Poverty in the world

I have a quick story that I just remembered about a moment when I encountered poverty and was quite affected by it. Last summer while I was in Peru, I took a bus ride from Cuzco to Lima, which is supposed to take 18 hours. Instead, the ride took 30 hours in a bus with no heat/air conditioning and no food. This was caused by professors across the nation who were on strike, and as a result, camping on the highways all night, burning trees and throwing boulders into the road. We ended up sleeping 6 hours on the side of the road and the next morning, yelling face-to-face with professors. It is amazing that this is how the 'intellectual' crowd deals with problems. There were many elderly and babies on the bus, but no option for help, food, etc.. Upon arrival at the destination around 3 AM, it was rainy and cold and the streets of Lima, a fairly dangerous city, were dark. An elderly woman who only spoke Quechua, the native language of Peru, was being taken care of by a younger woman and her small daughter. The woman, crying was very angry because the elderly woman could have died, she was sick, and no one took care of her... plus she had no blanket and we had to wait outside in the cold until the sun rose. Meanwhile, the young daughter needed to use the bathroom with cost 50 cents, about 20 American cents, yet the mother told her she did not have enough money. This is where you realize the dirt bottom and you feel incredibly guilty for no particular reason. The fact that people live like this is a disgusting feeling especially when you see it directly in front of you... and I knew that I would always be the white one who probably had no idea what they were talking about. My time in Peru has definetely changed my view on poverty.

Unlike most of the topics that we have discussed in class, poverty is something that most of us have background knowledge on. I felt like I could finally state an opinion on something that I was sure on; I am very secure with my opinion on poverty and really enjoy studying and discussing poverty.
I am happy that there were many voices raised, as in volume, during class. By the fact that there are so many opinions on this subject, it is obvious what a large part of our world poverty is.
When leaving class, I and a few other people continued the discussion about education. The argument that general education (in our simulation using the complete budget), is essential in ending poverty, I believe shows the view of an American, specifically a view of America and how perhaps HERE, education is the basis to pull out of poverty. We are speaking of world poverty, however, which means that the basic on which decisions should be made, is at a third world level, because poverty in the United States and poverty in Haiti have two incredibly different definitions. If we want to look specifically at ending poverty in the U.S., then yes, education would definetely raise the number of people living above the poverty line. However, consider much of the world that lives without an infrastructure, something that we take for granted here, and that allows us to skip to the education step. How would introducing education help these people who do not have clean water, a method to even get to hospitals, much less read and write their own language? This is why my group chose literacy over education because with literacy, the people can read and speak their native language. They speak this language, so learning to read and write only develops the ability to understand health pamphlets, methods of agriculture (which brings food), and methods of transport. Without roads, aqueducts, bridges, electricity, and irrigation, as were included in the infrastructure section, trade is reduced and there is very little interaction between people.
We must also remember that we are speaking of education as in education how we view it in the United States. Do we need to teach rural farmers of Peru about chemical reactions in chemistry class, or trigonometry? How is this at all relevant to their survival which is threatened by pollution, health risks, and almost no contact with large cities and trade? These people work every day, from sunset to sundown, perhaps in the fields, and they may not care about topics that seem important to us here. Their goal is survival; producing food and perhaps an occasional visit to the doctor or dentist, and if anything is left over, a child might go to the university. With literacy, native people will be able to understand how they can better their own lives. With the ability to read, many opportunities open up and the hope is that people will be inspired to pursue further education.

I also really enjoyed this week's trip to Bread for the City and feel that it was a necessary trip for a World Politics class. After all, we are learning about IR theories, economies, and poverty has played an incredible part in determining the strengths, weaknesses, finances, and responsibilities of states. As someone who would like to spend my life in international social work, I am especially interested in people who do this as a career, whether internationally or within the U.S.