Blog Action Day - Poverty

(just pretend it is October 15th for me; I've been working on this post for a while :) )

For most of my life, I have lived at what is considered the poverty line, or at least below it, in proportion to where I live. The only time that I have ever been above it were the four years in which I lived with my aunt and uncle during our initial coming to Las Vegas. Right now I live on $12/hour in an area where the average wage is probably around $20/hour.

Yet even so, I would say that I am better off than much of the world's population. I'm not even going to kid myself and claim to be poor; times can be hard, but thanks to my current living arrangement, I have to admit I am far better off than I was in the past.

Many of my closest friends from high school (and now college) are from India. Either their parents came here from India, or my friends themselves came during high school or just before high school. The stories they told astounded me, and especially made me very thankful for the lot I was given in life (even if I can't really afford my engineering college right now).

They spoke of schools in which the corruption of the government had spread far enough that children would go there, but not learn. Of people so impoverished and desperate for money that they would break the arms of their own children, just to send them out to beg. They spoke of homes made from cow patties, of people gaunt and bent with hunger, of people who, in the end, were no longer even treated like people.

Poverty is in, and of itself, the result of corruption and, unlike the mindset of far too many people, not necessarily a thing which a person brings upon him or her self. It is dehumanization, created by suspicion and a feeling of superiority among people who do have enough, who can provide for their families - a mindset which must change.

I am brought back to when I was a young girl, and had just moved to Las Vegas. My aunt and uncle and I were going to the store in order to get some things. As we parked our car, a woman of roughly fifty years approached our car. In a thick Russian accent, she inquired whether we had any money. She wore a dress, and had a frightened look about her. Now, my uncle is one which tends to try and pretend that poverty isn't there, and that there are things which people in such situations as the woman could do. My aunt and I urged him to get some money, at least twenty dollars, to give to the woman, for both of us could see that she had quite the story. My uncle relented; I do believe that was the first, and the last, time which we saw him give anyone money, and I believe, unlike most others, that the woman had something terrible happen to her - unlike my uncle, I do not for a moment believe that she was greedy, miserly, or in any other way lacking the need of that which we gave her.

It is this mindset of fear and suspicion that will make any action created to ease or lower the amount of impoverished people extremely difficult. Where I live, there are too many homeless people. I have seen a man, half dead from starvation, attempting to walk in heat that could absolutely kill a healthy person. What is worse, I have seen people who could help him turn up their noses, and walk past him as if he never existed.

I am glad that there are people who are helping. In Africa, cell phones are being given to village women in order to allow them communication with the outside world. Not only does this empower the woman which the cell phone is given to in a highly patriarchal society, but it enriches the village and allows them to find buyers for their crops. There are also, of course, the many Christian missionaries - while I am strongly against pressing religion off onto other people and trying to destroy culture, I will admit that donating time, money, and supplies the way that these missions do can be a very pure thing.

I realize that things will never be perfect and that we cannot always give (otherwise we will become the person which we are donating to), but I hope that the rose-colored glasses worn by far too many people will be lifted - that they can see the poor living in the caves of Andalucia, and find some way to help the flood victims in Bangladesh. Even if a person only gives a little bit, it is a small step in the right direction.