picture by Bob Berwyn
Stories of old told about our forefathers, have at their heart men and women offering their produce in different ways to their ancestors. From pouring different types of fluids on the ground believing they have drunk to to throwing food into different water bodies followed by unknown chants and praises to the people of old to give thanks for bountiful harvests. That is the story of a season went well for my people and if they did not go as expected, the leader of the chiefdom visits shrines of all kinds depending on the tribe to pray for rains or repent of there sins if they assumed they have wronged there ancestors, by way of doing things they do not approve of. This always sounded a little extreme to me for a Morden day person like I.
Fast forward to this year. The weather pattern has drastically turned around in a bad way. That people in government and citizens of the country do not know what to do. A lot of families are devastated by the situation, many have lost tones of money trying to save themselves from a currency that’s been free falling and the raise of prices of goods and services. The rains started late and when it looked like the rain season had started people rushed to planting crops in large potions of land hoping for a bumper harvest only for the rains to stop at a time when no one has been expecting it. It has been weeks since we rained and the sun has been blazing from the wee hours of the day until it’s dawn. Crops have been drying up and our homes have become inhospitable unless you have a cooling system or fun which is a luxury for most people.
Each day people are seen stepping out of there yards looking at the sun, them people around with down cast expressions before walking back into their homes, before stepping out with light and revealing clothing nearly covering them selves hoping to find cool spots within there habitat.
Most conversations are about how things will move from bad to worse if the rains do not fall. How are people going to feed, food has already doubled in price in the passed year because of the week currency. The government decided to restructure its debt by seeking help from the IMF and causing them to reduce on there spending removing subsidies where they felt money was not been properly used causing the prices of commodities to triple and double.
We are a country that is powered by hydro electricity. Poor rainfall means power load management which have already started and little to know water supply meaning people will have to move long distances to fetch water.
Climate change sounds like a buzz word until a country finds itself facing devastating weather conditions.
The heat has been hotter than summer. A bad combination of weather, with serious ripple effects that will affect people from the top to the bottom of the food chain. Who is to blame in such an issue. Blaming the powers that be comes useless, reason being you situation will not change but time will be wasted pointing fingers. However fingers have to be pointed at times. The changing weather patterns have been a story preached about time and again. Policies should have been put in place long before this begun to tumble. Prices of certain appliances should have become affordable making it possible for people with little income to afford where need be.
All in all everything is in shambles and no one knows where to start. The economy is tumbling at a fast rate, factors of production becoming expensive, in-turn prices of good and commodities are going higher. The rains which would have brought about some relief to people that can produce their crops is no where to be seen and the sun has taken advantage of the situation days are bloody hot. It’s a no where to run kind of situation, each angle you go to, has got its challenges and none is in favor of the locals.
However tough the times become. Soldiering on is all we’ve got. See it to the other side of the spectrum and intensify the conversation of climate change and its solution is the agenda.