Welfare for veterans: an army on short rations
20 The Welfare Inspector General of New York State made headlines recently with charges of widespread ineligibility among veterans receiving relief in New York City.1 Little notice, however, was taken of the plight of 15,000 veterans then receiving relief in the city, or of their dependents, together totaling almost 37,000 persons. Over 1,000 veterans, mostly of the Vietnam War, are currently applying for public as sistance in the city each month. Ex-service men are probably making their way to wel fare offices in proportionate numbers throughout the country, but precise data are not readily available because few states or localities keep statistics on veterans as such.
Poverty in the Army
An analysis is made of the extent and causes of poverty in the United States Army. Army estimates of the number and size of Army enlisted families by rank for February 1969 reveal the existence of 85,500 families of lower-ranking enlisted men, of whom 35,000 received income below the 1968 poverty line. Army-engendered family hardships appear most acute among soldiers from low-income or minority backgrounds, soldiers with excessively large families, and those convicted of disciplinary offenses. While inadequate compensation cre- ates demands for public assistance, families on military reservations are generally ineligible for such aid. Army poverty results from three factors: meager pay and a complex and con- fusing compensation system, a selective service system that drafts men with families, and the inability or unwillingness of the Army to grant hardship discharges to most soldiers with indigent families. The situation could be remedied by simplifying the manner in which soldiers are paid, increasing pay levels, deferring or exempting family men, broader use of hardship discharges, and better utilization of civilian welfare resources.
THE ATLANTIC SLAVE TRADE AND COLONIALISM: REASONS FOR AFRICA’S UNDERDEVELOPMENT?
It is probably an understatement to assert that Africa, the world’s second largest continent, is underdeveloped compared with other continents. Two major exogenous factors often cited for Africa’s development crisis are the so called ‘dual historical injustices’ – the Atlantic slave trade and colonialism. It is often pointed out that while the former almost completely arrested and retarded Africa’s demographical growth for more than three centuries, evoked a perennial state of acrimony and warfare and created a tense and unprecedented atmosphere of insecurity which hindered economic activities and stifled local entrepreneurship and technological drive and dislocated Africa’s socio-economic and political structures and institutions; the latter tied African countries to the apron strings of western imperial powers thereby rendering the pre-conditions necessary for socio-economic and political transformation unachievable. This paper contends that while the history of Africa’s underdevelopment may be traceable to the Atlantic slave trade and colonialism, African leaders had made enormous contributions to the continent’s underdevelopment and backwardness. The paper concludes that irresponsible and irresponsive leadership, vampirism and prodigality, corruption, lack of respect for democratic ideals, insecurity, endemic civil wars, nepotism, etc are the fundamental causes of Africa’s underdevelopment.