TruthAboutLies101

Blog Action Day: “The truth behind the lies”.
Khatija Nxedlana

We, the students of Rhodes University, walk to town at least four times a week between a Politics or Journalism lecture. We’re in such a rush to fill up on sugar or get some last minute accessories for an assignment. We’re so focussed on our own lives that we’re deaf to the sound of a beggar’s plea “Sisi...” They’re the young and old who spend their days wandering the streets in search of something, in search of someone. Someone to give them money, foodthe basics to survive or just a helping hand. In Grahamstown this is just a miniscule representation of the poverty that exists in South Africa, the greater Africa and around the world. We speak emotionally about poverty all the time, comment enthusiastically on what can be done, learn about it in almost all subject, but outside the 400-seater room do we really care? What do we do?

Only in recent decades are states, governments and people realising the importance of taking care of issues other than state security. They’re focussing on those that are taking precedence in societies today. These issues include, helping developing countries decrease their debt, giving aid to countries under-going civil wars, providing relief in the form of food, shelter and funding as well as humanitarian intervention. Global humanitarian organisations such as the U.N. (United Nations) have mushroomed, changing their agenda to accommodate more pressing issues. With obvious pressure from civil society including member states of the U.N. they are increasingly dealing with environmental problems and focussing on the individuals within states and not just the traditional nation state. Poverty is of course one of the leading epidemics on the agendas worldwide; it’s a continuous problem that, quite honestly, doesn’t look as if it’s on the way out. The awareness around poverty is widespread and as a result of globalisation what was once Africa’s problems have now become the world’s problems.

As students, fortunate enough to be at University and educated about those who can’t even imagine being at any kind of academic institution the onus is upon us to make a change. Be it through creating more awareness through spheres such as these - blogging forums, to helping one person at a time. I don’t promote giving street children money, as the probability of them using it to buy glue is high. What I do encourage is for us to be active in organisations which help the needy, giving of the food we don’t eat, not wasting money. People, here have become afraid of giving. We have become fearful of street children and have basically developed an ideological view of ‘the street child’. “They’re forceful in their begging, they like being on the streets because they get more money, so leave them, they resort to fighting or mugging to get what they want”. We now walk in groups, never alone in the ‘small town of Graham’ to protect ourselves from the ‘evil’ gang of perhaps nine to 19 years old.

Let’s change our mindsets; let’s make an effort to unite, instead of complaining, judging, blaming and constantly criticising. That isn’t going to change anything, we need to think of solutions, look to the future the more intertwined we become. Poverty will not go away if nothing is done, the least we can do is to ensure that as the years go on we decrease the number of those living below the poverty line.