Jackson, You've always made us win even it sometimes means slowing down your journey. The decision to deal with poverty is long awaited. Many at times people fail or fear to discuss this topic for fear of their frame of reference (how rich they are to talk about poverty). So what happens if someone asks them how rich they are to discuss such issues? To me poverty is relative. Without fear of being prejudiced, one of the issues we've got to deal with in our endeavor is apathy; a feeling of being unable, incapable, and doing nothing about one's situation. Many people are doing nothing about their situation. Our culture of helping (extending olive leaf to those who do not deserve) seemed to have bred phenomenal laziness and promoted the spirit of receiving free things. I think its time we changed our empowerment approach from one that breeds dependence to one that rewards hard work. History tells us, Europe was once in the same mess we are in today but what they did was to start giving to those who work. People later got to realize that only hard work pays. Decent life can only be led after working. This was however done with respect for the rights of the sick, elderly, and others genuinely incapacitated. The second thing we've got to deal with is the information poverty. Globally, info is now power yet many of our rural poor do not have access to information which can enhance their productivity, employability, etc. Such people have dwindled chances of ever making informed decisions? Sam raised also a serious issue and I wish to state the following in regard. Marungi is now one of the cash crops grown in Arua with its nucleus in Kijomoro, Maracha County. Many people have looked at marungi with complexity/mixture of feelings. The sad fact is: it’s a source of living to some people but also number one cause of idleness and other problems. Someone joked whether people would still be alive in kijomoro if Marungi plantations were destroyed. While on a tour in Maracha, president also told the people marungi is a mild drug–a statement that went well with the population. People have now neglected food production preferring to buy food from marungi proceeds. The youth are heavily involved in nothing else except chewing marungi. Politicians fear to talk against marungi for fear of loosing votes. Members, without jeopardizing livelihood of some people and blessing the dangers of Marungi, how do we strike a deal? In addition to Marungi, we've got to deal with excessive drinking. Amb. Phillip Idro once told me our poverty is now first-class poverty and he said excessive drinking is an attempt to catch up with what was missed. He also said that people in first class poverty spend all their earnings trying to catch up with what they missed in the past--meaning they do not invest or savet. With no savings/investment, such people find themselves in what Robert Kyoshaki called 'rat race' and this is typical of most of our tobacco farmers. Year in, year out, they are in fruitless production. Unless the little money they get is finished they will never go home. There are cases where people have ended up filling their drinking water pots with beer to catch up with what they missed. Others swift from drinking ‘Okarito’ to beer until tobacco money is exhausted. How then can such people eliminate poverty? This is really the magnitude of the problem we face. The challenge is really enormous. At times, the problem is so contagious. In trying to help, one could catch the disease but I'm confident we can all do our part to create the kind of society that guarantees hope for the next generation. Regards, Denis Lee Oguzu
--- On Fri, 5/15/09, JohnAJackson <[email protected]> wrote: From: JohnAJackson <[email protected]> Subject: [WestNileNet] Hot Topics for discussion To: [email protected] Date: Friday, May 15, 2009, 8:41 AM This is a reminder about the issues & Hot Topics for discussion:* > ** > 1) Closure of Primary School in Koboko District---------Done > 2) Migration of Walalu Pastoralist in Wet Nile > 3) Barifa Forest demarcation for development-----------Done 4) Derfoestation of West Nile Region----------------------Done > 5) Relocation of Arua Prison out of the City or Town > 6) Matego District Issue > 7) Electiricity & Power development > 8) Poor Performance in Schools in West Nile, Task Force (TF) = Waiting for > report > 9) High Unempolyment & Poverty in the West Nile Region > 10) Other Business ( Add more issues as you please) May suggest that to members of this forum that High unemployment and Poverty in the West Nile Region be discussed for the next two(2) weeks Please look at root cause & solutions/proposals I have attached two PDF docs about the summary points on the recent dicussions. -----Inline Attachment Follows----- _______________________________________________ WestNileNet mailing list [email protected] http://orion.kym.net/mailman/listinfo/westnilenet % WestNileNet is generously hosted by INFOCOM http://www.infocom.co.ug/ The above comments and data are owned by whoever posted them (including attachments if any). The List's Host is not responsible for them in any way. _______________________________________________
_______________________________________________ WestNileNet mailing list [email protected] http://orion.kym.net/mailman/listinfo/westnilenet % WestNileNet is generously hosted by INFOCOM http://www.infocom.co.ug/ The above comments and data are owned by whoever posted them (including attachments if any). The List's Host is not responsible for them in any way. _______________________________________________
