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Sunday, June 30, 2013
Sunday, December 11, 2011
Kaalgat Emperor - The Emperor's New Clothes
The Emperor's New Clothes - The Kaalgat Emperor
"The Emperor's New Clothes" or "The Kaalgat Emperor" - written by Hans Christian Andersen in 1837 for South Africa in 2011
It's about this vain Emperor who cares for nothing, but his appearance. And two tailors who are really swindlers (advisor/consultant) - The Emperor cannot see the cloth himself, a fabric invisible to anyone who is unfit for his position or "just hopelessly stupid", but pretends that he can for fear of appearing unfit for his position; his ministers do the same. When the swindlers report that the suit is finished, they mime dressing him and the Emperor then marches in procession before his subjects, who play along with the pretense. Suddenly, a child in the crowd, too young to understand the desirability of keeping up the pretense, blurts out that the Emperor is wearing nothing - Is it not time we blurt out that the emperor is in the nude (knows nothing and is being bull shitted by advisors, consultants, ministers and subjects (blind followers)? WAKE - UP South Africa - Become fearless and honest like the child...
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This article is about the story by Hans Christian Andersen. For other uses, see The Emperor's New Clothes (disambiguation).
"The Emperor's New Clothes" (Danish: Kejserens nye Klæder) is a short tale by Hans Christian Andersen about two weavers who promise an Emperor a new suit of clothes that is invisible to those unfit for their positions, stupid, or incompetent. When the Emperor parades before his subjects in his new clothes, a child cries out, "But he isn't wearing anything at all!" The tale has been translated into over a hundred languages.[1]
"The Emperor’s New Clothes" was first published with "The Little Mermaid" in Copenhagen by C. A. Reitzel on 7 April 1837 as the third and final installment of Andersen's Fairy Tales Told for Children. The tale has been adapted to various media, including the musical stage and animated film.
Plot
A vain Emperor who cares for nothing but his appearance and attire hires two tailors who are really swindlers that promise him the finest suit of clothes from a fabric invisible to anyone who is unfit for his position or "just hopelessly stupid". The Emperor cannot see the cloth himself, but pretends that he can for fear of appearing unfit for his position; his ministers do the same. When the swindlers report that the suit is finished, they mime dressing him and the Emperor then marches in procession before his subjects, who play along with the pretense. Suddenly, a child in the crowd, too young to understand the desirability of keeping up the pretense, blurts out that the Emperor is wearing nothing at all and the cry is taken up by others. The Emperor cringes, suspecting the assertion is true, but holds himself up proudly and continues the procession, deciding never to be so vain again and to take his position more seriously.
Sources
Andersen's tale is based on a story from the Libro de los ejemplos (or El Conde Lucanor, 1335),[2] a medieval Spanish collection of fifty-one cautionary tales with various sources such as Aesop and other classical writers and Persian folktales, by Juan Manuel, Prince of Villena (1282–1348). Andersen did not know the Spanish original but read the tale in a German translation titled "So ist der Lauf der Welt".[3] In the source tale, a king is hoodwinked by weavers who claim to make a suit of clothes invisible to any man not the son of his presumed father. Andersen avoided anything risqué in his work and altered the source tale to direct the focus on courtly pride and intellectual vanity rather than adulterous paternity.[4]
Composition
Andersen's manuscript was at the printer’s when he was suddenly inspired to change the original climax of the tale from the emperor’s subjects admiring his invisible clothes to that of the child's cry.[5] There are many theories about why he made this change. Most scholars agree that from his earliest years in Copenhagen, Andersen presented himself to the Danish bourgeoisie as the naively precocious child not usually admitted to the adult salon. "The Emperor’s New Clothes" became his expose of the hypocrisy and snobbery he found there when he finally gained admission.[6]
Andersen’s decision to change the ending may have occurred after he read the manuscript tale to a child,[7] or had its source in a childhood incident similar to that in the tale. In 1872, he recalled standing in a crowd with his mother waiting to see King Frederick VI. When the king made his appearance, Andersen cried out, "Oh, he’s nothing more than a human being!" His mother tried to silence him by crying, "Have you gone mad, child?" Whatever the reason, Andersen thought the change would prove more satirical.[8]
Publication
"The Emperor’s New Clothes" was first published with "The Little Mermaid" on 7 April 1837 by C.A. Reitzel in Copenhagen as the third and final installment of the first collection of Andersen's Fairy Tales Told for Children. The first two booklets of the collection were published in May and December 1835 and met with little critical enthusiasm.[9] Andersen waited a year before publishing the third installment of the collection.[10]
Traditional Danish tales as well as German and French folktales were regarded as a form of exotica in nineteenth century Denmark and were read aloud to select gatherings by celebrated actors of the day. Andersen’s tales eventually became a part of the repertoire and readings of "The Emperor’s New Clothes" became a specialty of and a big hit for the popular Danish actor Ludvig Phister.[11]
On 1 July 1844, the Hereditary Grand Duke Carl Alexander held a literary soiree at Ettersburg in honor of Andersen. The author was on the verge of vomiting after days of feasting and speaking various foreign languages but managed to control his body and read aloud “The Princess and the Pea”, "Little Ida's Flowers", and "The Emperor’s New Clothes".[12]
Commentaries
Jack Zipes, in Hans Christian Andersen: The Misunderstood Storyteller, suggests that seeing is presented in the tale as the courage of one's convictions; Zipes believe this is the reason the story is popular with children. Sight becomes insight, which, in turn, prompts action.[13]
Alison Prince, author of Hans Christian Andersen: The Fan Dancer, claims that Andersen received a gift of a ruby and diamond ring from the king after publications of "The Emperor's New Clothes" and "The Swineherd"—tales in which Andersen voices a satirical disrespect for the court. Prince suggests the ring was an attempt to curb Andersen's sudden bent for political satire by bringing him into the royal fold. She points out that after The Swineherd, he never again wrote a tale colored with political satire, but, within months of the gift, began composing "The Ugly Duckling", a tale about a bird born in a henyard who, after a lifetime of misery, matures into a swan, "one of those royal birds".[14] In Hans Christian Andersen: The Life of a Storyteller, biographer Jackie Wullschlager points out that Andersen was not only a successful adapter of existing lore and literary material such as the Spanish source tale for "The Emperor's New Clothes" but also equally competent at creating new material that entered the human collective consciousness with the same mythic power as ancient, anonymous lore.[15]
Hollis Robbins, in "The Emperor's New Critique" (2003), argues that the tale is itself so transparent "that there has been little need for critical scrutiny."[16] Robbins argues that Andersen's tale "quite clearly rehearses four contemporary controversies: the institution of a meritocratic civil service, the valuation of labor, the expansion of democratic power, and the appraisal of art".[17] Robbins concludes that the story's appeal lies in its "seductive resolution" of the conflict by the truth-telling boy.
In The Annotated Hans Christian Andersen (2008), folk and fairy tale researcher Maria Tatar offers a scholarly investigation and analysis of the story, drawing on Robbins's political and sociological analysis of the tale. Tatar points out that Robbins indicates the swindling weavers are simply insisting that "the value of their labor be recognized apart from its material embodiment", and notes that Robbins considers the ability of some in the tale to see the invisible cloth as "a successful enchantment".[18]
Tatar observes that "The Emperor's New Clothes" is one of Andersen's best known tales and one that has acquired an iconic status globally as it migrates across various cultures reshaping itself with each retelling in the manner of oral folktales.[19] Scholars have noted that the phrase 'Emperor's new clothes' has become a standard metaphor for anything that smacks of pretentiousness, pomposity, social hypocrisy, collective denial, or hollow ostentatiousness. Historically, the tale established Andersen's reputation as a children's author whose stories actually imparted lessons of value for his juvenile audience, and "romanticized" children by "investing them with the courage to challenge authority and to speak truth to power."[20] With each successive description of the swindlers' wonderful cloth, it becomes more substantial, more palpable, and a thing of imaginative beauty for the reader even though it has no material existence. Its beauty however is obscured at the end of the tale with the obligatory moral message for children. Tatar is left wondering if the real value of the tale is the creation of the wonderful fabric in the reader's imagination or the tale's closing message of speaking truth no matter how humiliating to the recipient.
Naomi Wood of Kansas State University challenges Robbins's reading, arguing that before the World Trade Center attacks of 2001, "Robbins's argument might seem merely playful, anti-intuitive, and provocative."[21] Wood concludes: "Perhaps the truth of 'The Emperor's New Clothes' is not that the child's truth is mercifully free of adult corruption, but that it recognizes the terrifying possibility that whatever words we may use to clothe our fears, the fabric cannot protect us from them."[22]
Adaptations and cultural references
Various adaptations of the tale have appeared since its first publication including a 1919 Russian film directed by Yuri Zhelyabuzhsky, a 1987 musical starring Sid Caesar, and numerous short stories, plays, spoofs, and animated films.[1]
The story has been parodied numerous times, including one story in the animated television series Alftales where Alf plays a frustrated tailor of comfortable casual clothes who pulls the trick on the uninterested emperor who refused his usual goods. At the end, when the emperor's pretension is exposed by a girl who makes some sarcastic comments about his state of undress, Alf's character supplies the ruler some of his usual wares which the emperor finds agreeable. However, the story ends with the emperor making the best of his humiliation by indulging in his one opportunity to go streaking.
The 1990 song "The Emperor's New Clothes" by recording artist Sinéad O'Connor has the same general message as the original fairytale. The song ends with the lines, "through their own words / they will be exposed / they've got a severe case of / the emperor's new clothes."
Le Roi nu (The Naked King), a 1935 ballet with music by Jean Françaix, libretto and choreography by Serge Lifar
In the 1952 film musical Hans Christian Andersen based on the life of the Danish poet and story-teller Hans Christian Andersen, starring Danny Kaye, the story of The Emperor's New Clothes is told in The King's New Clothes as one of the film's eight songs.
The tale was made into a stop-motion animated TV special from Rankin-Bass, again with Danny Kaye's involvement and narration, entitled: The Enchanted World of Danny Kaye: The Emperor's New Clothes.
The tale itself was adapted as an episode of the 2008 series Fairy Tales.
The Chinese novelist Ye Sheng Tao continued the story which Andersen had left off; it is also titled, The Emperor's New Clothes.
The song "Ready to Start" by The Arcade Fire contain the lyric "All the kids have always known, that the Emperor wears no clothes / but they bow down to him anyway, 'cause it's better than being alone".
A modern cartoon that revolves around an arrogant emperor is The Emperor's New Groove.
In the Doctor Who episode "Night Terrors" the Doctor jokingly mentions that one of the stories he enjoyed as a child was "The Emperor Dalek's New Clothes".
The sculpture group "The Emperor's New Clothes" by Keld Moseholm is placed in Odense, the native town of Andersen.
Keywords - Hennie Botes, kaalgat Emperor, The Emperors New Clothes, Hans Christian Andersen, a short tale, corruption, ministers, advisors, president, cheet, selfish, consultants
This is the work of Hennie Botes - not to be used without permission - Copy Right 2011
This is the work of Hennie Botes - not to be used without permission - Copy Right 2011
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
Is Gov't Losing Fight Against Poverty? Felix Dela Klutse
Is Gov't Losing Fight Against Poverty? Felix Dela Klutse
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 22, 2010
Is Gov't Losing Fight Against Poverty? By Felix Dela Klutse
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 22, 2010
Is Gov't Losing Fight Against Poverty? By Felix Dela Klutse
The ugly trend of poverty is forcing some families in Ghana to cut the amount and quality of food they eat each day.
Meat, a source of protein, is no more an option in the menu of many families. People now opt for less nutritional meals – just to put something in the stomach— which has a bad effect on a child’s growth. It is therefore not surprising that about 22 per cent of children in Ghana below five years are suffering from stunted growth while one out of every nine Ghanaian children die of malnutrition before the age of five.
Government figures indicate a reduction in poverty from 39.5 percent in 1999 to 28.5 percent in 2006 but in absolute terms, poverty is invading the country like a swarm of locust. Ghana, a middle-income country and a signatory to the Millennium Development Goals, has less than five years to halve extreme poverty. Conditions are worst in the rural areas where a sizable number of Ghanaian still live on less than one dollar a day.
The situation is driving a growing number of children onto the streets of Accra with many young girls resorting to prostitution as a way to escape from poverty and cater for their families. In some extreme cases, parents themselves force their children especially girls out of school so that they can look for jobs to support the family. This trend, according to stakeholders, spells doom for Ghana’s economy in the future.
Who are Ghana's poor people?
Majority of Ghana’s poor are in the rural areas where close to 70 per cent of the population resides. Business Guide’s visit to places such as Northern, Upper East, Upper West, Volta, Central and Western Regions where livelihoods are more precarious, saw how people living in those areas are finding it very difficult to make ends meet. The ugly trend is most severe among children, disabled, old people and food crop farmers, who are mainly traditional small-scale producers. About six in ten small-scale farmers are poor, and many are women. In addition to their domestic chores, these women are responsible for about 60 per cent of agricultural production.
During a visit to Mandari in the Bole District, from where Vice President John Mahama hails, dozens of children could be seen playing in the dust. But these children have no biological parents to care for them. Looking after them is their grandmother, Chamunu Mari, a 66-year-old widow, who lost her son and his wife through sickness, leaving behind seven orphans under her care. She lives in one of the most dilapidated single rooms in the community with her seven grandchildren. The building could best be described as a death trap. Mari is unemployed and finds it very difficult to eat.
“My grandchildren and I have to eat once a day,” she said with tears streaming down her cheeks. She cannot even afford to buy soap. She was therefore using sand and water to wash her cooking utensils when this reporter visited her house.
“Poverty was there before I was born and it has become part of life. Poverty is going empty with no hope for the future and getting nobody to feel your pain. It is when your dreams go in vain because nobody is there to help you. Poverty is watching your relatives die in pain and in sorrow just because they couldn't get something to eat. Poverty is hearing your grandmothers and grandfathers cry out to death to come and take them because they are tired of this world. It is watching your own children and grandchildren die in your arms but there is nothing you can do,” Mari explains her situation.
Mari is not the only person in this state. Abdullah Mohammed is 15 years old and lives on the streets of Bolgatanga, the capital of the Upper East Region. He is a cobbler.
“Life in the village where I was born was very hard so I decided to follow my elder brother to Bolgatanga after my father died, with the hope of getting something better to do and send money to support our mother back home but unfortunately she also died three months after we left the village. So I was here with my elder brother all this while until he also died. I don't want to go back to the village because there is nothing better to do over there. I will like to go back to Senior High School but it is very expensive and I can't pay my school fees.”
Mohammed said business was good when his elder brother was alive but now people think he was too young and that he can't repair their shoes the way his brother did so they don't bring their shoes to him anymore.
“Life is hard but what can I do? I am not the only person like this. There are many children like me or even worse who live on the streets. I don't smoke but most of the children living on the streets smoke wee which makes them strong. Most of them are thieves and they rob people. I don't steal and I don't smoke. I only shine and repair shoes for people," the soft-spoken boy stated.
During our visit to the Western Region, this paper met Mr Ernest Nyamekeh who lives at Ankobrah, a fishing community. He is a widower, a virtually-impaired man who looks after two children. Most of the houses in this area are mud houses roofed with thatch. Since the area is also closed to the Ankobrah River, anytime the river overflows its banks, the place gets flooded and water enters his room. This has affected his health as he has scratches all over his body.
Forty-five-year-old Nyamekeh and his children live in a mud and thatch roofed house. The house contains three single rooms. Aside Nyamekeh and his children, is his elder sister, Akua Amoah, 55. His wife, who was the family’s sole provider, died after a short illness two years ago. After her death, Nyamekeh ventured into pillow-making to enable him to take care of his children but the business collapsed. Since then, he and the children have to depend on members of his household for survival.
Though, the two kids were also in school, Nyamekeh finds it difficult to provide them with their basic necessities. Sometimes, the children have to go to school on empty stomach.
“Poverty has really eaten deep into our lives. We sometimes eat twice a day,” he wept uncontrollably when narrating his ordeal.
In the Central Region, this reporter visited the Amisakyir community, a suburb of Cape-Coast which is near the Cape-Coast sea shore. Teenage pregnancy is very rampant in this area. Since most of the inhabitants here do not have places to sleep, they sleep on the roads in the night. Apart from the community being a teenage pregnancy zone, this paper observed that most of the children born in the area are disabled.
Aba Esibu, a 22-year-old single parent with three children, lives here. Out of Esibu’s three children, one is disabled and a sickler. Esibu does not know the whereabouts of the father of the three children. She and her children stay in a dilapidated family house about 30 people whose conditions are nothing to write home about. She single-handedly takes care of the children, though she sometimes receives help from her aged-mother and other philanthropists. Esibu’s children are not in school because it is not easy taking care of them. None of them is also registered with the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) as at the time of filing this story.
Araba Kitiwa is a 22-year-old mother of three who also lives in the same community. Just like Esibu, Araba and her children also live in a cracked family house close to the sea. Araba’s husband rejected her because one of the children is a disabled. Since then, Araba said she has never heard of him again. Life becomes very difficult for her as she has no work to feed herself and the three children. Araba, her children, her sister and her mother, sleep in a single room.
“We find it very difficult to eat sometimes. We have to cut back at the quality and quantity of food we consume a day,” she said.
The story was not different from the Volta Region, where former President Jerry John Rawlings comes from. Here, majority of the population still wallow in extreme poverty even though government claims there has been substantial decline in the incidence.
Ms. Ahiable Sodahoe, 50 years, is a member of Adagbledu community, a suburb of Dzodze in the Volta Region. The major occupation of the people in the area is farming. She lives in a household of 12 members occupying two dilapidated single rooms. In the same household, is the husband of Sodohoe aged 75 years. Apart from the dilapidated rooms, other places in the house such as kitchen and bathroom look nauseating. Members of the household get their source of drinking water from a well which is not hygienic for human consumption. Sodahoe had three children all of whom have given birth and left their children in her care. All the mothers of these babies are nowhere to be found, she said. Sodahoe has to credit food before the entire household could eat.
“I am in abject poverty because I don’t have the money to set up myself and feed my family,” she added.
Atisu Butsomekpor Anthony, a 70-year-old man is another poor person in the region. The name, Butsomekpor literally means “think about tomorrow”. He lives at Aflagatigorme, a suburb of Aflao. Butsomekpor, who was a fisherman, could no longer go fishing because of his age. Consequently, he has to depend on benevolence to survive. He, together with his 15-year-old son, lives in a mud house roofed with thatch. The house has no place of convenience. Butsomekpor revealed that he and his son eat ‘gari’ (popularly known as food for the poor) most often to sleep.
“We sometimes prepare food without meat or fish. Had it not been God, my son and I would have been dead by now. Nature is not fair to some of us at all. I know a lot of people who are going through untold hardships. Consequently, they are forced to drop their children out of school,” Atisu lamented.
Why are Ghana's rural people poor?
According to government’s poverty reduction strategy paper (GPRS II), low productivity and poorly functioning markets for agricultural outputs are among the main causes of poverty especially in the rural areas. The document said small-scale farmers lacked technologies and inputs such as fertilizer and improved seed, which would increase yields.
This paper observed, during the visit, that only a small proportion of farmers in rural areas of the country have access to irrigation. Land ownership and land security are regulated by complex systems that vary widely. Many farmers lacked rural infrastructure and equipment for storing, processing and marketing their products.
Most inhabitants said rural infrastructure in Ghana had been neglected, while investments in health, education and water supply had largely been focused on urban areas.
“The government could play an important role in making farming a profitable business through access to financial services, farm inputs and linkages to agro processors and traders,” Ibrahim Siedu, a farmer in Navrongo stated.
What Is Government Doing To Help The Poor?
In March 2008, the government introduced the Livelihood Empowerment against Poverty (LEAP) programme as a social intervention to provide financial assistance to some extremely poor households in Ghana. More districts are expected to be added to the existing 76 districts nation-wide, which are already covered by the programme.
Beneficiaries of this social assistance scheme, orphaned and vulnerable children, persons with severe disabilities without productive capacity, and extremely poor persons above 65 years, receive free cash ranging from GH¢8 to GH¢15 every two months.
One eligible beneficiary in a household gets GH¢8, two eligible beneficiaries get GH¢10, three get GH¢12, while four or more beneficiaries in a household receive GH¢15.
A survey by BUSINESS GUIDE to some of the LEAP communities in Ghana some time ago revealed that there are changes in the lives of the beneficiaries, some of whom had been able to engage in some form of subsistence business ventures.
Recently, government injected $20 million into the LEAP programme to enable many vulnerable people in Ghana to benefit.
The amount, according to Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, Joseph Yieleh Chireh, was part of the $89.1 million loan facility the government took from the World Bank to help streamline economic activities in northern Ghana and empower the vulnerable.
The Minister said each of the communities would take $3 million with 25 of them coming from the Upper West, Upper East and the Northern regions while the rest of the 15 would be selected from the other regions.
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| Poverty in Ghana - Felix Dela Klutse |
Government figures indicate a reduction in poverty from 39.5 percent in 1999 to 28.5 percent in 2006 but in absolute terms, poverty is invading the country like a swarm of locust. Ghana, a middle-income country and a signatory to the Millennium Development Goals, has less than five years to halve extreme poverty. Conditions are worst in the rural areas where a sizable number of Ghanaian still live on less than one dollar a day.
The situation is driving a growing number of children onto the streets of Accra with many young girls resorting to prostitution as a way to escape from poverty and cater for their families. In some extreme cases, parents themselves force their children especially girls out of school so that they can look for jobs to support the family. This trend, according to stakeholders, spells doom for Ghana’s economy in the future.
Who are Ghana's poor people?
Majority of Ghana’s poor are in the rural areas where close to 70 per cent of the population resides. Business Guide’s visit to places such as Northern, Upper East, Upper West, Volta, Central and Western Regions where livelihoods are more precarious, saw how people living in those areas are finding it very difficult to make ends meet. The ugly trend is most severe among children, disabled, old people and food crop farmers, who are mainly traditional small-scale producers. About six in ten small-scale farmers are poor, and many are women. In addition to their domestic chores, these women are responsible for about 60 per cent of agricultural production.
During a visit to Mandari in the Bole District, from where Vice President John Mahama hails, dozens of children could be seen playing in the dust. But these children have no biological parents to care for them. Looking after them is their grandmother, Chamunu Mari, a 66-year-old widow, who lost her son and his wife through sickness, leaving behind seven orphans under her care. She lives in one of the most dilapidated single rooms in the community with her seven grandchildren. The building could best be described as a death trap. Mari is unemployed and finds it very difficult to eat.
“My grandchildren and I have to eat once a day,” she said with tears streaming down her cheeks. She cannot even afford to buy soap. She was therefore using sand and water to wash her cooking utensils when this reporter visited her house.
“Poverty was there before I was born and it has become part of life. Poverty is going empty with no hope for the future and getting nobody to feel your pain. It is when your dreams go in vain because nobody is there to help you. Poverty is watching your relatives die in pain and in sorrow just because they couldn't get something to eat. Poverty is hearing your grandmothers and grandfathers cry out to death to come and take them because they are tired of this world. It is watching your own children and grandchildren die in your arms but there is nothing you can do,” Mari explains her situation.
Mari is not the only person in this state. Abdullah Mohammed is 15 years old and lives on the streets of Bolgatanga, the capital of the Upper East Region. He is a cobbler.
“Life in the village where I was born was very hard so I decided to follow my elder brother to Bolgatanga after my father died, with the hope of getting something better to do and send money to support our mother back home but unfortunately she also died three months after we left the village. So I was here with my elder brother all this while until he also died. I don't want to go back to the village because there is nothing better to do over there. I will like to go back to Senior High School but it is very expensive and I can't pay my school fees.”
Mohammed said business was good when his elder brother was alive but now people think he was too young and that he can't repair their shoes the way his brother did so they don't bring their shoes to him anymore.
“Life is hard but what can I do? I am not the only person like this. There are many children like me or even worse who live on the streets. I don't smoke but most of the children living on the streets smoke wee which makes them strong. Most of them are thieves and they rob people. I don't steal and I don't smoke. I only shine and repair shoes for people," the soft-spoken boy stated.
During our visit to the Western Region, this paper met Mr Ernest Nyamekeh who lives at Ankobrah, a fishing community. He is a widower, a virtually-impaired man who looks after two children. Most of the houses in this area are mud houses roofed with thatch. Since the area is also closed to the Ankobrah River, anytime the river overflows its banks, the place gets flooded and water enters his room. This has affected his health as he has scratches all over his body.
Forty-five-year-old Nyamekeh and his children live in a mud and thatch roofed house. The house contains three single rooms. Aside Nyamekeh and his children, is his elder sister, Akua Amoah, 55. His wife, who was the family’s sole provider, died after a short illness two years ago. After her death, Nyamekeh ventured into pillow-making to enable him to take care of his children but the business collapsed. Since then, he and the children have to depend on members of his household for survival.
Though, the two kids were also in school, Nyamekeh finds it difficult to provide them with their basic necessities. Sometimes, the children have to go to school on empty stomach.
“Poverty has really eaten deep into our lives. We sometimes eat twice a day,” he wept uncontrollably when narrating his ordeal.
In the Central Region, this reporter visited the Amisakyir community, a suburb of Cape-Coast which is near the Cape-Coast sea shore. Teenage pregnancy is very rampant in this area. Since most of the inhabitants here do not have places to sleep, they sleep on the roads in the night. Apart from the community being a teenage pregnancy zone, this paper observed that most of the children born in the area are disabled.
Aba Esibu, a 22-year-old single parent with three children, lives here. Out of Esibu’s three children, one is disabled and a sickler. Esibu does not know the whereabouts of the father of the three children. She and her children stay in a dilapidated family house about 30 people whose conditions are nothing to write home about. She single-handedly takes care of the children, though she sometimes receives help from her aged-mother and other philanthropists. Esibu’s children are not in school because it is not easy taking care of them. None of them is also registered with the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) as at the time of filing this story.
Araba Kitiwa is a 22-year-old mother of three who also lives in the same community. Just like Esibu, Araba and her children also live in a cracked family house close to the sea. Araba’s husband rejected her because one of the children is a disabled. Since then, Araba said she has never heard of him again. Life becomes very difficult for her as she has no work to feed herself and the three children. Araba, her children, her sister and her mother, sleep in a single room.
“We find it very difficult to eat sometimes. We have to cut back at the quality and quantity of food we consume a day,” she said.
The story was not different from the Volta Region, where former President Jerry John Rawlings comes from. Here, majority of the population still wallow in extreme poverty even though government claims there has been substantial decline in the incidence.
Ms. Ahiable Sodahoe, 50 years, is a member of Adagbledu community, a suburb of Dzodze in the Volta Region. The major occupation of the people in the area is farming. She lives in a household of 12 members occupying two dilapidated single rooms. In the same household, is the husband of Sodohoe aged 75 years. Apart from the dilapidated rooms, other places in the house such as kitchen and bathroom look nauseating. Members of the household get their source of drinking water from a well which is not hygienic for human consumption. Sodahoe had three children all of whom have given birth and left their children in her care. All the mothers of these babies are nowhere to be found, she said. Sodahoe has to credit food before the entire household could eat.
“I am in abject poverty because I don’t have the money to set up myself and feed my family,” she added.
Atisu Butsomekpor Anthony, a 70-year-old man is another poor person in the region. The name, Butsomekpor literally means “think about tomorrow”. He lives at Aflagatigorme, a suburb of Aflao. Butsomekpor, who was a fisherman, could no longer go fishing because of his age. Consequently, he has to depend on benevolence to survive. He, together with his 15-year-old son, lives in a mud house roofed with thatch. The house has no place of convenience. Butsomekpor revealed that he and his son eat ‘gari’ (popularly known as food for the poor) most often to sleep.
“We sometimes prepare food without meat or fish. Had it not been God, my son and I would have been dead by now. Nature is not fair to some of us at all. I know a lot of people who are going through untold hardships. Consequently, they are forced to drop their children out of school,” Atisu lamented.
Why are Ghana's rural people poor?
According to government’s poverty reduction strategy paper (GPRS II), low productivity and poorly functioning markets for agricultural outputs are among the main causes of poverty especially in the rural areas. The document said small-scale farmers lacked technologies and inputs such as fertilizer and improved seed, which would increase yields.
This paper observed, during the visit, that only a small proportion of farmers in rural areas of the country have access to irrigation. Land ownership and land security are regulated by complex systems that vary widely. Many farmers lacked rural infrastructure and equipment for storing, processing and marketing their products.
Most inhabitants said rural infrastructure in Ghana had been neglected, while investments in health, education and water supply had largely been focused on urban areas.
“The government could play an important role in making farming a profitable business through access to financial services, farm inputs and linkages to agro processors and traders,” Ibrahim Siedu, a farmer in Navrongo stated.
What Is Government Doing To Help The Poor?
In March 2008, the government introduced the Livelihood Empowerment against Poverty (LEAP) programme as a social intervention to provide financial assistance to some extremely poor households in Ghana. More districts are expected to be added to the existing 76 districts nation-wide, which are already covered by the programme.
Beneficiaries of this social assistance scheme, orphaned and vulnerable children, persons with severe disabilities without productive capacity, and extremely poor persons above 65 years, receive free cash ranging from GH¢8 to GH¢15 every two months.
One eligible beneficiary in a household gets GH¢8, two eligible beneficiaries get GH¢10, three get GH¢12, while four or more beneficiaries in a household receive GH¢15.
A survey by BUSINESS GUIDE to some of the LEAP communities in Ghana some time ago revealed that there are changes in the lives of the beneficiaries, some of whom had been able to engage in some form of subsistence business ventures.
Recently, government injected $20 million into the LEAP programme to enable many vulnerable people in Ghana to benefit.
The amount, according to Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, Joseph Yieleh Chireh, was part of the $89.1 million loan facility the government took from the World Bank to help streamline economic activities in northern Ghana and empower the vulnerable.
The Minister said each of the communities would take $3 million with 25 of them coming from the Upper West, Upper East and the Northern regions while the rest of the 15 would be selected from the other regions.
Keywords - moladi, Felix Dela Klutse, Ghana, poverty, low cost housing, job creation, fight unemployed
Sunday, September 25, 2011
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