The US Office of Management and Budget may define poverty as a certain monetary threshold, but a more qualitative measure is quality of life. There are many levels of poverty, from the blue-collar parents with four kids who can only eat out once a month, to a family in the slums of Rio de Janeiro who are at risk for dengue fever and wondering when the next meal will come. But regardless of ethnicity and locale, these diverse groups of people who live in poverty all have one thing in common. They desperately need a way out.
Poverty is the ultimate disease. It can infect anyone and everyone. It exists in every country in the world and has never been completely eradicated at any point in human history. Many are infected from birth and surrounded their entire lives by others who are infected. As a result of living with the disease from day one, some people just accept it and refuse searching for a cure. The disease can make you work like a horse for 18 hours a day while it gradually breaks your will, or subdue you immediately with a loss of hope. Some experts would argue that there is no cure, and some would even tout that this hierarchy is necessary. But educated opinions on economy and culture don't mean much to those in need. In a world where we can split atoms and decode the human genome, can technology be the panacea?
The answer is no. Cell phones, portable computers, hybrid cars, and digital cameras were all listed on CNN's list of top 25 non-medical innovations for the past 25 years. At first glance, none of these advances seem like a cure-all for the underprivileged, or for that fact, even available. However, as costs sink and competition abounds, you see more and more cell phones and computers in the hands of the poor. And although I am sure there are cases where people have become power sellers on Ebay using a rental store computer, is this technology really helping the masses emerge from poverty?
There are organizations that fervently believe so, such as One Laptop per Child (OLPC). Their goal is to put a laptop in the hands of close to two billion children in developing countries. They hope to plant a seed of hope in each child by allowing access to educational resources. There are no long term studies yet for this new program, but it is easy to see how a new laptop in any child's hand would increase morale and open a whole new world of knowledge to that young person. And it is knowledge itself that is a common factor of both poverty and the tech world. Just in different capacities.
The technological innovations of today come from the top minds trained in the top schools (all of whom have access to, among other things, laptops). Their world changing innovations and inventions represent the epitome of knowledge and the upper echelon of educated minds. On the other end of the spectrum, you have the uneducated masses that lack the knowledge to crawl out of that slippery and deep box in which they are living. In developing countries, they may not even know they are living in a box, and therefore that there is anything outside the "box." It is this knowledge gap that must be closed in order for the suffering to escape a stagnant life and, quite literally, to start thinking outside the box.
Knowledge really is power. If you took Donald Trump's money away and forced him to work retail, how long would it take him to earn his next million? Less than a year? Two years? So then perhaps all we need to do is make sure every single person in the world goes to grade school and eventually college, right? If you have the know-how, you can increase your quality of life. Paid for tuition and mandatory attendance for all children should do the trick. But here in the states, attendance is mandatory through grade twelve and almost any child can get a student loan for college. Yet poverty exists. Though it is certain that developing countries that don't have these privileges are much worse off than ones who do. What about countries who haven't passed a Higher Education Act? Who don't have government subsidized loans?
For instance, in Gambia the literacy rate is less than thirty eight percent, the per capita income is under $400, and there is a high infant mortality rate. So how do you not become part of these statistics? I attended software classes with a very kind and intelligent student from Gambia. He is doing well and from a country that is not doing well. One of the noted professors in our biology department, Safaa Al-Hamdani, is from Iraq, one of the more chaotic and volatile places on the planet. He was noted for the Books for Baghdad project that delivered over 11,000 books and educational supplies to Baghdad University. These are people who have escaped the statistics through a quest for knowledge. And although technology played a part in educating these men, there was no magical equipment or new wave machinery that transported them to their current station in life. It was a simple human decision on their part.
The way out of poverty is knowledge. Technology is not the key, but it certainly can help us along the way if used properly. We are the key. Each and every person helping each other and ourselves by making compassionate decisions to strive for knowledge.
There exist governments, caste systems, and any number of other obstacles that attempt to keep us from thinking ourselves out of the box. When thinking about perseverance in the face
of poverty, I recall a man who was born a slave, fought for the education of blacks in the early 1900's, and finally formed the Tuskegee Institute in Tuskegee, Alabama. His name was
Booker T. Washington. And he did not own a cell phone.
CNN Top 25 non medical innovations - http://www.eclectecon.com/posts/1105528569.shtml
One Laptop per Child - http://www.laptopgiving.org/en/index.php
Gambia - http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/5459.htm