Gesprek is niu00e9 oorlog
Gesprek is niu00e9 oorlog

Gesprek is nié oorlog

Dani Booysen
Die openbare gesprek wat uiteindelik die week oor huidige aborsiewetgewing in Namibië begin het, moet as 'n geleentheid gesien word.

'n Kans om na mekaar te luister, onsself in ander se skoene te plaas en 'n werkbare middegrond te vind eerder as om in die dogma van uiterstes vas te val. Op dieselfde manier dus, waarop aan ons republiek geboorte gegee is.

'n Ommeswaai na absolute pro-choice sal waarskynlik nie sommer in ons land gebeur nie, maar dit is belangrik om ewewigtig oor die bestaande bedeling te herbesin.

Sonder om in “oorlog” te verval.

Uit die aard van ons geskiedenis moet ons waak teen retoriek en diskoers wat geklee is in metafore wat na stryd en struweling verwys. Hierdie is 'n bewustheid wat ons voortdurend persoonlik (die skrywer sluit homself hierby in) en in alle gemeenskaplike verbande moet aanhou kweek in die wyse hoe ons ons wêreld sien en vorm daaraan gee in die breedste sin van die woord. Dit sluit ook koerante en alle vorme van media in.

Een publikasie het gister die woord “slagveld” gebruik.

Meningsverskille oor Covid-19 het in baie gevalle in hierdie soort “war of words” – en selfs daad – verval. En 'n interessante vraag is of dit dalk ook gaan verander hoe ons in die toekoms met mekaar gesprek voer.

Die polarisering dateer egter reeds verder terug, en dit is by die wortels van daardie verskille waar ons die oplossings moet soek.



So sê ander

18 Oktober 2021



Will homeless veterans ever get housing…?



Homeless veterans, mentally disabled or traumatized as a result of their service, and their advocates waged a long legal battle to force the Department of Veterans Affairs to stop using parts of the sprawling VA campus in West L.A. for non-veteran enterprises and return the campus to the use for which it was originally intended: housing veterans.

Five years later, a grand total of 54 units of permanent supportive housing for homeless veterans are open.

The principal developer group was partially hamstrung by the discovery that utilities under the VA grounds — water, sewer, and stormwater systems — needed to be fixed to create 1,200 units of housing, and the repairs would cost between $10 million and $14 million.

But the most difficult part has been raising the money to build the housing. And that is the larger problem — waiting on money.

The current systems for doling out public dollars are bound up in bureaucracy and cumbersome rules that slow projects and make them more expensive to build.

If we want to have affordable housing everywhere, we need to make it easier for qualified developers to get financing.

It's unacceptable that Southern California will have to wait another decade for the promised 1,200 units of housing, while about 3,900 veterans sleep on the street or in shelters. Veteran homelessness is a national disgrace…

• LOS ANGELES TIMES

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