Though I try to avoid shops and shopping as much as I can, I found myself in a store a couple of days ago and kept bumping into a family, a father, a mother and a teenage girl, dressed very modestly, moving slowly around, talking quietly, softly. Standing next to them at some shelves, I realized they were talking about whether they could afford to buy things that were actually so cheap I would never even look at the price. I met them at the counter again, and my heart felt small and heavy, observing them how they were silently, with worried faces, watching the sum on the digital screen rising up. And we are talking about 5 or 6 items and not a big sum at all.
And I felt bad. And I felt there is something radically wrong with this world.
I am not a financially rich person, but let’s just say that I don’t have to worry about money very much. So I cannot complain and this is not about me at all. It is about what I see when I look around. It is about all these beautiful, modest, simple, hardworking, loving people who need to struggle through the months just because they were born into a social system that is built on some people having lots of money, some people having some money and a lot of people having very little money.
It is just not right.
It feels so wrong that almost 30.000 children day of hunger PER DAY. Today! It feels wrong that half of the population of this planet lives bellow poverty line. It does not feel right that this world is all about racing, climbing, winning, the survival of the fittest. And that when you have money and status you feel more worthy and when you don’t have money and status you feel less worthy.
It is just not right.
Success seems to be the magical world. Have to be the winner. Have to be successful.
It is a modern drug, my friends, this is how I see it. Be the winner, be successful, make money and then shop shop shop, spend spend spend, buy buy buy – and help money and power piling up for the invisible elites. And yes, it is an addiction. Heroin traffickers try to create as many addicts as possible and have their market blossom, and in the same way modern businesses are creating millions of TV watching, junk-eating, money-spending addicts. (my dear blogging friend Angry African told me I must include these exact words – from my comment to one of his recent post – to one of my future posts. And here I go, humbly obeying. 
)
And I can just now truly understand the deepermost wisdom of Martin Luther King’s words when he received the Nobel Prize in 1964: “…The agony of the poor diminishes the rich, and the salvation of the poor enlarges the rich….”
Yes, truly, how can I enjoy success and money, when there are millions beaten, broken, poor, hungry? How can I? How can we?
Fuck success!
This was the same question I was asking earlier when I saw a post of a very rich man displaying his multi-megawatts of power he was wasting on electric lights! DISGUSTING.
Comment by pochp — December 25, 2008 @ 1:39 pm
Granted, I haven’t lived my entire life under the heaviness of hunger, but I will say that extreme poverty and hunger REALLY strips you to the bone. You are absolutely 100% crystal clear on what truly matters, what truly is important in your life and in the world.
If you came from something and fell to nothing, you’ll be surprised at how little you can live without. If you come from nothing and moved up to something, you’ll be surprised at how much ‘stuff’ other people have and thankful at how clear your vision is.
This doesn’t sound very charitable of me, but I think it is a gift to spend some time at the bottom. I agree with you, though, that people shouldn’t have to live their whole lives that way.
Comment by Hayden Tompkins — December 25, 2008 @ 7:32 pm
Excellent post – yet again. We do have heavy hearts. But never forget this in the dark moments when it feels as if we are too blessed compared to others… Those who suffer want you to remember them and do your best to be part of helping them be who they can truly be. But they also want you to enjoy the life they hope to have one day. I know Africa is one fucked up place sometimes. But what makes it great is that “normal” people who live in poverty and who suffer want you to enjoy your life as well, just as much as what they want to enjoy their life. You can have both – a good life to live and celebrate and a life where we live and work for others.
Boet, you are a good man. And we will overcome.
Comment by angryafrican — December 26, 2008 @ 8:12 pm
Pochp – yes, this is how I often feel… And, welcome!
Hayden – tasting the bottom certainly alters one’s perception, clarifies values… On the other hand, the system that requires masses at the bottom just in order for some to be on the top…, well, I don’t like this system, to put it mildly…
AA – your comment is like a breath of fresh air into the dark heaviness. Thanks, brother.
Comment by Robert — December 26, 2008 @ 9:46 pm
Oh dear Robert, My heart cries over the truth in this post. I cry because I too feel this. I cannot be what my culture defines as wealthy, I would drown in things and my soul would be lost. I am not a monetarily wealthy woman, not by my cultures definition of wealth. I would fail dismally. And yet, compared to millions in the world I am an extremely wealthy woman. My husband and I talk about this. He came back from a trip to South Africa as well as into the Kalahari (a trip paid for by and with the college where he teaches) and this issue was all he talked about when he returned. Even in our sparsest times we are thousands of times richer than so many the world over. People living in cardboard boxes and drainage ditches, people who wear the same set of clothes for years. I have lived very sparsely at times of my life, with almost nothing, BUT it was by choice. I now live with much more and I often feel I am suffocating in things. I see a change coming in my life sometime where I will return to complete simplicity. Simplicity leaves us with ourselves and although many run from that, hence the addictions you speak of, but I find my greatest peace there. I am blessed in that I no longer run from myself; I know who I am down to my darkest deepest corners. I learned that during my years in the solitude of the rainforest, in the solitude of going 3 months without speaking to another human being, in great pain and loss….I learned not to fear my own emptiness. I feel no qualms at the thought of giving all I own to those in need and walking away with almost nothing. But it is another thing again when it is NOT a choice and there are those born into survival, war, starvation, disease, fatigue and loss of all hope.
You have a powerful voice and vibrant soul. Thank you for your honesty of feeling and thought. It means a lot to me. Hugs, Robin
Comment by Robin Easton — December 26, 2008 @ 11:11 pm
“…The agony of the poor diminishes the rich, and
the salvation of the poor enlarges the rich….”
I have never heard this quote before. Sheesh, its so true, and so important to realise.
Comment by Laura — December 26, 2008 @ 11:40 pm
Robert. I too often feel sickened when I see the world we’ve created. It’s easy to forget in my nice warm apartment with a fridge full of food that there are millions who are cold or starving.
Thank you for the reminder, which does two things for me. First it reminds me how important it is to me to live gratefully for all I have in my life. Second to live consciously in that I can make a difference to the world by focusing on what I do, what decisions I make, what I consume and what I offer others.
Ultimately I have huge hope that we’ll change the world … you and I and all the others who are painfully aware that how we are living (as a species) is just not sustainable – or right. Ian
Comment by ianpeatey — December 27, 2008 @ 11:13 am
Robin – yes, it really gets down to the question of choice, doesn’t it? Some of us can play with it and exercise it, be spiritual and smart, but billions out there can not…
Laura – yes, it is such a powerful one. And welcome! I had a look at your blog and I liked it a lot. Keep in touch.
Ian – yes, I am starting to get what it means to think global and act local…
Comment by Robert — December 27, 2008 @ 8:02 pm
Robert – think about it though, your success, helps you to spend money which helps put money into the economy… helping other people… I know that doesn’t seem to make sense but it does in the grand scale of things. You buying more food helps support farmers. Think of it that way.
Comment by Amber — December 30, 2008 @ 7:22 am
Amber – I am afraid that with buying things I support precisely the economy that is built upon this framework of some people getting reach and a lot of people remaining poorer and poorer. With buying things I support a small number of people who are making ridiculous amounts of money by opening factories in Asia and having 8 year old kids work for 1 dollar per day. For example. This economy is not designed to help people. It is designed to make profit for some people, at the expense of masses…
Comment by Robert — December 30, 2008 @ 10:44 am