Blog Action Day 2008: Share Your Thoughts on Poverty
Today is Blog Action Day, and Technola is one of over 9,000 12,800 blogs taking part in a global conversation about poverty. We want to hear what folks in our community have to say! Share your ideas, reflections, stories and favorite quotes on poverty in the comments below to take part in this critical discussion. - M & K
saw this via the front page of blog action day. :) it's great that you're participating. :)
I want to share two of my favorite poverty-related sites. The first is a tour of poverty in America. The numbers are a little bit dated, but it's a powerful picture of the difficult choices that people have to make. The second is the Global Rich list. It's a reminder that most of the world gets by on much less than you or I make in a year.
And then I also want to share a post that I came across this morning - How You Can Code Global Poverty Away.
We often think of poverty as good or bad. Or judge the person in poverty as moral/amoral/good bad/deserving or not deserving. Poverty just is. Poverty is painful. No matter what filter or lens we put on it to deal with it, in and of itself, it is part of our human condition. At this time of financial crisis we are starting to realize how close we are to poverty and its quiet and shameful pain. Poverty can happen to anyone for any reason, sometimes by willful or accidental random acts. Lets talk about poverty and deal with it with compassion, with empathy. Lets find solutions that lift all of us based on love and wisdom. Lets have an iron will to end it for all. Lets use every tool at our disposal to banish it. Now.
I was emailed this site http://tinyurl.com/2aabs4. It shows what may be seen as typical foods consumed in one week and costs of that food in families around different parts of the world. I participated in a Food Stamp Challenge a couple years ago where participants were required to eat for one week as if you were on a food stamp budget. It was 26.00 for a week for one person. My experiences during that time were eye-opening as to the complexities of only one element of poverty. I stuck to the rules overall, but faltered twice as friends and family offered me food. What if a person had no one to fall back on during hard times to help them through? That experience helped me with perspective and understanding. If you have the opportunity to participate in experiential events like that, do it. To be somewhat random, I would recommend reading Status Anxiety by Alain De Botton as it gets to the history and roots of our materialistic culture. I see these economic times as an opportunity for our culture to shift its values, and I hope that at least some of that happens and sticks. Lastly, I like what Paul Newman said "I'm a great believer in luck and the extraordinary role that plays in all of our lives." "What could be better than to hold your hand out to people who are less fortunate than you are."
Even those of us who have made a career of being the lawyers for the poor need to keep things real, and on a daily basis. I take the bus often from my home in Berkeley to downtown Oakland. To and fro and on the bus, I all too often allow myself to fold within my own shield, and ignore the solicitations of the homeless or the mentally ill. Each day that I open up just a crack and give a bit or even just engage and talk and give of myself, a bit, I know that my heart re-opens. Think Globally, Act from your Heart.
This issue is very poignant and personal to me and I wavered a lot before doing this blog post. In the past, I thought I was as familiar with the face of poverty as anyone could ever be, growing up in poverty in India and having to make tough choices. As soon as I was able, I developed an escape - to look at poverty as a statistical entity rather than as real people. I am probably one of the best sources for worldwide poverty statistics now. Recently, I decided to step out of that numerical aggregated cocoon and talk to real people and their problems. I met some families who were making tough choices between food and meds for the kids... a choice that no one should have to make EVER. I realize that my parents were in that position so often too, just in a different place and time. I frequently hear people saying that poverty is harder in country X than in country Y. No it is not - ask these parents. While I still do my part in donating to causes in other countries, I think I have plenty of folks right here who need all the help they can get.
Thanks for sharing these stories. I would love to see poverty eradicated during my lifetime.
Jumping in at (literally) the 11th hour here, but to SCATJ's point, one book that opened my eyes to this possibility is The Price of a Dream, by David Bornstein. It chronicles the story of the Grameen Bank, a microcredit program that started in Bangladesh in 1970s and was aimed at exceptionally poor people, especially women. Over the years it has supported millions of borrows in starting very small-scale enterprises and getting a foothold out of extreme poverty. It's not without setbacks, but all in all a relatively simple, grass-roots innovation that overturned conventional wisdom about what's possible.