Too Many Cooks?

So I've just finished watching Reggie Yates's Extreme South Africa which has to be one of the more surprising things I've watched in a while. It's a 3 part stint and the first episode is about the White Slums in South Africa, and for many of us (me included) I didn't realise it was as bad as it is. I've been aware for many years that being white in South Africa has been a thing that's getting worse, mainly from stories my mum has told me from family members that are/were living there. So my thoughts are would a situation like this capture the eye of the "Western World" because to put it bluntly, they're white. When you think of Poverty in Africa you think of black families in villages who are hungry, walking miles for water and to go to school (if school is an option). Unfortunately Poverty is only getting worse, worldwide. It used to be some sort of illusion of ours that it only hit people of certain races and people of certain backgrounds. So what now? It's very clear that the poverty virus is spreading and no one is immune.

There was a series of episodes about a year or so ago that I watched, that showed the harsh truth about what was going on everywhere! There were no restrictions to country, religion, gender, sexual orientation or colour. Just people. It was called Why Poverty? And their aim seemed simple. Awareness. There was no asking of money no one trying to force you to believe a particular view point of any one person. Just a look into peoples lives. Rich and poor. Just an understanding of things. Some episodes made you realise how easy it was for anyone to end up in (for lack of a better description) just a really crappy set of circumstances. There was a debate that revolved around the series of shows that really asked the hard hitting questions on how to try and end poverty for good with big names, which included Tony Blair, Vandana Shiva, Oby Ezekwesili and Moeltesi Mbeki. And what was their verdict? There wasn't one... They all had so many different points of view on how they think poverty could be ended. It was almost the perfect representation of "Too many cooks, spoil the broth."  After watching it. it made me ask a lot of questions, which I guess was the aim of the series. Maybe one of the biggest questions I had was, will there ever be an end to poverty? Or even a world where every person at least gets their entitlement to the most basic of human rights? I'm not entirely sure! But is there a right answer to it all? Things are getting much better in some places and then a new type of poverty has started somewhere new! But I believe you can't look at all countries difficulties with the same answer. So should it then be up to their Government to figure out a solution because they realistically should know where the country needs the help. But it just doesn't seem to be the case.

Poverty has been happening since the beginning of time. Whether it be in that country or this or whatever. How is it still happening? We've come so far and yet we still can't figure out how to give everybody a fair life. There will always be the "little man" but do they have to be denied the basics?

Is it cus I'm White?

So as a first, sort of, post, I would like to write about something that has bothered me a little bit today. So the background story before the bother :P When I cam back from Ghana the first time I was very intrigued in learning about the language and not necessarily to be able to speak it fluently, just that I'd like to be able to do the basics and maybe even hold a small conversation so when I got back there it made things that bit easier. Which it did! But I had no teacher no lessons, Just learning whatever I could from whatever I knew already, using Youtube and also random sites online. So there was one site I used a lot and maybe even one of which that helped me the most! So I've come back from Ghana again after putting it all to practise and learning more words and sentences and feeling more confident in speaking it, I want to learn more. So today I go on the website and have a look about. The layout had changed since I was last on there, and I have an instant message pop up from (who I recognised from the last time I was on there) as an administrator... I think! Well this is how the conversation goes;

Administrator?: *something in Twi(the language in question)* 
Me: Men ti Twi (I don't understand Twi) Sorry I am still learning! 
A?: You don't look of Afrikan descent 
M: I'm not I'm here to learn Twi although my mum is South African 
A?: Ohhhhhhhh I see I thought so 
*I get signed off* 

So I thought "Oh that's strange!" But stuff like that happens so I go to sign back on to the website. But I get a message saying that my username or password was invalid. Which I thought was strange, I kept trying for about 5 minutes because I really didn't want to lose access to this website as it had been the biggest help to me. It becomes clear to me that I have been, for lack of a better term, been booted off the website. And I try and search for my profile and it has been deleted. And then my whole time on there became a lot clearer. I would look through a lot of profiles and a lot of the conversations! A lot of them would be in English as the common language between all the languages they would teach on this site. And it would appear that they were interested in sharing their information with people that wanted to get their roots back and wanted to find out about their native language or just wanted to retouch on a language. But if you weren't black then it's like you weren't welcome. And I feel as that is the only question that was asked as to whether I was welcome on the site or not. I have never wrote on the forums to have caused trouble but just wanted to learn. But at this point I hadn't wanted to jump to conclusions as it may be a fair mistake. So I go back to the site and sign on as a guest and ask him why my account was deleted. He said he deleted my account because I was not an Afrikan and the site was for Afrikan people by Afrikan people. I reply saying that I was not aware of that but that I was of African descent (My mum being South African) but I know that's not the answer he is looking for. He went on to ask whether my mum was indigenous or an invader. At this point I know exactly where the conversation was heading. After a few mixed points of views he tells me not to return to the website I left with an apology simply saying "I apologize for simply trying to learn about something and I also apologize to the people on this site for simply being interested. Med ase (Thank You). I'm not sure if I overstepped the line by not reading the terms and condition with this being the first thing on the T&C page;

"You agree, through your use of this website and associated Liberation Forum, that this site is a resource exclusively for Afrikan (Black) people and the upliftment of Afrikan (Black) people specifically and that you will not post any material which is false, defamatory, inaccurate, abusive, vulgar, hateful, harassing, obscene, profane, sexually-oriented, threatening, invasive of a person's privacy, or otherwise in violation of ANY law."

 I violated the rules because I was white. During the conversation I gave a few of my opinions one being that how as an entire race (The human one, that is) ever meant to move on from history if people don't grow and learn from our ancestors mistakes? He told me I was a waste of good air. Its safe to say I am pissed off! (For lack of a better description.) I would be okay if he had a legitimate argument but could not have a normal conversation/debate as the case may be. I feel that he was as small minded as the people he was describing as invaders. But as I write this I think am I small minded for not being able to accept that's just the way it is? I'm getting tired of people using our ancestors as an excuse for everything and the views that we have today. If we were able to look past the small minded people of the past and grow better as a race. If we looked up to our ancestors for points of view and opinions we'd still be burning witches at the stake. I just think we should move onwards and upwards with ours and try to be that generation or those ancestors the future will look upon and want to have some of our opinions. I feel I am started to get a bit carried away so I shall leave it here! But please do pass on your views.

“Until the philosophy which hold one race superior and another inferior is finally and permanently discredited and abandoned, everywhere is war.”