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Monday 24 February 2014

Too Many Cooks?

So I've just finished watching Reggie Yates's Extreme South Africa which has to be one of the more surprising things I've watched in a while. It's a 3 part stint and the first episode is about the White Slums in South Africa, and for many of us (me included) I didn't realise it was as bad as it is. I've been aware for many years that being white in South Africa has been a thing that's getting worse, mainly from stories my mum has told me from family members that are/were living there. So my thoughts are would a situation like this capture the eye of the "Western World" because to put it bluntly, they're white. When you think of Poverty in Africa you think of black families in villages who are hungry, walking miles for water and to go to school (if school is an option). Unfortunately Poverty is only getting worse, worldwide. It used to be some sort of illusion of ours that it only hit people of certain races and people of certain backgrounds. So what now? It's very clear that the poverty virus is spreading and no one is immune.
There was a series of episodes about a year or so ago that I watched, that showed the harsh truth about what was going on everywhere! There were no restrictions to country, religion, gender, sexual orientation or colour. Just people. It was called Why Poverty? And their aim seemed simple. Awareness. There was no asking of money no one trying to force you to believe a particular view point of any one person. Just a look into peoples lives. Rich and poor. Just an understanding of things. Some episodes made you realise how easy it was for anyone to end up in (for lack of a better description) just a really crappy set of circumstances. There was a debate that revolved around the series of shows that really asked the hard hitting questions on how to try and end poverty for good with big names, which included Tony Blair, Vandana Shiva, Oby Ezekwesili and Moeltesi Mbeki. And what was their verdict? There wasn't one... They all had so many different points of view on how they think poverty could be ended. It was almost the perfect representation of "Too many cooks, spoil the broth."  After watching it. it made me ask a lot of questions, which I guess was the aim of the series. Maybe one of the biggest questions I had was, will there ever be an end to poverty? Or even a world where every person at least gets their entitlement to the most basic of human rights? I'm not entirely sure! But is there a right answer to it all? Things are getting much better in some places and then a new type of poverty has started somewhere new! But I believe you can't look at all countries difficulties with the same answer. So should it then be up to their Government to figure out a solution because they realistically should know where the country needs the help. But it just doesn't seem to be the case.
Poverty has been happening since the beginning of time. Whether it be in that country or this or whatever. How is it still happening? We've come so far and yet we still can't figure out how to give everybody a fair life. There will always be the "little man" but do they have to be denied the basics?

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