Of course, everything you say matters as well and the example you give from South Africa is important. I asked you to say more about that and you haven't. I didn't ask to challenge you, but because I was interested, and I know nothing about the situation there.
I would really appreciate it if you did write back, offlist or on, to say more about that.
T: Well Joanna, I am always happy to share my understanding, but don't you think you need to ask a specific question? Basically South African political and economic life is dominated by a ruling alliance of the African National Congress, the South African Communist Party and the Congress of South African Trade Unions. Many people are members of all three.
The alliance is corrupt, incompetent and rules in such a way as to impoverish the people more than they were under apartheid. The gini co-efficient shows that inequality has grown under the ANC government to the extent that SA is now the most unequal country in the world bar none.
Our education system which was bad has deteriorated further. The teacher's union SADTU (which is an affiliate of COSATU) acts as barrier to the improvement of the system in the way I mentioned. It is not the only barrier. Poverty is a great barrier too. But that needs to be qualified. South Africa on average is a middle income country and the wealthiest in Africa. But its education is very bad BY AFRICAN STANDARDS. Our neighbour Zimbabwe, which is an economic basket case, has better education than we do, as do most African countries. I know, because I have been Director of Academic Planning at a university for years and a very large proportion of our postgraduate students come from other countries in Africa. They are much better prospects than SA students. Also at undergraduate level we see this difference.
Now the point is that this is enough to show that raising wages does not necessarily raise the standard of education. I would think Zimbabwean teachers count themselves lucky when they get paid at all! This obviously is not to defend low wages (!) but to prove that there are many other factors at work and to say that one of them is more important than others with no supporting argumentation is rubbish.
You might ask what is the real opposition to all this in South Africa? Well the ultra left is in the process of formation. Take a look here at this example:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abahlali_baseMjondolo
Well I see that CC has sent in a lengthy reply to me, but it's been a busy week and I'm in need of a beer. Maybe I'll be back on Monday. Ask me anything you like. I'll answer what I can, whether on or off-list.
Regards Tahir
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