I lived in the UK for 12 years. When I arrived, I admit I was skeptical about the idea of poverty there. The UK is a rich country. There is a tendency for us to only care about the poverty we can see.
South Africa is notable as the worst country in the world for inequality, and yet it is only as unequal as the world-as-a-whole (using Gini Coefficient as the measure). What is considered poverty in the UK is very different from South Africa.
By the same token, my eyes would be opened by going to South Sudan. A friend of mine’s job was removing bombs there!
I gained some appreciation of UK poverty when I was in the US, walking (probably unwisely) around areas of Chicago, and it definitely felt like poverty. It felt like Apartheid.
Poverty is scarcity. When a single thing starts taking on your full attention. When you have to focus not on choice, in the context of all your decisions. The immediate becomes so important nothing else is relevant. Even a financially wealthy person can have time poverty, because they no longer have choice in their moments.
It was an eye-opener to see tough, difficult to solve, poverty in rich countries.
I went to a play in London where the actors paused and took suggestions from the audience, and re-acted. A theatrical version of the film, “I, Daniel Blake”. Where the wheels (illogically for those watching) fall off. “If only they had done [this]”. The punchline being that it is almost meaningless to suggest alternate paths to someone not in your situation.
We don’t see the same. We can’t see the whole situation, and make decisions FROM where they are.
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