Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/515937
Booksandpencils,notmoney.That'show you truly escape poverty. American liberals still don't understand that simple concept, but millions of poor people living in the sprawling slums of Nairobi do. Theyknowit'smuchbetterto be given an education instead of a handout. I've seen how the urban poor think in Kenya. I've been to Nai- robi with my wife Colleen, who is a travel agent. When she takes 24 wealthy clients to Kenya for a safari, she always makes it a point to take them to a remarkable private school in the middle of Nairo- bi's slums. The school has been cre- ated by a luxury safari company from England for kids whose families can't afford the high costs of attending Kenya's "free" public schools. The school is administered by AmericaShare, the nonprofit arm of Micato Safaris, which pays for the education of one child for every safari it sells. In 25 years, Micato has paid for the education of thousands of poor Kenyan kids. When my wife takes her First World tourists into the slums in their Land Rovers, they are usu- ally shocked, appalled or scared half to death. They think they already knew what urban poverty looked like because they had seen the bad parts of Baltimore, Chicago or Los Angeles, where being a poor person means not having an iPhone 6 Plus. But in Nairobi they were see- ing real Third World poverty on a massive scale. Four million destitute people from Kenya and the surround- ing countries are packed into Nairobi's crowded slums. About 800,000 are in the neighbor- hood called Mukuru. When I went there on one of my wife's trip's about three years ago, I was amazed and deeply affected by the poverty I saw. No one with a heart could not be. Squalid living conditions, malnutrition, sickness and dis- ease, children who should be in school combing through gar- bage dumps — that's the kind of poverty there is in Nairobi. You can't see the govern- ment corruption and incompe- tence that created and perpetu- ates Kenya's mass poverty, but they're always present too. When an American liberal sees how bad the poverty is in Nairobi, he feels sorry for the poor people and wants to hand them money — usually some- one else's. But I noticed something. The people I met in Mukuru were smarter than American liberals when it came to helping poor kids. Those in Nairobi who asked us for our help said, "Please don't give us money. That will just keep us living here. Give us books and an education. That's the way we can get out of this slum." The AmericaShare school is equally impressive. The kids wear uniforms. They're taught English. Why English? Because it's the language of success. Some of the kids walk 3 kilo- meters through the slum to get to school — which is probably not as dangerous as doing it in the United States. The kids at the AmericaShare school are dirt poor or they wouldn't be there. But they're not mad at society. They're not killing each other. They don't see themselves as victims of a bad system of government, though in fact that's exactly what they are. Somehow those lucky school kids and their parents under- stand the value and the power of pencils and books. They know that getting an education will change their lives and allow them to lift them- selves out of poverty forever. And they know it's up to them to earn it. In the United States, we have people in power who still think the best way to help the inner- city poor is to throw even more government dollars into social welfare programs. We've spent upwards of $22 trillion over the last 50 years on the War on Poverty, most of which went for the salaries of the bureaucrats and social workers who fought it. All that money didn't end poverty in America. It just cre- ated a permanent entitlement class who, unlike the poor of Nairobi, will never learn why pencils and books are more im- portant than handouts. MichaelReaganisthesonof President Ronald Reagan, a political consultant, and the author of "The New Reagan Revolution" (St. Martin's Press). Send comments to Reagan@caglecartoons.com. Follow @reaganworld on Twitter. MichaelReagan Escaping poverty in Kenya, US Cartoonist's take A fascinating part of our western heritage was the cat- tle drives as reported by long time columnist Jean Barton. In case you missed it, she wrote of one such drive in the 9 May issue of the Daily News. In just a few short paragraphs she recorded the facts of these amazing endeav- ors that survived locally as re- cent as 1965. She wrote, "Cries of 'head 'em up and move 'em out' will echo across the valley tomorrow as 650 head of cattle and their cowboys begin a 130 mile trek to mountain grazing ranges. Elwin Roney of Chico, three cowboys and a cook, in- cluding a 12-year-old boy, will begin at daybreak. The cattle are being moved off the Roney Brothers 10,000 acre ranch north of Chico to greener areas around Eagle Lake north of Su- sanville. On the 6th day of the trek, the herd will push its way through five to six feet of snow at Humboldt Summit." History was being made. If only such drives had been pre- served on film. ••• The Tuesday Don Polson col- umn contained a reasonable analysis of the drought situa- tion, and I could find nothing alarming about it. Credit should be given when credit is due. This is not a blanket endorse- ment of his Tea Party leanings of course, but then when has he ever heeded counsel from the liberal elite? ••• If you enjoy poetry, you will note that no such art form graces the pages of this paper. It has been explained that the pa- per has a policy of not publish- ing poetry. Checking with the Marin Independent Journal and one of their editors, J. Konte our son-in-law, I found they have a similar policy. With this in mind, our local editor omit- ted the poem I had intended for last week's "I say" column. How- ever, all is not lost poetry lovers, for as Wednesday's "The Passing Parade," is a paid advertisement, I will be able to display poetry therein, which I shall do from time to time. ••• In last week's DN section ti- tled "God Talk," one Maggie Fair described how she had been "saved out of eastern re- ligion 25 years ago" and de- scribes visions and so forth that set her on the true path of en- lightenment. But what was in- triguing in her story was that her husband, also steeped in an "eastern religion," would phys- ically drag her out of her newly found church to the extent that "The worship pastors helped me by suggesting I sit between them so I wasn't as accessible to my husband when he came in." Ms. Fair does not describe how this encounter affected her marriage thereafter, but this pastoral strategy must have been frustrating for the hus- band. Perhaps in her next tes- timonial, Maggie Fair will ex- plain to readers the final de- nouement. It is said that the Lord acts in mysterious ways. Mr. Fair, take note. ••• And speaking of religion, as we occasionally do, here are some interesting statistics: 22.8% of U.S. adults say they don't have a religious affiliation, which is up from 16.1% in 2007, according to a Pew Research Center survey. The so-called "nones" now outnumber Catho- lics (20.8%) and mainline Prot- estants (14.7%), highlighting the continuing drop in adults who identify as Christians. What can be made of these philosophical changes? That we have become a godless nation? That the churches are not ad- justing rapidly to changing at- titudes? That the Internet has somehow poisoned the minds of the believers? Certainly the random acts of violence around the globe suggest that a benev- olent god is not paying atten- tion to the plight of his flock. Or is it her flock. Times they are a changing. However, the card ta- ble proselytizers are apparently trying to reverse this trend, and are often out in force on the sidewalk at the Post Office and occasionally in Cone & Kimble Plaza. ••• "Who in their right mind would desire to be President? Aye, there's the rub. The right mind part. Reinforcing a be- lief that anybody who wants to be president, shouldn't be." Will Durst ••• Last week's quiz was an- swered again promptly by N. Rich who knew that Andrew Jackson, Zachary Taylor, Mil- lard Fillmore, James Buchanan and Abe Lincoln were all alleg- edly born in a log cabin. This week's quiz courtesy of CT: Who was the first president to be born in a hospital? Which president was once a king? ••• The late and great Sydney Lindauer — newcomers please note she was a lady with a man's first name — was a long time columnist for the DN, on a first name basis with the late Herb Caen and often wrote on one particular arboreal topic, namely the Buckeye storm. She observed and faithfully re- ported that every time she saw a Buckeye tree in white bloom, a storm would surely follow. I recently observed this phenom- enon down in our grove — the bloom and then the storm. Not once, but on two separate occa- sions. Not much of a revelation but far better than a plethora of announcements of how much wealth the Clinton's have accu- mulated since leaving their gov- ernmental positions. ••• Dear Abby: My husband is a liar and a cheat. He has cheated on me from the beginning, and, when I confront him, he denies every- thing. What's worse, everyone knows that he cheats on me. It is so humiliating. Also, since he lost his job 14 years ago, he hasn't even looked for a new one. All he does all day is smoke cigars, cruise around and shoot the bull with his buddies, while I have to work to pay the bills. Since our daughter went away to college he doesn't even pretend to like me, and even hints that I may be a lesbian. What should I do? Signed: Clueless Dear Clueless: Grow up and dump him. Good grief woman. You don't need him anymore. You're running for President of the United States. Act like one. Robert Minch is a lifelong resident of Red Bluff, former columnist for the Corning Daily Observer and Meat Industry magazine and author of the "The Knocking Pen." He can be reached at rminchandmurray@hotmail. com. I say Head 'em up and move 'em out Somehow those lucky school kids and their parents understand the value and the power of pencils and books. They know that getting an education will change their lives and allow them to lift themselves out of poverty forever. Sounding off Alookatwhatreadersaresayingincommentsonourwebsiteandonsocialmedia. Inthisdayofinstantcommunicationand information, it is hard to imagine what my grandparents felt. My grandfather was logging in Pondosa, my grandmother was in Red Bluff. They actually didn't talk about it much but that it was days before they were able to find out how the other was doing. Linda Hayes: On reprinting of articles reporting the May 1915eruption of Lassen Peak You did not state how long of period of a time slot are people allowed to water there lawn each day. Jaime Furnells: On Red Bluff instituting water restrictions due to the drought. Greg Stevens, Publisher Chip Thompson, Editor EDITORIAL BOARD How to have your say: Letters must be signed and provide the writer's home street address and home phone number. Anonymous letters, open letters to others, pen names and petition-style letters will not be allowed. Letters should be typed and no more than two double-spaced pages or 500words. When several letters address the same issue, a cross section will be published. Email: editor@ redbluffdailynews.com Fax: 530-527-9251 Mail to: P.O. Box 220, 545 Diamond Ave., Red Bluff, CA 96080 Facebook: Leave comments at FACEBOOK.COM/ RBDAILYNEWS Twitter: Follow and send tweets to @REDBLUFFNEWS Robert Minch StateandNational Assemblyman James Galla- gher, 150 Amber Grove Drive, Ste. 154, Chico 95973, 530 895-4217, http://ad03.asmrc. org/ Senator Jim Nielsen, 2634 Forest Ave., Ste. 110, Chico 95928, 530 879-7424, senator. nielsen@senate.ca.gov Governor Jerry Brown, State Capital Building, Sacramento 95814, 916 445-2841, fax 916 558-3160, governor@governor. ca.gov U.S. Representative Doug La- Malfa, 507 Cannon House Of- fice Building, Washington D.C. 20515, 202 225-3076 U.S. Senator Dianne Fein- stein, One Post St., Ste. 2450, San Francisco 94104, 415 393- 0707, fax 415 393-0710 U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer, 1700 Montgomery St., San Fran- cisco 94111, 510 286-8537, fax 202 224-0454 YOUR OFFICIALS OPINION » redbluffdailynews.com Friday, May 22, 2015 » MORE AT FACEBOOK.COM/RBDAILYNEWS AND TWITTER.COM/REDBLUFFNEWS A4