Tackling Poverty

While I can't recall which lecturer was teaching us that evening in 2011 I was attending a class at the University of Nairobi, I vividly remember getting hooked on an economics book I was reading as the lecturer droned on with his lecture. I was particularly touched by a speech that was in the introductory pages of the book.

The speech, which was delivered by a former King of Nepal in an international conference, was about the poverty that afflicts many people in Third World nations. It was really touching and to the point.

According to that speech, a poor man in Third World nations - and his number runs into millions - suffers from poor nutrition. He does not have regular meals, and when he has one, he is worried about where his next meal will come from.

Neither does he have access to safe and clean water. He is poorly clad, sometimes without shoes. Due to his poor nutrition, lack of access to clean water and the shabby clothes he clads in, he is vulnerable to disease.

He is illiterate both in letters and skills. As a result, he is either unemployed or underemployed. If he is employed, he is either overworked or underpaid.

Because of his low income, he lives in ramshackle huts in the villages. If he is an urban dweller, he lives in shanty towns where poverty and squalor perpetually haunt him. Flood, famine, drought and other natural disasters worsen his fate.

When prices of food items go up, the quantity and quality of his food goes down, for he can no longer afford to buy the same amount of food items as before. And when he falls ill, he cannot afford to see a doctor or buy medicine.

Since he is illiterate, he suffers from apathy and ignominy often. He cannot afford to purchase a newspaper or a radio transistor. Life for him hasn't changed despite the technological advancements in the last 100 years. He still lives like people in the Dark Ages.

Furthermore, he cannot afford to buy books or pay school fees for his children, let alone the toolbox he would like them to have in order to make ends meet. His life is indeed miserable.

As if all that were not enough, it is he - and this is the greatest irony of it all - who gives birth to the largest number of children, thus multiplying the number of people living in poverty. And when he dies, he seems happier than those he has left behind. End of speech.

That speech, which I have read over and over again since 2011, has made me appreciate my family which has shielded me from grinding poverty. It has also emboldened me to be charging people for my services. I just have to avoid falling into the same predicament many poor people in Third World nations are in.

But hey! Poverty is not only material but also spiritual. And spiritual poverty, which also afflicts many people including those in First World nations, is sometimes characterized by having so much money but still feeling unhappy.

Like a passage in Denis Waitley's Being the Best says, poverty is untested potential resulting from self-imposed limitations. Poverty is working a lifetime at doing something you don't like, so you can retire and do something you like after age 65.

Poverty is having many acquaintances and not knowing any of them well. Poverty is having so many clothes, you "haven't a thing to wear."

Poverty is eating so well you have to think about going on a diet. Poverty is having every pill imaginable to cure your body's ills, because you "can't afford to be sick."

Poverty is being loaded with toys at birthdays and Christmas, and then being bored silly because there's nothing to do. Poverty is having three degrees and feeling unfulfilled in your job.

Poverty is having two cars, three TV's, and a dishwasher, and then 'roughing it' by going camping to 'get away from it all'. Poverty is going, day-to-day, from one building to the next and never stopping to see the beauty in the world around outside.

Poverty is spending money on make-up, deodorants, colognes and designer clothes, and still being worried about the image you are projecting. Poverty is never being curious about the world around you and never wanting to explore it or the people in it.

We can therefore conclude that poverty is as much of the soul as it is the body. Jesus was on point when he asked, "For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, but loses his soul?" (Matthew 16:26)

To avoid both material and spiritual poverty, I will continue pursuing my blogging hobby with zeal while praying for financial breakthroughs. And once money starts streaming into my bank account, I will pause once in a while to check whether I haven't lost the things money can't buy.

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RECOMMENDATION: If you've enjoyed the above story on tackling poverty, you might also enjoy another one on "Escaping Poverty" which I wrote three years ago. Just click on that link in blue to dive straight into the story.