It has been a very interesting start to my year. In exactly
a week, I pack a suitcase or 2 along with my laptop and head back to Accra for
a 6 month contract. A very daunting, yet exciting prospect. Daunting because I
have not lived in Ghana since I was 7, exciting, well because it’s a whole new
adventure.
On Tuesday, I was having a conversation with a friend about
my disgust at how people can leave their homes(Alexandra Township for example),
travel to the “boss’s” home/place of work (i.e Sandton) and return to a litter-filled
environment that I seem to encounter in my infrequent visits to the area. My
friend studied political and social sciences so our training is very different.
In as much as I want to claim to be open minded, I am a 1+1=2 kind of person
but when underpinning socio economic issues are brought to my attention, it’s clearly
not that cut and dried. For instance, perhaps there aren’t as many dustbins per
person in Alex as there are in Sandton, perhaps, the garbage collection isn’t
as frequent or the infrastructure when it comes to ablution facilities is not
comparable to the ones in Sandton etc.
Which brings me to this week’s topic of conversation. There
is the World Economic Forum gathering this week, where all the well to do
people of this world (Oxfam says that 85 of the world’s richest have as much
wealth as ALL of the world’s poor) meet to discuss the plight of the
poor…amongst other things. I think the theme for this year’s gathering is “The
reshaping of the world: Consequences for society, politics and business”. I
guess it’s the world order as it has always been.
One of their topics of conversation was income inequality It
casts my mind to a a trust (www.smyle.co.za)
that a friend set up a few years ago with the intention of helping a group of
talented kids, firstly stay and excel in school and thus hopefully make
something of their lives and secondly share their musical talents with the
world, whilst earning funds to sustain their schooling ambitions. It’s been a
long slog but last year through an extra class program, 23 of ‘our’ grade12’s
have been accepted into university. Now herein lies the biggest difficulty in
terms of undoing the cycle of poverty. The average household income in the
areas from whence these kids hail is roughly R4000($400)/month. Average
household is 5 people, do the math. Near impossible for them to afford fees
ranging from R18000($1800) to R49000($4900). They can’t get a loan because no
one has collateral. Add this to the fact that many of these kids have a
mother(if they are lucky) tearing herself to shreds, trying to provide for the
family and an absent father, who is going to ingrain in them the importance of
a good education? I remember growing up and coming home proud as a bean, with
my 90% for a test and pops was like and the other 10%?
Going to school is one thing, but the quality of the
education received is another. I’m sure many out there, like myself are of the
opinion that educating our youth will go a long way to solving many issues of
poverty. Home support structures are also a necessity.
Going to school and someone telling you don’t throw that
piece of paper there, or doing condensation/disection practicals in the science
lab sure does go a long way in broadening one’s mind and noting that actions
have consequences
