WELCOME

This blog is intended to build South Africa. Clearly the beloved country is suffering. We urgently need new ideas that are “broad brush” – radically improving wide areas, costing little or nothing and immediately implementable. At the same time, these must move us generally towards a model for a sustainable successful country in the long term – no band aids.

I will post a new idea (most not original to me) every Saturday here and on Facebook. I am trying to make these ideas very specific interventions and not vague wishes such as "improve education" or "prosecute corrupt officials".

Please mail me your own ideas to suggestions@nationaldialogueblogsa.com. Please also comment on the ideas posted on the blog.

Note that every new policy has negatives, there is no free lunch. In the interests of brevity and clarity, I will not always be going into deep detail of the why and why not or the mitigations which might be in other blogs as many of the ideas I plan to publish over the next ten weeks rely on each other for success.

 Inevitably, there will be many who disagree - please speak up and explain why.

We are at a crossroads - population growth is far faster than economic growth - so we are getting poorer. Crime is escalating, basic services and infrastructure collapsing. "Business as usual" just wont cut it. The government is planning it's national dialogue with its chosen participants. Let us have a (cost free) debate about what they should be doing so that we can influence the direction of that process.

Each idea will be in the format What? Why? How? Why not (FAQ’s)? If you have a good idea and you want to share - please send it in that format to the above address.

At the end of each, you will be invited to vote on whether you support the idea or not (you can do this by liking on facebook - see nationaldialogueblogsa).

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