When Poverty is better than Misery

Poverty is the worst state many imagine, but what can be worse than Poverty?  When devastation and helplessness has reached levels of unbearability (word?) then one probably may think that steady life of poverty is probably better than devastated life in misery.

Mankind lives in psychologies of people.  The existence of our collective is in our minds… physical existence is defined by that… our issues, our feelings, our problems – mostly stem from our minds which makes its way to the physical.  And this illustrates it even more – when state of utter destitution with very little help can be worse off than the penury.  But whatever it may be, can our situation be worse off than the cave man who lived so many thousands of years back?  Could be survive without money and the goodies under the sky?  Could we?  Could I survive?  Its a question to be explored.

I think these few lines say it all – from human decadence to the utter state of helplessness.

Port-au-Prince is rife with amputees and people on crutches. Crime is rising, with a new spate of kidnappings, reports of widespread sexual violence in the camps and middlemen making a fat profit from selling tarpaulins that are supposed to be distributed free.

“In terms of its practical impact on one country this disaster is the worst in recorded history,” said Alex Wynter, spokesman in Haiti for the International Federation of the Red Cross.

The Government will present a bold long-term plan at today’s conference, which will be attended by representatives of 100 countries. It seeks to turn disaster into opportunity. It envisions a new Haiti emerging with better governance, political and economic decentralisation, infrastructure and flourishing agricultural, tourism and industrial sectors. It wants Haiti to lose its Third World status within 20 years.

That is a fine ambition but Jean-Max Bellerive, the Prime Minister, is realistic. “Our goal at the moment isn’t to escape poverty,” he admitted recently. “It’s to escape misery so we can return to poverty.”