Assignment 05

SUS1501 – Sustainability and Greed

Student Number:
Date:
Teaching Assistant Name:

Declaration:

By submitting this assignment, I implicitly declare that this is my own work.

I am aware that if ANY unacknowledged copying is detected in ANY part of this assignment, I
will get 0 (zero) for the entire assignment.

INSTRUCTIONS:
 Read the “1. Background Facts” and “2. Introduction” sections below;
 Fill in your assignment contributions under the relevant headings 3 – 5 below;
 Save the file as a Word document with a short name (myUnisa will reject files with long names);
 Submit this file into the Assessment 5 – 867326 assignment space on myUnisa;
 Take a screen grab of the final submission acknowledgement on myUnisa and save this
somewhere safe in case of any disputes:
 Check under the Assignments tool that there is a date in the “Processed” cell for the SUS1501
Assignment 5.
 NB – DO NOT RESUMBIT AN ASSIGNMENT AFTER THE DEADLINE HAS PASSED EVEN IF THE
SYSTEM ALLOWS YOU TO DO SO. THIS WILL CHANGE YOUR SUBMISSION DATE AND YOUR
SUBMISSION WILL REFLECT AS LATE

894060
1. BACKGROUND FACTS

 “In the 2018/2019 financial year, Bob van Dijk, the CEO of Naspers earned a total
remuneration (salary, incentives and options) of R 1.9 billion.”
 “60% of the world’s cobalt is mined in the DRC. Significant amounts of this is mined
under appalling conditions often by child labourers.”
 “Of the top 10 wealthiest people (all men), seven are tech billionaires. Their net worth is
US$ 847 billion or ZAR 13 trillion!”

2. INTRODUCTION (written for me by Prof Eccles)

In assignments 2, 3 and 4 we have, as a group, reflected on the facts above. We debated whether it was
ok for Bob van Dijk to earn ZAR 1.9 billion in a single year. Some of us thought this was a reflection of a
job done excellently. Some of us thought that this was morally outrageous.

We then debated the issue children working in appalling conditions in cobalt mines in the DRC. Although
most of us thought that this was a problem, we saw how other ethical interpretations were possible.

And in the final analysis we considered the possibility that these two scenarios – great wealth and great
poverty – might in fact be linked. On the basis of this, we debated whether the whole picture looked ok.
I think it is safe to say that most of us were left feeling a bit uneasy about things.

That is all well and good. But what about me? In this short essay, I’m going to think about this question.
I’ll start out by trying to figure out where I currently fit in in this picture. Then I’m going to think forward
in time. Specifically, I’m going to imagine what I hope my legacy will have been over the course of the
good (eudaimonic) life I have lived. In formulating this vision of a life well lived, I’m going to make
reference to key virtues or excellences (arête) that I think I will need to develop in order to achieve this
good life. And I’m going to think about the sort of problems that these excellences might present if
taken too far or not far enough.

3. WHERE DO I FIT IN NOW? (200 words)

<In this section you need to reflect on where you fit in to the economic landscape painted by the facts.
This reflection should include:
 An evaluation of where you fit in (the site https://wid.world/simulator/ might help you to do
this a bit more objectively);
 A description of what this means in terms of your day to day life – your challenges and your
privileges; and
 An evaluation of what you think about this location – how this location makes you feel.

This should be at least 200 words long.>

4. AT THE END OF MY LIFE …… (300 words)

< Here you need to ‘predict’ the legacy you think you would like to leave. You should tell us the things
that you hope you will have achieved, and the things that people will remember about you when your
time on earth has come to an end. What you say is entirely up to you, but the aim is for you to imagine
what it will look like, at the end of the day, for you to make the claim: “I have lived a good life!”

In answering this, you must make sensible reference to:

1. eudaimonia,
1. key arête that you will need to develop, and
2. the role that you imagine phronesis will have played in navigating life’s complexities.

From this we need to be able to see that you have understood these key concepts in this virtue ethics
space.

This should be at least 300 words long.>

5. CONCLUSION (100 words)

<Here you need to tie things together. In particular we would like to see you reflecting on how your
vision of a eudaimonic or good life ties in with the economic landscape we have contemplated in the
Introduction, and your current location in it that you described in the section 3.

This should be at least 100 words long.>