From the beginning of recorded history it has been recognised that
money has enormous power. From the biblical
1 Timothy 6:10 - For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil,
for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced
themselves through with many sorrows.
To more modern reflections when Mark Twain rethought the Biblical
and said
The lack of money is the root of all evil.
Culminating in interesting philosophically satirical comments from
authors such as Ayn Rand, who reworked the biblical again to read
So you think that money
is the root of all evil. Have you ever asked what is the root of all money?
From these, and the
passage of daily life what we do know is that there is a sad truth in the
phrase “money makes the world go round”…or not.
The Non-Profit Sector has
always attempted to mitigate against the multitude of vulnerabilities that face
humanity on a global level. Poverty has always been central to this. What is it
about poverty that contributes so significantly to vulnerability? It is access
to resources. Those resources relate directly to the realisation of the
indelible rights that are enshrined in our constitution. So has our
Constitution now become class based and our human rights culture, so hard fought
for, now become a luxury that comes with a price tag?
There has been a great
deal of media coverage of the global financial crisis, interspersed with
overarching controversy, such as the now infamously vandalised “spear
painting”. So what is the connection? The connection is that the painting
controversy happened during a time where the country prides itself on a focus
on children during Child Protection Week, in the face of the ever nearing
collapse of the Child Protection System as a whole. Why is this related to the
global financial crisis and recession?
The current recession could be over by the
year's end, but its impact on children will continue through next year and may
virtually erase decades of improvements in American children's well-being,
according to a new report by the Foundation for Child Development.[i]
If this is the case in
developed countries what is the situation for our developing country? Quite
frankly it is dire. The experience of some children is that their rights, which
should be granted immediately and unconditionally, are not even being
progressively recognised but in fact are regressing in certain areas. What has
led to this is a complex interplay of factors from the global financial crisis
to an improved view of South Africa within the BRICS nations, to erratic and
unintelligible National Lotteries Distribution policies, to a change in
direction in Socio-Economic Development funding from corporates and a totally
inadequate budget form the Department of Social Development and other relevant
Departments to meet their positive child rights mandate.
So where does the
non-profit sector find itself? It finds itself taking on the pathologies of the
clients it is trying to uplift. We are left with a feeling that we are slightly
better dressed and more eloquent, but are still standing on the street corner
with a sign “no money, no food, 1 100 000 children to feed, please
help”. The question to ask at this point is how did we get here? In order to
answer this question we need to look at where we came from. Traditionally the
non-profit sector filled gaps where government did not meet its mandate, and
the result is that much of the work has been “out-sourced” to NPO’s, but not at
the same value as the same government service. This glaring imbalance and lack
of respect for equal partnerships between Government and its’ people plays
itself out in a sadly infuriating relationship that feels abusive. We are
praised at the NPO summit by the President for the development and growth of
the NPO field, but told by the officials that there is not enough money. We are
lambasted by the SAPC as being funded by Imperialists and always taking the Government
to court. To add further insult to this injury, there appears to be an ever
increasing mistrust in our motivations and ability to govern and be held
accountable, so the corporate sector funds in strange ways. A sad irony that
contributes to the overall picture is that our improved perceived international
status is resulting in less international aid coming in and ever increasing
amounts going out.
Now we feel like
schizophrenics standing on the street corner with an unintelligible sign and
wild staring eyes. Are we paranoid or is there a sense that the NPO’s are facing a slow death and taking the hopes of
the full realisation of the rights of children with them? There are some who believe
that this is the case and this was raised at a summit to launch an NPO code of
governance. It was suggested that the government began destroying the
traditionally strong and fiercely ethical NPO sector when it launched the YDA
and the NDA. The thought has stuck with us, although unprocessed at the moment.
Our history was one of challenging government, if we maintain this are we seen
now as critics, rather than the voice of the voiceless for the current
experience of rights realisation for children in South Africa?
We know this whole mess
sounds like the idle and uncontained ramblings of a messy mind. Well that may
well be true but it highlights the feeling we are left with, bewilderment! So
what do we do? We march on the National Lotteries Board, they laugh at us. We
meet with DSD on many occasions and all we seem to get is transformation talk
and some very concerning innuendo that we are unethical, multiplying too
quickly and unable to govern appropriately with insufficient funding. We need
to reflect on this point as the psychological training we had kicks in on a
deep level and screams “this sounds like transference to me.” What you say
about us firmly reflects you. So we, in true advocacy style mobilise and get
angry, we ask for disaster zones to be declared, and we receive letters in
return. We challenge the budget and again we are told there is no money and
that we need to find it elsewhere as the funding dispensation will shift to
developing organisations based on a myth that established NPO’s are rich and
hiding money. So we are left with a situation where the GWSSDF co-ordinator
stated it as it actually is, there is a policy of “redistribution of poverty!”
Why is this happening,
well very simply based on empirical research, there are not enough skilled
people to do the work and the money allocated is totally insufficient to meet
the mandates. We have in the vicinity of 160 000 social workers in the
country. We need that full amount to meet the Children’s Act mandates and then
have not even begun to address the other levels of vulnerability in our
population. We costed this Act and came to a set of figures where we looked at
full implementation (Clem Sunter’s Premire League scenario), we look at a basic
minimum funding dispensation (possibly Sunter’s Second Division). Research
shows that in terms of the second division scenario the State is funding at
less than 50% and in Premiere League terms less than 10%. So where does that
leave us? Well it could be argued that the pie is only so big and as a result
can only be cut in so many pieces. However we hear of widespread corruption,
mismanagement and incompetence and would like to see this budget. However, more
pertinent is the proposed Toll Road Amendment Bill that seeks to get relief
funding for the financial losses incurred due to civil society court action.
How much are they asking for, billions, how much to we need to avert of crisis
of children that needs to move to a crisis of conscience? Some of those billions.
So here we are where we started, money as the priority and the neglect of the
financial potential of human capital.
Where does this leave us,
with Sunter’s final scenario, a failed state. We constantly quote Whitney
Houston and loudly proclaim “I believe that children are our future”. How then
is it that we do not invest in them now? Let’s leave this here with an image in
your mind of children going to school in good faith to realise the potential of
their promise of education and the future it opens or closes doors to. Rural
children walking for miles and parents sacrificing to access education. On
those dusty roads there is no pot of gold or light, there are not even books.
As the rivers of Limpopo carry the hopes and dreams of the children down with
the books dumped in them, we are reminded that children’s rights are going up
in smoke, as they are burned with the books that are destroyed when they were
never replaced. How will we replace the hope and trust of our children in us!
Money and the skilled,
conscious, ethical will to use it for the good of all as opposed the financial
enrichment of self. In order for this to be realised there needs to be an
acknowledgement of the crisis facing children. We look back at the cost of
denialism and the warnings put forward at the time. The scenario planners again
looked at possible outcomes and we are now faced with headlines like “three
orphans bound and stoned to death”, “Cries of gang raped girl” and “Mutilated
girl, 8, drags herself home.” In the most telling of all stories highlighted in
the media we are told that parents have refused to let their children attend
school as a way to get roads tarred. If parents are breaking the law and using
children to do it and the country cannot get control over its institutions
charged with the care of children, where are we in recongising the rights of
the child.
We talk of child
participation so what are the actions by and against children telling us? There
is a deafening scream “help” - will it
be heard?
