Transforming The Lives Of The Poor
With A Trailblazing Educational Project In Johannesburg
Developed World Education Falters
As Low Cost Model Wins Fresh Acclaim At International Conference

www.nlpwessex.org/docs/blecher.htm
'Waking Up All Aspects Of The Brain'
In An Era Of Intense Global Challenges
What Can Other Countries Learn From South Africa?

December  2010


What Next For Education As Crisis-Beset Governments Run Out Of Money?

"Police today issued new pictures of protesters wanted for questioning in connection with disorder at the Tory headquarters in Millbank Tower. The 10 suspects, including two women, are believed to have been among those who stormed the building on November 10 in the first of the student demonstrations in central London. So far 68 people have been arrested after trouble erupted during a National Union of Students march against proposed rises in tuition fees. An estimated £1 million damage was caused at Millbank Tower, including smashed windows and graffiti. The new images include one man wearing a police helmet back to front and another hurling a portable radiator.... The NUS is planning further protests at universities across the country next Wednesday, on the eve of a crucial Commons vote on tuition fees. The Liberal Democrats have abandoned a regional conference in London set for tomorrow because of safety fears."
Ten new faces from student riot at Tory HQ
London Evening Standard, 3 December 2010

"Shuttle buses were running between Michigan State University's campus and the state Capitol building Friday afternoon. Invitations to a rally organized by MSU's student government had been extended to the other 14 public universities in the state.... Michigan will spend $332 million less on higher education this year than it did a decade ago. ....the students in attendance.. spoke of mounting debts, cuts in academic programs, dimming hopes for a state already in crisis...."
College students rally against cuts to higher education funding in Michigan
Lansing State Journal, 23 October 2010

Taddy Blecher's Model For Free Access To Higher Education

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Above, the CIDA 'self-help' university campus in downtown Johannesburg, South Africa, and co-founder CEO Taddy Blecher

The New York Times reported in August that the US state of Hawaii has been running public sector schools on a part time basis in order to save money. This is also happening in some other parts of America as money becomes tight. Meanwhile demonstrations and riots have sprung up in Great Britain over education cuts.

In these circumstances the inspired approach of Taddy Blecher's low cost 'self-help' educational initiatives in South Africa may be an increasingly important model for recession hampered communities around the world.

With the BBC describing Blecher as "the first person to have founded a university from a fax machine", the free educational system he created in Johannesberg has attracted support from such figures as Nelson Mandela, the Dalai Lama, Oprah Winfrey, and Richard Branson.

If it can be done with the acutely poor from South Africa's townships, it can probably be done anywhere. Blecher has recently spoken about his experience at a major educational conference in the Middle East where 600 delegates from 48 countries voted him winner of yet another prestigious international award.

Listen To Taddy Blecher On YouTube - Click Here

Blecher Model Wins Fresh International Acclaim At Global Conference In Bahrain

"Shaikh Mohammed bin Essa Al Khalifa, Chief Executive of the Kingdom´s Economic Development Board (EDB), has brought The Education Project [in Bahrain] to a close. Thanking the 500+ delegates for being part of the global initiative, Shaikh Mohammed said, 'When His Royal Highness Prince Salman Bin Hamad Al Khalifa [the Crown Prince of Bahrain and Chairman of the EDB] had the vision and insight for a forum such as this, we could not have anticipated the level of interest and support that we have witnessed from around the globe. This continued support is vital to our shared cause - shaping the future of education for all.' One example of such support came from Her Majesty Queen Rania Al Abdullah of Jordan, who has played an integral role in stimulating educational advancement across the Middle East. Her Majesty said, 'Our children need a quality education to give them the skills and knowledge to thrive in a 21st century economy. They need an education that unleashes their creativity. But too often they get rote learning instead of dynamic inquiry. They get told 'what,' instead of asked 'why'. And they never wonder 'what if...' which leads to 'let's try!' ...... Earlier in the evening Shaikh Mohammed announced the winner of the 'Best Seedling' award. The Maharishi Institute, South Africa, presented by Dr Taddy Blecher, picked up the accolade as voted by the audience. The award recognises new educational models that have the potential to improve education outcomes significantly through an innovative, scalable and replicable business model that can work in different countries and regions. It is hoped that by recognising these seedlings they may be propelled into the broader public domain so that they receive continued funding and support. The winner, The Maharishi Institute, South Africa, creates large-scale and economically self-sufficient educational institutions, providing free education and salaries from Grade 11 to MBA level."
Bahrain Economic Development Board brings The Education Project to a close

AME Info, 11 October 2010

"Newspapers and TV screens bombard us with stories of the arrogance of government, the brutality of war and the collapse of communities. In this relentless mix, it can feel impossible to identify people who offer hope for the future. ... Be The Change has spawned a rapidly growing international movement. The name was inspired by one of Gandhi's most repeated aphorisms: 'You must be the change you wish to see in the world.'..... A quality that unites all the individuals – many of whom are profiled on the following pages – is fearlessness.... Taddy Blecher joined the Community and Individual Development Association [CIDA], which taught in South African townships, and founded sub-Saharan Africa's first free university. "
The people changing the world
Independent, 13 November 2007

In This Bulletin
'Change Begins Within'
Who Is Taddy Blecher?
'Waking Up All Aspects Of The Brain'
Taddy Blecher's Low-Cost Holistic Educational Model
'School For Social Change'
The Extraordinary Story Of How CIDA Was Created
And What Other Nations Can Learn From South Africa
Further Initiatives Underway As Blecher Moves On
But More Are Needed

It's Not Possible To Create A Successful Coherent Society By Taking Giants And Turning Them Into Dwarves
There Needs To Be A More Holistic Approach To Education

"Blecher received the Global Leader of Tomorrow Award from the World Economic Forum in New York, where he was recognised as one of 100 young leaders under the age of 37 (he is 35 going on 15) making an exceptional contribution to a better world. At the conference he explained how he was making his contribution and why it was possible and necessary for business in general to act in 'enlightened self-interest' to alleviate poverty, create jobs and still stay in business.... . He does not try to flatter our current education system, which he says 'takes giants and turns them into dwarves. Ours is a totally new way of thinking about education. Each person has a unique genius that the world needs and all we need to do is find that thing'. Nor does he think it's too difficult to unlock the genius of his students on a mass scale ... Cida's educational model is a holistic one, based on the knowledge that 'businesses don't hire people with facts, they hire people with qualities'. ..... Blecher insists that it is both sustainable and transferable to other developing countries. And perhaps developed countries too: he tells the story of a US auditor who travels the world lecturing to accounting students. 'While he was touring the [CIDA] campus, he burst into tears. The students he has to teach couldn't care less, so when he met our students, who are so caring and so open to helping others, so extraordinary in the magnitude of their hearts and vision, he cried his eyes out.' This esteemed member of the accounting profession is not the only person who thinks it's a good idea to close all US business schools and start again using the Cida model. When Tom Peters visited the campus he said: 'For the first time, I believe there is hope for Africa...' Blecher thinks maybe there might be hope for America, too - providing they get a little of the Cida spirit."
Andrea Vinassa Interviews Taddy Blecher Co-Founder of Cida City Campus: Topic: The soul of Business in South Africa
Equity Skills News & Views: Volume 3, Issue 6, March 25, 2004


'Change Begins Within'
Who Is Taddy Blecher?

Taddy Blecher is a holder of the Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship and has been named as a Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum. His latest award came at the Global Education Summit in October.

blecher-steppingstones.jpg (20260 bytes)

"Maharishi Institute was honored with the ‘Seedling of Success’ Award, presented the final day of the Global Education Summit in Bahrain. Dr. Taddy Blecher, a Skoll Award winner, and The Maharishi Institute picked up the accolade as voted by the audience, more than 60 speakers and 600 summit delegates from 48 countries gathered in Bahrain to address challenges, solutions and opportunities within the global education system. The award recognizes new educational models that have the potential to improve education outcomes significantly through an innovative, scalable and replicable business model that can work in different countries and regions. The hope is that by recognizing these seedlings, they may be propelled into the broader public domain so that they receive continued funding and support. The Maharishi Institute is an urban-based economically self-sufficient center operating at five different locations around South Africa. It provides free education and salaries and is designed in such a way that it can be rolled out in any nation in the world. Maharishi Institute support students’ intellectual, emotional, physical, and spiritual growth. The Maharishi Institute provides the financing, educational access, skills development path, personal development tools, and supportive campus environment that students can make it step by step out of an often hopeless situation, to a life of success and achievement. They call this approach `Stepping Stones' out of poverty. Speaking after the ceremony, Maharishi Institute chief executive officer Dr. Taddy Blecher said he was overwhelmed to receive the award, 'This is just absolutely fantastic for me, for the institute and for the country of South Africa, which is so very dear to my heart.The hope is that this will help us to promote the institute and the work that we do so that we can generate support and thus develop our resources all over South Africa.'”
Skoll Awardee Taddy Blecher and Maharishi Institute Wins ‘Seedling of Success’ Award
Skoll Foundation, 16 November 2010

"Taddy is the pioneer of the free education movement in South Africa. His focus is the provision of mass-scale, low-cost, high-quality, effective and enlightened education for the historically disadvantaged, which directly brings youth from poverty to a position of self-sufficiency. He has helped found several free educational institutions in South Africa. As a direct result of his work: more than R 400 million in cash, property, and equity, has been raised to support free access to education; more than 4,500 Southern Africans have been educated, found employment, and moved from poverty to the middle-class; and more than 600 000 young South Africans in schools have been reached with one-week education and life-skills training courses. He is the founder or co-founder of: the Maharishi Institute – established to provide open access to education from Grade 11 through to MBA as well as intensive industry vocational programmes; CIDA City Campus - the first free university in South Africa; CIDA Empowerment Fund – a R 150 million education endowment; and the Branson School of Entrepreneurship."
Taddy Blecher - Biography
The Education Project, Bahrain, 8-10 October 2010

Along With Others In The Developed World America's Educational System Is Starting To Run Out Of Money

"Shuttle buses were running between Michigan State University's campus and the state Capitol building Friday afternoon. Invitations to a rally organized by MSU's student government had been extended to the other 14 public universities in the state....Michigan will spend $332 million less on higher education this year than it did a decade ago. The state's public universities just came off two years of level funding, a requirement for receiving federal stimulus money, but will see their state appropriations drop this year by 2.8 percent....the students in attendance.. spoke of mounting debts, cuts in academic programs, dimming hopes for a state already in crisis...."
College students rally against cuts to higher education funding in Michigan
Lansing State Journal, 23 October 2010

"...a country that once amazed the world with its visionary investments in transportation, from the Erie Canal to the Interstate Highway System, is now in the process of unpaving itself: in a number of states, local governments are breaking up roads they can no longer afford to maintain, and returning them to gravel. And a nation that once prized education — that was among the first to provide basic schooling to all its children — is now cutting back. Teachers are being laid off; programs are being canceled; in Hawaii, the school year itself is being drastically shortened. And all signs point to even more cuts ahead. We’re told that we have no choice, that basic government functions — essential services that have been provided for generations — are no longer affordable.... state and local governments are cutting back..... America is now on the unlit, unpaved road to nowhere. "
America Goes Dark
New York Times, 8 August 2010

"[British] Universities will be forced to raise fees to offset a cut in subsidies, allowing the government to cut direct spending on higher education from £7.2bn to £4.2bn by 2014-5.... These decisions are in line with the recommendations of the Browne review, which called for students to pay a larger share of the cost of their education.... Rachel Taylor, director of higher education at accountants PwC, said: 'These cuts will call the viability of some universities into question and at the same time create greater urgency to pursue efficiency savings."
Universities face cut in spending to £4.2bn
Financial Times, 20 October 2010

But It Doesn't Have To Be Like That
As South Africa's First Free University Established By Taddy Blecher Has Spectacularly Demonstrated

"Taddy Blecher must be the first person to have founded a university from a fax machine. Five years ago, from his office in Johannesburg in South Africa, without any university buildings, courses or staff, he began faxing out a letter of invitation to 350 schools. He asked the brightest and poorest students to apply for a new university - and promised them the 'best business education in Africa'. This was going to be South Africa's first free university, created to serve talented youngsters from the poor black communities who could never afford to send their children to the established universities. The letter struck a chord - and because the only address on the letter was the place where Dr Blecher was working - would-be students began gathering outside the plush consultancy offices. 'It went ballistic. We had 3,500 applications for a university that did not exist. Security would be saying who are these people outside? And the students would be saying 'Your university building is so beautiful.' And the security would say: 'Go away, it's not a university, it's a consultancy company.' With only a fortnight to spare, Dr Blecher and a handful of colleagues were able to borrow a building for the university. And without computers, the hungry-to-learn youths practised typing on photocopies of a keyboard. But the university - CIDA City Campus - has become a remarkable success story, gaining blue-chip sponsors, a campus and a reputation for innovation. Five years later, it has taught 1,600 students. Apart from only being available to poor students, who get a virtually free education, it is unique in what it expects from its intake. Students have to help run and maintain the university buildings, and in their holidays they have to teach young people in their home villages - reaching hundreds of thousands. When they graduate, they have to pay for the university costs of another student who will follow in their footsteps. The founder, in London to launch a fund-raising foundation, says that this is part of a 'no hand-outs' philosophy. 'In one year, these students will be earning more than their families could earn in their entire working lives,' he says, so it is only fair that they should pay something back for the next generation of students.... The campus, including the building where Nelson Mandela joined the ANC, was acquired from businesses shifting out of downtown Johannesburg because of fears of crime."
University for South Africa's poor
BBC Online, 15 June 2005

"Innovative public sector departments in Africa are set to be honoured for their work and strategic partnerships during the second phase of the All Africa Public Sector Innovation Awards that opened yesterday, Tuesday, 20 July 2010..... Last year South Africa's CIDA City Campus, a tertiary education institution, took the Public Sector Innovator of the Year and Innovative Service Delivery Institutions."
All Africa Public Sector Innovation Awards open
BizCommunity, 21 July 2010

'Change Begins Within' With 'Consciousness Based Education'
Part Of Blecher's Model Adopted By David Lynch Foundation

"Blecher wanted to prove that the vicious cycle of unemployment and poor education leading to social problems like violence, crime and AIDS could be overcome. He wanted the school’s graduates to be trained as social entrepreneurs.... Throughout the [CIDA] building you’ll find quotes like this one: 'If we focus on survival, life becomes miserable. If we focus on progress, life becomes glorious.' They come from Maharashi Mahesh Yogi, the Indian guru whose ideas not only influenced the Beatles but also the founders of CIDA; transcendental meditation is part of the curriculum."
School for social change
Ode Magazine, October 2007

"Last year, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr launched the David Lynch Foundation’s 'Change Begins Within' global outreach to teach one million at-risk adolescents and teens stress-reducing meditation at an historic concert at Radio City Music Hall. Since then, nearly 150,000 inner-city students have begun utilizing these techniques to eliminate traumatic stress that undermines academic achievement and short-circuits lives. These students have dramatically better test scores, grades, and graduation rates while drop out rates, suspensions, and expulsions have greatly decreased. The program has the full-hearted support of superintendents, principals, faculty, students, and parents.... I am proud to invite you to the second 'Change Begins Within' benefit on Monday December 13, at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. Russell Brand, Clint Eastwood, Mehmet Oz, Katy Perry, Russell Simmons, myself, and other very special guests will be part of a very different and exciting evening....I hope you will be part of this extraordinary event, and discover firsthand why change begins within."
David Lynch
David Lynch Foundation Projects, October 2010

Video Clips From David Lynch Foundation 2009 'Change Begins Within' Beatles Concert
Click Here

"The filmmaker behind the movies 'Blue Velvet' and 'Mulholland Drive' is giving $100,000 to launch Operations Warrior Wellness, an initiative to help 10,000 veterans overcome Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and other war-related illnesses through transcendental meditation, which he says creates 'professional peacemakers.'  Backed by the likes of actors Clint Eastwood, directors George Lucas and Martin Scorsese, Mr. Lynch will announce the new program next month at a gala at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. In 2005, Mr. Lynch started the David Lynch Foundation for Consciousness-Based Education and Peace and since then has donated half a million dollars to help finance scholarships for 150,000 students who are interested in learning transcendental meditation. The foundation has also funded research at institutions such as the University of Connecticut and the University of Michigan on the health benefits of the meditation technique.  Called 'Quiet Time in Schools,' students and teachers meditate for 10 minutes at the beginning and end of each day. The funds pay to train educators and parents on how to administer and teach the method.   'Soon grades and attendance go up 20% to 30% and suspensions and expulsions go down,' Mr. Lynch says. 'Instead of giving the kids drugs like Ritalin that just numb them, we give them a technique to reduce stress and focus better.'.... Now, Mr. Lynch wants to bring this approach to help the thousands of war veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. .... 'Clint Eastwood is about as macho as they get and he's been meditating longer than I have,' he says. 'We're behind this technique and we think it can help veterans reclaim their lives and save themselves, their families and their friendships.'"
Filmmaker Introduces Veterans to Meditation
Wall St Journal, 26 November 2010


'Waking Up All Aspects Of The Brain'
Taddy Blecher's Low-Cost Holistic Educational Model

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Visit The CIDA Web Site - Click Here

"Although the postapartheid government has pledged to help blacks enter the professional classes, it has had limited success. Taddy Blecher thinks he may have a solution. He and three associates have started a university, called Community and Individual Development Action City Campus [CIDA], which many education and management experts think is the most innovative attempt so far to help South Africa erase the social imbalances of apartheid.  'I don't like to use the word 'miracle,' but it's an exceptional educational institution,' says Tom Peters, the author and management expert, who visited the campus a year ago. 'It's one of the most extraordinary quests in terms of the 99 percent of the country that was left behind when apartheid was dismantled.'... Applications flooded in even before the campus opened.... "
A New University, Filling Apartheid's Gaps
New York Times, 31 December 2003

"The first 83 graduates of CIDA City Campus - South Africa's youngest and most unique university - received their certificates on Thursday, and they literally jumped for joy after four years of hard work. Surrounded by white and gold draped walls, echoed on the chairs, several hundred students, their families, lecturers and the bosses of CIDA, the graduates skipped up on stage in their gowns to be capped and photographed, to stirring background music..... Established in 2000 with 350 students, CIDA now has 1 100 students enrolled.... CIDA has received worldwide accolades, and Blecher received the World Economic Forum's 'Global Leader for Tomorrow' award in 2002. International academics have also taken an interest in the model: professors from Harvard, Berkeley, MIT, Cambridge, and the London School of Economics have visited CIDA to understand its methodology, described as 'an African solution to African issues'.... Professor Njabulo Ndebele, vice chancellor of the University of Cape Town (UCT), was the guest speaker. He described CIDA as 'a worthy model for developing nations around the world', and said that a CIDA branch was to open in 2005 in Cape Town, with close connections to UCT. He called the students 'a special group of pioneers'."
First 83 students graduate from CIDA
Joburg News, 20 August 2004

'Waking Up All Aspects Of The brain'

"Listen to Taddy Blecher talk about education in post-apartheid South Africa, and the problems sound eerily familiar to Hartford's [Connecticut, USA]. Under-qualified teachers in the black areas. Scant resources. Scattered libraries, and no student access to computers. Though white South African governments directly legislated that nation's education apartheid -- and Connecticut's grew indirectly from the property tax structure -- the end result is the same: A tremendously segregated system that prepares much of the population for failure. Now Blecher is drawing worldwide attention for his solution -- CIDA City Campus, a business university he co-founded from scratch in 2000. Through support from the corporate community, the school costs a fraction compared to mainstream universities in South Africa, so hundreds of black students from poor townships and rural areas can afford to learn finance, accounting and other academic skills that will open doors for them in the business world. But CIDA City Campus is much more than just an affordable school. The curriculum stresses holistic learning... 'Even in South Africa people have this debate, do you want to teach people how to think or do you want to teach people how to do?' Blecher says. '... Our approach is that we want to wake up all aspects of the brain.'"
Apartheid, Here and There
Hartford Advocate, 10 June 2004

"In his early years there was little to suggest that Taddy Blecher would end up in Johannesburg's inner city, surrounded by youngsters from poor backgrounds. An actuary turned management consultant, Mr Blecher first stepped into a township by mistake. 'I was terrified and thought I was going to die,' he remembers. In 1995 he was on the point of emigrating to America, but at the last minute he decided to stay and make a difference. He spent the next four years teaching transcendental meditation in township schools. This was quite a stretch from his upbringing as a 'white Jewish guy in Johannesburg', but he describes it as the best time of his life. He and three partners then started CIDA City Campus, an almost-free business university for students who cannot afford mainstream higher education. (Students are charged only $21 per month in tuition, and some also receive additional financial help.) In a country where poverty and poor skills remain endemic, he has become a local hero..... 'Education needs to be holistic,' he says with conviction. 'The school system is not producing a happy society, and people are not awake in the way they should be.' Besides providing tertiary education to youngsters who could not afford to attend existing universities, he hoped to help people find direction in their lives ......   'My deepest interest', he explains, 'is to help people realise how great they are.'....CIDA City Campus opened its doors in 2000. Today 80% of CIDA's income comes from donations, amounting to about 50m rand ($7m) a year. Sponsors include Dell, JPMorgan, Sir Richard Branson and Oprah Winfrey, plus an impressive list of local firms. Students help to run the school, providing them with experience and keeping costs down. Many teachers are professionals who offer their services free."
The transcendental crusader
Economist, 30 August 2007

"It's very easy to compile a list of the historic figures who have changed our world for the better. The 20th century, like every era before it, was shaped by a series of great heroes – the likes of Gandhi, Mandela, Martin Luther King – who dared to stand up for what they believed and, in doing so, succeeded in sweeping the world along with them. It's much harder, however, to compile a list of the people currently changing our world for the better. Who exactly are the Gandhis of tomorrow? Where are the men and women who will one day be seen as the heroes of 21st-century history? In truth, today's world can seem a depressing place. Newspapers and TV screens bombard us with stories of the arrogance of government, the brutality of war and the collapse of communities. In this relentless mix, it can feel impossible to identify people who offer hope for the future. This week, however, a remarkable event will take place in London which attempts to bring inspiring individuals to the fore. The third annual Be The Change conference, to be held over three days at Central Hall in Westminster, will bring together a host of influential activists and opinion formers from across the globe, along with a range of prominent speakers, including George Monbiot, Bianca Jagger and Jonathon Porritt.... Its opening on Thursday will also mark the culmination of an extraordinary journey. From humble beginnings in 2004, when it was founded by a group of business leaders frustrated by the failures of governments, Be The Change has spawned a rapidly growing international movement. The name was inspired by one of Gandhi's most repeated aphorisms: 'You must be the change you wish to see in the world.'.....A quality that unites all the individuals – many of whom are profiled on the following pages – is fearlessness.... Taddy Blecher joined the Community and Individual Development Association, which taught in South African townships, and founded sub-Saharan Africa's first free university. 'We wanted to prove that you could take somebody who, at 12, had been sniffing glue, and that individual could become a chartered accountant, a merchant banker, a stockbroker, and that they could be a well-adjusted human being. We wrote a letter to 350 schools in three provinces and asked them to send us their top-three brightest kids, who could never afford to go to university, and we would give them a world-class business degree for £25 for the year. Over five months, we ended up getting 3,500 applications. Today, we've been going for seven years, and about 3,500 graduates have come through our programmes. Those students between them are now earning 154m South African Rand in annual salaries – about £11 million. If you take net present value of those earnings over a 40-year period, it's about R4.5bn (£370m) going into the hands of the poor over the next 40 years."
The people changing the world
Independent, 13 November 2007

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After visiting South Africa's first 'free' university at CIDA the Dalai Lama (above) was so impressed he decided to provide student sponsorship himself

"On Friday morning His Holiness [the Dalai Lama] visited the CIDA City Campus, an inner-city university in Joburg for under-privileged African youth. CIDA is almost totally subsidised by donors, and they offer one central accredited degree: business. While they have many extra curricula activities, including TM meditation (which most of them practice every morning), African dance, sports, martial arts, gardening and an assortment of other such programmes, the vision behind the university was to apply one major and practical degree which could be used anywhere, and encourage a sense of entrepreneurship. His Holiness was totally impressed with the campus and the students, and spoke for longer than we had planned, responding to the well thought out questions, ranging from issues of race, the gap between rich and poor, meditation techniques and the value of education. It was here that he met briefly with Sir Richard Branson, who is one of CIDA's supporters."
Experience of Meeting with His Holiness
The Buddhist Channel, 11 November 2004

The Ultimate In Corporate Social Responsibility
And Even A Role Model For America And Other Developed Countries

"The first Soul of Business in South Africa conference made history earlier this month. Addressing a group of people from corporations, NGOs, SMMEs and the consulting world, Taddy Blecher said issues of ethics, sustainability, 'soulfulness' and meaning were now firmly on the agenda at business talkshops like Davos and the World Economic Forum. So it was only fitting that South Africans get together to debate ways for business to do good and make a profit. Blecher received the Global Leader of Tomorrow Award from the World Economic Forum in New York, where he was recognised as one of 100 young leaders under the age of 37 (he is 35 going on 15) making an exceptional contribution to a better world. At the conference he explained how he was making his contribution and why it was possible and necessary for business in general to act in 'enlightened self-interest' to alleviate poverty, create jobs and still stay in business.... Blecher exudes positive energy and childlike innocence, but under that exterior lies one of the most viciously intelligent minds the world has seen. A professional actuary and a man who clearly understands the vagaries of economic theory, Blecher has applied his insights to creating a radical educational model - and specifically to fill the gap in business education between matric and MBA-level qualifications.When he says Cida will generate the entrepreneurial skills to kickstart the national economy, it doesn't sound farfetched - precisely because Cida is not built on some airy-fairy esoteric hope that the future will fix itself, but on sound economic principles, and all the other things you'll come across in a B Com textbook. But Blecher is also way ahead of the textbooks, which he says hark back to the 17th century. His personal economic theory is based not on the philosophies of some dead guy, but on simple common sense. It is based on the idea that if everyone gave something to someone else, no-one would need anything..... He does not try to flatter our current education system, which he says 'takes giants and turns them into dwarves. Ours is a totally new way of thinking about education. Each person has a unique genius that the world needs and all we need to do is find that thing'. Nor does he think it's too difficult to unlock the genius of his students on a mass scale - unlike the people of developed nations, Africans still harbour 'that magical spark of possibility' within their hearts, he says. 'At Cida we know we live in a country that will amaze the world.'....Cida's educational model is a holistic one, based on the knowledge that 'businesses don't hire people with facts, they hire people with qualities'. What Blecher means is that good businesses don't go out to look for someone who can read a balance sheet, they look for someone with integrity, self-discipline, focus, passion, compassion, initiative and team spirit - who can read a balance sheet. These intangibles are, in fact, more important than the practical skills touted by other business schools.... At Cida everyone studies the same course - a four-year accredited Bachelor of Business Administration - incorporating accounting, finance, entrepreneurship, leadership development and IT. But that is only one of seven components of this holistic model. The components are knowledge, skills development, practicum in administration, self-management, professionalism, community skills transfer and recreation. Cida even offers Human Resource management. Cida's university accreditation did not come about by magic either. It took two years of hard work for 18 hours a day - and came only after six rejections. 'We started with nothing, now we have a library worth R120 million, 600 computers, a state-of-the-art IT setup, 130 members of staff and four buildings.' The realisation that Cida (which is funded by the private sector) is training graduates that will benefit corporate South Africa has unleashed a sense of corporate responsibility among a community of donors, says Blecher. 'Corporate South Africa has woken up and is accepting their responsibility in building the country.' The question everyone is asking, though, is 'Is it sustainable?' Blecher insists that it is both sustainable and transferable to other developing countries. And perhaps developed countries too: he tells the story of a US auditor who travels the world lecturing to accounting students. 'While he was touring the campus, he burst into tears. The students he has to teach couldn't care less, so when he met our students, who are so caring and so open to helping others, so extraordinary in the magnitude of their hearts and vision, he cried his eyes out.' This esteemed member of the accounting profession is not the only person who thinks it's a good idea to close all US business schools and start again using the Cida model. When Tom Peters visited the campus he said: 'For the first time, I believe there is hope for Africa...' Blecher thinks maybe there might be hope for America, too - providing they get a little of the Cida spirit."
Andrea Vinassa Interviews Taddy Blecher Co-Founder of Cida City Campus: Topic: The soul of Business in South Africa
Equity Skills News & Views: Volume 3, Issue 6, March 25, 2004


'School For Social Change'
The Extraordinary Story Of How CIDA Was Created

And What Other Nations Can Learn From South Africa

'The Poor Man's Pavement'
Crumbling Roads And Closing Schools
This Is What Life Is Becoming Like In Some Parts Of America Today

"Paved roads, historical emblems of American achievement, are being torn up across rural America and replaced with gravel or other rough surfaces as counties struggle with tight budgets and dwindling state and federal revenue. State money for local roads was cut in many places amid budget shortfalls. In Michigan, at least 38 of the 83 counties have converted some asphalt roads to gravel in recent years. Last year, South Dakota turned at least 100 miles of asphalt road surfaces to gravel. Counties in Alabama and Pennsylvania have begun downgrading asphalt roads to cheaper chip-and-seal road, also known as 'poor man's pavement.' Some counties in Ohio are simply letting roads erode to gravel.... A gravel road 'is not a free road,' says Purdue University's John Habermann, who organized a recent seminar about the resurgence of gravel roads titled 'Back to the Stone Age.' "
Roads to Ruin: Towns Rip Up the Pavement
Wall St Journal, 17 July 2010

"Plenty of businesses and governments furloughed workers this year, but Hawaii went further -- it furloughed its schoolchildren. Public schools across the state closed on 17 Fridays during the past school year to save money, giving students the shortest academic year in the nation..... Four-day weeks have been used by a small number of rural school districts in the United States, especially since the oil shortage of the 1970s. During the current downturn, their ranks have swelled to more than 120 districts, and more are weighing the change..... Suffering from steep declines in tourism and construction, and owing billions of dollars to a pension system that has only 68.8 percent of the money it needs to cover its promises to state workers, Hawaii instituted the furloughs even after getting $110 million in stimulus money for schools. Unlike most districts with four-day weeks, Hawaii did not lengthen the hours of its remaining school days: its 163-day school year was the shortest in the nation."
Governments Go to Extremes as the Downturn Wears On
New York Times, 6 August 2010

"Writing in the Guardian, Timothy Garton Ash sees a Third World shabbiness when he visits the United States. 'Every time I come back to the United States,' the Oxford don writes, 'the airports, the roads, the public spaces look more tattered, battered, old-fashioned. Modernity is no longer self-evidently here.' Edward Luce, a brilliant and diligent reporter for the Financial Times, surveyed the American landscape.... Citing incontrovertibly bleak statistics about the struggles of middle-class Americans, and the growing disparity between the really rich and everyone else, he concludes that the U.S. is losing its essential character: it is no longer the land of opportunity and upward mobility; no longer the place where the future will surely be better, and more prosperous, than the past. ”
Post-Anti-Americanism
Newsweek, 9 August 2010

But America And Other Nations Can Learn From South Africa On How To Turn The Tide
If It Can Be Done In The Poorest Of African Townships It Can Be Done Anywhere

http://www.odemagazine.com/doc/47/school-for-social-change/

www.odemagazine.com
Fred De Vries | October 2007 issue

School for social change

Behind the public library, at the corner of Commissioner and Sauer streets, the problems of Johannesburg—and other cities on the African continent—are sharply defined. Shops are boarded up. An apartment building with broken windows screams urban blight. The residents were evicted several days ago “for hygienic reasons.” These newly homeless families have created a kind of campsite on the sidewalk with mattresses and rope. Toddlers crawl through the rubble.

Some 30 metres away at No. 54 stands the City and Community Development Association (CIDA) City Campus: a glass-and-steel beacon of hope. It is a business school for South African youth who are on the verge of falling through the cracks. The students, selected based on their school exam results and leadership qualities, can get a degree in business administration for next to nothing, largely funded by sponsor companies and benefactors. After four years of study, the graduates have good prospects of a well-paid job.

Sello Kgosimore was one of the first students to graduate from the program. His mother was a cleaning woman for a white family in Johannesburg. He never knew his father. His illiterate grandparents raised him on a farm where they worked as farm labourers. As a youngster, Kgosimore dreamed of going to school, getting a car and buying a house for his mother. But his scholarship applications to universities were repeatedly rejected. “CIDA was my only study option,” he remembers, “so it was crucial to me to succeed.” With his diploma under his arm, he got a job as an auditor at DaimlerChrysler. Sello Kgosimore is now driving a Mercedes and wearing a tailored suit.

With his burgeoning career, his ambitions and perseverance, Kgosimore is a living advertisement for CIDA. What about the house for his mother: Did he ever buy it? He smiles from ear to ear: “Yes.”

“Our location is extremely symbolic,” says Taddy Blecher, the 40-year-old founder and executive director of CIDA. He describes how in the early 1990s, when apartheid was on its last legs, blacks in large numbers migrated to downtown Johannesburg, once the heart of the national economy. “Seven years ago, this was a no-go area,” Blecher says. “Very few ventured here. Certainly no whites.”

Along with many of his family and friends, Blecher too was preparing to emigrate. America was to be his destination. A successful accountant who bears a resemblance to Harry Potter, he could have gotten a dream job. His bags were packed. Then he noticed that his decision was making him sick. “South Africa has a lot of potential,” he says. “If we all run away, this country will never get anywhere.”

That’s when he began thinking about building a university for the poor, right in the inner city. Blecher wanted to prove that the vicious cycle of unemployment and poor education leading to social problems like violence, crime and AIDS could be overcome. He wanted the school’s graduates to be trained as social entrepreneurs.

Who would finance it? The business community, Blecher decided. Companies would, after all, profit from a flow of qualified young employees. Who would be the students? Blecher resolved to ask secondary schools in the poor townships to pick their most promising students.

The school opened its doors in 1999, and 750 students have now graduated. According to CIDA’s administration, these graduates earn a combined 40 million rand (more than $5.6 million) annually. A record 1,500 new students were admitted for this school year. The growing list of people who sponsor or otherwise support this innovative business school is impressive: Nelson Mandela, the Dalai Lama, Oprah Winfrey, as well as the Somalian supermodel Iman. Zanele Mbeki, the “First Lady” of South Africa, is the school’s chancellor.

And billionaire Richard Branson became a supporter two years ago when he started the Branson School of Entrepreneurship in co-operation with CIDA in Johannesburg. “The South African economy,” said Branson at the opening, “is dependent on entrepreneurial activity for creating future economic growth and jobs.”

CIDA’s first campus was in a condemned building a few blocks from its current home. Together with three co-founders, Blecher put ads in newspapers, on the radio and in community centres: The city has a free business school! the ads read. Come to opening day! In reality, CIDA’s founders had nothing but a few hundred plastic chairs they happened to find in the building, and plenty of guts.

Sitting down on those chairs, the 350 curious young people who turned up for the meeting quickly discovered CIDA would be no ordinary school. The four men who stood at the improvised podium introduced themselves as the board, the administration, the teachers, the switchboard operators, the janitors. In other words, they announced, We’re building a school together—with you, if you want to grow with us.

There were no computers, so students learned to type on photocopied keyboards. The first day, 100 students dropped out. As underprivileged as these students were, this didn’t fit their idea of what higher education should be.

Sello Kgosimore, on the other hand, was among those who passionately believed in the opportunity he and the others had been given. “These people have a vision,” he kept telling his fellow students when they grumbled. “Let’s give them a chance. If they fail, our options will fall as well.”

Blecher, a consummate optimist, persevered. The South African investment bank Investec was impressed by the founders’ ambitions and creativity, and offered them the building on Commissioner Street, which has been CIDA’s home for the past seven years. After that, the institute took off. CIDA has welcomed more than 50 students from other African countries and grants degrees that are recognized by national and international universities.

And CIDA, with plans to expand to other African cities, now offers more than a bachelor’s degree in business administration. Students can also get information and communications technology (ICT) training—and in July, the School of Investments opened on the fourth floor. The investment bank JPMorgan has become that program’s main sponsor.

No posters on the CIDA campus announce wild student parties or concerts. The walls of the main reception area are covered with framed articles published about the school in the press. “Capitalism’s Soul” and “Jo’burg’s Miracle University” shout the headlines.

Throughout the building you’ll find quotes like this one: “If we focus on survival, life becomes miserable. If we focus on progress, life becomes glorious.” They come from Maharashi Mahesh Yogi, the Indian guru whose ideas not only influenced the Beatles but also the founders of CIDA; transcendental meditation is part of the curriculum. Initially required, it is now voluntary following protests from devout Christian students.

And you don’t see any bored-looking students in grungy jeans and sneakers. In preparation for business careers, students—an equal number of men and women—are expected to dress the part of successful business people. Former student Grace Gadise explains: “Once when I wore a low-cut blouse to class, I was immediately told it was not professional.”

Gadise, 23, graduated in 2005 and works at the information technology (IT) company T-Systems. She will soon start a new job as project coordinator with NedBank. “At CIDA I learned flexibility and perseverance,” Gadise reflects. “I never thought I’d study business administration. But I did. Then I never thought I’d become an IT expert. But I did. CIDA taught me that it’s possible to recreate yourself!”

Gadise isn’t the only one who exudes passion and self-confidence. “Whenever I have vacation I go back to my school to motivate the students,” says Lindiwe Mthemba, who now has a paid job at CIDA. “I tell them that I sat at the same desk, wearing shoes that were even more worn than theirs. And look at me now! Here I am, a success story!”

William Kgaphola learned to type at CIDA on Blecher’s famous photocopied keyboard. Now he runs an Internet café in his remote village where the café’s computers offer the locals access to a world that would otherwise remain far out of reach.

Shadi Ditshego, who makes his way to the dusty station at KwaThema township every day to take the train to downtown Johannesburg, says, “I distribute CIDA enrollment forms every day to young people. Most set them aside. They don’t want to study for four years. But,” she adds fiercely, “after I graduate I’ll go back. I want to show them they’re wasting their time. I want to prove there’s more to life than hanging around in the township.”

Students are required to work 10 hours a week for the university. They clean the classrooms and the toilets. They answer the phone, help with office work, make photocopies. It keeps costs down and teaches discipline and humility, but more important, it reinforces CIDA’s social mission: Students are expected to give something back. They learn, for instance, to create products and services that are useful to the poor, or to set up a company that would create jobs or to contribute to solving a social problem. The idea is to start a snowball
effect that will break Africa’s cycle of poverty and hopelessness.

Every student is an agent of change, according to Blecher. That’s why they are all required to return to their old secondary schools in the townships during holidays to teach computer science or economics, or to talk to young people about AIDS. Students are also assigned to reach young people or the unemployed in Johannesburg and show them there’s hope. “We want to achieve a social transformation,” Blecher underlines. “We are making it clear to those with little prospects that they are smart and valuable. That they too have the right to opportunities and that they too can contribute to society.”

Fred de Vries is a freelance journalist who lives in Johannesburg.

"If we focus on survival, life becomes miserable.  If we focus on progress, life becomes glorious.”
Maharishi Mahesh Yogi

School for social change
Ode Magazine, October 2007

'As Broadcast By The National Aeronautics And Space Agency (NASA)'

Maharishi Mahesh Yogi: 12 January 1917 - 5 February 2008
Who Was The Man Who Inspired Blecher And His Co-Founders To Establish CIDA?

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Further Initiatives Underway As Blecher Moves On
But More Are Needed

South Africa And Beyond

Sixteen years after becoming a post-apartheid democracy South Africa still remains a source of inspiration for the rest of the world. Who would have thought, even as Nelson Mandela himself took the Presidency, that it would not be long before the country hosted international football's most prestigious competition, the World Cup?

But South Africa still has many grave problems and a secure future for all is yet far from guaranteed. The original Blecher 'Consciousness Based Education' model needs to be deployed on a wider scale and beyond South Africa.

"The hosting of the football World Cup has been a triumph. Foreign fans, some of them sceptics when they arrived, have gone home as converts. Long after South Africans saw their own team eliminated from the tournament, they kept up their vuvuzela-blowing, flag-waving, patriotic exuberance across the racial divide. After the final whistle blew on July 11th, an emotional President Jacob Zuma thanked his compatriots for a 'truly inspiring, moving and uplifting month'—which it was. Sepp Blatter, head of FIFA, world football’s governing body, gave South Africa 'nine out of ten' for its performance, saying he would happily back any bid it might now wish to make to host the Olympic Games in 2020 or 2024. Mr Zuma has confirmed that his country may be interested. The city of Durban has already made a pitch; Cape Town may follow; Johannesburg for the moment is keeping mum..... It has reaped incalculable marketing gains from the 500m spectators around the world who are reckoned on average to have tuned in to watch each of the 64 matches. Nearly half a million foreign fans visited the country, many for the first time, to watch the tournament. Perhaps the biggest benefit has been the battered nation’s rise in self-respect. South Africans, white and black, are hugely proud of their achievement. The post-apartheid six-colour national flag, once scorned by many whites, now flutters joyfully from the cars, shops and homes of all racial groups. Football, long regarded as a black sport, has been adopted passionately by all. One (white) High Court judge even donned, in court, the yellow jersey of Bafana Bafana ('the boys'), as the national team is known. In the past month there has been a thrilling sense of a divided nation pulling closer together. This may not last long. But it will be remembered. After the heady excitement, normal life now beckons. The South African press is again full of its usual daily litany of violent crime, trigger-happy police, rapists of children, high-level corruption, service-delivery protests, power failures, road carnage, threatened strikes and political infighting.... Meanwhile, South Africans are asking why a country that can stage a huge and complex global event so well cannot summon the same urgency and dedication to solve its own problems. As Mr Zuma recently said, South Africans cannot continue to blame apartheid for all their woes, 16 years after they achieved democracy."
Is there a lot more to come?
The Economist, 15 July 2010

The Continuing Role Of CIDA

"Sir Richard Branson today announced the launch of the Branson School of Entrepreneurship Business Plan Competition. The competition, aimed at various tertiary education institutions, will give promising students the opportunity to submit their business plans before 3 September 2009.... The Branson School of Entrepreneurship was launched in 2006 by Virgin Unite, the non-profit foundation of the Virgin Group, in partnership with CIDA City Campus in Johannesburg. The School identifies and nurtures budding young entrepreneurs, and equips them with the skills and start-up funding to launch successful businesses of their own, which will in turn create jobs and help boost the local economy. The students receive intensive mentoring and are also given exposure to successful local and international entrepreneurs."
Sir Richard Branson opens doors for South African entrepreneurs
CIDA, 23 July 2009

CIDA Is A Key Role Model But More Initiatives Are Needed As Blecher Moves On To New Projects

"After seven years at the helm of one of the most ambitious business education institutions in the country, the CEO and co-founder of CIDA City Campus, Mr. Taddy Blecher, has passed on the torch of building up CIDA City Campus to a new team. Taddy Blecher stood down last year as CEO and Board Member of CIDA City Campus and together with his long-time colleague and CIDA co-founder, Richard Peycke, they are pursuing their interests in Consciousness Based Education.....  According to Bishop Malusi CIDA City Campus 'has a vital role to play in providing access to business education to thousands of young people who would otherwise have no opportunity to pursue higher education'. He stressed the commitment of the new Board and management team to take forward the CIDA City Campus brand of quality education, personal development and community service. Taddy Blecher remains a passionate and tireless supporter of CIDA and its students."
Taddy Blecher leaves CIDA City Campus
CIDA, 13 March 2009

"Taddy [Blecher] is a pioneer of the free education movement in South Africa. ..... Among his key development initiatives currently underway are the Maharishi Institute, which will create a self-sustaining urban-based large-scale (and economically self-sufficient) education institution, providing free education - and salaries - from Grade 11 up to MBA level."
Speaker Biography - Dr Taddy Blecher
The Education Project Bahrain - 8-10 October, 2010 - BAHRAIN

"Maharishi Institute was honored with the ‘Seedling of Success’ Award, presented the final day of the Global Education Summit in Bahrain. Dr. Taddy Blecher, a Skoll Award winner, and The Maharishi Institute picked up the accolade as voted by the audience, more than 60 speakers and 600 summit delegates from 48 countries gathered in Bahrain to address challenges, solutions and opportunities within the global education system.... Speaking after the ceremony, Maharishi Institute chief executive officer Dr. Taddy Blecher said he was overwhelmed to receive the award, 'This is just absolutely fantastic for me, for the institute and for the country of South Africa, which is so very dear to my heart. The hope is that this will help us to promote the institute and the work that we do so that we can generate support and thus develop our resources all over South Africa.'”
Skoll Awardee Taddy Blecher and Maharishi Institute Wins ‘Seedling of Success’ Award
Skoll Foundation, 16 November 2010

'Change Begins Within'
Consciousness-Based Education

lynchbeatles2.jpg (23541 bytes)

"A charity concert in which former Beatles Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr performed together for the first time in seven years, is expected to bring Transcendental Meditation to thousands of school children in South Africa. The 'Change From Within' benefit concert took place in New York on Saturday, in support of the David Lynch Foundation for Consciousness-Based Education and World Peace. The aim of he concert is to bring meditation to 1 million at-risk school children across the world.... CBE Schools South Africa, headed up by Dr. Taddy Blecher the founder of South Africa’s first free university, is among the global beneficiaries of the charity concert.... According to the David Lynch Foundation.....'Benefits for students include decreased stress and stress-related disorders, reduced substance abuse, increased intelligence, increased learning ability, improved memory, improved academic performance, and improved standardized test scores.'.... Speaking at press conference prior to the concert Lynch, an award winning filmmaker, said 'I’ve seen schools that were in bad trouble adopt this technique and within a year, there is a 180 degree turn-around. It is so beautiful.'
Beatles reunion benefits SA
South Africa: The Good News, 6 April 2009

Video Clips From David Lynch Foundation 2009
'Change Begins Within' Beatles Concert

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"Inspired by one of the last surviving, decorated World War II fighter pilots, filmmaker David Lynch is teaming up with friends to launch 'Operation Warrior Wellness,' a meditation-based program to help veterans overcome stress-related disorders. At the upcoming benefit Change Begins Within, Lynch will be joined by Clint Eastwood, Russell Simmons, Mehmet Oz, Russell Brand, Katy Perry, Donna Karan and others in support of a project to provide Transcendental Meditation instruction to 10,000 veterans and their families. The event will be December 13 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art [New York]. Thirty-five percent of U.S. soldiers deployed to Afghanistan and Iraq since 2001 are said to suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). David Lynch Foundation spokesman Robert Roth: 'We believe Operation Warrior Wellness has great potential for treating PTSD by affecting the neurophysiology that underlies the disorder, eliminating rather than masking its symptoms.' The nonprofit program is being guided by a team of psychiatrists, PTSD researchers and medical school faculty across the country. Jerry Yellin of Hillside, New Jersey enlisted in the Army Air Corps on his eighteenth birthday -- February 15, 1942. He was trained to fly and then assigned to the 78th Fighter Squadron, which arrived at Iwo Jima on March 7, 1945. After landing his P-51 fighter plane on the island's dirt runway, Yellin saw mounds and mounds of Japanese bodies being pushed into mass graves, and hundreds of Marines awaiting identification and burial.... Yellin's unspoken agitation lasted decades -- until he discovered meditation. 'After a few weeks of twice-daily practice, my attitude began to change. It was the beginning of a metamorphosis. The anger and restlessness began to dissipate. A calmness I'd never known became apparent -- not only to me but my family as well.' Yellin felt that Transcendental Meditation saved his life. Enlisting the help of other meditating veterans, including an Army surgeon who served four tours in Iraq and Afghanistan and a retired Marine with 28 years of service, Yellin joined forces with the David Lynch Foundation to create Operation Warrior Wellness..... At a historic benefit concert in 2009, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Jerry Seinfeld and others launched the Foundation's 'Change Begins Within' outreach to teach meditation to at-risk youth. This year's benefit brings together celebrities, research scientists and philanthropists to support Operation Warrior Wellness."
Veterans Day: Can Meditation Help Veterans Overcome PTSD?
Huffington Post, 11 November 2010

What Is Consciousness-Based Education?
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Consciousness-Based Education In South-Africa
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The Role Of Education In Delivering World Peace
How Peace Was Brought To War-Torn Mozambique In The 1990s
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