If a law is broken, it is appropriate that a reasonable punishment is prescribed; at least in legal terms. However, before such a punishment is meted on an individual, it is important to acknowledge that legally, at least according to the human rights declaration, an individual is ‘innocent until proven guilty!’ This should be the case in any normal circumstances, in any country and at any time.
If you’ll think that for a second such a thing could be applicable in any normal African state, then be ready for a reality check. In Kenya, and the neighbouring country; Uganda, the two countries am so much conversant with, the above statement is an opinion. You are actually ‘guilty until proven innocent!’ This is a statement of fact! May be I should also clarify the term ‘fact’ which I can only define as ‘any verifiable statement that is true, independent of time and space.’ In this part of the world, any person who has never seen the door of a court room on suspicion of a crime and proved otherwise is in all sense of the word, a criminal. This is not a mere opinion; it is a true and factual statement.
Recently, I had a pleasure of taking my girlfriend ‘out.’ This was a very normal outing with very normal and necessary accompaniments. After visiting the source of river Nile, arguably the second longest river in the world, after Mississippi river, we had to have a refreshing time at the banks the river, enjoying the beautiful scenery of what is now Bukaya and just gazing at the water that was just starting its three months journey to Egypt. Since for me carrying my babe or feeding her is not part of showing romance, I made it a point to give her a little history of lake Victoria, its catchments, how the water flows into the Nile and just how useful this water was to the people of North Africa. I also tried, in the best way possible, to give her the history behind the Nile, telling her that Egypt had, during the colonial time signed a treaty with the East-African countries on regulating the use of this water, which too me was more of enslaving the local people. I was at the middle of the most romantic gesture of my caliber, fetching the water using my right hand and explaining the chemistry behind this compound when two Kanyamas (heavily built men) suddenly appeared. That is when I realized that being a foreigner in your own country can be too costly!
The two slugs first lectured me to something that sounded close to the constitution of Uganda; they told me how Uganda is a sovereign state and how such a state has her own laws and regulations! To me, this was, in the words of Immanuel Kant, what I call synthetic aposteriori knowledge, because I was literally conscious of everything they were saying. They went ahead and told me that apart from being a public land, the place we were enjoying ourselves from, was also a governments private land in which trespassing was prohibited. This did not make sense to me at all; I took into my hands, the trouble of trying to explain to these constitutionally innocent soldiers that my girlfriend and I had all the constitutional rights to enjoy ourselves at such a spot. I also let them know that being a citizen of this country, by registration; I was a property of the state liable to my constitutional rights. It was at the middle of such an explanation that the whole saga started, in one second, I was counting hezillions of stars in my eyes and in the other, I was trying to apologize for having been so stupid as to argue with the government officials. My face was already swelling due to numerous blows and lacerations I was receiving. It was only due to my girlfriend’s cry that the beating stopped. For costing the government officials’ energy, I was forced to part with Ugshs 50,000. In addition, I had to spend over 200,000 on treatment.
Lessons…never take some laws so literally for this may cost you heavily. Secondly, know that in Africa, at least in most African states, you are free until proven guilty and that all public officials are always right. Thirdly, never be so over courageous because of a girl because, due to her physical strength, a girl cannot save you as you suffer physical pain. Lastly, learn to inquire on the possibility of having freedom to walk and seat wherever you feel like, this is very essential.
Remember, you are never at liberty to do what you feel like and what you call innocence in one state may be a vice in another! This is 21st century...
Saturday, April 24, 2010
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
poverty: worlds leading pandemic
I have been keen enough to be in touch with my world, to reflect on the ‘privileges’ am given and also came to the knowledge of what my worth is. I have also come to realize that may be some of us do not have any worth after all; ask the paranoid inhabitants of Baghdad and Kandahar! Or let me be relevant enough, the people from my small village in Buwongo in the middle of the great Bunyala swamp that is now being sold by the government.
I have heard various people claim that HIV is the most dangerous disease in our world today. Others, particularly those who have been in Africa, argue that malaria, killing atleast half a million a year, should be considered the most life threatening disease, while others still hold that cancer, diabetes and hypertension combined are the worlds most dreadful ailments today. I guess such people have a point, a serious one! However, all these assumptions miss the most vital point, that is to say, it is not malaria, nor diabetes that tops this list, rather, the prime suspect here should be the failure to attain the means to curb such diseases. Therefore, allow me to make my own claim, which I am ready to defend, that poverty is arguably the most haunting ailment of our time!
Subject to statistics, 70% of the world’s population lives below a dollar. If the world population stands at 6.84 billion today, then it means that nearly 5 billion people share this bitter fate. Having said that, let us assume that every person lives on 0.5 dollars a day, then, their annual financial budget should be something in the region of 182.5 dollars. With such a figure, it is inevitably impossible to dream of a balanced diet, for such a thing automatically becomes non-existent, whether in present, past or future! With such a budget, medication and schooling becomes a pure luxury; it is like talking of peace and love at the middle of Mogadishu. With such a situation, sanitation and clean water is deleted from the equation resulting into an inequality that may be mathematically unviable if tried out. With such a scenario, people forget of the necessity of basic needs and end up in an identity dilemma, where most certainly, most of them fail to classify themselves as Homo sapiens or just the proceeding groups. Clearly, the number one pandemic in our world today is poverty, a deadly pandemic!
Allow me to justify my point that indeed poverty is the greatest pandemic! I have no clear knowledge why this happens, but statistically speaking, poor people tend to have bigger families than their rich counterparts, this is possibly because for them, sex becomes a consolation, a way of relieving the unnecessary stress! On average, a financially incapacitated family has seven members that is, exclusive of the extendended family members; grandparents, uncles and aunts, just to note a few that normally become part of the family by default. Let us then stick to the number seven. Assuming that the total annual domestic financial base for a household is divided equally among the seven members, each member will have an average maximum of 26.07$ a year. Let us also assume that daily, each member spends and average of 0.1 $ on food (believe me, this happens quite often), multiplied by the number of days in a year, this will add up to 36.525 $ a year. Already such an individual would have lived by a deficit of over 10$ a year, equivalent to 40.1% beyond their total income. Let us also assume that such an individual spends an average of 0.0133’$ on water, this will translate to 4.87$ a year, added to the deficit that already exists, they will easily get something in the region of 15.325$ in deficit, amounting to 58.78% beyond the budget. If the average amount of money required annually for schooling, medication and clothing is lets say 260$ (given that such needs have never been basic for this people anyway, because of their price), then one person will have an excess of 270$ deficit on their budget translating to approximately 1025.263% deficit. Such a mathematical shock spells doom for a poor man.
I am sure most, probably all of you, reading this article have never lived in slums or met people living on isolated islands or experienced the tough life of the upcountry, yet truly, we have many of such people and am sure that whoever sits down to make such global statistics (on poverty around), by far underestimates what many people face, for indeed there are such people all over in our habitats. Given such conditions, how do you expect someone to comfortably feed their family? Is it even possible to have enough money to buy malaria tablets that cost about 1.25$? Is it even possible for one to buy a daily dose of diabetes drugs or go for a medical check-up once a year or even afford a chemo for a cancerous misfortune? Such people opt to die peacefully and slowly, with all their sufferings of course, and it is people like me and others that blame the whole thing on some innocent anopheles mosquitoes! I am happy that the government is offering free ARV drugs to HIV patients; this is a really noble gesture. However, such strong drugs need a balanced diet, a thing the masses cannot afford. I sometimes ask myself of the nobility of such a gesture!
I remember when I was a little young, something to do with ten years, that should be around 1910, I was left home with my little sister. Next door, there were my cousins whose parents had three days back gone to search for their daily bread and were not yet back. These six young kids, who were obviously younger than myself, were starving, literally starving. For me and my sister, we had four eggs reserved for lunch which we hoped would be sufficient for us. But checking on our dear cousins (in Africa this are our brothers and sisters), we could not help but make enough for all of us; indeed we had to make sure that it was enough! So what did we do? Well, we prepared a big mountain of Ugali (posho) and with the eggs, we literally added half a liter of water and made what I can rightly call an egg-stew. It was necessary and my cousins’ hunger was averted. I could see a smile at those malnourished faces, the boys and girls started playing and singing. Unfortunately, two of them died young, the remaining four never finished formal education and are now still hustling, just like their parents who (RIP) are now gone!
It is because of such situations that many have come up with all sorts of organizations and ideas. I have heard of the ‘poverty elevation fund!’ Is this something positive or what? I am not just so sure what this means, for in truth, we should be talking about eradicating poverty and not elevating it. Some few years ago, the Kenyan government came up with what is now called the ‘universal education.’ Such a system has been long in use in the neighbouring country Uganda. The achievement of such a thought and initiative was the massive inflow of poor kids into schools and at one moment, I thought that ignorance will be a thing of the past. This was a noble idea because many parents whose financial base played in the above described tune felt relieved. It was a noble idea indeed! However, when many thought that the program was in top gear, reality started cropping in. classes were filled to the brim, there was scarcity of teachers, insufficient books, classes and so many other necessary education tools! The implications of such realities were quite evident.
First, it is estimated that a normal class should have an average of 16 pupils and given that with such a program the classes were as big as having 100 kids. This implies that the teachers had over 500% heavier work load. With the meager salary the teachers are paid and so lack of motivation, we can only expect a product of more ignorant brood than anticipated. We cannot also expect children to study on empty stomachs, for this is completely unrealistic. I personally develop headaches when am hungry, resulting into a lack of concentration. To say the list, I can smell a rat in such a program because the ‘proponents’ of such ideas do not take their children to such schools but rather opt to pay dearly for their children’s academics. This system, designed for the poor has left many people more poor and ignorant than they were, for there is no greater evil than opting for half apparent measures and there is no dangerous mind than a mind half informed! The implication in such a system is the creation of classes where the rich, who are also the ruling class, will continue using their wealth, to rule the masses, for their children, who will be more educated and so ‘informed’ will be in a good position to make decisions for the less educated. It is an elite ruling society; it is a situation of ‘no place for a poor man society; it is the fruit of the modern man.
Therefore, as I was saying, poverty is a disease. It is no wonder we have a cursed system in India. With this pragmatic world directed by the capitalist policies of among others, consumerism, it will definitely require divine intervention to pull the worlds’ poor out of their shackles. It will definitely require a change of heart among the rich few to be inclusive. The danger is that anyone who may come up with such an idea is likely to be rebuffed and condemned to be a socialist as they have already labeled Barrack Obama. Whoever will want to fight for the poor will share the fate of Jesus Christ whose noble efforts led him to Calvary. Yet, a time is coming when all will indeed realize how temporal our hard earned riches are, and how fast such riches can sublime into thin air, never to return! Until then, poverty remains a pandemic!
I have heard various people claim that HIV is the most dangerous disease in our world today. Others, particularly those who have been in Africa, argue that malaria, killing atleast half a million a year, should be considered the most life threatening disease, while others still hold that cancer, diabetes and hypertension combined are the worlds most dreadful ailments today. I guess such people have a point, a serious one! However, all these assumptions miss the most vital point, that is to say, it is not malaria, nor diabetes that tops this list, rather, the prime suspect here should be the failure to attain the means to curb such diseases. Therefore, allow me to make my own claim, which I am ready to defend, that poverty is arguably the most haunting ailment of our time!
Subject to statistics, 70% of the world’s population lives below a dollar. If the world population stands at 6.84 billion today, then it means that nearly 5 billion people share this bitter fate. Having said that, let us assume that every person lives on 0.5 dollars a day, then, their annual financial budget should be something in the region of 182.5 dollars. With such a figure, it is inevitably impossible to dream of a balanced diet, for such a thing automatically becomes non-existent, whether in present, past or future! With such a budget, medication and schooling becomes a pure luxury; it is like talking of peace and love at the middle of Mogadishu. With such a situation, sanitation and clean water is deleted from the equation resulting into an inequality that may be mathematically unviable if tried out. With such a scenario, people forget of the necessity of basic needs and end up in an identity dilemma, where most certainly, most of them fail to classify themselves as Homo sapiens or just the proceeding groups. Clearly, the number one pandemic in our world today is poverty, a deadly pandemic!
Allow me to justify my point that indeed poverty is the greatest pandemic! I have no clear knowledge why this happens, but statistically speaking, poor people tend to have bigger families than their rich counterparts, this is possibly because for them, sex becomes a consolation, a way of relieving the unnecessary stress! On average, a financially incapacitated family has seven members that is, exclusive of the extendended family members; grandparents, uncles and aunts, just to note a few that normally become part of the family by default. Let us then stick to the number seven. Assuming that the total annual domestic financial base for a household is divided equally among the seven members, each member will have an average maximum of 26.07$ a year. Let us also assume that daily, each member spends and average of 0.1 $ on food (believe me, this happens quite often), multiplied by the number of days in a year, this will add up to 36.525 $ a year. Already such an individual would have lived by a deficit of over 10$ a year, equivalent to 40.1% beyond their total income. Let us also assume that such an individual spends an average of 0.0133’$ on water, this will translate to 4.87$ a year, added to the deficit that already exists, they will easily get something in the region of 15.325$ in deficit, amounting to 58.78% beyond the budget. If the average amount of money required annually for schooling, medication and clothing is lets say 260$ (given that such needs have never been basic for this people anyway, because of their price), then one person will have an excess of 270$ deficit on their budget translating to approximately 1025.263% deficit. Such a mathematical shock spells doom for a poor man.
I am sure most, probably all of you, reading this article have never lived in slums or met people living on isolated islands or experienced the tough life of the upcountry, yet truly, we have many of such people and am sure that whoever sits down to make such global statistics (on poverty around), by far underestimates what many people face, for indeed there are such people all over in our habitats. Given such conditions, how do you expect someone to comfortably feed their family? Is it even possible to have enough money to buy malaria tablets that cost about 1.25$? Is it even possible for one to buy a daily dose of diabetes drugs or go for a medical check-up once a year or even afford a chemo for a cancerous misfortune? Such people opt to die peacefully and slowly, with all their sufferings of course, and it is people like me and others that blame the whole thing on some innocent anopheles mosquitoes! I am happy that the government is offering free ARV drugs to HIV patients; this is a really noble gesture. However, such strong drugs need a balanced diet, a thing the masses cannot afford. I sometimes ask myself of the nobility of such a gesture!
I remember when I was a little young, something to do with ten years, that should be around 1910, I was left home with my little sister. Next door, there were my cousins whose parents had three days back gone to search for their daily bread and were not yet back. These six young kids, who were obviously younger than myself, were starving, literally starving. For me and my sister, we had four eggs reserved for lunch which we hoped would be sufficient for us. But checking on our dear cousins (in Africa this are our brothers and sisters), we could not help but make enough for all of us; indeed we had to make sure that it was enough! So what did we do? Well, we prepared a big mountain of Ugali (posho) and with the eggs, we literally added half a liter of water and made what I can rightly call an egg-stew. It was necessary and my cousins’ hunger was averted. I could see a smile at those malnourished faces, the boys and girls started playing and singing. Unfortunately, two of them died young, the remaining four never finished formal education and are now still hustling, just like their parents who (RIP) are now gone!
It is because of such situations that many have come up with all sorts of organizations and ideas. I have heard of the ‘poverty elevation fund!’ Is this something positive or what? I am not just so sure what this means, for in truth, we should be talking about eradicating poverty and not elevating it. Some few years ago, the Kenyan government came up with what is now called the ‘universal education.’ Such a system has been long in use in the neighbouring country Uganda. The achievement of such a thought and initiative was the massive inflow of poor kids into schools and at one moment, I thought that ignorance will be a thing of the past. This was a noble idea because many parents whose financial base played in the above described tune felt relieved. It was a noble idea indeed! However, when many thought that the program was in top gear, reality started cropping in. classes were filled to the brim, there was scarcity of teachers, insufficient books, classes and so many other necessary education tools! The implications of such realities were quite evident.
First, it is estimated that a normal class should have an average of 16 pupils and given that with such a program the classes were as big as having 100 kids. This implies that the teachers had over 500% heavier work load. With the meager salary the teachers are paid and so lack of motivation, we can only expect a product of more ignorant brood than anticipated. We cannot also expect children to study on empty stomachs, for this is completely unrealistic. I personally develop headaches when am hungry, resulting into a lack of concentration. To say the list, I can smell a rat in such a program because the ‘proponents’ of such ideas do not take their children to such schools but rather opt to pay dearly for their children’s academics. This system, designed for the poor has left many people more poor and ignorant than they were, for there is no greater evil than opting for half apparent measures and there is no dangerous mind than a mind half informed! The implication in such a system is the creation of classes where the rich, who are also the ruling class, will continue using their wealth, to rule the masses, for their children, who will be more educated and so ‘informed’ will be in a good position to make decisions for the less educated. It is an elite ruling society; it is a situation of ‘no place for a poor man society; it is the fruit of the modern man.
Therefore, as I was saying, poverty is a disease. It is no wonder we have a cursed system in India. With this pragmatic world directed by the capitalist policies of among others, consumerism, it will definitely require divine intervention to pull the worlds’ poor out of their shackles. It will definitely require a change of heart among the rich few to be inclusive. The danger is that anyone who may come up with such an idea is likely to be rebuffed and condemned to be a socialist as they have already labeled Barrack Obama. Whoever will want to fight for the poor will share the fate of Jesus Christ whose noble efforts led him to Calvary. Yet, a time is coming when all will indeed realize how temporal our hard earned riches are, and how fast such riches can sublime into thin air, never to return! Until then, poverty remains a pandemic!
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
our short-sightedness
in normal circumstances, I'll rather go by my own rational dictate, but allow me to commit a fallacy here, wot you'll rightly call 'ad verecundiam.' I must agree with Kant that at all times, our moral acts should be done out of obligation and should be objective enough. on what is now the basis of human rights, Kant says that "Act in such a way that you treat ...humanity, whether in your own person or in the ... other, never merely as a means to an end, but always at the same time as an end" This thought has stood the test of time and on it, the human rights movements have been built. the foetus in the womb is not just the other, but it is a subject that cannot be reduced to a mere object...
if our parents would have taken us as just a 'mean,' most of us wouldn't have been born. No matter what we do,we cannot justify an evil. the clause as stipulated in the (Kenyan) draft constitution is too open as to allow a woman, without any good reason, to convince a doctor to flash a fetus from her womb....yet, rightly as it has been affirmed by various sensible people, Life starts at conception...and that's for sure a fact! I fully agree with religious leaders on this issue!
The proponents of such a subject are claiming that money has been lost, and i will be put to task and ask, "between money and human life, what's important?" Consumerism and pragmatism is killing us, we want quick fixes and cheap ones indeed. but if we are to face the future with zeal and hope, we must learn to sacrifice our resources for this very task.
Others are claiming that we have waited for long to have a constitution, that this is the time, "but what type of constitution should we have?" are we ready for just any constitution? This is absurd, i guess many of those making noise do not understand the meaning of such a noble document, they probably do not recognize that not only our future but the future of our grandchildren's children heavily depends on this document we are unnecessarily making a fuss over. This document holds the future of this generation and generations to come and doing a shoddy work creates uncertainty to the coming generations. Clearly, the apparent good in not always the befitting and indeed, we should be striving for the higher course, the befitting!
Behind any constitution are the rights of a human being, the most fundamental one being "the right to life.." if such a right is ambiguously held, then what's the use of a constitution anyway?
Reality is a complex thing, as i have experienced it anyway, and we have a choice, we can choose to enter into such a complexity and so explore it ( as Americans have of recent done with the health overhaul), or fear such an obligation and hand the future generation a raw deal. We have a choice!
if our parents would have taken us as just a 'mean,' most of us wouldn't have been born. No matter what we do,we cannot justify an evil. the clause as stipulated in the (Kenyan) draft constitution is too open as to allow a woman, without any good reason, to convince a doctor to flash a fetus from her womb....yet, rightly as it has been affirmed by various sensible people, Life starts at conception...and that's for sure a fact! I fully agree with religious leaders on this issue!
The proponents of such a subject are claiming that money has been lost, and i will be put to task and ask, "between money and human life, what's important?" Consumerism and pragmatism is killing us, we want quick fixes and cheap ones indeed. but if we are to face the future with zeal and hope, we must learn to sacrifice our resources for this very task.
Others are claiming that we have waited for long to have a constitution, that this is the time, "but what type of constitution should we have?" are we ready for just any constitution? This is absurd, i guess many of those making noise do not understand the meaning of such a noble document, they probably do not recognize that not only our future but the future of our grandchildren's children heavily depends on this document we are unnecessarily making a fuss over. This document holds the future of this generation and generations to come and doing a shoddy work creates uncertainty to the coming generations. Clearly, the apparent good in not always the befitting and indeed, we should be striving for the higher course, the befitting!
Behind any constitution are the rights of a human being, the most fundamental one being "the right to life.." if such a right is ambiguously held, then what's the use of a constitution anyway?
Reality is a complex thing, as i have experienced it anyway, and we have a choice, we can choose to enter into such a complexity and so explore it ( as Americans have of recent done with the health overhaul), or fear such an obligation and hand the future generation a raw deal. We have a choice!
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