Are You Poor?

Sorry guys, I'm trying to post pictures but the connection is too weak.

It is almost 2 in the afternoon. Misty and I just discovered that we are locked in the building. We have not eaten all day, have nothing to eat besides almonds and a can of creamed corn (no kidding!) and cannot even get out a window because everything is barred. Also, we do not have internet or a tv…so here we are sitting in our room, eating creamed corn out of a Tupperware container that we found and 2 spoons. I hear the ice cream cart go by and we cannot even get it to be sent up to our room. I hate my life. Well not really but I hated this moment.

SiJie finally saved us by getting one of the motorbike drivers from Mercy to bring her over with the key, and then sent the key back with him. We were so hungry so we walked back to where we had supper last night on Soi 38, but it was closed. We took a taxi towards the Emporium shopping mall and then went to Subway for lunch. For those of you who are wondering, Subway tastes the same as home, and they do have specials for each day. Today’s special was a ham and chicken sub. Is that the same as home for Saturdays?

After lunch we went to Emporium to get some air conditioning. I bought a book called Poor People by William T. Vollmann. The author goes into different cities and villages around the globe to ask “Why are you poor?” The first chapter in the book takes place in Khlong Toey, where we live and work. I haven’t read very much yet, but it is really good so far. I especially like that it provides so many details of what life is like that I already do not notice anymore. Even though I walk in the slums every day, I forget that people at home do not know what the slums are like, and my descriptions have not always been very descriptive. For example, slum houses are incredibly close, such that you could reach out the window-like hole of your house and into someone else’s. Also, because everything is so close, everyone can hear the conversations of everyone else. This does not allow for much privacy.

We spent the afternoon relaxing in the park, enjoying the sun and each other’s company. It was nice to just relax and people watch. SiJie drew a picture of the view in front of us which attracted the attention of the security guards. At one point 2 of them were behind her watching her draw and she was totally oblivious with her headphones on.

We went for some groceries and met up with a past visitor at Mercy. Then we took the skytrain home, stopped at Soi 38 for some take out from one of the street vendors and headed home.

Ja joined us in our room upon our arrival and found Misty’s headset. She then walked around the room with her purse, her headset and my heels. She was pretending to talk to one of the other children from Mercy, saying they should go to work now, as they worked at the Tesco, selling pillow. She also lived on Soi 40 where she had 10 husbands and 10 children, 5 of which were boys. Children are so cute sometimes.

We spent the rest of the evening watching some more of the donated movies and having our own karaoke party with SiJie.

“A United Nations report assures us that a quarter of the world’s people remain in severe poverty, but in the past 50 years poverty has fallen more than in the previous 500. Meanwhile, a Pulitzer Prize winner opines that billions of Third World Citizens, constituting about 80% of the world’s population, still live in poverty, new or below the starvation level, and that any number of societies risk outright collapse” (Vollman, W.T., 2007) Who is right? How exactly do we define poverty?

When I walk into the slums I see people barely making it day by day, many who are addicted to alcohol or drugs, many who sell themselves for money. Yet, most of their homes are equipped with fans, television sets, more kitchen appliances, such as blenders and kettles, than I own. Instead their house they may have a motorbike parked, possibly what the male uses to drive people around to make money. Are these people poor? What about one of the many people who call Lumpini park, or the local train station their home? They may have a small amount of belongings; enough to fit into one bag that they take everywhere. Some of them do not ask for money, nor do they look at anyone in the face, for they do not feel they are poor themselves. Some are happy. Are they poor? What if they stopped being happy? What about all of the children at Mercy. All orphaned, many with more life experiences than you and I will ever know. Yet, they go to school every day, have food on the table and a roof over their head. Even if the food is not always the most appetizing, and the schools do not have desks or chairs; are they poor? Can I simply say that anyone poorer than I is poor?

What defines poverty? If these people are all happy treasuring the little things in life they do have, such as family, few belongings and the fact that they can get up every morning and walk with their head held high, are they poor? Many of them would not even call themselves poor. What about people who have a nice house, in a nice neighborhood, where their pudgy little children in their beautiful family can play outside in their groomed yard. But they are unhappy and they cannot afford to send little Johnny to private school, soccer camp, piano lessons and scouts. Are they poor? What about all of the university students who feel their lives are indebted to the government due to their large student loans. Are they poor? And if they are, can we say that this poor is different than the person living in the slum house? At least the person in the slum house owns their own house, so wouldn’t that mean they have more?

What about people who have found themselves in homeless positions, not only in Thailand but in other places like Canada. Do we treat those who find themselves living on the streets because of bad luck different than those who find themselves on living on the streets because their addictions simply took over their lives? Do soup kitchens make a distinction between the deserving poor and the others? What if someone like you and me dropped by the soup kitchen, would we be given a meal? Yes? No? How would people make a distinction on whether or not we qualified for their meal? Based on what we were wearing? How rough we looked? What about those who are living in the slums then…when some leave the slums in the morning to go to work, they are dressed up with make up, heels, and nice clothes. Thanks to the knockoff items you can buy at all the markets in Thailand, they carry along their Prada bag and sport their designer clothes. Are they poor?
How can we quantify one’s need over another’s? Who can say that my needs are anymore or less important than the next persons? According to income level some of us could live more comfortably than others. However, someone who lives on substantially less could also be a better nomadic hunter and lead lives closely modeled to others. Would they be poor?

What about in my own family? My parents both work the land for their income, feeding and providing for countless families through the sale of milk and eggs. If we would compare their salaries to other occupations such as doctors, lawyers, accountants, etcetera, would they be considered poor? What about when you account for all of the debt they owe for starting up and maintaining such an operation? Buying quota? Now that we installed robotic milkers, and owe thousands of more, are we poor? Compared to other farmers? Compared to the elite in our societies?

In short, we can define poverty in as many different ways as we can provide examples. I cannot say that someone is poorer than someone else just because someone makes more money. People can own fewer possessions and be richer than I, or the next person. Therefore, we cannot define poverty based on income level or the amount of possessions one owns. Instead, “poverty is wretchedness” (Vollmann, W.T., 2007), based on one’s feelings of happiness; such feelings that we cannot discard. If the United Nations report said that a quarter of the world’s people remain unhappy, we cannot add our own judgment to that to determine whether or not someone is truly unhappy. If you are unhappy in our own terms, then you must be unhappy in ours. Poverty itself then remains immeasurable.