Can the poor stand up and be counted?

According to the World Bank, if you spend less than Sh70 a day, you are absolutely poor. Few know how the bank arrived at this figure but it is gratifying to note that a new breed of thinkers is questioning this wisdom.

Take the example of a grandmother who lives in rural Kenya. If she wants milk, she milks her cow, which in all likelihood is called Nguno.

If she wants to cook ugali, she goes to the granary, gets one “gorogoro” of maize and mills it at the village posho mill. If she wants greens, she picks them in the garden behind her house. If she wants fuel, she uses wood from the nearby forest. The only things she has to buy to make a meal is cooking oil and salt. She spends less than a dollar a day, but is she poor?

Yet an office messenger in the city who earns Sh15,000 a month might face a bigger financial crunch because he has to pay rent, take a bus, buy lunch and spend more money on other incidentals including human hair for his sweetheart. Does the fact that he has a bigger income make him less poor than the village granny?

A recent study carried out at a community wildlife sanctuary in Narok had startling revelations about wealth distribution. It said that herders were poorer than farmers. These in turn, were poorer than those who were engaged in business.

So, if you are a herder and you want say bye bye to poverty, better start shopping for a jembe and some seeds. And if you are a farmer, don’t just sell your produce at the gate of your farm. Seek higher prices elsewhere. Or become a middleman.

If you are in employment, upgrade your skills and move to the next level.

Alternatively, you can borrow a leaf from financial advisor Manyara Karago. He says that if you want to grow richer you should spend less than you earn and save the difference. It is a simple and sound strategy but the real test is in making it work for you, especially at a time when we are all battling with inflation and parents have to pay for the damage that their children caused when they burnt down their schools last term.

But whatever method you use to cross the valley of poverty, remember that being poor has its joys, and as Porter Waggoner said, the wealthiest person is a pauper at times.

-------------

Lakes and forests our finest temples

I have a theory. I believe that the state of a country’s game parks, rivers and other natural habitats can tell you about the values of that country’s people.

If the people have lost their values or their society is decaying, you can tell by just looking at the state of their rivers and forests.

From my observations, countries with lower corruption levels care more about the environment than those that are caught in the miasma of graft.

Garden of Eden
Their forests are larger, their rivers cleaner and their lakes magical experiences that remind you of the Garden of Eden.