Final thoughts on the Economic Situation in South Africa.

It is evident that the general consensus of the government is: LARGE room for improvement. But what does that even mean? In which areas? In which departments? What aspects of it? Accountability? Capacity? Well, sometimes there is no answer. The vast differences between the Western Cape to Limpopo, goes to show how important local municipalities governments’ role is within the area. This is not new information.  Continue reading

Social Impact Partnerships – How feasible are they?

Social Impact Partnerships, is the process of raising private investments to fund prevention and early intervention programs that reduce the necessity of expensive crisis responses. You can find out more here. Thus (to a certain extent) mobilizing the private sector to reduce expenditure on public good provision. For example, a Social Impact Partnership may seek to reduce structural unemployment by 10% with a certain geographical location over a 5 year period. If the program is successful, the government will reimburse the partnership with funds, and may also engage them with further social programs. Continue reading

Are you forcing leisure?

When was the last time your brain stopped thinking? Or working? Skeptics may describe it as being dead, but I perceive it otherwise. Meditation may be a word to classify it. But what is the real harm to clear your mind? Not just clear your mind of things that you need to get done. That is not really clearing your mind. Instead letting go of thinking altogether. It is much harder then it sounds really.   Continue reading

Globalisation: Serving Japanese food at a German town, in Australia.

Imagine that, Japanese food being served in a German town (driven by tourism) in Australia! Globalisation at its best. A couple of months ago I was a tourist in Australia, Adelaide, Hahndorf. A small German settlement that was established in the 1880s. German settlers came to Australia for a better life. And just over a century later, here I am taking a picture of a Japanese food outlet! Although Hahndorf has morphed into a tourist destination, it was simply amazing how far globalisation has come. Continue reading

social innovation: make some money by texting.

Now, low income earners can send SMS during their free time and earn some extra bucks! Research by Microsoft revealed a crowd-sourcing model that requires low income earners to translate words and gain mobile credit in return! To good to be true? Perhaps, but this is one step forward for scalable social innovation to take traction. A summary of how it is done can be found here, and if you want a more in depth understanding and economic analysis, you may click hereContinue reading