everybody knows the fight is fixed the poor stay poor and the rich get rich
http://www.theplaceswelive.com/
The Places We Live features panoramic photos of slums, narrated by the people who live there (through translators). Really really engrossing. To access the stories in the restricting Flash interface, skip the intro, click on a city, and then on one of the households in the upper left corner.
all the press about Slumdog Millionaire has created a lot of awareness about the slums abroad, which is great, but what about poverty here in america? last night, jay and i watched “Brother’s Keeper“, a documentary about the murder trial of a poor illiterate farmer from upstate NY. it was one of the most heartbreaking, and heartwarming, things i’ve seen in a really long time. i literally ACHED watching this film. related to the website about slums because these 3 farming brothers lived, in the 1990s, without water or heat in a shack on their delapidated family farm, all sleeping in one bed, and when the murder trial hit the news, no one could believe that they lived that way, right here in America. the footage of the news coverage of the way these men lived is downright degrading, painting a sort of “Deliverance” picture of the brothers and their community, not to mention the treatment by the D.A., who basically accused them of being monsters and deviants. there are slums in america too; maybe not as sprawling or populated as Mumbai or Jakarta, but there are places in this country where people live their whole lives without ever having enough to eat, or sleep 3 to a bed, or only own one pair of filthy pants. “hillbillies”, sometimes they’re called, but as this movie shows, in modern america, outside of the visibly homeless in our streets, the impoverished are usually ignored and marginalized to the point that most people don’t even believe they exist.
i also recently watched Reel Paradise, about an american family that moves to poverty-stricken Fiji and opens up a free movie theatre. the movie gets a little tedious, but i think portrays the lessons of being the “rich white people” in a impoverished community, as well as reflections on what it means to be rich or poor in this world.
all of these things make me both incredibly grateful for all that i have, but also incredibly sad that there are so many suffering, and the numbers just keep growing every day, usually due to the rich trying to get richer.
however, unlike in Slumdog, where poverty is portrayed as obviously oppressive, in both Brother’s Keeper and Reel Paradise, there is also a questioning, an implication, that maybe the simpler life isn’t so bad, and maybe being poor shouldn’t be equated with being unhappy.
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Amy, I frequently read your blog and while I don’t agree with most things you say I do enjoy your writing style and appreciate the thought and intelligence with which you apply those beliefs to writing. In any case, because I don’t agree, I don’t comment (I’m never interested in starting an internet fight with someone I don’t know, ha!) However, your comment about poverty v. wealth is an interesting one. I have a neighbor who is quite poor, but one of the most giving people I know. She is happy, a good parents, and a great friend. Because she’s giving and kind, she’s inclined me to help more when those around me need.
We had a conversation one day during which she told me that she figured she’d be carefree if she just had more money, and I asked her if she thought that would really fix everything, i.e. if she thought very wealthy people were actually happy, or if having vast quantities of money just created an entirely new set of problems. She thought about it and decided that probably it just creates an entirely new set of problems.
My husband and I are in a situation where we’re monetarily very comfortable. We don’t have vast wealth, but we’re certainly not struggling to make ends meet – and yet, it’s still so easy to get caught up in that “more” mentality that our country is so great at; “I need a bigger house, more money, newer car, smarter kids, happier kids, etc etc etc.” I continually try to remind myself that the fact that we are COMFORTABLE and have a roof over our heads and food and electric is more than a lot of people have, and quite enough!
In closing, my point is this – I do not believe that being poor means being unhappy. Often being poor means more back to basics existence where you help your neighbors and friends and provide emotional support or a meal when you feel like someone has done something nice for you. I believe that happiness comes from being a good person, and you can do that poor or wealthy. Have a great day.
Did you have people like the Wards where you grew up? I grew up about an hour away from where they are from and we had the same kind of buccolic poverty. I have a different read of the Wards than you. I guess the reading I have of them is more empowering for them. I remember watching the movie w. my wealthy, urban grandma. What tripped her out the most was that they kept their chickens in an old school bus. To a farmgirl like me, it made perfect snese.
there are people sort of like the Wards where i grew up, except that i don’t recall anyone actually being 100% totally illiterate, and most of them had a car or truck of some sort. many of the trailer parks around my area were extremely impoverished (and i assume still are), and a lot of families like my own lived way out in the backwoods on dirt roads. i myself grew up in a house that might be deemed below the poverty level, without proper plumbing or heating- we sometimes had to melt snow in the winter for water, we i didn’t have a phone, etc. so yeah – this movie hit home for me pretty hard.
and yeah – the chickens in the bus made total sense to me too.
To Sarah R.: I agree that being poor doesn’t mean being unhappy. Being poor means being poor. But having brain cancer doesn’t mean being unhappy either — it means having brain cancer. And there are plenty of uplifting tales of those battling cancer who get their priorities straight and are more centered and more alive than many of us healthy workaday folks who chase the cheese every day. But this analogy is meant to make one point. Being poor is life threatening. It is all well and good (and accurate) to say that it doesn’t necessarily mean unhappiness just as being rich does not mean happiness. But it should always be part of the conversation that being poor is not something in and of itself that we should ever wish on anyone or even accept. I find it puzzling to my inner Christian, for example, that we have an economic crisis brought on by a glut of houses and yet have so many people in our society who are homeless. Not saying there is an easy solution, just saying that doesn’t even pass the entrance exam for how a compassionate and intelligent society would run. Saying poverty doesn’t mean unhappiness is true, but it is dangerously close to saying poverty ain’t that bad, and that’s another animal entirely.
Hmm, definitely wasn’t looking to say that poverty is perfectly ok, and that certainly wasn’t my point. My point was mainly just that people create their own happiness, as people are responsible for creating their own wealth. AND, that’s all I will say about that, because that’s going dangerously close to an arguement that, at this point, is completely non-beneficial.
i agree with both of you, except that the “people are responsible for creating their own wealth” sounds dangerously close to a “poor people are poor because they don’t work hard enough” aka “it’s their own fault” argument, but i hope/don’t think that’s what you mean.
aside to Sarah: i find it interesting when people post comments like “I frequently read your blog and while I don’t agree with most things you say…” . i know a lot of people don’t agree with most things i say, and i’m fine with that. but usually those people stop reading. so i’m curious as to why you still are.
Amy: I am curious about your relationship to commentors. I think it’s really rad how you reply to us indvidually. Do you see your blog as a dialogue? I thought it was interesing how Sarah posted a couple of really thoughtful and engaged comments, while ostensibly disagreeing w. you.
i do see it as a dialogue, and i often wish i was more of one.
yes, sometimes, there have been issues, particularly when members of my family feel offended, but i am not writing here to just spew my opinions and not get any feedback or have conversations. if that were the case, i would just turn comments off. i am highly aware that my world-view clashes with many others, and also aware that maybe sometimes, i am just wrong. or jaded. or that i am defending positions in such a way that might be offensive, or narrow.
so i invite dialogue, and i always accept/allow comments as long as they are civil, even if they are oppositional.
Oh, and let me chime in as well. Both that I agree with Miu that it is nice to know comments made will be read and considered thoughtfully (gasp— too rare on the internet, I think). But also and more importantly to Sarah: I appreciate your comments and your point of view. I never would want to begin or conduct an argument with you as that has very little benefit. Nonetheless, I try to be open minded and I sometimes benefit from discussion with others who disagagree with me. (When you only discuss things with people who agree with you, you fall victim to group-think and short-sightedness). So no “argument” was intended. I don’t agree with some of what Amy says either (or disagree somewhat with much of what she says) and I try to reduce my comments to times I think what I have to say can advance the dialogue. Sarah, please feel free to “drop it.” One of the reasons I read this blog is that it prods me to think. I enjoy being prodded to think even by comments (like yours) that I either don’t agree with or sometimes misconstrue. I hope you’ll feel free to comment in the future and that people like me can show proper courtesy and restraint and not argue with you.
Amy, I continue to read your blog because I find other people’s beliefs that are different from mine to be fascinating. I enjoy reading different people’s perspectives on life, politics, etc when they don’t mesh with my own. I find it more interesting than reading people’s blogs who DO share my perspectives, to be honest! My thought process is a bit different from some other people.