Poverty Is The Biggest Problem For All Developing Countries

I have come to the conclusion that poverty is the foundation of all evils and crimes. Poverty can easily turn a good man or woman into a bad one. There’s no country in this world that can be free of crime, even if it builds the most secure police stations, in every corner of the main cities and towns, if the large part of the population is poor. Ignorance and diseases cannot be fought if the people are poor. That’s why I think that politics in emerging countries should mainly be about getting people out of poverty, than anything else.

Look at your own country, you can most likely see the logic of the argument. For the last 34 years Mr. Museveni’s government has introduced a variety of economic programs, but, because of the lack of political will to implement them, the country hasn’t changed much economically. Look at agriculture, and at first blush the picture is deeply depressing. The state doesn’t even do small things as protecting farmers from being taken advantage of, as is the case in Busoga sugarcane growers. Part of the answer is that politics has been the largest business—easiest way to get rich, from 1986 up until now.

Even musicians have abandoned their field to join politics.Unlike in the developed nations, where a musician makes money; a politician can only dream of, its different in most poor countries. For instance, In 1999, when Britney Spears ruled the airwaves, the music industry took in around $10 billion in live-music revenue internationally; in 2014, live music generated almost $30 billion in revenue, according to data assembled from multiple sources by the live-music service ‘Songkick'.In Uganda, the few musicians that have made it have stories of being involved in illegal matters, and they try hard to conceal that part of their lives when they decide to join politics.

Poverty has a nostalgic feel for me, since I was born in a country where most people were poor and remained this way even until now. I was an orphan and I had to find a way of boosting my finances as a child. When I was in primary school in Bugerere, I started up a little business- rearing chickens of all types. I used the US $10 , as a start-up capital,from one of my uncles from USA, Dr. Ismail Kibirige, who had given it to me when he had visited us in Bugerere. This business helped me in many ways:

1.) I always had some money in my pockets at school.

2.) I used to buy my own clothing as a kid.
3.) It gave me a sense of financial independence, as I didn’t have to ask money off my granddad all the time.

One day, I was planning to buy cows-- to be integrated in my granddad’s farm, before I joined a boarding secondary school, but one of my cousins whom I left to run the business, sold all the chickens and took all the money. It was ''Jajja'' Afuwa (sister to our granddad) who alerted me to this bad news when I got back home during the school holidays. However, there is a more interesting aspect here, which is never to try to run such a business from a distance- it needs your direct input physically and mentally. Having said that, there is a lot of fulfilment in starting up something (small or large), even if it later doesn’t work out.

Our late grandfather, Hajji Kibirige, was my biggest customer as he used to buy from me whenever there was a ‘dua’, or special occasion at home. Characteristically, he knew how to motivate a kid to be entrepreneurial. He used to pay us for working at his farm, or any of the big tasks at home. I guess he didn't believe in child labour too.

By the way, chickens should be treated as humans while under our care, and I believe it's the best way to make money out of them. Let me tell you something about chickens: chickens see substantially better than people. They have two additional cones. They can see colours we can't even dream of. So, God endowed them with something we don't have, but we only think about them as a source of food and income.

The point is that the state should try to help find something for every citizen to do—that brings in some income. Parents should teach their kids to work, or earn,right from childhood. Creativity should be encouraged among the youths instead of looking at the govt jobs as a solution to their future.More technical colleges should be built than universities -let there be tax incentive for this. People should stop under minding jobs. If a job is bringing you some income and contributing to your bills, then it should be respected by everybody. There’s no big or small job as long as its your job!