Malawi’s president, Joyce Banda, has been somewhat of a revelation ever since she assumed office in April 2012 following the death of then president, Bingu wa Mutharika. At the time, Malawi was facing all manner of problems — food, fuel and forex shortages — symbolised by long queues at shops and at service stations. Add […]
poverty
Posted inGeneral
How much money is enough?
By Mario Meyer Aristotle, in The Nicomachean Ethics, makes the following assertion: “The life of money-making is one undertaken by compulsion, and wealth is evidently not the good we are seeking; for it is merely useful and for the sake of something else.” One of the intractable questions of moral philosophy is the question of […]
Posted inGeneral
Confronting poverty
This festive season I spent a few weeks in a reasonably affluent town in the Western Cape. This in itself is unremarkable. However on returning to the Eastern Cape, and Grahamstown specifically, the contrast between that wealth and the grinding poverty of this town became all the more stark and all the more desperate. One […]
Posted inBusiness, General, News/Politics
The World Bank’s ‘development’ delusion
When Jim Yong Kim took the helm of the World Bank in July, progressives in the development community hailed it as a turning point in the fight against poverty: for once the bank is headed not by a US military boss or a Wall Street executive, but by an actual expert in the field of […]
Posted inGeneral, Lifestyle
Poverty, empty hands, little smiles
Wooosshh! I upended the large bin and hundreds of colourful Lego-like blocks and bally-shaped thingies scattered across the floor in front of the delighted Chinese four-year-olds that I am currently teaching. The floor was now a rainbow that had come crashing and splintering down from the heavens. “Pick up the green,” I roared, “the green, […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Africa on track for millennium goals
The African continent’s progress in achieving the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015 has gathered pace and credibility over the past few years. Africa continues to make incremental progress on the majority of the eight development goals aimed at improving social and economic conditions in the world’s poorest countries, which all 193 UN member […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Joyce Banda and the IMF: A dangerous courtship
There is nothing new under the sun. Absolutely nothing. Not even woman presidents. Cleopatra and the Queen of Sheba are among the very first of notable women leaders in the annals of history who wielded massive influence on what was then a global stage. Cleopatra (late 69 BCE – August 12, 30 BCE) in particular, […]
Posted inGeneral
What about the dignity of other South Africans then?
The debate surrounding The Spear has, on occasion, been framed in terms of the concept of ‘dignity’, specifically that of the State President. And to be sure, one should grant the persons who occupy that position of responsibility from time-to-time the dignity they deserve. One could also take the argument further by claiming that every […]
Posted inBusiness, News/Politics
The link between the environment, poverty and development in South Africa
A 2011 World Bank study estimates that environmental wealth accounts for 26 percent of the total wealth of low-income countries. This is contrasted with 13 percent of wealth in middle-income countries and only 2 percent of wealth in OECD countries. Therefore, investing in sound and equitable environmental management makes good economic sense and is essential to […]
Posted inBusiness, News/Politics
Why South Africa needs a second transition
What kind of country do we want to live in? Despite the achievements we have made as a young democracy, the persistence of widespread poverty and extreme levels of inequality remain a major threat to social cohesion and nation-building. But how do we effectively and realistically reduce inequality and eliminate poverty? In a recent United […]
Posted inGeneral
None but the poor can save themselves
Poverty is not a priority problem in this country. In fact, it does not deserve the status that it has been given. What is needed is to provide for the material needs of the poor through infrastructure-building and inspirational messages. It is enough that that is being is done. The black poor cannot continue to […]
Posted inLifestyle
Rich, white and crazy
The suburban landscape of Pretoria East is dotted with a spattering of rugged, rocky hills that overlook the city bowl, rising up from a plain crisscrossed with strip malls and chain franchises. During a recent trip to the area to visit some friends, I noticed that these little hills have become the sites of affluent […]