The “curse” of poverty

Jan 12, 2013 Letters

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DEAR EDITOR,
Close to a third of the world’s population is condemned to a world of poverty. This is so not because there is not enough food and other resources to allow for every man, woman and child to live dignified and satisfying lives, but because the resources of the world are so inequitably distributed that the poor just don’t have enough to meet basic nutritional requirements whilst the rich have much more than what is required to satisfy not only their basic needs but their wants, based on extravagant lifestyles.
This unjust world order was commented on by Pope Benedict XVI when he urged world leaders to try to reduce the growing gap between the rich and poor in regions such as Europe and elsewhere, which are currently gripped with severe economic and social crisis of unprecedented proportions.  He urged world leaders to focus more on the increasing differences between ‘those few who grow richer and the many who grow hopelessly poor.’
Commenting on the financial crisis, he said that the root cause of the crisis came about because profit was all too often made absolute, to the detriment of labour, and because of unrestrained ventures in the financial areas of the economy rather than attending to the real economy.
Similar comments were made by other world leaders, including UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who  lamented the rise in income inequality at all levels over the past twenty-five years, which he said posed a serious barrier, worldwide, to poverty eradication and social integration.
There can be no doubt that the gap between the rich and the poor has been increasing steadily over the years. This situation requires a critical re-thinking of traditional approaches to poverty eradication. The blame must be put squarely on the excesses of global capitalism, which can only be effectively addressed by attacking structural causes that generate them such as a consumerist, selfish and predatory global system that is based on the ‘commodification of man and nature,” according to Jorge Valero, Permanent Representative for Venezuela to the UN and Chair of the Commission for Social Development, during a Roundtable Discussion on the Underlying Assumptions of the Relationship between Poverty and Wealth.
Something has to be fundamentally wrong when 20 percent of the world’s population consume more than 80 percent of the global income whereas the poorest 20 percent have less than one percent of the global income. It is not that the poorest 20 percent are lazy and do not aspire to that good life, but structural factors based on positions of power and influence by a tiny few have effectively militated and suppressed the creativity and entrepreneurial instincts of millions who have no other option in life but to serve as wage labourers and eat of the ‘crumbs that fall from the master’s table.’
Part of the problem has to do also with a growing materialistic world view which underpins much of modern economic thinking and in the process diminishes concepts of value, human purpose and interactions to the self-interested pursuit of material wealth.
The late Dr. Cheddi Jagan, whose vision for a New Global Human Order has been recently endorsed by the United Nations, had always championed the cause of the poor and oppressed not only in Guyana, but at the global level. He remained firm in his conviction that there are more than enough resources in the world to provide a better quality of life for all of the earth’s inhabitants. However, the wealth created by human labour is hogged by a small group of people who live extravagant and ostentatious lifestyles at the expense of the poor and the deprived.
Many of the ill-gotten gains are spent on lavish lifestyles and all manner of ego gratification not to mention the billions that are hidden in secret bank accounts in order to evade taxes. Many banks, including some that are well established, fail to disclose huge sums of money deposited and therefore provide safe haven for money which should have been taxed, depriving governments of billions of dollars which could have been spent to enhance the quality of life of the poor. Some kind of financial intelligence unit at the global level should be set up with powers to investigate such illegal transactions and take disciplinary action against financial institutions that harbour, aid and abet financial transactions designed to circumvent national financial laws and regulations.
The call for a more equitable system of distribution of the wealth must be taken seriously if the global social and economic crisis is to be averted. People are poor not because they chose to be poor, but because they are deprived of opportunities to live comfortable and rewarding lives. This deprivation takes the form of a lack of education and training, and accessibility to the means of wealth creation and income generation, including capital and entrepreneurial skills. Poverty is a man-made ‘curse’ which deprived billions of their dignity and humanity.
In this regard, credit must be given to the current PPP/C administration for allocating so much money to education and training. One sure way of eradicating poverty is to empower people through education and training. As the saying goes “one cannot be educated and poor at the same time.”
Hydar Ally

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