Taarifa zifuatazo hapa chini, zimetoka katika Kitabu cha Mmarekani Barbara Ehrenreich kiitwacho NICKEL and DIMED: On (Not) Getting by in America, Metropolitan Books, New York, 2001.
Nimenukuu taarifa hizi katika kitabu hiki kuonyesha jinsi Wafanyakazi wa KCC nchini Amerika walivyo masikini sana, yawezekana kabisa kuwa ni masikini kuliko hata sisi tuishio Afrika, tunaoitwa na Dunia kuwa ni Nchi masikini.
Ukurasa wa 210:
USA can hardly pride itself on being the world's preeminent democracy, if large nmbers (30 percent of its workforce by 1998 according to the Washington based Economic Policy Institute) of citizens spend half of their waking hours to a dictatorship. Low wage workers do not behave as free agents within a capitalist democracy because they dwell in a place that is neither free nor in any way democratic.
Ukurasa wa 213:
About 60 per cent of American workers earn less than the living wage of $14 an hour according to the Economic Policy Institute.
Ukurasa wa 203:
Employers in USA resist wage increases with every trick they can think of and every ounce of strength they can summon. The law of supply and demand as applied to labor in USA is that workers will sort themselves out as effectively as marbles on a inclined place (force of gravity!)
Ukurasa wa 220:
I grew up hearing over and over, to the point of tedium that "hard work" was the secret of success: "Work hard and you'll get ahead", or "It's hard work that got us where we are". No one ever said that you could work hard - harder even than you ever thought possible - and still find yourself sinking deeper into poverty and debt.
Ukurasa wa 214:
It is common, among the nonpoor, to think of poverty as a sustainable condition - austere, perhaps, but they get by somehow, don't they? They are "always with us". What is harder for the non poor to see is poverty as acute distress: The lunch that consists of Doritos or hot dog rolls, leading to faintness before the end of the shift. The "home" that is also a car or a van. The illness or injury that must be "worked through" with gritten teeth, because there's no sick pay or health insurance and the loss of one day's pay will mean no groceries for the next. These experiences are not part of a sustainable lifestyle, even a lifestyle of chronic deprivation and relentless low level punishiment. They are, by almost any standard of subsistence, emergency situations. And that is how we should see the poverty of so many millions of low-wage Amricans - as a State of Emergency.
Ukurasa wa 221:
The "working poor", as they are approvingly termed, are in fact the major philanthropists of our society. They neglect their own children so that the children of others will be cared for; they live in substandard housing so that other homes will be shiny and perfect; they endure privation so that inflation will be low and stock prices high. To be a member of the working poor is to be an anonymous donor, a nameless benefactor, to everyone else... Some day they are bound to tire of getting so little in return and to demand to be paid what they are worth. There will be a lot of anger when that day comes, and strikes and disruption...
Ukurasa wa 214:
Most civilized nations compensate for the inadequacy of wages by providing relatively generous public services such as health insurance, free or subsidized child care, subsidized housing, and effective public transporttion. But the USA, for all its wealth, leaves its citizens to fend for themselves facing market based rents on their wages alone. For millions of Americans, that $10 or $8 or $6 hourly wage is all there is.
Theopista Nsanzugwanko
ReplyDeleteDaily News; Sunday,January 18, 2009 @21:15
Zaidi ya asilimia 60 ya wanafunzi wanatarajiwa kurudi Chuo Kikuu cha Dar es Salaam (UDSM), sehemu ya Mlimani leo, huku muda wa mapumziko baada ya muhula ukipunguzwa, na masomo kwa vitendo kufanyika chuoni ili kufidia muda ambao chuo kilikuwa kimefungwa.
Pia muhula uliokuwa umalizike Januari mwaka huu, utamalizika Aprili 3, huku wanafunzi wa chuo hicho wakiendelea kujaza fomu na kulipa ada hadi kufikia Januari 29, mwaka huu, lakini watakaojaza fomu na kulipa zaidi ya muda huo watapokewa, lakini kwa ajili ya mwaka ujao wa masomo.
Akizungumza wakati akikagua eneo la kusajili upya wanafunzi hao, Makamu Mkuu wa chuo hicho, Profesa Rwekaza Mukandala alisema ili kufidia muda wa masomo, mapumziko baada ya kumalizika kwa muhula yatapungua na kuwa wiki moja badala ya wiki tatu.
“Zaidi ya asilimia 60 wanategemea kujisajili kuanzia kesho (leo) ambapo watapewa vitambulisho vipya hapa nje kwenye haya maturubai kisha kuingia chuoni ambako tumehakikisha kutakuwa na ulinzi mkali ili kuepusha vurugu zozote zinazoweza kutokea,” alisema Profesa Mukandala.
Alisema bado wanaendelea kudahili wanafunzi watakaomaliza kujaza fomu na kulipa ada na kuwashauri wale wasio na uwezo kukata rufaa, kwani anaamini maombi yao yatasikilizwa mapema iwezekanavyo.
Akizungumzia maandalizi kwa ajili ya kuanza upya kwa udahili utakaofanyika kwa muda wa wiki moja, alisema anatambua usumbufu utakaokuwapo kwa wakazi wengi wanaotumia njia ya chuo kwa ajili ya kukwepa foleni, lakini ameomba radhi kupitia Serikali za Mitaa kwa ajili ya usalama wao.
Alisema wamewasiliana na majirani zao wote, ikiwamo Jeshi ambapo njia zote zilizoko pembeni ya mji kuingia chuoni kufungwa na kubakia mbili tu za kuingia na kutoka kuanzia leo ambapo maandalizi yote yalikuwa yakiendelea.
Alisema si rahisi kumaliza migogoro kwa sababu ya kutofautiana kwa mawazo, jambo ambalo ni la kawaida, ila kuwe na njia mwafaka za kufikia makubaliano na siyo kama inavyofanyika sasa.
Taarifa kutoka chuoni hapo zinasema kwa wiki nzima wanafunzi watafanya usajili katika sehemu iliyoandaliwa nje ya geti linalotokea Ubungo karibu na Chuo cha Maji Rwegarulila, baada ya hapo atapewa kitambulisho kipya kitakachomruhusu kwenda kujisajili katika kitivo chake kisha atapatiwa chumba.
Kwa mujibu wa tangazo la Menejimenti ya chuo lililobandikwa chuoni hapo, njia zote ambazo siyo rasmi chuoni hapo zitadhibitiwa na kutakuwa na ulinzi mkali ambapo wafanyakazi wa chuo hicho wanatakiwa kutembea na vitambulisho vyao vya kazi na wale wasiokuwa navyo pamoja na wakazi wa maeneo ya chuo, walitakiwa kutafuta barua za utambulisho kwa wakuu wa vitengo.
Pia watoto wote wa shule za sekondari na msingi wanaruhusiwa kupita sehemu za chuo wakiwa na sare za shule tu, huku huduma za daladala zitaishia mlangoni ambapo wanachuo na wafanyakazi kutakuwa na usafiri wa ndani kutoka lango la Maji mpaka lango la Chuo Kikuu cha Ardhi.
Chuo hicho kilifungwa kwa muda usiojulikana Novemba 12, mwaka jana, baada ya wanafunzi kugoma kwa muda kwa siku tatu mfululizo, wakiitaka serikali iwape mikopo kwa asilimia 100 badala ya utaratibu wa sasa wa kukopeshwa kwa kuangalia uwezo wa mwanafunzi kujilipia gharama hizo.
Baada ya hatua hiyo, wanafunzi hao waliamriwa kujaza fomu upya za udahili na kulipa asilimia 40 ya ada kabla ya kurejeshwa vyuoni. Uongozi wa chuo ulifanya uchambuzi wa majina ya wanafunzi waliotimiza masharti na kuyatangaza katika vyombo vya habari na bado wanaendelea kufanya hivyo pindi mwanafunzi atakapotimiza masharti.