Poverty is Rife

Poverty is not the absence of wealth. Rather, it is a state of mind, an attitude to society, a set of assumptions about what you can achieve. A choice.

 Poverty is arguably the most complicated social and economic dynamic of our time. It is rather useless to say that at one stage, all people were poor except for those very few individuals benefitted by a feudal system. It makes far more sense to approach poverty as a manifestation of the boundary between communities that have advanced on the development trajectory, as opposed to communities that have either just started that process, or that have been left behind while their peers grow in prosperity. Poverty does not cease to exist, rather they multiply at an unworldly pace comparatively to the prosperous ones. Why? Are communities poor because they proliferate so fast or do they proliferate because they are poor? Is it our persistency to grow that robs us from prosperity or is it the lack of control over the limited resources that forces us to breed too fast? 

Children grow in disparity, to be drafted for labour as soon as they are of required age. 13, no 10. Even lower. I have myself seen children of age probably of 8 shouldering labour. I have a brother of 8 years and I cannot imagine him spending one day outside in this cruel world. I have seen people treating them harshly. Is this what they deserve? They sacrifice their childhood for living, that is the greatest toll a person can pay for something. The chains of deprivation has forced them to do the unthinkable, which inevitably leads them to the world of shit. No, they don’t require your sympathy, why do you frown for them? They don’t want pity. They don’t want your empathy. They want equality. 

If there is any doubt over the veracity of such havoc, just drive through the streets of any informal settlement. The residents are most often destitute, but there is no lack of children. They run around, unattended, literally in their thousands. And they are of all ages and sizes, of both genders.

But it always makes me question myself. What do the children have for supper? Arent the parents aware of the situation? If the children born, aren’t they more likely to be as poor as them? Or the parents are not as poor as we think? Or the parents have little regard for life, that they produce children without taking their upbringing and education into account? Or perhaps, is it a cultural thing?

Thinking about their life just makes me go through despair. the problem of poverty must be tackled in a concerted, orchestrated and synchronised way, as a group effort to slowly take entire communities to the next level. To work out such endeavor is bound to be difficult. But not giving up is the key.  

Rather than cutting pays because of baseless prejudice paid leave and paid sick days should be provided.

Invest in affordable, high-quality child care and early education

Children grow in disparity, to be drafted for labour as soon as they are of required age. 13, no 10. Even lower. I have myself seen children of age probably of 8 shouldering labour. I have a brother of 8 years and I cannot imagine him spending one day outside in this cruel world. I have seen people treating them harshly. Is this what they deserve? They sacrifice their childhood for living, that is the greatest toll a person can pay for something. The chains of deprivation has forced them to do the unthinkable, which inevitably leads them to the world of shit. No, they don’t require your sympathy, why do you frown for them? They don’t want pity. They don’t want your empathy. They want equality.

If there is any doubt over the veracity of such havoc, just drive through the streets of any informal settlement. The residents are most often destitute, but there is no lack of children. They run around, unattended, literally in their thousands. And they are of all ages and sizes, of both genders.

But it always makes me question myself. What do the children have for supper? Arent the parents aware of the situation? If the children born, aren’t they more likely to be as poor as them? Or the parents are not as poor as we think? Or the parents have little regard for life, that they produce children without taking their upbringing and education into account? Or perhaps, is it a cultural thing?

Thinking about their life just makes me go through despair. the problem of poverty must be tackled in a concerted, orchestrated and synchronised way, as a group effort to slowly take entire communities to the next level. To work out such endeavor is bound to be difficult. But not giving up is the key.  

Rather than cutting pays because of baseless prejudice paid leave and paid sick days should be provided.

Invest in affordable, high-quality child care and early education

There is nothing inevitable about poverty. We just need to build the political will to enact the policies that will increase economic security, expand opportunities, and grow the middle class.