New Rules for child labour in South Africa

I was reading something about children that are exploited since young stages of their lives and then I found that in South Africa, children can start working at age of 15.
A child under 15 years, or one who is subject to compulsory schooling is not allowed to work, or help at a business. This is in terms of the South African Schools Act, which stipulates that a child is subject to compulsory schooling until the last school day of the calendar year in which they turn 15, or the ninth grade, whichever comes first.

An exception to this is for children who work in the advertising, artistic or cultural industry and they must do so in terms of a permit granted by the labour minister. But still I think that at age of 15, even though there is a different culture in that country, the person is still immature to make a good or successful job. I know that many children does not have option, but I just don’t agree with that law, they should put a higher age on that law in order to have a better cohesion (work-employe).
According to News 24, once a child has cleared these hurdles, the regulations set out for example, whether they can perceive workplace dangers correctly, their sensitivity to chemicals or hormone disruptors and their ability to understand safety messages.

Africa: A Beautiful Continent

We Mexicans, as part of an American country, tend to under appreciate Africa and we imagine each and every of its countries are the same. This is totally false. Some Mexicans also think that all African population is still dancing around and wearing a loincloth. This was probably Africa a couple of centuries ago, but not anymore. Today the African continent is made by countries with a stable government like South Africa. Of course there are countries not so fortunate in the economic sense but still not populated by cavemen. We should be a little more reflecting and try to overcome popular stereotypes.

As we saw in the movie Invictus, South Africa is not the perfect country. Its people have suffered from the terrible consequences of apartheid (which I previously talked about). It has suffered a lot of instability previously, but today is the soon-to-be host of the Soccer World Cup. South Africa can proudly say they are the first African country to host this tournament. This event will definitely give South Africa a lot more international attention. I am glad we can get to know better a different country. Soccer is a major event for a lot of different people. Countries get together to enjoy this sport. I hope South Africa does a very good job as a host during this world cup to prove the world they are worth it and to break all wrong stereotypes.
Many African countries have a high birth rate but also a very high death rate because of AIDS, hunger, violence, among other major issues. I read they do not have a really good situation about women and children. They are the weakest and in African countries they are usually unprotected. I think African countries may seem way behind compared to American or European countries. Before under appreciating them and their people we need to think they have recently gotten independence and they started from scratch. They are barely getting started and trying to settle themselves. There are a lot of economic, cultural and international issues keeping them from moving forward. We should show solidarity for these countries and have consideration for their people. Africans are people with feelings, thoughts, dreams and hopes just like any of us.

Apartheid: More Than Just Separating

Apartheid is a system of racial segregation enforced by the National Party government in South Africa. It lasted from 1948 to 1994. The term apartheid means “separation” and that’s what it basically was. Apartheid separated social classes in such way that the white race was socially superior to the others, in this case the black people. It distributed land so that black would be in a different area than white people.

I had heard about apartheid before but never thought it had lasted so many years. I think this idea of believing certain race is better than another is really archaic. I thought South Africa had ended with this at the same time as the United States. Marthin Luther King was really important to this country. If he hadn’t step up who knows how long it had take for the United States to be respectful with all races.

In the movie Invictus, we were able of looking at the side effects of apartheid. It must’ve been very hard for the population to overcome just a strict policy. I think policies like this one make the population tolerate and agree with discriminations. Black people were used to the attacks of white people, they felt inferior. Also black people accumulated a lot of rage throughout the many years of abuses. White people were used to be above the rest and they actually thought they were better. I think using Rugby was a very intelligent way of overcoming apartheid. In the movie, President Mandela used this sport to unify the country that had always been separated. He used a sport as a political issue, as Maestro John mentioned in class.

We should all respect the different races, because we are all human after all. Discrimination between races has always been an issue. We can think of examples like Hitler with the Jews, and the discrimination toward ethnical groups. Respect is the key to end discrimination. We should treat other people like we would like to be treated, no matter what their color, language, sex, point of view or religion is.

I am glad neither one of us had to live in such an unfair society. We are definitely moved forward from where we were 30 years ago.