THE GRAND ‘PANCER’
Did you know that on this day, the 17th of October
in 539BC Cyrus the Great marched into the city of Babylon, releasing the Jews
from almost 70 years of imprisonment? Did you also know that on this same day
Albert Einstein fled Nazi Germany and moved to the United States? How many of
you are wondering are wondering why these facts are important? Well that makes
the two of us. Wait, I actually know what you are thinking about…what if
Cinderella was the one to lose her man, what if that guy giving his speech
about The Grand ‘Pancer’ wore that suit without shoes. Or you are probably
thinking, what time is lunch time? Worry not, me too.
Today, as we mark the International Poverty Eradication day I
do not wish to be benign and boring. I intend not to lull you into slumber or
guttered complacency. My biggest task today is to slide in, hammer in or even
just whisper to you that losing a future is not like losing an election or a
few points on the stock market. It is not in other words but in the exact words
that it is losing us and our off springs to us.
The truth is that in our world today, Africa, we are so poor
that even the rich rob from the poor, the poor work for the rich and the
beggars beg from their fellow beggars. More annoying truth is that we are
cursed with expensive taste but no money. Ask Google if you think I lie, but
one hard fact is that some people in the same world we live in are so poor that
they get to 17 years old before they realize that people actually ate three
meals a day. The danger we risk face is assuming that poverty is a personal
affair while in actually sense it is and should be a public nuisance. Unless we
begin to confront the underlying causes each step we take on the issue of
poverty it will always quickly rise to bite us in our backs. It is the irony of
the duck feeling it is none if its business when its cousin the chicken is
being slaughtered not knowing it may be next in line.
Clearly, solving the menace of poverty is a huge task or else
someone would have done it by now. The biggest mess we put ourselves in is our
misplaced priorities. Did you know that conditions such as baldness and
erectile dysfunction have received more funding than our killer tropical
disease #Ebola. You know drugs are not
made to treat the poor and the unfortunate victims of Ebola have been the
poorest. And yet we keep waiting for a miracle from the west. Ebola only
matters to the west now that it knocks at their front door. The only solution
they have is travel bans and restrictions. Convalescent therapy has shown to
work and this we can do ourselves. What are we still waiting for?
We face the undented virus in our systems of identity crisis.
We as a continent need to start looking within. That way we will be able to see
our potential and put to halt the massive loot from the west among other pointers
of the global compass. Did you know that many of the advanced medical
technology had its roots or rather was plagiarized from the native African
witchdoctors? If you think about this, did you know that even mini-skirts
originated from Africa? This absurd dependency mentality does not lead to any
positive distinction, only to our extinction.
In Uganda men are complaining about how the condoms sold to
them are very small. Kenyans are on rampage on twitter about who is more
sexually appealing between Vera Sidika and Huddah Monroe. In Zimbabwe youth are
idle on the street holding discussions around the subject “Riddim is in prison
with Vybs Kartel’. While we argue about whether Uhuru Kenyatta should go to The
Hague or not, a young boy and his nine month old sister have succumbed to death
due to hunger. As we worry about how many times Agwambo was caned in Kilifi, an
old man not his grandpa, may be not yours is pushing his almost dead and beat
body to a drying water source. As our trusted or not law makers travel to go
shout to the top of their lungs in the streets of Netherlands a teenage girl
from Turkana is using cow dung in place for sanitary towels, a middle aged man
is feeding his wife urine from his camel because he has no water. Let me introduce you to Koffi Annan who says that a
hungry man is not a free man.
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| TYPICAL KENYAN WOMAN LOOKING FORWARD TO LIFE |
If we embraced the culture of using what we have then we
definitely would not be in the same position we are in. Take an example of the
boy in Kakamega who invented his own aircraft. He still languishes in poverty
still looking for sponsors to take him to school. Maybe Pesa Mfukoni…sorry, Pesa
Mashimoni…I mean, Pesa Mashinani
will help him.
We need to uproot the thinking of those that do not mind the
welfare of others. The reason why both the government and opposition appear to
be so inept and bungling this poverty issue is because they are both lying
through their teeth. It is like a sci-fi
movie wherein the evil government lies to the people until the outbreak is
spiraling out of control.
I am only an unemployed law student and I do not have all the
solutions but neither do you. Unless we promote national, regional and even
international cohesion then we may moving forward on reverse gear. How about
instead of the USA-Africa summit, we have an Africa-USA summit! We need to
recognize our growth, devolve it and learn to sustain it.
We also need to be our brothers’ keeper. Every year millions are spent by charities to try and end poverty and nothing ever changes. Should we accept and move on or should we call for a referendum…or simply just try harder? The truth is that alongside our individualism, there is something else inside, a belief that we are all connected as one people. We need to get rid of the shoes of selfishness and self-centeredness. So in solidarity today let us all remove our shoes. Go on, do not be shy, it’s the first step.
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| SHARING IS DEFINITELY CARING |
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