poverty

Dakar’s €21m statue rises amongst the poverty

Sophie Team Observers — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 16:47:20 +0200

An enormous mound of bronze, rising from the rubble of Dakar. The pride of President Abdoulaye Wade - at a cost of 14 billion CAF (€21m) - is the outrage of the local residents.

It's impossible to ignore the construction of this mammoth hilltop figure in Dakar. Christened "the African renaissance statue", it's taken the expertise of a group of North Korean architects to fabricate the project. Not only criticised for its enormous cost, the figure has also been slated by the country's majority Muslim community, who disagree with works which take on a human form.

Jailed for crying out his hunger

Team Observers — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 16:59:34 +0200

An unemployed drunkard shot to fame last month in Cuba when a video of him storming a TV report to demand food began circulating on the Web. His outburst got him a prison sentence, making him a symbol of Cuban poverty and repression.

Juan Carlos, nicknamed Pánfilo (dimwit in Cuban slang), never expected his impromptu interruption of a report on Cuban hip-hop to make such an impact. But after his tirade was posted on YouTube (presumably by one of the video reporters, although it is not known who is behind the initial upload) his life was never going to be the same again.

"We are hungry! What we really need is jama (Cuban slang for food)!", he repeated over and over for the camera. His words resonated with thousands of Cuban Web users, spreading like wildfire on the blogosphere. They also landed him in jail for two years, after authorities branded him a "danger" to society.

Cubans at home and abroad have rallied for his liberation, though a petition on the website Jama y Libertad (food and freedom). So far, however, Pánfilo remains behind bars.

No library near you? Luis’s donkeys will bring one

Sophie Team Observers — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 16:33:33 +0200

Photo : Diana Arias. Posted on the blog elbiblioburro.

Luis Soriano, an unemployed Colombian schoolteacher, spreads knowledge and literature to places where no librarian has ever set foot. He brings his books by donkeys to Colombia’s poorest and most isolated provinces.

After loading his donkeys back with books, Luis Soriano criss-crosses the desolate Nabusimake Valley in Colombia’s Magdalena province. To achieve his goal of giving peasant families and their children something to read, he invented “Biblioburros” (Library-donkeys), mobile libraries carried on the steep and narrow paths in the region on sturdy donkeys. Luis’s territory is also that of armed rebel groups but, according to him, the media coverage his initiative has received has meant that he is relatively safe from attacks.

The idea occurred to Luis in 1998 when he lost his job as a school teacher in the city of La Gloria. Although he came from a poor family, he owned one of the largest private collections of books in the country. He decided to share his ‘wealth’ with those who had never had access to a book in their life. After buying his first donkey, Alpha, he set off on his country’s least-travelled paths.

With the help of several NGOs and private businesses, Luis expanded his travelling library to 22 “Biblioburros”, led by a team of volunteers. His initiative reaches well beyond his home province. His sudden fame notwithstanding, Luis continues to cover eight country schools near his hometown himself.

A trendy new game: ‘bum fighting’

Sophie Team Observers — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 09:52:55 +0200

Some young Americans have launched an utterly sinister trend: organising fights between homeless people ("bum fights"), then posting the video of the clash on YouTube.

It all began with a "bum fighting" DVD, which came out in 2001 and sold 6.8 million copies. The producers of this DVD were sentenced, in 2003, to community service and their site was closed, but the trend had begun. According to a report published by the National Coalition for the Homeless (NCH), there are more and more videos on the internet of "bum fighting" or which show homeless people being made to do dangerous activities (go down a staircase in a trolley or on a skateboard for example), in exchange for a pack of beers or a few dollars. The NGO found almost 86,000 videos on YouTube containing "bum" (a highly pejorative term for homeless people) in their title, adding that almost 15,000 of them were posted last year. Most of these videos to which the NGO refers do not show pictures of the fighting, as these are deleted by YouTube, but pictures of "bum fighting" are easily accessible on specialised sites.

According to the NCH, 106 homeless people in the US were beaten up for no reason in 2008, of which 27 were beaten to death. In most cases, the homeless people are attacked by groups of young people, who then circulate the videos on the Web.

Washington, D.C. has already extended its law on hate crimes to include attacks on homeless people, and the US Congress is currently studying a federal law on the subject.

A rapper’s message to Bongo’s successor

Sophie Team Observers — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 16:38:16 +0200

Four years ago Gabonese rapper Lestat “wrote a letter” to late president Omar Bongo asking him to take more care of the country's problems. Now he's got a new message, this time for Gabon's future president: “Be careful to pay more attention to talent than ethnicity.”

“Intrigued by the dark side of France's involvement in Africa”

Lestat now lives in Paris.

I wrote this rap in 2005 during Omar Bongo's re-election and the clashes that ensued. I've lived in France and Canada, and I think leaving my country has allowed me to see things more clearly from a distance.

We were a state full of promise after we gained independence in 1960. Considering how small our country is, we should have more than enough natural resources. I tried to understand what was behind this stagnation, this regression, the enormous gap between rich and poor.

Those who really gain from our natural resources are a mere minority, often close to the presidential family.

When I started rapping Gabon was still a peaceful country. But we could see that things were deteriorating, and that our prospects didn't look bright.

I talk about our love/hate relationship with the president in the rap. Some love him for his paternal side, but many poor people quite simply hate him. Going back to the country's ghettos, which we call mapanes, I saw extreme poverty and wretchedness, and I was left really affected.

I was also intrigued by the dark side of France's involvement in Africa, particularly concerning international petrol companies. I wanted to touch the young Gabonese who are into rap and hip hop, who are often entirely disinterested by politics and don't believe that change is possible.

“Nothing's changed”

Since then nothing's changed. On the contrary. Schooling problems are worse than ever — once again exam results are being threatened. Relations with France are far from sound, and the successive deaths of the first lady and the President Bongo could spark a troublesome and insecure period. The authorities might be quite right in their decision to close the borders and ports and impose a 30-day curfew.

The majority of Gabonese (we have a young population) has never known anything but Bongo's regime. So they don't know what to think or how to feel. Many are anxiously waiting for what happens next and hoping for change. Others say that it's more realistic to expect the “Bongo dynasty” continue. It's undeniable that the president did help to sort out various problems in Africa, particularly in the west of the continent. He was, after all, the “doyen” of Africa. His death will be felt beyond Gabon.

His successor will surely be somebody close to him. In my opinion, the only chance that person has of getting the country to trust him is to be different. Maybe by nominating a prime minister from the opposition or at least beginning to form a coalition government.

“Pay more attention to talent than ethnicity”

This government should also be careful to pay more attention to talent than ethnicity, geopolitics having shown its limits. The risk of revolt remains, but taking into account our subdued nature as a nation, the scenario is unlikely, or at least less likely than in our neighbouring countries.

Scavenging, the new way to avoid going hungry

Sophie Team Observers — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 18:06:31 +0100

Closing time in the Parisian markets, and the streets are not left bare. Increasing numbers of people come to look for fruit and vegetables left behind by stall owners. And you don't have to be poor to take part.

Scavenging is an ancient practice in France. "Glanage", or gleaning, used to refer to the collection of barley left behind after the harvest. Today, gleaners are people who, short of means, scour market floors and supermarket rubbish bins for unsold products.

Far from being rare, social welfare programme boss Martin Hirsch ordered a report into the practice, which was published this month. The report lists the various methods of modern scavenging, and the variety of people who have turned to it, which is far more diverse than you might have thought. Sent on to major aid and commercial associations, the report's authors hope to encourage supermarkets to think about making unsold products easier to get hold of.

Is Slumdog Millionaire 'poverty porn'?

Sophie Team Observers — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 16:28:57 +0100

Photo: Akshay Mahajan

While Slumdog Millionaire received rave reviews in the rest of the world, in India itself critics are complaining that the British-made picture is unrealistic and full of clichés. Several of our Observers went to the slum where the film is set to find out for themselves.

British director Danny Boyle's Slumdog Millionaire is the story of a boy from a Mumbai slum who wins the TV game show Who Wants to be a Millionaire. The film shows the poverty, violence and appalling living conditions of Dharavi - one of the world's biggest slums. It's already bagged five Golden Globes and has been nominated for 11 BAFTA awards. But it's caused something of a spark in India, where critics are divided over the British-made picture. Many argue that it is idealistic. One blogger describes it as: "a collection of clichés from the Third World's underbelly for the viewing pleasure of a First World audience". Others have labelled it "poverty porn". Our Observers who visited the area however, found that residents there are happy to see their neighbourhood on the big screen.

Poverty exists in Saudi Arabia too

Sophie Team Observers — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 16:09:26 +0100

The cliché of Saudi Arabia is that everybody drives around in Jaguars and spends their holidays at five star hotels in Beirut. But as this video proves, in the dark depths of the world's petrol state, poverty is lurking.

Subtitled by Team Observers, France 24. Original video here.

Trad Alasmari put this video on YouTube in protest over poverty in his country. The short documentary starts with the interview of a Saudi security guard who earns no more than 1000 Riyals a month [€200]. The video's already been picked up by various Arabic media sites and fuelled hundreds of comments on YouTube. The blogger took the initiative after the president of the country's human rights commission announced that the problem of poverty was a "minor" one and only found in "isolated pockets".

Saudi Arabia is the world's biggest oil producer. And yet, banks in the country estimate that the unemployment rate is around 13% - and even that figure is an underestimation, say many bloggers.

Our Observers in Saudi Arabia prefer to remain anonymous.

Slum turned vegetable garden

Ségolène Team Observers — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 17:43:35 +0200

Before and after: a pile of rubbish... turns vegetable garden.

A blogger tell us how an ingenious idea got a group of Kenyan shantytown residents to transform their quarters into a biological farm.

This post was published by "Afrigadget", a blog run by Erik Hersman.

Kibera, Africa's biggest slum seen from space.

Not surprisingly, popular images of people living in desperate conditions aren't far from the truth when it comes to this corner of Nairobi - but out of the madness comes a little hope.

Raw sewage flows above ground.

"I witnessed some amazing innovations in Kibera and conclude that people have adjusted to their situation and are making the most of it. Because of the stress associated with limitations on land, energy, water, and food, the people have found innovative ways of surviving. This post is mainly about farming.

“Bishop of the poor” is Paraguay’s new president

Julien — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 11:01:51 +0200

Former Catholic bishop Fernando Lugo has taken up office as Paraguay’s new president. Our Observers in the country cast light on Latin America’s latest charismatic left wing leader.

The introduction to this post was drafted by our Observer in Argentina, Johana Kunin.

After Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez, Argentina’s Cristina Kirchner, Brazil’s Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Ecuador’s Rafael Correa, Bolivia’s Evo Morales, Chile’s Michelle Bachelet, and Uruguay’s Tabare Vasquez, the arrival of Fernando Lugo marks yet another victory for the Left in South America. Yet, while these leaders share a number of values and agree on the need to nationalise key companies - particularly in the energy sector - their policies vary significantly. In rough terms, we may speak of two groups: on the one hand, the “pragmatics”, who pull towards the centre; and, on the other, the “anti-imperialists”.

As for Paraguay’s new president, he advocates a “theological liberation of the Left”. He’s worked in the country’s poorest parishes and enjoys the reputation of being an honest man, a particularly important asset in a country where politics have become synonymous with corruption. Fernando Lugo said he would not marry during his five-year mandate, despite the Pope having lifted his vow of chastity. His sister will therefore act as the country’s first lady. The new president has also sought the advice of recognised experts, including the US Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz. Indeed, his first challenge will be to tackle widespread poverty in a country where only 6.5% of the population earns more than 270 dollars a month and where economy is dominated by large soy producers and devastated by corruption.