Question 2: Digital Literacy

Q.2.1 A video that addresses the concept 'digital footprint'.

Q.2.2 A post on the title 'Rape-The Cold Hard Facts'.

Ever since Interpol has named South Africa the 'rape capital of the world', it is hard to deny this fact, because every day more and more women and children are being raped in cities all over South Africa.

Solution Fluency- Thinking critically from multiple perspectives and visualizing possibilities. The Solution Fluency process involves define, discover, dream, design and debrief.

How- This process of solution fluency can help come up with a pragmatic solution to the problem of Rape Capital of the World.

Define: This is where you provide a clear and concise definition of the problem or challenge being addressed.

Rape and sexual abuse against women and children; South Africa is claimed to be the “Rape Capital of the World”. South Africa has a high rate of rape, one of the highest in the world. Statistics show that a woman is raped every 36 seconds.

Discover: Identifying what you need to know and what you need to be able to do to solve the problem.

South Africa has the highest rate of sexual abuse against women and children. As the statistics state that from the Criminal Law (Sexual offences and related matters) amended act of 2007; that South Africa is one of the country where sexual abuse actions are still common, as the country has the highest rate children and women rape in the world with more than 67 000 cases of rape and sexual assaults against children reported in 2000, with welfare groups believing that unreported incidents could be up to 10 times higher. In 2001, a nine (9) months baby was raped and likely lost consciousness as the pain was too much to bear. Another nine (9) months old baby was raped by six men, aged between 24 and 66, after the infant had been left unattended by her teenage mother. A four (4) year old girl died after being raped by her father. A 14 months old girl was raped by her two uncles. In February 2002, an eight (8) months old baby was infant reportedly gang raped by four (4) men. Lastly, it is estimated that only 14% of rape perpetrators are convicted in South Africa. This is due to the inaccessibility of services, particularly in rural areas.

Dream: This is a whole-mind process where we imagine what the solution will appear like.

The best solution would be to bring back the death penalty and apply it to these cases or perpetrators should be given a lifetime sentence. However, this can be through creating campaigns that will gather people together and try to address these problems and find ways of redressing it. Creating more awareness of this problem through Television, Radio and the Internet, where we have to broadcast the messages of the issue and ways on how we can try to solve them. It is believed that communication is the process of solving an issue.

Design: This process is to complete the visualized solution in measurable, achievable steps.

The above laws should be applied into society to alleviate the amount of rapes occurring. As the country we can involve the processes of therapy and counselling. Convince the victims to share their stories to other people, so this could help the vulnerable ones to be aware of the future actions of the offenders. Bring more man on campaigns like Brothers for Life.

Deliver: The process by which you implement your design to complete the solution to the problem in 2 steps: Produce & Publish.

The nation of South Africa can create more TV stories, movies or series that will publish information about this issues. This will create more awareness on what South Africa is trying to deal with, thus this will perhaps make people to stand up and talk about this issue. All of the above solutions are implemented.

Debrief: This is where you review and analyse the process and identify areas for potential improvement.

Through applying these solutions, we will be more focused on both the victims and the offenders of this action. Our primary solution is to create more awareness on the problem and try to bring people closer and to redress it in a more adequate manner. We will also be more focused on the causes of these problems, what must be done and what have to be implemented. Rape affects victims both physically and mentally, it is important for a solution to be found for this issue as it has a colossal negative effect on the country as a whole.

Question 1: Digital Access and Divide

Q.1.1 A PowerPoint presentation aimed at the youth, discussing the core elements of Digital Citizenship and brief touch on the five (5) fluencies.

Q.1.2 The way digital divide impact on social capital, and the ramifications thereof.

1.2 The way digital divide impact on social capital, and the ramifications thereof:

Social capital is a form of economic and cultural capital in which social networks are central, transactions are marked by reciprocity, trust and cooperation, and market agents produce goods and services not mainly for themselves, but for a common good.

It impact the countries negatively with less resources of having wide variety of accessing technology and being able to use the internet for education purpose and for accessing information. Countries with less technology resources are affected negatively and this have impact to the youth mostly because we are the people who are constantly growing with the technology – ‘Youth’. 

The politicians are quick to show us the divide between the races and between the social classes in our country. Maybe the other divide is the digital one. In an age where every person seems to have smart phone, we forget that maybe for some it is just for show. We forget that in reality there are still numerous illiterate persons, especially older people who don’t see the need for being socially connected online.

This creates a divide in societies and in generations. It creates a group of connected people and disconnected people. The disconnected ones don’t know what the fuss is about and the connected ones are of the opinion that the others are missing out.

Having a barrier such as this, can create friction. A child growing up in a disconnected household or even the community will see the connection a friend has and be unhappy that he/she doesn’t have the same. Friend will have access to much more information for school projects and when he/she is doing job research one day.

There will be a breakdown in collaboration between the different sides due to this divide. Luckily this can be overcome, as soon as everyone learns to celebrate their differences and acknowledge that each of them can still make a contribution.

The ones who have can always help the ones who don’t have. We need to make sure that no member of our society is left behind and this lead to “Ubuntu- one love, one heart and one nation; together we are one”, whether they are disconnected by choice or circumstance.