11.09.2010

Right to the Land

Our second lecture was actually a workshop touching on the subject of poor people living in the urban area without right to their own land.

These "slum-dwellers", as their called, live in make-shift houses that are similar to those that i built as a kid. Not only in appearance but also in that sense that they lack water and electricity. Not only are the conditions bad, the people living there pay most of the time half their salary as rent and the amount of people living in those small houses are staggering.

With no running water or energy the sanitation is not the best and access to clean water is not the best. And the houses being not that sturdy, the people are vulnerable to natural disasters and also to the dry/wet-season changes. To make matters worse, the people are not allowed to live there. So from time to time government officials (read military) remove the people and houses.

We discussed the problems with this and some say that urbanization, the move to the city, is the problem. Personally I would not consider that a problem. The problem is that there are a lot of people without adequate housing and access to necessities. If the people moving to the cities would get jobs and good housing then no one would consider it a problem.

Our workshop concentrated on Africa and there were some mentions on the government issues. Corruption being the main problem. This causes the money and the help to be kept out of reach of the needy. Or at least it takes away from the sum that was meant for the poor.

In China they have opted for pouring the money to a few hot spots and hoping the economy there would catch on and be self-sufficient after a while. This has worked to some extent but that is no guarantee that it would work in Africa, being that the mindset of the African people and the Asians is quite different.

So how do we solve this? well the experts say that it is a complicated matter, which is something I disagree on. Nothing is ever complicated. There is always a simple solution to any problem. However when politics are involved and peoples egos get in the way then things get complicated. The politicians are standing in the way of solving the problem.

But we can't just remove the politicians either since they have the power and are too power-hungry to want to relinquish that power. So again it boils down to the mindset of the people at power... well if we read that again we see that the problem is "power".

Perhaps this is because most people by nature are egotists. And as long as humans as a whole do not look after each other as much as themselves we are going to have a problem. Although one might argue that the western world could use their military might and simply enforce human rights on the people affected. But if we look at Iraq then it might not be the best of ideas.

No, the key is in the mind. If we change how the people think then they will change their society themselves. Through education and knowledge the society will evolve for the better not through power and enforcement. Since one can put shackles on a body but not on a mind and one mind is enough to change the course of history.

2 comments:

  1. Hi Guy!

    Broadly speaking your blog is interesting, but please try to mention the context of the issue,furthermore, you deviate too much from the main issue.

    Finally, you should avoid such words like, egoist, ego... which does not reflect anymore a debate to improve the situation, but rather a personal feeling.

    Too radical "No the key is teh mind" what do you mean by that?

    Furthermore, there are too many grammatical misspelling or typos! read at least once before you post!

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  2. Hi John,

    It is fun that you find it interesting and I hope you continue to read my blog. I will try to mention the context somewhat more in the future however the deviation is something I feel is necessary. To me, focusing on the “main” issue is like looking at a tree; sometimes you do not see the forest due to the trees. Until all things possible (and not possible) have been explored one cannot in good science make the decision what is and what is not portent to the case.

    About the usage of “force”-words: well I did get a reaction out of you did I not? In the words of Edmund Burke: “All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing”. People have gotten too accustomed to hearing that things are bad somewhere overthere and simply do not care anymore.

    Furthermore: Egotism means ”placing oneself at the center of one’s world with no direct concern for others” (wikipedia) which in a sense is what people are doing when they do not help the needy. Would you not agree?

    “No, the key is in the mind. If we change how the people think then they will change their society themselves” is a statement I stand by. It means that if we are able to change the way the masses think, the problems will solve themselves. The extreme would be a revolution but I do not believe it would come to that.

    And just for your pleasure John, I showed my text to Word and had it correct my misspellings.


    Happy Reading

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