poverty | Terry Bell Writes

Browsing All posts tagged under »poverty«

‘Worst crisis’ is poverty, not Covid-19

April 19, 2020

The "worst crisis since World War 2" is not the latest Corona virus. It is poverty and the attendant hunger and ill health in often crowded and squalid living conditions. These are the breeding grounds of diseases and epidemics that are all too often ignored by governments that serve the interests of the corporate world over the wellbeing of people. United action — solidarity — by the majority of citizens can — and should — change this appalling state of affairs.

Time to stop thinking & acting in silos

December 15, 2019

If wishes were dinners, the hungry would eat. It's a variation on an old Scottish proverb about beggars and horses, but it seems worth bearing in mind as this year draws quite grimly to a close. Because wishes and hopes are, in themselves, futile at a time when clarity of thought and analysis, followed by appropriate action is called for.

Evasion & the potential of taxes

March 27, 2019

We live with endemic corruption, along with to obscene wealth on one hand and equally obscene poverty on the other. Much of this is the result of capital flows into private pockets — theft through tax evasion — by rich individuals and corporates around the world. Church-based tax justice groups are now trying to end this practice.

As SA elections loom: a call for clarity & organisation

January 13, 2019

It's swings and roundabouts for the workers of the world, with the overall trajectory being fewer jobs and lower pay. This is the reality as the World Bank claims — citing China and India as prime examples — that global poverty is declining; the implication being that the economic system is working. It is not and it is, in fact, becoming increasingly destructive.

Unemployment, malnutrition & decolonisation

August 13, 2018

Local production — poultry and sugar being classic examples — is being crippled by unfair competition. This means not only more job losses and suffering; in the long term it could mean the effective takeover of SA Inc, something the decolonisation lobby would do well to consider.

Thuma mina and social class

July 14, 2018

The more things change, the more they stay the same. That French expression certainly applies in South Africa where there has been major change in the legal deracialisation of society, but where the fundamental class divide is perhaps even more starkly evident.

Youth may yet show the way forward

June 15, 2018

There is little for the youth of today to celebrate as they contemplate the present and the prospects for themselves in the future. For most — and especially those with little formal schooling — current prospects are bleak and the future outlook bleaker still. But change could come. The missing ingredient: political will and as the South African youth of 1976 showed, such will can be awakened

Minimum wage, innovation & persecution

June 2, 2018

By the time — perhaps a year down the line — that South Africa's minimum wage legislation is passed, inflation would have caused the cost of living, especially for lower paid workers, to rise substantially. In any event, the claim that the the minimum wage is R3,500 a month and will improve the lot of more than 6 million workers is an illusion.