Poverty Rant

By - Mike

Rant

Poverty! Poverty! Poverty! It's always staring us in the face, but we pretend

it's not there. Go to Africa and you will see real extreme poverty. What is the

world doing about it? The world cannot absolve itself from its role in bringing

about poverty in Africa.

Poverty is an expected outcome for Africa since they have history of slavery

delaying their development. How can you enslave, and take away strong

men and women in chains from Africa and you want them to develop? The

western world took away their future yet they complain about poverty in

Africa.

Oh? We need to help them, say the western nation and IMF. And I ask how?

We will give them loans they say, but with conditions. What are the

conditions, I ask? They say they must devalue their currencies, lower tariffs

and get rid of regulation. And I say these conditions are detrimental to their

economies, which perpetuate poverty

If u think I am only ranting, ask Nobel prize winning economist, Joseph

stiglitz who denounced, IMF loans as a primary culprit in the failed

developmental policies implemented in some of the poorest African

countries
Sub-Saharan African leaders can not be absolved either, because they are

mainly corrupt. Not concentrating on quality education for the youths,

access to health care and prevention of destructive culture, like Child

marriages

What can we do about it, I ask? We need to be our brothers' keepers. So,

when was the last time you helped out a homeless or a poor person, in your

environment? Whether it be giving them money or giving them a meal to

eat? I can say that most people would say that it’s either, “not at all,” or, “a

very long time ago.” But why is that? Why is it that people don’t take notice

of the hardships of homeless people even in our own environment? Why is

it that social media hardly gave notice to all the homeless people around

Africa and the world? After all they say charity begins from home. If you

cannot help people around you, how do you help outsiders?

What have we done in our own immediate environment to fight poverty?

When I searched up campaigns that fight against poverty, I found World

Vision and interestingly it's been doing a lot in helping families around the

world. But we need more awareness. Even though this campaign is one of

the biggest in Canada, surprisingly, a lot of people have not heard about it.

Why is it that the awareness is limited? Apparently it's because Africa is far

away and we need to take care of poor people here in Canada first?
Conclusion

So the next time you see someone in need, help them out. Give them a

meal. Talk with them. Just let them know that there are people out there who

actually care for them. Who knows? Maybe your small actions will make a

big impact in their lives. World Vision and other charity organizations are

there, to take your little donation, which will go a long way in alleviating

poverty in Africa.