Madam – While it seems to be a fact that the municipality is in a financial crisis, I can’t help wondering what would happen if more people would actually be proactive instead of complaining about everything under the sun.
Every day there is a new post on social media about what a terrible job the municipality is doing, and how everything is falling apart in this town because the municipality does not do anything about it, but no-one is being proactive.
I wonder if those same people ever stopped to consider what a difference they could make in their own community if they actually stepped away from their keyboards and made an effort to make the changes they complain so much about.
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What is the point of pointing out everything that is wrong in this town? We all have eyes and intelligence to notice these things for ourselves. Are you just trying to get attention by pretending that you are a ‘good citizen and rate payer’ for noticing what’s happening?
If you’re so clued up, why don’t you do something about it? Be proactive for a change, instead of encouraging more apathy by allowing other people to comment about how terrible everything is.
Before we moved to Newcastle, we lived on the coast and believe me, there were much worse problems there, with a municipality that would not bother to answer the phone, let alone try to fix issues like non functioning street lights. There we had craters, not potholes. But what we had there, which no one in this town seems to have, was a sense of pride in our community.
We got together once a month to discuss our issues, and look at ways of solving them. We worked with the municipal officials that we open to meeting with us, and we came up with ways to solve our community based issues. We also used to hold drives where volunteers would spend hours doing things like picking up litter, scraping posters and stickers off buildings and more. It gave us more a sense of accomplishment, knowing that we were a true community and not just aimless complainers.
I sincerely hope the people of Newcastle who are guilty of doing nothing but moaning will read this letter and get a wake up call. All your complaining actually does is divide this beautiful town further.
A. vd Merwe
