June 13 2024
I spoke with a wise old friend this morning. We were discussing the rapid changes taking place in Uganda, where we both spend our money and our love. For example, on May 29, $1300 was sent to Uganda to the Hope Empowerment Foundation Organization, whose executive director is Joan Kasone. The money was for sewing machines, to go to Muguluka, a village in the bush, where there is no electricity, no running water, and where, before Joan arrived, there was no hope. The women could not feed their families after being left by their husbands, or who had husbands who did not have a job. Jobs are rare in the bush. Women are deemed inferior by all, including the women themselves. They were taught that their job was to raise children, not be empowered to make money for themselves.
Joan, herself orphaned at age 11, who made money for school by making paper beads and selling necklaces, and who was later sponsored for college, is now 29, giving back to her country by raising the status of these women, some of the most oppressed in the world. In the last 2 years, she has – with outside financial help – bought land, installed a water system, built a piggery and caretakers house, and finally an elementary school. Two months ago money was sent to pay a teacher to teach craft-making, and on May 29, the $1300 was sent.
In Uganda, things move very fast. Within 5 days, Joan had bought the sewing machines, and they were delivered. In the next week they were put together and the first class of women, mostly younger women and older girls who will make tailoring their career, had their first lessons.
On June 2, I spoke at a local church about the projects, since they had donated a few hundred dollars last year, and I wanted to show them how it was spent. During the Q and A, one woman asked what was needed next. It was the community center to teach skills. Currently, the sewing class was taking up space in the school. She asked how much, I said $8000; the church took it on as a project and have raised about $1500, before the appeal even went out. I’m writing this on June 13. Why are people so generous? Because I have the pictures and the stories, I have been there and committed my own time and money, and because the money goes so far and results are so quick.
Many of you reading this are saying, yeah, well, that’s all fine and good, but what about here in the United States? Why not help the people here?
This is an excellent question! The first part of the answer is that I do. I give monthly donations to the food pantry. I hire a gal who has a learning disability to clean my house, even though I could easily do it myself. I started to work on a project that would teach sewing to local women, to help empower them.
However, there are many many differences between the culture of Uganda and the culture of the United States.
1. There are no soup kitchens, food pantries or homeless shelters in Uganda. When a woman and the children are kicked out of a house of a man who wants a younger wife, she only has her family to rely on. Sometimes, that family is unhappy with the woman because of her marriage, and won’t take her in. Maybe the family doesn’t have enough money to feed the ones already there. Many homes in the bush are one room, with mud or brick walls and a grass thatched roof. I am not exaggerating!
2. The government in Uganda receives some taxes and fees, but does not have a safety net of any kind for the people in need. No social security, no food stamps, no welfare, no medicare or Medicaid. If you do not have money for a doctor or the hospital, you literally die. If you have no money for food, you literally starve. I am also not exaggerating here.
3. Because of the lack of government support, the people must fend for themselves. They cannot rely on anyone else for help. They are very resilient and resourceful. They have to be.
4. They take nothing for granted because they can’t. So, when they eat a meal, even if it is only beans, they are full of joy and gratitude! When they receive training for crafts, sewing or agriculture, they are so excited! The 120 children, ages 5 to 14, who are attending school for the first time – most for the first in their families – they relish going to school! Can you imagine that as the prevailing attitude in the United States?
So, you can see how the actions of the government create a culture. The inaction of the government in Uganda has created a culture of suffering mixed with joy and gratitude. It is much different here. For example, no matter how poor you are, you can find food. In the winters, at least here in New York State, if the temperature dips below 32 degrees, you are offered a cot for a night. In my community, that also comes with a hot dinner and breakfast. No charge. If you are sick, no matter how poor you are, you can go to an emergency room. There is an amount of medical care provided.
And most of us are so grateful that we live in a country that does not turn its back on the destitute. We could not imagine living in Uganda.
However, the culture of our society, because of that safety net, is also quite different. The woman who cleans for me, for example, is paid under the table. There are many people who clean, mow lawns, and provide child care who are paid cash, so that the government will not know about it. You may think it is so that hey don’t have to pay taxes, when the real reason is that they are so very afraid. If someone finds out that they make money and reports it to the Department of Social Services, they could lose their benefits. They rely on that amount of income to get them through the moneth. $900 does not go far, and each time that they get a cost of living increase, their food stamps go down. It doesn’t matter that food prices have increased. The formula is based on income.
So, the culture for the poor is to live day by day in fear – fear of losing the extra they make on the side, of losing their government check, and of losing their housing or their food stamps. They take things like money, food and housing for granted. I am not at all suggesting that they are bad people or shouldn’t feel this way. Instead, I am speaking about the culture, and how our way of living has created this section of our society who lives in fear every day. They may forget to be grateful, and they may rarely feel real joy.
Let’s look at why the Ugandans may feel such joy for a moment. You probably have live during a period of time when the weather was rotten for a stretch of time, with either rain or snow, or cloudy days on end. Then, when the weather broke, and the sun came out, you felt such joy! I know I have; when I was younger I remember having Spring Fever every year. Now imagine that you haven’t eaten for a day and a half, so when you get that meal of beans and banana, how tasty that would be! How sweet the banana would feel in your mouth. And what joy and gratitude it would give you!
I know that the woman who works for me gets angry when the government threatens to delay her check, when the food stamp amount is reduced and when her rent, her clothing, and her hair cuts go up. Not grateful when she gets the check, angry when things don’t go her way. Because she is conditioned to expect the money. And in my opinion, all people deserve their basic needs to be met. ALL PEOPLE.
So, this morning, my wise old friend and I were talking about this. She loves to give to Uganda through this program because she can see the results of her donations so quickly. We then talked about the differences I outlined above. But then, we pondered what would happen if the safety nets were no longer available. This is always possible, as the government is a monetary system, based on income from people and companies, neither of which enjoy paying taxes, and most of which work with accountants to avoid paying as much as we can. If the government we vote in chooses to eliminate these safety nets, they disappear. If the global monetary system fails, so does our government and the safety nets collapse. If there was to be a war on our soil, the government might choose to divert money from these safety nets to the military. The question is not how the safety nets might be eliminated, we were hypothesizing what would happen to the people using them if it did.
Before you read on, make your own predictions. Make this into a game. Look at this as a mental exercise, a movie in the making. What happens? Look at the immediate aftermath, and look far into the future when the dust settles.
Here is what I think, because of what I know from my experiences with Uganda.
In the immediate time after elimination of social programs, people go absolutely crazy. Driving by fear and anger, they riot, they become depressed, they think they cannot go on. I would predict that this lasts a short time.
But then, the individuals who have some money start helping out. They feed their neighbors, they offer a bed in the garage. People with resources become motivated by compassion and share what they have – knowledge, time and energy along with their possessions. Those that receive it lose their anger and fear, and slowly learn to trust again. This may be new for them, so it may take a while. Since money can’t be exchanged, barter happens, but mostly, people out of the goodness of their hearts, and in most cases, barter is the lesser of the means of exchange. Love becomes the means that goods and services are exchanged.
Eventually, despite the desires of the richest to get richer, and most powerful to become even more powerful, culture in United States changes. Instead of a materialistic culture, based on money, fear and anger, we mold ourselves into a society that cares about each other. Because if we no longer have anything to lose, the government can no longer take anything from us. If what we value the most is connection, sharing and love, we have created a brand new world.
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