt for the Poor.
4.
The Failure of ‘Top-down’ Development Aid Strategies.
5.
The Success of ‘Appropriate Technologies’ for the Poor.
6.
The Success of ‘Grameen-Bank Lending’ for the Poor.
7.
The Success of ‘Community Currencies’ for the Poor.
8.
Workeracy™: A core ‘unemployment survival’ life-skill.
9.
WORKERACY™: A 12-step Grassroots Movement for the Poor.
10.
Summary
Appendix 1:
Appendix 2:
Appendix 3:
Appendix 4:
A ‘Workeracy’ example: Swadhyaya (India).
A ‘Workeracy’ example: Afrikids (Ghana).
A Message for the Unemployed.
A Chronology of the ‘Workeracy’ concept.
References.
2
1. Introduction.
There cannot be an African Renaissance (M Makgoba (1999) ) without a
Renaissance of the Mind.
And there cannot be a Renaissance of the Mind without a Renaissance of the way
we Think - particularly about such complex and interconnected social problems
such as ‘Poverty-Alleviation’ and ‘Unemployment-Reduction’.
In this paper it is argued that the solutions to such problems do not lie in any single,
‘one-size-fits-all’, Top-down, hierarchical approach as has been adopted by the
IMF/WB (International/Monetary Fund/World Bank) since their creation in 1944 out
of the Bretton Woods Conference. Rather, there exists millions of micro-solutions
which can only be discovered by the affected parties themselves - namely the Poor
and Unemployed - through ‘enabled’ chaordic networks.
The primary roles of Business, Government and Civil Society in this process are as
‘enablers’ to facilitate and support the creation and sustainability of such networks
in the best interests of the Poor and Unemployed.
By highlighting some of the failures and successes of previous approaches to these
problems, it is suggested that the concept of ‘Workeracy’ presented here may make a
useful contribution to addressing these issues.
Jeffrey Sachs, respected internationally for his twenty years of dedicated work in
Development Economics, in his thought-provoking book ‘The End of Poverty’
(2005), has laid out an affordable blue-print for achieving one of the eight
Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) - namely, ‘Cutting poverty by half by
2015’ - and further ending ‘extreme poverty’ by 2025.
In particular, he has shown, through a detailed analysis, how this goal could be
achieved at a cost of a mere 0.7% GNP (Gross National Product) for each of the 191
UN member states who unanimously agreed to the United Nations Millennium
Declaration in 2002.
Will this goal be achieved?
Based on past experience - probably not - mainly due to a lack of Political-will on
behalf of many of the participating member countries. In such cases, history has
shown Political-will to be mostly about a mouth-music of ‘pledges’ and ‘good
intentions’ - rather than actions and implementation - except when it is expedient for
those in power to really commit and follow-through on their pledges.
3
However, one should not be disheartened by this, since ‘poverty’ - and its alleviation
- is a long-standing complex, intractable, social, condition - with many inter-related
causes and determinants including:-
lack of financial resources;
lack of jobs;
lack of market access;
lack of transport;
lack of adequate infrastructure;
lack of basic resources;
lack of technologies;
poor education;
poor heath care;
poor governance;
socio-cultural-legal impediments;
restrictive trade barriers;
environmental and geographical constraints; and - most of all
lack of political will;
Even the definition of ‘poverty’ has its problems since it is manifested in an infinite,
variety of different forms depending upon its context and peoples’ perceptions and
beliefs as to the nature of ‘poverty’.
For the purposes of discussion it is convenient to use the ‘monetised’ definitions of
‘poverty’ adopted by the World Bank, namely:‘extreme’ poverty is: -
‘moderate’ poverty is: -
‘relative’ poverty is: -
-
a condition of chronic hunger, lack of access to basic
health care, safe drinking water, sanitation, adequate
shelter, and education;
surviving on less than $1 per day.
a condition in which the basic human needs are being
met - but barely;
surviving on between $1 to $2 per day.
a condition in which basic needs are being met, but
accompanied by limited access to cultural goods,
entertainment, quality healthcare, and education
characteristic of a First World economy;
surviving on a household income below some
threshold of average national income -i.e. the
‘poverty line’.
Using these definitions, the World Bank has estimated that in 2001 the numbers of
people worldwide living in poverty are -
4
‘extreme’ poverty
‘moderate’ poverty
- 1.1 billion people (17.5%) (less than $1 per day);
- 1.6 billion people; (25.4%) (between $1 and $2 per day);
out of a total world population of around 6.3 billion.
About 90% of the poor, according to these definitions, live in the regions of
sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, and East Asia.
It is sobering to contrast these statistics with those of Forbes.com - which tracks the
fortunes of the ‘Super-Rich’. For the first-time ever (2008), the number of US $
dollar billionaires has exceeded 1000 (i.e. 1125)
The total net-worth of this group is $4.4 trillion.
Americans account for 42% of the world’s billionaires and 37% of the total world’s
wealth. Sixteen years after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia, with 87
Billionaires, is now the No. 2 country behind the US.
Two of the most noteworthy new entrants are South Africa’s Patrice Motsepe and Nigeria’s
Aliko Dangote, the first black Africans to make their debut amongst the world’s richest
people. Oprah Winfrey, America’s ‘Queen of the Media’, is the richest black woman-but at
position 462 on the richest list, she has to make do with a meagre $2.5 Billion!
The race is now on for the first trillionaire with the six front-runners being Warren Buffett
(US) 62 billion, Carlos Slim Halu & family (Mexico) 60 billion, William Gates III (US) 58
billion, Lakshmi Mittal (India) 55 billion, Mukesh Ambani (India) 50 billion, and Anil
Ambani (India) 42 billion.
By the ‘magic law of compound interest’ one can expect the emergence of the first
trillionaire around 2030 - at about the same time as the elimination of ‘extreme poverty’ - if
there is sufficient ‘Political Will’ to implement Jeffrey Sachs’ blue-print.
A very big ‘if’!!!!
The connection between ‘Poverty Alleviation’ and ‘Unemployment-Reduction’ is not
straightforward.
All ‘poor’ people are not ‘unemployed’. And not all ‘unemployed’ people are ‘poor’.
It all depends upon the context of poverty. Hence we now have the term ‘working poor’
entering the vocabulary of poverty -i.e. those people who are ‘working’ but for a barely
‘subsistence wage’.
The idea that ‘unemployment’ is a major cause of ‘poverty’ has been a central finding of
poverty research over the past twenty years or so, and remains a perennial cause of poverty,
particularly amongst the working age population (Peter Saunders (2006)). However,
employment, of itself, is no guarantee that a person will be able to work himself/herself out
of either ‘extreme poverty’ or ‘moderate poverty’. It all depends upon the nature and
duration and context of the ‘employment’ which will determine whether or not people are
capable of overcoming poverty.
For example, a key finding of Peter Saunders relating to poverty in Australia was that a fulltime ‘Job’ is needed to produce sufficient income to raise people above the ‘poverty line’.
5
Yet, irreversible world trends in the structure of the ‘world-of-work’ indicate - the demise of
the Industrial Age concept of the full-time ‘Job’ as the primary mode of ‘earning-a-living’
and the increase of casualisation and AWPs (Alternative Work Patterns) of the workforce.
This is a reality which has to be faced in the 21st century - along with the increase in the
working poor - and the movement of the downwardly - mobile middle-class towards ‘poverty’
- which is now also becoming a major concern in First World countries (K S Newman
(1988), J Bove (2007) ).
‘All ‘full-time’ employees are only 3 pay-cheques away from poverty’.
Even in the economically richest country in the world (see Table 1) i.e. America - the
American Dream has become the American Nightmare for many people as
millions of middle-class Americans experience their once comfortable life-style
slowly but surely disappearing down the deepening ‘hole’ towards ‘relative poverty’
and ‘moderate poverty’.
Table 1. World economies (2005)*
Country
GDP (US $/billions)
US. (Richest).
OECD (Europe)
Asia/Pacific.
South America
CIS (Russia)
Africa
ME/W Asia
Population
(million)
297
1 094
3 346
366
247
826
176
% (US = 100%)
12 376.1
23 797.7
4 892.6
1 601.7
970.0
839.2
694.5
100.0%
192.3%
39.6%
12.9%
7.8%
6.8%
5.6%
Totals
6 342
45 171.8
365.0%
*International Bank for Reconstruction and Development / The World Bank (2008).
The poverty-line in America in 2007 was set by the Census Bureau as
- a family of four making a little more than
$20 000 in household income per annum.
Using this criteria, then
- 13% (almost 40 million) of the population were
deemed ‘officially poor’, whilst another
- 18% (about 54 million) of the population were
struggling to survive on incomes less than twice the
official poverty line.
This means that in the richest economy in the world, a third of the US. population
falls into the ‘relative poor’ or ‘relative near-poor’ categories. It is no wonder that
America attracts immigrants from all over the world- desperate to escape their own
‘sweat-shop’ lifestyles - to experience and partake in even the ‘relative near-poor’
lifestyle prevalent in America today - and be grateful for the opportunity.
6
If we now shift our focus to poverty in the African economies (see Table 2) we get a
different notion of the nature and scale of poverty.
Table 2: African economies (2005)*
Country
South Africa
(Richest)
Nigeria
Egypt, Arab Rep.
Morocco
Sudan
Angola
Tunisia
Kenya
Cameroon
Cote d’Ivoire
Tanzania
Ethiopia
Ghana
Others (36)
Totals
Population (millions)
46.89
GDP (US$/billions)
242.0
130.70
70.00
30.20
35.50
15.56
10.03
35.27
17.53
19.10
35.30
72.06
21.34
286.52
826.00
113.5
98.8
59.0
35.2
30.3
29.0
18.7
16.8
16.4
12.7
11.1
10.7
145.0 (<10.0)
839.2
% (SA - 100%)
100%
46.9%
40.8%
24.4%
14.5%
12.5%
12.0%
7.7%
6.9%
6.8%
5.2%
4.6%
4.4%
60.0%
346.7%
*International Bank for Reconstruction Development / The World Bank (2008).
Taking the SA economy as our yardstick of 100% (bearing in mind that the total African
economy is still very small (i.e. 6.8% of US economy) by world economy standards - yet has
to support a population size approaching three times (i.e. 2.78) that of the US economy - we
begin to get a sense of the magnitude of Third World poverty.
Considering South Africa as an example of an African economy with a population of 47.4
million and a GDP of R1 539 Billion in 2005 (South Africa Survey 2006/7), then the number
of people and percentage living on less than $1 per day was (in 2005).
SA ‘extreme poverty’ 4 228 787
(8.8% of population).
This represents a rapid growth over the previous ten years, i.e.
SA ‘extreme poverty’ 1 899 874
(4.5% of population)
(2005)
(1996).
The poverty line in South Africa is defined as an individual living on an annual
income of R10 452 (i.e. R871 per month), or a household income for a
family of eight members of R39 769 per annum (i.e. R3 314 per month).
7
Using this criterion then the number and proportion of the population living in
‘relative’ poverty is:SA ‘relative poverty’ 22 489 170 (47.07% of population)
which is a significant increase over the previous decade, i.e.
SA ‘relative poverty’ 16 338 510 (40.5% of population)
(2005),
(1996).
A comparison of these two sets of figures indicates that more and more African people
are sliding down the poverty scale - from relative poverty to extreme poverty - as time
goes on from 11.6% to 18.8% over a period of a decade.
Mass Poverty is clearly becoming increasingly pervasive and endemic in spite of the
increasing prosperity for the Elite Rich.
Wealth creation for the few is racing ahead at a breath-taking pace but at the expense
of the many who are falling deeper and deeper behind in a Poverty Trap.
Why is this so?
And what can be done to address this problem?
In view of the remarks made above regarding the inter-connection and trade-offs
between ‘poverty’ and ‘unemployment’ the approach adopted in this paper is to
explore possible ways of achieving ‘unemployment-reduction as a primary means of
tackling poverty since, for example:-
‘working’ may be assumed to be preferable to ‘not working’;
‘working’ is a means of productively utilising one’s physical, mental,
and emotional faculties;
‘working’ is a means of generating an income; and
‘not working’ is conducive to boredom and anti-social activities.
It is accepted that ‘unemployment-reduction’ may have negative trade-offs as
regards ‘poverty-alleviation’ in certain poverty contexts - e.g. locked into
unprotected low pay - low skill ‘Jobs’ for a period of time - but this may be a price
which must be paid to get out of poverty and a first-footing on the upward ladder of
‘life-long employability.
The remainder of this paper is an attempt to address these two issues and to indicate a
possible alternative approach to dealing with poverty alleviation.
Sections 2,3, and 4 focus on the nature, causes, and current strategies for addressing
these issues, whilst sections 5, 6, and 7 review selected strategies which have made
significant inroads in dealing with certain aspects of ‘poverty alleviation’.
8
Sections 9 and 10 present a radically alternative - but complementary - approach to
poverty alleviation - namely Workeracy - which places the primary onus and
responsibility of solving poverty and unemployment on the ‘poor’ themselves through the creation of an enabled (by Government, Business, and Civil Society)
‘chaordic network’ of ‘Workeracy Empowerment Centres.
2. The Tragedy of Mass Unemployment: Dehumanisation of the Poor.
It may be difficult to measure or define ‘poverty’
but it is easy to recognise it when you see it.
Destitution is:- deprivation
of the
- necessities of Life.
Poverty is:- lack, or
- relative lack, of
- ‘money’ or
- ‘material possessions’.
Poverty is:- debility
- due to
- malnutrition.
Morality, and even Happiness, are possible in Poverty;
-but never in Destitution (i.e. ‘extreme’ poverty).
R.A. Schermerhorn
Slums cause Spiritual Poverty (lack of conscience) in many Lives.
J.T. Fannel
Poverty, and in particular ‘extreme poverty’, is a scourge and a pernicious
condition of living which chronically affects the
physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual development of
babies, children, teenagers, young adults, ‘adults’, and senior citizens.
Its images are displayed endlessly, as by-products, on TV News channels covering
Third World human rights violations in Africa, East Asia or the Middle East.
In First World countries, we see the affects of poverty in slum-living, anti-social
behaviours of teenagers and youths, - or isolated, neglected, old-age pensioners,
forlornly fading away through lack, marginalisation, and loss of human interactions.
9
We are also made aware of it more prominently through the work of the world-wide
organisation founded by Mother Teresa (1910-1997), i.e Missionary of Charity
Foundation, dedicated to caring for the ‘Poorest-of-the-Poor’ throughout the world.
Images of the Great Depression in the 1930s in the US and Europe bring to mind the
vacant looks of grown men queuing-up at ‘Soup kitchens’ organised by the Salvation
Army, as well as by thousands of other church organisations throughout the country.
Homelessness, as a major social issue, is still alive and well today in the USA!
Poverty induces feelings of shame and helplessness, - and leads to a marginalisation
of large sections of the community.
The Poor are voiceless - the non-Poor prefer not to acknowledge them in their midst
- particularly in First World countries.
The Poor are always with us - The Rich are always somewhere else.
The effects of poverty on people’s lives differ with the stage-of the development of
the human being since one’s basic needs vary according to one’s level of development
according to Maslows Hierarchy of Needs i.e.
Human Development
.
Senior citizen.
Adult.
Young Adult
Teenager.
Child
Baby.
Basic Needs (Maslow).
POVERTY
?
Spiritual/Morality.
Self-actualisation.
Self-respect/Recognition.
Belonging and Care.
Security/Safety.
Basic Survival (Physiological).
Fig 1. The Impact of Poverty on Human Development.
Thus ‘extreme poverty’ has vastly different effects on a Baby - in terms of his/her
physiological needs - compared with say those of a working Adult - with his/her
needs for Self-esteem and Recognition. These distinctions are easily forgotten when
thinking about ‘strategies of Poverty Alleviation’ at the macro-economic level.
Now what about ‘Unemployment’?
To employ is :- to provide a ‘Job’,
- that pays ‘Wages’,
- as a means of
- ‘earning-a-living’.
Employability is:- the quality,
- or state
- of being employable.
Unemployment is: -
Employment is:10
- lack of employment,
- involuntary idleness
- of a
- worker
- seeking employment
Employment is:-
- an activity
- in which one
- engages and employs
- one’s time
- and energies.
an essential human activity, necessary for the normal growth
and development of a human being, - physically, mentally,
emotionally, spiritually and socially; in order to realise
his/her full potential.
This is true - whether or not the employment is paid for by a third party (employer)
or paid for by oneself (self-employed) (i.e. ‘money’ income).
Thus Unemployment - i.e. a state of voluntary or involuntary ‘idleness’ - is
undesirable
at the best of times - and almost certainly Psychologically
Self-destructive at the worst of times (see Table 3) and is a condition which must be strenuously overcome by both the Individual - and Society
in the case of Mass Unemployment - if we are to become a nation of healthy, productive,
human beings.
Formally: Unemployment relates to a state of Idle Resources (human) amongst a
sector of the Economically Active Population (EAP) - defined
as all persons between the ages of 15 to 65 years - who :
-
have not ‘worked’ during the seven days prior to being interviewed;
desire to ‘work’ - and are available to work within a week of
being interviewed, and also
-
have taken ‘active steps’ to look for work (i.e. ‘Job’-seeking), or have
attempted some form of Self-employment, in the four weeks
preceding the interview.
NB
Thus in discussions of the relationship between ‘unemployment-reduction’ and
‘poverty alleviation’, the latter affects all persons - whereas the former relates
only to the ‘working population’. ‘Unemployment’ also - to some extent encompasses ‘under-employment’ and the ‘Working Poor’ - since these may
also be considered as a form of ‘disguised’ unemployment.
An indication of the scale of unemployment in Africa is given in Table 4. However these
figures should be considered as best estimates of the full-scale of the un-employment problem
since they refer to either the ‘strict’ definition of unemployment, or possibly including also
the larger group of the ‘discouraged’ job-seekers - i.e. those who have stopped looking for a
‘Job’.
A Loss of a ‘Job’ implies much more than a loss-of-income and is the first step downwards
towards poverty - for ‘being-at-work’ also
11
-
involves interacting daily with other colleagues in the same
workplace;
networking with many other external organisations;
engaging in physical and mental activities which contributes to one’s
Self-development;
keeping oneself aware of external events which impact on one’s own
workplace situation;
finding internal satisfaction and self-fulfilment, in the ‘job’ one is doing;
organising and structuring one’s time in a disciplined manner; and
shaping one’s own value system (e.g. ethics) through workplace experiences
For many, the ‘Job’ helps to form one’s ‘Identity’ (Al Gini (2000) ) which is why ‘losing
one’s Job’, after several years with the same organisation - is in affect almost the same as
‘losing one’s ‘identity’ - and is so traumatic - from which many people find it very
difficult to recover.
12
Table 3.
UNEMPLOYED
Duration of
unemployment.
First month
JOB-SEARCH
WILL-TO-WORK
Unemployment: The Psychological Destruction of a human being.
SELF-ESTEEM
SELF-WORTH
EMOTIONAL
STATE
MENTAL
STATE
Job search (begins)
CVs, Adverts.
Interviews, tel, calls.
Job search (intense)
Daily activity.
Networking.
High self-esteem.
Positive self-image.
High expectations.
High self-esteem.
Everything normal.
Keep up appearances.
Anger, feeling betrayed.
Humiliation.
Determined.
Mixed feelings.
Maintain social contacts.
Maintain positive attitude.
SHOCK.
Numbness.
Major life crisis.
DENIAL.
Trying to understand.
Coping with the situation..
3 - 6 months
Job search (reduced)
Cost and effort problems.
Increasingly difficult.
Decreased motivation.
Sleep patterns deteriorate.
Lowered self-esteem.
Fear of rejection (job)
Need of approval.
Need a positive response.
Need moral support.
6 - 12 months
Job search (periodic)
Repeated setbacks.
Loss of energy.
Less frequent attempts.
Loss of motivation.
Pointless waste of time and effort.
Days filled with boredom and ennuli.
Consider any job.
Low self-esteem
Vulnerability.
Losing self-respect.
Feelings of inferiority.
Losing self-reliance.
Loss of self-confidence.
Gradual loss-of-identity.
Feeling a failure.
Desperation.
Fear of competitors (job).
Problems with intimacy.
Problems with communication.
Conflict, stress increases.
Tendency to drink, etc.…
Poisoning of relations.
Unable to trust others.
Loss of assertiveness.
Unable to handle conflict.
Unable to cope with stress.
Difficult to socialise.
Disorganised feelings.
Increased dependence on substance abuse.
Uncontrolled outbursts.
1 year or more
Job search (ceases).
No Job!!!
Loss of purpose.
Loss of energy.
Sleep late.
Habit of unemployment.
Habit of Poverty.
Spirit broken.
Loss of self-esteem.
Loss of Independence.
Loss of human dignity.
Loss if self-efficacy.
Totally demoralised.
Totally dehumanised.
Emotionally drained.
Fear of work.
Socially isolated.
Unable to forgive.
Deep bitterness.
Disabling guilt.
UNEMPLOYABLE.
Loss of
will-to-work.
Feelings of
worthlessness.
Loss of
motivation
PESSIMISM.
Financial worries dominate.
Constant borrowing (debt).
Constant anxiety.
Loss of self - discipline.
Difficult to plan or prioritise.
DESPAIR.
Value systems changing.
Inability to relax.
Inability to accept advice.
Inability to think clearly.
Inability to concentrate.
Inability to change.
Immobilising thoughts.
Suicidal thoughts.
Crushing anxiety.
RESIGNATION.
Loss of Hope.
Loss of Anxiety.
Irrational thoughts.
Survive on fantasies. (Lotto)
Unable to focus, indecisive.
Job requires Heroic efforts.
Learned helplessness.
Loss of
competencies.
2 - 3 months
PROGRAMMES
REQUIRED
Workeracy programmes
to
Maintain and Reinforce
an
ACTIVE
“will-to-work’.
positive - motivated.
12
Workeracy programmes
to
Revitalise and Re-energise
a
PASSIVE
“will-to-work”.
negative-demotivated.
Rehabilitation programmes needed
to
Restore and Nurture
an
OBLITERATED
“will-to-work”.
“ego-annihilated”
Loss of
identity.
Table 4: Unemployment Rates for Various African countries*.
Rank
19
Country
Morocco.
Unemployment rate %
2.10
Date of Information
est. 2007
66
Nigeria.
4.90
est. 2007
94
Botswana.
7.50
est. 2007
103
Central Africa Republic.
8.00
est. 2001
113
Egypt.
9.10
est. 2007
138
Algeria.
13.00
est. 2007
159
Sudan.
18.70
est. 2002
161
Comoros.
20.00
est. 2007
166
Gabon.
21.00
est. 2006
167
Mozambique.
21.00
est. 1997
170
South Africa
25.60 +
est. 2008
174
Cameroon
30.00
est. 2001
184
Swaziland
40.00
est. 2006
185
Kenya.
40.00
est. 2001
188
Senegal.
48.00
est. 2007
192
Zambia.
50.00
est. 2001
197
Zimbabwe.
80.00
est. 2005
198
Liberia.
85.00
est. 2003
*www.wikipedia/wiki/list_of_countries_by_unemployment_rate.
www.cia.gov/library/publications/the_world_factbook/rankorder/
+ South Africa: ‘Strict’ definition: 25.6% - ‘Expanded’ definition: 40.5%: SAIRR (2008).
13
Being Unemployed - whether or not one is a sole breadwinner - means having to cope with
boredom, unstructured time, frustration, lack of ‘money’, loss of self-respect, shame,
marginalisation, isolation from peer-group social activities, potential substance-abuse, and
resistance to anti-social behaviour.
Many, but not all, feel pressured into anti-social activities purely for survival. This is
particularly prevalent amongst the ‘Youth’ who are possibly angrier and less self-disciplined
than other segments of the unemployed population.
A particular study carried out by D.O. Torimire and O.D. Kolawole (2005) to examine the
poverty and unemployment situation confronting rural youth (13 yrs - 30yrs) in South West
Nigeria, uncovered seven survival strategies adopted by the youth, namely, in order of
preference:-
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
Buying/Selling and street-hawking;
Daily paid casual labour (hanging around different locations);
Motor-car touting (extortion of money from drivers);
Mounting of road blocks (money-collection, disguised as road-mending);
Armed robbery (sponsored by local ‘god-fathers’);
Prostitution (primary schoolers to degree-holders); and
Blood-touting (sell blood as blood donors + mobilisation fees).
That ‘poverty’ does not affect only the ‘rural youth’ in a Third world country is evident - in
stark contrast - by the plight of a 67 year-old mother of three grown children e.g.:‘Barbara Harvey climbs into the back of her small Honda sport utility vehicle (SUV) and snuggles
with her two golden retrievers - her head nestled on a pillow propped against the drivers seat.
A former loan officer with a major bank, the 67 year-old mother said she never thought she’d
spend her ‘golden years’ sleeping in a car in a parking lot. ‘
This is my bed, my dogs, my life - in this car now’.
Barbara Harvey was forced into homelessness this year after being laid off. She said that threequarters of her income went into paying her rent in Santa Barbara. She lost her condo (two
bedroom townhouse) two months ago through non-payment of rent and had little savings as a backup.
Harvey now works part-time for $8 per hour in a McDonalds take-away , and draws social security
to make ends meet ‘
Santa Barbara, California, CNN.com, 20 May 2008
One of the key observations arising from studies of the Unemployment is that
‘the longer one is unemployed,
the more one becomes unemployable’.
The reasons for this can be seen from Table 3 in that as the number of rejections for finding
employment increase- one’s mental and emotional capacities for continuing the search for
employment decrease - and eventually one’s self-confidence, self-esteem, and self-efficacy
become debilitated - until a point is reached when one’s will-to-work disappears - and one is then
reduced to a state of dependence upon charity and/or entitlement.
14
In this sense, Unemployment can be viewed as a Social Addiction (see section 8 - workeracy).
The most frightening thing about this account is that it is a reality today (2008) - in the
richest economy of the world i .e. America - which could easily become the ‘retirement’
condition of tens of thousands, or even hundreds of thousands, of currently prosperous
middle-class, educated, professionals around the world in the years to come.
No wage-earner in the 21st century middle-class is immune from the downward slide
into ‘poverty’!! In South Africa, Bank statistics show that a mere 6% of retirees - who
retire at their planned retirement date - are financially self-sufficient.
Since ‘poverty alleviation’ implies increasing one’s standard-of-living, and to do that
means increasing one’s income i.e. through earning more ‘money’ - whether actively i.e. through ‘paid’ employment - or passively - i.e. through investment-income - it is
necessary to examine the process of ‘money-creation’ and its connection with ‘earning-aliving’ by the ‘sweat-of-one’s-brow’ (i.e, hard ‘work’) - since this is the bedrock of the
‘rags-to-riches’ philosophy of the Richest Economy in the World for wealth-creation
i.e. the American Dream.
If one desires the African economy to grow and prosper and emulate that of the US
economy in the years to come- it surely makes sense to understand the key factors which
have somehow transformed the American Dream into the American Nightmare for many
middle-class wage-earners - except for the privileged Elite Rich?
3. The ‘Cancer’ of ‘Usery’: Life-long bondage-Debt for the Poor.
‘money’ is:- a measure
- of ‘value’.
‘money’ - is:- a means
- of exchanging
- ‘values’.
‘money’ - is:- anything
- generally
accepted
- as a means
- of exchange.
Fiat ‘money’ :-
Currency is:
Community currency is:-
- governmentbacked;
- legal
tender;
- notes/coins.
- anything
- in circulation
- used as a means
- of exchange
- anything
- in circulation
- within a community
- as a means
- of exchange.
Interest is:- the time
- cost of
- borrowing
Interest is:- the rent
- paid, or
- received
Usury is:- an unconscionable,
- or extortionate
- rate of interest
15
- ‘money’.
- on ‘money’.
- (i.e. Compound Interest).
When I was young and naïve, I thought that ‘money’ was
the most important thing the world. Now that I am older and wiser,
I know it to be true.
Oscar Wilde.
NB: Google search: July 2008: Keyword ‘money’: No of hits - 1.2 Billion!.
Poverty Alleviation entails improving the Quality-of-Life or lifestyle of those
unfortunate to find themselves as victims of ‘Poverty’, namely
the Poor;
Improving the Quality-of-Life of the Poor therefore requires making
‘more-money’ - in the form of Government
Subsidies - available for assisting those who are
not able to help themselves, - or for enabling the
Poor to improve their own income-generating
capacity by ‘earning-a-living’ - and thus to raise their
standard-of-living.
Any sustainable solution to Poverty Alleviation must inevitably involve a solution to the
'money-creation’ problem - both at the individual-level - as well as at the National or
Global level - which is at the root cause of both ‘Poverty’ - and the gross inequality
between the Rich and the Poor.
The sad reality is that the problems associated with ‘money-creation’ and ‘moneydistribution’ have been around a long time - at least two hundred years - and various
workable solution have been proposed for at least a hundred years - but for reasons of
‘Greed and Power’ by the Knowledgeable Few these solutions have not been
implemented - but have deliberately been kept secret from the General Public (Dorothy
Rowe (1997); Frances Hutchinson (1998) ).
However, during the past few decades or so, through the efforts of many courageous people
who have chosen to speak out - often at great personal cost to themselves - together with
the power of the Internet - those still ‘small voices’ have now become a ‘thundering
roar’ - as this formerly ‘best kept secret’ knowledge about the process of ‘moneycreation’, ‘bondage-Debt’, the Power of Private Banks, and the abdication of
Government Responsibilities in the creation and control of the Monetary System - is
becoming more widely known amongst the General Public (Bernard Lietar (2001),
Michael Bauwens (2005) ).
As a result, a plethora of pressure groups has emerged throughout the world at a fast pace as hundreds of web-sites are being set up to pressure their governments to Reform the
16
current iniquitous Monetary System. The objective is to ensure that Governments - and
not Private Banks - take back the Power to Create and Issue ‘Debt-free money’ - in a
more equitable and humane manner - and thus benefit the Public and not just a privileged
Elite Few.
So what is this ‘best-kept-secret’ about ‘money’?
For most of us i.e. the ‘unschooled’ in ‘money matters’ - ‘money' is about notes and
coins (i.e. legal tender), deposits in Banks (by depositors) who safeguard our ‘savings’,
but also lend (i.e. loan) them out to others (borrowers) at a higher interest rate - and
charge an administrative fee for the service they provide to cover their overheads.
At the same time the ‘Government’ somehow regulates the operation of the Banks in such
a way as to control the amount of ‘money’ in circulation throughout the economy ( beware counterfeiters) as well as the level of Inflation ( - i.e. devaluation of the currency).
This just about summarises my understanding of, and interest, in ‘money’ and ‘banking’
as a financially struggling research physicist in my twenties with a family to support.
Today, I have a somewhat jaundiced view of ‘Money’, ‘Banks’, and ‘Debt’.
Before the man-made invention of ‘money’, a gift economy existed.
Exchanges or Trades between people were often ritualised or accompanied by a ‘gift’
(‘money’, wampum) to promote emotional bonds or good relationships. As social life and
trading become more complex, a method was needed to facilitate trading, or the bartering
of objects of ‘unequal value’.
Different forms of ‘money’ were then introduced - depending upon the availability of
various objects in that culture - to represent a ‘unit of value’ of the objects being
exchanged. The only requirement on what was to be used as ‘money’ was that it was
generally accepted throughout the community of people as a common ‘means of
exchange’ of value.
The origins of Modern Banking can be traced back to the days when goldsmiths began
giving receipts for gold that they safeguarded on behalf of their clients. However they
soon realised that the receipts were more useful for business transactions than the actual
gold itself.
Certain more perceptive goldsmiths also realised that holding large amounts of gold - as
backing or collateral for all the receipts issues - wasn’t even necessary to ensure the
utility and issue of receipts themselves to facilitate trading.
Goldsmiths then began loaning ‘gold’ and ‘receipts’ - but without the full backing of
gold for all the receipts issued - with an interest payment (i.e. Usury).
This practice heralded the beginning of Private Banking and the Fractional Reserve
System - as it is operated today - and the creation and issue of Bank “Debt-Money”.
17
When ‘Debt-money’ is created by the ‘Private Banks’ today (i.e. 97% of all ‘money’ in
circulation today) - and ‘loaned’ to Governments, Businesses, and Individuals at Interest
(Usury) - but secured by Borrowers ‘Collateral’ it is mathematically impossible to pay back all the ‘money’ owed + interest - without
foreclosures i.e. transfer of a borrower’s collateral to the Banks.
Thus the Banking Monetary System is inherently designed to continually transfer
assets from cash-strapped Borrowers (i.e. Governments, Businesses, Individuals
Countries) to Lenders (i.e. Private Banks, Wealthy Individuals) - from the Have-nots to
the Haves - from the Poor to the Rich.
Lenders:
The Rich get Richer through the ‘Magic’ of ‘Compound Interest’.
Borrowers: The Poor get Poorer through the ‘Tragic’ of ‘Usery’ (i.e. bondage-Debt).
The ‘virus’ or ‘cancer’ in the Monetary System can be clearly identified as the Interest
or Usury charged by the Private Banks as eloquently explained by, for example, John
McMurtry (1997).
The solution to the money-creation’ problem - i.e. the exponentially growing gap
between the ‘Rich’ and the Poor - is therefore to Reform the Monetary System in such a
way as to replace the Private Banks ‘Debt-money’ - with its associated ‘Usury’ Virus by a Government-controlled system based upon ‘Debt-free’ money.
Such a reformed system, if adopted, would enable the First-World Creditor countries to
cancel all the Third World Debt - at the stroke of a pen - and at the same time - release
the long-standing yoke of bondage-Debt from the backs of the impoverished Poor - and
provide them with the freedom to grow and develop at a pace commensurate with their
own abilities and culture.
James Robertson and John Bunzi (2003), in their book ‘Monetary Reform - Making it
Happen’ describe in great detail how this can be done - in an evolutionary rather than a
revolutionary manner - provided there is sufficient Political Will to implement it.
4. The Failure of ‘Top-Down’ Development Aid Strategies.
A number of strategic institutions have been created since World War II to maintain the
economic hegemony of the Richest First World countries at the considerable expense of
the Poor countries namely:In 1944, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank (WB) (The
International Bank for Reconstruction and Development) was created to fund the
rebuilding of nations ravaged by World War II (WW II) at the Bretton Woods
Conference.
18
In 1947, the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) emerged from wartime and
post-work negotiations to establish ‘a stable, multi-lateral, economic order’. It was an
interim accord which sought to codify the rules of the emerging Trade Regime - and to
proceed with important reductions in ‘national barriers’ to Trade.
In the 1950s, the IMF/WB vision and focus changed and turned its attention away from a
war-torn Europe to the Third World - and began funding massive industrial development
projects in Africa, Asia, and Latin America.
By 1980, the IMF and WB had established and implemented their ‘one-size-fits-all’
paradigm for the development of countries in the South through its Structural
Adjustment Programs (SAPs)(e.g. Susan George (1988); Susan George and Fabrizio
Sabelli (1994); Anup Shah (2007) ) based upon :-
long-term structural reforms;
deregulation of the economy;
liberalisation of Trade and Investment (financial markets);
privatisation of State Enterprises;
austere cutbacks in government expenditures;
high interest rates (i.e. Usery); and
currency devaluation.
The overt intent of these SAPs was the dismantling of Trade Protectionism and
government policies of State-assisted Capitalism.
In 1995, the World Trade Organisation (WTO) was established through pressure from
the US and other Rich economies, following the final round of the GATT negotiations called the Uruguay Round. Its role was to monitor national trading policies, handling trade
disputes, and enforcing the GATT agreements which are designed to reduce tariffs and
other barriers to international trade - and to eliminate discriminatory treatment in
international commerce.
In 1999, after two decades of SAP failures, the IMF replaced Structural Adjustment by
the Poverty Reduction Growth Facility (PRGF) and their Policy Framework Papers i.e.
Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PSRP) as the new preconditions for loan and debtrelief (Burama K Sagnia (2006) ).
2004, celebrated the 60th Anniversary of the Bretton Woods Institutions (IMF/WB)
with the publication of the third quarter 2004 edition of the ‘Global Future’ (2004) journal
highly critical of the serious devastating impacts of SAPs and PSRPs on poor
communities around the world and called for either a complete revamp of IMF/WB or to
close them down - with their highly expensive, highly out-of-touch-with-‘poverty’ combined staff of 7000.
If the IMF/WB’s goal has been a world free of poverty - with barely a handful of ‘success’
stories out of over 100 intervention - then what have they be doing over the last 60 years?
19
The reality has been massive increases in Poverty and Unemployment for the Poor in those
countries, the transfer of ownership of the assets of the country to a few Wealthy Individuals both in the First and Third World, - expanded markets for First World Country products and
services - and Unrepayable bondage- Debt (Usury, Third World Debt) for the countries
involved.
In July 2001, an internal WB review of the success of the SAP approach concluded that
‘structural adjustment’ is a difficult process;
‘structural adjustment’ has to be ‘owned’ by the country concerned;
the IMF/WB interception and ‘safety nets’ are essential to the
‘adjustment’ process.
However, according to the IMF/WB, country ‘ownership’ of a PRSP means the
commitment of a country to implement a strategy that the IMF/WB will approve - no
matter what. It has little, if anything, to do with authentically home-grown and nationally
relevant strategies based on socio-economic, historic, and the geographic particularities of
different countries - as experiences across Africa, Asia and Latin America bear out.
The primary criteria for judging quality and acceptability of a PRSP relate to a
government macro-economic, structural reform, policies and strategies for rapid economic
growth. Whether this formula reduces poverty in any qualitative and sustained sense
appears to be incidental.
To ensure that a country’s PRSP has any chance of being approved by the IMF/WB, the
country is issued with a ‘helpful’ 1000 page source book that spells out how a PRSP
should be prepared (i.e. a pre-prepared format)! (Eduardo Lora and Ugo Panizza (2002);
Global Network (2003) ).
Amongst the hundreds of individual and civil society critics of the IMF/WB - perhaps the
most authoritative is that of Joseph Stiglitz, - former Chief Economist of the World
Bank and a Nobel Prize Winner in Economics - who was forced to resign his position as
Chief economist at the World Bank in 1999 because of his opposition to the policies and
workings of IMF/WB.
In a well-publicised interview between Greg Palast and Joseph Stiglitz in April 2001,
Joseph Stiglizt scathingly articulated his rejection of IMF/WB’s modus operandi. In
particular he summarises the IMF/WB’s four-step program which is given to every foreign
minister requesting financial assistance, namely:Step 1:
Privatisation - or more accurately - ‘Bribererisation’ - the selling-off of the
State’s assets - assisted by a massive 10% commission in the Swiss bank
accounts for the politicians involved.
Step 2:
Capital Market Liberation - speculative cash in-flows for real estate
investment at rock bottom prices - and ‘Hot-money’ outflows at the
first sign of trouble - which can drain a country’s reserves within days,
or even hours;
20
Step 3:
Market-Based Pricing - raising the prices on food, water and cooking
gas to incite ‘The IMF Riot’ (i.e. peaceful protest demonstration
dispersed by bullets, tanks, and teargas) to cause further ‘fiat-money’
outflows so that a few Wealthy Investors can pick up the remaining assets such as the odd mining concession, or a Port, at fire-sale prices.
Step 4:
Free Trade
-
a euphemism for kicking-down the country’s
barriers to US sales in Africa, Asia, and Latin
America while barricading our (US) markets
against the Third World’s agriculture.
Joseph Stiglitz concludes that as far as Poverty Alleviation goes, the IMF/WB polices
just do not work.
Interview:
Q.
A.
Q.
A.
Q.
A.
Has ‘Structural Assistance’ benefited Africa’s poor?
‘Black Africa’s productivity under the guiding hand of IMF/WB’s
‘Structural Assistance’ has gone to hell’.
‘Did any nation avoid this fate?’
‘Yes. Botswana.
‘How’?
They told IMF/WB to go packing’
So if a Top-down hierarchical approach to ‘Poverty Alleviation’ doesn’t, and can’t, in
principle, work-(Graham Hancock (1991); John Perkins (2004); Stephen Levitt and
Stephen Dubner (2005)) - what can be done?
To answer this question we first briefly examine three Grass-root approaches which have
significantly benefited the Unemployed and/or the Poor - namely ‘Appropriate
Technologies’, ‘Grameen-Bank Lending’ and ‘Community Currencies’.
5. The Success of ‘Appropriate Technologies’ for the Poor.
It is clear, therefore, that ‘Buddhist economics’ must be very different from the ‘Western
economics’ of modern materialism, since the Buddhist sees the essence of civilisation not in the multiplication of wants’ (i.e. shop-to-you-drop) - but in the purification of human
character. Character, at the same time, is formed primarily by man’s ‘work’. And
‘work’, properly conducted in conditions of human dignity and freedom, blesses those
who do it, and equally their products (and Services).
E.F. Schumacher (1973): ‘Small is Beautiful’.
According to the World Bank, some 70% of the world’s Poor live in rural areas, and
depend upon Agriculture as their main source of income. These are the victims of the
IMF/WB’s large, capital-intensive, interventions which benefit the few - and displace the
many into on ever-increasing, downward-spiral, of misery and poverty.
1.6 billion people lack access to electricity;
21
yet need fuel and power for cooking, heating, lighting, communication, and income
generation. They rely instead on wood, dung, and crop residue.
There must be a better way to improve the lot of the millions of the subsistence-poor
and the impoverished?
In 1955, a decade or so after the formation of the IMF/WB, a brilliant economist by the
name of Ernst Friedrich Schumacher (1911-1977), - whom John Maynard Keynes, the
primary architect of the IMF/WB considered as his possible successor - was stimulated to
think deeply about the problems of the poor during a trip to Burma. During that trip he had
the good fortune to meet, and was greatly influenced by, Ghandi and his ideas.
He concluded that Western economics rested upon a number of unproved assumptions, e.g. ‘the greatest possible production of goods results in the greatest possible satisfaction’,
and that there was ‘no distinction between ‘finite’ and ‘renewable’ resources or goods’.
He identified the limitations of ‘Western economics’ - which he considered were only
applicable to ‘Industrial Production’ - in an essay he wrote and which became a chapter
in his thought-transforming book ‘Small is Beautiful’ (1973) i.e. Buddhist economics’ which became a world-wide best-seller and first brought him to the attention of the general
public.
He believed that the ‘Top-down’ conventional wisdom of the IMF/WB towards
Development - i.e. requiring high skills and high capital investment - was futile to solve
the unemployment crisis of poor countries.
The real challenge was to improve ‘customary methods’ in such a way as to generate an
income for as many people as possible.
This line of thinking lead him into developing his concepts of ‘Intermediate
Technologies’ which later became morphed into ‘Appropriate Technologies’.
The exact definition of the term ‘Appropriate Technology’ (A. Akubue (1993), Sharon
Beder (1994) ) is hard to pin down in the literature, but today it is now recognised as a
generic term for a wide range of technologies - characterised by any one, or several, of the
following characteristics:-
low investment cost per workplace;
low capital investment per unit of output;
organisational simplicity;
-
high adaptability to a particular social and cultural environment (context);
-
sparing use of natural resources;
low cost of final product; and
high potential for employment.
22
The appropriateness of technology is not limited to just ‘job creation’ using local
resources, and utilising renewable energy resources - but is also about being affordable,
easy to maintain, compatible with the existing infrastructure, efficient in the use of scarce
natural resources, environmentally benign, and partial to small-scale.
However the concepts of ‘scale’, ‘expense’, and ‘complexity’ are not always positively
correlated (Anderson 1985). It is possible for a large machine to be both simple and cheap
- and for a small one to be highly-complex and expensive. Thus whether a given industrial
activity is ‘appropriate’ to the conditions of a particular development district (i.e. context)
does not directly depend on ‘scale’ - but on the actual technology employed (Schumacher
(1975) ).
The primary focus of ‘Appropriate Technology’ is in the rural poor and informal
sectors of the Third World - the poverty-stricken multitudes who lack any real basis of
existence, whether in the rural or urban areas, who go short of even the most essential
means of subsistence.
Since differences in the level of development and factor endowments obviously exist
between and within Third World countries - and there are obviously an infinite number of
such differences - the IMF/WB notion that ‘one-size-fits-all’ definitely does not apply.
A technological diversity approach to Third World development - involving both
‘appropriate technology’ and ‘mainstream technology’ is obviously necessary.
These ideas were acted upon by Schumacher in the 1960s through the formation of the
Intermediate Technology Development (ITDG) (George McRobie (1982); Joseph
Pearce (2001) ) in 1966 in London England (later to become the International nongovernmental organisation NGO, Practical Action) and spawned an Appropriate
Technology Movement (ATM) during the 1970s and 1980s.
Since the foundation of the ATM, literally thousands, or even hundreds of thousands, of
projects have emerged and been implemented in most poor countries around the world
including applications to:Appropriate Technologies.
- harvesting clean drinking water;
- growing your own crops;
- makings tools;
- preserving crops;
- building and maintaining an irrigation system;
- reforesting a denuded watershed;
- building a small-scale hydropower
scheme;
- treating human and animal waste;
- starting a-small fish hatchery;
- building and maintaining pumps;
- utilising solar energy;
- energy efficient structures;
- non-formal education;
- small industries;
- transportation;
- water-wheel electric generator;
- grow own fibre for materials;
- improving rural cook stoves;
- caring for the sick;
- preparing for a natural disaster;
- solar/wind/water/biogas power;
- aquaculture;
- build two-wheeled and fourwheeled carts;
23
-…
The primary ethic behind all these ATM applications is to make use of renewable
resources, where possible, to solve technological problems in such a way as to minimise
the impact on the natural environment - whilst promoting self-reliance.
In spite of the undoubted, widespread, demonstrable success of the ATM it is not without
its critics. Common among the criticisms is that Alternative Technologies are inefficient
from an engineering stand point, not conductive to growth, or if they were that good - why
haven’t they displaced the dominant, capital-intensive technology by now?
However, many of the criticism of Appropriate Technology are based upon either
ignorance of the available evidence, or reliance on examples from the literature which
differ from the consensus of the movement.
Nevertheless, there are probably three fundamental reasons why the ATM has not been
adopted more widely by the technological community and mainstream society, namely:-
-
the adoption of Alternative Technologies by engineers requires almost
a paradigm shift in terms of engineering design;
the already enormous ‘sunk costs’ in capital-intensive technology by
governments and businesses; and
a lack of political-will on behalf of politicians to adopt its philosophy.
In spite of these obstacles, there is now an emerging ground-swell of opposition to ‘Topdown’ solutions to ‘poverty-alleviation’ from Civil Society represented by thousands of
NGOs linked through the Internet and the World-Wide-Web which will-at the right
time - make its voice heard in a manner which cannot be ignored - as demonstrated at the
WTO meeting in Seattle in 1999!
6. The Success of ‘Grameen-Bank Lending’ for the Poor.
The implementation of ‘Appropriate Technologies’ - even though low-cost - will still
require the poor to raise some ‘money’ - no matter how small. But from the discussion
previously this may be difficult through the formal Banking System since the Banks
require 100% backing in terms of Collateral for each loan - but will also charge high
interest rates (i.e. Usury) for the pleasure of granting it.
Since the 40% poorest people in the world have no assets which can be used as collateral
- there is virtually no possibility that the formal Banking System will help them out.
No ‘Collateral’ - ‘No Credit’.
The Poor thus have no Credit’.
Without Credit - they cannot Trade.
If they cannot Trade - they cannot earn-a-livelihood.
If they cannot earn-a-livelihood - they remain stuck in Poverty.
24
There must be another way to overcome this man-made Problem ?
This was the challenge facing a relatively unknown Professor of Economics at Chittagon
University in one of the poorest countries of the world (i.e. Bangladesh) in the early
1970s.
In December 16 1971, Bangladesh won its war of independence. But the price of victory
was a devastated country of 130 million people - a shattered economy - millions of people
needing to be rehabilitated - and a drought and famine in 1974 that killed 1.5 million
people.
After completing a seven-year (1965-1972) study programme on a Fulbright scholarship in
the United States - and armed with his Doctorate in Economics - Mohammed Yunus returned to Bangladesh to begin his teaching career at the University of Chittagon in
Bangladesh in 1972.
The University of Chittagon was located on a barren piece of land some twenty miles
outside the city and close to the poverty-stricken village of Jobra, where people were
dying daily of starvation.
Experiencing the problem of mass hunger on a daily basis as he commuted backwards and
forwards daily to the university, he was driven to involve himself practically in the village
life of Jobra to find ways to alleviate their poverty. His initial efforts focused on ways to
help the villagers to grow and sell their own food - i.e. problems of fertiliser, irrigation,
technology, storage, transport, and marketing.
As he analysed the poverty situation in Jobra in more detail, he found it useful to use
three broad definitions of poverty, namely
P1
P2
P3
:
:
:
bottom 20% :
bottom 35% :
bottom 50% :
extreme, hard-core, subsistence poverty;
moderate poverty; and
relative poverty.
He also noted that in the Development world - if one fails to distinguish the ‘non-poor’
from the ‘poor’ in the implementation of a particular well-intentioned poverty-alleviation
programme - the non-poor will drive out the poor, and
- the less-poor will drive out the more-poor,
so that the non-poor will always reap the benefits which were intended for the morepoor who will remain locked-into their extreme poverty situation.
He therefore decided to focus his initial efforts in 1976 on the plight of a particular group
of women who made bamboo stools, and petty traders who had to borrow ‘money’
from ‘money-lenders’ - at exhorbitant interest rates (i.e. Usury) - often approaching 10%
per week - or in some cases - 10% per day?
25
For example, a typical woman would borrow 25 cents from a money-lender - at 10% per
day interest - to make bamboo stools - on the condition that she sold them back to the
money-lender at a price well below the market value - for a daily profit of 2 cents - with
which to live on.
To Mohammed Yunus this was un-conscience-able since this system condemned that
woman, and her children, to a bonded-labour life of penury, and hand-to-mouth survival all for the lack of 25 cents!!!
Yunus found 42 women in the same poverty trap and decided to experiment by himself
lending them small amounts of money at reasonable rates of interest. He initially lent a
total of $27 - about 62 cents per borrower.
To his pleasant surprise - all the ‘high-risk’ borrowers repaid their debts - and in the
process - convinced him that this success could be replicated on a much larger scale
across Bangladesh.
Some 30 years later, in 2007, Mohammed Yunus was rewarded for his insight, initiative
and persistence - in bringing traditional banking to the poor - who have no collateral for
bank loans - through the creation of the Grameen (village) Bank - by winning the Nobel
Prize for Peace.
Today (2003), the Grameen Bank has more than 3.2 million borrowers (95% of whom are
women) - 1 178 branches - bank services in 41 000 villages - and assets of more that $3
billion (Mohammed Yunus (1999), E Mainsah et al (2004) ).
In addition, more than 250 institutions in 100 countries around the world operate
programmes based upon the Grameen Methodology - placing Grameen at the forefront of
a burgeoning World Movement towards Poverty-Alleviation through non-usurious
micro-lenders.
NB:
Social Stock Exchanges.
For completeness on the topic of raising money for Third Sector social projects aimed at
Poverty-Alleviation - other than through ‘charitable’ Corporate Social Investment (CSI) it is worth mentioning here the concept of a separate Social Stock Exchange in support of
the creation of separate capital markets for social businesses. Such exchanges have
recently been launched in Brazil (i.e. BOVESPA (2003) and South Africa (SASIX (2006)
but it has yet to be established how viable they will be as a sustainable source of funding
for socially-oriented projects - compared with the traditional CSI.
7. The Success of Community Currencies for the Poor.
A community currency is:- an interest-free currency,
- created by a Community
- when there is a
A community currency is:- a currency (means of exchange)
- created by a local community
- to benefit that community
26
- scarcity of
- real ‘fiat’ money.
- by facilitating the local trading
- of goods and services, and thus
- increasing the ‘local’ economy.
A (local) community can be defined as either a local group in a specific geographic area
- or a virtual cyber-group of like-minded individuals living in the world-wide-web
connected through the Internet.
Over the past twenty years or so, partly in response to the phenomen of the 1980s’
Stagflation and the rapid advance of Globalisation, a proliferation of complementary
(local) currencies have emerged, in all parts of the world, mainly through the efforts of
concerned activists - to address many social issues not being dealt with adequately by
government - such as unemployment and poverty (Bernard Lietar (1997), Jorim
Schraven (2001) ).
Today (2008), there is growing evidence that these separate initiatives (in excess of 4000
currencies) are spontaneously coalescing into a unified movement to address the
dysfunctionality of the current Monetary System and its symptoms.
Community currency first came to prominence in the Great Depression of the 1930s, in the US,
when the federal government became bankrupt and the US experienced its worst massive
unemployment in history - due to the ‘hoarding’ - and thus lack of circulation of the ‘fiat’
currency by the few.
To help re-invigorate the ‘local’ economies - community currencies sprang into
existence across the country. Similar developments occurred also in Europe as
unemployment spread through many of the European villages and cities.
Despite the successes of these initiatives in alleviating unemployment, they were
subsequently shut down and made illegal by the governments concerned when the crisis
was over as they were conceived to be a threat to the formal Banking System.
The Re-emergence of such currencies in the 1980s by hundreds of knowledgeable, activist,
individuals around the world - prompted by the appearance of Stagflation - is a signal by
Civil Society that the extra-ordinary increase in the pace of Globalisation - with its
attendant instantaneous massive inter-country ‘money’ flows - is getting out of control
with potential dire consequences for humanity (poverty) and the planet (e.g. Global
warning) - and that drastic action (- e.g. Monetary Reform) needs to be taken ‘Now’.
Three characteristics distinguish community ‘money’ from real, ‘fiat money’; namely
1. Community currency is used only within a specific community or group.
2. Community currency earns zero (or negative) interest which - discourages
‘hoarding’ or ‘saving’ money - and promotes the circulation of money.
3. Community currency is used widely - outside the market economy particularly for education and welfare - by NPOs and voluntary action groups.
It is not used merely to facilitate trading activities but as a means to
27
encourage community upliftment.
Community currencies were created to mitigate the adverse affects of the Global
Financial Market activities of transferring vast sums of money from country to country in
search of better investment returns - and in the process - creating vast wealth for the
few at the expense of the bankruptcy of small economies and ruining the lives of
millions of poor.
Community ‘money’ is an alternative, and complementary, to paper (fiat) money and
provides a form of safety net for the poor. It can take several different forms of which the
three most popular and successful models are based upon the concepts of
Time dollars, LETS, and Ithaca HOURS created by Edgar Cahn, Michael Linton, and
Paul Glover respectively (Equator Initiative (2003), Wikipedia (2005) ).
The Time-dollar was created in 1980 by Edgar Cahn - then a Dean of the Antioch
School of Law - after a massive heart attack that nearly claimed his life. It was conceived
as a local, tax-exempt, currency designed to validate and reward the ‘work’ of the disenfranchised in rebuilding their communities and fighting for social justice.
A particular application of the Time-dollar concept is to improve education through crossage peer tutoramy i.e. for older school kids to act as mentors to younger school kids
(mentees) in poor neighbour schools in Chicago.
He invited students to volunteer to help weaker students to study on the basis that 1 hour of
tutoring earns 1 Time-dollar of local currency. As a motivation, he promised a reward of a
Re-cycled Computer (donated by business or government) to every student who
accumulated 100 Time-dollars in this way.
The result was that hundreds of students in Chicago’s poorest neighbourhoods, who had been
written off as ‘dumb’, or ‘unteachable’, were now performing well academically.
Time-dollar is a 1 hour for 1 hour labour exchange currency between parties in the group which is
administered by a Time-dollar co-ordinator within the group.
Ithaca hours - or HOURS - is a currency model created by John Glover in the small university
town of Ithaca, New York in 1980. This model enables members to buy and sell goods and
services using HOURS as the unit of exchange. Ithaca HOURS are exchanged on a 1-for-1 basis
with US dollars. Members wishing to exchange their US currency for HOURS can do so at any
local book store at a rate of 1 Hour = $10.00.
The Ithaca HOUR is Ithaca’s $10.00 bill, because ten dollars per hour is the average of
wages/salaries in Tompkins County. These HOUR notes buy plumbing, carpentry, electrical
work, roofing, nursing, chiropractic, child care, car and bike repair, food, eyeglasses, firewood,
gifts, and thousands of other goods and services. The Ithaca credit union also accepts them for
mortgage and loan fees.
28
People can pay rent with HOURS. The best restaurants in town take them, as do movie theatres,
bowling alleys, two large locally-owned grocery stores, Ithaca’s local hospital, many garage
sales, 55 farmer’s market vendors, the Chamber of Commerce, and 300 other businesses.
Hundreds more have earned and spent HOURS who are not in the HOUR Town directory (Ithaca
Hours, Inc. 2005).
The HOURS program, like all other community currency programs, is designed to foster the
growth of the local economy, within Ithaca, while encouraging the participation of community
members despite their social location, and ensuring that the economic gains are maintained locally.
A Circulation Committee keeps track of HOURS and controls the supply of HOURS within the
community.
The Ithaca HOURS model is the most successful and widely replicated model in North America.
The LETS (Local Trading and Exchange System) model is the brainchild of Michael Linton. It
was first implemented in the late 1970s in Courtney on Vancouver Island, Canada.
The main trigger appears to have been a severe (local) depression, after the two primary
employers, the US Airforce and the Timber industry laid off most of their employees.
Consequently, the able, energetic, and mobile unemployed in Vancouver emigrated;
the rest remained behind on public assistance.
The introduction of the LETS system in this social context offered both the unemployed, and
everybody else, the opportunity of transforming their labour power, or working time - even in
small and unevenly distributed amounts - into purchasing power - without the necessity of either working for an employing firm (i.e. employee) - or of possessing capital - which is the sine qua
non of earning-a-living through being self-employed.
The LETS model is defined as a system of account which allows its members to issue and manage
their own ‘money’ within a community currency system. This form of ‘tally’ currency allows its
members to issue the amount they need - interest free - and is backed by ‘the promise to return
that value at a later date’. It contrasts with a Time bank system in that the value of goods and
services is not necessarily equal - as it may be negotiated between parties. The LETS model has
the immediate benefits of keeping the national currency local - by encouraging joint circulation and over time - increases the volume and rate of circulation of the currency.
The three main complementary currency system summarised above have been copied, with varying
degrees of success, by communities all over the world to meet their social needs. Their limitations
have been that they are driven primarily by volunteer organisations and lack the resources and
major backing of Big Business and Government to up-scale them to the reach the hundreds of
millions of the world’s poor.
The way forward for these community currencies appears to be in building a chaordic
organisation to incorporate them through independent non-profits with elected Boards of
Directors and Member-approved bye-laws - and find funding through income-generating
programmes, or advertising, or a Social Stock Exchange - so as least to hire and pay for staff on a
full-time basis.
29
This will mean taking a more business-like approach - but at the risk of losing the grassroots ideals
of volunteerism and informality.
If we consider that today (2005) there are about 4000 - 5000 such schemes in operation worldwide - and that the average membership of such schemes is of the order 100 members - then their
impact is only being felt by roughly 500 000 people world-wide.
Furthermore, such schemes have taken root and been adopted most successfully by the more
educated communities - and may thus need to be customised to gain acceptance amongst the
poorer and less-educated communities.
This is a challenge for the Education systems in the different countries.
To upscale these efforts to reach even a significant fraction of the 1 Billion extreme poor will
therefore need some form of government intervention and support on a National Scale to be
massively effective - but without the constricting bureaucratic centralised control normally
associated with government interventions (Chris Skinner (2007), Tim Cohen-Mitchel (2007),
Natalie Soder (2008) ).
8. Workeracy™ : A core ‘unemployment-survival’ life-skill.
From the discussion so far it appears that whereas sixty-years of IMF/WB ‘Top-down’ approaches
towards ‘Poverty-alleviation’ have failed - a number of ‘Grass-roots’ approaches - initiated
mainly by individuals and non-profit organisations - have emerged during the past two or three
decades - with a measurable degree of success. Due to lack of resources - mainly funding - barely
a million of the poor and/or unemployed have been able to benefit directly from these initiatives.
It is likely, therefore, that if adequate funding could be obtained in a sustainable way from both
government and business to make these initiatives up-scaled to a National Level - then dramatic
advances could be made in the next decade to materially improve the plight of the Poor and
Unemployed.
The first challenge
is to communicate the existence of Grassroots approaches such as those highlighted in section 4,5, and 6 above - to the millions
of the poor and unemployed around the world - in terms which they
can both identify with and understand; and then
The second challenge
is then to enable the millions of the poor and unemployed to create
opportunities for themselves to implement such approaches in
their own specific context.
Education - but the right sort of ‘relevant Education’ - should be the means for meeting the first
challenge. In this regard, the ‘Education System’ could be used to ensure that
a modified ‘curriculum’ is in place to include knowledge, and create
awareness, of such Grass-roots approaches- and taught to all students.
As for the second challenge, it is envisaged that a ‘chaordic’ form of organisation would
be needed as discussed in the next section.
30
In the past - particularly during the last three decades or so - it would seems that the
Education system has been preparing its students for a world-of-work-which is no longer
there as we move further and further into the 21st century. Students are consciously or
unconsciously, being trained as ‘Job-seekers’ - even though traditional Industrial Age fulltime ‘Jobs’ have been disappearing at an alarming rate over the past twenty or thirty years
or more.
Alternatively, for those that are unable to find a full-time ‘Job’, the Education system
urges them to become Self-employed - which means to ‘start-up’ their own small
business enterprise (i.e. Smme). In the latter case, the essence of the conventional business
teaching focuses on the creation of a ‘Business Plan’ - which in turn depends upon
obtaining a certain amount of ‘start-up capital’ for its implementation.
Unfortunately, for most students who have no collateral, such ‘Business Plans’ are not
implementable in the real ‘world-of-work’ - since they would to be unable to obtain any
start-up capital, at least from the formal Banking system. Furthermore, most students of
commerce and business have no aptitude or intention of starting their own business - but
see their business qualifications mainly as an entry passport to a good ‘Job’ in a large
corporate environment.
The plight of the 70% of school leavers or students who enter the world-of-work - and
who have no business training whatsoever - but are also unable to find a ‘Job’ - is also a
major problem.
In South Africa today (2008) approximately five million of the eight million unemployed
have never had a ‘Job’ - and worse - are unlikely to find one - ever!
What are they expected to do?
In view of the above - it is proposed in this paper that every student - irrespective of
discipline of study - whether science or humanities - should be taught a new ‘core’ Lifeskill - namely ‘workeracy’ - in addition to literacy, numeracy and computeracy defined as (Dalton (1998, 2000) -
Workeracy - the ability to survive (i.e. earn-a-living).
in a world-of-work, where
- there are ‘no Jobs’ and
- there is ‘no money’.
The concept of ‘workeracy’ is based upon Four Pillars (see Table 5) as a foundation for
inculcating in all students the critical values essential for survival in today’s world-of-work,
namely
Three Key Workeracy Values.
-
Self-reliance;
Work-ethic;
Mutual self-help.
31
Table 5: The Four Pillars of ‘Workeracy’.
No.
I.
II.
III.
IV.
‘Old’ Mindset
Scarcity
‘Employees’
‘New’ Mindset
Abundance
‘Workerpreneurs’
‘Employee’ mindset.
‘Job’-entitlement.
Dependency
Modern ‘Jobs’.
Diminishing.
Scarcity.
Fiat ‘Money’ (Legal tender).
Financial literacy.
Shortage.
‘Ego’ (self)
Linear thinking.
Limited capacity.
Self-help
‘Workerpreneur’ mindset.
Self-employment
Self-reliance.
‘Work’ opportunities.
Increasing.
Unlimited.
‘Shadow-wage’
Moneracy
Unlimited currencies.
‘Community’ (Ubuntu).
Non-linear/web thinking.
Unlimited networking.
‘Mutual’ self-help.
It is useful to recall that the word ‘Education’ is based upon the verb ‘educe’ – which
means ‘to draw out that which is within (i.e. potential)’.
Education is essentially about developing self-discipline (i.e. will-power) within students
so that they will embrace a ‘culture of learning’ willingly – on their own initiative –
rather than being coerced by authority figures.
Self-reliance derives from Self-knowledge (i.e. Know Thyself ?) and it is therefore
important that the Education System include within its curriculum an opportunity for
every student to identify and nurture his/her abilities and talents – which may be overt
or potential – before entering the world-of-work.
The combination of Self-knowledge and Self-discipline results in Self-management
which enables a student to begin to ‘take control of his/her life’ as preparation on entering
the adult-world .
And that means ‘earning-a-living’!!!
Life does not owe anybody a living - that they must earn for themselves.
Government does not owe its citizens ‘Jobs’ – only the right-to-work.
Business does not owe anyone a ‘Job’ - which is only a means to ‘make money’ and a ‘proft’.
Students should be taught that ‘Jobs’ emerge from within a business enterprise in the process of
exchanging goods and services between producers and consumers in
such a way as to ‘make money’ i.e. profits (see fig 2). If an enterprise
cannot ‘make money’ - cannot make ‘profits’ - then it is not a business
but merely an expensive hobby. When profits are not being achieved and the ‘money’ runs out (whose ‘money’?) – ‘jobs’ are lost - and the
business closes down.
32
It’s as simple as that!! It’s ABC and can be understood by any 12-year old.
These elementary concepts should be taught to all students - irrespective of which subjects they
have decided to major in - i.e. sciences and humanities - in order to prepare them better for
earning-a-living when they enter the ‘real’ world-of-work. They need to be aware that although
they may not immediately get their ideal ‘Job’ - it may take one or two years - they will still
have to find a way of earning-a-living in the meantime (i.e. self-reliance).
Students should be taught that the act of working provides two wages (i.e. shadow-wage) -
Shadow-wage = Inner Wage
‘the wage you
pay yourself’:
Self-respect.
Competency
development
+
Outer Wage
‘the wage paid to
you by Others’:
‘money’
‘payment
-in-kind’.
Students should be taught that the way to ‘get-a-job’ in the 21st century is to
-
First: work for the Inner Wage
to demonstrate that they have a strong work ethic;
Second: then the Outer wage (paid ‘fiat’ currency) will then
surely come after - at a later stage - not the other
way around’.
Students should be taught that engaging in community ‘work’ is not about charity, but an
excellent way of demonstrating their work ethic, discovering
their (talents) competencies, and the only route to a
productive, paid (‘fiat’ money) ‘Job’ in the future. It is
mostly a matter of developing the right attitudes.
Students should be taught that ‘work’ is the essence of ‘living’ - whether or not it is paid
in ‘fiat’ money - (i.e. legal currency) - and that there are
many other ways of being paid - i.e. - payment-in-kind,
community currencies, or even ‘barter’.
Students should be taught about the ‘true’ meaning of ‘money’ i.e. moneracy
(see Table 6) which is not the same as the financial
literacy courses currently being taught as part of Life-skills
training.
Such courses are merely marketing ‘ploys’ promoted by the
formal Banking Industry to enslave young minds as early
as possible into a lifetime of Bondage- Debt.
33
Table 6 Moneracy: The ‘true’ meaning of ‘money’.
Level
IV.
Type
Financial Literacy.
Agents
Formal Banking.
‘fiat’ Money.
Debt-money.
III.
‘Grass roots’
micro-finance.
‘fiat’ money.
Grameen Banking.
Village Banking.
Micro-finance.
II.
Community
currencies.
Alternatives
‘monies’.
L.E.T.S / NPOs.
Barter.
No ‘money’.
Individuals.
I.
Time dollars. /NPOs.
Cost of Access to
‘Money’
High Bank Fees/
High Interest charges
Need Collateral.
Beware!
Low Bank fees/
Low Interest charges
No Collateral.
Lenders of last resort/
Extortionate costs/
Bondage-Debt
Minimal fees/
No interest
Coupon systems/
Book-keeping systems/
Community groups.
No charges
Quid Pro Quo.
Ukisasana.
First choice/
one-to-one/
Unemployed.
Ithaca HOURS. /NPOS.
34
Comment
Established world
wide/
Poorest-of-the-poor/
Muhamed Yunus
(Noble Prize)
Shadow-wage
‘money-creation’
Payment-in-kind.
Barter.
Inner-wage
‘Business’
enterprise.
SUPPLY.
Outer-wage
Exchange/
Trade / Values.
Markets.
Customers.
Consumers.
DEMAND.
Goods and Services.
Create
goods
and
services.
Receive
goods
and
services
‘work’ input.
(Jobs creation)
Payment/
’money’/
shadow-wage.
Fig 2. ‘Job Creation’ and the ‘Creation of Money’.
‘Money’ is a measure of ‘Stored ‘work’’ and of Value.
In summary, All students should be taught how to become ‘workerpreneurs’ (refer Fig
3, Table 7, Table 8, and Table 9) - rather than to become that over-used, mis-used, and
abused word - ‘entrepreneurs’ - as preparation for entering the 21st century world-ofwork.
35
The workerpreneur.
*accepts that he/she must create his/her own ‘work opportunities’,
and that neither Government nor Business can create them for him/her;
*accepts the principle of ‘Mutual self-help’
for the growth of ‘self’ and ‘others’;
*is prepared to undertake ‘any’ work opportunity that he/she is
capable of doing (Self-management: multiple competencies), in order
to ‘earn-a-living’ - (one-month-at-a-time);
* understands the concepts of ‘Shadow-wage’ and ‘moneracy’.
*is not restricted to ‘9am-to-5pm’ bundles of work;
*abhors laziness of any form (strong’ work ethic’);
*strives for ‘life-long employability’;
*does not rely on ‘charitable hand-outs’
as a basis for living (dignity, self-respect);
*is above-all, a survivor
in the ‘world-of-work’.
Job security lies within oneself - not with any Employer.
Employed for life - but never held a ‘Job’.
Fig 3. : I am a ‘Workerpreneur’.
36
Unemployed: Forget ‘Jobs’ - Think ‘Work opportunities’.
Table 7.
MODERN ‘JOB’
(Employee)
WAGE-SLAVE
‘WORK OPPORTUNITY’
(Workerpreneur)
SURVIVAL
1. Limited opportunities
in the 21 century.
Unlimited opportunities
in the 21st century.
2. Created for you.
Created by you.
3. Long term focus
Short-term focus.
one-month-at-a-time.
st
(one year or more).
4. Emphasis on a single
Emphasis on multiple
skills or competencies.
skill or competency.
5. Limited scope for
self-development.
Unlimited scope for
self-development.
6. Secure environment.
Uncertain environment.
7. Inflexible.
Highly flexible.
8. Single (regular, fixed) income.
Multiple (irregular variable) income(s).
9. Outer-wage focus.
Inner-wage focus.
10. Individual performance.
Collective performance.
37
Table 8: WORKERACY: Train Workerpreneurs - not smme owner/managers.
Attribute.
Traditional ‘Mindset’
SMME Bus./Owner-Operator.
New ‘Mindset’
‘Workerpreneur’.
‘Will
will to ‘Own-a-business’.
Be an Employer.
Manage-a-business.
‘will-to-work’.
Productive ‘worker’.
Work-ethic.
Purpose
‘make-a-profit’.
‘Manage-a-business’.
‘make money’
‘earn-a-living’.
Survival.
Means
‘Business plan’.
‘3 - Ways-to-earn-a-living’.
Create own ‘work opportunities’.
Explore multiple ‘work options’.
‘experience’ business.
‘develop competencies’.
‘trading’ / ‘bartering’.
‘deal-making’ / networking’
‘Money’
Start-up Capital.
Banks.
FORMAL
Single Business Idea.
In-depth analysis.
Implement ‘single’ idea.
‘Shadow-Wage’.
Community currencies
INFORMAL
Multiple concurrent Ideas.
Multiple competencies.
‘Trial-and-error’.
‘money’
Finance bondage-Debt.
Banks.
Collateral.
6-12 months horizon.
Own resources/No Debt.
Family/’Community’/Grameen.
No collateral.
‘One-month-at-a-time’.
‘Risk’
High risk.
High cost of
‘Failure’.
Insolvency/Bankruptcy.
(80% SMMEs Insolvent).
Low risk.
Low cost of
‘Failure’.
‘Learn-the-lesson’.
(Try again!! - another ‘Idea’)
Pedagogy
‘Go-it-alone’.
Own efforts.
Own experience.
Own ideas.
‘12-STEP Process’.
Mutual (like-minded) Self-help.
Exchange work ‘experiences’.
‘Brain-storming’ / ‘networking’.
Classrooms.
Workeracy Empowerment
Centres.
STRATEGY
‘ubuntu’
Venues.
38
Table 9. The Soul of ‘Unemployment’.
PERSON
Unemployed
(Out-of-‘work)’.
Workeracy
(Survival Life-skill).
Wage-slave (Job)
(Employed).
SPIRIT
- will-to-survive.
- will-to-survive.
- will-to-fixed ‘salary’.
(Being).
-existential ‘Despair’.
- existential ‘Hope’.
- no risk/protected.
FAITH
- ‘right’ to a ‘Job’.
- self-reliance.
- ‘Job’ dependency.
(Believing).
- world not ‘fair’.
- responsible for own ‘work’
(work ethic).
- no accountability.
dependent on ‘goodwill’
of Others (loss of dignity).
- inner wage (human dignity).
- go with the flow.
- mutual self-help (networking).
- team player.
HEART
(Relating).
- social isolation.
MIND
- get a ‘Job’.
- 3-Ways-to-‘earn-a-living’.
- year-end bonus.
(Having).
- get a ‘Life’.
- ‘put-the-bread-on-the-table’.
- ‘Job’ description.
BODY
- waiting for a ‘Job’.
- creating ‘shadow wage’.
- getting a ‘wage’.
(Doing).
- ‘passing’ the time.
- getting ‘work’ experience’.
- ‘Life’ after ‘work’.
- rural/urban.
- rural/urban
- public/private sectors.
- timelessness.
- one-month-at-a-time.
- local ‘Job’ - market.
CONTEXT
(Awareness).
39
9. WORKERACY™: A 12-step Grassroots Movement for the Poor.
It is one thing to introduce and teach a new curriculum for a core subject such as
‘workeracy’ to classroom students within the current Educational System - although that
in itself is not an easy task in view of the embedded Educational inertia to accepting
anything which challenges the status quo - but what to do about those people outside the
Education System - the poor, the marginalised, the largely-forgotten - who make up the
million’s of unemployed persons throughout the world. Most of these are the poorlyeducated who have little incentive or opportunity to return to ‘schooling’ - and yet are
sorely in need of enormous assistance to enter, or re-enter, the world-of-work as
productive citizens.
The pedagogy for teaching workeracy principles for students in the classroom clearly
has to be different to that for teaching the chronically unemployed who are both ‘out-ofthe-classroom’ and ‘out’-of-the-workplace (see Table 8).
A review by the World Bank (H. Farsted (2002) of an ‘Integrated’ approach to the
teaching of ‘Entrepreneurship’ to regular, full-time, students in General Secondary
Education (GSE) and Vocational Education a Training (TVET) at secondary and postsecondary school levels in Botswana, Uganda, and Kenya included amongst its findings
and recommendation the following:- very few of the students attempted to start their own smme during the 1-2 years after
leaving school;
- developing a positive attitude to, and awareness of, self-employment as a career option
was an essential first-step towards earning-a-living; and
- should be compulsory;
- ‘entrepresneurship’ should not be taught as a separate subject discipline;
- practical smme experiences of smmes are superior to traditional classroom teaching; and
- if possible, teachers should be recruited with actual smme experience;
(see also C.K. Tandari (2004) ).
A clue to how a suitable pedagogy for the unemployed may be developed is contained
within the observation made at the end of section 2 that
‘the longer a person remains unemployed,
the more unemployable that person becomes.
This has the potential of viewing ‘chronic unemployment’ as a social addiction. If so one might expect the methods which have been developed for successfully treating various
40
forms of ‘addiction’ might also be applicable for treating unemployment i.e. a 12-step
approach (see Table 10).
Table 10: Adaptation of the 12-step method to ‘Unemployment’.
‘Lack of a Job, or lack of money,
is no excuse not to work’.
A.A
(Rehabilitated Alcoholic)
SOBRIETY
WORKERACY
(Rehabilitated Unemployed)
1. Acceptance of powerlessness
over ‘alcohol’.
Acceptance of powerlessness
over ‘unemployment’..
2. Believe in a ‘Higher Power’.
Belief in ‘Mutual Self-help’.
3. Made a decision to commit
to the ‘Higher Power’.
Made a decision to ‘network’
EMPLOYABILITY.
with a ‘community of like-minded people’.
(i.e. the Unemployed)
4. Made a searching ‘Moral
inventory’.
Made a searching personal
‘Competency-Analysis’.
‘SELF-MANAGEMENT’
5. Maintain ‘Sobriety’.
‘One-day-at-a-time’.
Create ‘work opportunities’.
‘3-WAYS’ to ‘earn-a-living’.
One-month-at-a-time.
TRADITIONS
6. Common welfare first:
personal recovery will.
follow.
(Autonomous Groups)
Community welfare first:
personal welfare will.
follow.
7. Only membership requirement:
Desire to ‘stop drinking’.
Only membership requirement
8. A.A. : NO PUBLICITY.
WORKERACY: MAXIMUM
(Community/ ‘Ubuntu’/Groups)
Desire to ‘work’ (i.e. work ethic).
PUBLICITY (TV etc)
 See AA: Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions (1952).
41
The cornerstone of the AA 12-step method (AA (1939); AA (1952) ) is that ‘Alcoholics’ - assistother-‘Alcoholics’ to overcome their Alcoholism through regular (weekly), mutual - supportive,
meetings - and persistence to achieve sobriety - and thereafter continue to remain sober throughout the rest of their lives. These meetings are managed through autonomous AA regional
Centres or Chapters throughout the country - but are linked to other AA centres through
adherence to a common Code of Practice.
The organisational form for the success of the AA is an example of what Dee Hock (1995) has
called a chaordic organisation (Peter Coreney and Roger Highfield (1996) ; Eric Beinhocker
(2007) ), i.e.
Chaordic is:-
the behaviour of any,
self-organising and self-governing,
organisation, organism, or system, that
blends characteristics of
Chaos and Order.
‘AA - the best system ever devised for dealing with the problem of Alcoholism - is an example of
a chaordic organisation. Every Chapter of AA self-organises and self-manages its own affairs in
accordance with a clear purpose - namely Sobriety - and its common Code-of-Practice - i.e.
‘Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions’ ‘.
Dee Hock (2005).
The proposal in this paper is that ‘workeracy’ be taught and practised through a National network
of Self-organising ‘Workeracy Empowerment Centres’ (see Table 11) in accordance with a clear
purpose (i.e. Employability) - and the ‘Four Pillars’ of Workeracy (see Table 5 and Fig 4).
W1
W2
W6
Workeracy.
Four Pillars.
Teaching materials.
Central Data Base.
42
W3
W5
W4
Fig 4: A National Chaordic network of self-managing
Workeracy Empowerment Centres.
Table 11. WORKERACY MUTUAL SELF-HELP EMPOWERMENT CENTRE
(PURPOSE = EMPLOYABILITY)
1 To provide a regular weekly meeting place for all unemployed persons, irrespective of
race
gender
age
work ethic
unskilled
skilled worker
artisan
professional
first-line manager
middle manager
senior manager
executive
to act as a mutually supportive forum for the exchange of views and experiences relating to
work opportunities, unemployment, and under-employment according to the Four Pillars of
Workeracy.
2. to provide ‘re-orientation seminars and training’ to better prepare unemployed persons
for the real ‘world of life-long self-employment’.
3. to encourage and assist unemployed persons to voluntarily join, or create a suitable
‘self -help micro-collective’ with other like-minded persons for identifying incomegenerating initiatives (IGI).
4. to provide advice and assistance regarding the creation of financially viable
‘self-help micro-collectives.
5. to provide an information service regarding the activities of other
‘self-help empowerment centres’ throughout the nation-wide network.
6. to promote a better understanding and practice of the ‘moneracy’ and shadow-wage
concepts.
43
Each Workeracy Empowerment Centre would be self-managing but supported centrally
by Workeracy ‘expertise’ - i.e. teaching materials, ‘central data-base’ of ‘workeracy’
initiatives and success stories, workeracy facilitators, newsletters, etc - and at the same
time linked to other Workeracy centres electronically through laptops or TVs where
possible.
The sustainability of the central facility would hopefully be provided by government and/or
business funding - whilst the physical buildings for the Workeracy Empowerment
Centres would be made available at no, or minimal, charge e.g. use of schools, libraries,
church halls - outside of ‘normal’ use hours.
The running of the Workeracy Empowerment Centres - once or twice-weekly - would be
done by part-time or full-time (npo) staff, school teachers, or retirees, or other interested
parties - and paid a reasonable hourly rate - to cover out-of-pocket expenses and time.
For the individual, unemployed, person - the process of working oneself out of
unemployment to achieve Employability - is outlined in the process diagram Fig 5
(Dalton (1998) ) in conjunction with Table 12. For comparison, the analogous process for
the recovering alcoholic to achieve ‘Sobriety’ is given in Table 13.
In the case of the South African unemployment crisis (2008) i.e. 4 000 000 active ‘jobseekers’, - a network of the order of 40 000 geographically dispersed centres to reach (on
average) groups of 100 unemployed persons would be needed.
Since there are approximately 25 000 public schools in South Africa and a comparable
number of church halls and/or libraries - it is not unreasonable that such a National
network could be set up at minimal cost.
This network would also provide part-time/full-time employment for 40 000 trained
Workeracy facilitators - the training for which could be paid for by ‘government and/or
business’ through bursaries or grants.
44
Synchronicity.
The WCALS Model.
Order.
External Stimuli.
The Will-centred Action-learning Spiral-of-consciousness Model.
Chaos.
9/0.
9.
‘Will’
‘ASLEEP’.
S-Mind
0.
Sustain. IV.
8.
‘Spirit’
.
I. Attention.
1.
‘Faith’
LOVE
CONSCIOUSNESS
‘ENCULTURATION’.
7.
Choice.
Will
Control.
‘Context’
Action. III.
‘MINDSETS’.
II. Intention.
2.
3.
6.
5.
‘Body’
4.
.
‘ATTITUDES’
‘Heart’
Fig. 5. The Change, Learning, and Will-power Cycle.
45
‘I-Mind’
Table 12.
The W-CALS Model:
APPLICATION TITLE. (Workeracy: will to Employability).
The Will-centred, Action-Learning, Spiral-of-consciousness Cycle 9-0-1-2-4-5-7-8-9
3 PROCESS STREAMS
Process 1.
‘Self-development’
STEPS
ACTIVITY
TITLE: -
‘Will’
Intend
- will-to-work;
- to-put-the-bread-on-the-table.
Perceive
- awareness of own multiple competencies (strengths/weaknesses);
- awareness of ‘unemployment’ and ‘job market’ Realities;
- awareness of how ‘SMMEs’ operate and ‘work opportunities’ are created;
Believe
- beliefs about ‘earning-a-living’, entitlement;
- beliefs about ‘job’, ‘wages’, ‘money’, ‘capital’, shadow-wage;
- beliefs about one’s own income-generating abilities.
9.
‘S-Mind’
Self-analysis.
Competencies.
.
‘Worker’
0.
‘Faith’
9/0.
1.
Future.
(5%)
‘I-Mind’
Past.
Conceive
- dream of sustainable, self-sufficiency;
- understand the ‘Workeracy’ concepts’;
- internalise the ‘Workeracy’ philosophy;
2.
6.
‘will’
3.
‘Heart’
- strong need to ‘survive’;
- fear of loss of ‘life-style’;
- failure (i.e. un-employment) is not an option.
Desire
Present.
4.
Process 3.
Process 2.
‘Trading’
marketable
Goods/Services.
‘Creating’
Work
Opportunities.
(10%)
‘Body’
5.
Networking.
Customer
needs/wants.
Workeracy
centres.
Mutual
Self-help.
(20%)
Mobilise/
Inter-Relate
7.
‘Spirit’
Products/Services
Create/
8.
‘Will’
‘Workerpreneur(s)’
- work ethic;
- Putting-the-bread-on-the-table;
- sustainability / Self-sufficiency.
- ‘Work’ is the essence of ‘Life’;
- when you ‘stop working - you ‘stop living’;
- ‘retirement’ is not an option.
- continue working to 120 years - and still be ‘earning-a-living’.
Focus
9.
(80%);
- get mutual self-help support from like-minded people;
- build a strong national ‘networking’ infrastructure;
- generate multiple ‘income’ (quid pro quo, payment-in-kind) streams;
- ‘3-Ways to ‘earn-a-living’.
- a ‘calling’ to ‘work’ and ‘energy’ release’;
Meditate/Achieve
Payment-in-Kind. Shadow-wage.
‘Customers’.
- demonstrate ‘work ethic’;
- first work for ‘inner wage’ - the ‘outer-wage’ will follow;
- apply the ‘Workeracy’ concepts
Energise
‘Context’
Anywhere.
(20%).
(65%)
45
Table 13.
The W-CALS Model:
APPLICATION TITLE. (AA Twelve-step: will-to-Sobriety).
The Will-centred, Action-Learning, Spiral-of-consciousness Cycle 9-0-1-2-4-5-7-8-9
3 PROCESS STREAMS
STEPS
ACTIVITY
TITLE: -
Process 1.
Sustainable
Sobriety.
‘Will’
Intend
- will-to-sobriety;
- to become, and remain, sober.
Maintaining
Sobriety.
.
Addict.
‘S-Mind’
Perceive
Step 1: We admitted that we were powerless over our addiction (drunkenness),
that our lives had become un-manageable
(i.e. recognition of our state of helplessness)
Believe
Step 2: We came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves
(‘God’, collective-will) could restore us to sanity.
Step 3: We made a decision to turn our ‘will’, and our lives, over to the care
9.
0.
‘Faith’
9/0.
1.
(5%)
of ‘God’ - as we understood ‘Him’ (Walk-of-Faith).
Future.
Past.
‘I-Mind’
Conceive
Step 4: We made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves
(Know Thyself?-Self-analysis).
Desire
2.
6.
‘will’
3.
‘Heart’
‘Body’
Energise
5.
(20%)
Step 5: We admitted to ‘God’, - to ourselves,- and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs (mistakes)
Step 6: We were entirely ready to have ‘God’ remove all these defects of
character (to overcome barriers-to-change).
Step 7: We humbly ‘asked’ ‘Him’ to remove our shortcomings.
Step 8: We ‘made a list’ of all persons we had harmed, and became
willing to make amends to them all.
‘Context’
7.
Mobilise/
Inter-Relate
Step 9: We ‘made direct amends’ to such People - wherever possible except when to do so would injure them or Others.
Present.
4.
Process 3.
Process 2.
Sobriety.
Drunkenness.
Managing
one’s
Sobriety.
Managing
one’s
Drunkenness.
(10%)
.
‘Spirit’
Step 10: We continued to take personal inventory - and when we were wrong
(conscience) - promptly admitted it.
Create/
Meditate/Achieve
8.
AA
Community.
‘Will’
Focus
9.
(65%)
Step 11: We sought through prayer and meditation - to improve our conscious contact with
‘God’ as we understand ‘Him’ praying only for Knowledge of His ‘Will’ for us
and the power (i.e. ‘will’) to carry that out.
Step 12: Having had a spiritual awakening (expansion of consciousness) as a
result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to other addicts and to practise these principles in all our affairs.
Sponsor.
46
10. Summary.
The problems of ‘poverty-alleviation’ and ‘unemployment-reduction’ are examined
in terms of their inter-relationships, possible causes, and dehumanising effects
(section 1 and 2).
Usery - i.e. extortionate interest rates - has been identified as the root cause of many
of the world’s social skills - particularly in the ever-widening gap between the world’s
Haves (i.e. The Rich) and the Have-nots (i.e. The Poor) (section 3).
An examination of 60 years of IMF/WB Top-down approaches to PovertyAlleviation has highlighted glaring short-comings and failures in those approaches and indeed have probably contributed more to worsening the problem rather than
being constructive towards a solution. (section 4).
By contrast, a number of grassroots approaches have emerged - originating largely
within Civil Society - which have been very successful in achieving a significant
degree of poverty-alleviation and unemployment-reduction. (section 5,6,and 7).
Drawing on the above experiences - as well as developments in Complexity
economics over the past ten years or so - a new approach to addressing these
complex social problems is proposed - namely ‘workeracy’ - which embraces both:-
the teaching of a new core ‘unemployment-survival’ life-skill; and
-
a National 12-step process implemented through a chaordic organisation
(i.e. self-managing and self-governing) in which :-
The Poor and Unemployed are enabled to discover their own
solutions (i.e. millions) to local Poverty Alleviation.
47
Appendix 1: A ‘Workeracy’ example: Swadhyaya (India).
The implementation of the Four Workeracy Principles can take, and is taking,
place worldwide in many different forms depending upon the particular context – but
each has the primary aim of
- empowering groups of unemployed persons (i.e. with no foreseeable
‘Job’ prospects and no ‘money’) to ‘work themselves’ collectively
‘out of unemployment’, in the absence of any governmental funding
or External AID (i.e. no ‘money’).
As a specific widely-reported example relating to a Rural India context, we present
here a brief discussion of a very innovative grassroots approach as recounted in ‘Vital
Connections’ (1998).
Swadhyaya is:basically a non-political, grassroots, transformative,
empowerment movement
focussed on
‘Individual Transformation’ through ‘Self-study’ resulting in
Self-discovery, Self-reliance, Self-respect, and Self-development, and,
in that process, producing a socio-economic collective transformation
amongst its members, i.e.
‘Community Transformation’,
- without either governmental or external funding.
Within the space of three decades, this movement has empowered over three million
members in one hundred thousand villages in India alone, - and over twenty million
members worldwide. In doing so, it has dramatically improved their Quality-of-Life,
and brought economic prosperity to their communities as a by-product, by fostering
mutuality, co-operation, and care for the less fortunate – without indulging in the
‘jungle ethics’ mentality of Western competition.
The problem of ‘economics’ is the problem of ‘culture’.
Karl Marx.
An indication of how the Swadhyaya approach relates to the Workeracy concepts
presented in this paper can be seen by reference to Table’s 15 and 22.
48
Table 22 Workeracy vs Swadhyaya (Rural India).
Workeracy
‘Workerpreneur’
Mindset.
Swadhyaya (Rural India)
Self-transformation.
Self-knowledge
Self-development.
Self-study
Self-reliance
‘Work’
Opportunities.
Grass roots.
e.g. farming, fishing, forestry, irrigation, potable water supply, hygiene,
water harvesting, water conservation, dairy farming, trading, vocational
training, and related sundry activities.
Shadow wage
Inner wage.
Outer wage.
(No ‘money’).
Inner wage:- Self-esteem and self-dignity for one’s cultural heritage;
- a sense of wholeness;
- a sense of becoming;
- a sense of pursuing worthy ideals;
- a sense of being in control of one’s destiny.
Outer wage:- socio-economic experiments;
- ‘Impersonal wealth’.
- ‘money’ generated out of ‘nothing’ (‘Banking’ - ‘fiat’ money).
Community.
Mutual self-help.
- Community Transformation.
- Extended ‘family’ concept (e.g. three million members).
- Community projects (temples of ‘trees’, farms for ‘God’.
(community fishing boats for ‘God’);
- Monthly meetings for discourse (Divine Brains Trust (DBT);
- Annual devotional (voluntary) pilgrimages throughout villages.
- Non-hierarchical network ‘family’ structures;
- fosters mutuality, co-operation, and care for the less fortunate (‘Ubuntu’).
A National Network.
Swadhyaya’s literal meaning is
‘Study, Knowledge, and Discovery-of-Self’,
and is both an Inward journey of self-examination, and an Outward journey of harmonising
one’s self with a network of relationships with Others – as well as understanding one’s
relationship with Nature, - and ‘God’ as the source of the universal Life-force.
By developing a knowledge-of-Self, one obtains a knowledge-of-one’s-Being as well as a
knowledge-of-ones’-Becoming – leading to a Way-of-Life which can embrace true Peace,
Joy and Happiness.
The concept of Swadhyaya is the brain-child of a 20th century visionary of the calibre of
Mother Teresa, Ghandi, Mohammad Yunus, Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela –
namely Pandurang Shastri Athavale (1920-2003) (popularly known as Dada (Elder
Brother) – who, dissatisfied with the appalling negative consequences of unrestrained
Consumerism and Capitalism – i.e. alienation of Man with family, nature,, and ‘God’, the
49
widening gap between the ‘Elite Rich’ (The Haves) and the ‘mass’ ‘Poor’ (The Havenots),
widespread poverty amongst the one billion ‘absolute’ poor, drugs, criminal, violence,
etc. – sought an approach to Life which could restore ‘Wholeness’ to Man, and a new
Quality-of-Life which was not dominated by the man-made concept of ‘money’ and
‘possessions’.
As a scholar of the Bhagavad Gita, he saw a way of uplifting the capacities and sights of the
poor to achieve their own goals by restoring their self-esteem and human dignity through a
teaching which stressed:-
-
-
an understanding of the true nature of self;
the indwelling nature of ‘God’ – as the ultimate source
of the universal Life-force in everyone, - as well as in all
living things, and Nature;
a reverence for all Life - ‘To Be is a Blessing, To Live is Holy’)
the importance of relationships with Others (Family);
the root cause of loss of self-worth and loss of self-esteem is
dependency on Others for Charity;
the solution to resolving self-esteem and human dignity is ‘not
to accept anything that has not been earned’ (i.e. Self-reliance);
‘to work’ is the ‘essence of living’ and is the means whereby
one can demonstrate gratitude for one’s skills and competencies,
and achieve self-actualisation; and
Devotion (Bhakti) to ‘work’, to ‘Others’ and to ‘God’ can be a
powerful social force for transformation.
In 1954, Dada began his mission to put into practice the integration of his ideas into a new
Way-of-Life, i.e.
Self-study.
(Self-knowledge)
Self-less Actions
(‘work’)
Devotion
(Relationships)
For a period of two years (1954-1956) he taught his ideas at Mumbai’s sea beach to target
large numbers of students, and then finally picked nineteen highly-educated young men to
make devotional visits (Bhaktipheris) to local villages to build up trust and relationships
with villagers - and overcome their natural cynicism.
Thus began The Swadhyay Movement: A silent yet Singing Revolution, a dynamic multifaceted, life-changing phenomenon, which has transformed the lives of twenty million
devotees (Swadhyayees) worldwide.
‘Swadhyayees’ are the ‘family’ members of the movement (Pariwar) and are not just people
in the lower or poor class but include those of the upper educated classes. No one is given a
distinction, and everyone refers to each other as ‘brothers’ or ‘sisters’.
The core of the Swadhyaya teaching is that increasing the consciousness of ‘God’ (or Lifeforce), or ‘Spirit’, within everyone, will promote self-respect, respect for Others, and respect
for the whole of creation, and all Humanity.
50
All ‘work’ is of divine origin, and is the means by which everyone can manifest his/her
skills and competencies. The fruits of the ‘work’ – or rewards – belong to ‘God’ – which can
be redistricted according to ‘God’s pleasure.
The Swadhyay Movement is not a typical UN AID development programme. It is
not a project to provide ‘drop outs’ of the economic system with ‘goods and services’
that are presumed to be their needs, and the condition for them to share a bigger part
of the Economic Systems’ benefits – provided they ‘toe-the-UN-Line’.
The Swadhyay Movement is a genuine, open-ended, non-political attempt by a group
of culturally and geographically defined people to live differently, to think and act
together in like-minded communities, in their own culture, with a view to responding
to the changes which are affecting their lives.
Swadhyayees seek primarily to develop their innate talents and gifts, for personal
self-development and the benefit of the community. However, as social beings they
need also to develop economic arrangements in order to live in freedom and dignity.
The ‘economy’ is thus a by-product of the movement and is re-embedded in
society.
The ultimate source of all ‘wealth’ and ‘power’ comes from ‘within’ – which has to
be nurtured and developed.
Once a person realised this, Self-reliance becomes self-evident as a matter-of-fact.
This is why Dada has categorically refused to accept any financial assistance from
any national or international donor outside the members of the movement. Yet the
Swadhyay ‘Movement’ has accumulated assets exceeding hundreds of millions of
rupees.
Thus, Swadhyay Movement is the first contemporary, grassroots movement to have proved that even
‘material wealth’ can be produced - without any initial ‘start-up ‘money’.
How has this been achieved in practice?
In the early years of the movement, Dada introduced a new concept called
‘Impersonal Wealth’.
This term included all economic and productive ‘work’ activities which people
performed (voluntarily – no pay- of The Third Sector) solely for the sake i.e. love of
the ‘God within them’ (i.e. Inner Wage).
51
‘Work’ is ‘Love’ made ‘Visible’.
Kahlil Gibran
As a rule, these selfless contributions represented the ‘fruits’ of two-days-a month
voluntary work activities associated with a particular community ‘project’. Such
projects include, for example,
-
farming for ‘God’; (communal orchards); or
fishing for ‘God’ (communal boats),
Any ‘income’ generated in this way (through sales of fruit, vegetables, and fish) belongs to
‘God’ and not to the participants themselves. Such income is used to provide (anonymously)
‘gifts’ for the ‘needy’ (i.e. not as charity - but as God’s grace), or for financing other
communal projects.
Another example (reported by Majid Rahnema in Vital Connections (1998)), is the cost of
organising one of the major Swadhyay events.
To honour Dada’s 75th Birthday in 1995, over one million Swadhyayees gathered together in
Mumbai. One can imagine the amount of organisation needed for this event.
However, it was organised by the Swadhyayees themselves.
No one was paid to do all the required ‘Jobs’ it entailed. There wasn’t a ‘payroll’ as such.
Every Swadhyayee offered the skill, the time, and energy, creatively and efficiency, i.e.
‘work’) proper to him or her. All costs were therefore met by peoples ‘gifts’, and
‘immaterial’ voluntary contributions, to the extended Swadhyaya Family.
Had such meetings been planned and organised according to the rules and procedures proper
to such institutions, such as the UNDP, the World Bank, the Olympics, or other large
corporations - not only would they have required tens of millions of dollars, - but would also
have utterly failed to produce the extra-ordinary ‘transformative chemistry’ proper to
such celebrating events.
When Swadhyayees decide to get together, regardless of the number of people or location,
the ‘cash money’ that goes into such operations is only a very small fraction of the
voluntary ‘works’ offered by everyone for the occasion.
In those cases where ‘cash money’ is needed, this is provided from within the Swadhyay
Movement by those ‘family’ members whose ‘personal wealth’ allows them to respond to the
financial needs of the Movement – according to their ‘ability’ and ‘willingness’ to pay. Even
then, Dada will accept their ‘money’ only when he is convinced that their offering is guided
by the ‘spirit within’, and not because of some other ulterior motive.
For further details of the Swadhyaya Movement – and how it operates – the interested
reader is referred to ‘Vital Connections’ (1998).
52
NB
It is not suggested in this paper that the Swadhyaya concept, which has its origins
within an Indian Culture, is directly transferable – without appropriate adaptationto another culture – such as an African Culture (e.g. Ubuntu). But that many of the
ideas, processes, and procedures within that Movement may well be adapted to
create an African Implementation of the Workeracy concept
(i.e. Self-sufficiency, scarcity of ‘fiat’ ‘money’) to mobilise the mass
unemployed into productive employment within a decade.
Appendix 2: A ‘Workeracy’ example: Afrikids (Ghana).
Sorious Samura made his name in journalism exposing some of the Africa’s most
desperate situations. Like most journalists, he finds it difficult to tell positive stories
when such heart breaking ones need to be told.
Considering the mess the continent is in, it’s not difficult to understand his reasons,
especially when it comes to Aid in Africa. In most cases it seems to have been an
unmitigated disaster, despite the estimated $564-billion (R4.5 trillion) in Western
Aid invested over the past half century.
The way it has been donated, Samura concludes, has done more damage than good
by not having made Africans part of the solution, instead seeing them as the problem.
Samura, an Emmy and Bafta award-winning filmmaker, whose documentaries
include Cry Freetown and Exodus from Africa, was intrigued, when he met Georgie
Fienberg, by her unorthodox approach to charity - run by, for, and from, the people.
Samura liked her bottom-up approach as opposed to the conventional Top-Down
one.
Georgie Fienberg began Afrikids, a child rights organisation, in 1997, when she was
only 17, having spent a gap year travelling in West Africa and working at an
orphanage in Accra. Afrikids now has over 100 local staff, 21 projects and 100 000
beneficiaries in northern Ghana.
Often accused of ignoring positive stories himself, Sorious Samura saw how
empowered people became when they came up with the solutions and were in
control of the projects. The upshot is his film How to Make a Difference in Africa,
requested and paid for by three Afrikids donors.
Samura’s main quest during this journey is to find our why Aid to Africa has been so
manifestly ineffective, where good intentions, as he says, simply aren’t good enough.
Where over 40% of sub-Saharan Africans still survive on less than a dollar a day.
The way Aid to Africa has been given, he argues, has resulted in Africans becoming
aid-dependent, paradoxically, when it is a continent rich in diamonds, minerals and
53
oil. This situation “eats him up”. Afrikids empowers local people who already have
a passion to help themselves and their country, with the understanding that Aid is
provided by the charity for a limited amount of time.
The three key words are:
empowerment, sustainability and accountability.
Afrikids works on the basis that they (i.e. Afrikids) will do themselves out of a job
by making their beneficiaries self-sufficient.
Mama Laadi is just one such women. Laadi runs an orphanage, and was both a
streetchild and a rape victim.
She vowed to give her initial 14 orphans something she never had - love and respect.
Now housing 50 kids, the orphanage runs independently.
Samura respects activists like U2 singer Bono, Sir Bob Geldof, Tony Blair and Bill
Clinton who have cared enough about Africa not to have turned their back on the
continent.
“They should be praised for the fact that they have tried, - but if they ran a major
corporation the way that they have run Africa, they would have been sacked”.
He partially blames Emergency Aid not turning into Development Aid, not to
mention a series of natural disasters that have plagued many countries since the
Ethiopian famine in 1984. Then there is stereotyping, not least in the media, who
like their clinched, packaged images of strong healthy Europeans and starving black
babies.
During the making of the film, people asked whether this “baby” (i.e. Afrikids) was
working. Samura’s response was to say that it’s crawling, moving ahead, slowly, but
the fear remains that things might slid back into the same old corrupt pattern.
The phasing has to be gradual, As it is, he thinks that Afrikids will take another 10
years to be self-sufficient. Much is about respect and trust, and going out into local
communities and finding people who genuinely care.
He wants his film to influence the powerful Western policymakers, to show them
there is a different way to the standard Top-Down approach, and here is the proof
that it can work. He wants African broadcasters to show the film to address the
problems of ignorance, lack of ‘education’, and lack of political will.
“We have to take the responsibility, that’s when people will help us,” he says, “and
that’s why I want people to see the film, to stimulate debate”.
Heidi Kingstone: Saturday Star (SA) : 21 June 2008.
54
Appendix 3: A Message for the Unemployed.
The Unemployed are not the Problems,
The Unemployed are themselves the Solution,
- if only they can be shown ‘How to’?
‘Work’ is the essence of ‘Living’.
Unemployment is now the leading Social Addiction.
Unemployment is a choice you make.
Nobody is stopping you from ‘working’.
Lack of a ‘Job’, or
Lack of ‘money’,
Is No Excuse
Not to ‘Work’.
Many people,
Who have a ‘Job’,
Often choose not to ‘Work’,
And slowly,
Die Inside.
When you choose not to ‘Work’
You lose the opportunity of Two Wages (Shadow-wage);
An Inner-wage - the wage ‘you pay yourself’ as
- expressing your unique creativity;
- building self-confidence and self-respect;
- developing your skills and competencies;
- developing social networks;
- helping Others; and
An Outer-wage - the wage ‘paid to you by Others’ as
- Notes & coins;
- payment-in-kind;
55
- complementary community currencies;
- quid pro quo (ukusizana).
Life does not owe you a ‘Living’,
Neither does Government,
Neither does Business,
That you must ‘create for yourself’,
The Natural world does not give guarantees,
So why should the Man-made world?
‘Work’ is Unlimited.
‘Shadow-wage’ is Unlimited.
‘Social capital’ is Unlimited.
First, ‘Work’ for you Inner-wage - the Outer-wage will surely follow.
‘Job’ security lies within yourself- not with any Employer.
‘Employed for Life - but never held a ‘Job’.
Appendix 4: A Chronology of the ‘workeracy’ concept (Dr Norris W Dalton)
Date
Events
1 July 1996
Dr Norris W Dalton (NWD) appointed as CEO: SAIM (South African
Institute of Management).
Oct 1996
Review of the SAIM 3-year Advanced Business Management Diploma
course (offered as M+3 since 1972): identified shortcomings in regard to
preparing students for entering the ‘world-of-work’ to ‘earn-a-living’
(e.g. trainee ‘entrepreneurs’ and ‘SMME Business Owners/Managers?)
1997/1999
NWD carried out a 2-year research study of world-wide unemployment
and existing proposals (e.g. Job Creation) for addressing the emerging
‘unemployment crisis’.
June 1999
Completed a preliminary manuscript of research findings, and conceived
of the ‘Workeracy’ and ‘Workerpreneur’ concepts involving a
‘12-step’ Implementation Strategy as a Complementary approach to
Job Creation and SMME development.
July 1999
Submitted a proposal to the Black Management Forum (BMF) (CEO:
Mr Neville Maimane) for an SAIM-BMF partnership to implement the
‘Workeracy’ approach for addressing the SA Unemployment Crisis.
BMF decided not to form such a partnership.
June 2000
Completed the manuscript for a ‘Workeracy’ training book, originally
intended to be used as material for an additional 24 credit elective in the
SAIM 3-year Advanced Business Management Diploma.
56
20 Sept 2000
Register: ‘Workeracy’ : Copyright / Trade Mark: Spoor & Fisher.
23 Oct 2000
Register: www.workeracy.co.za (Domain name) : Spoor & Fisher.
29 Nov 2000
Register: ‘Workerpreneur’: Trade Mark: Spoor & Fisher.
1 Nov 2000
International Conference: ‘Trauma in the Workplace
AVMIN HOUSE, Main St, Johannesburg
Paper: ‘Workeracy: The End of Unemployment’.
27-29 Nov 2000
African Renaissance Conference:
AMOA and Malawi Institute of Management (MIM)’
Paper: ‘Unemployment SA: A Radical Approach. (Dr N W Dalton),
Micro-collectives: A National Culture of Mutual Self-help
Lilongwe, Malawi.
19 Apr 2001
Official launch of ‘Workeracy’
Investec Building: Top floor: 55 Fox St Johannesburg.
21 Apr 2001
Interview: etv: ‘Toasty Show’. : Workeracy
4 May 2001
Press coverage: Sandton Chronicle.
14/15 June 2001
Representatives from the Cabinet Office: Zambia (Dr P F Manda,
Mr R Mataka, and Ms N Mafwkenko) visit SAIM Offices for
presentation of ‘Self-Management’, ‘Workeracy’, programmes for
training in Zambia.
18/19 June 2001
HR Managers Two-day Workshop: Retrenchment and Workeracy.
Joint Management Development Programme.
Parktonian Hotel: Braamfontein.
24 June 2001
Proposals for Workeracy in Zambia submitted.
Not implemented due to change of Government and Cabinet in Zambia.
11 July 2001
13th Annual HRD Conference (IPM).
Caesars Palace, Johannesburg
Paper ‘Workeracy: The End of Unemployment’
18/19 Apr 2002
International Conference on Rural and Urban Development.
NIEP (National Institute of Economic Policy).
St Georges Hotel: Pretoria
Paper: ‘Workeracy: The End of Unemployment’
27/29 May 2002
National Conference: ‘Black Empowerment’
Lord Charles Hotel, Somerset West, Cape Town
Paper: ‘Workeracy: The End of Unemployment’
57
25 Oct 2002
19/20 Nov 2002
9 Jan 2003
18/19 Jul 2003
Submit to Umsombovu request for proposals
to address Youth Unemployment with Workeracy proposal.
National Conference on Public-Private Partnerships.
NIEP (National Institute of Economic Policy.
Requested to submit proposal for Workeracy Pilot Project.
(Three groups of 100 unemployed students (± R150 000.00)
Not implemented due to lack of funds from the National Development
Agency (NDA).
Umsombomvu reject Workeracy proposal as it did not meet the
Umsombomvu Youth Fund UYF) criteria.
PILOT WORKSHOP-1 (50 Univ. Graduates)
Two-day jump start workshop with Institute of Higher Learning (Apollo
Zake).
50 Unemployed graduates.
Kopanong Conference Centre, Arcadia Pretoria.
Six follow-up meetings held at Investec Building / SAIM Offices.
Fully-funded by Workeracy.
30/31 Aug 2003
PILOT WORKSHOP-2 (50 unemployed Alexandra citizens)
3 Oct 2003
Jan 2004
28 Jan 2004
29 Jan 2004
Feb 2004
4/5 Mar 2004
Two-day jump-start workshop with Humanity First Foundation (Nico
Twala).
50 unemployed Alexandra citizens (non-matric).
Alexandra Crèche Centre, Alexandra.
Six follow-up meetings held at the Crèche.
Fully-funded by Workeracy.
Invited to submit tender to run Workeracy programme for 1000
displaced residents from Alexandra to Braamfischerville.
Funding of R1 000 000 to be paid by Alexandra Renewal Project
(ARP).
Awarded tender. (ARP).
Media Article: ‘Exit Employees, enter the ‘workerpreneurs’
The Star - Workplace.
Media: Radio (SABC Interview: Tabiso show: 2 - 4pm.
‘Workeracy and workpreneurs.
Tender put on hold due to election in April 2004.
58
14 Mar 2004
National Conference: Summit - Transforming Higher Education in
South Africa.
TCI - Vodaworld, Johannesburg SA.
Paper: Education, Vocation, and Unemployment.
April 2004
Interview: SABC (TV) 9 a.m.: ‘Spirit Sundae’.
Spirituality in the Workplace.
Workeracy: ‘A spiritual approach to Unemployment’.
May 2004
National Conference: SMME Development.
Gallagher Estate, Johannesburg SA.
Paper: The ‘Real’ Entrepreneur.
14 July 2004
Alexandra tender suspended indefinitely due to internal forensic audit
of ARP.
Request from the Financial Services Board (FSB) (Thandile Makubala)
to run the Workeracy ‘Moneracy’ Game: Moneracy in a number of
schools during the annual National Savings Week event held at the end
of September 2004 in order to sensitive matric students to the meaning
of ‘money’ and the concept of Shadow-wage.
3 Sept 2004
Nov 2004
Informed by the FSB that, unfortunately, due to internal ‘political’
reasons, the ‘Moneracy’ game will not now be run during the
National Savings Week.
Jan 2005
Submitted second tender to Umsobomvu for a Youth Community
Development Pilot Project based upon the Workeracy concept.
1 Aug 2005
Umsobomvu rejected Workeracy proposal - did not satisfy their criteria.
2 Sept 2005
Submitted Workeracy programme (NQF 4,5?) to Services SETA as a
stand-alone programme.
SAIM SETA No 1319.
9 Sept 2005
Presentation of ‘Workeracy’ concepts to FET students.
Rosebank College - Boksburg - SA
14 Sept 2005
Presentation of ‘Workeracy’ concepts to CISA-BMF City
Campus Student - Johannesburg CBD.
29 Sept 2005
Presentation of ‘Workeracy’ programme to
Professor Kruger RAU Campus.
Invited to submit a Workeracy proposal to UNESCO - ICT and
Communications - for possible funding in 2007.
One-year PILOT PROJECT for 10 groups of 100 unemployed graduates
59
17 Oct 2005
(± R3 000 000.00)
14 Nov 2005
Presentation of ‘Workeracy’ programme to
Professor Kruger, Govender, and Hewitt, TWR Campus
18 Jan 2006
Meeting on Workeracy programme
Professor Magda Hewitt - TWR Campus.
1 Feb 2006
Meeting: Golden Key International Honour Society.
Mia Badenhorst - ‘Graduate Unemployment’ - Workeracy.
14 Mar 2006
Meeting: St Augustine College (Theological College)
Anthony Egan - Self-management (Know Thyself) Workeracy courses.
Meeting: Business Women’s Association
Tina Thompson - Workeracy programme.
15 Mar 2006
Meeting: St Augustine College
Anthony Egan et al - ‘Know thyself’ programme.
22 Mar 2006
Presentation of ‘Workeracy’ programme.
SASOL CSI: Pamela Mudhray.
29 Mar 2006
27 Sept 2006
Meeting/Discussions of partnership for ‘Workeracy’ programme
Mandisa - RAND WATER BOARD.
Meeting/Discussion of ‘Workeracy’ programmes.
Dr Barbara Hill - Jo’burg municipality - Joubert Park
11 Oct 2006
Meeting (Update): Workeracy programmes.
Professors Kruger and Hewitt: TWR Campus Johannesburg.
19 Oct 2006
Meeting (Update): Workeracy programmes.
Professor Kruger University of Johannesburg (UJ).
9 Jan 2007
Presentation: Workeracy concepts.
AMCHAM: CSR: Luanne Grant
SANDTON Offices.
30 Jan 2007
Printing of 100 Workeracy Books: 2nd Edition:
General sales: Lesedi printers
18 Feb 2007
Interview: Workeracy: Helen Uekermann (Afrikaans media).
SAIM Offices.
7/8 Mar 2007
Media Article: Workeracy: Sunday Rapport.
16 April 2007
Paper/Presentation: (Mis)-Education for (Un)-Employment’ (HET).
TCI conferences: Birchwood Hotel, Boksburg, Johannesburg.
16/17 May 2007
Presentation to HET students ‘Graduate Unemployment’ Engineering.
RAU Campus Johannesburg.
Paper/Presentation: ‘The ‘Death’ of the Job’ (HET).
60
17 Oct 2007
Oct 2007
28 May 2008
23 July 2008
31 July 2008
TCI conferences: Inanda Hotel, Fourways, Johannesburg.
Workeracy: The Death of the ‘Job’ (FET).
Vocational Education: The FET-SETA Partnership: Trade Conferences
International
28/29 October 2007
Halevy Hotel, Bloemfontein, South Africa.
‘To Mobilise the Nation to Work within Ten Years’ : Part 1 (Dr Norris W Dalton).
Publication: Universal Research Bulletin: CIDA CITY Campus: Johannesburg.
‘Educating’ students for the 21st century World-of-work.
‘Exploring Issues in Higher Education: Trade Conferences International.
28/29 May 2008
Indaba Hotel, Fourways, Johannesburg, SA
Workeracy: A Paradigm Shift and A Way Forward for ‘Unemployment’
Skills Development.
4th Annual Skills Summit: Institute of International Research (IIR)
23/24/25 July 2008
Wanderers Club,
Illovo, Johannesburg, South Africa.
‘Workeracy’: A Paradigm Shift and A Road Map for Poverty Alleviation’
Distinguished Management Lecture: Nigerian Institute of Management.
Sheraton Hotel: Lagos, Nigeria.
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