Poverty, Olney and Newton in Sierra Leone,
Poverty
Poverty is the condition of lacking basic human needs such as nutrition, clean water, health care, clothing, and shelter because of the inability to afford them. This is also referred to as absolute poverty or destitution. Relative poverty is the condition of having fewer resources or less income than others within a society or country, or compared to worldwide averages.
Causes of poverty mainly concern reasons behind the low wealth and productivity of the poor or, conversely, the shortage and inflation of the goods they consume.
The unwillingness of governments and feudal elites to give full-fledged property rights of land to their tenants is cited as the chief obstacle to development. This lack of economic freedom inhibits entrepreneurship among the poor. New enterprises and foreign investment can be driven away by the results of inefficient institutions, notably corruption, weak rule of law and excessive bureaucratic burdens. It takes two days, two bureaucratic procedures, and $280 to open a business in Canada while an entrepreneur in Bolivia must pay $2,696 in fees, wait 82 business days, and go through 20 procedures to do the same. Such costly barriers favor big firms at the expense of small enterprises, where most jobs are created. In India before economic reforms, businesses had to bribe government officials even for routine activities, which was a tax on business in effect. War and political instability also discourage investment. Lack of opportunities can further be caused by the failure of governments to provide essential infrastructure. Opportunities in richer countries drives talent away, leading to brain drains. Brain drain has cost the African continent over $4 billion in the employment of 150,000 expatriate professionals annually. Indian students going abroad for their higher studies costs India a foreign exchange outflow of $10 billion annually.
Poor health and lack of affordable education severely affects productivity. Inadequate nutrition in childhood undermines the ability of individuals to develop their full capabilities. Lack of essential minerals such as iodine and iron can impair brain development. 2 billion people (one-third of the total global population) are affected by iodine deficiency. In developing countries, it is estimated that 40% of children aged 4 and younger suffer from anemia because of insufficient iron in their diets. See also Health and intelligence. Similarly substance abuse, including for example alcoholism and drug abuse can consign people to vicious poverty cycles. Infectious diseases such as Malaria and tuberculosis can perpetuate poverty by diverting health and economic resources from investment and productivity; malaria decreases GDP growth by up to 1.3% in some developing nations and AIDS decreases African growth by 0.3-1.5% annually
Sierra Leone
Sierra Leone is located on the west coast of Africa, between the 7th and 10th parallels north of the equator. Sierra Leone is bordered by Guinea to the north and northeast, Liberia to the south and southeast, and the Atlantic Ocean to the west.
The country has a total area of 71,740 km2 (27,699 sq mi), divided into a land area of 71,620 km2 (27,653 sq mi) and water of 120 km2 (46 sq mi). The country has four distinct geographical regions. In eastern Sierra Leone is an interior region of large plateaus interspersed with high mountains, where Mount Bintumani reaches 1,948 m (6,391 ft), the highest point in the country. The upper part of the drainage basin of the Moa River is located in the south of the region.
In the central part of the country is a region of lowland plains, containing forests, bush and farmland, that occupies about 43% of Sierra Leone's land area. Starting in the west, Sierra Leone has some 400 km (249 mi) of coastline, giving it both bountiful marine resources and attractive tourist potential. This is followed by low-lying mangrove swamps, rain-forested plains and farmland. The national capital Freetown sits on a coastal peninsula, situated next to the Sierra Leone Harbor, the world's third largest natural harbour.
The climate is tropical, with two seasons determining the agricultural cycle: the rainy season from May to November, and a dry season from December to May, which includes harmattan, when cool, dry winds blow in off the Sahara Desert and the night-time temperature can be as low as 16 °C (60.8 °F). The average temperature is 26 °C (78.8 °F) and varies from around 26 °C (78.8 °F) to 36 °C (96.8 °F) during the year.
John Newton and the Olney Hymns
John Newton was an only child, and was a self-educated sea captain, at one time captaining slave ships. Newton's 'Conversion', an essential element within the Evangelical belief, occurred during a violent storm at sea on 10 March, 1748. Newton describes the event in his autobiography, An Authentic Narrative (published 1764), and thereafter marked the anniversary of his conversion as a day of thanks-giving. This incident revived Newton's belief in God and, despite considerable reservations from within the established church (it took six years to be ordained into the Church of England), he achieved the position of priest to the village of Olney in 1764. Newton's apparent influence and charisma proved beneficial to him and his parish when local Evangelical merchant, John Thornton, to whom he had sent a copy of his autobiography, offered the parish £200 per year, requesting that Newton, in part, provided for the poor. This annual contributing ceased when Newton left in 1780 when he took the position of Rector at St. Mary Woolnoth, in London. Newton's epitaph on a plaque in St. Mary Woolnoth, written by Newton himself, bears these words:
JOHN NEWTON, Clerk
Once an infidel and libertine
A servant of slaves in Africa,
Was, by the rich mercy of our Lord and Saviour
JESUS CHRIST,
restored, pardoned, and appointed to preach
the Gospel which he had long laboured to destroy.
He ministered,
Near sixteen years in Olney, in Bucks,
And twenty-eight years in this Church.
William Cowper was the son of an Anglican clergyman and well-educated at Westminster School. Cowper was liable to bouts of severe depression throughout his adult life, and during a period in an asylum he was counselled by his cousin, Martin Madam, an Evangelical clergyman. His new enthusiasm for Evangelicalism, his 'Conversion', his and his move to Olney in 1767 brought him into contact with John Newton. Cowper eventually became an unpaid curate to Newton's church, helping with the distribution of Thornton's funds.
Cowper is best known, not just for his contribution to the Olney Hymns, but as a poet, letter-writer, and translator: his works include John Gilpin (1782), The Task (1785) and his translation of Homer, published in 1791. Cowper left Olney for nearby Weston Underwood in 1786.