ON ENTITLEMENT; YOUNG N WISE(tu)

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The ailment of entitlement
17 September 2013, 18:41




I grew up in a small village of Northern KZN, I was taught to go to school, work hard and get a job (which I did)....while the downfall of this kind of teaching is subject for another day, what I like about it is that it never taught me to expect hand outs from anyone (government included).

As a 24 year old woman I am greatly troubled by how the youth of south Africa and the general public feels this sense of entitlement from the government, employers etc. no one wants to think for themselves, people expect incentives for using their brains

While this sense of entitlement is a growing ailment in our society, the middle class seems to be the most inflicted, getting over indebted and being reckless with their incomes and not even beeing productive in those jobs that they have but are very quick to demand salary increases that they don't even deserve because they are entitled to it, then engaging in these countless labour strikes that are not taking our country anywhere.

I wish I lived in a South Africa where the youth acknowledged that they are the future and that their minds are their greatest tools that they can use to create opportunities and that in this information age no one owes them a thing, that not even a previously disadvantaged background entitles them to anything.

umlilo Wrote:

---

> I was taught to go to school, work hard and get a
> job (which I did)....while the downfall of this
> kind of teaching is subject for another day, what
> I like about it is that it never taught me to
> expect hand outs from anyone (government
> included).
>

Do not under-estimate the basis of "work hard and get a job". These are the very tenets of running your own business today.

There's an awful lot that could be said on both sides of this matter, Umlilo, as I'm sure you know. I'd be interested to hear your take on it, but I assume you've posted it without comment to hear what the Clanners have to say.

I deal with several young people of the same age or a few years younger than this woman, a new lot every year, and the best of them have much the same attitude as her. And this is one of the poorest and most disadvantaged (still!) of all the SA provinces. But then the ones I get are a group who have fought the good fight and got an education despite all the odds stacked against them, so they aren't an unbiased sample of the youth of SA.

What I have to say is - that the ones I can confidently predict will go places are the ones who never take the attitude that this or that is their right, unless it's something they have already paid for. E.g. one woman who fought her way out of the most appalling circumstances to run her own little T-shirt-printing business, then came as a mature student and got an Honours degree with us, and is now busy doing her MSc at UCT. Her supervisor there is now suggesting her thesis is of such a standard that she should upgrade it to a PhD, but I've counter-suggested that she should rather finish it and try for a PhD at some good overseas university.

I mean, if you knew where she'd come from, if anyone had the right to shout "It's my right!" she had, but I never heard those words from her even once. That lady will go places, at least I hope so. I just hope that corruption and the old-boy network don't keep her out, otherwise she will be lost to SA.

@Mav:

'I'd be interested to hear your take on it, but I assume you've posted it without comment to hear what the Clanners have to say.'

Here's my take (posted on News24 also):

I also grew up in a small KZN town called Stanger (KwaDuguza). I was fortunate to have been chosen by fate to have driven Nkosi Luthuli and was the one who announced to the world that Nkosi was brought into Stanger Hospital after allegedly being knocked by a train.

Due to my mentoring by him (and my Khoisan lineage!), I was a political rebel and was involved in numerous issues, (besides racism), overhead bridge between the town and the 'Indian village', robots on the main road, opening Indian schools to Africans and Coloureds and the CBD for other blacks.

Together with the late AQ Mangerah, we successfully forced Barclays Bank to remove the partitions between white and black clients, and, with late Stanley Nkosi (Gallo fame), we planted the idea of international sanctions.

Then I continued studies after marriage and graduated from UNISA.

Yes, no self-entitlement!

Today, seeing the mess and misguided notions and frustrations, I have become part of South Africa First, where we condemn entitlement and view BEE as our enemy No. 1. Join us.... we will bring the changes! Amandla!

BTW:
I grew up under 'child labour' conditions in Colenso.
My grandfather owned the local grocery store and every day after school and Saturdays (we kids were in primary classes..Std 3, 4 & 5..counting my brother and cousins) to pack sugar, rice, mielie meal, etc.

They came in 50lb bags, we had to carry, open them and weigh out on those up/down scales with weights, and wrap them into brown paper packets or newspaper folded into a packet, and stick down with the brown gummy tape (when water ran out, we used spit!).

I started my first job as a 16 year old, repairing bicycles and filling gas bottles in winter...no gloves!

We sewed up / patched our pants, had large 'potatoes' in our socks (often, no socks and no shoes), wiped our snort on our sleeves, and wore the same clothes for up to a week! Our main meal was usually head and feet soup with mielie rice.

Thank the Almighty for the privilege..... that's what makes those of empathise and come down to reality as fellow human beings!

Tnx Mav!

(tu)

Thanks for that Umlilo ... I'm glad you also fought the good fight! #highfives

I'd say more but I must get breakfast now and then head off to work, and see what I can maybe teach to a couple (I hope) SA stars of the future.