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I've got two families.

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The Impact Of Poverty On Education

THE IMPACT OF POVERTY ON EDUCATION.

INTRODUCTION

There are so many different tools that have been thought relevant in people’s developmental projects both at individual and societal levels. Education is one of such practical tools. Importantly to note, there are also various meanings that denote the broad term ‘education’. In this essay, however, we are mainly interested in defining formal education since our discussion will dwell much on it. According to Nwomonoh (1998) , formal education is the process of gaining knowledge, attitudes, information and skills during the course of life especially at school.

Though education is said to be so instrumental in human development but also in the revamping of world economies, it is very unfortunate that education systems, world wide, are being held to ransom all because of poverty at both governmental and household levels. According to Thibault (2009) , poverty means the shortage of common things such as food, clothing, shelter and safe drinking water, all of which determine our quality of life. It may also include lack of access to opportunities like education and employment which aid the escape of poverty.

Problems in our society are interconnected in one way or the other, just like poverty and personal family problems affect a student’s capability to learn. Improving education entails improving the living conditions of students. Having in mind that education is basically responsible for the development of many countries including Malawi, as the back ground suggests, we cannot afford to bypass such a vital element without a mention. Considering also the fact that poverty is one of the forces that come in the way; blocking the success of education, we feel it rational to look at how the two realities, education and poverty, affect each other both positively and negatively. That is also why we are convinced that this topic is worth studying. Our awareness of this source, poverty, and its impact on education will enable us devise some proper measures of intervention with the hope of minimizing the negative impact of poverty on education. This point, in short, explains the purpose of our investigation and why we are so passionate in getting into this research. During the whole discussion we are being guided by two questions thus, ‘does poverty really affect education? And if it does, what points do we have on the positive and negative impacts of poverty on education? ’

METHODOLOGY

The study was basically qualitative in approach because of the nature of the issue that was being addressed. This was the case because the issue of how poverty affects education, both positively and negatively is particularly very difficult to predict the conclusions without penetrating into the core of the issue. For instance, one may unreasonably rush into concluding that poverty affects education negatively only and we cannot even dare to speak of poverty affecting education positively. The study was conducted in three schools namely; Mulunguzi, Masongola and Chirunga Private Secondary schools in Zomba district between 24th April and 3rd May. In this research we used both government and private funded schools to have a more balanced result on how poverty affects formal education in these different institutions. The information required for the study was collected through group interviews of form three students and individual interviews with teachers using semi-structured interview schedules. We opted to use these interviews in the first place because we felt books are more theoretical whereas a field research is practical and it involves real life experiences. Nevertheless, we still used desk research as a supplementary source of information and for clarity in some areas.

RESULTS

Positive impacts of poverty on education
To begin with, poverty encourages one to get educated and of course work hard in class. This is because the problems faced due to poverty are very serious and therefore students who are from poverty stricken families strive to end the problems and one of the best solutions is through education. That is to say, if a person, for instance, due to poverty, is taking just a meal in a day instead of three meals, and again if he/she is sometimes sleeping on an empty stomach, he/she will resort to education bearing in mind that if he/she gets educated they will secure formal employment and eventually be able to make ends meet for themselves as well as fending for their families.

Not only does poverty encourage one to get educated, but also it helped in the introduction of free primary education. In Malawi, for instance, when Bakili Muluzi became president, he introduced free primary education and he had eliminated the requirements for school uniform forthwith (Kadzamira & Rose,2001) . This had increased the access to education dramatically as those pupils who were coming from less privileged families were also given access to this free primary education. It should also be noted that the free primary education system was not only implemented to fulfill an electoral pledge but also bearing in mind that some families were not able to send their children to school due to poverty. Free primary education was there to deal with illiteracy by reducing families’ direct costs of education. Again due to the influx in the number of pupils in primary schools; there was a lack of teachers. Sonani (2002) , testifies that the Ministry of Education re-employed all retired teachers below the age of 65. This also meant that the once retired teachers got back to their source of income which helped them support their families as well as hauling the economy of the country. The implementation of free primary education system in Malawi forced the government to provide infrastructures so as to accommodate the large number of pupils in these schools. Simply put, poverty had led to the introduction of free primary education which means that more children are going to school, and again more teachers are being trained and getting employed and finally the construction of school blocks culminating into infrastructural development, all these branching from poverty.

We may also look at poverty from a positive angle bearing in mind that when a country is poor more funds and donations come into it. These funds and donations are also given to the education sector to build new infrastructures and in the maintenance of already existing ones in the sector. These privileged countries also provide learning materials to schools that are poor as a result students in these less privileged schools perform well in accordance with the amount and quality of the learning materials that they have been provided with. For instance, a United States based non governmental organization known as “Water for People” handed over 44 water toilets they built to Chimwankhunda primary school. The school toilet facilities had been vandalized 11 years ago but because of poverty the school could not renovate them (Gausi,2007) .

In addition, these funds and donations help more people to get educated. This is so because people can use funds as school fees, pocket money and buy stationery. The donations may include library books, chairs and writing materials. These can make a conducive environment for one to learn since there will be enough facilities at the school. For instance, with funding from the “United States Agency for International Development” (USAID) ,3,300 needy Malawian primary school girls are being funded. They are being provided with food, clothing, school supplies and hygienic products like soap and body lotion (Muhaliwa,2005) . Likewise,500 pupils at Katoto primary school in Mzuzu no longer sit on the floors during lessons courtesy of Southern Bottlers Limited and Lions Club of Limbe. Before these funds and donations, pupils used to sit on the floor due to scarcity of desks. These donations improved the pupils’ school attendance in such a way that pupils have started going to school regularly.

In the same line, a needy student can be given a scholarship to go further with his/her education. In this case the scholarship is given to the person just because he/she cannot manage to pay school fees on her own. This in turn benefits the needy person and the community at large. In this situation poverty has assisted in the development of education in an area by beckoning funds and donations from rich countries and organisations.

Further more; in most cases poverty facilitates one’s ambitions to attain formal education. It becomes easier for a poor child to put much of his concentration on education as compared to a rich child. This is because a poverty stricken student will have less destructive materials for entertainment. He/she will also have less or no money to indulge him/herself in activities that require spending a lot of money for instance, drinking beer. Sometimes even if the child can find money he/she can buy basic needs and not just spending it anyhow. Contrast to this a rich child may obtain things like ipods, mp3s, games for entertainment. These things in most cases destruct the concentration of students in their studies. As a result, one’s class performance is negatively affected since most of his/her time is being spent on entertainment.

Negative impacts of poverty on education

Just as a coin has got two sides, a head and a tail, poverty also, apart from having positive impacts on education, it does have negative impacts on the same. We have talked much about the positive face of poverty on education. We shall surely do ourselves injustice if we do not look at the negative part. In spite of the fact that poverty has an impact on education that is worth complimenting, we cannot afford in this discussion to overlook the point that so many students have been forced to leave the corridors of learning institutions due to the same poverty. One of the reasons that force some students leave the learning institutions prematurely is pregnancy, which in most cases, come because of poverty. It is almost common knowledge that a good number of students who come from poor families wish they could be sailing in the same boat with those who come from well to do families as far as luxurious life is concerned. The poor students constantly feel that there is something missing at the core psychologically. With this feeling in their minds, they tend to regard themselves as incomplete and not accepted socially. Consequently, they envy the rich students and squarely want to posses the things that are associated with the rich students. Very unfortunate that the poor students’ parents cannot afford to fulfill their children’s desires like what the rich parents would provide. Because the pull towards recognition is too strong for the poor students to resist, they end up in indulging themselves into prostitution in their search for money. Pity indeed that instead of recreating, as anticipated, their promiscuous behavior sees most of them getting pregnant and for some very unfortunate ones get even HIV and other STIs. From this discussion, commonsense convinces us that this school dropp out due to pregnancy is one of the negative impacts of poverty on education.

Adding more flesh to this discussion, we can also appreciate that hunger has been so instrumental in bringing down the standards of education world wide, in general, and Malawi, in particular. Frankly speaking, there are very few students if not none, who concentrate on their studies on empty stomachs. Food is one of the basic needs that every person is obliged to have if he/she is to survive. It is not surprising, therefore, to see some students performing miserably in class simply because they have not taken enough food or they have taken none altogether. The question of hunger finds its way into the education system because the government has failed to provide adequate food in most of its boarding schools. This is poverty at governmental level. There are also some students who are not boarders but still endure the hostile reality of hunger right in their homes. This is due to poverty at household level. It is sad that poverty, both at governmental and household level, has helped in engineering the deteriorating of education standards in Malawi.

Bearing in mind that it is only the eagle that can tell us the real whisper of a cloud, we visited Masongola Secondary school with the hope of getting first hand information from the students and their teachers since they are the ones who mostly benefit or get destructed by poverty. The Masongola secondary school students and their teacher, Mr. Enock Abraham, testified to us during an interview that government’s inability to provide extra food, apart from the usual beans that the institution offers, has seen many students developing ulcers. It would sound bizarre to reason that one can attend classes whilst he/she is on a hospital bed battling with ulcers. The Masongola students further testified that most poor students who have ulcers just bow down out of the race of learning because they cannot afford to buy extra food whenever the institution is serving the students beans.

This pitiful development goes beyond the boundaries of Masongola secondary school. Mulunguzi secondary school as Mr……the head teacher at the institution testifies, has not been spared from the scourge of school dropp outs simply because the school has not been able to provide extra or adequate food to students who cannot take what their friends take on health grounds. Needless to say this leaves the education standards in Malawi vacillating. It is a pity that though we have wrestled with this question of poverty a dozen times, we have not been successful in the battle. At one point in time, the government attempted to minimize the chances of school dropout in primary schools through its provision of porridge to pupils in the junior section. This attempt was in itself a good gesture but the government has failed to implement the initiative further in other schools that up to now have not benefited from the program.

It may not sound an exaggeration if we may say poverty has also forced a good number of students to give up their hopes of getting educated simply because they find it so difficult traveling to and from their respective schools. Lack of transport means, in short, has pushed them well towards the blink of despair as far as attaining formal education is concerned. This point speaks for itself how poverty can sometimes work on the education’s disadvantage.

As we go further with this discussion, we also appreciate the fact that the problem that mostly hinders a student’s success is inadequate resources that include; few teachers and learning materials. It must be highlighted that these problems are not only in developing countries but they may also find their way in reasonably developed countries like South Africa. In a developing country like Malawi, the education system encounters these problems because of the government’s failure to look into problems of infrastructure, capacity and availability of teaching and learning materials (Nkawike,2005) . The Muluzi government did a little if any; in as far as infrastructure is concerned. Lack of school blocks facilitated by a large number of pupils due to the introduction of the free primary education in 1994, forced pupils to have lessons under trees. In 2003, for example, lack of school blocks resulted in a tragedy at Nkomachi in Lilongwe when a tree fell onto an outdoor class, resulting in injury and deaths of pupils (Mvula & Chanika,2004) . This problem of learning materials continues till date, in all levels of the education system. According to Abraham (2009) , the school has always had shortage of learning blocks to an extent that the Physical Science and Biology laboratories are used as classrooms. There is also great shortage of books in all departments, and some departments like the technical department needs new equipment and current books which are very expensive. With this unfortunate situation we cannot anticipate good performance from Masongola secondary school.

In order to deal with these issues, the Muluzi government thought it wise to disregard the provision of learning materials in schools. Instead the Malawi School Certificate of Education (MSCE) pass mark was reduced to ensure the success of students in their examinations. Even the director of Basic Education, Nelson Kaperemera admitted that funds intended for learning materials were servicing the debts of government at the expense of improving quality education. Instead of reducing the pass mark, the government and other stake holders should strive to improve quality of education, improve teacher salaries, and provide adequate materials and train teachers properly (Malawi News,2006) .

In developing countries like Malawi, the schools are understaffed (teaching personnel) and they tend to be handling a large number of students for long hours. Furthermore, the teachers are subjected to meager salaries, which are even made late. The government does not seem to have the welfare of teachers at heart, for instance the education Manager for Phalombe, Enoch Ali says the district is facing a dire shortage of teachers, a situation that is contributing to low education standards. The teacher pupil ratio in Phalombe is 1: 120, whilst the recommended ratio is 1: 60 (The Nation,2006) . Due to low pay teachers resort to organizing part time classes, which demand an extra amount of money on top of the normal fees. These changes clearly affect those students who come from very poor families, as they do not receive adequate studies because of lack of money.
This does not only occur in secondary schools, but it also happens in universities. As the academic staff of the Universities go on strike because of the government’s reluctance to increase their salaries. One considers how this is supposed to retain staff in the University. As a result lecturers spend more time doing consultancies; instead of preparing lectures and doing University mandated research. If we are serious about fighting poverty, formal education is the hub of ideas to fight these problems by improving its standards (Kapasula,2008) .
Child labour is one of the major problems that contribute to school dropp out. The majority of child labour victims are children who are living in poverty. This is so because they lack basic needs, for this reason they are forced even against their will to do any kind of work in order to gain financial wealth. This, therefore, affects school attendance. Evidence of school dropp out due to child labour is found in central region where most children are being employed in estates. This region has high tobacco production. Since this crop demands a lot of work, children are at high demand because they do not claim high wages compared to adults. Research, therefore, showed that the percentage of children attending schools is lower compared to that of northern and southern region (Nyirongo,2004) . We have the case of two brothers aged between 12 and 15 who were forced to work at a tobacco farm at Mpherembe in Kasungu district, where they were receiving 150 kwacha a day due to poverty (Namangale,2005) . We can see that child labour has a great impact on education because through it, a lot of children are being deprived of their right to education as they spend most of their time working.

In addition to that, Chirwa (2003) found out that child labour is also taking place in people’s houses. In this case children are forced to dropp out of school either by parents or on their own, to work in neighbouring homes. Here one of the victims is a 12 year old girl Elizabeth Chalimba, who left school when she was in standard six to work as a nanny in order to support her siblings. Children from low income families are at risk because though school is their only hope for a better future, they dropp out because their parents are failing to provide them with basic needs. Apart from child labour, psychological problems due to poverty is also another cause of school dropp outs. Research shows that the impact of poverty is greater on children as opposed to adults. Firstly, the problem arises due to the environment in which these children are raised. These environments being impoverished, they are intellectually unstimulating, and lack of stimulation results in impaired intellectual development of a child. This in turn contributes to failure in class which can later on lead to school dropp out.

[...] Read more

poem by Innocent Masina Nkhonyo
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An Old Man With His Hat

There Little Robbie found him in an old yellow album
A blurred picture of a half old man with his hat
Standing in front of the coffin
He smiles shy but wide with his teeth gone making a hole like Little Robbie when he lose his baby teeth
Little Robbie doesn’t recognize him and he wonder where he is now
Maybe he is one of his grandfathers, one of his great uncles, one of his old families
So he asks to his big sister
But his sister doesn’t recognize him and she wonder who he is
Maybe he is one of his grandfathers, one of his great uncles, one of his old families
So he asks to his mother
But his mother doesn’t recognize him and she wonder how he was there
Maybe he is one of his grandfathers, one of his great uncles, one of his old families
So he asks to his father
But his father doesn’t recognize him and he wonder what he did there
Maybe he is one of his grandfathers, one of his great uncles, one of his old families
So he asks to his uncle
But his uncle doesn’t recognize him and he wonder when the picture taken
Maybe he is one of his grandfathers, one of his great uncles, one of his old families
So he asks hopelessly to his grandfather
His grandfather takes a deep look to that picture and wonders why Little Robbie asks
Little Robbie says, “I want to meet him! I want to know about him! I want to play with him! ”
Maybe he is one of his grandfathers, one of his great uncles, one of his old families
But his grandfather shakes his head, “No, he is not.”
He is not one of his grandfathers, one of his great uncles, one of his old families
He is just an old man with his hat
“He accompanied your great grandfather when he sick until his death. This picture is taken in a burial of your great grandfather.”
His grandfather stares at little Robbie
“Now, are you disappointed? ”
He is not one of his grandfathers, one of his great uncles, one of his old families
He is just an old man with his hat
Little Robbie shakes his head, “No, I am not.”
Though he is not one of his grandfathers, one of his great uncles, one of his old families
Though he is just an old man with his hat
“But I still want to meet him, I want to know about him, and I want to play with him! ”
And then he could be one of his grandfathers, one of his great uncles, one of his old families

poem by Maria Sudibyo
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Through the eyes of a Field Coronet (Epic)

Introduction

In the kaki coloured tent in Umbilo he writes
his life’s story while women, children and babies are dying,
slowly but surely are obliterated, he see how his nation is suffering
while the events are notched into his mind.

Lying even heavier on him is the treason
of some other Afrikaners who for own gain
have delivered him, to imprisonment in this place of hatred
and thoughts go through him to write a book.

Prologue

The Afrikaner nation sprouted
from Dutchmen,
who fought decades without defeat
against the super power Spain

mixed with French Huguenots
who left their homes and belongings,
with the revocation of the Edict of Nantes.
Associate this then with the fact

that these people fought formidable
for seven generations
against every onslaught that they got
from savages en wild animals

becoming marksmen, riding
and taming wild horses
with one bullet per day
to hunt a wild antelope,

who migrated right across the country
over hills in mass protest
and then you have
the most formidable adversary
and then let them fight

in a natural wilderness
where the hunter,
the sniper and horseman excels
and any enemy is at a lost.

Let them then also be patriotic
into their souls,
believe in and read
out of the word of God

[...] Read more

poem by Gert Strydom
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Happy Families

Have you got miss fortune?
Shes the daughter of rich parents,
All she does is cry.
One four-letter word is all she wants,
But you cant buy love,
So theres no supply.
Will you take young master charge?
The boy whos living well,
Beyond his fathers means.
See his mother kill herself with work,
To keep her dandy,
In the latest jeans.
(happy families.)
Happy families is a kids game.
Happy families is your main aim.
It starts out with a dealing in the middle of the night,
And ends up with a full house if you play your cards out right.
Mum says dad is cheating,
You should see the grown-ups fight,
For...
Happy families,
The game thats sure to please.
Have you got young master race?
The bigot son who, like his dad,
Is fueled with fear.
Not so much a son more of a stormtrooper,
To burn the books,
When dads not here.
Happy families is a kids game.
Happy families is your main aim.
You start out with your first cub and you think that lifes a song.
Youll end up with a wolfpack if you lay your cards out wrong.
Dad says mom is cheating,
You can see the children long,
For...
Happy families,
The game thats sure to please.
Have you got miss carriage? ,
Shes the girl who wants a baby,
That she cannot find.
Strange, the ones who want to win the race are,
Usually the ones,
Who fall behind.

song performed by Xtc
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September on Jessore Road

Millions of babies watching the skies
Bellies swollen, with big round eyes
On Jessore Road--long bamboo huts
Noplace to shit but sand channel ruts

Millions of fathers in rain
Millions of mothers in pain
Millions of brothers in woe
Millions of sisters nowhere to go

One Million aunts are dying for bread
One Million uncles lamenting the dead
Grandfather millions homeless and sad
Grandmother millions silently mad

Millions of daughters walk in the mud
Millions of children wash in the flood
A Million girls vomit & groan
Millions of families hopeless alone

Millions of souls nineteenseventyone
homeless on Jessore road under grey sun
A million are dead, the million who can
Walk toward Calcutta from East Pakistan

Taxi September along Jessore Road
Oxcart skeletons drag charcoal load
past watery fields thru rain flood ruts
Dung cakes on treetrunks, plastic-roof huts

Wet processions Families walk
Stunted boys big heads don't talk
Look bony skulls & silent round eyes
Starving black angels in human disguise

Mother squats weeping & points to her sons
Standing thin legged like elderly nuns
small bodied hands to their mouths in prayer
Five months small food since they settled there

on one floor mat with small empty pot
Father lifts up his hands at their lot
Tears come to their mother's eye
Pain makes mother Maya cry

Two children together in palmroof shade
Stare at me no word is said
Rice ration, lentils one time a week
Milk powder for warweary infants meek

[...] Read more

poem by Allen Ginsberg
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Raising Godly Families

Raising families may be tough, as our times are spiritually rough,
The roads that many take today, can lead youth spiritually astray;
Though times continue to change, God above, remains the same,
So that on The Lord's Revelation, we can have a firm foundation.

The Lord has a design for us, for families following Christ Jesus,
Regarding the families we raise, for The Lord's honor and praise,
Building on the Truths of Christ, we guide children to Eternal Life,
As God's plan moves the family, to a new life with God, eternally.

As we follow our Lord above, our families must be raised in love,
They must become our priority, as we sacrificially love the family,
Sacrificing even our own desire, for a priority much, much higher,
When we provide for the family, they obtain strength and security.

To those who we need to reach, it is necessary to biblically teach,
Godly character and God's Ways, as we lead them in these days,
Leading them in this world of sin, we must teach Godly discipline,
With Godly boundaries in this life, being followers of Jesus Christ,

It is a must we model personally, real Christ likeness to our family,
So that through our life we reveal, a God to them, who is truly real,
While teaching with a caring heart, in hope that they will not depart,
When times fill them with dismay, so, on God's path they will stay.

Fervently, we must always pray, for the family each and every day,
Knowing that we need help from, The Lord, when hard times come;
Finally, through all times it is a must, that in all things we fully trust,
The final outcome of our family, to the Lord, who's over all eternity.

(Copyright ©10/2012)

poem by Bob Gotti
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Tom Zart's 52 Best Of The Rest America At War Poems

SONS AND DAUGHTERS OF WORLD WAR III

The White House
Washington
Tom Zart's Poems

March 16,2007
Ms. Lillian Cauldwell
President and Chief Executive Officer
Passionate Internet Voices Radio
Ann Arbor Michigan

Dear Lillian:
Number 41 passed on the CDs from Tom Zart. Thank you for thinking of me. I am thankful for your efforts to honor our brave military personnel and their families. America owes these courageous men and women a debt of gratitude, and I am honored to be the commander in chief of the greatest force for freedom in the history of the world.
Best Wishes.

Sincerely,

George W. Bush

SONS AND DAUGHTERS OF WORLD WAR III

Our sons and daughters serve in harm's way
To defend our way of life.
Some are students, some grandparents
Many a husband or wife.

They face great odds without complaint
Gambling life and limb for little pay.
So far away from all they love
Fight our soldiers for whom we pray.

The plotters and planners of America's doom
Pledge to murder and maim all they can.
From early childhood they are taught
To kill is to become a man.

They exploit their young as weapons of choice
Teaching in heaven, virgins will await.
Destroying lives along with their own
To learn of their falsehoods too late.

The fearful cry we must submit
And find a way to soothe them.
Where defenders worry if we stand down
The future for America is grim.

[...] Read more

poem by Tom Zart
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Evil Among Us

It happen right out of the blue
With out a clue
We gave evil a job
Thousands die while he eats his dinner
Many families destroyed for his glory
The road the guilty he rides is paved with blood
The road of the one we elected
Did not help the mob of the families
Families he has destroyed
Evil is among us

poem by John Gregoire
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Families

(hows the family)
(hows the family)
Mama, you tell me hows the family
And papa, tell me how things going by you
And little baby sister, I heard that you got married
And I heard that you had yourself a little baby girl, too
And heres some uncles and some cousins I know vaguely
And would you believe my old dog chelseas here, too
And would you believe nobody in this family
Wanted to keep her
And now that dogs more of a part of this family
Then I am, too
I dont come home much anymore
No-no-no I dont come home much anymore
Mama
And mama, I know how disappointed you are
And papa, I know that you feel the same way, too
And no-no-no-no-no I still havent got married
And no-no-no theres no grandson planned here for you
And by the way, daddy tell me hows the business
I understand that your stock shes growing very high
No, daddy, youre not a poor man anymore
And I hope youll realize that before you die
Because I dont come home much anymore
No-no-no-no-no I dont come home much no more
But daddy
And please-please-please-please-please
Come on lets not start this business again
I know how much you resent the life that I have
But one more time, I dont want the family business
Dont want to inherit it upon the day that you die
Really, daddy should have given it to my sister
You know elisabeth, you know elisabeth
She has a better head for those things than i
She lives practically around the corner
Thats really the kind of child you could be proud of
But papa, I know that this visits a mistake
Theres nothing here we have in common, except our name
And families that live out in the suburbs
Often make each other cry
And I dont think that Ill come home much anymore
No-no, I dont think Ill come home much again
Mama
Papa
Families
Often make each other cry
No, I dont think that Ill come home much anymore
(hows the families)

song performed by Lou Reed
Added by Lucian Velea
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Suffocation

Attenzione! attenzione!
Tutte le persone con bambini si rechino immediatamente al rifugio b37!
Attenzione! ripeto! attenzione!
Tutte le famiglie con bambini si rechino al rifugio b37!
Attenzione! attenzione!
Attenzione! attenzione!
Tutte le famiglie con bambini sono pregati di recarsi immediatamente al rifugio b37!
Ripeto! tutti I genitori con bambini si rechino immediatamente al rifugio b37!
Attenzione! attenzione!
Tutte le famiglie con bambini si rechino immediatamente al rifugio b37!
Immediatamente al rifugio b37!
Immediatamente al rifugio b37!
Immediatamente al rifugio b37!
Immediatamente al rifugio b37!
Immediatamente al rifugio b37!
Immediatamente al rifugio b37!
Ripeto! I genitori con bambini si rechino immediatamente al rifugio b37!
[english translation:]
Attention! attention!
All persons with children immediately go to shelter b37!
Attention! I repeat! attention! all families with children go to shelter b37!
All families with children are requested to go immediately to shelter b37!
Attention! attention!
Attention! attention!
I repeat! al parents with children go to shelter b37!
All families with children go immediately to shelter b37!
Immediately to shelter b37!
Immediately to shelter b37!
Immediately to shelter b37!
Immediately to shelter b37!
Immediately to shelter b37!
Immediately to shelter b37!
I repeat! parents with children go immediately to shelter b37!
Where in my place?
Where is my home?
Where is my place?
Where is my friend?
Ha, ha, haa
Ha, ha, haa
My friend
[man:]
Senti, io esco... e cerco di arrivare fino al blocco 14, perch... necessario. ieri ho visto paul e...
[woman:]
E la sua ragazza?
[man:]
Niente, non ce lha fatta, lei non ce lha fatta
[woman:]
Caspita
[man:]
Per comunque cos prendo una... cos la tuta protettiva... e spero che sia sufficiente

[...] Read more

song performed by Vangelis
Added by Lucian Velea
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A One-Child Policy Won’t Work

A billion mouths to feed looks too scary!
A billion need shelters and clothes as well;
A billion need education and jobs;
A billion seems quite frightening to cope with!

World’s food is lesser, prices are climbing;
The human resource has a peak effect;
The population boom is not man’s realm;
Can you prevent the lives loss from great floods?

No laws can curb the population boom;
Man must be humane to all mankind first;
Men shouldn’t be treated akin to caged beasts;
God only knows the future of our earth!

But democracy, communism fail;
One child a family brings more problems;
Can you guarantee health, long life for one?
Lost are lives by accidents, diseases.

God gave Adam, an Eve as companion;
A child needs one other to talk and play;
Who will take care of elderly persons?
Whole families will get erased from earth!

And natural calamities take their toll;
The world can’t deal with corruption at all;
And terrorists are striking everywhere;
Thus, human life has no security!

A person dies from flimsy reasons too;
None can prevent the suicides and homicides;
And cancer defies cure and palliation;
Can one then risk having an only child?

A one-child-policy will be a flop!
Demographically, it is dangerous;
More families will vanish from the earth;
Elderly will be vanquished without care!

With fifty-year of reproductive life,
forcing families to have just single child?
’Tis bound to bring on newer problems more;
This world cannot be ruled by human sway!

The whip or gun can’t solve all problems, man!
The world can’t turn a police-state for all;
Each one has freedom to do things on earth;
Targeting wombs can’t bring down human births!

[...] Read more

poem by John Celes
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Lilly Ledbetter

The Lilly Ledbetter act of equal pay for women doing the same work as a man that President Obama signed was fought by Paul Ryan who voted against it. C'mon ladies and gentlemen shouldn't a woman get equal pay for equal work? Just one more reason I could never ever vote for Mitt Romney as a Christian. 'women's equality activist Lilly Ledbetter blasted Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) for voting against the Fair Pay Act, which was named after her. 'Paul Ryan is very pleased with himself that he voted against the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, ' she said. 'That's for families. That's voting against American families, and American families right to get what they're legally earning and entitled to under the law. And he's also going to do away with Medicare, Social Security.' Joe - Don't you want your mother, sister, wife getting fair pay?

poem by Joseph Narusiewicz
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Cyclic Tragedy On Ramadan's End Roads

departing families mass homeward migrations
yearly at Ramadan's end journey Indonesians
2012 officially 824 were killed on inadequate roads so poor...

why are Indonesians dying trying to visit get safe home?
too tired car drivers running over crashing on cell phones?
kill but a score lethal pot hole roads kill mass more...

who will tragic die on these yearly mass ill fated journeys?
families cage traffic jam grid locked on mammoth journeys?
on little scooters with little tyres are most ill fated families!

poem by Terence George Craddock
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Root Out Corruption

We heaved a little sigh
When Indian tri color rose high
It was free air for us to breathe
Entire world was happy and eager with

We won the independence with great struggle
Even though challenges stayed ahead with troubles
Our forefathers visualized India as great and tolerant giant
A truly democratic, peace loving and non defiant

We were like infant in new world
Committed to peace and no part in cold era
Joining world forums for stable and peaceful atmosphere
Where world can live in harmony and peace without fear

Soon we tested the money power
The power was passed in the hands of fewer
It has become game and now total shameless show
World is strangulated and forced to withdraw

Had those leaders been alive today?
They should have wept and thrown the power away
Was this the dream they wanted to realize?
Scoundrels and murders were meant to oblige

The corruption is at its peak
The politicians have captured it with stick
The money is poured in to realize the power
The constitution is subverted to benefit the fewer

National wealth is pushed outside country
The poor nation is at the mercy of almighty
Not millions but billions are siphoned
Illiterate and mafias have totally cloned

It is new breed and now coming on scene
The murderers and gang rapists are freely seen
Not a single work is done without favor
Whole political system needs one tremor

What do we do then to counter such move?
How can we unite and forcibly remove?
Whether to face the game of ballots or bullets?
How can we simply witness such corruption or forget?

Years have gone off after becoming republic
Adding more and more sufferings for poor public
No grains and no food for two square meals
How much loss is reported or revealed?

[...] Read more

poem by Hasmukh Amathalal
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Ode To Irena Sendler

Her photo stares at me dreamy and melancholic
Like golden October leaves against a cloudy sky.
She bends gently her oval head towards her right shoulder
That carries the anguished burden of the world.
The parted dark hair in the center is combed back
Into a bun adorning a charming face.
And she looks with tender caring eyes,
A countenance more enigmatic than of the Mona Lisa.

Irena Sendler, née Krzyzanowska,
Polish Catholic social worker with a loving heart,
A gracious woman of valor and compassion
A brave humanitarian and Righteous of the Nations,
The rescuer of children from the Warsaw Ghetto
I bow my head and salute you.

What was the source of your towering magnanimity?
Where did you find the moral strength for what you did?

She was born in 1910 in Otwock,25 km southeast
Of Warsaw. Her father was a physician with Socialist
Leanings. In the 1930s she was a student at the University
Of Warsaw and was expelled for three years because
She protested that Jewish students had to sit
On segregated benches in the lecture halls.
In 1939 the Nazis occupied Poland and Irena served
In the Armia Krajowa, the Polish Home Army
Under the cover name Jolanta. She also joined
the Zegota resistance organization that aided the Jews.
Her role included producing false documents that helped
Thousands of Jewish families to flee from the Nazis.

As an employee of the Social Welfare Department
Irena could enter the Warsaw Ghetto to check for signs
Of typhus. Inside the ghetto she wore the yellow Star
Of David for solidarity with the Jews. And when she
Returned to the Aryan side of the city she smuggled out
Babies and toddlers in ambulances and trams or through
The sewers.

One baby was taken out in a mechanic's tool box.
In the ambulance next to the driver
A specially trained dog would bark to veil
Any cries of the infants hidden beneath the stretchers.
The rescued children then had been handed to the care
Of priests and nuns who would help to find shelters
In convents, or in the homes of friendly families.

During the war Irena saved the lives
Of 2,500 Jewish children.

[...] Read more

poem by Paul Hartal
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The Young People Are Back Again

The weather cold and frosty and the fields are looking gray
But the young people are back again from places far away
From Countries such as Britain, Canada, Australia and the U S A
For to be with their families on their Christmas holidays.

In pubs around Duhallow they will drink dark stout and beer
And talk about the good times and farewell the old year
And toast the year 2004 and sing For Auld Lang Syne
And to Jack a pint of Guinness and to Joan a glass of wine.

To Millstreet and Newmarket, Kanturk and Boherbue
And Meelin and Rockchapel and Cullen and Knocknagree
They have returned for Christmas to their old stomping ground
When snow is on the mountains and the redwings are around.

To Ballydesmond and Dromtarriffe, Kilcorney and Banteer
They have returned from places far to welcome the new year
And to spend Christmas with their families and old friendships to renew
And the best of friends still old friends so happen to be true.

The fields around the old Hometown are looking gray and bare
And the weather cold and frosty and Winter in the air
But the young people are back again from places far away
For to be with their families on Christmas and New year's Day.

poem by Francis Duggan
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If kids come to us from strong, healthy functioning families, it makes our job easier. If they do not come to us from strong, healthy, functioning families, it makes our job more important.

quote by Barbara Colorose
Added by Lucian Velea
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Pray for those who are born into good families, for those born into bad families always manage to succeed.

Corsican proverbs
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The Broadcast Decency Enforcement Act of 2004 helps address the continuing degradation on the broadcast airwaves and helps send a clear message to the broadcast industry that Alabama families, like the rest of American families, have had enough.

quote by Mike Rogers
Added by Lucian Velea
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For students today, only 10 percent of children from working-class families graduate from college by the age of 24 as compared to 58 percent of upper-middle-class and wealthy families.

quote by Patrick J. Kennedy
Added by Lucian Velea
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