I don’t usually write about my own beliefs and politics as I think they are something private that you don’t necessarily need to publicise all over the internet. I am no expert in fields of consumerism, humanitarian aid or social problems but I know what I think, and I have been riled up enough to write a small piece about my thoughts on the riots and looting here in the UK compared to the suffering of those in Somalia. If you only want to read about my travels, I suggest you skip this piece, I merely wanted a place to vent and to post some quotes and stats I found inspirational and interesting.
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In this country they talk a lot about people “living below the poverty line,” and while I agree that there is an unfair divide of wealth in the UK keeping the rich rich and the poor poor, I also think it is a downright insult to those who really suffer. Using the word ‘poverty’ in this context demeans and lessens the severity of its meaning. At the end of the day the poor people in this country live in luxury compared to those living in real poverty in third world countries around the globe. Poverty doesn’t mean not being able to afford the newest games console or sky TV (most seem to have them regardless) or other luxuries that you just don’t need, it is not being able to put a meal on the table to keep everyone fed and healthy, not owning clothes or shoes or struggling to survive from day to day never knowing if tomorrow might be your last.
The thing is, industries in first world countries are only ever interested in selling their latest product and fueling ever increasing levels of consumerism. Got an iPad? No good now, even though it works fine (for whatever use it is exactly that those slabs of junk offer) you now need the iPad 2. How ridiculous. It used to be that you would use something until it stopped working and you needed a new one, nowadays, it’s the need to own the newest and the best, regardless of whether the old one is still doing the job. The riots going on around the UK have proven that this sort of thinking is rife here, the idea that we have to have everything, the most important thing for people today seems to be owning the latest and best things we don’t need or have a use for.
The following statistics are from the Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) here in the UK:
Percentage of children who wanted but could not afford…a hobby or leisure activity 14%
to have friends round for tea or a snack once a fortnight 18%
to go on a school trip at least once a term 13%
to have a one-week holiday away from home with family 62%
I’m sorry to sound callous, but are these really the sort of things that classifies someone as “in poverty” in our country? We are not talking about things people need just to live life from day to day, as the title itself states, this is what people want and expect to be given.
Now for comparison, some facts and figures from Somalia,
94% of primary school aged girls are out of education
85% of children (both sexes) who do go to school will survive until their final year of primary school
38% of the adult population are literate.
An average of 199 out of 1000 under fives die. (WHR)
Average life expectancy in Somalia is between 36 and 44 (WHO)
“As the UN announces that famine has spread in Somalia to three additional regions the US has put the first number to the amount of children under 5 who have so far perished from starvation in the last 90 days: 29,000″
What has brought this up? Why am I writing about this? Well, it is all because I read an article today by Liz Jones of the Daily Mail. Now, I know what you’re thinking, but I don’t usually read such a tripe of a tabloid and especially not her typically self obsessed articles about fashion and beauty, this time however she was reporting on the current famine in Somalia so I skim read the first few paragraphs. In the end I read the whole thing, captivated by the suffering she described.
“I meet Salatho, who arrived this morning with her three children aged seven, six and four. To save these three, she left her three youngest children behind in her village of Dinor in Somalia to die. I ask how on earth she could do that — leave her little ones behind?
My translator tells me she cannot answer because Salatho has never been asked how she feels before. It turns out that human emotion, grief, is the biggest luxury of all here.
This woman did what she had to do. If she allowed herself that ultimate Western accessory depression, then she would just lie down in the sand and die.”
She is right, their suffering makes a mockery of all of us living in the first world. Don’t get me wrong, I am not some namby-pamby supporter of humanitarian groups either, I believe they do more harm than good by creating people, communities even whole countries who are dependent solely on hand outs whilst their arrogant do-gooder minions waltz around among the poor and starving in huge white air conditioned 4x4s. Reading books by Paul Theroux has permanently turned me against those sorts of people too.
The fact is, no-one in this country lives in real abject poverty, there are options and benefits open to everyone to ensure they can afford enough to get by. It seems today, people here expect a too much and in their greed have lost sight of what really matters. The are so absorbed by commercialism they want everything for nothing, thus feeling it is their right to take what they want as we saw this week. MP Stephen Williams put it better and more succinctly than I ever could in his blog following the riots of the 8th August:
”Everyone wants to be rich and famous, without wanting to work hard to reach those otherwise acceptable ambitions. So I think the prime motivators behind the looting are greed and jealousy, rather than sorrow and anger.”
These two parallel running news stories are both saddening and infuriating with one country unable to keep its children alive long enough to see adulthood because of lack of food and health care, the other unable to keep theirs out of prison because of selfish crimes of jealousy and greed. Yet both are lumped together by that same word, that p word. Which one do you really think deserves (for lack of a better word) that title?
So, so true. I don’t know if you saw the debate that unfolded on my status the other day after you commented but I think my words were taken out of context and perhaps understandably so as I probably wasn’t when I lumped the rioting in with the ‘underprivileged’ category, though I only did so simply to demonstrate that I think it is nothing to do with race as many people have said and more to do with the lacking moral values that seem to be a little more prevalent amongst the ‘underprivileged’ – that’s of course not to say that rich people can’t be bad and poor people can’t be good.
I think underprivileged is a relative thing – in this country underprivileged is just what you have explained here, not being able to afford luxuries. Underprivileged in another country might mean an entirely different thing. Poverty, however, as far as I’m concerned has a consistent meaning across the board even if it doesn’t in a social context, and it makes me sick to hear of council estate benefits claimants described as living below the poverty line.
Speaking as someone who was, for a short period of time, a jobless (not for want of trying) single mother on benefits – I have never lived in poverty or come even close. I am much poorer now than I was then in fact, ironically, and sometimes find myself feeling sorry for myself/my kids that I can’t afford to take them out to heaps of nice places at the moment or buy particularly great food or whatever… and then I shake myself and think, jesus christ look around you, you’re living in a 3 bedroomed terrace with paint on the walls, carpets on the floor, food in the cupboards, water (even if it is usually cold :p) in the taps, a garden out the back, a car (even if it is Dan’s :p) on the front, and I REALLY have to give myself a metaphorical slap for even letting myself think for a moment that I’m even close to poor when I just have so much.
Lots of people need to read your blog!
Anyway Dan has just said “Are you commenting on a blog or writing a blog?” so I suppose that’s my cue… :p