Wellness Wednesday - Why making your mark is so vital

Today is voting day in South Africa. Millions of people have been making their way to polling stations all over the country to make their choice for provincial and national government for the next 5 years. It's an important day in the history of our country. Important because our democracy is still so young. Until 1994, only a select few were allowed to vote at all. But it's also important because our young democracy seems to have taken a bit of a turn for the worse over the last few years and the people's voice, once again, needs to urgently be heard.

What does this have to do with Mellow Health? Well, I think it has everything to do with it. We are currently sitting with a government so deeply buried in corruption that it's actually forgotten the difference between right and wrong altogether. Every wrong doing is followed rapidly by machine gunfire excuses. The offenders receive a rap on the knuckles publicly and a pat on the back privately and the corruption continues unabated.

While the fat cats in parliament continue to take money from our beautiful country and all of its people, they are also completely oblivious to the needs of our country, and, by that, I mean, the land. Sustainable living is so far removed from their understanding that it's not even a pinprick of a thought for them. If they can't look after the people, how will they ever start to look after the land, not to mention our beautiful wildlife.

Our animals are being slaughtered right under our noses: canned lion hunting, rhino poaching and elephant poaching are rife, and those are just the animals that are highly publicised. The people talking about these things and actually taking action are NOT the government. They are private companies and individuals who care enough to take matters into their own hands.

South Africans have learnt to do things themselves if they want something done. Wait for the powers that be to take a stand and you will be waiting a very long time. But is that really how it should be? I don't think so. That is why today is such an important day. There are many who have decided it's a waste of time to vote but, to those people I say, "Shame on you." If you choose NOT to make your mark then you have no right to sit and complain about the state of our country. You may think you are just one person, but there are thousands just like you. If those thousands all actually voted, they would be a force to be reckoned with.

Honestly, I hate politics. I think that most politicians are self-absorbed, arrogant megalomaniacs that only know how to spin and blow hot air;) Unfortunately, however, this is the way the system works and you can either fight against it eternally, or go with it. I choose to go with it because there is always the chance that it could make a big difference. Surely ONE of those megalomaniacs must also have good intentions!? So I weigh them all up and choose the lesser of several evils;)

When I start to think about what a waste of time it might be, I think about all of the things that I personally want for this country. I want to see an end to poverty and starvation and suffering. But I think the pathway to that lies in sustainability, in taking climate change seriously, by taking away all the power from the big corporations, and encouraging organic and free-range, sustainable farming. I want a government that doesn't simply supply food to the masses, but rather teaches them how to grow it themselves so that they will always have the ability to feed themselves and others. I want to see people being educated about the effect their carbon footprint has on our environment and wildlife and being forced to make sustainable changes. As long as we have a government that is completely self-absorbed and setting the wrong example, we will have citizens who feel they can do the same. I think it's time that changed.

Some people may think I'm nuts. There are bigger things in the world to worry about. That's your opinion and that's fine. This is mine. I don't agree. I think that, without a planet, nothing else will be relevant anymore. Without a safe place to live, we won't be around long to enough to worry about anything else.

So I am going to vote and hope that it makes that little bit of difference necessary to force the powers that be into doing the things I think are important and relevant to our survival, not just for South Africans, but for every living creature around us.

I hope you all will do the same.