Random Musing: Poverty ‘Field of Broken Dreams’
It’s a golden rule of restaurants that the longer the description on your menu, the less you will get on your plate. Ditto politics.
Perhaps it is in the light of this and the nest of vipers unleashed by the terrifying actions and inactions of the past thirty odd months that some people are demanding to see more dividends from the government and democracy, instead of a hole-in-the-corner stuff.
People can challenge with some degree of justification the continued harangue of the government but the open fact is that you cannot have tumour and continue to massage it with all the blood.
Poverty is one of our tumours right now and it threatens to even derail all that is being achieved. And if the truth be told, the level of poverty in Sierra Leone is frightening and the degradation of the masses, very painful.
Repugnant and abhorrent, poverty, which also destroys dignity, has taken the food off many tables and plates. It has become the middle name of most of the people. Yet, the rain of poverty amidst plenty is a creation of the system. It is a cobweb.
During my recent visit, I observed the sufferings people are enduring to survive. Young men and women milling around hopelessly; with agony written all over their faces. Even those who used to be a bit well off and had relatively good jobs had suddenly begun to see a dip in their lifestyle.
Before you say it, yes, I had a glimpse of light in some parts of town (not in Regent though). I saw a cleaner city. I saw a few more businesses having a go at it but with apprehension. I saw all the jeeps on the roads giving a false impression of growth. I saw power play and naked oppression. I also saw graft in technicolour. I saw the beaches and all the ‘good’ there is to see.
But above all, in the midst of the beauty that is Sierra Leone, I saw the masses being criminalized by poverty. I saw those who travelled in moving coffins; saw those who could not afford the basics because of escalating prices. I saw those who ate meals without any nutrients just for survival and those who greedily grabbed anything in sight at parties as insurance against hunger the next day.
Be it APC, SLPP, PMDC or ZNP (Zombie National Party to which many of our people belong), governments are elected to take the nation to the apogee of development.
So, when trying to pin a government down on how it intends to treat a tumour like poverty becomes like trying to catch a bar of soap in the bath, we need to face reality.
Sincerely speaking, apart from the orgy of socio-political jitters, dithering and vendetta, when was the last time that issues such as poverty, which matters to the ordinary man, dominated the headlines? When did you last see the government become so passionate that the issue does not become a photo-shoot?
April 27 and the free health programme? Why that day? Why the fanfare? What state is the programme now? Before you answer, pay a discreet visit to the hospitals or ask those you know to do so and report back.
Yes; it is a laudable effort but was a proper short, medium and long term planning carried out before its launch or was it just politically expedient, like most of the other programmes? See Sierra Media Express Report on the changing face of childbirth in Sierra Leone (13/7/10). It is just one of numerous unbiased reports highlighting the truth of the programme. But I guess we have to start somewhere? Is that so?
Sadly, because the stadium of spectators and onlookers is flooded by those who have been blinded by emotions and who simply rise to jubilate the slightest stimulus and stones thrown in the direction of opponents, the inertia and glaring developmental stagnation is masked by the superfluous tokenism being delivered in terms of improved infrastructure.
The country’s resources are unprecedented and the opportunities that lie before the people to live a decent and good life are enormous. Unfortunately, these opportunities are not being exploited for the good of the generality of the people. There is too much poverty in the land and not enough concern for the under-privileged.
Hear this from International Reports on Sierra Leone: “Real economic growth rebounded strongly after the war, 27 percent in 2002, 9 percent in 2003, and just over 7 percent for 2004-2007, before slowing down to 5.5 percent in 2008. However due to the global financial and economic crises, the growth rate further slowed down to 4.0 percent in 2009. Poverty is heavily concentrated in the rural and other urban areas outside Freetown. Revised estimates suggest that 66 percent of the population lived below the poverty line.
“The HPI-1(Human Poverty Index) value of 47.7% for Sierra Leone, ranks 128th among 135 countries for which the index has been calculated.â€
Reports talk of considerable progress being made in key areas of the Poverty Reduction Strategy which began in 2005 but all the economic theories of this world are mere jargons to the illiterates, the market women, traders and those whose lives do not reflect this claim.
As far as I am concerned, the correction of past shortcomings, though a welcome development is not an achievement but a positive progression. That progression now needs to translate into reality in the lives of the generality of the people through sustainable strategies and not more spin.
This age-long manipulation of the common psyche by the political class is what has led many into believing that any highlight of government’s inadequacies or demand for the fulfillment of the social contract with the people is an anti-government vuvuzela.
Our leaders wheel and deal in luxury and comfort while the majority wallow in poverty, penury, pain and misery as well as grope in the darkness of ignorance and paralysis. Instead of challenging them, we allow them to hold us to ransom through ethno-religious and political intrigues borne out of their inability to unleash potentials in governance.
Those who can afford their needs may not be appreciative of the great extent to which the less fortunate ones go through to make ends meet. From food to housing, social infrastructure to education, health etc, there is a crying need to change despair to hope, create a responsible and responsive government as well as save our resources and make Sierra Leone work once again.
Let’s not be under illusion about the difficulties ahead but whichever way we look at it, it is either we reform and damn the consequences or we continue with this social flaw, hand over our heritage of backwardness to future generations and live with the resultant explosion of those at the brunt of the exclusion, despondency, dejection, squalor and penury.
Without a shadow of doubt and given the pedestal on which the country once stood as well as the huge amount of aid that has poured into our national coffers, all indices right now, point to the painful and cruel fact that Sierra Leone is a nation whose potentials and promises are being wantonly misused and grossly abused.
Government is busy buying international and diplomatic support by allowing the country to be used like an empty womb but it is no secret that any administration that is highly dependent on aid pay too much attention to donors and too little to the actual needs of their own citizens. This is our scenario.
Those who a while ago did not know where we lived now define and design our progress chart of which they and their nationals and firms are chief beneficiaries. All because of our lack of vision and the absence of programmes and objectives towards which our people, with our huge resources, can be channelled.
Foreign powers and influences through their cold calculations of strategic interests rather than principles or our needs bait us with ‘loose’ coins and promises of grandeur that are hinged on majority of our people remaining poor and serving as cheap labour for their capital flight and the sustenance of their own country’s economic welfare.
Sierra Leone’s future depends on the empowerment of small businesses and wealth creating entrepreneurs. There’s a need for credible plan to help these groups to have access to cheap funds and a tax and regulatory environment that will encourage hard work.
It can be argued that the government is laying the groundwork for the future path of development but a diagnosis that takes three years without effective treatment will only turn the disease into malignant tumour.
The small miracles of hope that the government has so far achieved are being threatened as the grumblings of the people turn into cries of agony. This is beyond the usual rhetoric. It is past politics. It needs urgent and serious attention.
Die hard apologists and spin doctors who are well insulated from the poverty in the land can continue to sing ‘it is well, it is well’ and frown at the impatience of some of us but they see not the walking dead on our streets as the standard of living nose dives and the economic growth rate falls to 4%
Three years into the life of this government of change and anti-poverty measures and ideas like macro-credit finance to lift people out of the dungeon of poverty are still not in the realm of reality but second place to sloganeering.
Looking into the horizon, permanent and lasting solutions to human development challenges, health and educational issues are not yet dotting the landscape. Some palliatives are in place but not practical socio-economic policies and ideas designed to eliminate this scourge of our society.
The unjust charitable structures that are being foistered on the nation are the source of our economic stagnation. You cannot run away from direct wealth creation, increased purchasing value and widespread employment and expect to be prosperous. You need loans to villages; you need cheap and available health care and a reversal of foreign dominance of key sectors of the economy, etc.
Ineffective government poverty alleviation methods of the past three years has ensured that the legacies of the past have been aggravated by the global economic downturn making it even harder for the so-called efforts to be visible.
If President Koroma does not fix the roof while the sun is shining and tie together all the necessary and relevant strands of the rebuilding process, particularly the alleviation of poverty in the land, the gigantic socio-economic and political problems facing our nation will become a time-bomb.
While there are no quick fixes, they need to be solved through a comprehensive approach before the threats they pose destroys our very existence and the government’s own attempts in this field of broken dreams. It’s been three long years coming.
By: Raymond Dele Awoonor-Gordon.
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