Poverty problem
THE opinion article of Thursday (FT 23/6) “The Bigger Picture” following on after FCOSS stories of children scavenging rubbish dumps and selling food parcels at night revealed a huge new meaning of poverty.
It opens up the way to a far better assessment of peoples’ needs While assessing the financial resources and requirements is an indicator to some extent it is obvious that there is much more to consider.
For the sake of justice we do need to consider the many noneconomic factors that affect all of our lives.
We cannot expect to build a more level playing field without considering the bigger picture. Nor will we find solutions that assist those in genuine need.
The way in which people use or ignore the many different resources that are available is another factor that affects the lives of us all, leading to relative affluence or poverty.
THIS is in reply to Joan McGoon’s letter regarding the cutting of the Sekoula tree in front of the Lautoka City Council building. The tree she is talking about actually broke apart but luckily no one was hurt or no property got damaged. The LCC team worked late to cut and remove the tree which became a hazard to citizens. Ms McGoon LCC together with Lautoka Residents and Ratepayers Association have been planting trees to replace the ones that are removed for hazardous reasons. You can see some 50 new Sekoula trees have been planted along Vomo St., and many more trees will be planted soon. Please feel free to join us when we plant more trees around Lautoka soon.
For example, the Government donates a boat to an island community so that the children can reach school on a nearby island.
Does the boat and its boatman wait idle all day while the children are educated or does the community that accepted the gift arrange for fishing or other trips for the adult islanders?
I have not heard stories that tell of such multiple use.
Perhaps there are good examples that need some publicity. Or are there regulations that restrict the use of such a gift?
I remember seeing eggplant bushes planted on the very narrow strip of soil alongside the narrow path between the make-shift houses in a squatter settlement.
God creates us humans with the gift to be creative ourselves.
There are many ways in which we can take advantage of what resources there are available to us, but do we use them? When we use some ingenuity and experimentation and we can perform wonders.
We need to find ways to empower people to see the ways in which they can help themselves and use available resources.
Here in Fiji we have many examples of people who came from backgrounds described as very poor and deprived, yet they have managed to reach the highest levels of society, often in academia which means that they share their successes and contribute to the greater learning and knowledge available to us all.
A prime example is the late Professor Brij Lal, so sadly deprived of his rightful access to his homeland.
The Fiji Times frequently gives us inspiring examples of people helping themselves and finding ways to improve their quality of life and that of their family.
Is it too much to ask the Bureau of Statistics to widen their research to include a wider, multidimensional picture of the poverty that exists in Fiji?
This will give a better, more truthful picture and help all of us, Government, NGOs and generous donors to build a better society, provided, of course, that we are all prepared to read the difficult details of such a study and look for the real ways to solve the problems.
I hope our present and aspiring leaders of our beloved Fiji are open to see the wider picture that researchers are making available and I hope they will look for better answers to the poverty problem.
TESSA MACKENZIE
Suva