Watching the signs in 2008

The new year is well and truly upon us. The confirmation? Schools open tomorrow.

And while I am, as other parents are, caught up in the fuss that goes into preparing kids ready for the new school year, I am also busying myself with plotting my year_professionally and personally. As I look at my draft SA Patriot calendar, I am reminded of the work we still have ahead of us.

Firstly, we have to plan how to capitalise on, and expand on the elements that created momentum for the initiative in 2007. Secondly, we have to revisit the elements that misfired or didn't produce the results we anticipated. But undoubtedly, and tied in with these aspects of our planning, the major objective for 2008 is building the SA Patriot community.

Critical to initiatives like the SAPI is funding. As with any nonprofit, one often has to rely on the inclination and understanding of those in a position to invest in social efforts such as this. How does the saying go: "There is none so blind as s/he who will not see." We must sell the SA Patriot vision to the blind and/or otherwise distracted in the halls of power.

As I have observed the news reports of ethnic violence in Kenya, and as history has repeatedly shown us, we live in a society that is sensitive to the conditions of its people. If nothing, my hope is that the powers that be in our society will moblise their efforts parallel to international economic and political interests, to recognise the national importance of a social integration, first and foremost. We may not (want to) see the undercurrents of ethnic or class division, but they are there, and have the potential to turn the tide abruptly. We can least afford that.