http://calabarboy.com/2009/02/24/is-there-hope-for-the-rest-of-us/ Little conversations about everyday living. Fri, 10 Sep 2010 06:19:52 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ http://calabarboy.com/2009/02/24/is-there-hope-for-the-rest-of-us/#comment-68 Unorthodox Fri, 27 Feb 2009 23:57:50 +0000 http://holyreg.wordpress.com/?p=135#comment-68 If this is a call to action for us in the Third World, it is just one of many. I find it difficult to believe that we have no idea of what to do. We have just decided to be inactive. This economic recession is not something extraordinary in Africa. We have always been in a recession. We are not only exporters of raw materials that are quickly becoming replaceable but importers of everything. In Africa, there is minimal nearly insignificant development. If we are to make changes, what do we change when even the most basic infrastructure is not in place and the environmennt is practically disabling. The average African... from the unemployed graduate to the aimless beggar to the sleek bank manager is living on survival instincts. Make enough money for you and your family to survive and if you have excess...go on holiday or fix it or trade with it somehow. We are not thinking about sustainable cleaner energy for ourselves. We are so comfortable living with noisy smoky electricity generators. We are not thinking about a healthy and rich publicly - run learning environment for our children. We want them to go to so-called private schools. We are not thinking about things that can actually reduce our poverty level drastically. When we talk about change, we don't need something massive with a grand acronym with all sorts of committees to go. We just need to focus on what really matters - better standard of living for us all. And it starts with you. I'm pointing a better standard of living as the focus because that is what it all boils down to for us in Africa. The countries with the big problem of recession are credit based to the retail level. We were at a recession when their economy was buoyant, we are in a more deplorable stage of recession now that they are in a recession. We are not a credit based economy. We are 75% cash-based. We can create change by selling better standard of living to ourselves. Not a bigger house for example, but a "privately run efficient energy-hawker." We can only take action when we identify those basic things that can actually make life better for ourselves. If this is a call to action for us in the Third World, it is just one of many. I find it difficult to believe that we have no idea of what to do. We have just decided to be inactive. This economic recession is not something extraordinary in Africa. We have always been in a recession. We are not only exporters of raw materials that are quickly becoming replaceable but importers of everything. In Africa, there is minimal nearly insignificant development. If we are to make changes, what do we change when even the most basic infrastructure is not in place and the environmennt is practically disabling. The average African… from the unemployed graduate to the aimless beggar to the sleek bank manager is living on survival instincts. Make enough money for you and your family to survive and if you have excess…go on holiday or fix it or trade with it somehow. We are not thinking about sustainable cleaner energy for ourselves. We are so comfortable living with noisy smoky electricity generators. We are not thinking about a healthy and rich publicly – run learning environment for our children. We want them to go to so-called private schools. We are not thinking about things that can actually reduce our poverty level drastically. When we talk about change, we don’t need something massive with a grand acronym with all sorts of committees to go. We just need to focus on what really matters – better standard of living for us all. And it starts with you.
I’m pointing a better standard of living as the focus because that is what it all boils down to for us in Africa. The countries with the big problem of recession are credit based to the retail level. We were at a recession when their economy was buoyant, we are in a more deplorable stage of recession now that they are in a recession. We are not a credit based economy. We are 75% cash-based.
We can create change by selling better standard of living to ourselves. Not a bigger house for example, but a “privately run efficient energy-hawker.”
We can only take action when we identify those basic things that can actually make life better for ourselves.

]]> http://calabarboy.com/2009/02/24/is-there-hope-for-the-rest-of-us/#comment-67 Matchless Wed, 25 Feb 2009 18:23:37 +0000 http://holyreg.wordpress.com/?p=135#comment-67 I don't know if this is a question of hope or a question of action. Rarely are things separate we are more or less interconnected to each other and you make a great description of how the economic crisis is not independent but interdependent and it is a desperate call for action. Hope has a connotation of waiting for example you hope for x to happen. So then what I would ask is what can we do? Those of us who are disenfranchised, how can we obtain control over what happens to our lives. Participant in shaping our future, our world, our country, our communities. Yes, it is a time of crisis but it is also an opportunity to make changes. Real changes! "The center" as you call it/them has set it self for failure and has lost the little credibility it had. It is an opportunity to use that in our favor as long as we know how to do it and we do it right. The question then would lead to how do will we take action? How will we unite? Is it possible to put our difference aside for the "greater social good"? How do we define "greater social good"? I don’t know if this is a question of hope or a question of action. Rarely are things separate we are more or less interconnected to each other and you make a great description of how the economic crisis is not independent but interdependent and it is a desperate call for action. Hope has a connotation of waiting for example you hope for x to happen. So then what I would ask is what can we do? Those of us who are disenfranchised, how can we obtain control over what happens to our lives. Participant in shaping our future, our world, our country, our communities. Yes, it is a time of crisis but it is also an opportunity to make changes. Real changes! “The center” as you call it/them has set it self for failure and has lost the little credibility it had. It is an opportunity to use that in our favor as long as we know how to do it and we do it right. The question then would lead to how do will we take action? How will we unite? Is it possible to put our difference aside for the “greater social good”? How do we define “greater social good”?

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