In light of active citizenship initiatives taking place across the country and the National Planning Commissions Strategic Plan, the relationship between obligations and rights has been playing on mind a lot. More so, in terms of how to use the one to strengthen the other and also the fundamental of the nature of this relationship between the two.

From this an important question for me is: Why do the apparent ‘entitlement syndromes’ lingering in society slants towards rights as opposed to obligations in order to enjoy those desired rights?

Literally by chance and like an answer to my ponderings, I bumped into a Book Review of a book by T.R. Reid titled, “Confucius lives next door: What living in the East teaches us about living in the West.” The teachings of the Chinese philosopher Confucius (551 – 479 BC) are usually presented as a philosophy about social harmony over state control, where societies live in harmony and stability in a two way yin and yang flow of duties and responsibilities.

The people’s duty to work towards the development of the state would be balanced by the government’s duty to care for the people and to provide for their welfare. A Confucian individual is thus one who is born into obligations, as opposed to their Western counterpart, who is born with rights. In essence what this translates to is that the former is bound by rites, while the later is protected by rights.

‘Confucius says:’ if everyone had morality, they would not need to be governed. This may help to explain the importance of the role of the state, family and community in the South African development context. What I have learned the most out of the bit of reading I have done from and on Confucius is that there is a huge need in South Africa to transfer greater responsibility to individuals and society, mobilising the population in a greater development effort.

In future it would be great to see a society performing its obligations towards and for each other rather than demanding its rights from each other.

I have put together a summarised list of the lessons that I learned from watching Ben Zanders DVD about his book titled “The Art of Possibility”.

►If there is no path create your own.

►Never doubt the capacity of the people you lead to accomplish whatever you dream for them.

►When leadership is defined not as a position you hold, but as a way of being, you discover that you can lead from wherever you are.

►A leader’s job is to speak possibility and awake possibility in other people.

►Display a strong vision of the future so that you have a clear sense of direction.

►Communicate effectively and listen well.

►Seek responsibility and be responsible.

►Quiet the voice in the head that says “I can’t do it”.

Food for thought

“The pessimist complains about the wind. The optimist expects it to change. The leader adjusts the sails.” – John Maxwell

From this the question who or what is a leader becomes important.

I have become very of Ben Zander’s viewpoints on leadership which can be summed up as viewing leadership as the art of possibility. The art of possible encompasses various notions, namely; that If there is no path create your own, one should never doubt the capacity of the people they lead to accomplish whatever you dream for them, when leadership is defined not as a position you hold, but rather as a way of being, you discover that you can lead from wherever you are. What this means in practical terms is that a leaders job is to speak possibility and ensure that all those you lead are alive with possibility.

It is through the values and principles highlighted by Ben Zander that as a starting point leadership is about transforming oneself into a new way of being, in order to awake possibility in other people. The easiest way to achieve this is by speaking possibility. This is when it becomes very important for a leader to quiet the voice in the head that says “I cant do it”.

Ben Zander: This video is certainly worth sparing two minutes

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrGAJ7hVh10

I have never been one to classify or categorise various things, because personally I have never really been able to understand or appreciate the craze to define everything that we as humans do according to certain “boxes”. I have always heavily lent towards ‘substance’ in the age old debate of substance versus form.

In my view definitiveness is something that too often creates boundaries where they are not essentially necessary, but then again it probably stems from the human quest to obtain and maintain a sense of belonging in respective spheres of life.

Research has shown that there are generally four orientations to learning:

• behaviourist,
• cognitivist,
• humanist,
• social and situational

In essence learning in itself is not something that can be defined as being one particular thing. This is a result of learning taking place in various contexts and processes. Thus although the above mentioned orientations to learning have been researched and developed they ultimately encompass each other and cannot truly be separated.

The separation for me has resulted in putting learning styles and orientations to learning into boxes although this is the kind of thing which does not belong in any box.

That said, it is through the weekly SAWIP Team discussions that I have been able to identify and relate with two learning orientations a lot closer.

Firstly, as a cognitivist, more than ever I am now able to go through various mental processes before, during and after various discussion points and topics.

Secondly, the humanist approach to learning, I truly believe that we as humans all have potential to do things beyond what we believe that we can, however due to various factors which take place throughout our lives this potential is not always realized or sometimes even wasted. As a result it essentially boils down to how much one is willing to fulfill their potential.

I am taking a well calculated guess and will say that when I first saw the words;

“The struggle continues

Freedom is coming tomorrow”

the only significance that I placed on the words were along the lines of being a fitting end to one of my favourite movies of all time.

For those of you thinking... “What movie?”

Remember Sarafina?

(Sarafina full movie http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KRaFRCAPWJk&feature=related)

If you were fortunate enough to have watched Sarafina, I sincerely plead that you take a moment and think back to whether or not you placed any significance to those words?

If you have not yet watched the movie let’s just say you had to read those words on a massive bill board, what significance would you place on the words;

“The struggle continues

Freedom is coming tomorrow”

Would you carry on along your merry way? Would you stop?

Would the words capture you into deep emotions or thoughts?

Here we are, 20 years later and the words highlighted in the closing scene of Sarafina for obvious reasons have not changed but I certainly have.

This is not just due to 'clocking up mileage' in the journey of life but primarily because the notion of freedom is entrenched in my being totally differently in comparison to the characters of the film.

Unlike in the closing scene of Sarafina I was fortunate enough to not have to consciously and physically wait for “freedom” to come. My earliest and vivid memory of Nelson Mandela is at the Final of the 1995 Rugby World Cup.

(Sarafina closing scene: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQwifgTxNTw )

Be that as it may freedom is still coming. That is because we have not yet achieved freedom socially and economically. We are currently a very unequal nation and thus it cannot be said with conviction that we have achieved freedom.

The hard truth of the matter is that until we do “The Struggle Continues and Freedom is Coming Tomorrow”.

The struggle continues and that is why for me Freedom Day should be celebrated with a pinch …or two of salt.

Freedom Day not only symbolises the birth of our Rainbow Nation but it also reminds us of the need to collectively uphold the principles and values enshrined in our Constitution.

It is a day dedicated to acknowledging and appreciating all those who have left their footprints in pursuit of building a united and proud nation.

In my reflections on freedom the words of Nelson Mandela always come to mind, when he said:

"To be free is not merely to cast off one's chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others."