I don't know if being poor is an option. I grew up in a developing country where the standard of living is far from enough for those people who struggle every day just to get some money to buy food. Some of them even don't know what they will eat or how to get the money to buy food each day.
Farmers in my country are out in the hot sun every day; they don't have high technology and advanced equipment to cultivate crops. Most of them grow their crops using very traditional methods. For example they use a bullock cart to help do the harvest. They live very poorly. They provide food for people, but they have problems of *what to eat today'.
Fishermen in my country risk their lives every day by facing huge waves that in a second could destroy their small boats.
These fishermen are the providers for their families. If they died then who would take care of their families? And they live in very poor circumstances.
Some little kids in my country have to walk more than 10 miles every day and they have to swim across the river to get to school. The determination of these kids to get their education is very highly appreciated.
They live in villages - if Argyle (where I'm staying now) is considered as a village, we would call Argyle a town in my country. We define villages as places where we have no access to lots of things; transportation, good schools, clean water, good telephone system, internet, or even proper bathrooms. Villages perhaps have just one or two teachers at the school who teach every subject.
Why is the gap between the rich and poor so huge? If Tiger Woods was paid a million dollars a month and shared 30 percent of his golf prizes with people in Angola or Ethiopia, maybe the money would be a lot better spent than if he spent it cheating on his Swedish wife.
Or if Bill Gates spent 20 percent of his company's monthly profits on the needs of people in the Western Hemisphere or Southern Asia, maybe that money could build thousands of schools and water points.
Or, if we stopped making wars or spending billions of dollars on wars, causing death and injuries, maybe we could help more homeless people by building shelters or helping community groups, so they won't feel cold every night because they have to sleep outside, or not feel lonely anymore, because they can make friends with other homeless people.
Poverty is one of the major problems we're facing now. From more than 190 nations in this world, only about 40 nations are considered developed countries, and the rest are considered to be developing countries, which means that the standard of living in these countries is much less than in the developed ones.
And lots of countries are still struggling to get good education, proper houses, enough food, clean water, etc. At least 80 percent of humanity lives on less than US$10 a day, according to UNICEF, 24,000 children die each day due to poverty, around 27-28 percent of all children in developing countries are estimated to be underweight or stunted, 12 percent of the world's population uses 85 percent of its water, and these 12 percent do not live in the Third World.
Maybe you were shocked about the facts, me too. I don't want to talk theoretically about this poverty problem, but I want to talk about it logically. I don't know how hard it is to work and maybe that makes people not want to share their money. They think they deserve it, because they have worked hard. Maybe I don't understand this because I never had a job.
But imagine if all the world shared with these unlucky people, I believe the world would be a better place. They are poor not because they are cursed by God, but they are just unlucky, or maybe God wants to see evidence of their patience and faith. You and I don't know why the world works this way. Let's find the answers and solve the problem.
Faiz Rahman
Argyle, Wisconsin, USA
The writer is in the Youth Exchange and Study program, involving cooperation between Bina Antarbudaya and the American Field Service.
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