Thinking problem I have always been critical of the fact that we lack strong foundations in math education, highlighting

this as the number one crisis in the country. I am now convinced that the problem is deeper than that. After a thorough analysis of the sociopolitical diaspora and the political dynamics in our country and abroad, I am forced to believe that we (South Africans) generally have a thinking problem. Our thinking is illogical, inaccurate, lacks precision, irrelevant, lacks depth, lacks breadth, and is mostly insignificant. I once had a nightmare about one man whom I knew for years as a youth. He never engaged in any form of political activities of that era. I was shocked to hear his loud cry in the dream, saying there are complaints from his constituency that I am spreading politically misleading letters through the web. I was shocked because this man knew nothing about politics nor was he interested in such activities. Then, few days later I was hospitalized for three nights due to work related infection. While I was at the hospital bed, I had an ample time to digest and swallow this mans cry. As a result I refrained from sending any correspondences. I have no political polarity; as a result I dont see how my letters should disturb any constituencies. However, I will keep things as clean as possible in future. For now, let me explain the problem using an example drawn from lengthy conversation I had with my father: The game of football is won by strategies and techniques. One of the strategies used by good players is called running off the ball. This means that players of the same team run around when one of their teammate is in possession of the ball. It helps in creating options for passing or for scoring the player with the ball has an option of running straight to the goal posts with less or no interference from the opponents, or he/she can pass the ball to the next player who is in a better position to score or create a goal. I want to give this more attention, get some depth out of it at the present moment we have a government which is supposed to be for people and by people. However, the government which was elected by the people supposing has less options. We are not creating options for the government to pass the ball to us. We are instead, hiding behind our opponents. Yet, we complain that we are not getting balls from the government. When the player in possession of the ball has less or no options, number of things can happen, v.i.z.: 1. Pass to a marked player this is likely to result in injury to the marked player or loss of team possession of the ball. 2. Prolonged possession here the player holds the ball too long, resulting in loss of ball possession or an injury to the active player. 3. Sole attempt at goal the player in possession will attack without the support of his teammates. This usually results in complaints about selfish behaviour, at this time no one really wants to know why that happened, especially if that attempt was not successful. It is easy for many to criticize the government, saying the government has not done this and that for them. Meanwhile, we wait for the government to come at us. We expect them to bring the ball to us. We do not create depth; we dont weaken the opponent by opening up spaces. We dont encourage the government to pass the ball by both calling for the ball and by availing ourselves for that moment. In as much as we feel that the government is failing us, we are in turn failing the government. I was impressed by one Marta of Brazil women team, faced with a lot of pressure from the opponents. She ran off the ball, created space and also positioned herself to be in a good position for reception. On the arrival of the ball, Marta took her time to trap the ball, turned and position the ball where she would be able to take a shot. She drove a missile which left the goalkeeper helpless as the sound of the net was echoing back and forth. This is the kind of football that bear fruits goals (the aim of playing football is to score as many goals as possible and prevent the opponent from scoring, not even one goal). This is true to business as well. The goal of business is to make money, nothing else. This is achieved by increasing sales returns and reducing business expenditures, at the same time improving the quality of product or service. Thus, if cooperate-South Africa can learn from the game of football, business and the sociopolitical dynamics will definitely make a turn in the right direction.

Andries Sebola is one of the unsung heroes of South African football, whom I had always wished to have time to fit in my line-up. As a player, Sebola was not very skilful (what one would say is the dazzling or magic feet). However, as a thinker no other South African footballer has reached the level of his ingenious. Sebola would carefully study the opponents weakness from the side-line. I think it was Bonderego who first tapped his mental machine, which ran until his retiring days. Affectionately known as the Super-sub, he was known for scoring late game pinners. As a substitute, Sebola was the deadliest player we ever experienced in our age. I hope an in-depth interview with the man will held by of the good presenters. Maybe from the interview we will learn the recipe from the man himself. In the meantime let me speculate: Sebola was a good listener; he carried out the coachs plan with the diligence and zeal. A good coach is that which reads the game, analyse and re-evaluate his/her plan, corrects the errors in the plan and try again. On top of this, this coach will be able to communicate his plan to the players and persuade the player to feel like they own such a plan. He would always find a way of motivating the team when things dont go according to plans. This is a re-iteration process. It will continue for as long as the game continues. This was the character of Sebolas first true coach (Bonderego). I am looking at the manner in which people make the same mistakes over and over again. Reading the most relevant South African story book (Cry the beloved country) after the most reflective African book (Animal farm), we wonder why we keep falling for the old tricks. I do not want to say anything that I wont be free to interpret. However, my point is what was killing our fathers then is still killing us today. Like Reverent Khumalo states it: The desolation of families, for the sake of digging gold in the mines. This might seem meaningless and worthless of even considering for any discussion. This is true of all the changes in our culture today. Many changes happened so fast that we could not even have time to stop and question their value, not to mention the pros and cons. Many people we trust mislead us into thinking and believing wrongs are right. These things happen so fast that they have the same effect as when they are slowly introduced. I sometimes wish that people would carefully study the book of Revelation, using the book of Daniel as the key interpreter of most the abstract terms. If possible, also study the way systems function. Let me not stray from the point of discussion, I am told that not everybody can follow. Does it make any sense that I would make donations when I am heavily indebted, asking the bank to increase my overdraft limit? We are heavily indebted from the apartheid burden; we cannot afford any of hand-outs or even lending. We have a tendency of solving problems by creating even more complex problems. We expect the government to solve all of our problems, forgetting that the government does not function in isolation. In fact, I figured that our government is employed by the U.N.!!! So, they have certain delegations and mandates to perform. This is true to all member states. So, we should not feel bad when our government does not meet our demands. This is what we all do, is it not true? We do our job first, and then we do the odd jobs!!! So, nna I am sick and tired of blaming the government, especially when I have nothing to show as my effort to assist the government to achieve the common goals. We seem to forget that in a democratic country we must support the government of the day, even if we oppose some their ideas. Or are we also a fascism country? I always say that the terrible mistake that the ANC has done coming to power in 1994 is that of radically changing the shape of the struggle. They should have taken an (x) % of the salaries from all their deployed cadres, before they even got used to good salaries. This money would have been used effectively to properly train their youth, in the fields of deficiencies sciences; technologies; business and education. We have too many politicians, soldiers and lawyers. Our teachers need proper retraining program. As Dr. Richard Paul states it clearly: reflected mind taught by the unreflective mind a vicious circle. Do not get me wrong, there are lots of good teachers out there. When I talk about a teacher I talk about a process, a quality process intended to yield quality product. A process that conforms to set quality standards as set-out and verified by quality teachers. This should not be complicated by political hidden agendas.