Have you seen the Emotional Video Shows La Vergne Students Surprising Classmate that went viral gaining over 43 million views in two weeks? If not, check it out. The video capturing American students giving shoes and clothes to their classmate who is going through a tough time deeply touched me and I guess millions of other people all over the world. The strength and purity of emotions made me once again think of how ugly poverty is, and how vulnerable we become when facing it.
I’ve seen the viciousness of poverty back in Russia, where millions of older people have to count coins while buying the simplest groceries to physically make it from pension to pension. I guess I even tried a taste of it in the early 90s, but I was too young to understand that my family was on the edge of starvation.
I’ve seen it in milder forms here in Canada, when people would come to charitable organizations being shy, hiding eyes as if apologizing for where they are in life.
I’ve witnessed it in the Dominican Republic where people live in houses built out of garbage; and in Cuba where cell phones are still a luxury and people work 16-hour days, six-seven-day weeks spending two hours on top of that on the road just trying to put bread on the table. And I mean literally bread.
I noticed poverty it in the backyards of European capitals and on the streets of American cities. I haven’t been to Asia much, but as far as I heard, the East Indian standards of living are massively below the poverty line. Tunisian poverty witnessed back in 2009 made me cry (I hope it changed some by now).
And what strikes me is that we are living in a world of mass consumption and overproduction. But even developed countries didn’t manage to find ways to overcome poverty.
Poverty is different everywhere and yet it’s the same. It humiliates us as human beings. Poverty is not a sentence, but it sure feels like it and often looks like it as well. It makes people feel hopeless. So often poverty erases human relationships. And watching like these kids in the video offer their hand to a boy, who probably can’t ask for it... It's strong.
We don’t like talking about poverty, we call it "hard times." But does it help any? I believe as it makes it feel a little bit safer for those struggling, it also hides the problem, making it blend into daily life and thus remain unaddressed. Which in its turn may lead to terrible circumstances.
Another huge problem with poverty is that it’s a driving force for the most conflicts.
A few years ago I took the Peace and Conflicts Program at the University of Manitoba. One of my profs there said that the main thing humanity has to do to have peace in the world is to win the battle over poverty.
If that is to be accomplished neither ethnic, nor historical inequalities, neither national clashes, nor religious controversies would have the scale and power they’ve had throughout our history.
There is poverty in Canada, there is poverty in Estevan. Often it's hidden and called "hard times," but nevertheless it's tough.
Over the past few months, I covered activities of a number of great organizations and programs that aim at helping to deal with one or another poverty symptom. Warm Welcome Kitchen and Salvation Army, Angel Tree and Hamper programs, Â鶹ÊÓƵeast Newcomer Services and Â鶹ÊÓƵeast Advocates for Employment, Habitat for Humanity and churches, Estevan Public Library's little food pantry, you name it.
A lot of fundraisers are done by sports groups, and a lot of donations come out of local people’s and businesses’ pockets to fight that battle. And when unselfish help is initiated by kids like in that video or like in some stories the Mercury covered lately, it's even more inspiring (well, and sad too, even little kids know that not everything is great in this world). We are a very generous and contributing community. And it gives me courage all the time.
However, with all that joint effort, with so much energy, resources, initiatives, money, great ideas and projects being used as a weapon against poverty, why is it still here?
My guess – in most cases we are more focused on visible symptoms (don’t take me wrong, it’s crucial to address those as well), but the original problems in many situations remain buried underneath the obvious. We tend to believe we live in a world of equal opportunities, but in reality, a lot depends on our history, background and individual characteristics, which too often are not up to us to change.
And while we as a community do address these milestone systematic, institutional and mental settings, in general, it’s really hard to change a centuries-old system built on oppression. Yet, when I see how much people desire and do help those going through "hard times," I know we are going to get there.
