Mfomfo on Monday 5 July 2010
The Poor do not talk about Poverty
There is not much in common between those that live a good life or reasonably well and those that hardly make ends meet. Those who hardly afford a meal in two or three days do not discuss about their difficulties because they have reached a point where talking about their difficulties does not help them any more. They are a people who have not tasted success in life and they quickly take the position that life was meant to be what it is to them. Due to lack of exposure to successful experiences they quickly believe that there cannot be anything good and better coming their way. They do not blame anyone for their situation. It is sad when they do not have any success stories to tell or when they do not have any role models who started from humble beginnings.
The rich guys do not talk about poverty too other than the accumulation of wealth or maximizing of profit. They hardly talk about poor utilisation of state resources because they are pre-occupied with big ideas and investments. They may be aware of the benefits of having many people with disposable income but do not care that much about such principles as long as their companies are doing reasonably well. I remember one fellow from overseas who told me that he had made a lot of money from Swaziland and would wind up his business in Swaziland and return to his native country for other investments. There is nothing wrong with this approach because we do need some people who ought to show us the culture of being good entrepreneurs and the benefits there of.
Generally the people who talk about poverty are those who have had a taste of good life or employment and then lost it for one reason or the other. When things are going well for any individual, there is hardly the opportunity to reflect on the new position as well as look at the sustainability of the new earnings/lifestyle. Employers do not take the initiative to explain the importance of the role of employees to the sustainability of the established business venture. This results in the employees considering themselves as tools of production who have to come together when they need an increase in wages or improvement in conditions and terms of service.
Thee reason these people, who find themselves without employment, talk about poverty is because of the obligations they have to meet when the regular income has stopped. They will first look at options of employment and then discuss about ideas that they need to take up to create jobs. They are then made to run from pillar to post looking for launch pads for their ideas. When the energy to run from one place to the next in search of assistance is exhausted, they then begin to give up on their ideas, lose steam and self confidence and lastly not trust any established institution meant to help individuals who bring up ideas soliciting funds for getting projects off the ground. There is no way of helping any man or woman who has given up on himself or herself. Any person who has given up on himself tends to lock his brain in a box and becomes less interested in any thing unless he sees a change in new faces promising any assistance to help him get off the ground.
I do not know if the government has a department that does any research on human behaviour so that it can be in a better position to tap into the potential of any group of Swazis at any point in time. There is a great need to do things differently starting with the rural folks and moving up to the peri-urban centres. The ministry of Agriculture has to think of new approaches other than embarking on initiatives that are taking a long time to bear desired fruits. With the sugar cane initiative that government under took in the late 1990s, it appears there is no structure set up to study the results that this initiative has put to bear in as far as impacting positively on the lives of the rural folks. I think if the results are to be seen after 10 years then it is 10 years too late. We must all be told of the signs of easing poverty. If the head of a family that had been classified poor cannot buy school shoes for his school going children after a year of this project of sugar cane farming, then the project is not of immediate help to the fight against poverty.
Sugar cane is a plant that yields result after about 9 months. The desired result (in terms of poverty reduction) may take a longer time to realize than anticipated. This will depend on the level of government subsidy as well as loan restructuring. If the subsidy is low then the farmer will take a longer time to pay off the debt for the infrastructure development to the bank or financial institution.
