an unbalanced WORLD
by Neus Fernández
We are surrounded by new technology, we live in a globalised world, with access to all types of information, we have the means to create incredible skyscrapers, monuments and buildings… We think that we live in a modern and advanced world, but do we really do? We are able to invent, construct, create, investigate, design; yet we can’t beat poverty, homelessness, hunger… We are the ones that have created money, and the ones that control it, but we are unable to equally distribute it so that everyone can live in a proper way. We see people sleeping in the streets, children dying of malnutrition every single day, underdeveloped countries with no access to water, electricity, education… As a society, are we as advanced as we think we are?
One picture can make us reflect on the world we live in. We are in a kind of bubble and think that poverty only exists further away, in countries a thousand miles away from us. When we think about poverty we only imagine underdeveloped countries, people of other races… We think poverty is far from us, but actually, it only takes a look around our city to realise how it has presence just next to our house. This picture perfectly depicts poverty in a rich’s world. We can see a man sleeping on a bed under a bridge. Around him, there is a developed city, modern buildings, cars, roads, a whole city that covers all the basic needs of the population, has running water, power, sanity, education… Yet just in the middle of it, a poor man resting, doing nothing, living surrounded by cardboard, some blankets and other materials he has provably collected from the trash. He has no home, no shelter for him to go back to at the end of the day. I can’t even imagine how it must be to live without knowing what the future will bring you, if you will end up being happy or you will just have to cope with such a horrible situation during your whole life. An uncertain future awaits this man,
and he doesn’t even have the means to transform his life into a better one. He must have no money, no job, provably no family. He must be tired of seeing rich people around him, wealthy people having a walk around the city not even noticing his presence, complaining about their unimportant problems, dressing in the trendiest clothes, having incredible mansions… The world is unbalanced, ones have so much while others are extremely poor.
So yes: poverty means not having sanity, running water or electricity at one’s reach, access to education, clothing and alimentation. But even in the richest and most developed countries, where we can find all these services at every single house and street; there are people asking for money in the streets, there is homelessness and poverty. In our world we don’t lack money, we lack humanity, organisation, empathy, union. The eight richest people in the world, have the same wealth as the poorest half of the globe’s population, which is equal to 3,6 billion people. Our problem isn’t the money we have, it is the way we distribute it and how we turn a blind eye to poverty and selfishly look another way.