[cry tough] when are we really impoverished

Regarded as one of the better democracies in Africa, in terms of political stability, Senegal has:

GDP 4.8%
Unemployment 48%
Agricultural 77.5%
Industry and services 22.5%
Below poverty line 54%
Age expectancy late 50s
Inflation 5.8%
Crops, fishing, agricultural and fish processing, phosphate mining
Official language French then local languages

It was the traditonal jumping off point for slavery pre-20th century, now a jumping off point for boat people trying for Europe. France maintains close ties and thus Spain [proximity] and France [the old colonial power] are seen as destinations. Naturally, the mortality rate on such voyages is high.

Here is another look at the direness of their living conditions.

Cut to Italy and looking again at the boat people from Tunisia and elsewhere, mainly to Lampedusa. Welshcakes ran posts on this here and here and I did too. There was the issue of the immigrants occupying the local church, only for the police to be called and Welshcakes wrote:

This incident raises so many questions, many of them uncomfortable ones: Does a country have a right, or even a duty, to look after its own citizens first? On the other hand, surely everyone has a right to be treated with some human dignity? What would any of us do if we suddenly found ourselves homeless through no fault of our own? And if you are seeking a little compassion when you most need it , is it unreasonable to suppose that you might find it in a church?

Well that's interesting, those last two sentences and has anyone really thought about that in North America, Britain or Australia? Maybe they have in South Africa - I'll have to ask the South African readers here.

In my case, the issue of being homeless is my situation, although I was headed for fellow bloggers so I was not exactly on the street for some time. Against that, the fall, for me, was from a greater height than for a Sengalese, even though I've been in rough situations around the world.

So even in a situation where I didn't exactly starve - the picture below is of the cafe in Sicily I sometimes took Welshcakes to as a break - the food in Britain was a huge drop in quality and in amount after that, I eat one full meal a day even now. On the other hand, I see people with mortgages and fear of job loss, desperately hoping for some good news so I can only say I'm nearly on a par with them, especially with the horror of 2010 coming up - I don't wish to discuss that but it's a total loss situation still.

Against that, I'm in a wonderful house [for now] with a view over the hills, out of town but within cycling distance, there is central heating [when the bloody boiler works] and the place is clean. That puts me in the top 10% of the world, in relative terms and a Sengalese would think I was on clover.

Cafe Consorzia on a Saturday afternoon

Most Brits, on the other hand, would be appalled at my living standard, not even having a TV or proper fridge and turn their faces away although I keep a tight ship and things are clean and Bristol fashion plus my clothing is almost enough to see me through the winter - the remains of the quality stuff I had in Russia, where once I walked tall.

What do we do about boat people? Do we turn them away and let them drown? Do we take them in? I don't mean "we" because ours are from Eastern Europe and I was near a restaurant yesterday on the riverbank and could hear an Eastern European language being spoken inside by most of the staff. In a situation where I saw Brits of what I would have called good station at the Job Centre, the real bourgeoisie - what must it feel like for them in their bewilderment - I couldn't help thinking that they have to come first.

Then I look at these stories of Senegal and so on, the sheer inhumanity of the conditions and I blanch. Worse than that, the Islamists are even pushing for them to pour into places like Italy to break down the hold of Catholicism and we all know where that ends up - five story mosques everywhere, thumbing their noses at us and introducing Sharia Law. It's different to the Gates of Vienna situation because it is not overtly militaristic this time but clandestine. They call them clandestini in Italy.

There is the selfish aspect. I had to go to the nearest big town, Ragusa, to the Questura and I couldn't be bothered because there'd be huge queues of boat people waiting overnight in the street to be processed, by all accounts and so I didn't. Instead I went down to the local cafe on the side of the hill and had black coffee and apple pastry, whilst reading the local paper, before heading back up the picturesque lanes to Welshcakes and a good breakfast.

Later, in my darkest hours alone, I was taking breakfast at the international hotel on the top of the hill, sitting out in the piazza and enjoying the last of the morning cool before the temperature climbed to 40 degrees. In Italian terms, I was destitute. There I had two meals in the day, reasoning that two meals of quality beat three meals below the breadline - I didn't fancy eating dog food.

What is poverty? What really constitutes "having it tough"? I'm sorry but I don't call the welfare dependency, with one's family on benefits, in a home which keeps out the rain and in which they eat twice a day, having it tough. The Africans have it tough. On the other hand, it feels tough to me, being used to a completely different lifestyle, as a former social B2, running two cars and two places of residence.

So what to think, for the umpteenth time, of the boat people? I really don't know.

Senegal street market