A friend of mine, Anne, that lives in South Africa somewhere close to a big harbor call Durban says they been havin’ crazy rains ‘n many people have lost their homes, huge sinkholes have fallen into the ground, ‘n ‘cause of that, people are not able to even get to the shops for food. The power’s been out for hours, ‘n mobile telecommunications are also down. Even if they were, it’s kinda useless without power to charge the phone’s bettery. I even saw video clips of shippin’ containers floatin’ down a wide road. Anne says the South African government has declared the area as a State of Disaster. This got me thinkin’ about a few things…

How do governments help their citizens, ‘specially after Mother Nature has released her wrath? It took almost a decade for the areas in Alabama, Louisiana ‘n Mississippi to recover from Hurricane Katrina. Japan took three years to recover from the 2011 tsunami that hit their coast. And these two countries be first-world ones. Countries like Indonesia ‘n South Africa ain’t close to first world, so how do they cope?

I don’t profess to know anythin’ about these countries’ governments, other than what I’ve read or heard from people I know that live there. “Mismanagement of funds (read: rife corruption) seems to be somethin’ ‘normal’ in many third world governments. Funds that need to be accessible for the improvement of infrastructure, basic food supply, ‘n education often end up in the pockets of corrupt politicians.

I asked Anne when last there was any work done in the area where she lives. She mumbled somethin’ that sounded like maybe 15 years ago. She said the storm water drainage just ain’t able to cope with all the water goin’ through it now – firstly ‘cause it ain’t been tended to, ‘n secondly because it ain’t been upgraded to cope with a growin’ population.

Askin’ about stuff like nutrition plans ‘n educational development, the answers ain’t all that positive either. She did, in tryin’ to be fair say that some people have been given houses that the State subsidized, even though dark clouds of speculation ‘bout corruption surrounded the tenderin’ processes. A lotta the residents of these houses waited many years for ‘em, and ironically, many of ‘em couldn’t stand the onslaught of the water. So, these people are homeless again ‘n there be many different tribes in South Africa, and they don’t always wanna work with each other either, so it does make community outreach tough sometimes. I be wonderin’ if programs like food estates ain’t a way to deal with the problem.

I Googled some comparisons about GDP ‘n such between South Africa ‘n Indonesia ‘n it seems that while Indonesia was worse off than South Africa, it is now a country they can be learnin’ somethin’ from. Even in the remotest of provinces, like West Papua, the government is makin’ inroads to improve the lives of all the citizens. Small changes like improvin’ technological development, makin’ education available to everyone, ‘n connectin’ communities with better roads can lead to big things down the line.

Well folks, that be all from me. If y’all be the prayin’ type, let’s put in a word for the leaders of all countries ‘n offer a word of thanks for everythin’ we have. As citizens of the world, we can do our bit to make the world a better place.

Author: JS

Travel Vlogger, Journalist,