23 Jul 2006 |
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Two days ago, I received copies of a story that had been written by an AFP reporter, Virginie Montet, titled "Doggie Hotel opens: 23 dollars a night, television optional (Tues., July 18)." About ten Nigerians based in the United States sent the story to me. None of them added any comment, since the story speaks eloquently for itself. But the sub-text is that these Nigerians were, at the point of their contact with the story, confronted with the differences between our society and other countries. They were also probably envying the dogs in the story. It is about a five star hotel in Bethesda, Washington which attends to dogs as customers, and where ordinary dogs are treated to a life of luxury. A society's level of development is best measured through the quality of life that is enjoyed by its people or animals. In many countries, social and human development is so established that the surplus in the hands of human beings is now being provided for animals who in terms of circumstances are moving closer to the level of being human. In the United States in 1996, as a guest in an American home, as guest of Stanley Meisler and his wife, Elizabeth Fox in their Washington home, I was confronted with the reality of how a dog in America can be better off than a human being in Africa. I was so shocked, I wrote about it in a piece entitled "A Dog's Life". Since then, it would appear that the American family dog has continued to make greater strides. Its quality of life has continued to rise in proportion to the prosperity of the American family, while in comparison, the human being in Nigeria has continued to go down the lower rungs of the human development index. I believe that this is what our governments should worry about. It is not enough to talk about grand economic reforms and initiatives, the question is: where are we as a people in terms of human development? Nigerian governments at all levels love grand gestures. They like to launch programmes and appear on television. They like to erect buildings and award contracts. But elsewhere, the quality of governance is not measured by the number of buildings that a government erects, but the difference that is brought to the life of the people. When I wrote "A Dog's Life" in 1996, I had noted that the dog in the Meisler home had a room of its own, it was fed and cared for as if it were a human being, and then when it came down with the equivalent of a fever, Stanley took him to see a doctor and we later went to a pharmacy for dogs where we bought drugs and food for this privileged dog. Its owners were so concerned about its welfare, you would think they were caring for a biological child. Dogs in Europe and America go on holidays, they have special sporting competitions...and they are not necessarily owned by rich families, but ordinary people. Are we as Nigerians, as human beings living in this part of sub-Saharan Africa, better than that average dog in an American home? Nigeria has the highest rates of polio, maternal morbidity and maternal mortality, measles, and VVF in the whole world. In the case of polio, we are the only country that is holding back Africa from recording an 80 per cent success rate in WHO's reckoning. Three years ago, a serving Minister in the Obasanjo government went to an international conference where he confessed that more than 70 per cent of the Nigerian population lives on less than a dollar per day, that is more than seventy per cent of our people live below the poverty line. A similar percentage of Nigerians lack access to potable water, healthcare, basic education and a secure life. Nigerian children face very difficult circumstances. What we face in spite of government's advertisement of its good intentions is a human development crisis. And it is through such little things that the crisis shows through: the failure of power supply, the desperation with which persons search for the extra buck, the spread of violence, corruption at all levels, and the general anger in the land. This is what Embassy officials see when they refuse Nigerians visas to their countries. They see a people in search of a route of escape from this hell hole where human beings live dangerously. They think of an average dog in their home country, the quality of life that it enjoys, and they wonder about this Nigerian who is not even as privileged as an ordinary dog. They are forever wondering how we manage to survive in this kind of environment where there are no roads, no standards, no respect for the human person: when buildings are not collapsing and killing human beings, bridges collapse, footbridges give way... Our governments have a duty to make sure that we get to a level where Nigerians would not have to compare themselves with dogs in America, Europe and Asia. When human beings in Nigeria begin to envy dogs in other lands, then that should tell us something about our lives. Virginie Montet reports: "In the mahogany paneled lobby of the PetSmart PetHotel, which just opened in the Washington suburb of Bethesda, the pets' human "parents" line up to plunk down 23 dollars plus tax for each night their pooch stays. The doggie hotel is nothing like kennels of yore: in this inn there is lactose-free ice cream, indoor recreation, and for 10 more dollars a night, pooch can stay in a roomier "suite" with a television set showing an "animal related movie all day," said Vince Malanaphy, who manages the Bethesda PetsHotel. "It helps them to relax and to adjust as they are used to hearing TV at home," Malanaphy says. In one "suite" a little white poodle named Bijou is lost in the embrace of Morpheus with "Little Nemo" and his cartoon friends swimming by in an eternal loop on the TV set. A stay at "Doggie Day Camp" without the overnight goes for 20 dollars the day. Half of the boarders come every day. "It's better than leaving them at home alone," said Cyra, one of the pet "mothers," as she drops off her Labrador and her poodle for Day Camp before running off to the office. Here "they can socialize," she said. For potty breaks there is a 20 square meter (215 square foot) "relief room" complete with a plastic tree. "For security reasons, no outdoor walking," says Malanaphy. Meredith, in charge of animal recreation, says that if dogs "are aggressive or play too rough, we give them a time out in a cage" for 15 minutes. "After twice, they get the message," she says. The Bethesda site has room for 180 dogs and 26 cats. Cats stay in plexiglass cages known as "kitty cottages" for a mere 14 dollars plus tax a night, which includes 15 minutes of TLC -- Tender Loving Care, otherwise known as petting. The Phoenix, Arizona-based PetSmart Inc. launched the pet hotel concept three years ago and it is "the fastest growing sector" of the pet business, said spokesman Bruce Richardson. "Now we have 32 hotels; we anticipate 240 by 2010," he said. Gina Martin, a consumer retail analyst at Wachovia Bank, sees only growth in the pet care industry. "General spending for pets is growing at an extraordinary pace," said Martin. "There is a trend for the treatment of the pet as another human being." Americans spend nearly 40 billion dollars a year on their household pets -- 30 percent more than five years ago. The figure is close to what Americans spend on toys for children -- 48 billion dollars -- and more than twice the 17 billion spent on cosmetics, Martin said." So, that is it. A hotel for dogs is the very height of a life of rationalization, and to those of us living in sub-Saharan Africa, we can only wonder about how unequal this world is. There are 32 hotels for dogs in the United States, run by PetSmart Inc. In many towns in this country, there is hardly a decent hotel where a human being can have a decent sleep. Americans are spending close to 40 billion dollars a year to maintain ordinary pets: that is more than the total budget of Nigeria per annum! In the US doggie hotel, a dog can spend a night in a suite for as much as 33 dollars plus tax and enjoy ice cream, watch television and receive tender loving care. The sum of 33 dollars is about N5, 000 at current exchange rate. More than 70 per cent of the Nigerian population cannot boast of that amount in a day. It is in fact a little less than the monthly salary of a Nigerian Police Constable. And that Constable is expected to live on that amount, with his wife and children and still attend to extended family obligations and be happy enough to help protect life and property. An average Nigerian university graduate does not earn up to N5, 000 per day. To be so well-paid, you will need to have a job in the multinational companies. Every dog in the hotel above has access to a television set. The majority of Nigerians, who incidentally live in rural areas, have no access to television. In the cities, those who have television sets cannot enjoy them because there is usually no power supply. The only ones in our society who can boast of as much, (or better) luxury as the dogs in the AFP story are privileged government officials and a few rich persons in our society. Some of these persons also probably keep dogs as pets. They may spend as much money on their dogs as Americans do, but that is an aspect of their lives that they dare not advertise. Here in Nigeria, life is so difficult for the average person, the only value that animals have is being the source of food. If any of those privileged American dogs were to show up in some parts of Nigeria, their owners may have to make special security arrangements for them. In Nigeria, a dog could be stolen and before the owner knows what is happening, that dog would have been chopped into pieces, and turned into a delicious pot of soup. There are no laws or campaigns against cruelty against animals in Nigeria. Even if such laws exist, they may not be obeyed. Existing laws that forbid cruelty towards human beings are routinely disregarded even by government. Nigerians are therefore not worried about cruelty to animals, but cruelty to human beings. American dogs are taken to doctors' clinics; here in Nigeria veterinary medicine is not a very well established field of specialisation. Many of the graduates in that field are busy doing other things. How many families worry about healthcare for pets when persons are dying of diseases and ailments because they cannot afford to pay as much as N5, 000 or less to receive medical attention? The worst evidence of poverty is when a people are at the mercy of circumstances. The quality of life in Nigeria is among the lowest in Africa. The only country that is behind us is Somalia. And Somalia is a failed country. Nigeria is rated among the 17 poorest countries in the world. The treatment of dogs may not be one of the standard indicators used for measuring the human development index in a country, but to the extent that it draws attention to the need to raise the capacity of the average Nigerian to live a normal and decent life, it is instructive as an illustration of subjective relative poverty. The relationship between man and animals is a reflection of the level of leisure in a society, in the absence of which man is no better than animals. The consequence of poverty is that it forces a people to lose confidence, it drives them to self-pity, it forces them to compare themselves to animals in other lands. It is sad that there are many Nigerians today, who would rather be a dog in America than be a human being in Nigeria. Poverty is a disease; it perpetuates itself in many ways. The inability of government to address the crisis of island poverty in Nigeria and to ensure the evidence of economic gains in the lives of the people is the major paradox that the Obasanjo government would still have to resolve before it leaves office in 2007.
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