Meadowlark Economies: Work and Leisure in the Ecosystem: Work and Leisure in the Ecosystem by Jim Eggert

Author:Jim Eggert [Eggert, Jim]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, People With Disabilities, Political Science, General
ISBN: 9781315485355
Google: qNszDwAAQBAJ
Goodreads: 38504540
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2017-09-04T00:00:00+00:00

PART IV

/ PERSONAL FREEDOMS, GLOBAL RESPONSIBILITIES

/ FREEDOM TO BUILD

While walking the streets of New York, or rambling about Washington, D.C., one first becomes aware, then astonished, and finally depressed to see so many homeless. Actually some of these street dwellers do have “homes”: a cardboard box here, a grate-heated improvisational lean-to there, a cave-like structure under plastic only a few feet from busy passersby. Others have nothing.

As I consider this situation, I sometimes think back to my Peace Corps days in rural Kenya in the mid-1960s. I honestly cannot recall seeing any homeless at all despite the obvious poverty prevalent in all corners of the African countryside. What goes on here? How could this be?

I suspect that part of the answer is that the Kenyan situation had benefited from obligations within the tribal culture including the protective role of the extended family. But equally important is the fact that it’s relatively easy to construct shelter in rural Kenya. People have access to raw materials, often nothing more than poles, mud, and thatch, but also ingenious use of log slabs, tin roofing, plywood, chicken wire, reinforced concrete and other available materials. My own impressions were that these simple dwellings were dry, relatively comfortable and, by Kenyan standards, roomy. Some homes were not only resourcefully built, but were also quite innovative in design and use of space.

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