The problem with poverty is that it is unsightly. It is families of ten, making most of two square meters worth of living space. It is small children in tears, shivering in the cold rain begging you to buy their flowers. It is an emaciated man; his ribs seen clear through his paled skin, expressions of pain carved onto his face. It is our country’s future, cognitively deficient due to nutritional deprivation. It is disgusting. It is uncomfortable. We, who consider ourselves the developed, the educated, cannot stand the reality of such lack. Something has to be done about it. That is why we build walls to hide the urban poor’s existence, and we call the police to send the transient beggars to jail. There. Now the metro is pretty again. This doesn’t do our educated status justice. Aesthetics is the norm. It was never the solution.
If aesthetics is the norm, then poverty is the disease. Maybe it’s time to realize that in our society, at least for 26 million of our countrymen, poverty is the norm, and our extravagance is the disease. Substantial steps must be taken to address this issue.
I was privileged to witness a landmark event in world history. In the year 2000, I along with a friend from my high school, and a few friends from my days as a student volunteer in
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