What it's like to live on $1 a day

sepusepu · Senior Member

What it's like to live on $1 a day

abre les ojos · Guru

Read the article and I found it annoyingly patronising like most articles about poverty in Africa and such.

Well, if life and happiness are measured in dollars then yes. Most of the world live a useless and unproductive existence. But it's not!

To people who don't know any different they're lives are what they are. The woman in that article is probably happier and more content with life than the CEO. Why? Because she has less to worry about her shares, mortgages, credit card bills to be paid. Holidays in the Bahamas. PTA meetings, cholesterol levels, botox for her wrinkles or brest implants, parking tickets and all the curses of "modernity". Her life is simple, straightforward. Harder physically, yes but more rewarding emotionally because of its simplicity.

The reason why heart attacks rates are less in poor countries. We really should stop treating poverty as a disease to be cured. By doing so we define people by what they can afford. By the amount of "American" consumer goods they can aquire thereby creating a perpetual underclass of African poor and creating the stigma of Africa as a continent of "victims" out of step with the "modern globalised world".

The lady has no use for the internet or laptop and she shouldn't. Life should be measured by "character" content rather than "£" and "$"!

Tony Montana · Newbie

abre les ojos wrote:

Read the article and I found it annoyingly patronising like most articles about poverty in Africa and such. Well, if life and happiness are measured in dollars then yes. Most of the world live a useless and unproductive existence. But it's not! To people who don't know any different they're lives are what they are. The woman in that article is probably happier and more content with life than the CEO. Why? Because she has less to worry about her shares, mortgages, credit card bills to be paid. Holidays in the Bahamas. PTA meetings, cholesterol levels, botox for her wrinkles or brest implants, parking tickets and all the curses of "modernity". Her life is simple, straightforward. Harder physically, yes but more rewarding emotionally because of its simplicity. The reason why heart attacks rates are less in poor countries. We really should stop treating poverty as a disease to be cured. By doing so we define people by what they can afford. By the amount of "American" consumer goods they can aquire thereby creating a perpetual underclass of African poor and creating the stigma of Africa as a continent of "victims" out of step with the "modern globalised world". The lady has no use for the internet or laptop and she shouldn't. Life should be measured by "character" content rather than "£" and "$"!

But poverty does need to be cured. Are you saying that we should just let our fellow Malawians live and die in poverty? Don't you think that they deserve better? Hate to tell you this but life is measured by $$$$$$$$.

sepusepu · Senior Member

I have to agree with montana, in the article they say that they want to send both of their older kids to secondary school but they cant afford. Dont you think the kids deserve better? Lets not lie we have very poor people in the motherland and they need all kinds of help.

You seem to hate Kamuzu but you tend to have some common characteristics. He did not want to admit that Malawi is poor. He used to drive through chirimba rather than Mbayani when going to chileka. We have to accept that malawi has poor people, and its a matter of finding a solution. Why do you think most people given a chance migrate from MW without a second thought.

sepu

abre les ojos · Guru

Sepu. My hatres for Kamuzu comes from his cruel actions towards his own folks. The ideology behind poverty is not his own. It is Maoist.

But anyway. you cannot "cure" poverty. It isn't a disease. It doesn't have a diagnosis and a prognosis. If there was a cure for it, believe me, they'd eradicate it. Poverty is a reality. America for istance has more poor people per population than any western country. It also has the richest people in the world. The money it spends aimlessly (in Iraq or Afghanistan for instance) could help thousands of its own people.

We thrive on the ideology that "this is the way it is" so get with it. Like Monatana says "life is measured in $$$$. No it isn't!

To believe that it is, one misses the fundamental realisation that the capitalism that has become centre place is and always was inevitable and that there is no alternative to it. Money doesn't make the world go round. It only says it does. There are tribes in this world that don't use it in the sense that we do and they thrive. We on the other hand call them uncivilised. Just to enforce our so-called "superiority" on them.

Africa can use it's poverty as an advantage! I'll tell you how.

By ignoring and rejecting the idea that we need to be saved from our misery. It is easier because we don't know much difference. A man who has never been in a car has no use for it. Malawi doesn't NEED highways and Mcdonalds. The little things in life should be prioritised. Food, education, health. With better management we can improve on that.

But by subsribing to the ideology that we are miserable because we make less dollar a day then we will be forever striving for an unattainable goal. Playing by rules that keep us out of the game by simple virtue of their unattainability.

That's not to say we need to improve our quality of life. Running water, housing etc. But play at our own rate, not the one dictated by the IMF.

There are alternatives to the world systems you know. They were not inevitable.

sepusepu · Senior Member

The little things in life should be prioritised. Food, education, health. With better management we can improve on that.........A man who has never been in a car has no use for it.....America for istance has more poor people per population than any western country. It also has the richest people in the world......

You are a man of views that you dont practice. What are you doing abroad if you believe that poverty should be used as an advantage. When we say poverty it means that their are no basics.

After being in america for a couple of years i have noticed that most people who are poor are those that are lazy. I have seen a lot of foreign people that are driven and have ended up achieving alot after starting from nothing.

Walk the talk rather than just talking.

sepu sepu

-- Edited by sepusepu at 07:45, 2005-07-09

abre les ojos · Guru

I think it is the typical American mentality to say that poverty is a result of laziness. I disagree. Well, all those folks that make cars in Detroit or work in Wal Mart aren't poor because they don't work hard. It is a set of circumstances that create poverty. We can't be all rich, then no one would wash your car or serve you at the tills, would they?

Society creates poverty, and riches too. Somtimes poverty isn't a choice. In fact more than often it isn't. Hence here in Europe social security is a very serious matter. The government has the responsibility to look after vulnerable people.

Just because I live abroad doesn't hamper me from having an opinion on poverty. I live here because I was born here after Kamuzu made my father flee for his very life....

As well as having foreign people driven to achieve. Well, the truth is they are always a minority. We hear about it because it is the propaganda of western capitalism (mostly US) as a PR to convince that the systems works.

sepusepu · Senior Member

Most people that wash cars or serve at the registers are not poor according to the standards that we are using here, in other ways they can afford the basics.

In the US they have social security service for older people, they have grants for people that want to go to universities, food stamps and low income housing aka the projects.Imagine paying $20 rent for a 3 bedroom house a month. These are some of the many benefits that US citizens have. After all this somebody still cannot afford the basics. People sell their food stamps to buy booze or dope. What else can the govt do?

About the foreign people thriving am not talking about what i hear am talking about what i have seen and experienced.

sepu sepu

abre les ojos · Guru

If you talked to the people who work for social services and charities like I do then you'll get a bigger picture of the causes of poverty and the best ways to tackle them. By simply saying that it is a result of laziness is not understanding it, just labeling it. But that's for a different agrument.

As for my initial discussion. When I meant that Africa should take advantage of its poverty. I meant that the first step is to refuse being quantified and defined by the "less dollar a day". That way it takes away our dignity since in that way we'll always be considered poor, in need of help and relief. It really is quite simple.

Although we all need money to live, we don't need complex consumer products to be happy. The ideology that the more we can afford the happier and better we are off is really ridiculous. That would mean Americans are the happiest people in the world (far from it) and Malawians are the unhappiest (far from it).