Vote Sizing Institute Real change from within.

The Fair Choice which has a simple message built on love and respect for human rights, holds up to the point that the voices of those living in misery must be taken into consideration if not the world will never be a better place for both the rich and the poor - because insecurity which stems from poverty affects both.

Any human efforts aimed at upgrading the wellbeing of mankind is achieved or attains its goal only through blessings and love. Any idea that is not built on love can never be blessed hence will always lead to anarchy. Blessings come in when we are in good terms first with our consciences, then our fellow humans. – Love; cleanse past memories of hurt, overflows all barriers of greediness, and waters all hatred in the hearts.

For us to think for a better world, we must first agree that each human being has the right (by right, we mean moral claim) to think, belief, speak, publish, associate and become informed, freedom from torture, freedom from arbitrary arrest, right to good health, education, happiness and above all to life which is a natural right given to us by God the creator and must not be abused in whatever way.

In cases where the distribution of wealth and power is not fair, (which is what we see in most poor countries) there is bound to be conflict, extreme poverty, poor health conditions, low life expectancy, high death rate despite the many natural resources in their possession; and the Fair Choice considers all these as human rights abuse because all humans have the right to a happy and satisfactory life.

We also observe that the causes of death in rich countries are mostly cancer, heart attack, stroke, whereas in poor nations, we hear of diseases like malaria, typhoid, malnutrition, HIV/AIDS (The HIV trend is on a rising trend in Cameroon with the following statistics i.e. 0.5%/1987, 7%/1998 and 11%/2002). Other viruses, measles, chicken pox, rubella are a threat to our communities with constant epidemics, are all linked principally to poverty. In overall we observe that the death rate in poor nations is getting too high as compared to that of the rich nations.

Many African countries including Cameroon have fallen into economic madness and have been placed as heavily indebted poor countries. Some of them have turn to many international organizations like the World Bank for debt reduction  and despite all the efforts by this institution for almost a decade now, poverty still knocks, knocks and knocks even harder on these countries. It blows like a toxic wind and causes family roots to storm down, the blind people question and see nothing, tomorrow seems bleak and dark, and nothing but gloomy days, dreary hours and doomsdays lie ahead.

Poverty destroys the African traditional beliefs because money is being used to buy titles, consciences, hence changing the real sense behind beliefs making it invaluable as it used to be.

To know what poor people always have in mind, I carried out an interview on 75 poor and poorest people in Douala – Cameroon during the months of December 2004 and January 2005 - asking them what constantly preoccupies their thoughts.
Almost all of them said on their daily basis, they usually think of the following:

I tried to compare this from what rich people or especially what we see over the television taking place in richer nations, I discovered that the rich have none of the above troubles of the poor but are much preoccupied with the following:

When we live, we must expect to encounter difficulties, create problems, be put into problems, give proposed solutions, accept solutions, reject proposals, get some of our problems solved by others and equally solve others’ problems and one day die. All these because there is no perfectly made and thus each person has a flaw in life, but we must always work hard to see that we are always on the positive side of things, i.e. our good actions must always surpass the bad ones.

Life expectancy

Africa is home to the world’s lowest life expectancies with Zambia (37.2 years), Mozambique (37.5 years) and Malawi (37.6 years). The WHO ranking based on the new methodology shows that the number of years lost to illness and disability is considerably higher in poor countries, due to a number of factors that affect both children and adults, such as injuries, blindness, paralysis and the effects of tropical diseases like malaria.

Others factors like the lack of improved drinking sources also contribute greatly to the low life expectancy in poor countries. How is when earth's surface is made up of 3/4 water and 1/4 land but today more than 3/4 of the world's population lack decent drinking water sources?

According to the Global Water Supply and Sanitation Assessment 2000, WHO,
improved water supply technologies include: household connections, public standpipes, boreholes, protected dug wells, protected springs and rainwater collection. It also means that the availability of at least 20 liters of water per person per day from a source within one kilometer of the user’s dwelling. “Nothing improved” facilities include unprotected wells, unprotected springs, vendor-provided water, bottled water (based on concerns about the quantity of supplied water, not concerns over the water quality) and tanker truck-provided water. At the beginning of 2000, one-sixth (1.1 billion) of the worlds population was without access to an improved water supply and two-fifth (2.4 billions) lacked access to improved sanitation. The majority of these people live in Asia and Africa.

Concerning the lack of adequate sanitation, access to improved sanitation facilities refers to the percentage of the population with at least adequate excreta disposal facilities (private or shared, but not public) that can effectively prevent human, animal and insect contact with excreta. Improved facilities range from simple but protected pit latrines to flush toilets and a sewerage connection. To be effective, facilities must be correctly constructed and properly maintained.

The Fair Choice in this situation is asking leaders and those responsible in supply of portable water and proper sanitation, to go closer to the people directly concerned in this water crisis and ask from them what they think can be done to improve their need for good drinking water sources and better waste disposal and sanitation improvement. With the power given to the poor to decide for themselves, they will do all their best to ameliorate the living conditions hence reducing the risk of spread of diseases and thereby reducing their death rate. They are better placed to do so because they are the ones living in this mess.

Literacy Rate

The percentage of population aged 15 years and over whom is literate - can both read and write a short simple statement on his/her everyday life - is a good indication of societies ability to organize and adapt to a technological world. Adult literacy rate shows the accumulated achievement of primary education and literacy programs in imparting basic literacy skills to the population. Literacy represents a potential for further intellectual growth and contribution to economic-socio-cultural development of society.

One interesting statistic above is the literacy rate of Cameroon (90) with life expectancy (52), Japan (94) and life expectancy (81.9), Canada (97) with life expectancy (79.8) then France (99) with life expectancy (79.7). We can observe that Cameroon, despite its (90) for Literacy rate, because it is in Africa, its life expectancy drops far behind that of the other rich countries. From this, we see that education alone cannot upgrade the living standard or reduce the poverty rate of a nation if its leaders do not take fully into considerations the claims of those poor and uneducated citizens which despite the fact that they cannot read nor write can use their common senses and mother tongue to decide what is good for them. This is fully where the Fair Choice method comes in.

Patriotism, the love for one’s country is expected to manifest itself in several forms, and at various levels:

1. We should build a responsible citizenship and credible governance.
2. Political participation of citizenship at rallies, and sensitizations of compatriots to take the right decision at the pools in effect is fulfillment of civic responsibility.

African leaders should invest more on education, health and employment which are essential in the fight against poverty, underdevelopment, and promotion of peace and stability rather than spending much money on private trips to European countries. If they are patriots, then rather than treating themselves whenever they are sick in European countries, they should rather use state funds, build and equip good hospitals, train their own doctors and start treating themselves in their home countries. It will not only bring development but make their citizens believe and work harder for their countries.

Some developed countries took centuries to build-up their democracies and develop their countries because they had nowhere to copy the example from. But we Africans are lucky that today we can easily copy the culture of development and democracy from these advanced countries. We at the Fair Choice Party say that, by putting the Fair Choice method into practice, we shall take less that three decades to see our society a better and almost balance one free from poverty and other societal ills. To succeed in this endeavor, we must learn to be honest and realistic, critical but constructive, contrarious but responsible and above all demonstrating at all levels the virtues that portray patriotism.

We should also put in mind that the African continent does not just belong to the occupants of today but to generation and generations to come. Like good parents, we should not think of working for ourselves but construct and mold a future for our progeny. We all need to be courageous, committed and put love in our midst and the rest will just be flowing in.