{"id":745,"date":"2014-12-31T13:00:18","date_gmt":"2014-12-31T12:00:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/africa\/?p=745"},"modified":"2016-10-28T13:18:53","modified_gmt":"2016-10-28T12:18:53","slug":"changing-for-the-better","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/africa\/2014\/12\/31\/changing-for-the-better\/","title":{"rendered":"Changing for the better"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_747\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-747\" style=\"width: 287px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/africa\/files\/2014\/12\/2013-01-07-15.57.27-2.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-747\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/africa\/files\/2014\/12\/2013-01-07-15.57.27-2-287x300.jpg\" alt=\"Things have changed in Hillbrow, South Africa\" width=\"287\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/africa\/files\/2014\/12\/2013-01-07-15.57.27-2-287x300.jpg 287w, https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/africa\/files\/2014\/12\/2013-01-07-15.57.27-2-979x1024.jpg 979w, https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/africa\/files\/2014\/12\/2013-01-07-15.57.27-2-624x652.jpg 624w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 287px) 100vw, 287px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-747\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Things have changed in Hillbrow, South Africa<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>This evening we&#8217;ll welcome a New Year. There are many <strong>local traditions related to New Year&#8217;s Eve.<\/strong> The custom in <strong>Hillbrow, South Africa<\/strong> used to be <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.wsj.com\/articles\/SB10001424052702304325004579294450116030582\">throwing furniture out of the window<\/a>.<\/strong> This became really dangerous \u2013 you might even see a fridge flying out \u2013 and many people got hurt, so <strong>this custom has changed:<\/strong> while items are still thrown out, furniture does not fly any longer. I understand <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/New_Year's_Eve#Italy\">Italians had a similar tradition\u00a0<\/a>in the old days. <strong>These days, we all like to throw away our own &#8220;old stuff,&#8221; and change for the better.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>I hope a number of things become &#8220;old stuff&#8221; soon<\/strong> \u2013 in Africa and in other parts of the world:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/africa\/2014\/05\/21\/bring-back-our-girls\/\">terrorist actions:<\/a> bomb blasts, abductions of girls and other such atrocities;<\/li>\n<li>corrupt practices by people in power;<\/li>\n<li>extreme poverty.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>I think an important ingredient for these practices to become &#8220;old stuff&#8221; is that <strong>each one of us <a href=\"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/africa\/2014\/02\/26\/africans-communal-mentality\/\">thinks more in terms of community<\/a> \u2013 <a href=\"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/africa\/2014\/11\/12\/talent-development-and-african-values\/\">a value characteristic of\u00a0African people<\/a>.<\/strong> Acknowledging the interdependence of all human beings will lead us to look for the common good: <strong>only by seeking the good in each and every human being, will we be able to achieve a common good.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>If we want to achieve societal change, we need to <strong>start by looking at ourselves:<\/strong> what&#8217;s &#8220;my own old stuff&#8221; that I wish to throw away? Which are the attitudes and behaviors I need to change?<\/p>\n<p>Best wishes for 2015 to you and your families!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This evening we&#8217;ll welcome a New Year. There are many local traditions related to New Year&#8217;s Eve. The custom in Hillbrow, South Africa used to be throwing furniture out of the window. This became really dangerous \u2013 you might even see a fridge flying out \u2013 and many people got hurt, so this custom has [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1654,"featured_media":747,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[99579],"tags":[80776,79903,461,1147,24387,80759,100331],"class_list":["post-745","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-african-economic-and-institutional-context","tag-civil-society","tag-communal-mentality","tag-corruption","tag-poverty","tag-south-africa","tag-terrorism","tag-traditions","megacategoria-mc-africa","megacategoria-mc-economics"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/745","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1654"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=745"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/745\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":754,"href":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/745\/revisions\/754"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/747"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=745"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=745"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=745"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}