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03:43Last update on: 12 Aug 2013
The Namibian
Mon 12 Aug 2013
SMS Of The Day * MINISTRY of Gender and Child Welfare, TEARS are rolling down as I write this SMS. The killing of women in Namibia is now like reciting a poem. Are we really getting the protection we deserve while women not being treated as part of this c Food For Thought * SO the Zimbabwe elections were free and peaceful and not free and fair? Bouquets And Brickbats * NURSES at Katutura Hospital must stop wearing those big plastic sandals at work because they are not the official working shoes. We want to see you looking smart and beautiful with your full uniform. SMS Of The Day * THIS nation is in dire need of a massive conference on housing. When we experienced a crisis in the education sector a crisis-control brain-storming conference was organised which resulted in the best deal ever for the Namibian child, nam Food For Thought * BOURGEOISIE has become a daily occupation if not the order of the day of the upper-echelons, President Hifikepunye Pohamba we urge you to revisit this unpatriotic geocentricism among your staff and the well-connected, for everybody to r Bouquets And Brickbats * COMMISSIONER of Prisons, can you please explain the strategies you use to appoint officers to certain positions? It is my observation that you are being fed with wrong information then you just promote individuals without making p SMS Of The Day * I THINK Paulus ‘The Rock’ Ambunda lost his belt because of this promoter and trainer. How can a world champion still be training at the Katutura Youth Complex where there is not enough equipment. I think they must follow the example of Ha Food For Thought * NAMIBIA Dairies are unable to match low prices of imported milk and this ultimately means the consumer will have to pay more for local milk. Look at the prices of the local chicken. All these profits are going in the pockets of a few in Bouquets And Brickbats * I AM pleased to hear that Cabinet has responded positively to the proposal of Namibia Dairies to support the industry. The restrictions which support the industry by reducing competition to ensure the survival of the industry is a SMS Of The Day * CEO’s golden handshakes. Somewhere on our statute books there must be a provision that if a board of directors suspends/dismisses a CEO without due regard to legal provision (substantive/procedural law) such board must carry the costs for Food For Thought * JACKY Asheeke was so right with her last column- why are the fathers of the dead children not being prosecuted? (Reference to the children who died in shack fires last week) Our justice system still protects men over women. In this cont Bouquets And Brickbats * ALEXACTUS Kaure, your column in Friday’s newspaper opened my eyes. One hardly finds impartial case study analysers in Namibia. Let’s not destroy the Polytechnic’s strong foundation (Tjivikua) as yet. At least wait until the transf
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| 2013-08-09
Africa’s Urban Challenge
In our hands
My mother, like her mother, her grandmother, and so on, was born into poverty in the rural village of Rarieda, Kenya. I, too, was born in the village, and lived there until it was struck by a brutal famine when I was two years old.
With no food, money, or opportunities, my mother did what thousands of African vil- lagers do every day: she moved us to the city in search of a better life. But, given the lack of jobs and housing in Nairobi, we ended up in Kibera, one of Africa’s largest slums.
Marginalised
Located just a couple of miles from downtown Nairobi, Kibera is a heavily polluted, densely populated settlement composed of informal roads and shacks with corrugated tin roofs. Kenya’s government does not recognise Kibera, there is no sewage system or formal power grid. Its residents, estimated to number anywhere from a few hundred thousand to more than a mil- lion, do not officially exist.
Kibera is just one example of the consequences of the rap- id urbanisation that is gaining momentum worldwide. More
than 44 per cent of developing country residents already live in cities.
The Population Reference Bureau estimates that by 2050, only 30 per cent of the global population will remain in rural areas. But few have stopped to consider this shift’s implica- tions for families like mine.
When people think of Africa, they often focus on the hard- ships of village life – a percep- tion reflected in iconic images of African women on their daily excursions to fetch water. But an increasing number of people – already nearly 300 million – are facing the harsh reality of the urban slum, where resources are scarce and economic opportunities are elusive.
More than 78 per cent of the urban population in the world’s least-developed countries, and one-third of the global urban population, lives in slums.
Nairobi is a dynamic and growing city, with shopping centres, restaurants, and West- ern-style companies catering to Kenya’s emerging middle class. Yet no one knows how many people live there.
According to the last (highly politicised) census, completed in 2009, Nairobi has a popula- tion of over three million; but
it is probably closer to five million, with a large percentage living in slums.
It is these people, Nairobi’s poorest residents, who build the buildings, staff the restaurants, drive the taxis, and power the city. (From the age of 12 until I was 22, I was part of this group, working at construction sites and in factories.)
Indeed, without the poor, Nairobi could not function for a single day.
Nevertheless, they remain all but invisible, with no political voice. The world’s enduring perception of Africa as a vil- lage exacerbates slum dwellers’ plight, keeping them off the global development agenda.
Tipping Point
Every day, more people arrive in Nairobi, lured by the promise of employment, resources, and a better life, only to realise that they are not equipped to survive there and that their children will grow up in a slum.
At least half of those living in urban slums are under the age of 20. Without access to educa- tion, this generation – which will soon be the majority – has little hope of ever escaping its straitened conditions.
But for how long will a
majority serve a minority? For how long will it accept a lack of water, sanitation, education, and dignity?
Urban slums worldwide will soon reach a tipping point, with young people rejecting the lives that they have been offered.
Their power lies in their numbers – more than half of the world’s youth shares their fate – and in their anger. They will rise up, refusing to accept their status as second-class citizens of ever-expanding urban settlements, and they will destabilise countries like Kenya, undermining efforts to build more stable, prosperous societies.
Cities are not just Africa’s future; they are its present.
Unless collective action is taken now to transform cities like Nairobi into the drivers of economic development and sources of opportunity that they are supposed to be, they will become a tinderbox of perpetu- al inequality.
For the sake of the millions of people like my mother – and, more important, for the sake of their children and grandchildren – we must fulfil the promise that attracts the poor to cities in the first place.
– Project Syndicate
– Odede is President and CEO of Shining Hope for Communities, a social-service organisation in Kibera, and a 2013 New Voices fellow at the Aspen Institute.
Marginalised
Located just a couple of miles from downtown Nairobi, Kibera is a heavily polluted, densely populated settlement composed of informal roads and shacks with corrugated tin roofs. Kenya’s government does not recognise Kibera, there is no sewage system or formal power grid. Its residents, estimated to number anywhere from a few hundred thousand to more than a mil- lion, do not officially exist.
Kibera is just one example of the consequences of the rap- id urbanisation that is gaining momentum worldwide. More
than 44 per cent of developing country residents already live in cities.
The Population Reference Bureau estimates that by 2050, only 30 per cent of the global population will remain in rural areas. But few have stopped to consider this shift’s implica- tions for families like mine.
When people think of Africa, they often focus on the hard- ships of village life – a percep- tion reflected in iconic images of African women on their daily excursions to fetch water. But an increasing number of people – already nearly 300 million – are facing the harsh reality of the urban slum, where resources are scarce and economic opportunities are elusive.
More than 78 per cent of the urban population in the world’s least-developed countries, and one-third of the global urban population, lives in slums.
Nairobi is a dynamic and growing city, with shopping centres, restaurants, and West- ern-style companies catering to Kenya’s emerging middle class. Yet no one knows how many people live there.
According to the last (highly politicised) census, completed in 2009, Nairobi has a popula- tion of over three million; but
it is probably closer to five million, with a large percentage living in slums.
It is these people, Nairobi’s poorest residents, who build the buildings, staff the restaurants, drive the taxis, and power the city. (From the age of 12 until I was 22, I was part of this group, working at construction sites and in factories.)
Indeed, without the poor, Nairobi could not function for a single day.
Nevertheless, they remain all but invisible, with no political voice. The world’s enduring perception of Africa as a vil- lage exacerbates slum dwellers’ plight, keeping them off the global development agenda.
Tipping Point
Every day, more people arrive in Nairobi, lured by the promise of employment, resources, and a better life, only to realise that they are not equipped to survive there and that their children will grow up in a slum.
At least half of those living in urban slums are under the age of 20. Without access to educa- tion, this generation – which will soon be the majority – has little hope of ever escaping its straitened conditions.
But for how long will a
majority serve a minority? For how long will it accept a lack of water, sanitation, education, and dignity?
Urban slums worldwide will soon reach a tipping point, with young people rejecting the lives that they have been offered.
Their power lies in their numbers – more than half of the world’s youth shares their fate – and in their anger. They will rise up, refusing to accept their status as second-class citizens of ever-expanding urban settlements, and they will destabilise countries like Kenya, undermining efforts to build more stable, prosperous societies.
Cities are not just Africa’s future; they are its present.
Unless collective action is taken now to transform cities like Nairobi into the drivers of economic development and sources of opportunity that they are supposed to be, they will become a tinderbox of perpetu- al inequality.
For the sake of the millions of people like my mother – and, more important, for the sake of their children and grandchildren – we must fulfil the promise that attracts the poor to cities in the first place.
– Project Syndicate
– Odede is President and CEO of Shining Hope for Communities, a social-service organisation in Kibera, and a 2013 New Voices fellow at the Aspen Institute.
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