Poverty is a blessing

I believe when you have nothing, the prospect of gaining something is so powerful it builds much more than just your character. That moment when hunger creeps up on you, your desperate search for food is more than just a testament of your staying power. The will to survive towers above all toil that the world could ever imagine. In between dreams of the winning lottery ticket and the reality of food stamps, one gets to experience a holistic check-in of who they truly are. There is enough time when you are poor to dream rich dreams, and yet constantly return to the reality of what dreams without adequate resources means.

So a high level 27 member United Nations panel met recently. They believe they will tackle poverty by 2030. Okay (sigh). There are 1, 426 billionaires on the Forbes’ list this year. In the same breath, there are countless Congolese kids whose amputations were not from medical conditions, but from staring into the bloodshot eyes of a rebel whose callous actions probably feeds one of the 1, 426 billionaires.

David Cameron looked all dapper, spewing out what we have heard over a gazillion times. “This report sets out a clear road map for eradicating extreme poverty by 2030. We need a new global partnership to finish the job on the current MDGs (Millennium Development Goals) , tackle the underlying causes of poverty and champion sustainable development,” he said.

So basically these clowns have done away with the millennium development goals and added fifteen more years to the wound. Wow. That is when you know poverty really aint ending soon. I’d rather be poor than wait for politicians to knock at my door, unless if they were prepared to stay the night and sleep on the floor. We are living through times where we have nothing but us, and that lack of something unfortunately has to guide us. So maybe poverty is a blessing.

I was so blessed growing up in a slum. Makokoba, Bulawayo, Zimbabwe taught me twice as much as any enthusiastic teacher could dream. The vendors taught me mathematics, the old grand dads taught me history, the grandmothers taught me the physics of love and the random musicians with their hats in front of them taught me peace that lasts.

Poverty is a blessing. If you have been rich all of your life, lucky for you. But probably most of you are left with a whole lot of spiritual work to do. I am glad that even if I hit rock bottom, I would remember what that means, and pull myself back up. I am glad to be poor, because in some bizarre instance that I became rich, I would at least attempt to remember the pain of having nothing. Maybe then, I could help my people.