What is Urgent for Africa; Peace or Development?

[LUKMEF-CAMEROON]

The question seems to be more on what is life than what comes first. If any of us know much about Africa and its resources, then the questions of peace and development will be such a complex equation to balance. Much has been said about poverty alleviation in Africa than it is done in practice. Different forms of conflicts exist in Africa and at different levels. If you listen to some African Leaders talk about peace, poverty and conflicts, you will definitely need to turn to your dictionaries to find the real meaning of these words. If a nation cannot feed its population; if a family head can not see his/her children smile to bed, go to school, pay medical bills; in fact meet their life ambitions, then attempted answers to the worrying question;
“Which one comes first? Peace or development?” is urgent to educate our policy makers and members of the civil society in Africa

I will like us to share ideas and locate priorities to free Africa of what is not Godly

If you have an idea, please share with me. Christian Tanyi

[Gil Hardwick]

Tanyi,

You have hit the nail right on the head. For myself, I came from a very big extended family with many cousins, and uncles and aunts, and so many of the older generation no longer with us, but all coming from farming tradition and raising our children also to be mechanics and tradesmen, teachers, engineers, and all of those skills required for a community to prosper.

So of course I come from a long tradition of practical experience in inland Australia, where the landscape is not so friendly as might be imagined. In that environment, what is the priority? Here too, all our lives we have to listen to the politicians and bureaucrats uttering so many words that have no relevance to our way of thinking, and no bearing whatsoever on our situation.

So what is important? Yes, you are absolutely correct, to see one's children off smiling to bed every night; plenty of food on the table and extra beds in the house, not only for ourselves but expressing our prosperity, and hospitality and generosity to our friends and neighbours, and for travelers passing by; and decent medical care and attention for our sick and elderly; and good schools the children are happy to attend, and not be afraid to learn and to show their intelligence and life-potential.

Those are the measures of our family and community well-being, and if anyone has any sense at all, of our national pride and identity.

Thank you again for the opportunity you are making available to so many people, not only for their direct benefit but also as importantly for others to give and to express their own generosity and good will.

I often think it is far more difficult to receive than it is to give, but that doing either well brings a state of grace.


Kindest regards,

Gil

[LUKMEF-CAMEROON]

Dear David;

Excellent write-up. This thinking is at the core of my questions. More and more we see designs and actions by our leaders and policy makers, designers and Business community tented with the Angel face but powered by self-interest and untested actions. The world need to communicate YES, Africa need to communicate Yes, but just what communication and when is the key question. Our leaders seem to be moving so fast in the wrong direction that they fail to understand the very simply laws that are so well thought through to drive life. The scale of preference for the poor in the face of the so called rich seem to be based on the simply logic of “How do I keep them there to remain here"? instead of the well known ranking in terms of importance.

Let us imagine kids in X village going to bed hungry with $100 laptops seating in their living room. Those who cannot feed themselves means they can not attend school. Of what use will this laptop be to those who cannot read or write?

There are much urgent and easy to solve problems facing the world’s poorest population than big talks. In 2004 we tested a rural micro credit scheme in Cameroon to help rural women to gain access to business start-up capital. I personally donated 5 million Francs CFA ( $ 10,000) to 10 rural women groups with an average of 20 members per group. In 2006 after evaluation, the results were excellent in all respect; the payback rate, the change brought to Families by the scheme, number of children back in school, nutrition etc.
Now read this; With this report sent to our local government and central government to take over the scheme or help scale it up, we were surprised by the media coverage of the scheme and open pledge to support and scale up the program. Behind the scene, we were confronted with unbelievable proposals infested with corruption, self interest and inhuman thinking. Of cause to maintain our position, I turned down any such support that would have painted a bright picture of the rural woman from outside and keep her in absolute poverty and exploited.

The real needs of the poor are simple to meet as you pointed out in your comment. Water, Electricity, health Care, Food and shelter are as simple in the eyes of the world leaders as it to you and me. The question is; do we see and understand these issues differently? Or some of these big guys are so inhuman that they actually close their eyes in the face of such glaring situations.

I think forums like this and uniting with people like you may be a new beginning in the way we see the world’s poor.
Dear David, Thank you for being here and more especially for accepting to be a Board Member. Please confirm that you got my last Mail

Christian

[Gil Hardwick]

Dear Tanyi, and David and all our readers,

Let me tell you a true story.

Here in Margaret River, every two years a group of high school students takes a trip across Australia to holiday on the snow fields. Each student has to work hard for the two years to save money for the trip, which is a highlight of their school life, and the whole thing has become something of a tradition.

In their father's generation, not so long ago, the students worked hard on the school farm, raising pigs, chickens, calves and sheep, and growing vegetables which they would sell and likewise raise money, except that in those day the trip was not across the continent to play in the snow but to Perth for the Royal Agricultural Society Show every year.

But now, you see, there is a protest under way. All the children who do not work, whose parents don't care, who have no money to spend on such trips, feel they are missing out. There is a proposal now to bring snow to Margaret River instead.

The plan is to load trucks with snow from the snowfields, load it into an airplane and fly it across Australia, then truck it from Perth all the way to Margaret River, then spread it on the ground for long enough for the children to play in it before it melts away.

Why? Why not have those children work alongside their friends to earn the money for a vacation, and learn something about hard work and thrift in the process? Because it is ideologically incorrect, politically unsound. It does not feel good any more. Rather it feels good to help people, especially the less fortunate.

What has this to do with Africa, or with the question raised here above?

Well, nothing. What it does is open a window into the contemporary Western mentality.

The West has abandoned notions of absolutes. Everything is relative. How can you have absolute poverty when everything is relative?

By this way of thinking, a person on average pay living close to people who are very wealthy is actually worse off than someone living in poverty living next to people on average pay.

It has nothing to do with whether people have enough to eat, or schools or adequate medical attention. It is all about the psychological trauma suffered by those who do not compare well with their neighbours.

We do need to understand that the fight for equality in the West is only ever concerned with people who suffer relative deprivation. It has nothing to do with people who are starving.

Why? Because anyone who is actually starving, well, that is their fault isn't it.

Why don't they fight for their rights, like we do?

That is the argument. Dare anyone to criticise and they become political targets, and worse targets of 'the oppressed'.

Many people as we have seen continuously over many years have been shot for uttering these truths.

I apologise if I sound cynical. I am not cynical, merely seeking to relate to you the facts of the matter.

There is no confusion, and it is certainly not difficult to grasp.

If it upsets you, I can only suggest that you take time out in contemplation, and meditate on this, then certainly come back and join us in this good work hopefully by then with a clear vision of what is actually happening here, and what we can actually do about it.

PS, that snow transported all the way across Australia might as easily build extra classrooms, or surgical units, or provide much needed medicines.

Suffice for the moment that as the moment draws near I will challenge these stupid people to do just that.

Kindest regards,

Gil

[Anjez Winkler]

Hi,


“Which one comes first? Peace or development?”
EDUCATION DEVELOPMENT THROUGH AND IN PEACE. ALL IN ALL TOGETHER SIMULTANEOUSLY.

This can also be done in an oral way and with pictures. Also the Internet can be developed as a speech and/or sound medium.


"(...)hungry with $100 laptops seating in their living room(...)"


Yes, though it was a Linux laptop, so (because it is Linux) no licence (!) is needed to paid (!) as with some very big other brand definitely IS and NO LAPTOP possible at all ever in the farthest future; then: a computer meant for EDUCATION and education on Peace and other education for which education all cost should be reduced to a minimum if not but NO COST at all, yet top quality.


Lack of education... is a root worldproblem, not only for Africa, but anywhere else, be it at other levels and/or topics.Only food and drink, the basic means to live, is NOT ENOUGH. Also in this EDUCATION in and on Peace is priority and goes hand in hand with any positive development.


Long term debts socalled "poor countries" have to pay to socalled "rich countries" has to abolished / released and focus should be on Education on Peace, Knowledge on how to USE the Internet for EDUCATION on and in Peace, can be an essential part of education (spam and such can then easily be recognized and avoided, spam filters can be made and all, porn and such can be banned, all this can be done by programmers and is as such no problem).

Besides: the Internet can definitely unite people and peoples worldwide. Education development hand in hand in peace is the message and worldwide transformation toward this come into existence. There is no alternative if one wants to truly live.


People must not stay further behind in education than they already are because of basic lack of means to but only survive, the start of the vicious circle and the oppressed position.


I see the world is responsible for this 'status quo'; for example the obligation of socalled "poor countries" of paying debts to socalled "rich countries" should be abolished / released since it is but a too heavy and depressing load for a country that is not even capable of feeding its own inhabitants and as long as those heavy debts are there, such a situation but ASKS for corruption.


End of same old same old world in the MINDS of the people worldwide (!) is necessary. We must get rid of the same old same old as soon as possible.


"If you listen to some African Leaders talk about peace, poverty and conflicts, you will definitely need to turn to your dictionaries to find the real meaning of these words. If a nation cannot feed its population; if a family head can not see his/her children smile to bed, go to school, pay medical bills; in fact meet their life ambitions, then attempted answers to the worrying question; (...)"; it is but the same old same old root of hypocrisy and ignorance to oneanother worldwide, keeping the worldwide status quo of inequality as it is, but parasiting on eachother, corrupted to the core. What the African "leaders" do is but another monstrous leg of the same old same old totally rotten loveless worldsystem wherein exploitation as its "mother" is rampant.


Best Wishes,
.Anjez.*

[Anjez Winkler]

Hi Again,

A sort of "p.s." from me here on "What is Urgent for Africa; Peace or Development?" (and i apologize for some typos, just in case, apart for being no socalled 'native speaker'), in addition to my former and first reply, as it went:


""(...)hungry with $100 laptops seating in their living room(...)"


Yes, though it was a Linux laptop, so (because it is Linux) no licence (!) is needed to be paid (!) as with some very big other brand definitely IS and NO LAPTOP possible at all ever in the farthest future(...)",


i here now want to say further, want to... add..., that once i heard this "news", so the "news" that African children were given free Linux-based laptops, i at first but for a second also felt like you:

"hungry with $100 laptops seating in their living room",

yet..., after that one "deep second", apart from knowing that Linux requires NO payment, as some "license" to be paid for..., and so that Linux does not at all tie users with 'having to pay' for some "license" all the time, as for example a worldwide by majority used computerbrand does "require" / 'demand' in the form of some, i would say, "license"-tie, but also knowing that Linux in its core as computer system is totally different than the somehow by a majority used "license-tied" 'having to pay else illegal or court issue' computerbrand all the time... (many governments waste huge amounts of money because of this and i cannot find any socalled "good governance" inhere), but so anyway, apart from all this..., after that one deep second wherein i saw the situation as you did, i but realized that it may be a blissful alternative in comparison to elsewhere (?) in Africa given to hungry young children of the age of only '6' and '7' years... the latest "light weight" machine guns and other horrific war tools... and FORCE them to kill their own mother, parents, adults, people... against their will.


So after that "one deep second" by then, i reflected it all like this... and i saw that although it at first seemed "cruel" to give the children this expensive computer and that there still was no guarantee for daily healthy food and drink, it was a GIFT for the onset for DEVELOPMENT of EDUCATION with the promise of PEACE.


I urge to discern the socalled "wolf" from the "sheep"... and to 'de-mask' the sheepfaced wolf..., to unveil its treacherous character.


Wishing Africa Peace,
.Anjez.*