Blog action Day: Poverty

In India it's already Oct. 16th, and blog action day was actually yesterday. But I only learned about blog action day today and somewhere in the world it is still the 15th and so I will join the party with a posting about poverty. This picture was taken as I walked the dog just outside my apartment building. It shows a building under construction, hence the scaffolding. The white rectangle is part of the laundry of one of the families living in the building. These are not squatters illegally occupying the building these are the construction workers and their families. In India one of the perks of spending your days hauling concrete on your head and slicing rocks with a hammer and chissel is that you get to live in whatever your building...until it reaches a state that I would call livable. Then the poor people move out and the rich move in.

The per capita gross domestic product (at purchasing power parity) for India is $2600/year compared to $45800 for the US. (CIA numbers from Wikipedia) Our maid probably doesn't consider herself "poor" since at $2oo/month we pay much more than the going rate for a maid/cook. And after accounting of purchasing power she's earning just about her share of India's GDP. But she didn't have a bed to sleep on until Donna went out and bought one for her.

The real poor in India live under tarps on the side of the road. Periodically the authorities clear them out of one area and they move to another. In a few days or weeks they, or someone equally poor is occupying the same spot.

There are any number of organization working to alleviate the immediate pain of poverty. And others working to bring about deeper change so a man who works hard all day building houses for the rich can have his own house to come home to. Perhaps if you are enjoying more than your share of the worlds wealth, today would be a good day to share some of it.