Why poverty continues to prevail in our world

Ahmed Sule CFA explores the extent of poverty in today's world and analyses the roles we play as individuals in creating this situation.

Despite the abundance of resources in the world, billions of people still live in poverty. According to the World Bank, the world Gross Domestic Product at current prices is $63.12 trillion. With the world population currently at seven billion, the global GDP on a per capita basis translates to $9,017.

Paradoxically, nearly three billion people live below the international poverty line of two dollars a day. Why is this the case? Poverty continues to prevail in our world due to the attitude of five classes of players who operate at either the individual, corporate or governmental level.

The Frowners: have a dislike for the poor. They are of the school of thought that believes that if a man is poor, then he must have made a conscious decision to be poor. They look down on the poor and treat them as non-humans. The frowners oppose government policies such as welfare benefits and healthcare reforms, which could help the poor. When it comes to the poor, the frowners often use the moral hazard argument to discourage the implementation of policies to lift up the poor, by arguing that such programs will only encourage the poor to be lazy and do nothing. At the government level, the frowner mentality is demonstrated when government officials demonise the poor in order to gain public support in withdrawing whatever level of support the poor get from government.

The Occupiers: are so busy with their own life that they have no time to notice the sufferings of others around them. The occupier is caught up in the routine business of life and so has no time for the poor. As a consequence, they are too busy with their careers, friends of family to hear the silent whisper of the poor saying "help, help, help".

At the corporate level, organisations adopt this occupier mentality when it carries out activities that benefit the organization and staff without regards of the impact on the wider society especially those at the margin of society. Governments operate this occupier mentality when it pursues policies to protect its interest to the detriment of the people at the margin of society. One area where this is glaring is when governments spend astronomical amounts on defence at the expense of other expenditures that could help lift the people on the margin of society.

The Observers: see the poverty in the land, they are also aware of the devastation caused by poverty, yet they do nothing about it. Apathy is a key characteristic of this group of people. Inequality, racism and poverty prevail as a result of their silence. The observers are often apathetic because they fear that if they become vocal on issues relating to poverty and social justice, they may be branded troublemakers, they may lose their jobs or they may lose their friends and influence.

The Throwers: attempt to solve poverty by "throwing a coin at the poor". However, despite the sincere intention of the thrower, the poor still remain in the same condition. This is because the thrower addresses the symptoms rather than the root cause of the poverty. Martin Luther King once said: "True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar; it comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring." Structural barriers such as racism, inequality, poor education and inadequate housing would need to be pulled down in order to give the poor a fair chance in life.

Corporate bodies can also exhibit the thrower mentality. For instance, some companies encourage employees to go to socially deprived areas to help mentor children, teach children, build fences and paint walls, even though these same companies employment policies do not give people from these deprived neighbourhoods a fair chance of getting employed in the company.

At the governmental level, many rich countries give overseas aids to poor countries. However these aids come with conditions detrimental to the recipient countries. To make poverty history, the rich countries would need to pull down some of the barriers that continue to impoverish the poor nations such as the agricultural subsidies paid to US and European farmers which have succeeded in putting African farmers at a competitive disadvantage. Furthermore, the continuous delay in concluding the Doha round of talks continues to hamper farmers in poor countries.

The Deniers: are those who deny the existence of poverty or its impact. The denier's use statistics, percentages and numbers as excuses to deny the reality that many people are living on the margins of society. Deniers are also susceptible to being deceived by tokenism. If a group has been marginalised because of the colour of their skin or socio-economic background, the deniers fail to see such injustice and will focus on the achievement of the token black person or the token traveller or the token female high flyer.

Change of Attitude

If poverty is to become history, the solution would not be found on the brow of the frowner or head of the occupier or the eyes of the observer or the hands of the thrower or the brain of the denier. Rather the solution will be found in the heart of the EMPATHISER. Empathy is the capacity to see the world from the prism of another person. It is putting oneself in someone's shoes. What the poor needs is empathy and not sympathy.

Over a hundred years ago, William Booth, the founder of the Salvation army when encouraging his congregation to become more compassionate about human souls said: "most Christians would like to send their recruits to Bible college for five years. I would like to send them to hell for five minutes. That would do more than anything else to prepare them for a lifetime of compassionate ministry." Perhaps if the frowner could spend five days in the poor woman's hell on earth, his frown towards the poor will be converted to a smile; perhaps if the occupier could spend five days in the poor man's hell on earth, her busy attitude towards the poor will be converted to a compassionate attitude; perhaps if the observer could spend five days in the poor woman's hell on earth, his apathy towards the poor will be converted to action; perhaps if the thrower could spend five days in the poor man's hell on earth, her short-term gifts towards the poor will be converted to long-term structural solutions; perhaps if the denier could spend five days in the poor woman's hell on earth, his amnesia towards the poor will be converted to remembrance and love.

A full version of this article can be viewed by clicking on the following link:

Ahmed Olayinka Sule, CFA
http://zangodare.wordpress.com/2012/04/19/poverty/

The views stated in this article are personal to the writer and does not represent the views or opinions of any company or organization with which the author is or was associated.