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Monday 19 September 2011

SOCIAL RE-ENGINEERING FOR A HUNGRY WORLD


The world, our world, is very sick and hungry- Hunger for love,  peace, employment,  attention, care, recognition, respect, happiness, gender equality, etc. Amongst all these lurks a dire need for self-survival  which is the driver of the ongoing chaos and clamour for sectional, religious and political uprisings with the resultant effect of societal stratification….the upper, middle and lower classes. The world has become a place for the survival of the fittest where the smartest, strongest and  cleverest meander their way through different means to move up the classes. The driver of all the agitation in the world today is because people are too busy trying to satisfy self and move through or become “lords” in their classes that they are not aware of the damage they’re doing to the world. We are talking about ozone depletion today, youth unrest and upheavals, religious crises, war, kidnapping, armed robbery, and several other social vices that all have their roots to the fact that somebody or group of people or a Government was too busy with self (or group) aggrandizement, that they forgot that their actions could affect other lives and boomerang on them and many innocent people suffer in the process.

The problem is there already. We created it. We worry and complain bitterly about everything yet we created those problems. We worry about our children not been as respectful as kids used to be “back-in-the-days”, we worry about loss of norms and values, we complain about the negative effects of globalization with its encroachment into our quiet and peaceful cultures,  we even worry that people don’t drive as well as they used to, we worry about the weather-that the ozone layer is getting depleted, we worry that our, students don’t really study anymore-that they come out from schools “half-baked”, We worry that the jobs are not there anymore and unemployment is on the rise, we complain about the streets not being safe anymore, we worry about the rising cost of the grocery, we worry and complain about this and about that…we created all these problems. We have to solve  them now. There is need for action on your part. Being in any of the classes as mentioned above does not remove you from at least one of the problems. When was the last time you ‘donated’ your time from your busy quest for self-survival (which includes all human and material interests) to ponder on solutions to a hungry world?  When was the last time you gave out a helping hand to someone? When was the last time you put a smile on the face of one who is not related to you? When was the last time you attended a meeting organized by your community for the progress of the community? Even in your local place of worship, what assistance have you rendered to the very poor and enterprising people who need assistance? You can start something today. Do something good. Choose any area of human endeavor. Give it a try. Call out for help. Look for like minds to partner with you.  

Maybe I need to spur you to action by giving you examples of a few ordinary people from the book “Entrepreneurs by Bill Bolton and John Thompson” who did extraordinary things and changed the world we live in for the better.

Elliot Tepper: is an American missionary who lives in Spain. He has an MBA but has chosen to channel his not inconsiderate energies into helping alcoholics and drug addicts. He started Betel, a not-for-profit Christian rehabilitation centre, in the early 1990s. At anytime Betel now houses over 500 young addicts, both men and women, in homes in ten Spanish cities, in Birmingham in the UK and in Brooklyn, New York. Half of the People on Betel’s programme are HIV-Positive.  5000 people passed through in the first seven years.

Margareth Handforth:  A miner’s wife, ex-secretary and mother of three sons, had demonstrated her talent by founding a local playgroup but had never thought of herself as an entrepreneur before the 1984 Miners’ strike. Forming a small group, she set  up a soup kitchen to help people survive the traumas of the time. Invited to speak to students at local universities in exchange for collection, the women set foot on university campuses for the first time in their lives. They began to realize that education can broaden horizons and Margaret Handforth had a vision of a better life through self-improvement. She had no idea how to do it, just a determination to start something off. Today, her project, the Castleford Community Learning Centre in West Yorkshire known locally as the University of Life, is a women centre that offers a wide raft of courses up to degree level, and validated by local colleges and Universities, usually at low or no cost to women in this economically deprived area. It has succeeded in changing lives and empowering many more women of our world.

David Bissau: A business entrepreneur who invests on the poor. David, who became a millionaire before the age of 35 from a series of business interests then focused his talents on helping poor people around the world. Many Millionaires do give generously and set up foundations to help create social, and sometimes aesthetic capital –but Bissau set out to help people help themselves. In this respect he has similar ethos to Charlotte Da Vita. Some 50, 000 small entrepreneurs had been provided with the limited financial support they needed to either get started or grow their businesses.

The stories abound of people who have changed our society from efforts at building a better world by social innovation, entrepreneurship and community  development efforts. When Mark Zuckerberg co-founded Facebook with his friends a few years ago, he didn’t know that it will change the way people connect and share information. It is amazing what you can achieve and how many lives you can touch if you could just take that single step towards the vision for a better a better world that you have.  Make a commitment to reducing unemployment in your area, for instance. Start a workgroup on entrepreneurship training and sharing of ideas. Start the Jobocracy concept if you can, for involved participation and extended ownership. Organize to feed some very hungry people and you’d be surprised at the amazing ideas people have. Start something positive today….it might just outlive you and become a part of our lives forever.


Tuesday 6 September 2011

Creating jobs where there are no jobs...


"What is a danger is that we stay stuck in a new normal where unemployment rates stay high, people who have jobs see their incomes go up, businesses make big profits. But they're learned to do more with less, and so they don’t hire.
                                                                                                -Barack Obama


This is the exact situation today. companies have learnt to do more with less people in their employ and they don't hire. And yet, we stay in the normal constantly applying to them with Internet job sites building cv banks every second with not the same matching result of producing the jobs. EMPLOYER is changing the paradigm and long accepted status quo...we are looking inwards to create our own jobs.

For some time now, the clarion call has been made severally for us all to look inwards to solve this problem of unemployment. We, as the unemployed should as a matter of urgency look inwards for a solution to our problems-EMPLOYER has resolved to take on Africa's unemployment palaver and bring all unemployed together to solve their problems. Government on the other hand should adopt a multi-pronged approach towards solving the unemployment issues. While one is not saying that setting up committees upon committees is not a good thing, Government should resolve to actually listen to the unemployed and know their various thoughts on this matter as well as their strategies. 

At the turn of the economic meltdown, employers all over the world became smarter, laid off in most cases and started using only a few personnel to achieve so much. Some of the strongest economies in the world are not spared by the menace of unemployment which has become the Cerberus and Chimera of our time. It was the current Chancellor of Germany, Angela Dorothea Merkel, that said in a statement "I have just explained my idea of how a constructive period of reflection, one that would send a clear message to the citizens of Europe: You should know what our priorities are. For Germany this means: Unemployment is one of one of our biggest problems". Several strong economies, like Germany, ae facing the huge problem of unemployment and it is therefore a wonder that Africa should be spared this menace. This is why the Governments of the world especially in Africa need to adopt the principles of Jobocracy (see http://jobocracy.blogspot.com for more information on this subject) to allow the integration and participation of the unemployed in multi-faceted approaches at job creation. Governments that are interested in letting EMPLOYER consult for them can connect with EMPLOYER in the partnership section of our website.

For the employer of labour, it’s okay if you no longer have vacancies. This is understandable. Nobody can force you to create jobs that you don't have or pay salaries you can't afford. It is also your view that fresh graduates lack the skills needed to quickly give you the edge over the competition and ultimately more profits. Much more saddening is your low rating of fresh graduates as you interact with them and discover that most graduates of our universities can hardly make good sentences. You've realized further that they come out "half-baked" and are unable to defend what they read. Some of these your observations and feelings are true. Yes they are. But they cannot remain unemployed. Something needs to be done. EMPLOYER has discovered a way of taking some of the problems off you...you can employ virtually everyone but not directly and the beauty of it all is that you don't even have to pay them salaries. EMPLOYER would. We'd further certify them for employment for you by developing skill sets in them that would match your long standing personnel in your employ. All you need to do is contact EMPLOYER for details on how you can partner to make jobs available without employing directly and you still reap the benefits of the workforce. 

The result of four years of tireless research is showing now. While EMPLOYER does not lay claim to all the problems of unemployment, we are well able to give it the best shot we can while soliciting for your partnership and support. Having networked with individuals and groups in over 30 African countries, it is now time to initiate what we have learnt and practiced in pilot programs so that all can benefit from it. As the program evolves, you are encouraged to get involved as everyone is a partner in all the ways you can. See how to register and get involved on www.employerafrica.com/register.php. Or follow on Facebook: www.facebook.com/jobocracy

Monday 5 September 2011

Partnering to build a working continent...


"When a great many people are unable to find work, unemployment results."
                                 -Calvin Coolidge. 

This is the situation in the land today. Even the proliferation of so many Internet job sites and head hunters has not produced the much desired result. Truth is that the jobs are not as much as the number of graduates that are churned out in their thousands on a yearly basis into the already saturated labour market. Something had to be done and EMPLOYER was birthed as a membership styled organization to build our members who are job seekers and intending entrepreneurs into world-class employers of labour and accomplished individuals. It has become necessary for us to have a discourse on how our we can actually partner to build a working African continent while we await the arrival of the treatise on Jobocracy Part II.

EMPLOYER is not primarily a job hunting service but we shall constantly endeavour to connect our members with employers of labour while still offering them all year round skill acquisition and development trainings and seed funds to start their own businesses. EMPLOYER's well equipped job villages will be equally available for any skilled member to simply walk-in and commence work and earn 40% of his/her output. EMPLOYER is a cause to reduce unemployement and by joining, you have done so voluntarily and you have not been coerced or cajoled into this laudable cause. The ideas looked too simple to be true but today with small packets of achievements using pilot projects and individuals who showed a willingness to be established as entrpreneurs,we achieved success and today EMPLOYER  is now set to revolutionize the way we perceive unemployment based on the principles of Jobocracy (see JOBOCRACY PART I - Theories And Applications) in this blog.

 The Luncheon, which will be quarterly is a further indication that the unemployed can actually come together to look at their own problems together, share their experiences, meet with mentors and industry leaders with a view to constantly looking for solutions to our problems. Cynical Critics have derided the gesture and rather than assist with solutions, contributions or suggestions or even their time towards helping, they would rather laugh at any attempt by certain individuals no matter how subtle, to create a better society especially as it regards the problem of unemployment. A problem that has turned individuals who hitherto were interested only in getting jobs and even hustling legally, into criminal entrepreneurs with kidnapping, armed robbery, 419, arson, political thuggery to mention but a few vices as their current main stay. The critic who today is well endowed to do something about this problem and refuses to might just be the next victim of these individuals who are scourging our streets, if we do not get them to direct their minds towards enterprising and commercially viable ventures.

By now and from the growing content on the EMPLOYER url,  you must have understood that there are three categories of membership for-the members (jobseekers, intending entrepreneurs and even those that desire to change jobs), Employers and Advertisers and  no matter which category you belong  to, we are in partnership for one purpose only –to build our members who are job seekers and intending entrepreneurs into world-class employers of labour and accomplished individuals, providing them with seed funds for viable ventures and to get people from our rich database of the unemployed to fill positions in those ventures while continually offering them mentorship and business assistance as they grow their enterprises. Therefore if you are an advertiser or an employer, whatever token, contributions or fees you pay on the platform are directed at providing seed funds for members whose business ideas meet the criteria for sponsorship. 

We implore you to look at areas you excel as an individual or organization and lend your partnership to this cause to help that neighbour, relative or friend who is not doing as well as yourself. The ideas are simple and practicable and it is our utmost belief that if we all put aside our differences and worked together, we shall indeed build a working African continent...starting with our our own immediate communities. See how to join the cause on www.employerafrica.com/register.php

Thursday 18 August 2011

JOBOCRACY PART I - Theories And Applications

“I do not believe we can repair the basic fabric of society until people who are willing to work have work. Work organizes life. It gives structure and discipline to life.”      -BILL CLINTON


Theories and Applications
The subject of Jobocracy will sound strange or alien to anyone who is an adept follower of world systems. Jobocracy will further awe many readers because the word is not entered into the English dictionary yet. It had no meaning hitherto and so could not be an adjective, synonym, antonym, verb, adjective or any figure of speech. Jobocracy could not be immediately derived from the original word job, whose origin, according to the online Etymology Dictionary, derives from the 1550s, in phrase jobbe of worke "piece of work" (contrasted with continuous labor), perhaps a variant of gobbe "mass, lump" (c.1400;). Sense of "work done for pay" first recorded as job in the 1650s. Slang meaning "specimen, thing, person" is from 1927. The verb is attested from 1660s. On the job "hard at work" is from 1882. Job lot is from obsolete sense of "cartload, lump," which might also ultimately be from gob. Jobber – "one who does odd jobs," 1706, agent noun from job. The new Webster English Dictionary of the English Origin defines job. n. as a specific piece of work, esp. done for pay; an occupation as a steady source of livelihood. You’d get other words like jobbed, jobber, jobbery, etc. in the same dictionary. But today, on this very day, all that will change. Jobocracy has come to stay with us, with meaning and definition for all of us that will embrace it. Jobocracy is not governance or any system of government. Jobocracy is a way of life.
Before I give this word the definition and meaning deserving of it, let me go down history for a better picture and understanding of this word that will soon become a culture. All through the ages, men have proposed systems that changed their societies politically and economically. All through the ages, men have practiced systems that had jobocracy as an ingredient to their successes. Utopianism, right from Plato’s discourse on the subject of Utopia around 380 BC to  the period of Plutarch, the Greek historian and biographer of the 1st century who dealt with the blissful and mythic past of the humanity down to Sir Thomas More’s 1516 book, Utopia,  describing a fictional Island in the Atlantic Ocean, has always been touted as a possible political or social-economic ingredient to man’s ultimate comfort, even though in a fictitious state.  In the Chinese culture, the Utopia dream had been extensively discussed by men like Yao Yuanming, in 421 about a chance discovery of an ethereal Utopia where the people lead an ideal existence in harmony with nature, unaware of the outside world for centuries. Then came Egalitarianism  as a trend of thought that favors equality of some sort among people: people should get the same, or be treated the same, or be treated as equals in some respect such as race, religion, ethnicity, sex, political affiliation, economic status, social status, and/or cultural heritage.
While most of these systems proposed since the beginning of time and at different era have never been without criticisms, it is also on record that whatever system is practiced is not without errors. For instance,  a study published in 2009 took into account data sets from major world economies and correlated them with inequality indices. The study found that the absolute wealth within a country had little effect on the citizens' well-being or social cohesion and that income inequality correlated strongly with social problems such as homicide, infant mortality, obesity, teenage pregnancies, emotional depression, prison population and unemployment. For example, countries such as Japan, Finland and Norway scored highly in social well-being and income equality, while countries such as the United States and United Kingdom scored low in both. Why is this the case that amidst the wealth of nations, citizens suffer in various forms?
Consider a possible answer from an excerpt from H.D. Henderson’s (M.A.; Fellow of Clare College, Cambridge; Lecturer in Economics; Secretary to the Cotton Control Board from 1917-1919) Essay on Liberalism, titled UNEMPLOYMENT, “It would, indeed, be a miracle, if it were not for the fact that those old economic laws, whose impersonal forces of supply and demand, whose existence some people nowadays are inclined to dispute, or to regard as being in extremely bad taste, really do work in a manner after all. They are our co-ordinators, the only ones we have; and they do their work with much friction and waste, only by correcting a maladjustment after it has taken place, by slow and often cruel devices, of which one of the most cruel is, precisely, unemployment and all the misery it entails.”

Men have always dreamt of such a state where comfort can be accorded the citizenry but the travail of our time have never allowed for that. H. G. Wells said this in his book, A Modern Utopia “Certain liberties, however, following the best Utopian precedents, we may take with existing fact. We assume that the tone of public thought may be entirely different from what it is in the present world. We permit ourselves a free hand with the mental conflict of life, within the possibilities of the human mind as we know it. We permit ourselves also a free hand with all the apparatus of existence that man has, so to speak, made for himself, with houses, roads, clothing, canals, machinery, with laws, boundaries, conventions, and traditions, with schools, with literature and religious organisation, with creeds and customs, with everything, in fact, that it lies within man's power to alter. That, indeed, is the cardinal assumption of all Utopian speculations old and new; the Republic and Laws of Plato, and More's Utopia, Howells' implicit Altruria, and Bellamy's future Boston, Comte's great Western Republic, Hertzka's Freeland, Cabet's Icaria, and Campanella's City of the Sun, are built, just as we shall build, upon that, upon the hypothesis of the complete emancipation of a community of men from tradition, from habits, from legal bonds, and that subtler servitude possessions entail. And much of the essential value of all such speculations lies in this assumption of emancipation, lies in that regard towards human freedom, in the undying interest of the human power of self-escape, the power to resist the causation of the past, and to evade, initiate, endeavour, and overcome.”
It is no wonder therefore that in a bid to find the solutions to economic problems, individuals have come together to form cooperative societies which currently also embraces institutions to the extent that the first cooperative principles were established by the Rochdale Pioneers in England in 1844 and observed consistently by successful societies since that time till date. At the back of the minds of members is a society that would create equality and allow members to live in a perceived Utopian-styled setting amongst themselves but with just slight variations from the perceived Utopian society as propounded by Plato.
Co-ops have flourished against the uneven and conflicting economic policy prescriptions from policy makers, an inconsistency that has tenaciously and dangerously eroded social and economic structures to the extent that Africa has become the experimental ground for world economic powers to profligate their future economic ideas and practices. Individuals in rural communities can achieve economic and social objectives as a group that they could not achieve as sole producers, workers or consumers (C. D. meret and N. Walzer, 2004). At the beginning of the twenty-first century, co-ops still have an enormous impact on the North American and Global economy, even though the contributions that co-ops make have changed in quantitative and qualitative ways over the past two centuries. Proponents of the cooperative enterprise approach justify its continuing importance by pointing to the significant and community development it has played over the last two centuries (Cheney 1999; Fitch 1996;Wilkinson and Quarter 1996). These roles can be readily seen by looking at how the co-op as a formal business entity emerged in the nineteenth century industrial revolution (Melnyk 1985). Today, co-ops have emerged stronger than ever providing millions of jobs for the world’s population, protecting the common interests of members while doing billions of Dollars businesses. The most interesting aspect of this concept is that people (the private sector) are coming together to form these co-ops, to cater for their needs as a people. At no time did Government at any level impose the memberships into co-ops on citizens, it is usually a voluntary gesture on the part of the individual (even the Government worker) that believes in the ideals of the co-op to meet his/her personal and economic needs.
In reality we have always practiced jobocracy through such co-ops and other like institutions that engage their members for the common good irrespective of Government economic and political policies . Today modern jobocracy is here and to be become a jobocrat, one must realize that the long touted principles and theories of Self-Help and Mutual Aid as core aspects of man’s social and economic evolution (Kropotkin 1902) must be imbibed and embraced at all levels of our development. All nations have been made what they are by the thinking and the working of many generations of men.  Patient and persevering labourers in all ranks and conditions of life, cultivators of the soil and explorers of the mine, inventors and discoverers, manufacturers, mechanics and artisans, poets, philosophers, and politicians, all have contributed towards the grand result, one generation building upon another’s labours, and carrying them forward to still higher stages.  This constant succession of noble workers—the artisans of civilisation—has served to create order out of chaos in industry, science, and art; and the living race has thus, in the course of nature, become the inheritor of the rich estate provided by the skill and industry of our forefathers, which is placed in our hands to cultivate, and to hand down, not only unimpaired but improved, to our successors. (Smiles 1859). This is been eroded in several cultures and societies by the short-cut approach to wealth in many societies, absence of skill training in schools, bad governance, loss of societal tenets and values,  over-dependence on Government for jobs, wrong economic policies and massive unemployment especially amongst the youths and so many other factors too numerous to mention.
Jobocracy is the principle of adopting self-help, mutual aid and co-operative ideologies that have been proven to work over time to create a culture and a lifestyle that can bring some sanity into the system while allowing for the progress of the nations. Jobocracy is that simple art of bringing together all the unemployed, or intending entrepreneurs and Intrapreneurs and even those that are desirous of new jobs  together to create the jobs they each desire, not demeaning jobs, but jobs that each will be proud of and in accordance to their skills. A Jobocrat works with the unemployed in a semi-co-operative styled arrangement and the jobber is further encouraged to generate ideas for the start-up of his/her own business to further the cause. The beauty of been a Jobocrat is that unlike in capitalism, you are building the competition who would not actually be in competition with you per say, because you are working for the common good and are like branches from the same tree. In Jobocracy, the ownership is by both the founding  or master Jobocrat who takes majority of the stock or profit and by the other workers who take a lower percentage of the enterprise. Unlike in an ideal Utopian society, the worker in a Jobocracy is remunerated in accordance with his performance but he is assured of the percentage of ownership due him from the pioneer or master Jobocrat. So if anyone out there is practicing this style of business, he is simply a Jobocrat. We have had minor Jobocracies in the past when companies give stock options to their personnel. Can we take a look at all the organizations and co-ops that have bestowed the feeling of ownership on personnel? Record shows that average performance is better than in  Insitutions where only wage is paid out to the personnel with no sense of belonging. Jobocracy should not be mistaken for or compared with stock options, it is completely different because the Jobocrat from onset encourages the worker to start his/her own enterprise and funds are made available for such startup and workers drawn from a pool of unemployed and encouraged to do same so that more people can be employed.
Jobocracy. n. (1) is defined as creating jobs by the unemployed people, for the people and managed by the people. Everyone is a stakeholder and everyone is a potential Jobocrat. n., a person that practices Jobocracy. (2) It is the free and equal right of every person to join a work platform irrespective of educational attainment, literacy or skill level where talents are discovered, encouraged and promoted in every form. Everyone is allowed membership or participation into any Jobocracy movement. EMPLOYER as initiated by UNINET Africa, is one of her formidable carriers of change aimed at creating massive employment in the African continent by developing this concept and movement of Jobocracy and is setting up businesses for the unemployed and encouraging the unemployed drafted into these businesses to work hard enough to get enough of their equity in these businesses to either start new businesses on their own or come forth with business ideas to EMPLOYER to fund it for them under the simple principles of Jobocracy. Like everything beautiful, simplicity as seen in practices over the centuries,  is the way to go to generate massive employment opportunities and new businesses especially at the micro and micro finance level. I encourage all who wish to practice this all new system to generate more employment in their areas to contact me for us to work together through EMPLOYER to reduce poverty in the African continent and the world by generating massive employment opportunities. Become a jobocrat!











Saturday 6 August 2011

THE UNEMPLOYMENT PALAVER AND THE NEW HOPE FOR A NEW AFRICA

Many years ago, we never thought that simple ideas could change entire structures…we always wanted them to be complex before they could gain acceptability. Most African Governments that are facing the problem of unemployment have resorted to setting up one committee after another in search of answers to job creation with little or no success. For instance, in Nigeria, several job creation committees have been created at the Federal and State Government levels. The enormous number of the unemployed awaiting civil service absorption is equally frightening with more and more people applying to the Civil Service Commission on a daily basis. Yet, Government has failed to go back to the drawing board to find where they missed it. In other African countries, the experience is the same with recent uprisings and youth restiveness witnessed in several African countries. The issue is that this situation directly hampers Africa’s economic development and is indeed a headache for all African states. The singular approach of Governments in depending on Committees is wrong as there are so many concerned groups and individuals out there that have, for years, dived headlong into the problem to proffer practical solutions to the situation. These individuals and groups should be made to be stake-holders in this fight and encouraged as well as monitored by Government. The situation would have been different if Government had not failed the citizenry and so their committees are suspect even if they be made up of private sector individuals. The plan is to look out for these people who have track records…years of toiling and providing practical trainings and mentoring as well as provision of employment, not  as a business for their gain, but for poverty alleviation and a better society. Government should then investigate and assess their achievements with a view to encourage their concepts and fund their programs on a larger scale. The issue of unemployment needs a multi-pronged approach if we are to come even close to the ideals of the MDGs and the visions of most African states.

All through school, from Kindergarten, through Primary school to the University, all we’ve ever been thought is to finish school and get a job. I can’t remember been told to finish school and start a business or a trade….my parents wouldn’t have that….no parent would hear of it. Its not the practice. Its not our ways, we’re told. Government will provide you the jobs we’re further reassured. Now that Government has done the best they can, isn’t it time for us to take on the situation…take the bull by the horn. But then Government can play some other roles for us while we sort ourselves out creating our own jobs. Government can make facilities work better and concentrate on other things we’d need to get us properly employed. The pressure on Governments is unbearable and we need to help them. You and I need to make the efforts. The education system needs to be completely revamped to be more skill oriented end entrepreneurship driven. They can setup all their committees and act on all the recommendations of the committees but you and I that are unemployed actually know what we face and have ideas on how to solve the problems based on our daily experience and suffering on the streets in search of jobs. Imagine that after all the years of walking the streets without jobs, you finally see one that you should be qualified for and it says you must have the years of experience you’ve been on the streets searching for the same job. Imagine that after four years of joblessness, the Government makes you an Intern in an organization for two to three years and you don’t get paid or retained by the organization, just so that the issue of experience can be solved. This is the state of confusion and colossal nature of the problem at hand. The only way out of this is that on graduation, you’d have had almost a life-time of practical and skill oriented education that should make you match the demands of any employer.
I think enough has been said about Government. Let’s move forward now…but wait a minute. I’ve come to understand that University graduates are the main concerns of some of these job creation committees. That is where the mistake will be made. If the job is to be provided, it should cut across all cadres as it is a well-known fact that it is the idle, illiterate and semi-literate citizens that are usually more easily convinced into hooliganism, armed robbery, arson and other social vices to mention but a few. I really admire what The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), The Council of Trade Unions (NACTU), and The Federation of Unions of South Africa (FEDUSA) did to curb South Africa’s huge unemployment problem when they collectively founded the Job Creation Trust at the Presidential Job Summit of 1998, by asking workers to donate one day’s wage and companies’ one day’s profit. It was an attempt by organized labour to contribute and fight against unemployment in South Africa, which stood at the time at 37%, and other social ills such as rime, disease and poverty. The Trust was able to raise R89 million mainly from members. This is admirable and we would encourage other African states to learn from this effort and make it a reality in their countries. EMPLOYER, when established in at least 1/3 of all African countries would push for the Africa Job Trust or Africa Employment Trust that will use our trusted model to further create jobs in their millions for Africa. We would encourage any group or individuals who have the power to do this now before we get there to go ahead as we must move Africa forward at this crucial time and we would lend our support by giving all the blue print on the EMPLOYER project to such a trust.
The plight of the African continent is more fundamentally reflected in the state of its labour force in that the majority continues to be primarily underemployed with low or survival incomes. Indeed, the state of the labour market very much reflects the nature of the African economic crisis. A crisis caused by several factors that are natural, political and economic in nature. Africa’s high population of three quarters of a billion places a lot of pressure on Governments to maintain adequate earning opportunities for their citizens if their per capita income were to remain stable.
It is obvious that various unstable and volatile economic policies in Africa are not in tandem with the practices of globalization as Africa’s problems abound amidst globalization. We believe that the approach is for African states is to  encourage policies and programs that would increase micro, macro and small and medium Enterprises. This is as a result of the population structure of most African countries. Youth, which make up well over 45% of the population of Africa is either grossly underemployed or unemployed. I believe that regulation of labour as is seen in the formal sector should be moderate d or slightly diluted to allow for a wider reach especially amongst the youths.
EMPLOYER, created out of necessity, anger, empathy, hunger and trudging on the streets of Africa has come as an answer and like all UNINET programs, is a new hope for an envisaged new Africa – that Africa that will know no hunger, whose youths shall be made employers of labour and whose economy shall thrive like never before seen. Once more, the practice of jobocracy as shall be explained in the near furfure will be the main element of our success. Join us!