18 is Chai in Hebrew. Life. 20 18 is the year that we choose to remain unconscious or we choose to become conscious. The year we choose to die or the year we choose to live.
20 is 2. One becomes Two, after conception. We are One with God. But there are Two of Us.
As we ponder God and Christmas, we consider our miraculous and precarious existence. Whilst we need to plan for 20 or 50 or 100 years time, we also need to plan for today, tomorrow and next week.
We have such a tremendous opportunity to fix our world. Our personal worlds. Our personal and family and community lives. To be saved.
Luckily in South Africa we live in a lawless society where everyone can do exactly as they wish. The laws are God's laws. They are the laws of respect and compassion and kindness and generosity and peace and wholeness and healing and love and being saved.
The government doesn't respect itself. It is ridden with corruption and crime against itself and its people.
It sees itself as absolute and everyone else as secondary. Well these secondary people can use the Constitution of South Africa, which is quoted by our government as being the world's best, to protect ourselves, our way of life, and our future.
You see, the time has come to listen to the National Development Plan (NDP), developed by a people of South Africa, protected by our Constitution.
The time has come to listen to the Constitution, developed by a people of South Africa.
"We, the people of South Africa Believe that South Africa belongs to all who live in it, united in our diversity. The Republic of South Africa is one, sovereign, democratic state founded on the following values: (a) Human dignity, the achievement of equality and the advancement of human rights and freedoms. (b) Non-racialism and non-sexism. (c) Supremacy of the constitution."
We are a people. Each and every one of us is a people. We are each One. We are each Sovereign. And we Believe that can be One, Sovereign, People, and the Constitution provides us this right. If only we choose to Act.
From 1960 until 2017, the price of Photovoltaic electricity fell from $60 a watt to $0.50 per watt. A 99% drop in electricity price. Over that same time, governments and their utilities have put up electricity prices dramatically.
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| Look at the Green Renewable Energy Line Decreasing and the City of Cape Town Red Line Increasing. |
At the same time desalination has dropped from $100's to $0.60 per kl. Whilst the peoples' water prices have skyrocketed. With an infinite increase from 2016 to 2017 in the first six kl of water given to the people of Cape Town. 6 kl used to be free. Now 6 kl is R31.20. And sewerage charges on top of this.
An example: A house of 4 using 87.5 litres per person per day, equating to 10.5 kl per month: Water price increase from R23.40 in 2010 to R118.42 now, a 500% increase in 7 years, whilst with inflation, our prices should be R30 per kl!!
Our government has told our business and farmers to use less than half the water they used two years ago, "before the drought." So our food prices will rocket even more than they have now, and there will be shortages, not only of food, but also water. And a shortage of water means a shortage of petrol and a shortage of electricity. And a shortage of brain power.
And yet, the 2011 World Cup report starts with "South Africa is a water scarce country." One would have expected the report to start with "What an amazing world cup".
Theewaterskloof was built whilst I was at school, 40 years ago. Because South Africa is a water scarce country. The "drought" hasn't even started yet. We are just low on water because we have allowed a population increase in Cape Town without an associated water increase.
All is not lost.
We know that we cannot depend on our government to fix our problem. All they want is for us to use less and less, and then they penalise us by an infinite increase in our water cost and then a levy to be added from February 2018. We are being disincentivised to save water at exactly the moment when people should be given every opportunity to get to that free water level.
A well run city needs water. The engineers who designed our cities depended on water to prevent disease, to prevent dis-ease. To allow for waterborne sewerage. To allow for crops. To allow for liquid refreshment. Rehydration. Oxygenation. Cleansing.
The engineers still exist. The scientists still exist. The NDP calls for "Active Citizens" to rally and to build the future. The future has arrived. The NDP calls for Communities to work together. Well I would like the people of Milnerton to work with the people of Joe Slovo & Phoenix to create an environment where we all benefit and where our cost of living is much less than it is today. I know many "Active Citizens" who collectively have a wealth of knowledge. We don't need to blame anymore. We don't need to sit back and say "the government" must do this or that. Collectively, we are the government. Let's behave like it!
In 20 18, will we take the opportunity that we have been given to have life? To have the miracle of life? To dramatically reduce our electricity cost, our water cost, our transport cost, our food cost, our housing cost, our clothing cost? We can do it. If only we believe.
Christmas gives us "The Christ". The Saviour. The opportunity for us to Save ourselves. By emulating The Divine.
God doesn't save us. He gives us the opportunity to be saved. If we work on ourselves. If we leave evil (live backwards), we get live. Life. If we leave unconscious. We get consciousness. If we leave apathy. We get self-actualisation.
The opportunity is here. Especially with Christmas starting the next phase of Creation.
We can grab it.
Lets.
I pray that all of us have an incredible 18 חַי
The Chet חַ is the 8th letter of the Hebrew alphabet. 8 is infinity. ∞
God is the Infinite One.
8 is the musical octave. Let's make music together.
Yud י is the pointer, pointing us to a new future. The world is created by us every day. We can create the world the way we want it to be. We have this opportunity. We can do it. God has given us all the ingredients we need. And Jesus shows that we can work together to build an amazing future. With kindness, prayer, compassion, generosity.
If only we believe. If only we have faith. If only we want the best for each other.
Dream. Conceive. Believe. Achieve.
Joseph told Pharaoh (the King of Egypt) about the coming famine. Famine came because Egypt didn't have water. But Joseph used the seven years of plenty to put away stocks for the coming seven years of famine. And after the famine Pharaoh owned everything. Because the people gave up their lands for food. They gave up themselves for water. And became slaves.
We must not repeat the tragedies and plagues of the past. If we assume a "business as usual" approach, we are doomed. At we could just miss the moment when the peak of the mountain comes into view and God gives us the Wine and Bread we need to save ourselves.
Let us bake the most incredible bread together. And let's have a land flowing with an infinite amount of water. But let's not waste. Let's build. Ke nako. The time is right. The time is right for the people to make a difference. The time is now.
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