Looking to help

I received an email from my friend Musa, who I worked with in Tanzania and has helped me from time to time. He is of the Maasai tribe and I have the highest regard for him.

This is his letter:
Every morning on my way to work, I pass groups of women from the neighborhood on their way to work in commercial coffee farms across the hill. Despite being low paying, hazardous and full of avenues for exploitation, this is the most sought after job for women from this village. Other common income-generating activities for women around is selling illicit brew, crushing stones to make ballast and fetching water at construction sites. Very few households keep animals –cows, goats, pigs and chicken.

Couple days ago, I passed the groups again, however that morning my attention was attracted by one particular girl –Dina, the daughter of my next door neighbour. My attentions were not drawn to her because she’s the daughter of my next door neighbour but by the fact she’s among few girls in the village who have seen the inside of a secondary school. She sat for her CSE in 2007 and attained fourth division –some would consider this a failure.

Coming from poor family where education is non-important she could not pursue her dream of becoming a teacher. Early this year I connected her with a local organisation that sponsors Maasai girls for further education, however her grades could not qualify her for the sponsorship.

An aside: I have never understood the system of sponsoring students who have passed with first grades and who are automatically enrolled in government schools leaving out those with middle grades who can’t afford private schools.

Dina’s life is in limbo; she doesn’t know what do with the education she’s laboriously attained. She cannot pursue her dream because of her grades and because her family cannot afford to enroll her for private studies. All her age mates are long ‘married’ with one or two little ones. With a secondary education she’s not considered marriage ‘material’ by local boys most of whom are either illiterate or primary school dropouts.

Living in a large extended family with no source of stable source of livelihood –her father is half paralysed and never used to work anyway. Her mother -the breadwinner does odd menial jobs like selling illicit chang’aa, fetching water at construction sites or breaking rocks to sell ballast. With no options left Dina had to start supplementing her family meager income by fetching water at construction sites and now working at coffee farm like other women from the village. We can all guess where she will end up in the next year or two.

Growing up we were told education is the key to better life. I remember during Nyerere times we had songs to that effect encouraging us to go school. Dina embraced this idea hoping to get herself (and her family) from the clutches of abject poverty. She now possesses a certificate of secondary education -a golden key but no door to open.

Salaams,

I have found it very difficult to find extra money help for the people I am already helping, but I have told Musa that I would try, and hope that through this blog I can raise some money. I checked my absence account and today have made $0.11c which means readers are not clicking on the ads!!
I will just keep on writing these blogs, I enjoy doing them and I am hopeful that I can find links that will bring readers and stimulate comment.

Big Rigs - wet weather!

Big rigs pose a real danger on the road when it is wet! When they are coming towards you, they shower you with spray and visibility is lost. When you are behind them, there is constant spray, and again visibility is lost! And if you are overtaking and some dick doesn't have his lights on - it is a recipe for disaster!
Tyres are designed to pump water from the road surface - a safety issue! That's understandable.
What to do about it? Well I don't know, water can do funny things, but covered mud guards may be worth a try, or perhaps side curtains that can be pulled down. The rear mud flaps certainly don't work!

Anyway, just thought I would mention it - someone may just run with it.

Climate Change

I watched Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth on DVD and I must admit, I found it distressing!

Having taken meteorological readings for some 25 years, I do have an interest in weather patterns, and what is happening to our planet. But so much is difficult to interpret. Once I tallied up the records for something or other and found that in North Otago the driest month in the year is June. In fact some Junes recorded no rainfall at all! However, the wettest month ever was June 1968! So averages are just too hard to work out.

There is debate, some saying there is climate change happening, some saying that it isn't, and some say that the climate change is man-made while others maintain that man has had no effect on the world climate.

My observation are that there is climate change and that man has caused the changes. My take on it is a bit different because I believe one of the main causes of man-made change is the cutting of the world's great forests.

It is not impossible to address situations, take for example how CFC's damage the ozone layer - this is proven because the ozone layer has responded positively since the banning of the propellant - so it is logical that exhaust smoke - vehicle and factory must do damage, but the damage can be repaired!.

All this is not the issue though. We should not looking to who or what is the blame - we should be doing something about it!

The fact of the matter is that human-kind is littering its' own nest and squandering resources!

We have lost the concept of conservation! We should seriously think of our descendants - how are we going to leave the planet - a home, if you like - for them! This generation is using up the resources of our planet so very quickly!

We should be protecting our plant as a matter of course, because it is simply the right thing to do - not carrying out some witch hunt for the culprit! It seem obvious to me that standards of living (if that's what using up resources is) will have to go down, simply because it is not possible to maintain the tack we are currently on!

Well, I was going to leave it there, but after all this is my soapbox! Have a look at Cribs on MTV. There is an example - these Stars - sports people of movie/music - have some of the most opulent homes I have ever seen! Do they need such opulence? I think not! And they have several motor vehicles! How many do they really need?

Then there is, on the same channel, a program about girls and their Sweet Sixteen parties. Well not many of them are sweet, and they demand much from their parents, who obey obediently. These sweet kids get what they want including, (nearly always) a new car! And all this just puts pressure on other parents to follow suit of be pouted at or even abused!

I relate this to a Maasai village like Muriet where high tension power line passes over the village, yet they are unable to affordelectricity in their homes, and children have no light do homework, study or read because darkness sets in around 7:00pm each night.

Anti Smoking

I have seen some very bad outcomes that have happened to people who by choice, have smoked. I have seen similar outcomes to people who have never smoked, yet have been exposed to tobacco smoke.

There are plenty of advertisements and literature about stopping smoking and there is assistance available.
It puzzles me though why I have seen no ads or promotion for people - especially kids not to start smoking!
Television and the Internet are powerful mediums yet nowhere have I seen the 'not start message.'

Harmful Stinks!

If you look closely on the label of many cosmetics, cleaning products and 'fresheners', there is usually an ingredient called fragrance. I have done a bit of research about this and one website states there are some 4000 chemicals in the fragrance arsenal (and I use that word purposely) and many of them are carcinogenic!

I have been using chemicals all my life as a forester and nurseryman; chemicals such as 245T, 1080, Roundup. None effect me like some of these fragrances do!

Chemical companies are smart though. They do not disclose the chemicals in their brew, because this is a commercial secret. Like the recipe for Coca Cola. Government allow this. But they are on a winner; sell products that are poisonous, causing ailments such as headaches, and then selling the medicine to relieve the symptoms!

I found myself pretending not to see people on the side of the road wanting a lift because I knew the deodorant they wore made my eyes water, my heart thump and my head ache. If I did pick them up, I knew I could not function properly for the rest of the day.

In our house if any of these products annoy me enough, instead of complaining; I simply throw them out.
People have become walking chemical cocktails. The women in my house prepare themselves thus.
In the shower they wash their hair using shampoo, then conditioner. Then a quick Veet to clear away unwanted hair. Then there is the shower gel - nice smelly stuff, the stink wafting through the house, out the window so even the sheep out side begin to cough.
After the dry-down, there is the special facial lotion, then the deodorant - perspiration cannot get through (I thought this was a natural process - I wonder where it goes? Oh and I thought we were going natural!). Then there is the other lotion to stop the skin drying - maybe that shower gel was toxic?
The lip gloss is an extra scent - maybe pseudo strawberry. And to top all that off there is the perfume to cover all else. All this is very feminine - no wait there is a masculine version too!

But wait; we are not dressed yet! On go the clothes, presoaked in some chemicals, washed in others and the fabric softener so strong that it can kill the good bugs in the septic tank!

It is no wonder that asthma is widespread and increasing!

Walk down the supermarket isle and the stink can almost knock you over!

But that's not all the room fresheners and those ones in cars are powerful too, then we have toilet paper with fragrance. Perhaps it is impolite to mention it but what do those chemicals do when you wipe your bum? Probably worse for women!

There is a handlotion in our bathroom called 'Botanicals' but look at the label - chemicals that you can't pronounce and 1% natural fragrance.
You have to watch natural too; salt is a natural product, but eat a kilo of it and you are dead! Then what about Datura, Nightshade, Melia and many others - all are natural, all are poisonous.

There is a lot of brainwashing being done - if you tell kids BO is bad, throughout their life they will think it bad.
And oh yes, actually toothpaste is generally pretty good!

Voilence

Tony Veitch has been in the news lately because it alleged that he injured his partner so badly that she was in hospital and a wheel chair for some time. Tony Veitch is a TV & radio personality and I barely know him, and the rare times that I have seen him, I thought he was a smart arse.

Regardless of all that rival media have been severe on him and talkback radio full of a certain hysteria forcing him to resign from his positions. But not much really known about the case and much appears to be speculation.

It appears he pushed the woman down the stairs and then kicked her several times. Nobody can condone this behavior but it raises a point. Sure it appears he became violent but he now is suffering from verbal violence. This too can be as bad a physical violence.

New Zealand has become PC and the government has recently passed an anti-smacking law which 80% of the voters was against. The proponent of the bill was a member of parliament who gained her position under MMP and was not voted into office. This make democracy a joke, but I'm not on that just now!

Violent attacks are increasing in New Zealand and reports of violence against children makes shocking reading! But really how does an anti-smacking law make us less violent?

Like it or not we are a violent species, even though we think we are 'civilised'. Maybe we are descended from a race of chimpanzees - just look how violent they are to each other. But if you don't agree with forms of evolution, look at history and how mankind has been violent to mankind. I don't have to go into the facts, there is plenty of evidence of atrocities during wars from as history goes back to the present time. Not only wars though, I suppose cavemen killed to take a piece of flint from another just as some will kill today to rob another of his cellphone.

Violence is within our breed, sitting there, perhaps latent but it is there.

There is a woman at my work who has a supervisory role and she is vehemently against smacking children. However everyone who works with her fears her because of her caustic tongue and her attitude toward them. I overheard her telling someone considering employing one of our ex employees. She denigrated the person, and then came into our office to tell us what she had done, saying that it had been hard to say what she had done - but her body language showed that she really enjoyed the power. This is just a form of subversive violence.

In Tanzania I worked with many schools and often one teacher was in charge of 200 kids! The stick ruled and the children were always well behaved, disciplined and respectful. When corporal punishment was abolished, straight away there was a decline in discipline and behavior.

Passing anti-smacking laws does nothing to stop violent crime! Violence is just under the skin of us all and we have to learn to control it, and this is done through respect.

For instance, the police are often treated as the bad guys and are not generally respected (yet when we are in trouble we can barely wait for them to come to our aid). Prisons are like hotels and inmates relax in hospitality of the taxpayer.

There is nothing wrong with smacking, for that's what it is - bashing is something different. At an early age, if a child is taught to respect, smacking is not required but discipline has to start somewhere. You can't tell me a tap in the back of an infant's hand to teach a basic lesson is going to harm the person in the future.

The term give an inch, tale a mile is true, if a child is not disciplined correctly, that child does not know the boundaries and often becomes the boss within the household.

Of course there are instances where kids that have not been smacked turn out perfect, but I'm demonstrating the need to return of respect for police, parents and in fact, the court system.

Respect goes both ways, a child should respect a parent, and the parent respect the child. A child will give a parent respect because the parent is the boundary setter, and a parent will respect the child if the child pushes the boundaries with learned strategy.