POVERTY SUCKS!

A relative quicky here (Note: With the benefit of hindsight it really didn’t turn out to be that quick!). Just to say that poverty sucks and I’m feeling well justified middle class Western guilt about it. I have had a very comfortable life and I teach kids whose lives are more comfortable still. Even our poorest here in the UK often suffer within the parameters of satellite TV and mobile phones, although there are exceptions; particularly within the demonised asylum-seeking class. (http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23811988-the-dispossessed-mother-living-in-limbo-with-no-job-no-benefits-and-no-cash.do)


It is perhaps because we can’t truly envisage poverty that we do so little to alleviate it. Our pastor, a rather alpha male type, caused many to think long and hard when he talked this Sunday of having cried hard in front of his children earlier in the week at the Blue Peter footage of an 8-year old Peruvian orphan forced to scavenge for a living on a rubbish heap in order to survive. He just couldn’t help but make the comparison to his own 8-year old son.

Now I’m unhealthily emotionally stunted with the best of them, truly I am. I’m well aware that I approach the 1-year anniversary of the last time I genuinely cried – the aftershock of a truly horrendous morning watching my wife suddenly suffering convulsions whilst in intensive care following major brain surgery… But there really is plenty to get upset about outside of my metaphorical windows, and perhaps I should force myself to look at it and engage with it more. Then maybe I’d force myself to spend more money and time in doing something about it. Strangely, in addition to the incident above, I’m writing prompted by a story 230 years old. It jars because it’s in my city, it’s heartening because we have moved on as a society, but it’s shameful because it’s still happening elsewhere… and the bit that really challenges me is that it has a happy ending – a reminder that a little bit of care and investment really does make a difference. Please read it, it’s quite something:

http://www.georgianlondon.com/a-morning-walk-in-the-metropolis

Now there’s a lot in life to feel happy about – perhaps I should blog about that too one of these days, but it’s wrong that we cocoon ourselves entirely in smug satisfaction as a direct result of our taking far more than our share of what the planet has to offer. Just as wrong as it would be to sit and bemoan poverty whilst giving next to nothing towards its alleviation (and yes I do give, in case you wondered whether this was an absolutely empty gesture of an article!). I’d also like to acknowledge, as I’ve tried to in various ways in several of my posts, that deprivation is not just measurable by income. It’s about education, self-respect, opportunity and much else besides. But I’m sure a lot of that stuff only really starts to matter once you have enough to eat. And me? I currently have a bad stomach because I’ve over-eaten sugary snacks and meat these past few days. It’s a poor show really isn’t it? I wouldn’t always call it a blessing – because much of our societal excess directly feeds in to our spiritual funk, our lack of social cohesion and our worsening mental health issues (my gassy stomach acting as convenient metaphor). But it certainly carries with it responsibility… So for the sake of ourselves and others LET’S BE GENEROUS!!

PS: If you’re feeling clever, read the following – one of the world’s cleverest explaining that poverty is not just measurable in financial terms. Easier to follow in the second half than the first… but then I’m not all that clever:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/libertycentral/2010/mar/23/social-justice-philosophy-freedom