Worthless

A simple inquiry on Dictionary.com can tell us that the word lacking means “being without; not having; wanting; less: Lacking equipment, the laboratory couldn't undertake the research project.” Lacking is a deficiency, a deprivation, an empty hole in which the word having fits perfectly but it is simply nowhere to be found. Lacking is a smoky and pale negative word. Lacking is, at the end of the line, the rod humans use to measure each other.

Above the median, people is generally sized up for what they don’t lack , e.g. he’s cool, he has a car and a nice flat screen TV on his apartment; they are a good family, they own a summer house in the mountains. Above the median, people are easily judged by the plenteousness in their lives. The higher they stand, the more intangible things they possess: resourcefulness, social connections, gender equity, independence, dignity, power.

Bellow the median, people is usually measured by what they lack, e.g. that man is not the best for my daughter, his family only has a couple of scooters to get around the city; Poor man, he lives with his best friend because he can’t afford his own apartment. Bellow the median though, things work in a different and twisted and way. First, there is a world of horrific diverse cases, a world undiscovered in a big extent or at least unnoticed by most people. Second, we must not forget that we are talking about people, human beings. That should shift things to a higher level of concern, shouldn’t it?

Among the macrocosm bellow the median is the poverty line; that winding line that traps with no mercy whoever gets in the way. Bellow the poverty line people go beyond lacking things, they lack worth. Let’s imagine two naked men of the same ethnicity standing next to each other, one feels worthy and the other feels worthless. The one with ‘less worth’ will strongly believe that he has less right to move freely and to speak out; less deserving of petition for justice without fear of reprisal; to the right to privacy; and to the guarantee of the rights to adequate food, shelter, clothing, health care and education.

Although humanity has agreed that all men and women are equal and worth the same, the ‘worthless’ don’t believe so because they simply don’t feel worthy, and that is an alarming truth. To understand this, the fact that poverty is multidimensional (Narayan, 2000) has to be comprehended. Poverty provokes a lack of resourcefulness, social connections, gender equity, independence, and other variables that render in a way that end up in completely demoralizing a human being. Let’s get facts of three of these variables to illustrate how they are interwoven.

Stacy Winzer’s 18 year old son was shot to death and his funeral cost US$7,500. That is a lot of money for a poor housemother from Denver, Colorado who lives on a pension on account of a severe asthma. She, her family and neighbours had to wash cars, do barbecues and such to be able to buy the headstone. Stacy is an unresourceful woman. Her lack of money limits her ability to act promptly and effectively to difficult situations.

Chiragh Ali , a 56 year old farmer from Shimshal, Pakistan talks about Mirgichig, a traditional festival celebrated by his community. “On the fourth day, […] men gather in a central place where every household brings milk, cream and seman (local sweet dish). […] After this gathering, everyone is invited by their close relatives where special food is served to them. […] But…today nobody is available even to irrigate their crop fields, then who will afford time to celebrate these festivals?"

The fact is that social connections are great assets for the poor because these connections are one of the main sources of help in times of need. That’s why people need to be active in social festivities such as Mirgichig in Shimshal. If Chiragh wasn’t able to afford his participation on this festival, he simply couldn’t be part of it. This means that he would eventually become socially isolated because he is never involved in the social life of his community. His lack of social connections could go as far as costing him his life or the life of a family member.

Let’s take a look at this Bangladeshi woman and her disabled son. “In October 1999 , Maymana and [her son] Mofizul occupied a one room, mud walled house with an old iron roof. They also had a small kitchen hut with mud walls and plastic sheeting on the roof. This, and its 0.06 acres of homestead land, was their main asset. They had no furniture, equipment or livestock (not even chickens) and only few cooking utensils. […] Maymana did not know her age but was probably in her late 40s, had only two years schooling and was illiterate. She was also hearing impaired […] and often tired or ill. Mofizul was 13 with no education, as is the norm for children with impairment in Bangladesh, and being disabled was part of his social identity.”

Maymana and Mofizul are dependent. In their circumstances, there is absolutely no way in which they can possibly survive by their own means. “In October 1999, Maymana was able allocated a Vulnerable Groups Development (VGD) card entitling her to 30 kilograms of wheat each month. This is World Food Programme grain provided to female-headed households identified by the local government councillor as being vulnerable to hunger.” This dependency leads to depression and a sense of powerlessness that makes people question their will to live. Can anyone imagine how humiliating is to depend on a food program? Wikipedia tells us that 1.4 billion live with less that US$1.25 per day. That means that there is it at least 1.4 billion dependant people in the world today.

Unresourcefulness, the lack social connections and dependency are only three of the many variables that lead the poor into hunger and eventual death. Any of these variables leads to the rest, making poverty a complex and multidimensional phenomenon that leads millions of people into the depression, shame and despair. Poverty is happening right now, to most people in this planet, and it all goes back to lacking. Lacking is deficiency, and they, the poor, lack everything including worth. They, in their minds, are worthless.



References
1. Resourcefulness trumps poverty when it comes to paying for funerals, from The Merced Sun Star, By SCOTT JASON. http://povertynewsblog.blogspot.com
2. http://www.mountainvoices.org, Testimony from Chiragh Ali, http://www.mountainvoices.org/Testimony.asp%3Fid=600.html
3. Global Poverty Research Group, Narratives, stories and tales: understanding poverty dynamics through life histories, GPRG-WPS-011, by Uma Kothari and David Hulme. http://www.gprg.org/pubs/workingpapers/pdfs/gprg-wps-011.pdf
4. Being dependant doesn’t necessarily mean that their needs are satisfied by third parties.

Other sources: Voices of the Poor Vol. 1: Can anyone hear us?, Deepa Narayan, Copyright 2000>

Ten Dollars*

(Bajar para leer en Español)

Ten dollars. How many things can people buy with ten dollars in one day? A dish in a mediocre diner, a mediocre starter in a decent restaurant, a decent T-shirt in an ordinary store, and in ‘ordinary’ ends the list of things because with ten dollars we can’t buy anything that isn’t that: ordinary and dull.

Ten dollars up. Anyone who goes out on a Saturday night with less than ten dollars can’t even afford to eat two slices of pizza and come back home later than the last train. Either they have money for the cigarettes or they have money for the chewing gum; and they definitely don’t have enough money to pay for the open bar behind the lady who is selling the cigarettes and the chewing gum. The thing is, that most of the objects that can give any relevant satisfaction to a human being cost more than ten dollars. We just have to look around ourselves right now to realize that.

Ten dollars down. This is when things start to get frustrating. The options stop being options to become residuals, because the only thing people does when they have less than ten dollars in their pockets is to spend them in the dim shadow of something that could have been better. Let nobody notice. Excuses are being dropped around and in the end the inevitable happens: the money is gone and our fleeting illusions are gone with it.

Anyone who has a Facebook account can realize how hard it would be to live for a week with less than ten dollars a day. This means paying at least for food, transportation, education and entertainment. The ironic thing is that 80% of the world’s population doesn’t have another choice than to live with that every day. They don’t have to realize anything because they already live with so little that they can’t even afford to entertain themselves. Poor people.

Ten US dollars: 87.50 Salvadorian colones, 7.95 Euros, 6.71 pounds, 12.71 Canadian dollars, 12.21 Swiss francs and 15. 86 Australian dollars up to this day. Ten dollars and the 80% of the world’s population has to live with that every single day. We need to close our eyes and think: 80% of the world’s population (and that does not include populations living on less than $10 a day from industrialized counties). That means 5.15 billion people . Poor people.

Thousands and thousands of stories—5.15 billion to be exact—emerge from this figure; some more emotional than others, and most of these stories will never be told. These are the stories of that eighty percent, of those eight out of ten people that share this planet. Stories that get more and more dramatic when we realize that within those 5.15 billion, there are 3.14 billion people who live each day of their lives with les than US$2.50, and the terrifying curve keeps sloping downwards. These people that are de facto equal to the rest of the people, which is to the other 20%; might not feel that much equal in the end because they are the poor ones. With a ten dollar bill in our hands we must think. We must think about the numbers and think about what to do: today, now, for that eighty percent with less than ten dollars a day.




Diez dólares*


Diez dólares. ¿Cuántas cosas que valen diez dólares compra la gente en un día? Un plato de comida en un restaurante mediocre, una entrada mediocre en un restaurante decente, una camiseta decente en una tienda ordinaria, y en ordinario se quedó el repertorio de cosas, porque con diez dólares no se compra nada que no sea eso: corriente y ordinario.

Diez dólares arriba. El que sale con diez dólares un sábado por la noche no come más que dos pedazos de pizza si quiere que le alcance para la gasolina que va a costar su regreso a casa. O tiene para los cigarros, o tiene para los chicles, pero definitivamente no tiene para la barra libre del club que está detrás de la señora que vende cigarros y chicles. Y es que la mayoría de objetos que dan alguna satisfacción relevante en la vida de un ser humano cuestan más de diez dólares. Basta mirar a nuestro alrededor en este mismo momento para darnos cuenta.

Diez dólares abajo. Es aquí cuando entra la frustración. Las opciones dejan de ser opciones para convertirse en residuos, porque lo único que la gente hace cuando anda con menos de diez dólares es gastarlos en la macilenta sombra de algo que pudo haber sido mejor. Que nadie se dé cuenta. Comienzan a lanzarse las excusas y al final sucede lo inevitable, el dinero se terminó y con él nuestras efímeras ilusiones momentáneas.

Cualquier persona que tiene una cuenta en Facebook puede darse cuenta de lo difícil que sería vivir una semana con menos de diez dólares diarios. Eso significa pagar por lo menos comida, transporte, educación y entretenimiento como mínimo. Lo irónico es que al 80% de la población mundial no le queda otra que vivir con menos de eso cada día. Ellos no tienen que darse cuenta de nada porque ya viven así y el dinero no les alcanza ni para entretenerse. Pobres.

Diez dólares: 87.50 colones salvadoreños, 7.95 euros, 6.71 libras, 12.71 dólares canadienses, 12.21 francos suizos y 15. 86 dólares australianos al día de hoy. Diez dólares y al 80% de la población mundial no le queda otra que vivir con menos de eso cada día. Ochenta por ciento de la población mundial (eso no incluye a la población que vive con menos de $10 diarios en los países industrializados). Hay que cerrar los ojos y pensar: 80% de la población mundial significan 5,150 millones de personas. Pobres.

De los datos anteriores emanan miles y miles de historias—5,150 millones para ser exactos, unas más conmovedoras que otras, y la mayoría de ellas nunca van a ser contadas. Son las historias de ese 80%, de esas ocho de cada diez personas que comparten este planeta. Historias que se hacen más dramáticas al caer en cuenta que dentro esos 5, 150 millones de personas hay 3,140 millones que viven cada día de su vida con menos de US $2.50. Y la aterradora escala sigue hacia abajo. Estas personas que de hecho son iguales al resto de la gente, es decir al otro 20% de la gente, al final ni se han de sentir tan iguales porque los pobres son ellos. Con un billete de diez dólares en las manos hay que pensar. Hay que pensar en los números y hay que pensar en qué hacer: hoy, ahora, por ese ochenta por ciento, con menos de diez dólares diarios.




*Shaohua Chen and Martin Ravallion, The developing world is poorer than we thought, but no less successful in the fight against poverty, World Bank, August 2008 - For the 95% on $10 a day, see Martin Ravallion, Shaohua Chen and Prem Sangraula, Dollar a day revisited, World Bank, May 2008. They note that 95% of developing country population lived on less than $10 a day. Using 2005 population numbers, this is equivalent to just under 79.7% of world population, and does not include populations living on less than $10 a day from industrialized nations. www.globalissues.org