The Cure for Poverty
I live in Africa where I come face to face on a daily basis with the tragic reality of unnecessary and avoidable poverty and suffering.
From my own personal experience of poverty, and my near minute by minute encounters with it in my immediate and extended environments, I can assure you that poverty is evil.
Poverty is evil
I have watched in utter horror as poverty stripped people of their dignity, self-esteem, and confidence. I have seen it wear down multitudes of men and women with with worries and anxieties. The negative pressure of poverty has pushed young girls into prostitution, young men into armed and unarmed robbery, and degraded previously responsible people into liars and cheaters. The statistics of millions of children dying from hunger and preventable diseases as a direct consequence of poverty is heart breaking. I observe daily how poverty makes people aggressive, desperate, narrow minded, bitter, cynical, resentful, and negative.
And probably, none of the afore mentioned ills is more unfortunate than the fact that poverty restricts people’s options and choices in life thereby making them victims and slaves to external forces and circumstances.
Poverty is a universal human phenomenon, but it’s effects seem more pronounced in certain societies than in others. A day in this country, a day on this continent is enough to convince you that poverty is an evil that must be eradicated from this planet!
Poverty is an artificial phenomenon
The most shocking aspect of poverty for me, is the realization that poverty is an alien phenomenon. It’s not natural. It’s artificial. Take one reflective look at the planet and you easily come to terms with the extravagant abundance of creation. From the abundance of sunlight to that of mineral resources in the earth, you realize that whereas people might be poor, the planet is not poor! The universe is in fact teeming and saturated with abundance of resources and provisions. This goes to show that the Creator never meant for man to be poor.
For this reason, I’m of the firm conviction that poverty is an unnatural and alien phenomenon. It is strange to the Creator’s design.
Poverty is the compound effect of man’s accumulated mistakes, errors of thought and judgment, speech and deeds, passed down from generation to generation.
It is not something to be ashamed of if you found yourself in it due to circumstances which predated you or which are beyond your control. But it is an evil that you must strive to eradicate from your life and posterity.
I do not know that we’ll be able to eliminate poverty entirely from the human race. But I do know that you can eradicate it from your personal life, and that you should strive to do so.
Poverty is spiritual
My vocation as a Christian Pastor confers on me the sacred duty of extracting essential life principles from the Holy Scriptures and then communicating them to my flock with the aim of inspiring them into positive metamorphic experiences.
The more I search the Scriptures for clues and keys to transform people from poverty the more convinced I am that:
- Poverty is more of a spiritual condition, than an economic one.
- The solution for poverty is much deeper than mere financial aid. It’s beyond cash.
I believe that governments and corporate institutions have critical roles to play towards the eradication of poverty. I do not, however, address myself to them. I deliberately address myself rather to the individual sufferer because I’m a firm believer in the concept of personal responsibility.
The cure for poverty is not money!
Poverty is much deeper than the absence of cash. As a matter of fact, the chronic lack of money is just one of the various manifestations of poverty. Poverty is essentially the inability to realize the fullness of one’s potentials in time and space. Poverty is a spiritual phenomenon that operates primarily through the mind in the form of a poverty mentality. Here it regulates thoughts, ideas, and decisions. Finally it manifests as poverty enhancing and entrenching actions and habits, thereby creating the tragic results we see around the world today.
For obvious reasons, the African experience of poverty is my primary frame of reference. People here have become conditioned to believe that the cure for poverty is cash, and I can imagine that this is also true of other societies.
This mindset is flawed.
The cure for poverty is not money!
The cure for poverty lies in the liberalizing of the soul through life-transforming and energizing spiritual enlightenment. I have always challenged and continue to challenge my fellow Africans, and people of all societies plagued by poverty, to go beyond cash in their search for lasting solutions to poverty. What we need in Africa and the rest of the world where people are suffering, is not more financial aid from rich donor countries, but rather a greater capacity for self-determination; a greater level of personal responsibility.
This greater capacity can only happen as each individual is inspired to expand their personal spiritual and mental awareness of their full rights and privileges as off springs of divinity.
This understanding is an underlying force behind my founding of the Success Academy Nigeria where young African men and women are challenged to develop a crystal clear awareness of the broadest range of life’s choices and options.
What do you think?
Are you touched by the plight of the world’s poor?
Do you believe that poverty can be eradicated from the world?
What do you think the individual and families caught in this vicious net can do to change their conditions?
Please share your thoughts.
Thank you.
chummy (11)
Sarah Clark (11)
Nkechinyere (3)
carri (2)
Deborah Alinda (2)
Oh, yes. I agree. Poverty is soul deep not. It breaks my heart. Too bad this post was not a part of BlogActionDay when thousands of us posted on poverty.
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“Poverty is essentially the inability to realize the fullness of one’s potentials in time and space.”
What a wonderful thought.
It is a very touching post that reveals a deep truth.
But I have one question. What about people living in circumstances not enabling them anything than hope and love for God, like refugees, slaves…
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Thanks Lynn for your comment. Poverty is a daily menace to millions of people around the world and we must continue to battle it on a day to day basis.
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Very inspiring. Would love to share this concept with the kitchen table and have you as an expert guest so we can promote awareness.
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Thanks Nic. It will be a great honor for me to be a guest at the Kitchen Table. I look forward to participating in larger capacities in the great work you are doing there.
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I was recently in South Africa teaching women how to start and build a business. I share your belief that at some point you must have the desire to raise yourself up rather than waiting for a hand out. I am on a mission to ‘teach them to fish’ and believe that women especially hold the key to changing those attitudes. After all, they are the ones teaching the children…
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I am inspired. I have always has some fuzzy understanding of how spirit and soul are attached to poverty , but you have said it perfectly and eloquently. I would love to have a fund raiser. Please contact me so we can start on this.
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I agree with you Julie. Pls do share more about your work in South Africa with me. The campaign for personal empowerment is very dear to my heart, and, yes, I believe that women have a very critical role to play.
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I agree poverty is not natural and Spirit is the remedy! We need to teach people that they aren’t as limited as society taught them to believe they were.
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I think you’re right that poverty is not solely about money but about a way of life. . . however, with money one can offer the basic needs of life, then education and couseling that will get people moving in the direction of belief that they can have and be more than their current state.
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Thanks Julie, and Sedie, for your comments. Mentality is the critical thing here – the fundamental consciousness of the individual African. I continue to propose an educational system that re-orients the African youth towards self determination and personal initiative. It took decades of mind control through subversive ideologies…to entrench the suppression of the African psyche. It will take a radical approach to mental renewal to reverse the damage. What is seriously needed is a transformatory curriculum…targetting the African kid, the African youth….primarily.
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Julie is taking the initiative to teach a man to fish rather than give him a fish.
Education is the seed of prosperity!
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“Education is the seed of prosperity!” Thanks Peter, I love that… and thanks for your friendship at Twitter.
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I am not sure there is a cure for poverty. I think we can our best to address it adn deal with it’s causes. I believe in helping world but we also have to be strong in our immediate locals too… kind of a balancing thing. Your blog has provided much food for thought and a made great points. THANKS
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Thanks for following me on Twitter. I found you from that connection.
Reading this post puts me in mind of Joseph who was sold into Egypt. He overcame situations which could easily put him into poverty.
Of course, Joseph is an exceptional story. But I liken it to your focus on personal responsibility. I applaud your efforts to help others find a little bit of that strength Joseph had.
Like Joseph, poor situations can be brought upon by others who have power. I truly believe that most poverty can be traced to greed, corruption and wickedness of people with power. And not just those at the top. There is much petty corruption in most organizations.
You are fighting the good fight. Will the Earth ever be rid of poverty and corruption. Perhaps not in our lifetimes. But that is no reason to stop us from helping others.
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Thanks Willis for dropping by. I agree that a lot of people are in states of deprivation as a direct result of the inhuman activities of other people. As you wrote, we must continue to do all we can to help others out of this evil condition.
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I believe that you words and your philosophy are true. It seems to me that the key is for those of us who understand to continue to seek out and help those who do not.
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I sometimes wish I could help those who are in poverty, by giving them shelter, home, companionship, and pray with them.. I know that deep down that prayer is the best thing in the world, but sometimes people don’t realize that God wants more than just prayer and answers. I pray to God because I know it is a connection to God. My family was in Poverty for a good while way back in the 1980’s right after I was born when my parents had discovered that I had multiple health problems. But when we put our eyes on God the suffering goes away little by little. It is truly amazing on how God works through each of us. Truly a blessing, and I will always give something back to him after what he has done for us.
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