Where there is no wealth there is not even poverty

Having said that it seems banal and even irritating. One of the many proverbs of tradition tswana, in South Africa, resumed at the time by Gilbert Rist, a critical author of development that becomes a Western myth. Where there is no wealth there is not even poverty. Both are realities and relative concepts, each in its own way, and only together can they be grasped, interpreted and made dangerous. A recent report from the ‘Crisis Group'(Crisis Group) referring to Sahel, referred to a large gold strand that crosses it from east to west. Without particular surprise, according to the report in question, the terrorist armed groups have made it one of the sources of privileged financing for their "commercial" activities in human lives.

They understood very well how the system works and how wars are organized. By manipulating the human spirit one can transform the other into enemy, exploiter, villain, sacrilegious, idolater, insect, symbol to be eliminated or unworthy of living on the same soil. The basis of the justification and continuity of the wars in the Sahel and elsewhere is the aforementioned saying. The rest are nothing but religious or ideological embellishments. Where there is no wealth there is not even poverty, the proverb says.

In a bi-weekly newspaper independent of the capital Niamey we read on the front page that a concert of "is taking place at the Ministry of Defensepots'. The article recalls that, in the face of the pharaonic budget destined for the defense of the territory, remains the disconcerting question about the use that has been made of these billions. There is talk of exaggerated invoicing and probably of funds that have taken different paths from those envisaged by the original use. Where there is no wealth there is not even poverty, the proverb that destabilizes the neoliberal order that relies on this is repeated at will. Just look at the show offered by the recent Paris Peace Forum, promoted by Emmanuel Macron, which appears great only because it finds the others on their knees.

In the opening of the meeting, the current UN Secretary-General listed the challenges of five global risks. The danger of an economic, technological and geostrategic break that creates cracks in the social contract and in solidarity. Antonio Guterres recalls that "the fear of foreigners is used for political purposes". "Intolerance and hatred are trivialized and the people who have lost everything are designated as the cause of all evil," repeats the Secretary. Where there is wealth there is above all poverty.

I know it well refugees, the displaced, i migrants economic, climatic, social, political, religious and in general nomads, acrobats, utopian drug dealers and merchants of desert dust and dunes. The informal bazaar shopkeepers know that the pride of clean cities away from the center, except for reappearing the following week not far away. I know it well politicians that on this ground continuity in power. They know it intellectuals who sold the word to non-truth traffickers. I know it Young people to whom the amputation of the future can never be compensated. They know it women that weave every day the only revolution so far. I know it children who, taking advantage of the wind, invent kites hanging from a sand line.

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