Most of the present day ideas approach the third world as a
surprise. Majority of African initiatives are always in the middle of laying
down the mat to sit before a crisis forces the mat to be coiled again and
sojourn for another land. Yesterday for instance, a country that I’ve forgot
its name outlined procedures of giving all citizens unemployed a basic income.
The president should be shot!
Could you imagine the Kenyan middleclass populace without the
help of slum people? Who would put their clothes in the machine? Their dogs
would be fed by who? The pampers that their children put to waste…who would
come to take them for only five hundred shillings a month? Who would ask for
work in a construction site?
Income disparities bring up the inequalities we are
experiencing as a nation. A good number of Kenyans live from hand to mouth,
educating a child is a process of rubbing sandpaper on one’s thigh. Agriculture
is our leading GDP venture. The poor people who toil in the stretches of wheat,
rice, maize and flowers would hang up their boots as soon as something to
support them is about.
No one is purely lazy. People find essence in work and
different people cherish different types of work. Money and work is not
directly proportional and hence money should not be treated as compensation for
work. You would need money anyway whether you worked or not. And you would
intrinsically work better without the thought of money in you.
The only jobs I have had so far have been volunteer tasks.
There was no pay apart from facilitations in some instances. Wasn’t that work?
The people I worked with while volunteering, all employed, never did better
work. It was all work. When I could not facilitate myself, my legs punctured, I
could not go to some venues. If I had a basic source of income that does not
tie me to a chair wherever, I’d volunteer to the threshold.
It is good that the said country will not decide how the
money should be used. Get your money and do whatever you want with it! It won’t
be enough, I know but I will use it to be more stable and free. I’d chase my
passions instead of reporting to an office or work place year in year out. I’d
never find myself in traffic. I’d visit the villages for stories for I love
writing. I’d request the government to increase the amount. I’d slave in no
flower farm.
Families would be stronger. Couples would decide who to stay
with the child at home and do the important chores. No innocent girl would
slave as a maid, no households would experience extreme poverty, and there
would be enough capital to initiate means of production. Projects would be
sustainable. Fathers would again be called fathers and not watchmen, caretakers
or soldiers. Theft, prostitution and other vices would be optional.
But you see, this is Africa where Doctors and Engineers
become politicians. Not that they want to build a stronger and healthier
democracy but because they kinda went to the wrong classes.
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