In working to end violence against women and children, we need to ensure that men are centrally involved. Men need to organise themselves in a sustained campaign against gender-based violence.
Cyril RamaphosaRead
Marikana should not have happened. We are all to blame, and there are many stakeholders that should take the blame. But taking the blame should mean that we should make sure it never, ever, happens again.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes collective responsibility for the Marikana tragedy and the importance of preventing its recurrence.
Cyril Ramaphosa's quote reflects on the tragic events that occurred at Marikana, highlighting the shared accountability among various stakeholders. It calls for a commitment not just to acknowledge the wrongs of the past, but also to actively work towards ensuring such a tragedy never happens again, stressing the need for reflection, unity, and action in the face of social and moral failures.
In practice
In discussions about workplace safety, this quote can remind us of our shared responsibility.
In working to end violence against women and children, we need to ensure that men are centrally involved. Men need to organise themselves in a sustained campaign against gender-based violence.
There are times when leadership needs to take a bold move forward. And there are times when the leadership needs to act on the basis of what the grass roots say. You need to have your political thermometer constantly in the political waters to know when to give leadership in what way.
We need to mobilise our structures and our supporters to oppose state capture and corruption in whatever form it takes.
Violence against women and children resembles an epidemic. It has spread through society, sparing no social group or class.
No man is born believing that he has dominion over women. Instead, this view is handed down from generation to generation and amplified through social custom, culture, and popular media.
We must listen to the concerns of our people without dismissing them. When people see something wrong, there is something wrong. When our people see corruption, it means there is corruption. When our people see that their resources are being stolen by certain people, it means this is happening, and we should listen.
Habitat has opened up unprecedented opportunities for me to cross the chasm that separates those of us who are free, safe, financially secure, well fed and housed, and influential enough to shape our own destiny from our neighbors who enjoy few, if any, of these advantages of life.
But the big feature of human-level intelligence is not what it does when it is works but what it does when it's stuck.
If just once you were depressed for no reason, you have been so all your life without knowing.
We think that the world is limited and explained by its past. We tend to think that what happened in the past determines what is going to happen next, and we do not see that it is exactly the other way around! What is always the source of the world is the present; the past doesn't explain a thing. The past trails behind the present like the wake of a ship and eventually disappears.
The moment when someone attaches you to a philosophy or a movement, then they assign all the baggage and all the rest of the philosophy that goes with it to you. And when you want to have a conversation, they will assert that they already know everything important there is to know about you because of that association. And that's not the way to have a conversation.
Life cannot subsist in society but by reciprocal concessions.
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