Our existing wealth

 CNN featured Madagascar in this week's Inside Africa series. The documentary showed a country with features similar to ours: so many people living in poverty in the urban areas, garbage littered all over, deforested mountains and hills and so on.

In the midst of all these challenges brought on by colonial and post-colonial rule and persistent inequality, the documentary showed the remaining wealth of Madagascar: their natural resources and their people who believe in their own capacity and collaborative partnerships to tap their existing wealth for all.

The documentary focused on the rich herbal and medicinal plants in Madagascar that have been tested and proven to have rich health benefits. Entrepreneurs have organized communities to plant these precious herbal plants, harvest and sell these to local companies that process these plants for local and international distribution.

What if the cures for today's global health problems are found in the indigenous plants and resources found within Africa and our own country? Then, outside the usual formal economic measurement of wealth- we can all boast of our own country already being rich, so wealthy in terms of natural resources.

We have at present, within our midst, the resources to provide us with food, with medicines, with health cures, with shelter, and more. Why do we not care for what we have? Why do we look for other resources- money- when we already have what we need, IF only we are aware of what we have, IF we only take care and protect what we have, and IF we only share these resources together with everyone equally.

You may already have read about the value of a tree, beyond the literary beauty presented in the poem of Joyce Kilmer. According to Prof. T M Das of the University of Calcutta, the value of a tree in 1979, based on Indian market rates, was US$ 193,250 which he broke down as follows: a tree that will live for 50 years will produce$31,250 worth of OXYGEN, will provide $ 62,000 worth of air pollution control, control soil erosion, and increase soil fertility worth $31250, recycle $37,500 worth of water, and provide homes for animals worth S31,250. This estimated value of a tree does not yet include the value of fruits, timber, or the beauty derived from a tree.

(Please check out the following website http://www.uow.edu.au/~sharonb/STS300/valuing/price/pricingarticles.html.)

If trees and our plants and natural resources provide us with our bare necessities- the air we breathe, water, food and shelter and cure for ills, then should we not all need to be aware and grateful for what we have and do our best to preserve and protect these valuable resources which are our existing wealth?

Awareness through education will go a long way to making more people responsible and caring for our own natural resources already in our midst. The sooner our children and our people realize the real value of our own natural resources, that may convince people not to migrate to urban areas where there are meager natural resources and even scarcer income to get by.

If people realize the real value of resources, if they know how to convert and extract the real worth of the trees, plants and all other bountiful resources around them, our people may just turn our country around and together, in our self-reliant ways similar to what our ancestors and indigenous peoples have been doing all along through centuries, we may emerge very independent, proud , and happily living better lives than what our poor have been so undeservingly have been experiencing for so long now.

A garden in every home can be a modest step to reclaiming the real worth and value of our existing natural wealth. Conserving every raindrop that falls in rain harvesting containers or bins, doing away with useless , polluting materials like plastics and other garbage through reduction, recycling, or effective management can be added steps.

There is also a call for everyone to join the Fast for the Climate starting every Monday from July 1 culminating on the International Day of Peace on 21 September:  A Space for Peace, A Place for Silence. This campaign is calling on everyone to fast for the climate or foregoing a meal for global energy/food security, for everyone to remember to do their own creative share to help protect our earth. For more details, please see http://fastfortheclimate.org/en/.

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