Why Does Poverty Have A Dark Face?

I have been MIA - missing in action - for quite some time now. I haven't updated my blog as I promised (me) that I would. But instead of recounting the "whats" and "whys" of what transpired in this time lag I would rather get to work. I have been thinking and perhaps some of you also share my thoughts about the reality that a majority of poor people have a dark face. I hope you caught the emphasis on "majority." This doesn't mean that there aren't impoverished people among the light-skinned of this world, but I hope that you understood my drift. In this weblog, I will ask a few key questions that all point to the central question: Why does poverty have a dark face?

In creating this post, I hope not to encourage an avenue for hate mongering. I'm asking a question that I consider legitimate and hopefully it will generate constructive comments here. It does nothing, I believe, to point fingers without proposing a solution to this "problem" for a problem it is except you don't consider poverty as such.

I begin by asking, What is Poverty?

Dictionary.com defines poverty as "the state or condition of having little or no money, goods or means of support." This will also translate into not having enough food, clothing, housing or other essential human needs. For the sake of breaking it down for people who like simplicity or practicality, an attempt has been made to quantify poverty. Thus, according to Global Issues, a poor person is someone who lives on less than $2.50 a day. This organization believes that over 3 billion of the world's population are POOR!

Let's consider some hard facts about poverty (culled from http://www.globalissues.org/issue/2/causes-of-poverty):

• Almost half the world — over 3 billion people — live on less than $2.50 a day.
• The GDP (Gross Domestic Product) of the 41 Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (567 million people) is less than the wealth of the world’s 7 richest people combined.
• Nearly a billion people entered the 21st century unable to read a book or sign their names.
• Less than one per cent of what the world spent every year on weapons was needed to put every child into school by the year 2000 and yet it didn’t happen.
• 1 billion children live in poverty (1 in 2 children in the world). 640 million live without adequate shelter, 400 million have no access to safe water, 270 million have no access to health services. 10.6 million died in 2003 before they reached the age of 5 (or roughly 29,000 children per day).

The information listed above account for only a few facts on poverty. You are welcome to share some of yours or even contest the ones shown here. But who are the dark-faced poor ones among us?

You won't be too far from the target if the first image that jumped into your mind spelled A*F*R*I*C*A. Yeah, that's quite creative. I don't trust statistics even when they come from so-called "reputable" organizations like the UN or any of its subsidiaries. But the media, especially Western media are ever eager to show you that most of the world's poorest live in Africa, also known as the Dark (Black?) Continent. It is, however, common knowledge that quite a large number of the world's poor also live in Asia and South America. Interestingly, you find that many of these societies are stratified according to skin pigmentation with the light-skinned ones placed in positions of authority. What about Brazil, India, or other parts of the world? The poor are often the peasants who stay outside to farm the land, rear the cattle or cater to the desires of their masters and mistresses and thus get discolored by the sun.

Today, people protect their skin against ultraviolet rays in order not to contract skin cancer. In the past, it was so that they wouldn't become too dark and misjudged as poor. It is also crucial to point out that the poorest in many developed countries are also dark. I choose "dark" over "black" because I want to make this issue broader than is usually the case. Therefore, this isn't a case of black vs. white. But one which inquires whether the darker you are the more likely you are to be poor. I have shared here a video by Eric Aiden called Faces of Poverty. Please note that some of the pictures are really graphic. But the video reflects the dire reality of the plights of the unfortunate or "forgotten" ones in our various societies. I end this post by asking, Who do you think are the world's poorest? Are they dark-faced? Let's hear your opinion.