Are we a society that throws its children down the toilet?

GEOFF SIFRIN

It is not the first such incident. In 2014, five-year-old Michael Komape fell into a dilapidated pit latrine at his Limpopo school and died.

And it is likely to happen again. Thousands of children attend schools with filthy, dangerous toilets. A reliable report in January said 37 Eastern Cape schools had no toilets at all,
1 945 had plain pit latrines and 2 585 had ventilated pit latrines. How can children and their parents function with optimism under such circumstances?

Contrast this with Jewish and comparable schools, where the absence of proper toilets is unimaginable – let alone other essentials such as adequate school buildings, desks and so on.

Which of the two examples above adequately describes the country, South Africa – the abysmal poverty of Lumka’s world, or the relative wealth of the Jewish child’s world?

How would other countries answer a similar question? In an attempt to get a handle on this, a report released on March 14 compares the “happiness level” of various countries. It’s evaluated by the Sustainable Development Solutions Network for the United Nations. It takes data from 156 countries, ranking them in terms of six variables that support a person’s wellbeing. These are: income, freedom, trust, healthy life expectancy, social support and generosity.

The report found that the top countries included Denmark, Switzerland, Norway and Finland. The most unhappy countries were Burundi, the Central African Republic, South Sudan, Tanzania and Yemen.

South Africa is not regarded as a particularly happy society. It ranks two-thirds down the list, at 105. Obviously, within the South African elite’s first-world bubble, which has access to health care, resources, community, charities and so on, the ranking would be far higher, probably closer to Germany. But the poverty of the masses brings it down. The pathetic beggars whom motorists encounter at city street lights are the tip of the iceberg.

How much credibility do such studies have? Mark Twain popularised a term in the US: “There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.” Undoubtedly, some indicators cannot be precisely measured for a report like this, but it nevertheless gives a broad overview.

The notion of comparing different countries’ wellbeing came from the prime minister of Bhutan in 2011. In 2012, the UN General Assembly declared March 20 as World Happiness Day, recognising “the relevance of happiness and wellbeing as universal goals and aspirations… and the importance of their recognition in public policy objectives”. The idea may seem a little woolly to some, but it has taken root in government policy in certain places.

Israel was ranked a respectable 11th in wellbeing, one notch below Australia, and firmly above Germany and the US, at 15 and 18 respectively – an interesting finding, given Israel’s stress because of threats against it. Clearly, Israelis are relatively happy.

The Palestinian territories, in contrast, rank much lower than Israel, at 104, which should worry those concerned about relations between them.

Can South Africa’s ranking rise in the foreseeable future, so another Lumka Mketwa will not die? President Cyril Ramaphosa expressed shock at her death and ordered urgent action to give all schools proper toilets. But heads must roll in this country, quickly and totally, and not just about toilets.

Read Geoff Sifrin’s regular columns on his blog sifrintakingissue.wordpress.com