TakingITGlobal - Panorama - Where the poor...

Published on: Jan 31, 2007

Topic:

Type: Opinions

https://www.tigweb.org/express/panorama/article.html?ContentID=10439

Poverty and unemployment are among the top ten pandemics ravaging the African continent. These household names no more make headline news because their eminent repercussions are leaving no sector of the population indifferent. Many Africans have become so acquainted to this deplorable lifestyle and continue to blindly believe in the bombastic promises of their whimsical politicians. According to a UN report, Africa is unlikely to meet millennium goals for poverty reduction by 2015 despite prospects for economic growth of more than five percent this year. In 2006, statistics from the website www.johannesburgsummit.org show that the poverty rate in Sub Saharan Africa is 48% and has remain unchanged over the last decade.

In the African society, it is not only unmanly but humiliating for a man to fail to put bread on the table. Frustrated and disappointed to see their wives play the role of the daily bread winner these men turn to alcohol and sex – indiscriminate and most often unprotected. In most African communities like in the Northwest province of Cameroon, it is often believed that even if a man is as poor as a church rat, he cannot lack money for a bottle of beer. And since alcohol and beer go hand in glove, these men practiced unprotected sex with their numerous girlfriends.

Their wives stand no chance of escaping Sexually Transmissible Infections (STIs) such as the deadly HIV/AIDS. This is so because these poor women succumb to the violent pressure of their drunken husbands without resistance, so as not to be accused of cheating on them with another man.

The fight against HIV/AIDS does not only rely on curbing the spread of the decease but also on sealing up its gateways. The rather skyrocketing trend of poverty and unemployment in Sub Saharan Africa in particular and Africa in general should be checked and controlled by competent individuals guided by their sense of commitment and not by the gluttonous desire to swindle money, mostly international aid.

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by Awa Innocent Ndah
Published on: Jan 31, 2007
Topic:
Type: Opinions
https://www.tigweb.org/express/panorama/article.html?ContentID=10439


Poverty and unemployment are among the top ten pandemics ravaging the African continent. These household names no more make headline news because their eminent repercussions are leaving no sector of the population indifferent. Many Africans have become so acquainted to this deplorable lifestyle and continue to blindly believe in the bombastic promises of their whimsical politicians. According to a UN report, Africa is unlikely to meet millennium goals for poverty reduction by 2015 despite prospects for economic growth of more than five percent this year. In 2006, statistics from the website www.johannesburgsummit.org show that the poverty rate in Sub Saharan Africa is 48% and has remain unchanged over the last decade. In the African society, it is not only unmanly but humiliating for a man to fail to put bread on the table. Frustrated and disappointed to see their wives play the role of the daily bread winner these men turn to alcohol and sex – indiscriminate and most often unprotected. In most African communities like in the Northwest province of Cameroon, it is often believed that even if a man is as poor as a church rat, he cannot lack money for a bottle of beer. And since alcohol and beer go hand in glove, these men practiced unprotected sex with their numerous girlfriends. Their wives stand no chance of escaping Sexually Transmissible Infections (STIs) such as the deadly HIV/AIDS. This is so because these poor women succumb to the violent pressure of their drunken husbands without resistance, so as not to be accused of cheating on them with another man. The fight against HIV/AIDS does not only rely on curbing the spread of the decease but also on sealing up its gateways. The rather skyrocketing trend of poverty and unemployment in Sub Saharan Africa in particular and Africa in general should be checked and controlled by competent individuals guided by their sense of commitment and not by the gluttonous desire to swindle money, mostly international aid. « return.