10 Practical Ways to Change your Country for the better [part I]

There is that old joke that goes, ‘How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.’

i know, it’s NOT funny. please stop eating elephants. But the point it makes is pretty valid. i don’t know about you but when i think about my home country of South Africa and everything that needs i change i can feel completely overwhelmed and usually simply just paralysed. What can i do to make any difference? Ah, well there you have the answer – all the difference is ridiculous and crazy and impossible and you can’t do it. But any difference? All you have to do is start, and here are ten ideas you can get started on [To not add to your overwhelm’ment, why not start with one? And also what might really help is getting a mate to do this with you. Who comes to mind? Great, let’s get going]:

Let There Be Good!

If you, like me, are a bit sick and tired and heading towards overwhelmed by all the bad news stories we have to take in online [from mass killings in Nigeria to dead cartoonists to children in schools re-enacting dog fights to live cattle being attacked in a turned over truck] then we should do something about it.

There is so much to be done, and it can overwhelm, but ONE THING that can start the ball rolling in the right direction, is for us to get less sharey with the negative stuff and up our virality on the GOOD NEWS front.

In the shell of a really big nut, SHARE MORE OF THE GOOD NEWS STORIES.

It is not like they are not out there. It’s just that we tend to gravitate towards the bad, the negative, the sensational.

Who do you know who is doing good? Get them to guest post their story on your blog or Facebook wall or tweet a link to their blog on your Twitterer feed. Let’s put the good stuff front and center.

For example, i see a story on Facebook of a young entrepreneur, 23-year-old Veli Moses Mackenzie, in Johannesburg who is standing at the traffic lights asking for money [a typical thing in many of the cities in South Africa] except that his ask is a little different:

For R1 [less than ten American cents] i will teach you one word in my language [Zulu].

Dubbed the Jozi Traffic Light teacher, his story goes viral along with the hashtag #trafficlightteacher and the next day i read about him being awarded a bursary to follow his dream by studying audio technology.

The ask continued to the public as:

‘Moses is now in need of finding suitable accommodation, and Jacaranda has asked for any help regarding this matter. Moses currently lives under a bridge and sleeps in an old television box near his Empire road ‘office’.’ 

The more viral we can make GOOD NEWS, the more news outlets will see the value of reporting it and the more stories like this will start coming out. Also the less we feed on the bad news, the less the call for it and the more the media will shift to telling good news stories.

It is a supply and demand business – and what we demand, they will supply. The obstacle is obviously the fewness of people sharing the good stuff and so this does need to become a movement.

SHARE THIS BLOG POST for example. Write your own on a similar vein. And start passing on those stories of good.

One wonders if there would be any correlation to teenage school shootings, for example, if we gave them no media attention at all [anonymity instead of fame?]

And in fact, there are many people who are already doing this. Do you know of a group or site or place where we can easily find the GOOD NEWS stories? Please leave your links in the comments.

eg. http://www.goodnewsnetwork.org or @good on the Twitterer

Where else do we find the good news?

Positive celebrating life story post 3: Nick Vujicic and son

Continuing my sharing of positive news:

Anyone who has heard Nick Vujicic speak or seen him on a video will have been deeply inspired… Nick’s Wikipedia page gives a brief intro to this giant of a man:

‘Nicholas James “Nick” Vujicic (born 4 December 1982) is a Serbian Australian evangelist and motivational speaker born with tetra-amelia syndrome, a rare ‘disorder characterized by the absence of all four limbs. As a child, he struggled mentally and emotionally as well as physically, but eventually came to terms with his disability and, at the age of seventeen, started his own non-profit organization, Life Without Limits. Vujicic presents motivational speeches worldwide, on life with a disability, hope and finding meaning in life. He also speaks about his belief that God can use any willing heart to do his work and that God is big enough to overcome any and all disabilities.’

today on the ‘book there was this picture of Nick holding his new son simply with this comment:

‘Dream come true. Holding my Baby Boy Kiyoshi. Amazing grace and gift from God. Love you all so much. Thank you for your showers of prayer.’

i feel like that is inspiring and positive to the nth degree…

to visit the site Nick started, Life Wihtout Limbs, which has a lot of inspiring material on it, click here

Positive celebrating life story post 2: Air-lifted bottled water [and why stop at one? here’s a whole site!]

in the light of the Oscar Pistorius case and other heavy negative stories that are filling up the newswaves, it is good to be reminded of some of the good stories that are taking place out there:

‘At the end of January, eight days of rain left the people of Limpopo reeling. The district of Vhembe was one of the worst hit areas. Homes were damaged, water pipes broken and uprooted, and at least eight lives were lost.’

so begins this article which highlights an organisation called Flying for Life which literally swooped in and saved the day – read the article here but even a bonus story is the site that i found it on called The Good News South Africa which is already doing daily what i am trying to attempt with a couple of blogs during this week – and that is reporting the good news – stories of life and celebration and cures for rabies and book-reading days, so read the story of how Flying for Life got involved to bring life and hope to the villages in Limpopo, but also perhaps bookmark that site as one to head to regularly to encourage you and add balance to all the negative news reporting we often fill our lives, minds and attitudes with.

‘Now, after the flood, once the rescue personnel have long since left the area and life has returned to “normal”, Flying for Life will continue to use aviation in its work to find solutions for education, healthcare, HIV/AIDS training, enterprise development, housing, water solutions, and skills and agriculture development.’

[to be inspired by the story of the man with no limbs, Nick Vujicic, and his new baby boy, click here…]

Positive celebrating life story post 1: left-handed pianist Nicholas McCarthy

in the midst of all the recent focus on murder and rape and negativity that has been jamming up the media and our minds and social networks, i figured it was time to seek out some inspirational life-giving stories of positivity and hope – what a gem to begin with:

Just 23 years old, Nicholas McCarthy also appeared at the 2012 Paralympics ‘although McCarthy’s moment of fame came as a musical performer when he played in the closing ceremony with the British Paraorchestra.’

This young British pianist, born without his right hand, has been making an international name for himself as a exceptionally talented and hard-working one-handed pianist.

Read this story here and be ready to be deeply moved by someone who embraces life to the full against all odds and is wowing people the world over.

Watch the video clip with your eyes closed and you won’t believe the dude is playing with one hand only, it is in-sane!

What stories have you found that celebrate life and are worth sharing and being inspired by together?

[to move to the next story dealing with water supply and a whole site of good news for South Africa, click here…]

Mark, my words – good news

this is a really short one, but a very important message for Jesus followers to hear – the significance of the fact that the message Jesus brought to the world was something that He referred to as “good news” and the question each one of us should be asking about the message we are speaking and living out…

to move on to the authority of lived out Love, click here